The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

Through the soaring spikes of purple and blue flowers,
Kieran matched our movements through the garden as we
fell silent. If he was trying to be inconspicuous, he was
failing. Queen Eloana noted where my attention had gone.
“You will need to get used to someone always a few steps
away.”
My gaze shifted to her. “I had many shadows when I was
the Maiden.”
“And my son was one of them.” She stopped in front of a
towering shrub of pale pink blossoms that formed an arch
over a stone bench.
“He was.”
“Would you mind if we sat?” she asked. “I am far older
than I appear and haven’t gotten much sleep the last couple
of nights.”
Wondering exactly how old she was, I sat.
“I have a question for you,” she said once she was
seated beside me. “You and Casteel…” She drew in a short
breath, but I felt it. The punch of potent anguish as she
slowly exhaled. “You plan to find and free Malik?”
This was why she’d wanted to speak to me in private. I
started to respond when I stopped myself from lying—
because I didn’t have any reason to lie. Casteel and I were
no longer pretending to be in love to gain what we both
sought. We were in love, and that didn’t change what we
believed or wanted to achieve. However, as I focused on her
emotions, her anguish was a tangy, bitter taste in the back
of my throat, and I didn’t want to add to that.
But if I had any hope of fostering a relationship with
Casteel’s mother beyond a rather antagonistic one, I
couldn’t build it on a foundation of lies. “We do plan to find
and free Malik.”
“And that is why my son took you?” she asked, her
amber eyes bright—too bright. “In the beginning? He
kidnapped you?”