The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

Chapter 28
Shivers erupted over my skin as I stopped walking.
“What?”
The Queen of Atlantia faced me. “She is called the
Queen of Blood and Ash.”
Not only had I never heard that, it didn’t make sense to
me. “But the Descenters and Atlantians—”
“Use that phrase? We were not the first to do so, just
like the Descenters weren’t the first to wear those masks,”
she replied. “When the Blood Crown began their dynasty,
they called themselves the Queen and King of Blood and
Ash, referencing the power of blood and what remains after
destruction.”
“I…I didn’t know that,” I admitted.
“Those words—that title—are important to us because it
means that from the blood of those who have fallen at the
hands of the Ascended, and from the ash of all they have
destroyed, we will still rise.” She cocked her head to the
side. “To us, it says that despite what they tried to do to us,
we were not defeated. And because of it, we will rise again.”
I thought that over as the Queen began to walk again,
and I followed her. “Do the Ascended know that is why the
Descenters and Atlantians say that?”
A small smile appeared. “They do, and I’m also sure that
it bothers them greatly to know that we took their title and
made it mean something else.” The surge of gratification
coming from her made me grin. “It is why you have never
heard that title. I doubt many of the mortals alive or even
some of the Ascended have heard it. They stopped using it