The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

“A little?” I whispered.
“Okay. He’s really angry,” Kieran amended, reaching for
the bindings just below my breasts. “He has been going
crazy looking for you. I’ve never seen him this way.” His
hands trembled slightly as they folded over the bone and
root chains. “Never, Poppy.”
“I…” I trailed off as Casteel spun around. Our gazes
locked, and Nyktos himself could have appeared before me,
and I wouldn’t have been able to look away from Casteel.
There was so much rage in the sharp set of his features and
his eyes. Only a thin strip of amber was visible, but I also
saw relief and something so potent, so powerful in his stare
that I needed no gift to feel it.
The wind lifted the edges of his cloak as he started
toward me. A guard flew out from the darkness—one who
wore the black uniform of the Rise Guard and had come with
the Ascended. Casteel pivoted, catching the guard by the
throat as he shoved the blade into the man’s chest.
“I love him,” I whispered.
Kieran paused by my legs. “Are you just now figuring
that out?”
“No.” My stare followed Casteel as he unsheathed a
dagger from his side and threw it out into the night. A sharp,
too-quick scream told me that he’d hit his target. Every part
of me buzzed with the need to touch him, to feel his flesh
under mine so I could erase the memory of what his skin
had felt like the last time I’d touched him. The breath I let
out was shaky. “How did you all find me?”
“Casteel knew others in the Crown Guard had to be
involved,” Kieran explained. “He made it very clear that if
he didn’t find out who, he would start killing all of them.”
My stomach dipped as my gaze shot to Kieran’s. I didn’t
have to ask.
“He used compulsion. Ferreted out four of them that
way, but only one really knew anything,” he said. “He told
us where you were being held and what was planned. We