11. Gold and Bone
Chapter eleven
Gold and Bone
Sol
Sol dreamed of flames so pure that they kissed the edges of the sky and sang in languages she couldn’t understand. She was in some battle, standing on the edge of a cliff, her body wrapped in armor that shimmered with ice.
Across from her stood a dragon, black and gold, magnificent and monstrous, with eyes like molten suns and wings that blotted out the sky.
Korin.
He lunged.
No!
She met him with her palms outstretched, releasing a blast of ice so sharp it cracked the ground beneath her. Power surged through her body.
She was not Lowly in this dream.
She was a force.
Still, Korin didn’t falter. He broke through her frost with one beat of his wings, barreling toward her. His roar was an earthquake. His eyes burned through her soul.
And then. . .his fangs descended to rip her body apart. Heat wrapped around her neck. She couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. The last thing she saw was fire reflected in her own eyes.
She screamed.
No!!!
Sol jolted awake, breath ragged and shallow.
Gone was the dream, but even more, gone was the sky.
Gone was the wind.
Gone was the dizzying height of flight and the shimmering stars.
Gone was the ocean.
We’re not flying anymore.
She blinked.
We landed, but where are we now?
Underneath her she felt. . .warmth.
Softness.
Fur.
She looked down and realized that she lay curled atop a small hill of thick, luxurious animal pelts from black bears, tigers, white foxes, and others she didn’t have names for.
The textures were impossibly soft beneath her body.
Each movement of her limbs sent small shivers of sensation across her skin.
What?
Bare skin.
She froze.
I am naked. Why?
She took herself in. Not a single stitch covered her body. Her breasts pressed against the furs. Her thighs were exposed to the cool air around her. She wasn’t even wearing her old panties and bra—worn thin and full of holes from being so overused.
When did he take my clothes off and why?
Heart pounding, she pushed herself up on shaky hands.
Where am I?
And then she saw it.
Oh. . .my. . .
Gold, silver, and bronze coins were everywhere—mounded in impossible heaps, stacked into jagged hills that reached the height of trees.
Rubies the size of apples glinted between heaps of diamonds. Emeralds glittered in the cracks between stuffed treasure chests. Pearls were scattered and placed into their own piles near sapphires and discarded jeweled goblets slung to the side.
Huge crowns rested atop detached skeletal heads. Their jeweled bands still clinging to power long after their wearers had rotted away.
Korin must have snatched their heads off their bodies.
Sol turned to the right.
Statues of solid gold stood guard. Their faces were carved into divine expressions of lust, wrath, and ecstasy.
Thrones—actual thrones—were half-buried in the glittering dunes. And on some, long-dead kings still sat with their robes blackened by fire and their bony fingers curled around scepters of diamonds, rubies, and even onyx. Most of the kings’ bones were yellowed and cracked.
The air was thick with the scent of ancient wealth. Iron from old blood, the faint perfume of rare woods, and the unmistakable metallic tang of treasure hoarded by a creature not bound by human lifespans.
Korin brought me to his lair. Why?
She inhaled the space some more. She easily caught Korin’s scent of stormwater and jasmine—wild, heady, and unmistakably him. But now something shifted. Just beneath that heat, a new note threaded in.
Black violet and roses.
Not fresh garden roses either. These were darker. Pressed. Preserved. The kind left on tombstones or tucked in forbidden love letters. The black violet was sharp and silken too, almost powdery, clinging to the back of her tongue like a memory she hadn’t lived yet.
Who smells like that? What is this other scent?
Her breath caught. The scent tugged at her—soft but insistent. Familiar, but not. It didn’t belong to Korin. But maybe it belonged to someone like him.
That doesn’t matter. I must figure out a way to escape.
Sol was surrounded by every type of wealth a dragon’s hoard could offer.
Her gaze rose to the jeweled walls, trailing upward for what must have been hundreds of feet. There were no windows or doors on the walls. Just rough, curved stone glinting with embedded rubies, diamonds, sapphires, pearls, etc.
And high, high above, where the walls narrowed to a jagged circle, there was an opening.
