The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

“But he would’ve been greatly injured if you hadn’t been
stopped,” he said. “You would’ve brought the whole Temple
down. He would’ve fallen with it. Maybe you would’ve even
killed him. It is possible for you to do that, you know? You
have the power within you.”
My heart skipped a beat in my chest. “I would never
hurt him.”
“Maybe not intentionally. But from what I’ve gathered,
you seem to have very little control over yourself. How do
you know what you would’ve done?”
I started to deny what he’d said, but I tipped my head
back against the wall, unsettled. I…I wasn’t sure what I had
become in that Temple, but I had been in control. I had also
been full of vengeance, just like the strange flash of the
woman I’d seen in my mind. I had been prepared to kill
those who ran from me. I’d been prepared to tear apart the
entire kingdom. Would I have done that? Saion’s Cove was
full of innocent people. Surely, I would’ve stopped before it
got to that point.
I was lying to myself.
I’d believed that Casteel had been gravely injured, if not
killed. I wouldn’t have stopped. Not until I’d sated that need
for vengeance. And I had no idea what it would’ve taken for
that to happen.
The air I breathed turned sour, and it was an effort to
file that realization away to stress over later. “What did you
do to him? To the others?”
“I did nothing.”
“Bullshit,” I snapped.
“I fired no arrows. I wasn’t even there,” he replied.
“What they did, was use a toxin derived from the
shadowshade—a flower that grows in the most eastern
regions of the Mountains of Nyktos. It causes convulsions
and paralysis before hardening the skin. Quite painful before
they enter into the deep sleep. The Prince will take a bit