Bonesmith Readalong: Day 5!

Amazing photo by @belladonnabooks!

Hello everyone!

Well, we got thrown a lot of plot twists and tense moments yesterday didn’t we? 

Happy Friday and welcome to day 5 of our readalong of Bonesmith by Nicki. Pau Preto. I’m so excited to see how this story ends, I hope you loved this book as much as I did!

Today we’re reading from chapter 36 to the end of of the book. Let’s do this!

When you’ve finished today’s section, catch up with me in the comments down below so we can discuss the beginning of the book. Happy reading!

Please be warned, the following section will include spoilers for Bonesmith by Nicki Pau Preto from Chapter 36 to the end of the book. Please only read on if you have finished this section!

-!SPOILERS!-

We begin todays chapter with our three characters observing the scene below of the Corpse Queen and the Regent. The woman appeared to be in a draped black veil which gave only the vaguest sense of a person beneath and atop of her head was a crown made of twisted broken bones.The Corpse Queen and the regent begin talking to which she asks where her ‘prize’ is and that she “cannot proceed without her”. “She is the only way.” And as we know from yesterday’s chapters, Wren was indeed the third target. So what does she want with Wren and why is she the only one she wants?

“It is her or it is no one.”

After hearing that Wren wasn’t acquired during the kidnapping the Corpse Queen and her revenants begin to leave and she informs the Regent that he will no longer be able to use her revenants until she is satisfied and has Wren. As she is walking away her gaze flicks up to meet Wrens own. Expecting her to shout that Wren is there she instead continues to walk and speaks to one of the revenants. The revenant then relays that same speech to Wren that of course only she can hear: “Come to me when you are ready to know more. Come to us. I know you feel it. Blood calls to blood and like to like.” What does this mean?! Could ‘blood calls to blood’ be referencing a family connection of some kind?!

In the following chapter we follow Wren, Julian and Leo making their escape from Caston and through the Haunted Territory, not encountering any undead. To test Wren’s seemingly heightened abilities Julian takes one of her blades and flings it somewhere into the trees to see if she is able to call it back at a far range. Not only could she sense the knife which was twenty feet away, she is also able to call it back to herself. Why have her abilities suddenly increased or have these new found abilities always been there without her ever realising? Did the strange bright light/magic in the Breach trigger something inside Wren or transfer some kind of power?

As they camp for the night Wren and Julian get in a heated discussion about where to go and where is safest. Julian argues that they cannot go to the Breachfort especially with Leo as they don’t know who is involved and Julian would be taken prisoner for obvious reasons. Wren then argues that it is the best place to go and they can get help dealing with the bigger issues at hand of the Iron Revenants, the regent and the Corpse Queen etc. But then Julian reveals that he and the kidnappers where tipped off by someone in the prince’s own retinue and thats how they knew where to be and when. Not able to come to an agreement they end up arguing and come to a stalemate regarding their destination.

The next day Wren and Leo go off together to wash up where Leo reveals to her that he knew about the kidnapping plot and about his cousins involvement in it from the letters he found. Between them they try to figure out suspects as to who was paying his cousin to set up the kidnapping. Wren and Leo then come to the conclusion that whoever is involved doesn’t know that they are aware of the plot and the best course of action is to go back to the Breachfort to try and figure it out and leave Julian behind where he will be safe. During the night Wren tries to tie Julian’s hands whilst he is sleeping so they can leave and he can’t follow. He wakes up during it and she distracts him by kissing him. Having successfully tied his hands to a beam she then goes to leave and their parting words are not the nice kind. Wren seeks comfort in knowing Julian will be safer this way and embarks on the journey back to the Breachfort with the prince.

As Wren and Leo approach the Breachfort they see some of the patrol guards. However some of them break off in search of anyone else and suddenly they come back with Julian. Somehow he had caught up to them and followed them there. He is disarmed and cuffed by the patrol guards. Suddenly Wren’s father Vance Graven appears and informs Wren that he came to the Breachfort immediately after hearing about her being missing; he is shocked to find her back and with the prince since he feared the worst had happened. After one of the guards identifies Julian as one of the attackers and an Ironsmith, Vance orders that they kill him at which point Wren steps in and tells her father that he is the heir of House Iron and that he helped rescue the prince. Julian is then taken to a cell and Vance takes Wren to his room to ask about what happened. She mentions the breach and he goes very still. She also tells him about the boy, the Iron armour and the well and it’s strange power. Eventually she shows him the ring she found and he examines it closely remarking that it does in fact have ghostsmith runes and keeps ahold of it whilst Wren is focused on her recently returned Ghostbane dagger.

