The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

what his father or Alastir wanted. At least, that was what I
kept telling myself. Alastir hadn’t mentioned her at all.
“Whatever his motivations were,” Kieran said, “it really
doesn’t matter now.”
I supposed it didn’t. Because Casteel had found him,
and I knew the wolven no longer breathed.
Casteel came forward then, kneeling in front of me. He
took my hands, and as I stared down at him, I felt his anger
at himself and his family. But his anger for what had been
done to me, his concern, overshadowed it. “I’m sorry you
had to find out the truth like that.” He picked up my hands,
holding them in his. “I can’t imagine what you must have
felt.”
“I wanted to kill him,” I admitted. He lowered his lips to
my hands, kissing the top of both of them. “Well, Princess,
do you remember when I said I would give you whatever
you wanted?”
“Yeah?”
He smiled again, and this time, it was a smile that
promised blood. “Alastir is still alive.”
“What?” I whispered.
“We made sure he was imprisoned before we headed to
the Wastelands,” Kieran said. “We figured it was best to
keep him alive just in case we didn’t get to you in time.”
Casteel’s gaze captured mine. “He’s all yours, Poppy.”
I learned that we would travel straight through the
Skotos, not stopping. According to Kieran, we would reach
the other side by nightfall because of how close we already
were to the mountains. I was relieved to hear that as I didn’t
look forward to spending another night in the mountains
with the mist. The fact that I’d almost walked off a cliff the