The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

mortals alike had left behind. Awareness pressed against my
back, and I knew that Kieran and Delano had found us.
A horse-drawn wagon passed, the driver hunched over
and unaware of the small child racing along the cobblestone
sidewalk, carrying a stack of papers. His red-cheeked face
was stained with soot, and his blond hair was slick and
unkempt as he rushed into the street—
Casteel’s hand snapped out, catching the child by the
scruff of the neck and hauling him back.
“Hey! Let go of me, sir!” the boy shouted, holding onto
the newspapers with everything in him. “I ain’t done—” He
quieted as the powerful hooves of the horses and wagon
wheels pounded by inches from his face. “Shit,” the child
whispered.
“You’re welcome,” Casteel replied, placing the child on
the sidewalk.
The kid whirled around, his eyes wide. “Thank you, sir! I
would’ve been flattened like me momma’s bread.” He
turned wide eyes to the street.
“Flattened like his momma’s bread?” Delano whispered
behind me, and I fought a laugh.
“You can thank me by telling me what happened to the
Rise,” Casteel said, his hand slipping inside his cloak. “To
cause the cracks in it.”
The child’s brows knitted as he stared up at the
shadowy area of Casteel’s face. “It was the ground, sir. It
rocked here, and I heard from Telly at the fish stand that the
ground shook all the way to the capital. My momma said it
was the gods. That they’d been angered.”
I didn’t know what would cause such a quake, but I
knew it hadn’t been the gods.
“When did this happen?” Casteel asked.
“I don’t know. Like a month or so ago.” The boy shifted
from one foot to the other. “How do you not know when
everything was shaking?”