My Vampire King Husband Died on Our Wedding Night? novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: The Silver Knife

"Bryson," Pippa said, in a thin voice. "What are you doing?"

He didn't take his eyes off me.

"Stay out of it, Pip."

"You said you were going for a walk."

"I said stay out!"

She came down the aisle in her bare feet with both hands out.

I saw her look at the silver knife and go gray.

"Rooke told me the vault has a window," she said. "He told me Edmund would wake and see. He promised no one would touch him."

"He lied to you," I said.

She flinched.

"Bryson," she whispered. "Put it down. Please. If he's not dead, you'll kill a king."

"He's dead," Bryson said, high and fast. "They said he's dead."

He turned to the coffin again with the knife raised in both fists.

I did not think.

I grabbed the heavy brass candlestick off the altar rail and swung it with both hands.

It struck his forearm with a crack I felt in my own teeth.

Bryson screamed and dropped the knife, and it spun across the stone floor, ringing.

Hester was across the chapel before it stopped.

I had never seen her move so fast.

She was a small woman of a hundred and sixty with a bun of white hair, and she hit him at the waist and took him to the flagstones as easily as if he had been a coat on a hook.

She planted one knee in the middle of his back and twisted his arm up between his shoulder blades.

"Move," she said in a quiet, pleasant voice, "and I will take the arm."

Bryson lay with his cheek against the floor and sobbed.

I stood over the coffin with the candlestick still raised, shaking all over.

I checked the glass.

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