Page 187 of Blood Curse

STELLAN

Mara rose another inch.

The pale band around her waist tightened until red light burned through its edges. Her shoulders bowed. Her planted boot stayed where she put it.

She pushed again.

The Crown should have chosen anyone else to test first.

Mara had spent a century surviving Adrian’s attempts to scatter, starve and frighten this court into obedience. Pain didn’t impress her. Authority impressed her even less.

Her knee lifted from the stone.

The pressure across the room changed.

My chains pulled at my wrists and throat as the Crown took strength from me to force Mara down. The link around my chest loosened by the smallest amount.

I turned one hand against my thigh.

Bryony saw the movement. Her face remained fixed in that false smile, but her smallest finger pressed into the silver arm.

Still here.

Still fighting.

I closed my hand into a fist.

The chains flared.

Bryony’s heart stuttered.

I stopped pulling.

Her pulse caught, missed another beat and returned too fast. The Crown was dividing its strength, but Bryony’s human body remained the easiest thing for it to punish. If I tore too hard at the command, it could tighten around her heart before I reached her.

I had to resist without making her pay for it.

Mara didn’t have that weakness.

She got her second foot under her and rose with both hands braced on her thigh. Her back straightened one vertebra at a time. The pale band stayed locked around her waist, trying to fold her again.

“You ordered me to kneel,” she said through her teeth. “I did.”

The Crown used Bryony’s mouth.

“Remain th⁠—”

The word died before it became a complete order.

Bryony’s jaw snapped shut and cut the inside of her cheek again. Blood touched her lower lip.

Mara stood.

The court saw her do it.

Elias moved next. He shifted one foot forwards, planted it and drove his weight away from the floor. The band over his shoulders burned white. His arms shook, but one knee rose.

The grey-braided woman grabbed the chair beside her. The man in the borrowed coat used the table. Others stayed down, gathering strength or waiting for the Crown’s attention to move elsewhere.