The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

Emil started to step back but stopped. “I almost forgot.”
He reached to his side and under his tunic. I stiffened at the
low rumble of warning as Jasper took a step forward, his
head lowering. Casteel shifted ever so slightly beside me,
his body tensing. The Atlantian shot a nervous glance over
his shoulder at the large wolven. “This belongs to her,” he
said. “I’m just giving it back.”
I looked down to see him withdraw a blade—one that
gleamed reddish black in the firelight. Air lodged in my
throat as he flipped it over, offering me the bone handle. It
was my bloodstone dagger. The one Vikter had gifted me on
my sixteenth birthday. Other than the memories of the man
who risked his career and most likely his life to make sure I
could defend myself, it was the only thing I had left of him.
“How…?” I cleared my throat as I closed my fingers
around the cold wolven bone. “How did you find it?”
“By pure luck, I think,” he said, immediately stepping
back and nearly bumping into Delano, who had silently
crept up behind him. “When I and a few others went back to
look for evidence, I saw it lying under the blood tree.”
I swallowed the knot in my throat. “Thank you.”
Emil nodded as Casteel clasped the Atlantian on the
shoulder. I held onto the dagger, slipping it under the cloak I
wore as we walked forward, crossing the wide colonnade. A
young, slim male stood against the wall, and I almost didn’t
recognize the somber, soft, almost fragile lines of Quentyn
Da’Lahr’s face. He wasn’t smiling—he wasn’t chattering
away, brimming with energy like he normally was as he
came toward us with hesitant steps. The moment my senses
connected with his emotions, the tang of his anguish took
my breath. There was uncertainty in him and the sourness
of guilt, but there was also an undercurrent of something…
bitter. Fear. My chest seized as my senses rapidly attempted
to decipher whether his fear was directed at me or… Then I
remembered that he had been close to Beckett. The two
had been friends. Did he know what had happened to his