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She looked at my free hand. “Edith said you needed that to help me leave.”
“I opened the door. You don’t owe me the rest.”
The main gate opened behind her.
Bryony spun and brought up the torch. I pushed as far forwards as the chains allowed.
Adrian Rook walked into the throne room as if he still owned it. Lenora Cade followed in black armour, her dark hair tied back and a short sword at her hip. The silver raven at her collar marked her as commander of a king’s guard that hadn’t answered to me for a very long time.
Lenora’s gaze went to the open cuff, then met mine. Surprise broke through her control before she faced Bryony.
Adrian stopped several metres from the dais. His attention settled on Edith’s case over Bryony’s arm.
“Bryony, step away from him,” he said. “Your message said you’d found someone below the house. It didn’t say you intended to release him. You don’t know what those chains were built to contain, and one free hand is enough for him to reach seals Edith spent her life protecting.”
She kept the torch aimed at his chest. “My message also said I’d call when I was ready. How did you see it?”
“Arthur contacted the estate emergency number after your second message. Every call about Harrowmere reaches me.” His voice stayed warm and reasonable.
Bryony’s eyes narrowed. “Arthur said he didn’t know you.”
“He knew my name from the estate account. Edith made sure he knew nothing else.”
“And the gate?”
“Edith made me regent of Harrowmere. Some doors still recognise that authority, although yours is already replacing it.” He glanced at me. “You’ve walked into a prison and fed the vampire inside it. Come with us before he persuades you to open the other restraints.”
Bryony didn’t move towards him. “Stellan opened a route to the upper house. I’m leaving through it with Edith’s case. No one else touches the keys or the Crown.”
Adrian’s gaze sharpened. “That passage won’t release you now that your blood has woken the court. Only the Crown can give you authority over its doors.”
I felt Bryony’s suspicion tighten. She looked at me instead of taking either man’s claim as fact.
“Will the service stair let me leave?” she asked.
“It would have before Adrian crossed the gate. His regent mark is fighting the door you opened, and Harrowmere is preparing a Claiming now. If it starts, the court will hold you here. The royal rooms will sustain you, but nothing will take you above ground until you accept or reject the Crown.”
“And wearing it frees you?”
“It gives you the power to make me kneel, fight, feed or surrender blood against my will. That isn’t freedom. It replaces these chains with your voice.”
Adrian gave a quiet sigh. “He’s leaving out why anyone believed he needed to be commanded. Stellan murdered Queen Cecily, the last woman who wore that Crown. Edith spent the rest of her life keeping him chained.”
The accusation didn’t surprise me. The way Bryony waited did.
She didn’t turn on me or rush to defend me. “Did you kill her?”
“Yes. The Crown had taken control of her and was using her body to kill everyone in the chapel. I stopped her. Adrian will turn that into a bid for power because he needs you frightened of me.”
Pain moved through the bond before I could contain it. Cecily’s death was more than a century old. My body still remembered her blood cooling over my hands.
Bryony’s face softened for a moment, but her voice remained practical. “So you did kill her, the Crown was controlling her, and he wants me to believe you murdered her for power. I’m not deciding which account is true while he’s trying to rush me. What does Adrian gain if I wear it?”
“You can order me to surrender the heartblood that carries my power. Adrian takes it, I die and he becomes Blood King.”
Adrian spread his hands. “He wants every limit to sound like slavery. The Crown exists because a Blood King’s strength needs a human check. You would use that authority once, transfer his power safely and leave Harrowmere under the protection of someone who can control himself.”
Adrian’s pleasant expression finally slipped. “A starving prisoner’s story isn’t evidence. Edith left records because she knew he’d lie to the next heir.”
