The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

“Yeah.” I nodded while Casteel appeared to do his best
not to burst into laughter. “That so wasn’t where we were
going with that, and by the way, the Joining isn’t necessary,
right? I’m a deity. I have an incomprehensible lifespan now.”
“Well,” Casteel drew out the word.
I looked over at him, and then it struck me—what I’d
worried about when I first learned that I could be immortal
or the closest thing to it. “I’ll outlive you, won’t I?”
“Deities have double the lifespan of Atlantians, maybe
even longer if they take the deep sleep,” Casteel explained.
I didn’t feel a single ounce of worry coming from him while I
was five seconds away from throwing myself onto the floor.
“But we have a very long time before we have to stress over
that.”
“I’m stressing over it now.”
“Obviously,” stated Kieran. “I’m bonded to you—all the
wolven are. Not in the same way the bonds worked with the
elemental lines, but a wolven would still be the connecting
piece that fuses two lifelines together.” He frowned. “Or
three, I suppose. It’s just your life that his would be bonded
to.”
I stared at him.
“Anyway, it could be any wolven.” Kieran shrugged.
I continued staring at him.
“Okay. That’s good to know.” Casteel patted my
shoulder, and I sat down on the thick, black cushion of a
chair. “But that really wasn’t what we wanted to discuss
with you.”
“No shit,” Kieran said.
Blinking, I shook my head. We were about to ask him to
be our advisor. Tomorrow, we would travel to Iliseeum and
then into Solis. I so did not need to think about any of that
right now.
“We wanted to ask if you would do us the honor of being
the Advisor to the Crown,” Casteel began. “I had this whole
speech planned in my head about how you have been a