The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

Casteel’s parents stared at me as if a third arm had
grown out of my forehead and waved at them. It was his
mother who snapped out of her stupor first. She cleared her
throat. “No. We don’t have prophecies.”
“But I’m kind of curious about this one,” King Valyn
murmured.
“It’s really dumb,” Kieran advised.
“It is.” I glanced at Casteel before continuing. “Do you
know if deities have to…if they need blood? I did when I first
woke up after Casteel gave me his blood, but I haven’t felt
a…hunger for it since then.”
King Valyn’s brows lifted. “As far as I know, deities didn’t
need to feed.” He looked at his wife, who nodded. “On the
other hand, I do remember reading something long ago
about gods needing to feed if they’d been wounded or
physically exerted themselves too much. Your need could’ve
stemmed from receiving so much Atlantian blood,” he said,
his brow furrowing. “That could’ve been a one-off thing or
something that becomes a necessity.”
Casteel smiled faintly as I nodded. The idea of drinking
blood was still a strange thing for me to consider, but I could
get used to it. I snuck a glance at Casteel. He would
definitely get used to it.
His mother’s gaze met mine. “Would you like to take a
walk? You and I?”
Casteel stiffened beside me, and inside me, my heart
turned over heavily. “I don’t know about that,” he said.
Sorrow spiked in his mother, bright and raw. “I only wish
to get to know my daughter-in-law. There is no nefarious
reason to the request, nor any other shocking news to
share.”
There wasn’t—at least, I didn’t sense hostility from her
or dread, only sadness and maybe the nutty flavor of
resolve. I wasn’t exactly sure I was prepared to be alone
with his mother. The mere idea made it feel like a hundred