The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

Vonetta rose and quickly rejoined Emil and the others.
“She’s dead.”
“Good gods,” Kieran uttered, staring at the young
woman on the floor. Her blood filled the crevices between
the tiles, stretching toward us. “What was the point in that?”
“Patience,” Ileana said, taking a sip.
Casteel’s hand flattened against my back as my gaze
darted from the Revenant to the Queen and then to Malik,
whose gaze hadn’t once left the still body.
“What is…?” I forced out a ragged breath. “What is
wrong with you?” I asked of the Queen as I stared at the
woman, at the blood spreading under her hand—
A finger twitched.
I gasped, and Casteel leaned forward, his eyes
narrowed. Another finger spasmed, and then the arm. A
second passed, and her entire body moved, her back
bowing as her mouth opened. Dragging in deep, gulping
breaths, she pressed her hand over where the wound should
be, where her heart had been pierced. She sat up, blinking,
and then rose to her feet and looked at us with those lifeless
eyes.
“Ta-da,” the Queen exclaimed with a snap of her fingers.
Kieran drew back. “What in the actual fuck?”
“The actual fuck you’re asking about is a Revenant,” the
Queen replied. “They cannot easily be killed. You can stab
them with bloodstone or any stone. Cut their throats. Set
them on fire. Slice their limbs from their body, and let them
bleed out, and they will come back whole.” She smiled
almost warmly at the Revenant. “They always come back.”
They always come back.
I shuddered as I stared at the young woman, unable to
process how that was even possible, because it wasn’t the
same as healing someone or even snatching them from the
grasp of death. I didn’t think my touch could… regrow
severed limbs.