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I kept my hand against the wall. “Stay there.”

The Crown didn’t move.

Adrian smiled at the sight. “You’re already giving it orders.”

“It’s improving with supervision.”

His smile disappeared when I stared back.

The red cracks raced towards my boots. I stepped back, but the line reached the wall first. Harrowmere’s pulse vanished from under my palm.

Adrian had cut me off from the room.

The stopped doors slid back into the walls.

He came towards me with the dagger held low.

I raised the short sword. “Stellan.”

“I see him.”

Stellan threw the marked woman aside without hurting her and ran for us. The swordsman caught his injured side from the floor. Stellan stumbled, then kicked him away.

Adrian reached me first.

I slashed across his chest. He turned enough to let the blade strike his coat and caught my wrist before I could pull back.

His grip crushed the bones together. The sword fell from my numb hand.

I drove my knee towards his groin. Adrian twisted his hips away and pulled me against him. The heartblood dagger pressed under my ribs.

Stellan stopped before the black point entered my skin.

Every red restraint under his skin flared.

“Release her,” he said.

Adrian tightened his arm around my waist. “Drop the sword and kneel.”

“Don’t,” I said.

The dagger pricked my skin.

Stellan’s sword hit the floor. His knees remained straight, but the restraints pulled at him hard enough to shake his body.

Lenora shouted my name from the service passage. Adrian dragged me backwards before she could leave the fight holding her there.

The throne waited behind us.

The Crown lifted from its carved rest and hovered above the seat.

I dug my heels into the floor. Adrian drove the dagger harder against my side and forced me another step.

“You wanted a choice,” he said against my ear. “Now make it.”

He pulled me towards the throne.

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