The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

never spoken. A lie that became a reality after hundreds of
years. Only Valyn and Alastir knew the truth.”
Alastir.
Of course.
“And their son?” I said. “What did you do with Isbeth and
Malec’s son? Did you have him killed? Was it Alastir who
carried it out?”
Pressing her lips together, she looked up at the ceiling.
“Alastir did. He knew of the child before I even did. Valyn
doesn’t know about the child at all.”
I stared at her. “Is that why you didn’t want to go to
war? Because doing so would mean that Ileana’s real
identity would be revealed, along with everything else?”
“Partly,” she admitted as she wiped the heels of her
hands under her eyes. “But also because I didn’t want to
see more Atlantians and mortals die.” She lowered
trembling hands. “Malik is…is well and—” She cleared her
throat. “He’s with her?”
“He appeared well, and he supports the Blood Crown.
That is all I know,” I told her, sinking farther into the chair. I
didn’t know how much of what she said was the truth now,
but I did know that the agony I felt from her hadn’t just been
sorrow. I recognized that the agony was partly shame now,
something she’d carried for hundreds of years and would
continue to shoulder. To be honest, I didn’t know what I
would’ve done if I had been in her place. The war between
her and Isbeth had started long before the first vampry had
been created, and it’d never ended. “Malec wasn’t a deity.”
“I…I can see that.” She sniffed. “I mean, I saw that
when you showed Gregori what you were. But I don’t
understand. Malec —”
“He lied to you,” I said, spreading my hands along the
arms of the chair. “I don’t know why, but he is one of
Nyktos’s sons. He’s a god.”
Her surprise couldn’t be fabricated, and it cooled some
of my anger. “I didn’t know—”