Deciding she needs to find answers she sneaks out of her room in the night where she then bumps into her nemesis and cousin Inara, who it turns out is guarding her door as per Wren’s fathers instructions… Wren then realises that the guards outside her door had been there to keep her in not keep her safe, which meant whatever her father was up-to he didn’t want her knowing about it. She decides to go to Odile to try and seek answers however when she gets there Vance is already there. She hides in the storage room where she can still make them out, as well as eavesdrop. Wren learns that both Vance and Odile concealed what really happened during the uprising and that Locke was in fact responsible, and that a woman was also involved and helped Locke acquire the power he used to murder people on both sides of the war.

As Wren continues to listen to their conversation she finds out that the body where she found the ghostmsith ring in the Bonewood was there because Odile had sent them as a messenger to Vance a few years prior, and he had killed them and hidden their body along with the ring they carried. She then learns of a woman named Ravenna who turned out to be the last ghostsmith; her people had been living in secrecy for decades and they where the ones who had caused the breach when seeking out their lost city by diverting an Ironsmith mining tunnel. She had been the one to take them to the well of power. Later she then had given birth in the dungeons to a girl with bonesmith eyes and a sickly boy. She confessed Locke to be the father of the twins and gave instructions to give her daughter to the House of Bone and name her Wren, and give her the ring (which Vance hid) so she might know her heritage. Ravenna and the sickly boy had then rode off to the Haunted Territory and where never seen again.

Plot twist! Odile had sent Wren east of the wall on purpose as per Vance’s instructions meaning he was involved in the kidnapping plot from the very start! It turns out Vance had been apart of orchestrating the attack in order to ensure the future of House Bone, by creating an enemy east of the wall to keep their position in the dominions secure since the undead hadn’t been as prominent. Realising that Ravenna is the Corpse Queen and was involved in the same plot, Vance decides to use this to his advantage to try and obtain the same power Locke did from the well in the Breach whilst also making her his wife. However, Odile then reveals she has contacted the head of House Bone, Wren’s grandmother, who is on her way and will be informed about Vance’s plans and the current threat they face. Vance then murders Odile to which Wren is a witness without him knowing.

Once Vance leaves the room Wren rushes over to Odile and receives a bone key from her before she dies. The same key that she had previously used to take Wren into the lower most dungeons of the Breachfort where there is a secret escape route, as well as where Julian is being held. Moments later Graven, Galen and Commander Duncan appear and find Odile dead. Vance had somehow managed to frame Galen by using his knife to commit the murder and cover his own tracks. But the plot thickens further still when Wren learns just how far this betrayal goes. Vance had set Wren up from the start to end up at the Breachfort. He had instructed and helped Inara to make Wren fail the Bonewood trial and be sent there.

Wren goes to Leo’s rooms and tells him what happened to Odile and her fathers role in it, and they decided to free Julian and escape the Breachfort. Leo forges them a letter which manages to get them access to Julian. Inara suddenly decides to help them and stalls Vance on the level above. After dealing with the guards and finding out they don’t have the key to Julian’s cell, Julian takes his glove off his left hand where there are black lines across his hand like veins. Shards of Iron are imbedded in his skin. Julian then uses his left hand to crush the lock and escape from the cell. She apologises to him for betraying him as well as not revealing her lineage and tells him he was right and they need to leave now. Suddenly her father is stood in the doorway with half a dozen of his personal guard. Wren then informs him that she is leaving, she heard his conversation with Odile and that the well of power must be destroyed. She takes the ring back from Vance as he tilts his head to direct his guards to apprehend Leo and Julian. However, the moment Wren’s hand touched the ring she feels the well’s power stir within her, the ring being an amplifier. As a guard goes to grab Julian she looks at his arm and wills it to stop moving to which a sickening crack sounds. She had broken his arm with a new ability she didn’t know she possessed. As the rest of the guards approach she uses her magic to send all six of them slamming into the wall behind them.

They escape using Odile’s bone key and plan to destroy the well of power. Wren tells them that the Corpse Queen is her mother and the boy her brother. And they set off, back into the haunted territory.

Wow, what a story!

What did you think of Bonesmith by Nicki Pau Preto?
Did you guess any of the plot twists?
Any theories for book two?

As always, thank you so much for taking part in another FairyLoot readalong! We hope you had the best time and enjoyed the book – we’ll see you again soon for another!

Love,
Jodie