The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

My breath caught as my gaze held Kieran’s and then
shifted to Casteel. The center of my chest hummed. A
heartbeat passed, and then I looked at the closed doors. It
was okay to be nervous. Who wouldn’t be in my situation?
But I wasn’t afraid.
Because they were right.
I was brave.
I was fearless.
And I ran from no one and nothing—and that included a
crown.
My gaze flickered over the wolven, stopping on Vonetta.
Exhaling slowly, I nodded. We turned to the doors as they
opened to an area lit by the sun coming from the dome’s
glass sides.
Rows of semicircular benches sat on either side of the
aisle, offering enough seating for what had to be several
thousand—possibly more. Above, a balcony area where
even more people could attend jutted out, and under them
stood ten statues of the gods, five on each side. They held
unlit torches against their black stone chests. Ahead of us,
the statue of who I could only assume was Nyktos stood in
the center of the dais. Beyond him was another set of doors
as large as the ones we’d entered through, where guards
stood now. I recognized Hisa. The thrones sat before the
statue of Nyktos.
They were both made of pearlescent shadowstone,
streaked with thick veins of gold. Their shape fascinated me.
The backs were circular and spiked, shaped like the sun and
its rays, and at the center of the top, carved out of the same
stone, was a sword and arrow crossing each other.
The current Queen and King of Atlantia stood beside
their thrones, and as their son and I walked forward with the
wolven trailing and spreading out among the rows of
benches, I realized that both wore their crowns.
The crown upon the King’s head was twisted, bleached
bone, but the one that sat upon the Queen’s head was