The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

“They were wrong.”
“I know,” I said.
“Do you know how you were able to stop them?” Kieran
asked. “How you used your abilities?”
“That is a hard question to answer. I…I don’t know how
to explain it other than to say it was like I knew what to do.”
My brows knitted as I pressed my palm to the center of my
chest. “Or like it was some instinct I didn’t realize I had. I
just knew what to do.”
“Eather,” Casteel corrected softly.
“Eather,” I repeated. “I sort of…saw it in my mind, and it
happened. I know that sounds bizarre—”
“It doesn’t.” He returned to stand in front of me. “When
I use compulsion, the eather gives me the ability to do so. I
see in my mind what I want the person to do as I speak it.”
“Oh. So, it’s…it’s kind of like projecting your thoughts?”
He nodded. “Sounds like what you did is the same. It’s
also how we can tell if we’re dealing with an elemental or
another bloodline—based on the amount of eather we feel.”
“It was written that the gods could sense it, too,
whenever it was used,” Kieran said. “It felt like a seismic
shift to them.”
I thought over everything they’d said. “It’s weird,
though. When I ease someone’s pain, I think happy thoughts
—good ones. And then…” I rolled my eyes as I sighed. “Then
I projected those feelings into the person.”
Casteel grinned at me.
“I guess it’s not that much different.”
He shook his head. “You think you can do it again?”
My stomach tumbled a bit. “I don’t know. I don’t know if
I want to—”
“You should,” he said, his jaw hardening as he held my
gaze. “If you are ever in a situation like that again, any
situation where you cannot physically defend yourself, do
not hesitate. Listen to that instinct. Let it guide you. It will