The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

There was only fire on my skin and inside me, burning
through every cell. It was way worse than when I’d been
trapped in the carriage with Lord Chaney, but I couldn’t fight
back now. Nothing worked. I couldn’t move away from the
pain. It was too much, and the scream I couldn’t give breath
to bounced off my skull and exploded in the sky, in silvery
lightning that streaked from cloud to cloud and slammed
down onto the ruins of the castle and all around it. The
entire world seemed to shudder as crimson leaves drifted
from the tree, falling on Casteel’s shoulders, blanketing the
length of Kieran’s back and settling in Jasper’s silver fur.
My heart—it faltered. I felt it. Oh, gods, I felt it miss a
beat, skipping two, and then sluggishly trying to keep up, to
restart. And then it failed. Everything seized in me. My
lungs. My muscles. Every organ. My eyes were wide, my
gaze fixed as my entire body strained for breath, for relief,
and then…death swept in so sweetly, it swallowed me
whole. I drowned in its lush, dark spice.