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She took one breath and nodded. “I’ll use the house. You use the sword.”

“Stay on my side of the silver line unless a door forces you over it. Then come straight back.”

Another scrape came from the stone doors, followed by a thin crack.

“I can do that,” she said.

Lenora appeared at the end of the hall. Blood marked the front of her shirt, but she moved without a limp.

“The service passage is secure,” she said. “Two tried it. They won’t try again.”

Her gaze found the bodies near my feet. “I see you’ve been busy.”

“Adrian’s outside the throne-room doors,” Bryony said. “He can control Stellan when there isn’t a closed ward between them.”

Lenora looked at my bleeding wrists. “That’s useful to know.”

“It’s more useful if we keep a door between us,” I said. “Can you hold the passage alone?”

“For now.”

I pointed towards the narrow arch on the right. “If they break the gate completely, fall back here. Bryony can close the lower hall in sections. We make them come through one door at a time.”

Bryony glanced around the hall. “Harrowmere gave me the side door and the thorns. I don’t know how many times it’ll listen.”

“Don’t ask for the whole house,” Lenora said. “Choose one thing and mean it.”

A section of white light went dark across the throne-room doors.

“I mean for those to stay closed,” Bryony said.

The remaining light brightened.

The dagger struck from the other side. A black point broke through the join, and a web of cracks spread over the stone.

I moved in front of Bryony. Lenora took position near the service arch.

Bryony’s fingers caught the back of my waistband for one quick pull. I glanced over my shoulder.

“Come back fast,” she said again.

“You’ll have to keep me alive. I’m not dressed for haunting.”

Her laugh was brief and shaky. “You’d be unbearable as a ghost.”

“Exactly.”

The pressure in the room changed.

It didn’t come from the damaged gate. The throne behind us gave a deep metallic knock.

Bryony turned. “I didn’t touch that.”

The red restraints at my wrists pulsed once.

Both throne-room doors swung open towards Adrian.

Bryony slapped her palm against the wall. “Close.”