Page 107 of Blood Curse

“Then he’ll find something else.”

The man took her hand carefully and pulled her upright.

Across the room, Bryony swayed.

I went to her. Nobody tried to stop me.

She caught my coat with both hands. “Mara?”

“Alive. Unbitten. Bruised.”

“The others?”

“Released.”

“Did I end all of them?”

“Every order ended together.”

“How close were you?”

I could have softened the answer. She had asked me never to do that.

“I could feel Mara’s breath. The court slowed me, and I kept my hand over her throat. I couldn’t stop moving towards her.”

“Did you want her blood?”

“I was hungry before the command. The Crown took that hunger and aimed it at Mara. The need was mine. The choice of victim wasn’t.”

“If I hadn’t revoked the orders?”

“I would have fed.”

Her fingers tightened in my coat. “Until she stopped moving?”

“Yes.”

Mara stepped closer. “And I would like everyone to notice the part where that didn’t happen.”

Bryony looked at her bruised wrists. “You let them hold you.”

“They were hurting themselves trying to catch me. Once I stopped fighting, the room had fewer bodies flying across it.”

“That doesn’t make what I said less dangerous.”

“It makes my decision mine. The Crown doesn’t get credit for it.”

Bryony swallowed. “Are you afraid of me?”

“I’m afraid of the Crown. I’m furious with it. You used the movement it left you and ended every command in the room.”

“After I tried to revoke one.”

“Why didn’t that work?” Elias asked.

Bryony lifted one hand to the Crown, then stopped before touching it. “The orders felt tied together. When I tried to pull one free, the rest tightened around it.”

“Then you named the authority behind them,” I said.