The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

“Her eyes,” the other said as the one holding me
lowered his arm—his wrist. His bleeding wrist. “They’re not
black. They’re still green.”
The male stiffened against me. “What?”
Forgetting about the one in front of me, I grabbed the
arm and struck, closing my mouth over the two open
wounds and drawing in deeply. The male jerked and gasped.
“Gods.”
The first taste of his blood was a shock to my senses,
tart and sweet. His blood coursed down my throat, warm
and thick. It hit the hollowness in my chest, the empty pit in
my stomach, easing the ache. I moaned, shuddering as the
cramping in my muscles began to fade. The red-tinted
shadows in my mind started to thin, and fragments of
thought began to break through the hunger. Pieces of—
A hand curled under my jaw, lifting my mouth from his
wrist. “No!” I panicked. The painful hunger surged back to
life. I needed—I needed more.
“Look at me.”
I fought against his grip, bucking against his hold, but
he was strong.
The male turned my head. “Stop.” His breath danced
over my lips, and something about his words was different,
softer, deeper. It echoed through me. “Stop fighting me and
open your eyes, Penellaphe.”
His voice pierced through the hunger as it had before
when I was drifting in the darkness. My breathing slowed as
my body obeyed his command. Amber eyes stared into
mine, bright and churning with golden flecks. I couldn’t look
away—couldn’t move even as a barb-edged surge of
anguish flooded me.
“Poppy,” he whispered, those strange, churning eyes
glimmering with dampness. “You didn’t Ascend.”
I knew his words should make sense. A distant,
fragmented part of me knew that I should understand. But I