Page 95 of Blood Ties

I raised the sword towards the gate. “Harrowmere, Adrian Rook is not my regent. Keep him outside the lower court and reject every command he gives me.”

White light spread across the opening. Adrian stepped back as it struck the toes of his polished shoes.

Adrian looked down at the light. “You’re using authority you claim you don’t want.”

“I’m using my house to keep a murderer out. You don’t need a crown to understand a locked door.”

His attention settled on Stellan. “The guards can still cross. Their oaths belong to Harrowmere, and the court will admit them while they carry out a lawful regent’s command.”

“You just heard the heir reject you,” Stellan said. “You’ve lost the last scrap of lawful authority you had.”

A hard pulse moved through the red lines on the guards’ throats. The guards attacked at the same time.

The man came straight at Stellan with his sword raised. The woman ran around them and headed for me.

I stepped out from the spring wall. Lenora caught the back of my jumper and pulled me sideways as black claws passed through the space where my face had been.

The woman turned quickly. I drove the short sword at her stomach, but she knocked it aside with one hand. The force jarred my arm to the shoulder.

“Take the throat,” Lenora said.

“I’m trying.”

The attacker struck again. I blocked with the flat of the sword and moved around the wall, keeping the stone between us. She followed because Adrian’s command had fixed her attention on me.

Stellan met the male guard beside the spring. Steel cut across his chest, opening the clean shirt and the skin under it. He caught the guard’s wrist before the blade could rise again.

The woman lunged across the wall. Lenora drove her knife through the attacker’s hand and pinned it to the stone.

Lenora sagged back against the wall.

“My arms still work.”

I swung the short sword at the red marks on the woman’s throat. She tore her hand free before the edge reached her and left a strip of flesh under Lenora’s knife.

Blood hit the wall. The scent filled the garden, and every rose opened at once.

The garden answered before I could.

They caught the woman’s injured wrist and pulled her away from us. She slashed at them with her free hand, cutting one thick stem before another wound around her elbow.

“Did you do that?” Lenora asked.

“No.” I looked towards Stellan. “Harrowmere is protecting my blood.”

The male guard drove a knee into Stellan’s stomach. Stellan released his wrist, let the sword come forwards and moved inside its reach. His hand closed around the guard’s throat.

Adrian pressed against the white barrier. “Kill him.”

The guard tried to obey. Stellan turned his wrist until the sword fell, then forced him down across the stone edge of the spring. The impact cracked the wall.

The collar chain slid across the path with plenty of slack remaining.

Stellan held the struggling vampire in place and looked towards the armour crowding the damaged gate. He could see how many Adrian had brought. His face changed as the control he used around me disappeared.

The first guard had reached the chained Blood King.

Stellan bent and tore out his throat with his fangs.