The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

the ones from when we’d first entered Atlantia. How long
had they sat here, waiting for us? I turned slightly. Several
chairs were situated across from the bed. Another set of
lattice doors led to what appeared to be a veranda, and
there was an even larger ceiling fan, one with leaf-shaped
blades that spun, moving the air about. “Wait.” My gaze
shot back to him. “You have your own residence?”
“I do.” Having finished with the curtains on the bed, he
straightened. “I have quarters at my family’s home—the
palace—but I also have a small townhome.”
I was sure that I knew Casteel better than most, but
there was still so much I had to learn about him. Things that
weren’t all that important, and the things that made him
who he was today. We just hadn’t had the time to truly
discover each other’s secrets yet, and I wanted that time as
painfully as I wanted to hold my brother, see Tawny again,
and learn that she hadn’t Ascended like the Duchess had
claimed. I wanted that as badly as I wanted to see Casteel
reunite with his brother and for Malik to be healthy and
whole.
And we’d almost lost the chance for more time.
Casteel stepped to the side, turning to me. I saw the
open door behind him. Faint sunlight drenched ivory-tiled
walls and glimmered off a large, porcelain soaking tub.
Drawn forward, I might’ve stopped breathing as I realized
how big the tub was and that all the bottles on the shelves
were full of colored salts, creams, and lotions. What sat in
the corner of the bathing chamber was what I couldn’t look
away from, though. Several pipes descended from the
ceiling, each one with an oval-shaped head on it, and all full
of tiny holes. The floor under them was sunken, and a
large…drain was in the center. One side, under the window,
held a tiled bench built into the wall.
“That’s the shower,” Casteel said from behind me.
“Once turned on, the water comes from overhead.”
All I could do was stare.