The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

happened to him or Isbeth. But how could he still be alive?
“It was a safe assumption,” Casteel’s mother said,
rising. “And that’s why it’s also impossible.”
I blinked once and then twice. “Come again?”
“It’s impossible that Malec sired a child nineteen years
ago.” The skirts of her gown snapped around her ankles as
Queen Eloana strode to the oak credenza, picking up a
decanter of amber liquid. “Are you sure none of you wants a
drink?”
Kieran looked like he needed one when he said, “I really
don’t understand what is happening.”
“After I had the marriage annulled, and Malec was
dethroned, he disappeared,” she said, pouring herself a
glass and placing the topper back on the decanter, her hand
remaining there as she stood with her back to us. “At that
time, I was otherwise occupied with the growing threat of
the Ascended, and the beginnings of the war, but it wasn’t
until some years later, after Valyn and I married and the War
of Two Kings ended, that I found him.” Her shoulders were
tense as she took a drink— a nice, long one.
“I knew I had to. If not, he would forever pose a risk to
not only Atlantia but also to the family I was trying to build. I
knew him.” She looked over her shoulder as she took
another drink. Her lips peeled back, revealing the tips of her
fangs. “He would have sought revenge for what I’d done. So,
I hunted him down, deep within Solis, and entombed him.”
“You...you used the bone chains?” I asked.
She gave a curt nod. “It is extremely difficult to kill a
deity. Some would say impossible without the aid of another
or a god,” she said, and I remembered what Alastir had said
about Malec. That he had killed many of the other deities.
Not only was my…father prone to chaotic violence and
was a habitual adulterer, he was also apparently a murderer.
But that was if he was my father. And that was
something Queen Eloana had yet to explain.