The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

station guards in these tunnels just in case, especially since
the castle was breached in the past.”
“Yeah, but they didn’t know this would be how we came
in,” Kieran told him.
Delano had a point, but the Blood Crown rarely left the
capital as far as I knew. Would they have known of these
tunnels? Would whoever had been placed in the Royal Seat
have discovered them? I imagined they had because of how
easy it would be to bring people in or to…dispose of bodies.
Unease prickled my skin as we walked on, crossing
another set of short steps. My gaze swept down another
narrow hall that Casteel and Kieran passed, their attention
focused ahead. There was a chamber to the side, one lit
with several torches. I stopped suddenly, nearly causing
Delano to walk into me.
“What is…?” Surprise rocked him as he saw what I did.
“Holy shit.”
“What?” Casteel turned as I pivoted, heading for the
chamber. “What are you doing?”
“The cage—look at what’s in the cage in that room.” I
hurried forward, not quite believing what I saw.
In the center of the small room, a large gray feline
struggled to its feet behind bleached-white bars. A wicked
sense of deja vu filtered through me.
“Look,” I repeated, shaking my head. It couldn’t be the
same one, but… “This looks just like the cave cat I saw
when I was a child.”
“What the fuck?” muttered Kieran as he stopped at the
mouth of the chamber while Casteel strode toward me.
“That…really does look like a cave cat,” Casteel
murmured. The large cat now prowled restlessly, its muscles
tensing and bunching under its sleek coat as it peered out
from between the bars with vibrant green eyes. Intelligent
eyes. Knowing ones. “Why in the hell would they keep this
here?”