Page 97

His arm shook. The blade stopped halfway through another strike.

“Now,” he forced out.

I drove my fist into his chest. Ribs broke under the blow, and he flew backwards into the roses. Vines closed around his arms before Adrian could force him upright.

The guard at the wall dragged Lenora down with him. Bryony struck the flat of her sword against his wrist. The black blade fell onto the path.

Adrian stepped closer to the barrier. “Open the heir’s throat.”

The command hit every marked vampire at once.

The woman ripped one arm free of the vines. The guard in the spring came out of the water. The man at Bryony’s feet rolled towards her with his fangs bared.

I ran.

The collar snapped tight before I reached her. Iron crushed my throat and pulled me back half a step. Bryony saw it happen. She reversed the sword and drove the hilt into the guard’s temple while Lenora caught his remaining arm.

“Stay where you are,” Bryony said. “I’ve got this one. Deal with the others before they reach us.”

She trusted me to choose the order of the fight.

I let the chain pull me back into its range and turned as the vampire from the spring lunged. Water streamed from his clothes. I caught the front of his armour and drove him headfirst into the stone path.

The garden held the woman again. The swordsman fought the roses around his arms, still trying to obey Adrian with a broken chest.

“Fight him,” I said to them. “You don’t need to win. Slow your hands. Miss when he makes you strike. Give us enough time to keep you alive.”

The wet guard planted both palms on the path and tried to rise. His right arm trembled, then folded by choice. He looked at me from inches away.

“Do it,” he said. “He won’t stop.”

I put my knee between his shoulders and gripped the back of his armour. “I’m not killing you while you’re still helping me.”

“He’ll use us again.”

“Then keep fucking helping.” I hauled him upright and threw him into the swordsman. Both went down among the roses, where Harrowmere bound them together.

Bryony’s attacker jerked free of Lenora. He reached for Bryony’s ankle. She stamped on his wrist, then kicked the black seal blade towards me.

“Can that close the gate?” she asked. “The chain won’t let you reach the outer seal.”

“The blade can cut the command feeding the marks. If Adrian keeps destroying the gate, the chain may stop holding me before the ward fails.”

Another blow struck the frame from the passage. The remaining strip of warded iron split. White light poured into the garden, flickered and went out.

The chain at my throat dropped.

Every link fell flat across the path. The pressure vanished so completely that I heard my own breath and the blood moving through Bryony’s body. The broken service seal had interrupted the sentence holding the chain to the throne.

The route outside Harrowmere stood open.

Adrian backed into the passage. He hadn’t expected the anchor to fail. Four more vampires waited behind him, although none carried red marks.

If escape were impossible, Adrian wouldn’t have posted guards there.

I picked up the black blade and crossed the ruined gate.

Cold air moved down the service passage from the upper house. Rain had entered somewhere near the upper door. I hadn’t smelt it in open air for a century. The collar stayed loose as its chain followed me over the broken white line.