The Ascended moved at once. All of them. I’d frozen, but Delano moved forward, hand on his sword as if he believed they might attack.

  They didn’t.

  All of them lowered to one knee on the floor as they bowed their heads and placed one hand to their chest and the other on the thick carpet.

  I continued to stare.

  “This is…unexpected,” Casteel murmured.

  “I told them it wasn’t necessary,” Emil announced. “That it would probably just make things awkward. But here we are. No one listens to me.”

  Delano’s head tipped as he pinned a look on the Atlantian.

  Malik stepped to the side. “Allow me to introduce you. This is Queen Penellaphe, as I’m sure you’re all aware.” I jolted at hearing myself addressed as such—I would never get used to that. Malik turned to Casteel. “And this is my brother, Casteel. The King.”

  Several of the Ascended trembled when Casteel stepped forward and lowered his hood.

  “This is Mira,” Malik said, nodding at the woman with the book and the dark curls. “The blonde is Raina.” The woman who had been playing cards lifted a hand in acknowledgment. “Beside her is Regis,” he continued, referencing the male Emil had been speaking to. “The other two men are Everett and Wesley. And…” Malik leaned forward, looking toward the back of the chamber, where a broad-shouldered male with deep-brown hair knelt. “That is Heath.”

  “Your Majesties,” Mira spoke, drawing her gaze back to mine. Her head was still bowed. “It is an honor to meet you.”

  Slowly, Casteel looked at me.

  I shook my head. If he was at a loss, I had no idea where he expected me to be. “Um…thanks?” I said and immediately cringed. I gave my head another shake and managed to pull myself together. “I’m sorry, but why is it an honor for you to meet us?”

  Dark curls toppled over shoulders adorned in a simple sweater as the Ascended lifted her head. “We may be Ascended, but you are a god. It’s an honor.” She paused. “Especially since none of us thought we’d ever see one.”

  Several heads nodded.

  I supposed that made sense.

  “You may rise,” Casteel said, his features unreadable as the Ascended obeyed.

  They stood before us as silence filled the chamber. Finally, Mira spoke again. “Thank you for coming to see us.” She clasped her book to her stomach. “We wanted to thank you.”

  “All of you,” the dark-haired Regis added, his olive-toned skin lacking the typical warm, golden undertones found in it.

  I stiffened. “For what?”

  “For taking the capital,” he said.

  “And killing the Blood Queen?” Casteel questioned.

  “Especially that.” Raina nodded.

  My brows lifted in surprise. “You’re…happy about that?”

  “Yes,” Everett answered with an eager nod. “Extremely.”

  I was sure I’d fall over if even a gentle breeze flowed into the chamber. It took several moments for me to collect my thoughts. “Can you tell us why you’re not bothered, Mira?”

  She glanced at Malik, and he nodded. She seemed just as nervous as Helenea had been. She cleared her throat. “At one time, I would’ve been saddened to learn of her demise—all of us would’ve been.” There were several nods of agreement. “But that was before we learned what the Blessing truly was. And that we had been lied to.”

  “And exactly when did you all come to this realization?” Casteel asked, crossing his arms.

  “None of those given over in the Rites—not the second or third sons and daughters—know the truth,” I reminded Casteel. “They only learn after the Rite.”

  “Oh, I know,” he replied.

  “I wish I could say it changed the very night of our Rites,” Mira said, glancing at the others, “and that we were…smart enough to realize then that we were being lied to when no god appeared before us.”

  A twisted, brittle smile formed on Regis’s face as he picked up the conversation. “Instead, what awaited us was confusion, pain, and death. And…this.” He extended his arms. “A life where the only sun we will ever look upon is the one I painted.”

  My gaze went to one of the faux windows. A sun shone brightly beyond the oak limbs.

  “They didn’t tell you what was about to happen?” Delano asked.

  Raina shook her head. “They hardly said anything at all.”

  “One would think the absence of gods would be all it would take,” Casteel said dryly. “That should’ve been all you needed to know to realize you were being lied to.”

