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I kept my attention on the restraints.

“Harrowmere, release every chain holding Stellan. Leave his mind, his body and his blood under his control.”

White light struck the red links.

Adrian grabbed the chain around Stellan’s throat. “Hold the Blood King.”

The house ignored him.

The red links tightened once, fighting the release. Stellan’s back lifted from the floor as the chain cut into his throat. I felt his pain and the force he used to remain still while white fire moved from one link to the next.

“Release him,” I said.

The chain around his throat split.

Adrian recoiled as the broken ends struck the floor. The restraints around Stellan’s wrists flickered, but the dagger kept feeding red light into them.

I could have ordered Stellan to tear it out. The Crown made that path feel easy. One sentence would move his hand, turn his body and use his strength exactly as I wanted.

That was Adrian’s answer to everything, and I wouldn’t use it.

The clear wall around the dais cracked under Lenora’s seal blade. She struck the same point again while the freed guards braced behind her.

Adrian looked towards them and shouted, “Captain, kneel.”

Lenora’s legs buckled under the force.

I reached for the ward between us instead of her body. “Harrowmere, protect Lenora and the guards freed from Adrian’s marks. Carry no order from him into their blood.”

The clear wall shattered.

White light wrapped around Lenora and the three guards. Adrian’s command broke before it forced her knees to the floor.

She caught herself on the seal blade and looked up at me. “That’ll do.”

“Can you hold the others away from him?” I asked.

Lenora checked the guards behind her. The last vampire they’d freed was still unsteady, but he had a sword in his hand and no red light in his eyes.

“We’ll hold the room,” she said. “Deal with Adrian.”

I left that choice with her. The protection stayed around them without directing where they stood or how they fought.

Footsteps pounded in the passage beyond the broken doors. More of Adrian’s guards had reached the lower court. Their red marks showed through the walls now that the Crown had tied me to every ward.

The house offered me all of them at once. I could feel doors waiting above necks and stone ready to close around limbs. The amount of damage I could do with a few careless words turned my stomach.

“Harrowmere, close every door against anyone carrying Adrian’s command. Hold them without killing them. Keep the path between Lenora and the throne open.”

The throne room doors slammed.

A vampire made it halfway through. The doors stopped against his shoulders instead of crushing him. White bands wrapped around his arms and pulled him back into the passage before the stone sealed.

More doors closed through the lower court. The impacts travelled under my feet, one after another, cutting Adrian off from every guard he still controlled.

I felt each trapped vampire strike the other side. Harrowmere held their arms and legs with white bands while leaving their throats and chests clear. They could breathe and swear, and several of them were making full use of that freedom.

The house would keep them alive until Lenora could remove the marks. That was enough for now. I had no interest in using the Crown to make their choices for them either.