Page 24

I kept my distance. “How much control do you actually have now?”

“Enough to think without the hunger drowning everything else. I can still smell your blood, and I still want it. The difference is that I can choose to stay where I am. If that changes, you’ll feel it through the bond before I move.”

Stellan flexed his hands. The right cuff clicked.

A small keyhole appeared under the iron.

Edith’s second key warmed inside the case.

I closed the case and hooked the handle over my forearm. I wasn’t leaving it beside the throne.

Stellan lowered himself to one knee and held his right arm away from his body. The other wrist, both ankles and the chain at his waist stayed locked.

“What can one free hand do that the rest of you can’t?”

“The right cuff keeps me from reaching the raven seal at the base of the throne. Once it’s open, I can press my mark to it while you use Edith’s key. That will open the narrow service door behind the dais. The passage leads towards the upper house. The other restraints will keep me here if the blood isn’t enough and my hunger gets worse.”

He laid his hand flat against the floor. “If you use the key, step back the instant the cuff opens. I’ll keep my hand down until you’re clear.”

I checked every restraint again. One free hand would leave him fixed to four points of the dais, and he’d warned me each time the court changed.

It was a risk.

So was staying trapped in the room with him half-starved and no way to reach the exit.

I took the small key from the case and wrapped my fingers around the heavy torch.

“One cuff,” I said. “Then we find the way out.”

Stellan’s pale eyes held mine. “One cuff.”

The court unlocked the red line between us.

7

STELLAN

The red line between us went dark.

Bryony stayed beside Edith’s case with the small key in one hand and the torch in the other. She’d agreed to open one cuff. Agreement didn’t make walking towards a hungry vampire any easier.

I lowered my gaze to the floor and kept my right arm extended. The stored blood had quietened the worst of the hunger, but I could still hear every beat of her heart.

Her boots crossed the place where the red line had been.

The court let her pass.

“If you move suddenly, I’m using the torch,” she said.

“Aim for my nose. It’ll hurt my pride as well.”

“You’re assuming there’s enough pride left to damage.”

“A little survived the chains.”

She stopped at the edge of the dais and studied the restraints again.

The key shook once between her fingers. It wasn’t fear alone. The bond carried the same heat that had passed between us while I drank. Her body knew exactly what mine wanted, and being close made hiding it impossible.