I exhaled roughly. “She was right.”

Vonetta looked over at me. “Who?”

“The Queen. I am a god,” I stated.

Her brows rose as she glanced over at Emil and Naill. “Um—”

“No. Wait.” Kieran rose, understanding flickering through him. “If what she claimed is true and Malec is one of Nyktos and his Consort’s sons—and you’re their grandchild—you are a god,” he reiterated what I’d just been thinking.

Delano nodded slowly. “It doesn’t matter what in the hell Ileana— Isbeth—is. You are the grandchild of Nyktos—of a Primal God. That is why your bloodline is so potent. You are a god, not a deity.”

“Shit,” Emil muttered, taking another drink before Vonetta snatched the flask from him.

“That’s what Nyktos meant,” I said, swallowing. “I never needed his permission.”

“For what?” Naill asked.

“To use his guards,” I said, knowing that’s what the Handmaiden had meant by the fire of the gods. “To summon the draken.”

Chapter 48

I stalked through the palace halls in Evaemon, the dust from the road and blood still staining my breeches and tunic. I headed for the sun-drenched atrium in the center, followed by Kieran and his sister still in their wolven forms. Naill and Hisa followed, their hands on their swords. Delano was with Tawny, having taken her to one of the rooms above mine. Healers and Elders were being summoned.

Crown Guards bowed stiffly as we passed, the heels of my boots clicking off the tile floor as sharply as the wolven’s claws.

Vonetta was one giant ball of stress. I didn’t know if she was more worried that I would obliterate Casteel’s mother or if it was the plans we’d discussed on the way back to Evaemon. I, on the other hand, was strangely calm. I wasn’t worried about what I was about to say to Eloana or what I would carry out next. I felt only determination and anger, so much anger, it seeped out of my bones and coated my skin, but I was calm. I didn’t know one could feel such wrath and yet feel such silence.

The doors to the family room were open, and the scent of coffee and freshly baked bread stretched out to me, turning my stomach instead of inciting my hunger.

Eloana wasn’t alone.

She sat across from Lord Sven and Lord Gregori. Several Crown Guards stood in the back of the room, but my focus was on her.

His mother looked at me, and then her gaze flicked behind me, searching for what she would not find. And she knew. The moment she didn’t see Casteel, her agony was sharp and pungent. A hand fluttered against her breast as she reached for the empty space beside her, seeming to realize then that her husband wasn’t there.

The two Elders stood hastily. “Your Majesty,” Sven said, bowing. Concern rippled from him as he glanced at the wolven siblings. “Are you okay, Your Majesty?”