Page 144 of Blood Curse

Elias met his gaze. “Blood flow around the scalp. Enough oxygen to keep Bryony conscious when it needs her voice. It spends the minimum on everything else.”

Cold pressed deeper into my bones. “So it’s preserving what it needs and starving the rest.”

“You’re a human body under magical strain,” Elias said. “The cold is a warning, not a new trait.”

“Fucking marvellous.”

Stellan’s expression went still in the dangerous way it did when anger became too large to show.

I looked at Elias. “How long?”

“I can’t give you hours, but the decline is accelerating. Our earlier decision stands: no turning while the Crown remains.”

“It stands,” I said.

Pain moved across Stellan’s face. He said nothing, because agreement didn’t make it easier.

Elias finished the last point without another word.

Elias wrapped narrow strips of clean linen around the worst points without trying to cover the entire Crown. Then he made me drink the rest of the broth and checked my pulse again.

“Bed,” he said.

“Ten minutes first.”

“Then bed.”

“I need to plan with Stellan.”

He packed his case and left, shutting the door behind him.

Stellan waited until Elias’s footsteps faded, then sat beside me.

I took the small notebook from the bedside table and opened it to a clean page. “First, I sleep for one night without anyone bringing me a dagger.”

“Agreed.”

“Second, the court keeps the gates open, the blades secured and the two-finger signal in use.”

“Mara can handle that.”

“Third, you keep the heartblood dagger. The next time we reach the spring, the choice stays in your hand.”

His eyes held mine. “Agreed.”

“Fourth, we don’t rush back there because my heart frightened us.”

“We also don’t wait until it stops for good.”

“One night,” I said. “Tomorrow we decide the next move while I’m fed, warm and conscious.”

“Fifth, nobody turns recovery into another court gathering. I don’t need two dozen vampires checking whether the human is still breathing.”

“I’ll tell Mara.”

“They can bring food, blankets or useful information. Then they leave.”

He sat beside me. “The boundary test worked.”