The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

“You’re going to let me go?” Delano asked, and the
woman nodded. “Then you have to actually let me go.”
“I will,” she said, those eyes shifting back to me. “But
you see, you have all already misbehaved, sneaking in
underground.” She tsked softly under her breath, and
energy pulsed through me, beneath my skin. “Going where
you should not have gone.” Her flat eyes bored into mine.
“Seeing what you should not have seen.”
“The man in the cage?”
Her smile faded. “Our Queen will not be very pleased by
that, but I am willing to give all of you the benefit of the
doubt. Especially you,” she said to me. “Do not try anything.
If you do, it will not be your lives you forfeit. It will be the
lives of those who were riding toward our east gates.”
I stiffened as disbelief echoed through me. Vonetta and
the others wouldn’t have made it to the gates yet. “How?”
“We saw them and expedited their arrival,” she replied,
the blades at Delano’s throat and stomach steady. “This
morning, to be exact.”
Gods.
“Where are they?” Casteel demanded through gritted
teeth.
“They are safe and currently waiting for you all to join
them.”
“And we’re supposed to believe you?” Kieran accused.
“She speaks the truth,” came a familiar voice from our
right.
My breath caught as I turned, and Casteel tensed as if
prepared to launch himself at me. Ian stepped out from the
hall, his gaze moving from us to the woman and Delano. He
looked...tense, his paler-than-should-be features strained.
“You were told no unnecessary bloodshed,” Ian spoke
quietly.
“See?” The woman raised her brows at us. “And I
haven’t spilled any. Not even a drop.” Without warning, she
released Delano and stepped back, lowering her blades.