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Adrian turned for Bryony.

The move was fast enough to blur. He cleared the bottom step before I caught the back of his coat.

Fabric tore in my hand. Adrian reached Bryony and closed his good hand around her throat.

White light flared from the Crown while Bryony held Harrowmere still.

Bryony didn’t command me. She drove her knee into Adrian’s groin and clawed his face when he folded.

I reached him a second later.

My fist struck the side of his head and sent him into the throne. He tried to grab Bryony again. I caught his arm, pulled it behind his back and broke it at the elbow.

Adrian screamed and tried to twist free.

Bryony stepped clear while the Crown remained steady on her head and the open path between us stayed empty.

“Dagger,” I said.

Lenora kicked it towards me.

The black blade slid over the stone. I caught the hilt and drove the point into Adrian’s back.

He arched against me. The dagger entered under his ribs and reached his heart.

His blood rushed into the carved channels along the blade.

Adrian went still against me.

I held him against the throne until his heart stopped beating. The broken bones in his wrist and arm stopped healing. His weight sagged against my grip.

He had spent a century hiding behind commands, guards and the authority he stole from Edith. Death left him with none of them.

I lowered his body to the floor and pulled the heartblood dagger free.

Red light still moved through the channels. The weapon tried to draw the power from my blood where it covered my hands.

I laid the dagger across the lowest step.

Adrian’s dead hand twitched towards it as the last of his command burned out.

I brought my heel down on the black blade.

The heartblood dagger broke in two.

44

BRYONY

The blade snapped, and every marked guard beyond the doors screamed.

Their pain hit Harrowmere in a single violent wave. Fists hammered against the sealed doors. Stone groaned around the frames while the Crown poured heat over my scalp and showed me every man Adrian had tied to his command.

Thin red marks burned under their skin. They ran from throat to heart, each one bright with the last order he had given.

Kill anyone who stood between him and the throne.

Adrian lay dead at Stellan’s feet, yet his order remained inside the men he had controlled.