“I don’t know why you look so excited,” Kieran remarked. “The draken were a notoriously…unfriendly bloodline, with temperaments that would make yours look like a small, cuddly animal’s.”

I lifted my right hand and extended my middle finger. He smirked. “But I have the blood of Nyktos in me,” I pointed out.

“And they can also breathe fire.” Kieran tipped his glass at me. “So, let’s hope none of us pisses them off.”

Chapter 39

The following morning, I stood in the foyer of the Temple of Nyktos beside Casteel, fiddling with the chest strap I’d found among Casteel’s weapons. I’d also helped myself to the iron dagger I’d found in the depths of the chest, and it was now secured to my harness. The bloodstone dagger was strapped to my thigh. Neither of us wore the crowns, having left them in the bedchamber. We stood with Kieran and his sister, Emil, and Delano. Naill was sitting this one out, opting to spend time with his father. As I watched Delano adjust the strap holding his swords to his sides, I hoped he’d found time to let Perry know that he had returned to the capital.

“Kieran and I are pretty confident that the tunnel that leads to the mountains is the one underneath,” Casteel said. “It’s a narrow one with nothing really exciting.”

By really exciting, I assumed he meant the lilac-filled cavern.

“You guys did really weird things as kids.” Vonetta stood between her brother and Emil, her arms crossed. Two short swords were secured at her hips. She’d swept her long braids back from her face, and they hung down her back. “Just thought I’d share that.”

I grinned.

“I didn’t even know there were tunnels.” Emil glanced at the jet-black floors.

“There are.” Hisa strode forward, two guards flanking her. “They’re accessed by the crypts.”

Crypts.

I shuddered.

“Sorry.” Casteel gently squeezed the back of my neck. “The good news is that it’s nothing like what you were kept in.”

“It’s okay,” I told him, and it would be. It wasn’t like we’d be spending any amount of time in them.

Carrying a heavy ring of keys, Hisa continued toward a narrow door. Turning the key as she twisted the handle, the door creaked open.

Faint light lit our way down a staircase that made awful sounds under our weight. The temperature dropped at least five degrees with each step, and the familiar musky scent turned my stomach.

Hisa proceeded forward, passing several stone tombs. Casteel stuck close to me, his hand slipping to my shoulder. He was right. The crypt was clean and well-kept, flower garlands piled on the lids of the tombs.

“Are you sure about this?” Hisa had stopped in front of another door as she thumbed through the keys.

“We are,” I answered.

She nodded and then proceeded to unlock the second door. “These tunnels were once used to move goods from different areas of the city, and then they were solely used to transport the dead,” she told us, and Emil’s lip curled. “But they haven’t been accessed in several decades. I have no idea what kind of shape they’re in.