The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and Ash 3)

The statues were of women, their heads lowered. Each hand held a stone sword that jutted forward. The stone women had wings sprouting from their backs, splayed wide, each touching the wings of the ones standing on either side of them. They formed a chain of sorts, blocking whatever resided beyond. You could only pass through under the wings.

They were beautiful.

“Poppy?” Casteel’s voice neared the opening. “You okay out there?”

“Yeah. Sorry.” I cleared my throat. “It’s safe.”

Within a handful of moments, Casteel and the rest made their way out, coming to stand beside me in silence. They all stared at the statues, their wonder bubbly and sugary.

“Are they supposed to represent the draken?” I asked.

“I don’t know.” Casteel’s hand touched my lower back. “They’re stunning, though.”

They truly were. “I guess we walk ahead and see if what they’re guarding is what we’re looking for.”

We started to cross the barren land, searching for any signs of life. There was nothing. No sound. Not even a breeze or the distant call of a bird.

“This is kind of creepy,” I murmured, looking around. “The silence.”

“Agreed. Perhaps this should be called the Land of the Dead,” Delano said as he walked under the shadowed wing of a stone woman.

A faint tremble stirred the ground under our feet. Casteel threw out a hand. We all stopped. “This happened before,” I told them. “It stopped—”

The ground erupted in several geysers all around us, sending clouds of dirt into the air and spewing small rocks in every direction.

“I’m assuming that didn’t happen last time,” Vonetta remarked.

“Nope.” I threw up a hand as clumps of dirt pelted my face and arm, and the ground burst open between Casteel and me.

Another funnel of dirt exploded directly in front of Emil, forcing him back several steps. He coughed. “That was rude.”

The ground steadied as the dust and dirt fell back to the earth. “Is everyone still with us?” Delano asked, wiping at his face.

We were.

“Careful.” Casteel knelt near the opening between us. “This is one hell of a hole.” He looked up, meeting my gaze and then Kieran’s. He rose slowly. “I have a feeling we may have triggered something.”

“Triggered what?” Emil asked, peering over the edge, squinting. “Wait.” His head tilted to the side. “I think I—holy shit!” Jumping back, he stumbled over his feet, catching himself a second before he landed on his ass.

“What?” Vonetta demanded, reaching for her swords. “Details. They would be helpful at the—”

Between Casteel and I, the bleached bones of a hand appeared, fingers digging into the loose soil.

“What in the world of nightmare fuel is this?” Casteel muttered.

Those fingers were connected to an arm—an arm that was nothing more than a skeleton. The top of a skull appeared. My eyes widened in horror. Dirt poured out of empty eye sockets.

“Skeletons!” Vonetta shouted, unsheathing her swords. “Couldn’t you have said that you saw skeletons in the hole?”

Casteel cursed as another bony hand appeared, this one clutching a sword in its grip.

“Armed skeletons!” Vonetta yelled. “Couldn’t you have said you saw armed skeletons in the hole?”

“Sorry.” Emil unhooked his swords. “I was kind of taken aback by the sight of fully functional, fucking skeletons with weapons. My apologies.”

I stared at the sword—the blade was as black as the statues. The same kind of blades I’d seen in the crypts with the deities. “Shadowstone.” An image of my mother flashed before me, of her pulling a slender, black blade from her boot. “Their blades are like the one my mother had. That had to be a real memory.”

“Poppy, I’m glad you know it was real.” Casteel withdrew his swords. “But we should probably discuss that later, like when we’re not facing an army of the dead?”

“Question,” Delano called out, blade in hand as the top of a skull appeared from the hole nearest him. “How exactly does one kill what is presumably already dead?”

“Like super dead,” Vonetta clarified as the one before her was now halfway out of the hole, a ragged, dull brown tunic draped over the skeleton’s shoulder. Through the torn clothing, I saw a twisted mass of dirt beat behind its ribs.

Casteel moved as fast as bottled lightning, thrusting his sword into the chest of the skeleton and piercing the lump of dirt. The skeleton shattered, sword and all, breaking apart into dust. “Like that?”

“Oh,” Vonetta replied. “All right, then.”

I turned as Kieran shoved his sword into the chest of one. There were about a dozen holes behind us—a dozen skeleton guards halfway out of the ground. Another image filled my mind, one not of my mother but of a woman with silvery-white hair—the one I’d seen in my mind while I stood in the Chambers of Nyktos. She’d slammed her hands into the dirt, and the ground had cracked open, bone fingers digging their way out.