The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

Chapter 46
The shock that echoed through the room was
contagious.
“Yes, that Isbeth,” she continued, dragging her hand
down the length of the curtain. “I was King Malec’s lover—
his confidante, his friend, and his…his everything. And your
mother…” She looked over her shoulder at Casteel, her grip
on the curtain tightening. “She took that away. She
poisoned me with belladonna. Can you believe that? Tacky.”
Her lip curled. “If Malec hadn’t found me in time, I wouldn’t
be standing here, but he did. He just…knew something was
wrong.” She pressed her hand against her chest as she held
us all in suspended silence. “We were heartmates. He would
have done anything for me.”
Queen Ileana—no, if what she was saying was true,
Queen Isbeth tipped her head back. “He gave me his blood,
unsure of what would happen. He was just desperate and
refused to allow me to die.”
I thought of Casteel—what he’d done to save me.
“But he didn’t make me into a vampry. I wasn’t the first.
You see, deities aren’t like Atlantians. Their blood is far more
powerful than that.”
I looked at Casteel. “Is that true?”
“It is,” his brother answered. “When deities Ascend a
mortal, they do not become a vampry. They become
something without the pesky limitations the Ascended
have.”
Casteel let out a harsh breath, and I knew he was
thinking the same as I was. That his parents had to know