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My fingers stopped level with my shoulder.

“You’re awake now. Turn your head and find me. I’m standing at the doors, and you can hear my voice in the room. That’s real.”

The Crown moved closer. The longest point hovered less than an arm’s length from my palm.

“He cannot free himself. He cannot take you out of this house. I can give you both what you want. I can make him safe to touch. I can make every door obey you.”

I turned my head.

Stellan stood at the throne room entrance with one hand braced against the stone. The chain at his waist stretched tight behind him. Another length ran from the iron at his throat and pulled his head back. Red marks showed where it had already bitten into his skin.

His eyes met mine.

The sunny entrance in my mind disappeared. I saw the real man held at the edge of the room, angry and frightened for me. His shirt was open at the throat. His hair was tangled from sleep, and the chain was cutting deeper every time he tried to move.

“Good,” he said. “Stay with my voice. The Crown can use what you want, but it can’t make the final choice.”

The pressure in my head sharpened.

“He wants your blood. Every broken link has come from you. He will keep taking until nothing remains.”

My raised hand trembled.

Stellan’s expression changed. The words had reached him too.

“Will you?” I asked.

“No. I need your blood, and I want it, but I stopped when you pulled away. I’ll stop again.”

The Crown offered certainty. Stellan left the choice in my hands.

“You said I could take the time I needed.”

“You can. Attraction isn’t trust, and a kiss doesn’t settle either one. Wanting me doesn’t put you under my control. Wanting me free doesn’t put you under the Crown’s. You still decide what happens next.”

The Crown lowered until its band hung near my fingertips.

“Touch me, Bryony. Command him to kneel, and every truth will be yours. Command the doors, and no vampire will hold you here again. His hunger will never frighten you. His body will never refuse you.”

“I don’t want his obedience.”

Stellan gripped the doorway harder. “It’s offering control because Adrian frightened you. It’s offering my freedom because you want me. Neither promise tells you what it will take after you put it on. If it respected your choice, it wouldn’t have dragged you out of bed.”

I looked at the Crown. Red light ran around the band and gathered under the point aimed at me.

“Can it force my hand?”

“It can pull at every reason you have to reach for it. It can make refusal hurt. Harrowmere still needs you to choose. That’s why it’s talking instead of dropping onto your head.”

His voice stayed steady, although the collar was forcing his chin higher.

“And if I walk away?”

“It’ll punish me because that gives it another reason to call you back. Leave anyway. I’d rather take the chain than watch you give the Crown your voice.”

The iron at his throat tightened as if the court had heard him. Stellan’s breath stopped. His shoulders locked, and a dark line of blood appeared along the lower edge of the collar.

My body moved towards him.