The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

hatred. I didn’t try to stop it. I let instinct—the Primal
knowledge that had woken in the Chambers of Nyktos—take
hold. I swung my legs off the raised surface as Casteel took
down what appeared to be an Ascended, his father fighting
alongside him. I stood, feeling a rush of power just from
being able to stand after being held down by the bones and
roots for so long.
Kieran picked up a fallen sword, his brow furrowing as
he stared at the blade. “Here,” he offered the weapon to
me.
I shook my head as I took a step, my legs trembling
slightly from not holding my weight for so long. The hum in
my chest grew, the eather in my blood intensifying as I kept
my senses open wide. These people wanted to hurt me.
They had. And they had harmed Casteel, Kieran, and
everyone else. They’d killed Beckett. None of them
deserved to live.
The corners of my vision turned white, and in my mind,
the thin, silvery-white cords slipped out from me, crackling
off the floor and reconnecting with the others. My anger
joined the pounding emotions now flooding my senses. I
drew in a deep breath, taking in everybody’s feelings,
letting their hatred, fear, and twisted sense of righteousness
seep into my skin and become a part of me. Those emotions
twined with the cords in my mind. I took it all in, feeling the
toxic storm thrumming inside me. There wouldn’t be time
for them to regret what they took part in. I would destroy
them. I would obliterate them—
Alastir’s words came back to me at that moment. “You
are dangerous now, but you will become something else
entirely later.”
Unease exploded in my gut, dispersing the silver cords
in my mind. These people deserved whatever I dealt to
them. What Alastir had said didn’t matter. If I killed them, it
wouldn’t be because I was unable to control myself. And it
wasn’t because I was unpredictable or chaotically violent