The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

“Your mother was a favorite of the counterfeit Queen,
but she was no Lady in Wait destined to Ascend. She was a
Handmaiden to the Queen.”
Handmaiden? Something about that struck a chord of
familiarity. Out of the churning chaos of my mind, I saw…
women who were always with the Queen. Women in black
who never spoke and wandered through the halls of the
palace like shadows. They…they’d scared me as a child. Yes.
I remembered that now. How had I forgotten about them?
“Her Handmaidens were her personal guards.” Alastir’s
brows knitted, and the scar on his forehead deepened.
“Casteel knows they were a unique sort of nightmare.”
I lifted a hand and froze. Casteel had been held by the
Queen for five decades, tortured and used by her and
others. He’d been freed before my mother was born, but his
brother took his place.
But my mother, my gentle, soft, and helpless mother
couldn’t have been like that. If she were one of the Queen’s
personal guards, nightmare or not, she would’ve been
trained to fight. She would’ve—
She would’ve been able to defend herself.
I didn’t understand. Didn’t know if any of that was true.
But I knew what was. “You,” I breathed, my entire being
turning numb as I stared at the man I’d befriended. That I’d
trusted. “It was you. You betrayed them, didn’t you?”
“It wasn’t me who struck down your father. It wasn’t me
who betrayed your mother,” he replied. “But in the end, it
doesn’t matter. I would’ve killed them anyway. I would’ve
killed you.”
A harsh laugh erupted from me as rage and disbelief
twisted my insides. “If it wasn’t you, then who was it? The
Craven?”
“There were Craven there that night. You carry their
scars. They were led right to the doors of the inn.” He didn’t
blink. Not once. “He led them there. The Dark One.”