Kane stopped hitting me.
He turned towards the city.
White lines spread from the central circle and ran through the tower. Through them I saw the creatures that had broken their old contracts: beasts in the academy courtyard, captains of the swarm, the dragon beside Leon, the healing fox that had left her former master.
Forty-one thousand absorbed bonds gathered into a single command.
"Stop the hearts of all unregistered creatures."
The captains above the circle began to fall.
In the academy courtyard, a firebird dropped from the roof. A stone hound lay down beside Rem's stretcher. Beyond the wall, the little dragon took a step towards Leon and could not finish it.
Kane watched me.
"Now the choice is clean. Either you accept the right to stop me, or you defend freedom to the last heart that isn't yours."
Outside, no one waited for my decision.
Leon pressed his palms to the dragon's chest and tried to make him breathe again. Cole tore the white ring from a fallen captain, though the metal scorched his fingers. In the medical wing, Mira injected the fox with a stimulant that could restart her heart only once. In the academy courtyard, a freed earth spirit entered the stone beneath the hound and kept his body from cooling for a few seconds.
Lily could not break into the central circle. She put Kane's command on the city dome so the people would at least know why the beasts were falling.
Each did what they could and won fractions of a second.
It was not enough.
The white line kept moving from heart to heart. One captain gave his red spark to two young mosquitoes, and they rose again. He went dark.
I tried to stop the command with my voice. The Crown did not even register the words: only an owner had the right to object.
The unfinished protocol my parents had left contained only one proven option. A second owner could countermand one order by entering the Crown with equal authority.
After that, the System would demand a choice of master.
A panel opened before me:
"Accept the Predator Crown."
Styx lay on my palm. She no longer had human speech.
"What if I don't let go afterwards?"
She showed me a closed hand from which there was no escape. Then my neck and her stinger.
Not a promise to obey.
A warning that she would stand against me.
The white line reached the little dragon. His chest stopped between one breath and the next.
I touched the panel.
"Accept."
The Crown entered my body.
For one instant, every bond was in my hands. I stopped Kane's command a fraction of a second before it took effect.
The dragon breathed in.
Only some of the captains rose, but the red points lit again.
Kane lost the right to issue commands.
And with him, those the Crown now considered mine went still.
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