The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

Fury burned through my chest and my blood. “Like I told
Jansen, I only defended myself. I only defended Casteel and
Kieran and Jasper. I would—”
“You would never have done what you did unless you
believed that kind of reaction was warranted?” he
interrupted. “You were forced to use the power in your blood
against others?”
My chest rose and fell heavily. “Yes.”
“Long ago, when the gods of names long forgotten were
awake and coexisted with mortals, rules governed the
mortals’ actions. The gods acted as their protectors, aiding
them in times of crisis, and even granted favors to the most
faithful,” he said.
“I couldn’t care less about this history lesson if my very
life depended on it,” I fumed.
“But they also acted as the mortals’ judge, jury, and
executioner if the mortals’ actions were deemed offensive
or unwarranted,” Alastir continued as if I hadn’t spoken.
“The problem with that was that only the gods chose what
was and wasn’t a punishable act. Countless mortals died at
the hands of those gods for offenses as small as raising the
ire of a god. Eventually, the younger brethren rose against
those gods. But the tendency to react without thought, often
fueled by passion or other volatile, unpredictable emotions,
and to react with violence, was a trait even the gods fell
prey to—especially the eldest among them. It was why they
went to sleep.”
“Thanks for sharing,” I snapped. “But you still haven’t
explained why you betrayed the Prince. Why you used
Beckett to carry this out.”
“I did what I needed to because the gods’ violent trait
was passed onto their children,” he stated. “The deities
were even more chaotic in their thoughts and manners than
their predecessors. Some believed it was the mortal
influence, as the gods before them had coexisted with