Page 151 of Blood Ties

The heartblood dagger struck my shoulder.

I turned before the point entered deeply, but the blade opened muscle and sent another command into the restraints. My right arm went numb. The seal blade fell from my hand.

Adrian kicked it away.

I caught his dagger wrist with my left hand and forced the point from my chest. He leaned his weight over it. The black blade came closer a fraction at a time.

Bryony rose from the throne behind him.

The Crown followed her.

“Stay seated,” Adrian ordered.

She picked up the broken piece of my sword from beside the dais and hit him across the back of the head.

Adrian staggered into the edge of the dais. I twisted his wrist until the dagger point turned towards him.

He drove his knee into my open side.

Pain made my grip fail. He tore free and struck my face with the dagger hilt. The floor hit my shoulder before I saw myself fall.

Adrian planted his boot on my wounded arm.

I seized his ankle. The blood cuffs contracted until every vein in my hands burned red. My fingers stopped working.

He kicked me towards the base of the throne.

Bryony swung the broken sword again. Adrian caught it and ripped it from her hand. She went for his eyes with her fingers.

He slapped her hard enough to turn her face.

Rage gave me enough strength to move against the command.

I surged up and caught him around the waist. We hit the dais together. My shoulder tore open when it struck stone, but I kept hold of him and reached for his throat.

Adrian buried the heartblood dagger in the floor beside my chest.

Red chains burst from the cut.

They wrapped around my wrists and dragged my arms wide. Another length closed over my throat, pinning me beside the throne.

Adrian knelt over me and pulled the dagger from the stone. He placed the point over my heart.

Bryony stood on the other side of the dais with blood running from the cut at her throat. The Crown floated behind her head, waiting for her hand.

“Don’t give him your heartblood,” she said.

“I won’t.”

Adrian pressed the point into my skin. “He won’t have a choice once you’re wearing it.”

Bryony looked at me.

Her fear remained in the bond, but it no longer controlled her breathing. She glanced at the broken doors, Lenora fighting towards us and the marked guards recovering on the floor.

Lenora had reached the middle of the throne room. The freed guards moved with her, using their bodies to hold back the last vampire still under Adrian’s command. They were close enough to help if Bryony gave them an opening.

Then she faced the Crown.