The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

to move as the gray-skinned creatures rose, their sunken
bodies and red-smeared mouths scaring me. They swarmed
the kitchen, and I couldn’t see her. “Momma!”
Bodies snapped in my direction. Mouths dropped open.
Shrill howls ripped through the air. Bony, cold fingers
pressed into my leg. I screamed as I scrambled back inside
the cupboard—
“Shit,” the dark man cursed, and a spray of something
rotten hit my face. The thing let go of my leg. I started to
twist away, but the shadow man reached inside the
cupboard, grabbing my arm. “Gods, help me,” he muttered,
yanking me out.
Panicked, I pulled at his grip as those things came at
him. He swept out an arm. I twisted, struggling. My foot
slipped in the wetness. I turned sideways—
Momma was there, her face streaked with red. She
thrust that black spike into the center of the shadow man’s
chest. He grunted out a bad word. His grip loosened and
slipped away as he fell backward. “Run, Poppy,” Momma
gasped. “Run.”
I ran. I ran toward her—
“Momma—” Claws caught my hair, scratched my skin,
burning me like the time I’d reached for the kettle. I
screamed, straining for Momma, but I couldn’t see her in the
twining mass on the floor. Teeth sank into my arm as Papa’s
friend silently backed away. Fiery pain roared through me,
seizing my lungs and my body—
What a pretty little flower.
What a pretty poppy.
Pick it and watch it bleed.
Not so pretty any longer...
I jerked awake, a scream burning the back of my throat
as my wide-eyed gaze swept across the dark bedchamber.
“Poppy,” Casteel called, his voice thick with sleep. A
second later, his chest pressed into my back as he folded an
arm around my waist. “It’s okay. You’re safe. You’re here.”