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Relief hit me so hard my knees weakened.

Stellan tightened his arm around me. “You’re shaking.”

“You have a hole in your side. You don’t get to worry about me.”

“I can manage both.”

A laugh escaped me, shaky but real. His lips touched my temple, close to the white metal around my head.

“Take it off,” he said quietly.

“Gladly.”

I reached up and found the Crown’s narrow band behind my ears. It was still warm from the power I had used. My fingers closed around it, and I lifted.

The metal didn’t move.

I adjusted my grip and pulled harder.

Pain bit across my scalp. The Crown stayed fixed against my head.

Stellan’s arm went rigid around me. “Bryony?”

“Give me a second.”

I slid my fingers under the band and tried to work it loose. There was no clasp, pin or strand of hair caught under it. The white metal sat flush against my skin.

I pulled again until my eyes watered.

The Crown would not lift.

45

STELLAN

I caught her wrists before she could pull again. Pain cut through my side when I moved, but fear struck harder.

“Stop. You’re hurting yourself.”

“That seems unfair when the bloody thing belongs to me.”

“Let me look.”

Bryony lowered her hands. Her control lasted until I touched the white metal near her temple.

“Can you take it off?” she asked.

“I don’t know yet.”

I followed the edge of the Crown with my fingers. It sat against her skin without a gap, though none of its points had broken the surface. There was no blood in her hair and no heat beyond the warmth left by the power she had used.

The bond carried her fear, exhaustion and a rising urge to swear at me. No command waited inside it. The pressure I remembered from Cecily was absent.

“Do you hear anything?” I asked.

“Only you. No voice, no commands. Just a headache, and Adrian did try to strangle me.”

Relief loosened my chest. My attention dropped to the bruises forming around her throat. I tipped her chin up and ran my thumb lightly under her jaw. The marks came from Adrian’s fingers, not a command.