  “You’re right,” Wesley admitted. The brown-haired Ascended looked the youngest of all of them, likely only eighteen or so when he Ascended. “We should’ve listened to our suspicions, but…” His features pinched. “But if I’m honest…”

  “That would be nice,” Casteel replied.

  Wesley’s pitch-black eyes lowered. “We were cowards, Your Majesty.”

  A tight, barely-there smile crossed Casteel’s features. I stepped forward. “How old were you when you had your Rite?”

  “Nineteen, Your Majesty.”

  Suspicions confirmed, I inhaled sharply. “You were not a coward, Wesley. You were young.”

  “I was your age, Your Majesty.” He lifted his head. “You are young, but you were able to confront the truth.”

  “I had help,” I said, feeling Casteel’s stare. “When did you all realize you had been lied to?”

  “Many small things built upon one another,” Regis said, his gaze moving to mine. “Inconsistencies that didn’t add up.” He took a shallow breath. “It slowly became clear that everything we had been told about the Ascended wasn’t true. Like the choice not to walk in the sun. As you know, we were told it was a choice made with respect to the gods, but it quickly became clear that was not the reason. There were also other things we weren’t warned about—”

  “Like what?” Casteel interjected.

  “Bloodlust,” Everett said, swallowing. “We were never told we would need to…feed.” His voice quivered slightly, and the skin around his pale-pink lips tightened. “Nor about the hunger that comes with that.”

  That’s true, I reminded Casteel through the notam. He didn’t respond, just dispassionately swept his gaze over the Ascended.

  “It was…difficult to acknowledge that we’d been turned into”—blond hair slipped over Raina’s shoulders in loose waves as she dipped her head—“something so frighteningly similar to the monsters we’d feared our entire lives.”

  “The Craven,” I surmised.

  She closed her eyes with a brief nod. “We are nothing like those who took us.”

  Her expression was sad. I wanted to believe her, almost desperately. My gaze moved to where the other male Ascended stood, quiet and listening.

  Casteel exhaled slowly. “So, when exactly did you admit the truth to yourselves?”

  “I can tell you the exact moment for all of us,” Mira uttered, her already quiet voice becoming nearly fragile. “The following Rite for each of us, when we were allowed to re-enter the Temple of Perus,” she said, speaking of the crimson-stoned Temple hidden away in the Elysium Peaks. “And we saw what…what had become of the third sons and daughters.”

  My chest tightened. Images of what we’d found beneath the Temple of Theon rose. The bloodstains. The bones, some of them small. I had never stepped foot inside the Temple of Perus—a Temple dedicated to a god that never was—but I suspected that whatever they had seen in there mirrored what we’d found beneath the one in Oak Ambler.

  Casteel frowned and glanced toward Emil. “The Temple of Perus was searched, was it not?”

  He nodded. “We found nothing abnormal.”

  “What you would be looking for would be gone by now,” Regis advised. “The…tombs where they kept them were in a maze of tunnels. I doubt any of us could find them again.”

  Them.

  Babes. Children. Eather hummed in the center of my chest, and Delano stepped closer to me.

  Casteel’s head turned to Malik. “Can you find the tombs?”

  He shook his head. “I was aware of them but never allowed to enter.”

  Static danced across my fingers, causing several of the Ascended to shift back a step. Except for the silent one. His brows rose, and his alabaster face was marked with curiosity. “Is it possible the tombs are still…occupied?”

  “Not after the last Rite,” Mira said. I barely breathed around the throbbing in the center of my chest. “We were not involved in it but…heard what occurred.”

  I already knew, but I needed to hear it. “What did you hear?”

  “Apparently, orders were given to…fill the tithes with crimson,” Mira said, her voice thin and strained.

  The breath I took burned its way into my lungs, and I took a nearly involuntary step back.

  “The stockpiles,” Casteel bit out. “That’s how they were able to hoard so much blood?”

  Mira’s gaze lowered as she nodded.

  “We only heard about it after it was done,” Helenea said, speaking for the first time since we’d entered. She swallowed thickly. “The stockpiles consisted of more than just Atlantian blood. It was also taken from the third sons—” Her voice caught as her sharp, icy sorrow pierced my shields. “And daughters.”

