The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

got to those crypts only a few hours after you left, but we
didn’t come up empty-handed.”
I was too hopeful to even ask, but I did. “Alastir?”
A savage grin appeared. “Yes.”
Thank the gods. My eyes closed briefly. I hated the
betrayal Casteel must feel, but at least Alastir wasn’t out
there.
“Poppy?” Kieran’s hands were on the last of the bone
bindings. “I’m going to assume that even if I ask you nicely
to sit this fight out, you won’t listen to me, will you?”
I sat up tentatively, expecting pain. Instead, there was
nothing but the previous aches. “How long have they had
me?”
Kieran’s nostrils flared. “It’s been six days and eight
hours.”
Six days.
My chest rose sharply. “They kept me chained to the
wall of a crypt full of the remains of deities. They drugged
me and planned to hand me over to the Ascended,” I told
him. “I’m not sitting this out.”
“Of course, not.” He sighed.
The last bone broke, and then Kieran pulled it away. The
moment it was gone, a wave of tingles swept over the back
of my head and down my spine, branching out and following
the pathways of my nerves. The center of my chest
warmed, and I hadn’t realized until that moment that the
coldness I’d felt wasn’t only due to the damp iciness of the
crypt. It had also been because of the bones. It was like my
blood rushed back to parts of me that had gone numb. But it
wasn’t the blood, was it? It was the…the eather. The tingling
sensation wasn’t at all painful, though; more like a wave of
release.
The center of my chest started to hum, the sound
vibrating out through my lips. My senses opened wide and
stretched out, connecting with those around me. I tasted
bitter, sweat-drenched fear and the hot acidic burn of