The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

Free from whatever hole it had literally crawled out of,
one of the skeleton soldiers rushed toward me, lifting its
sword. Slipping the dagger free from my chest harness, I
snapped forward, thrusting the blade into the mess of
throbbing dirt. The skeleton exploded as another took its
place. Behind it, another skeleton soldier lifted its sword.
Kicking out, I planted my boot in the soldier’s chest, pushing
it back into another. Casteel shot forward, stabbing his
sword into the dirt heart of the one closest to him. I spun,
slamming my dagger into the chest of the skeleton, wincing
as the blade nicked bone before hitting the heart.
“Cutting off the head does not work,” Emil shouted, and
I turned to see a…a headless skeleton tracking the
dumbfounded Atlantian. “I repeat. It does not work!”
Vonetta whirled, thrusting one sword through the chest
of a soldier, and her other blade through the headless
skeleton. “You,” she said to Emil, “are a mess.”
“And you are beautiful,” he replied with a grin.
The female wolven rolled her eyes as she spun, taking
down another as Emil shoved his sword into the chest of one
coming at him.
Casteel shoved a soldier back as he jabbed the sword
through its ribs. Behind him, a soldier raced toward him. I
shot past Casteel, stabbing the creature in the chest—
The ground trembled once more. New geysers of dirt
erupted, streaking into the air. “You have got to be kidding
me,” Kieran growled.
I spun around, heart thudding as…hundreds of eruptions
happened across the barren ground, from the side of the
Mountains of Nyktos, all the way to the stone women. These
soldiers were faster, tearing out of the holes in a matter of
heartbeats.
“Good gods.” Vonetta stumbled back into Emil. He
steadied her before they turned to stand back-to-back.
A skeleton soldier ran forward on bony feet, sword
raised. Its jaws unhinged, opening wide to reveal nothing