  “All of them?” I asked. She nodded. “Was one of them your sibling?”

  “Yes.” Helenea’s shoulders stiffened, but her lips quivered. “My sister.”

  The essence tightened in my chest. “I’m sorry.”

  She lowered her gaze. “Thank you.”

  “What about your second-born sister?” Casteel asked.

  “She Ascended,” Helenea said. That was all she said.

  I assumed she wasn’t here, or she would’ve been introduced as such. “Who gave the order? The Blood Queen?”

  “No. The Hawleys,” Wesley forced out through a tight jaw. “Lord Edmund and Lady Laural Hawley did. They were close to the former Queen and often handled portions of the Rites.”

  My fingers twitched. “Are they still among us?”

  Casteel’s nostrils flared. “They are.”

  “It’s a damn shame they still breathe this air,” Wesley muttered.

  “Are you familiar with them?” I asked Casteel.

  Anger radiated from him in icy waves. “They have requested an audience multiple times.”

  “They will be getting that audience shortly,” I said, returning my gaze to Wesley. “And they will not be breathing this air for much longer.”

  One side of the Ascended’s lips curled up. “Then I must thank you again.”

  “Wesley once served in their home,” Malik explained.

  That was all I needed to hear to understand Wesley’s comments.

  “You said you did not partake in the last Rite,” Casteel said, his gaze narrowing on Mira. “I was under the impression it was required.”

  “It is, but we did not attend,” she answered, her chin lifting. “We will never step foot in that Temple—or any of the Temples—again.”

  “Really?” Casteel’s tone was as dry as my throat.

  “Yes,” she answered. “The Temple does not spark memories of joy. Only terror and disgust.”

  “And the Blood Queen allowed your absence?” I asked as the eather calmed, allowing Delano to relax his stance.

  “Thanks to you,” she replied with a faint smile. “She was too distracted with what was happening throughout Solis to enforce attendance or dole out punishment for not being there.”

  My head cocked. “If she wasn’t too distracted…”

  “We would’ve been killed,” Regis stated. “Just as those before us were. And we accepted that.”

  I blinked. “Those before you?”

  “The other Ascended who refused to take part in the Rites,” Malik answered from where he leaned against the wall, his arms crossed much like his brother’s. “Or the…entertainment.”

  Casteel’s sneer was encased in ice. “How admirable.”

  “It was not admirable, Your Majesty.” Mira’s fingers tightened around her book. “It simply was.”

  He stared at her, unblinking, while my thoughts raced. Because of Ian, I had to believe that not all Ascended were the same. I’d hoped he was different—and that others were, too. The possibility that my hope wasn’t based on wishes alone left me feeling off-kilter.

  Mira cleared her throat. “We heard what you offered in Oak Ambler. That you were…willing to give us an option. Correct? We heard about your demands: to not take part in the Rites and to not feed on mortals unless they’re willing.”

  “How did you hear about that?” I asked.

  “Me,” Helenea said. “I heard about the offer through the Descenters there.”

  I stared at her. “I have so many questions for you. So many.”

  She swallowed again.

  “Are you still…willing to give us that choice?” Raina asked.

  I had been.

  “If you disagreed so resolutely with what was happening,” Delano said, his wintry eyes hard as he surveyed the group, “what did you do to stop them? Other than sit in here and play cards?”

  “That’s a good question,” Casteel tacked on.

  Malik started to speak, but I held up a hand. “It is a good question. One I want to hear them answer.”

  Mira looked confused as she tilted her head. “How could we do anything? They are far stronger than us. They would’ve snapped our necks before we could raise even a hand against them. Just like those of us who tried to intervene in the past.”

  “I’m not sure I understand,” I said as Casteel’s and Delano’s surprise washed over me. The lack of confusion from Emil and Malik was noticeable. “How are they stronger than you? I was under the impression that all Ascended shared the same level of strength.”

