Page 221 of Blood Curse

Every vampire was standing. Some gathered around tables dragged out from the walls. Others leaned against pillars or sat on the steps below the empty dais. The throne remained where it had always been, but someone had thrown a torn dust sheet over it. A stack of roof tiles occupied the space in front of it.

People noticed Stellan in pieces rather than turning as if one string had pulled them.

One conversation stopped, another finished. A woman lifted her hand. Elias pointed towards two empty chairs near the long table.

Stellan and I crossed the hall together.

He was dressed in black again, though the open collar showed the top of his bandage. His pace stayed even until the last few steps. I felt the slight shift in his weight and slid my arm around his waist.

He put his hand on the back of my neck and accepted the support.

The court saw. This wasn’t a display for them, and it wasn’t hidden from them either.

We sat at the table. Lists covered the wood: damaged rooms, medical supplies, food, clean water, vehicles and names of people who wanted to contact families outside Harrowmere. The papers lay where people had been using them, waiting for discussion rather than a king’s approval.

Lenora tapped one list. “The east wing is unsafe. We can house everyone in the west rooms for three nights. After that, people need to decide whether they are staying.”

“And the gate remains open,” Mara said.

Elias drew a line under several names. “Eleven want to leave as soon as the roads clear. Others want to contact family first.”

“Give them vehicles, maps and whatever money they need from the household accounts,” Stellan said.

Lenora looked up. “Those accounts belonged to the Crown.”

His jaw tightened once. “Then everyone here decides what becomes of them. Until that happens, they keep people fed and safe.”

A woman across from me gripped the edge of the table. “My sister thinks I died sixty years ago.”

The table gave her silence instead of instructions.

Mara leaned forwards. “Do you want someone with you when you call her?”

The woman nodded. Mara wrote her own name beside hers.

Several voices answered together. Agreement, concern, questions about daylight transport and the vampires still sleeping in lower rooms. The discussion tangled, separated and kept moving.

Stellan listened. He answered when someone asked him directly and stayed silent when they asked one another.

It should be a small thing. It wasn’t.

A young man near the end of the table raised his voice. “What do we call this now? The Crown is gone. Does that change the Blood Court?”

The hall quieted.

Mara looked at the repair lists, the covered throne and a bucket catching rain from the ceiling. “At the moment? Work.”

Laughter broke across the room. It came out ragged, then grew as relief found somewhere harmless to go. Even Lenora smiled.

When it faded, Stellan folded his hands on the table. “It changes how the court is held, not whether it exists. Call this a gathering until we decide the rest together. Every place here is voluntary. So is every task.”

The words carried across the hall and stopped there. They didn’t tighten my spine or move a single vampire’s body. People considered them, then began discussing shifts for the roof.

I laid my hand on Stellan’s thigh under the table.

His fingers covered mine. The contact stayed private even in a crowded room.

For the next hour, the court worked. Elias organised blood stores and medical care. Lenora matched empty rooms to the people who wanted them. Mara formed teams for the roof, gate and broken windows. Stellan offered knowledge without turning it into law. I pointed out that the humans delivering food would need an explanation for half the house looking bombed, and three vampires volunteered to make the public rooms less alarming.