Page 160 of Blood Curse
A door slammed somewhere above us.
Every conversation stopped.
Red light ran along the stone joints. The open doors shuddered but stayed wide.
Bryony’s voice rolled through Harrowmere.
It carried the Crown’s cold weight.
“Every vampire in Harrowmere, enter the Night Hall.”
The command closed around my body.
Fuck.
All across the lower court, the Blood Court turned towards the open doors.
29
BRYONY
My voice came out loudly enough to shake the bedroom door.
“Every vampire in Harrowmere, enter the Night Hall.”
The Crown released my jaw.
“Oh, fuck you.”
Red light slipped over the walls in answer.
Boots struck the passage outside. A door banged open. Another followed. The whole house moved around me as every vampire turned towards the Night Hall.
I was already running.
The Crown didn’t force my legs. It didn’t have to. Stellan was down there with the broken dagger against his heart and enough open blood to turn one bad command into a slaughter.
Two vampires passed the end of the upper corridor. Neither acknowledged me. Their faces were blank with compulsion, but their hands remained empty. The weapon chest bought us that much.
I took the stairs too fast and caught the rail when my bare feet slipped on the last turn.
Lenora stood beside the lower landing, holding a human kitchen worker behind her with one arm.
“Keep everyone upstairs,” I said.
“That was the intention.” Her gaze caught on the red light around my head. “Can it order you?”
“It doesn’t need to. I’m going in.”
She looked as if she wanted to argue. Instead, she pulled the worker farther from the stairs. “Then come back out.”
“That’s also the intention.”
I reached the Night Hall as the last vampire crossed the threshold.
They filled the spaces between the tables without crowding them. The care they took over the room survived the command. Nobody reached for a bottle. Nobody shut a door.
Stellan stood inside the entrance with his shoulders locked and his fangs down. The compulsion left him. His gaze found me.
