The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

this entire time that Queen Ileana was…that she was Isbeth.
Just then, the Blood Queen tore down the curtain, letting
bright sunlight flow in through the window. The knights
scattered back from where the sunlight crept across the
floor. Ian moved quickly, avoiding contact, but she…
She stood in the flood of sunlight, the crown and the
jewels at her throat, wrists, and waist twinkling. She did not
begin screaming in pain, twisting in agony or decaying.
Nothing happened.
Just like nothing had happened when I walked into the
sunlight.
I stared at her, my chest rising and falling. “What…what
are you?”
“I’ve been many things in my life. A daughter. A friend.
A whore. A mistress.”
“That’s a hell of a list to be proud of,” Casteel growled
as I saw Naill grip the back of a chair as he shook his head.
“The mistress of King Malec. Congratulations.”
“Malec?” She smirked at him as the guards shifted in
closer, replacing the knights who now stood in the shadowy
alcoves. “I was his mistress. I loved him. I still do. That is no
lie. And then your mother had to go and ruin him. But, no. I
am no longer the mistress of any man—mortal or god.”
“God?” I coughed out. “Malec was—”
“A god,” Isbeth cut me off. “He was Nyktos’s son, and
Nyktos is no normal god. He is a Primal, something far older
and more powerful,” she said, and I knew that part to be
true. “Any that carry his blood would be a god. But Eloana
never knew that, did she? I did. I knew exactly who and
what he was. A deity cannot make a vampry, and neither
can a god.”
Casteel’s hand slipped away from me. “You lie.”
“Why would I lie about that?” She shook her head as
she followed the trail of light to the steps. “Malec was a
god.”