  Mira appeared even more baffled. “Your…brother? Ian?” she started, and I stiffened. “I apologize, Your Majesty,” she quickly added. “I’m sorry for your loss. Ian was…”

  “Magnificent,” the quiet male Ascended murmured, drawing my gaze.

  “What is your name again?” I asked. I wanted to know—needed to.

  “Heath,” he told me. “Heath Purcell.”

  “He spoke with you, right?” Mira pressed. “Ian?”

  I dragged my gaze from Heath. “Only briefly, and we were never alone.”

  Her face tightened. “I understand.”

  “What is it you understand?” My eyes shifted to Malik, my thoughts flashing to the home with no stockpile of blood. Had we been wrong in our assumptions? Hope threatened to swell. “That you appear to already know?”

  “I cannot answer for anything regarding Ian.” Malik’s brow furrowed. “I don’t think he entirely…trusted me.”

  “He didn’t distrust you,” Heath stated evenly, but his tone was thin around the edges. “He knew where your true loyalties lay and wouldn’t have risked drawing unnecessary attention to you.”

  Malik’s surprise mirrored mine. Clearly, Heath was well-acquainted with Ian. And, gods, so many questions rose then. It was hard for me to silence them, but it wasn’t yet time to give them a voice.

  Casteel’s hand pressed against my lower back. He’d moved closer without me realizing it. “Talk.”

  Mira nodded, her gaze returning to mine. The longer I stared at her, the more I realized that her eyes, while black and unending, weren’t nearly as cold as other Ascended’s. The hope grew. “We agree to your demands, Your Majesty. As we said before, we have no intention of taking part in any Rites. We have no desire to hurt mortals. Nor do we wish to serve a Crown that took us from our families and cursed us to this mockery of an existence.”

  “And…” I drew in a shallow breath. “Why should I trust that you speak the truth? That as soon as things settle, you won’t just go back on your promises?”

  “I can vouch for them,” Helenea said. “They—”

  I held up a hand. “No offense, but I do not know you, either, so that means nothing to me.” I lowered my hand and focused on the Ascended. “Again, I want to hear from you why we should trust what you claim.”

  “We are not like the Blood Queen nor the ones who call themselves Lords and Ladies,” Raina said. “We…we don’t behave as they do.”

  “As in?” Casteel prodded.

  “We don’t feed.”

  My heart skipped. “At all?”

  “How is that possible?” Delano demanded. “Don’t you need blood?”

  “Blood is a source of strength and energy, but it’s not necessary to exist. That is just another lie fostered by the Blood Crown,” she told us. “In reality, blood is just a…”

  “It’s an addiction. A high,” another said. Heath. The male who’d said Ian was magnificent. “A feeling of euphoria,” he continued. “Of living. But it’s not real. It’s just a taste of another’s life, and that one taste leads to the desire for more. It’s almost impossible to break, but it can be done. I did it. All of us have. Your brother did. And he was…he was so very young into his Ascension when he did. It takes most years to end the addiction.”

  “We may not age. We may be…killed in the same ways as others, but our strength? Our needs? They are those of a mortal,” Raina said. I suddenly felt as if I needed to sit down. “We are the Unbound,” she continued. “We do not feed on blood.”

  CHAPTER 42

  POPPY

  Casteel quietly stood beside me on the veranda as I stared at the wilted flowers in the urns, my mind replaying everything we’d just learned.

  Part of me couldn’t believe it. There were Ascended who didn’t feed.

  At least not on mortal blood.

  “We feed on wild blood—the blood of beasts,” Regis had explained. “Not often. Only when we feel the bloodlust upon us.”

  My mind immediately flashed to the birds we’d found in the other residence.

  “And what happens if you’re unable to do so?” Casteel had actually asked something important while I’d tried not to cringe, telling myself I ate all manner of meat. What they did wasn’t all that different.

  “Since we’re not trying to maintain the strength of the Ascended, we do not need to feed often. Usually, a few times a month,” Wesley had told us. “But when we cannot stop the bloodlust from coming upon us, the same thing that happens to the Ascended happens to us. We go mad.”