The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

“What about their heads?” Casteel asked. “Do they
regrow one of them?”
The Queen’s smile grew as she nodded.
“Impossible,” breathed Delano.
“Do you want me to show you?” she offered.
“No,” I said quickly, the Revenant’s desperation still an
echo in my soul. “That won’t be necessary.”
The Queen actually looked a little disappointed as Emil
rubbed his palm against the center of his chest. “That is…
that is an abomination to the gods.”
The Revenant said nothing, but the Queen did. “To
some, they are.”
And I thought of what Nyktos had said. He was right.
They were an abomination of life and death.
“How?” I forced out. “How are they created?”
“They aren’t simply created. They are born, the third
sons and daughters of two mortal parents. Not all carry
this…trait, but those who do remain unremarkable unless
discovered,” she said, and a sickening knowledge rolled
through me. The children given to the Rite. This is what
became of some of them. “The blood of a King or one
destined is needed to ensure that they reach their full
potential, but apparently…” She looked over at Prince Malik.
“I don’t have that anymore.”
Malik smiled apologetically.
“And, well, the rest isn’t all that important,” she stated.
“I have many of them, enough to become an army that you
have no hope of ever defeating.”
Ian…he hadn’t been exaggerating. How could one fight
an army that would just continuously rise after falling? Could
Nyktos’s guards even defeat them?
“So…” Queen Ileana drew the word out. “This is what
you would go to war against.” Her dark eyes settled on me.
“The War of Two Kings never ended,” she said. “There has
just been a strained truce. That is all. And now you must see