The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

Chapter 50
“You need to wake soon. There are draken here,” I told
Tawny. “Actual draken.”
She didn’t awaken, but the blackness in her veins had
stopped spreading. Whatever the Healer Willa had brought
with her had given Tawny was working. It was also changing
her.
Her golden bronze curls were now bone-white.
Somehow, the snowy hair made her all the more stunning.
“The draken are beautiful.” I smoothed back a curl. “If a
bit…temperamental. They have been asleep for a very long
time, so I suppose they’re allowed to be grumpy.”
“Grumpy?” Kieran snorted, surprising me. I hadn’t heard
him come in. He’d been with Vonetta, spending time with
their parents and their new sister. If he was here, I knew
what that meant. “More like bitey.”
“You deserved it,” I reminded him as I fixed the blanket
around Tawny. “He got too close to one while he was resting.
Almost lost a hand.”
“More like an arm,” he muttered.
I looked over my shoulder. “I don’t think bitey is a word,
by the way.”
“It’s not?” Kieran murmured, looking past me, to where
Tawny lay. “She looks better.”
“She does.” I faced her. “It’s time?”
“Yes.”
Giving her hand one last squeeze, I placed it on the bed.
I rose and smoothed a hand over a similar outfit to the one
I’d worn to Iliseeum. The bodice was of thicker fleece