Page 180 of Blood Curse

I forced myself to answer the actual fear. “Her body is human. Protect it where you can. If you can’t stop your own movement, warn whoever still can.”

“What if the order is to hurt you?”

“Bryony will object.”

“I’m asking you.”

“Then I’ll survive long enough to remain irritating.”

“Is that a royal order?” the man in brown asked.

“Advice.”

“And if I refuse it?”

“Try something better.”

He looked at the red light on the floor. “I’m suddenly fond of advice.”

The Night Hall doors opened.

Nobody crossed the threshold.

The red light waited inside. Bryony continued without looking back.

I faced the court. “The Crown wants every vampire in that room. Entering gives it the audience it saved its strength to control. Staying here may leave Bryony alone with it.”

Mara moved first. “I’m going in.”

Elias joined her. “So am I. Her heart may need me.”

The grey-braided woman stepped between them. “It already used my hunger once. I want it to see me choose where I stand next.”

Other voices followed without becoming an oath.

“Inside.”

“With Bryony.”

“Until the doors open again.”

Several vampires stayed in the passage. The man with the towel put it down, turned towards the stairs and left. Nobody called him back.

I crossed the threshold after Bryony.

The room had changed.

Every damaged table had been pushed against the walls. The blood and sand were gone from the floor. Fires burned low at both ends, leaving the middle of the hall washed in red light.

My wooden chair remained on the dais.

Another stood opposite it.

The queen’s chair was smaller, carved from the same dark wood and fitted with silver arms. I remembered Cecily sitting in it with one boot hidden under her skirts and impatience in every line of her body.

I had ordered the chair removed after her death.

Harrowmere had remembered where it belonged.