The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

“You all are staring at diamonds,” Kieran stated, his
wariness pressing against my skin. “Meanwhile, I’m just
waiting for you all to realize what this giant-ass statue is.”
I looked at what Kieran stared at, and my stomach
dropped. The mounds I’d seen from the top of the hill
weren’t several small statues but one very large one of…of
what appeared to be a slumbering dragon at the steps of
the Temple, just off to the right. It looked like the sketches
I’d seen in books containing fables, except its neck wasn’t
nearly as long, and even with the wings carved to be tucked
against the body, it was so much bigger.
“Whoa,” Vonetta murmured as we neared the statue
and the steps of the Temple.
“Let’s take slow steps,” Casteel advised. “If this is
Nyktos’s resting place, his guards may be nearby—and not
stone ones.”
Draken.
“If this thing comes to life, I am out of here,” Emil
grumbled. “You will never see an Atlantian run faster.”
A wry grin tugged at my lips as I slowly approached the
statue, marveling at the sculpture. From the nostrils to the
frill of spikes around the beast’s head, to the claws and the
horns on the tips of its wings, every intricate detail had
been captured. How long would it have taken someone to
carve something this large? I reached out, running my
fingers over the side of the face. The stone was rough and
bumpy, surprisingly—
“Poppy.” Casteel snagged my wrist. “The whole proceedwith-caution
thing also included not randomly touching
things.” Lifting my hand to his mouth, he pressed a kiss to
my fingers. “Okay?”
I nodded, letting him guide me away. “The stone was
really warm, though. Isn’t that kind of—”
A crack of thunder sounded, reverberating through the
valley. I looked down, half-expecting the ground to open up.