The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

make sense because he had answered what I’d said in my
dream.
“The Primal notam? I imagine so.”
Leaning into Casteel, I looked up. The trees were
thinning, and I could see patches of the sky now painted
intense shades of pink and deep blue. “Have we crossed the
Skotos?”
“We have,” he confirmed. The air wasn’t nearly as cold
as it had been before I’d fallen asleep.
We rode on, the sky turning dark, and the land under us
smoothing and leveling out. Casteel loosened the blanket
around me as we broke free of the last of the trees, and the
remaining wolven poured out from our sides, joining the
group. I twisted at the waist and looked behind Casteel, but
it was too dark to see the trees of Aios.
I didn’t even want to think what the people of Atlantia
felt when they saw the trees change. My heart tripped over
itself as I faced forward again, scanning the rocky and
jagged terrain. I didn’t recognize the land, even though the
air seemed to warm with each passing moment.
“Where are we?” I asked as I caught sight of the large
silver wolven moving ahead. Jasper easily navigated the
boulders, leaping from one to another as the other wolven
followed.
“We came out a bit farther south of Saion’s Cove,”
Casteel explained. “Closer to the sea, at the Cliffs of Ione.
There’s an old Temple here.”
“You might’ve been able to see the Cliffs from the
Chambers,” Naill advised as he slowed his horse when the
terrain became more uneven. “But probably not the
Temple.”
“This is where my father is waiting, and Alastir is being
kept,” Casteel told me.
I sat straighter, catching the blanket before it fell and
tangled around Setti’s legs. Tall cypress trees dotted the