The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

Skotos Mountains and descend upon Solis, sweeping across
the lands, burning everything down. I wanted to be there,
beside them—
“Poppy.” Kieran’s voice sounded wrong, scratchy and full
of rocks as he touched my arm and then my cheek.
Casteel’s arm tightened around me as he pressed his
front to my back. “It’s okay.” He folded his other arm around
my waist. “It’s all right. Just take a deep breath,” he ordered
quietly. “You’re calling the wolven.” A pause. “And you’re
starting to glow.”
It took a moment for Casteel’s voice to reach me, for his
words to make sense. The wolven…they were reacting to
me—to the rage seeping into my every pore. My heart
tripped over itself as the need for retribution gnawed at my
insides. That feeling—that power it invoked…it terrified me.
I did what Casteel had ordered, forcing myself to take a
deep breath and breathe through the way it scalded my
throat and lungs. I didn’t want that, to see anything burn. I
just wanted my brother, and I wanted the Ascended unable
to do this to another person.
The deep breaths cleared the blood-drenched fog from
my thoughts. As clarity arrived, so did the realization that
there was still a chance that Ian wasn’t completely lost. He
was likely only two years into his Ascension, and they
trusted him to travel from Carsodonia to Spessa’s End? That
had to mean something. That who he was before the
Ascension hadn’t been completely erased. The Ascended
could control their bloodlust. They could also refuse to feed
from those who were unwilling. Ian could be one of them. He
could’ve maintained control. There was still hope.
I latched on to that. I had to because it was the only
thing that tamped down the rage—the ugly want and need
that nearly boiled over inside me. When I opened my eyes
to see Vonetta staring at me, her mouth pressed into a thin,
tight line, some semblance of calm returned. “I...I didn’t hurt
you?” I glanced at Kieran, seeing that he, too, was paler