The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

“But I didn’t touch them, Casteel,” I whispered. “It was
like in Spessa’s End, during the battle. Remember the
soldiers who surrounded us? When they fell, I felt something
in me. I felt that again here. It was like something inside me
knew what to do. I took their anger and I—I did exactly what
a Soul Eater would do. I took it from them and then gave it
back.”
“You are not a Soul Eater,” Queen Eloana said from
somewhere not too far away. “The moment the eather in
your blood became visible, those who attacked you
should’ve known exactly what you were. What you are.”
“Eather?”
“It’s what some would call magic,” Casteel answered,
shifting his stance as if he were blocking his mother from
me. “You’ve seen it before.”
“The mist?”
He nodded. “It’s the essence of the gods, what’s in their
blood, what gives them their abilities and the power to
create all that they have. No one really calls it that
anymore, not since the gods went to sleep, and the deities
died off.” His eyes searched mine. “I should have known.
Gods, I should’ve seen it…”
“You can say that now,” his mother spoke. “But why
would you have even thought that this would be a
possibility? No one would’ve expected this.”
“Except for you,” Casteel said. And he was right. She’d
known, without a doubt. And, granted, I had been glowing
upon her arrival, but she’d known with unquestioned
certainty.
“I can explain,” she said as Emil appeared, carrying two
saddlebags. He gave all of us a wide berth as he dropped
them near Jasper and then backed away.
“Apparently, a lot needs to be explained,” Casteel
remarked coolly. “But it will have to wait.” His gaze touched
on my left cheek, and that muscle throbbed along his jaw