The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

I lifted my left hand, showing her the glimmering
marriage imprint. “He is.” I swallowed hard. “But I’m sure
you understand that means very little at this point.”
She shuddered, and I didn’t know if it was from relief or
fear. A long moment passed. “Oh, gods,” she whispered on a
ragged breath, closing her hands over her face. Her
shoulders shook.
Forcing myself to sit back, I waited until she’d pulled
herself together…and she did, just like I knew she would. It
took a couple of minutes, but her shoulders stilled, and her
hands lowered. Puffy, glassy eyes stared out from behind
tear-soaked lashes. “It’s my fault.”
“No shit,” I snapped. At least, partially, it was. Because
I…I had lost control. I’d given Isbeth the opening she
needed.
She flinched. “I…I didn’t want people to know she’d
won.”
I stilled. Everything in me stilled. “What?”
“It was…it was my ego. There’s no other way for me to
say it. I loved Malec once upon a time. I thought the moon
and sun set and rose with him. And she wasn’t like the other
women. She sank her claws into him, and I knew…I knew he
loved her—loved her more than he loved me. I didn’t want
people to know that in the end, even with Malec entombed,
she didn’t just win, she became a Queen,” she admitted
hoarsely. “Became the Crown that forced us to remain
behind the Skotos Mountains, used our people to make
monsters, and took—took my children. I didn’t want Casteel
to know that the same woman who’d taken my first husband
was who’d held him and then his brother. She won in the
end, and…she’s still managing to tear my family and
kingdom apart.”
Now I was the one struck speechless.
“I was embarrassed,” she continued. “And I didn’t…I
know it’s no excuse. It just became something that was