“Good gods,” Kieran uttered, staring at the young woman on the floor. Her blood filled the crevices between the tiles, stretching toward us. “What was the point in that?”

“Patience,” Ileana said, taking a sip.

Casteel’s hand flattened against my back as my gaze darted from the Revenant to the Queen and then to Malik, whose gaze hadn’t once left the still body.

“What is…?” I forced out a ragged breath. “What is wrong with you?” I asked of the Queen as I stared at the woman, at the blood spreading under her hand—

A finger twitched.

I gasped, and Casteel leaned forward, his eyes narrowed. Another finger spasmed, and then the arm. A second passed, and her entire body moved, her back bowing as her mouth opened. Dragging in deep, gulping breaths, she pressed her hand over where the wound should be, where her heart had been pierced. She sat up, blinking, and then rose to her feet and looked at us with those lifeless eyes.

“Ta-da,” the Queen exclaimed with a snap of her fingers.

Kieran drew back. “What in the actual fuck?”

“The actual fuck you’re asking about is a Revenant,” the Queen replied. “They cannot easily be killed. You can stab them with bloodstone or any stone. Cut their throats. Set them on fire. Slice their limbs from their body, and let them bleed out, and they will come back whole.” She smiled almost warmly at the Revenant. “They always come back.”

They always come back.

I shuddered as I stared at the young woman, unable to process how that was even possible, because it wasn’t the same as healing someone or even snatching them from the grasp of death. I didn’t think my touch could… regrow severed limbs.

“What about their heads?” Casteel asked. “Do they regrow one of them?”

The Queen’s smile grew as she nodded.

“Impossible,” breathed Delano.

“Do you want me to show you?” she offered.

“No,” I said quickly, the Revenant’s desperation still an echo in my soul. “That won’t be necessary.”

The Queen actually looked a little disappointed as Emil rubbed his palm against the center of his chest. “That is…that is an abomination to the gods.”

The Revenant said nothing, but the Queen did. “To some, they are.”

And I thought of what Nyktos had said. He was right. They were an abomination of life and death.

“How?” I forced out. “How are they created?”

“They aren’t simply created. They are born, the third sons and daughters of two mortal parents. Not all carry this…trait, but those who do remain unremarkable unless discovered,” she said, and a sickening knowledge rolled through me. The children given to the Rite. This is what became of some of them. “The blood of a King or one destined is needed to ensure that they reach their full potential, but apparently…” She looked over at Prince Malik. “I don’t have that anymore.”

Malik smiled apologetically.

“And, well, the rest isn’t all that important,” she stated. “I have many of them, enough to become an army that you have no hope of ever defeating.”