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The side door opened before us. Dust covered the throne room, turning the silver ward light into pale streaks. The main doors had split down the middle. One hung from its upper hinge while the other lay across the floor in pieces.

Adrian stood in the gap with the heartblood dagger in his hand.

The guards behind him wore black armour without the silver raven. I didn’t recognise any of them. Red light moved under their skin.

Adrian had marked another group.

The four witnesses we’d freed were nowhere in the fight. Lenora had sealed them inside the inner room before she took the service entrance.

She held that entrance alone now. Blood covered one sleeve as she blocked the narrow route with her sword. She looked at me through the dust.

“Keep them away from the throne.”

The floor cracked under Adrian’s shoes. Black metal pushed through the stone at the base of the throne, one narrow point appearing first.

The Crown had stopped pretending to stay buried.

I put my palm against the wall beside the royal suite. Harrowmere answered with a pulse that travelled through my arm and spread under the floor.

“Close the west section,” I said.

Stone rose between Adrian’s guards. The swordsman jumped forwards and landed inside the throne room. The woman struck the new wall from the other side. A second guard made it through before the gap sealed, leaving Adrian trapped in the narrow opening between the broken main doors.

Stellan reached the swordsman before he recovered his balance.

The guard slashed for his throat. Stellan knocked the blade aside and drove his shoulder into the man’s chest. Bone cracked under the impact. The guard stayed upright and attacked again under the force of Adrian’s mark.

The other vampire came for me.

I opened the floor under his front foot.

His leg dropped to the knee. He caught himself before his face hit the stone, but his sword skidded out of reach. I closed the gap around his boot and backed towards the wall.

“Stay down,” I said.

He fought the floor until blood ran from his trapped ankle. The red mark over his heart flared brighter.

“He can’t,” Lenora called. She blocked another strike at the service door. “Cut the mark or knock him out.”

Knocking out a vampire sounded difficult. I pulled the black seal blade from the sheath at Lenora’s belt as she turned past me. She released it without looking.

The trapped guard tore his foot free, leaving his boot inside the floor.

He lunged at me barefoot.

I stepped behind a pillar and pressed my hand to the stone. Harrowmere twisted it across his path. His shoulder hit hard enough to stop him. Before he could turn, I drove the seal blade through the edge of the red mark on his chest.

Light burst over my hand.

The guard screamed and threw me back. I struck the pillar, lost the blade and stayed upright through luck rather than skill.

Black lines spread from the cut in his armour. The red mark broke apart. He staggered away from me with both hands pressed over his heart.

“Service passage,” I said. “Lenora will protect you.”

His eyes cleared as the red light vanished. He looked at Adrian, then snatched up the seal blade and ran towards Lenora. She let him through before closing ranks with him at her side.

The Crown forced another point through the floor.