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I took two steps back before shining the torch inside.

A thick envelope lay on top of several folded documents. Beside them rested a silver flask and a smaller iron key tied with red thread.

Stellan made a low sound behind me.

The bond filled with hunger so quickly that my stomach cramped.

“Blood?”

“Yes.” He stayed at the far side of the dais. “Sealed and fresh enough to smell from here.”

I picked up the envelope first. Edith had written my name across it in the same large letters she’d used on the first one.

I read it aloud so neither of us could later argue about what Edith had meant.

“Bryony. If Stellan is still alive, give him the silver flask before you unlock anything. It won’t satisfy him, but it will return enough control for the first restraint. The small key opens the right wrist cuff. Open that one only. He needs one hand to help you leave the court. He doesn’t need both. Take the case with you. Keep the Crown where it is. I trusted Stellan once. I believe you can trust him far enough to get out. Edith.”

I read it twice. Death hadn’t made my grandmother any less fond of instructions that created more questions.

“She says to give you the flask before I use the smaller key on your right wrist.”

Stellan’s attention snapped from the silver container to my face. The bond passed his hope to me so strongly that I flinched. Caution replaced it almost at once.

“Feed me first, then wait before you bring the key near me. If the blood isn’t enough, keep the cuff locked. Edith was usually right about the dangerous parts.”

I picked up the flask with my uninjured hand. It was cold and heavier than it looked. The stopper had been sealed with black wax stamped with Edith’s initial.

“Before I give you this, tell me what it will do to the bond. I’m not interested in discovering another blood rule after it’s too late.”

“Stored blood won’t bind you to me. It will quiet the hunger and give me enough strength to use one hand without losing control of it. The flask is sealed with Edith’s mark, and I can’t smell any court magic mixed into it. If she prepared it, the blood was meant for feeding, nothing more.”

“And how do I get it to you without entering your reach?”

“Roll it along the left side of the throne. The floor slopes towards the dais. I’ll catch it before it strikes the stone.”

I put the case handle over my arm, crouched near the plinth and sent the flask across the stone.

It rolled exactly where he said it would. Stellan caught it under his bare foot before it struck the dais. He dragged it close enough to pick up, broke the wax and pulled out the stopper.

The smell reached me through the bond before it reached the air.

My mouth watered to my shock.

Stellan tipped the flask and drank.

His throat worked with each swallow. Colour returned slowly under his skin. The hollow look around his eyes eased, and the tremor left his arms. Blood touched his lower lip when he lowered the empty flask.

He caught the drop with his tongue.

Heat tightened low in my body.

The sight sent heat through me. My judgement had been unreliable for the last hour.

Stellan wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “You’re staring.”

I looked down at Edith’s case before I embarrassed myself.

The bond changed as the blood settled in him. His hunger remained, but it no longer crowded every other feeling. Strength rolled through his body, followed by a sense of control that loosened my own shoulders.