The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and Ash 3)

Oh, my gods. There was no way.

“What is her last name?” Casteel asked.

Please don’t say Colyns. Please don’t say Colyns, I repeated over and over as Kieran’s father stared at Casteel as if he’d lost his mind. “I think it’s Colyns.”

My jaw was now in my lap. Godsdamnit, Casteel’s theory had been right. Miss Willa was an Atlantian. I couldn’t believe it—wait. Did that mean she was here, in Atlantia?

Oh, wow, if so, I had…so many questions for her.

“Last I heard, she was in Evaemon, or nearby in Aegea,” Jasper answered.

Casteel slowly turned to me, his lips curving into a smile wide enough that his dimples had already appeared. “I can’t say I’ve met her personally, but Poppy might—”

“I have never met her!” I all but shouted as I twisted toward him, punching his thigh.

“Ouch.” Leaning away from me, he rubbed his leg as he laughed.

“What is going on with you two?” Jasper asked.

“Apparently, there’s a Willa who wrote a sex diary of some sort,” Kieran said with a sigh. “It’s Poppy’s favorite book or something.”

I turned to the wolven as Casteel made a choking sound again. “It is not my favorite book.”

“Nothing to be ashamed of if it is,” he said with an indifferent shrug, but I tasted his sugary amusement.

“A sex book?” Jasper repeated. I was going to wither up and die right here.

Kieran nodded. “Cas was just saying he thought Willa might be an Atlantian because of a—”

“Okay,” I cut in before Kieran or Casteel could go into that further. “None of that is really important right now.”

“Oh, I disagree.” Casteel stretched over, placing his drink on a small table by the settee. “Is Willa an elemental? Something else? And you had no idea that Miss Willa Colyns is a popular biographer of a certain aspect of her life in Solis?”

Gods, I hated all of them right now. I hated myself even more for wanting to know the answers.

“She’s of the changeling bloodline, I believe,” Jasper answered, his forehead creasing. “Though sometimes I wonder about that. But no, I didn’t know that. Explains a lot, though, now that I think about it.”

Kieran’s lip curled, but Casteel looked even more interested in what that meant. I held up my hand and said, “Why would she know about Iliseeum?”

“Because Willa is old,” Jasper said. “She is the oldest changeling that I know of. She is one of Atlantia’s Elders.”

“How old is oldest?” I prodded.

He raised a brow. “Pushing two thousand years old.”

“W-what?” I stuttered, thinking of Cillian Da’Lahon, who The History of The War of Two Kings and the Kingdom of Solis claimed saw over two thousand and seven hundred years before his death. “Is that common? To live that long?”

Jasper nodded. “In times of peace and prosperity, yes.”

“And, yes, a wolven can live that long, too,” Kieran chimed in before I could ask.

My mind was…well, it couldn’t even comprehend living that long. How did one not grow tired of everything after that many years? I thought about the subject matter in Willa’s book, and figured that probably explained a lot.

I shook my head, hoping it would clear. “Can she do what Jansen could? Take on others’ images?”

Jasper shook his head. “No. Jansen was…gods, he had to be the last of the changelings that could do that.”

As terrible as it sounded, I felt relief. “Who are the Elders of Atlantia?”

“They are a type of Council who helps to rule alongside the King and Queen when needed,” Casteel explained, tugging gently on my braid. “Normally, they are never called on unless a major decision needs to be made. The last time they came together was when Malik was taken, I believe.” A sharp swirl of anguish pulsed through him. “I wasn’t in Evaemon when that happened. I was here.”

He’d been here recovering, trying to piece himself back together. My chest ached for him.

“You better believe they’ve been called now,” Jasper’s tone was dry, and my stomach tumbled. “You just might get to ask Willa about the book you were talking about.”

Oh, gods.

While I did have a lot of questions for her, I wasn’t sure I could hold a conversation because I would be thinking about wicked kisses and foursomes.

But I really didn’t need to focus on that. Because if a Council had been convened, I knew why—my arrival and everything that had happened.

“As much as I want to hear more about Miss Willa, we have more pressing things to deal with,” Casteel stated, surprising me. “How does one enter Iliseeum if they cannot do so by land or sea?”

Jasper didn’t answer for a long moment. “You know, you would’ve learned about it when you took the throne.” His gaze touched mine for a brief moment, and I knew what he meant. That Casteel would’ve learned when I took the Crown. “You don’t travel over or through the Mountains of Nyktos. You travel under them.”