The Dragon's Tooth (Ashtown Burials, #1)

by N.D. Wilson

Cyrus slid his hand up to his neck. Antigone looked at her brother, eyes wide, and she shook her head. She knew what he was thinking. Nolan misunderstood Antigone’s look. “If you’re bothered by tight places, don’t worry, it opens up.” Cyrus gritted his teeth. What had Skelton said? Trust no one? Trust Nolan. He’d heard what he’d heard. “What if I did have them?” he asked. “Skelton’s keys. What then? What would I do with them?” “Mirror, mirror on the wall,” Antigone said, “who is the dumbest of them all?” She took two frustrated steps down into the vent and then dropped to the bottom. Nolan’s polished eyes locked into Cyrus’s. His breath was still oddly quick and short. His hands were twitching and his pulse fluttered visibly on the side of his neck. His lips quaked into a smile. “With you? Here? Now?” Cyrus sighed. “Maybe.” In the dining hall, in the library, and in the Galleria, Antigone’s voice rose up from the vents in the floor and poured out of the walls. “Oh, queen, ’tis true that you are dumb. But Cyrus Lawrence Smith is dumber than a pile of cow patties.”