The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

quickly glanced down at my chest. When he refocused on
my face, he said, “You’re going to be okay.”
I didn’t feel okay. Oh, gods, I didn’t feel right at all.
Movement stirred the air as Kieran appeared at our side,
his normally dusky skin so, so pale. He placed his hand on
the base of the bolt, trying to stanch the blood.
The touch was torment. I twisted, trying to move away.
“It…it hurts.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I know it hurts.” Casteel glanced at
Kieran. “Can you see how far it went in?”
“I don’t see the ridges on the bolt,” he said, looking over
my shoulder. I shuddered, knowing these bolts were like the
jagged stems of some of the arrows I’d fired before, ones
created to cause maximum damage. “The blood, Cas. It’s
too much.”
“I know,” Casteel bit out as a snapping, snarling, fleshy
and wet sound from somewhere behind us blocked out what
he said next.
Kieran gripped my left shoulder, and my entire body
spasmed with pain. I screamed. Or maybe it was only a
gasp. Warm wetness splattered across my lips, and that was
bad. My wide gaze moved between Casteel and Kieran. I
knew this was bad. I could feel it. I could feel the bolt, and I
couldn’t take deep breaths, and…and I couldn’t feel my
fingertips.
“I’m sorry. I’m trying to keep your body stable so we
don’t move the bolt. I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Poppy,” Kieran said
again and again. He kept saying that, and I wanted him to
stop because he sounded too breathy, too rattled. He never
got rattled. He sounded like he already knew what my body
was trying to tell me.
Casteel started to move, and I tried to curl in on myself,
to turn away from the pain, to use my legs. But I... My pulse
skittered, and my eyes rolled frantically as panic fluttered
through me. “I…I can’t feel…my legs.”