The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and Ash 3)

Why couldn’t I? Better yet, who said I couldn’t?

Another crack sent a jolt of fear through me as pieces of the tunnel under Emil began to break. Casteel cursed. If the section went, not only would we lose them, we’d be unable to return.

I had to do something.

I had to try.

Forcing myself to calm enough to focus on the image I was building in my mind. I closed my eyes, pouring all good thoughts into what I was creating. I didn’t want the eather to harm. My chest hummed as I saw the webbing of shimmery light seeping over the floor. I pictured it slipping into the hole and surrounding Vonetta. I saw it lifting her—

Vonetta gasped. My eyes flew open. A silvery glow crept along the walls of the cavern. Kieran pitched forward, reaching into the tear as strings of light lifted Vonetta. He grasped his sister’s hand, pulling her up as I pulled the eather toward me. Emil let go, scuttling back on his belly as Kieran and Vonetta collapsed to the side.

Letting out a ragged breath, I pulled the eather back toward me as I sank against Casteel. The radiance retreated and then disappeared.

“Are you okay, Netta?” Casteel demanded.

“Peachy.” Vonetta rolled onto her back, breathing heavily. She tilted her head back toward Casteel and me. “That…that felt weird.”

“You could feel it?” I asked.

“Yeah, it felt…warm and tingly.” She dragged her arm over her forehead. “Thank you. All of you.”

“How did you do that?” Casteel asked as Emil stood.

“I pictured it. Like you said.” My heart still hadn’t slowed. “And I just hoped it didn’t…you know, break her bones.”

Vonetta halted in the process of rising, her gaze finding mine in the dim firelight. “You didn’t know if it wouldn’t do that?”

“No,” I admitted sheepishly.

She put her hands on her hips. “Gods, I think I need to lay down again.”

Chapter 40

We traveled on, wary of the stability of the tunnel. Again, it felt as if we continued on for a small eternity, but the sudden and familiar scent of lilac sent a bolt of hope through me. Pressing through the narrow turn, a pinprick of light appeared in the darkness.

We had reached the end of the tunnel and Iliseeum.

“Mist,” Casteel announced. “I can see it coming through the opening.”

I tapped his shoulder when he didn’t move. “Cas.”

He growled low in his throat but flattened himself against the wall, holding the torch high. As I passed him, I pressed a quick kiss to his cheek.

“That doesn’t help,” he grumbled.

I would’ve smiled, but I saw it—tendrils of thick mist seeping into the opening in the tunnel, drifting toward us. I moved forward, sending up a prayer that Jasper had been right about my ability to pass through the mist and that my suspicion that it would not only allow me to do so but also scatter, making it safe for the others, was true.

The Primal magic rose from the floor of the cavern, forming wispy fingers as it stretched out toward me. I lifted my hand.

“I don’t like this,” Casteel muttered from behind me.

“It shouldn’t hurt her,” Kieran reminded him, but concern bled into his words.

The mist brushed against my skin, the feel of it cool and damp and alive. The eather retracted, lowering to the ground and then disappearing.

I exhaled roughly, looking over my shoulder. “It’s okay.”

Casteel nodded, and I moved ahead. The opening wasn’t all that large, only about three feet high and two feet wide. “You’ll have to crawl through.”

“Just go slowly,” Casteel advised. “We have no idea what is on the other end.”

“Hopefully, not a draken looking to serve up some flame-broiled red meat,” Emil muttered from somewhere in the darkness.

“Well, that put a pleasant image in my mind,” Delano replied.

Hoping for the exact same thing as Emil, I went down on my knees and inched through. “Hold on,” I told them. There was more mist, so thick it was like the clouds had descended to the ground. I reached out tentatively, and the magic scattered and thinned as bright sunlight penetrated what remained of the fog. Squinting at the sudden light after being in the dark for so long, I slid out, my knees and hands skimming from stone to sandy, loose dirt.

One hand going to the blade at my chest, and the other to the wolven dagger on my thigh, I stood and took a step forward.

The ground trembled faintly under my feet. I froze, looking down to see tiny rocks and clumps of sand and dirt shiver. After a heartbeat, the trembling ceased, and I lifted my gaze. The mist had completely disappeared, and I was able to take my first look at Iliseeum.

My lips parted as my hands fell away from my daggers. The sky was a shade of blue that reminded me of the wolven’s eyes, pale and wintry, but the air was warm and smelled of lilacs. My gaze swept over the landscape. “Gods,” I whispered, lifting my chin as my gaze crawled up and up the massive statues carved out of what I assumed was shadowstone. They were as tall as the ones I’d seen in Evaemon, those that had appeared to scrape the sky, and there had to be hundreds of them standing in line, continuing on to the left and right as far as I could see. Maybe even thousands.