The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

Right hands balled into fists. They placed them over the
center of their chests and then sank onto one knee,
lowering their heads as the ones on the street had done. All
of them—the wolven in the courtyard, the ones on the wall,
on the steps and between the pillars.
I felt a little dizzy as Jasper and Kieran turned to us and
followed suit.
“They have never done that for me,” Casteel remarked
under his breath.
Kieran lifted his head just enough for me to see that he
smirked.
“I don’t know why they’re doing it for me.”
He glanced down at me, his brows knitted. “It’s because
you have the blood—”
“I know,” I said, my heart starting to pound again. “I
know, but…” How could I put into words how crazy this was
to me? People bowed before me as the Maiden, but this was
different, and it had nothing to do with the fact that naked
people prostrated themselves before me.
Though, that seemed important, too.
Kieran rose, meeting Casteel’s stare. He nodded. I had
no idea how they communicated to one another if there was
no bond. Hell, I had no idea how they did it when there had
been one. He said something to Jasper, and his father
shifted back into his wolven form. The others followed suit,
and again, I was left wondering how they all acted in unison.
I watched them move away from the home, spreading out
through the courtyard and beyond the walls, wondering if it
was some sort of instinctual drive or something beyond
that.
Casteel’s hand dropped to the center of my back as he
started forward. “Well, that was fun, wasn’t it?”
I looked up at him, my brows raised. “That was a lot of…
nakedness.”
A half-grin appeared as he looked down at me.