A hole in the sky.
The entrance.
Possibly. . .the only way in or out.
Perfect for a massive creature that could fly.
We’re in. . .some sort of. . .carved out. . .mountain? And Korin flew us in here.
Meanwhile, the glittering treasure all around wasn’t what made her body tremble. It wasn’t even the fact that she couldn’t see any windows or doors to get her to freedom.
It was the loud sound vibrating around her.
The snoring.
Deep.
Slow.
Steady.
Snoring.
Each inhale and exhale was a rolling tide of rumbling heat.
The space pulsed with it.
And against her back? She didn’t feel fur or treasure. All she could feel was smooth, warm scales.
He’s. . .right. . .behind me. . .
Her heart stopped for a second before booming back to a frantic rhythm.
She turned her head slowly as terror clawed up her throat.
Korin.
He lay beside her. A sleeping beast. His massive body was coiled protectively around her.
His golden-black scales shimmered. Korin’s eyes were closed and his wings were tucked behind him.
His chest rose and fell with that deep, rhythmic breathing while his nostrils flared gently with each exhale, releasing soft heat into the air and that loud explosive snoring.
His body stretched longer than a castle wall.
His tail curled around a mountain of gold.
Even asleep, threatening power radiated from him.
Dear God.
A whimper escaped her throat before she could catch it. She slapped a hand over her mouth.
Don’t wake him.
She moved back barely a breath’s worth of motion.
And his wing moved with her.
How did he feel me inch away?
In between his snoring, the wing lifted and folded over her body, cloaking her in darkness. The leathery underside brushed her bare skin with a deceptive gentleness that sent her heart racing.
She looked around at the treasure and then at him.
Am I his prisoner? Or am I his prize?
She trembled.
Another snore rumbled from his huge body.
Sol gulped down terror.
Every nerve in her body flared as she began to inch backward, slowly, carefully.
She slid one leg from beneath the leathery wing.
Then another. Her skin met the soft animal pelts again—warm, luxurious, almost obscene in their comfort.
Inch by inch, she moved, until the edge of his wing lifted on its own, reacting to her escape like a living, instinctual shield.
And thank God, this time that wing didn’t resist.
Instead, it let her go.
Alright. So close.
Only when she was fully free did she dare exhale.
Trembling, she reached for the thickest pelt she could find—a heavy black bear hide—and wrapped it around her naked body.
I have to find a way out of here.
She clutched the fur tighter to her. When she rose to her feet, the coins beneath her shifted and clanked.
She froze, praying that didn’t wake him.
Another loud, thunderous snore left Korin’s massive body.
Okay. He is still sleeping.
Watching him, she backed away until there was at least seven feet of space between her and Korin.
Then and only then did she turn around and tiptoe forward.
One step.
Two.
Three and four.
Five and six.
Treasure slipped along her bare feet.
Gold and silver.
Diamonds and pearls.
There must be another way to get out.
She continued forward and scanned the mountainous cavern again, seeing those impossibly high walls curved and embedded with rubies, diamonds, sapphires, and others stones she couldn’t name.
Could there be a hidden corridor behind a hill of gold? Or. . .maybe there is a crack in the walls that I can slip out. Please let it be.
For several minutes, she tiptoed away, moving slowly, winding through the dunes of treasure, and being careful not to disturb the skeletal crown balanced atop the blackened skull of a long-dead king.
I can find a way out. I know it.
Then. . .she realized something terrifying.
Hold on. . .
Sol stopped mid-step and remained still.
No more snoring. It’s. . .quiet. . .
The silence was sudden and complete, so unnatural it hollowed the air itself. No thunderous exhale. No warm gusts of air across the coins.
Only stillness.
Terrible, absolute stillness.
Her muscles locked.
Every instinct screamed to run.
No. No. No.
She slowly placed her foot on the ground and then turned her head. Afraid to look, but terrified not to.
And then. . .she saw him.
Korin.
The dragon hadn’t moved at all. He remained coiled beside the pile of furs, but his eyes were open and that golden gaze had targeted her.
Oh no.