The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

“And what would be the point?” I asked, glancing at the
wolven. “It would only confirm what we already know to be
true.”
Kieran nodded after a moment.
“Why the blood tree?” I asked, looking over at Casteel’s
parents. “Why do they grow where my blood spills and
Malec is or was entombed? Why did they change in the
mountains?”
“The…the trees of Aios once bore crimson leaves,”
Queen Eloana answered. “When the deities ruled over
Atlantia. They changed to gold when Malec was dethroned.”
“And we think that when Casteel Ascended you, it
changed something in you. Perhaps…unlocking the rest of
your abilities or completing some kind of cycle,” Valyn
explained. “Either way, we believe the trees changed to
reflect that a deity was now in line for the throne.”
“So…they’re not a bad thing?” I asked.
A faint smile tugged at Queen Eloana’s lips as she shook
her head. “No. They have always represented the blood of
the gods.”
“And that is why I did not become an Ascended?
Because of the blood of the gods, or that I…I was never truly
mortal?”
“Because you were never truly mortal,” King Valyn
confirmed. “Who your mother is? What she is? She would’ve
had to be of elemental descent or of another bloodline,
perhaps one that died out as far as we knew. And she
would’ve had to be old—nearly as old as Malec.”
I nodded slowly, realizing that there was no way
Coralena was my birth mother unless she was somehow
fully aware and party to what the Ascended were doing. I
doubted that was the case, as I couldn’t see any Atlantian
being okay with that.
Or surviving long enough in the capital if the Blood
Crown had moved me away from there because I would’ve
been too much of a lure.