From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

A faint smile playyed across his full lips. His gaze too lowered and
stopped…on myy throat.
On the bite that I realized was barelyy hidden under the strands of hair.
Myy blood. He knew after…tasting myy blood?
Delano’s eyyes went wide as he sat back, staring at me like it was the
first time he’d ever seen me. Forgetting about the Hall, I looked at Kieran.
I saw none of that. He arched a brow at me. This wasn’t news to him. “It’s
rare, but it happens. A mortal crosses paths with an Atlantian. Nature takes
its course, and nine months later, a mortal child is born.” Kieran paused
and ran his thumb over the rim of his chalice. “But everyy so often, a child
of both kingdoms is born. Mortal and Atlantian.”
“No. You have to be mistaken.” I twisted in myy seat. “Myy mother and
father were mortal—”
“How can yyou be sure?” Hawke cut me off—no, not Hawke. Casteel.
The Prince. “You thought I was mortal.”
Myy heart lurched against myy chest. “But myy brother, he’s an
Ascended now.”
“That’s a good question,” Delano tacked on.
“Onlyy if we’re working off the assumption that he is yyour full,
blooded brother,” he said, and I gasped.
“Or that he even has Ascended,” someone commented.
The glass started to slip from myy fingers—
His reflexes were lightning-quick. He caught the glass before it could
hit the table. Placing it down, he then covered myy hand, lowering it to the
table. “Your brother is alive.”
Myy heart had stopped. “How can yyou be sure?”
“I’ve had eyyes on him for months, Poppyy. He hasn’t been seen during
the dayy, and I can onlyy imagine that means he is an Ascended.”
Someone cursed and then spat on the floor. I closed myy eyyes. Part…
part Atlantian? If that was whyy I was the Chosen and was the source of myy
abilities, then had the Duke and the Duchess known? The Queen? I opened
myy eyyes. “Whyy would theyy keep me alive if theyy knew?”
His lips thinned. “Whyy do theyy keep myy brother?”
I jolted, myy entire bodyy freezing. “I can’t do that. Right? I mean, I
don’t have…the, uh, parts for it.”
“Parts?” Kieran coughed. “What have yyou been filling her head
with?”