New York Times Bestselling Mystery Author

PAIGE SHELTON

     We were ruled by, lived, and some even died by, the desert, a place where everything, plants and animals alike, wanted to kill you for your water. Now, as Calloway and I stood in the thick of it and as my eyes landed on something so familiar and foreign at the same time, it was impossible not to think that this place made of all those devils had won this round.

     However, what or whoever had placed the abomination amid the needles and sagebrush was human, no doubt, though made of evil, that was certain.

     At first glance, I realized that there was a chance that what I was seeing wasn’t real, not made of the genuine thing, but I was pretty sure it was and my stomach was airy, my tongue dry.

     “I need to get closer,” I said.  

     “Let’s go.”

     We closed most of the gap.  

     “Jesus,” I said.

     “Yeah.”

     “Is it real?”

     I let my eyes graze over the skeleton. “Yes, I think so. Look at the coarse texture, the foramina –”

     “Foramina?”

     I nodded. “The holes. So things like nerves and blood vessels can move from one area to the next. People who create fake bones don’t usually take the time to add the foramina.”

I’d worked with thousands of bones, but the stories they told could still bother me."I need to get even closer."