Page 9 of Blood Curse

I kept going because she asked for the truth. “And when the chains vanished, I chose to cross the room. I’m beside you now because distance wouldn’t protect either of us. It would only leave you facing this alone.”

“You’re sure the chains are gone?”

I lifted our joined hands. My wrists were bare except for old marks and the rings pressed against my skin. “Completely.”

“If it orders you again?”

“We deal with that command when it exists. We don’t live as if one is active when it isn’t.”

Some of the strain left her shoulders. “That sounds sensible.”

“I can be sensible in emergencies.”

“How inconvenient for your reputation.”

“Devastating.”

The small smile she gave me was tired but real. I lifted her hand and pressed my mouth to her knuckles.

The Crown turned cold.

Bryony’s fingers locked around mine.

“What is it?” I asked.

Her green eyes stayed on me, but the expression inside them changed. Grief settled across her face with the familiarity of an old wound.

I knew that grief.

“Bryony.”

Her lips parted.

Cecily’s voice came out of her mouth.

“You will kill this queen too.”

The words struck a century-old place inside me. For one heartbeat I saw a bloodstained white dress and dark hair spread across chapel stone.

Then Bryony’s nails bit into my hand.

I looked at her, not the memory.

“I hear you,” I said. “You aren’t her.”

The Crown held Cecily’s expression on Bryony’s face.

I leaned closer. “And I’m not the man it remembers.”

Bryony dragged in a breath. The grief cracked. Her own anger rushed back into her eyes.

“Stellan?” Her voice was hers again.

“I’m here.”

“It wanted you to believe it.”

“It failed.”