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I caught his forearm, but the dagger cut across my palm. He used the opening to drive his head into my face. My vision flashed white.

The blade entered under my ribs.

Adrian shoved until the hilt struck my skin.

“All that power,” he said, breathing hard against my cheek, “and you still needed a human woman to free you.”

I closed my hand around his throat. “I needed Bryony.”

I ripped the dagger from my side and threw him across the floor.

He landed near the broken doors. The white wards flared and drove him back towards me before he could reach the passage.

Bryony had closed the exit without ordering the house to attack. Every choice inside it remained ours.

Adrian rose more slowly. Blood from his mouth stained his teeth, and his wrist hadn’t finished healing.

“Stellan Varen, kneel.”

The old regent command struck the place where his restraints had been. It found no chain, no mark and no authority left to carry it. I stayed on my feet.

“Bryony removed your hold,” I said. “You don’t get it back by raising your voice.”

“She knows what you did to Cecily?” he asked. “Does she know you killed people when you burned the old court?”

“She knows about Cecily, the fire and every death you hoped to use against me.”

His gaze flicked towards Bryony. “He’ll do the same to you. The Crown will turn you, and he’ll kill you when you stop being useful.”

“He told me what happened before you tried to use it against him,” Bryony said. “You’re out of secrets.”

Adrian’s face tightened with anger. “Edith knew he couldn’t be trusted. She spent her life keeping you from him.”

“You murdered her.”

The Crown’s light brightened with Bryony’s anger. Every door in the lower court shook, but she kept them closed without crushing the vampires trapped beyond them.

Adrian had expected old guilt to divide us. He had nothing left when it failed.

He came at me with the dagger held low.

I let him close the distance.

The point entered my stomach. Before he could pull it across, I caught his wrist and drove my forehead into his nose.

Bone collapsed under the strike.

Adrian staggered, but I kept his weapon arm pinned. He tried to tear the dagger free while I held the blade inside long enough to break his fingers from the hilt.

His nails raked across my face as he fought to keep hold of it. I drove my elbow into his ribs until his grip opened, then tore myself off the blade.

The weapon dropped when I stepped back.

Adrian lunged towards it.

I kicked the dagger across the floor to Lenora.

She stopped it under her boot.