The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

Penellaphe. He was a deity—the most powerful one there
was. But he was still a man who became lost.”
My respect for her grew. It would’ve been all too easy
for her to paint him with one brush. I wouldn’t have blamed
her if she had. But she wanted me to know that there was
some goodness to the man. The breath I exhaled was a little
looser, easier. I appreciated what she did more than she
may realize.
But it also left me with another question. “You said you
hunted him down because—”
“Because he would have sought revenge against me.
Against Atlantia. When the Council demanded that he deal
with the mistress he Ascended, he felt betrayed by them.
And when I annulled the marriage, taking the throne with
the support of the Council, it compounded that feeling. He
couldn’t believe it. That he, a deity and descendant of
Nyktos, could be overruled.” She brushed a wisp of hair
back from her face. “And things had…greatly soured
between us by the end. He would’ve come back, and after
what he did, he was no longer fit to rule.”
“And you think Casteel will be fit?” I asked, even at the
risk of rehashing what I had shut down earlier. “He did the
same as Malec. He had no idea that I would not become a
vampry.”
Her gaze slid to mine as we passed lavender and vivid
red hibiscus bushes. “But I do not believe Casteel would’ve
attempted to take the throne if you had become one. I know
my son. He would’ve taken you and left, not risking your life
or Atlantia. Malec wanted Atlantia and his vampry mistress.
While the risk he took disturbs me, the situations are not the
same.”
She was right. The situations weren’t the same. And she
was also correct about what Casteel would’ve done.
Although if I had Ascended into a vampry, I imagined
that Casteel would’ve laid waste to quite a few people
before leaving.