The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

while Kieran had gone still, all except for the rise and fall of
his chest. His nostrils flared as Delano whimpered, sinking
onto his haunches at the child’s feet.
Casteel’s gaze met mine, and I saw it there—the welling
grief. “Poppy…”
“I can try,” I insisted, kneeling across from the mother.
The stone was hard under my knees as I tried not to notice
how the child’s head hung so limply, how it didn’t seem
shaped right. I started to reach for the girl, but the mother’s
arms tensed around her. “You can still hold her,” I said
gently. “You don’t have to let her go.”
The woman stared at me in a way that made me unsure
if she understood me, but then she nodded.
“I just need to touch her,” I told her, feeling their shock,
their uncertainty, and even the anger I thought had come
from the Healer. I shut them out as I focused on the child—
the too-pale child. “That’s all. I won’t hurt her. I promise.”
The mother didn’t say anything, but she didn’t move as
I lifted my hands again. Inhaling deeply, I kept my attention
on the child as I opened my senses wide. I felt…I felt
nothing from the girl. Unease trickled through me. She could
be deeply unconscious, slipping where pain couldn’t follow,
but what I saw on the carriage wheel and the way her head
appeared caved-in…
I had only ever healed wounds and bones, and only
recently. Nothing like this.
I could still try.
Curving a hand around her arm, I swallowed hard at the
stillness of her skin. That was the only way I could describe
the feel of her flesh. I suppressed a shudder and let instinct
guide me. Gently, I placed my other hand on her forehead.
My palms warmed, and a tingling sensation spread down my
arms and across my fingers. The child didn’t move. Her eyes
remained closed. Becket had responded almost immediately
when I touched him, but there was nothing from her. My
throat thickened as I looked at her chest. Either her