The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

one look, he picked up his pace, entering the stables. “My
little girl. Marji. She was right beside us,” he told us, his
voice cracking. “We told her to wait, but she…she just took
off, and we didn’t see the carriage. We didn’t see her do it
until it was too late. The Healer says that nothing can be
done, but she still breathes, and we heard—” Wild, dilated
eyes flicked to me as Harlan brought Setti forward. “We
heard about what you did in Spessa’s End. If you could help
my little girl… Please? I beg of you.”
“There’s no need to beg,” I told him, heart twisting as
his grief tore through me. “I can try to help her.”
“Thank you,” the man’s words came out with a rush of
air. “Thank you.”
“Where is she?” Casteel asked as he took Setti’s reins.
As the man answered, I gripped the saddle and hoisted
myself up without getting my legs tangled in the gown. No
one reacted to how I was able to seat myself on Setti as
Casteel swung up behind me, and Kieran joined us, already
astride his horse. No one spoke as we left the courtyard,
following the man onto the tree-lined road. We rode down
the hill fast, accompanied by the wolven and Delano, who
had shifted and was now a blur of white loping over rocks
and darting between trees and then structures and horses.
We had just talked about seeing the city, but this wasn’t
how I imagined it happening. The ride was a blur of blue
skies and a sea of faces, narrow, tight roads, and gardens
nestled between sweeping buildings adorned with heavily
flowered vines. I couldn’t focus on any of it as the urge to
help the child took center stage. And that desire…it was
different. It was hard to comprehend because the need to
help others with my gift had always been there, but this was
more intense. As if it was an instinct that equaled breathing.
And I didn’t know if that had anything to do with everything
that had happened or if it was borne of the need to learn if
my gifts could still ease pain and heal instead of what I’d
done at the Chambers.