Delano withdrew his sword, his features sharpening to a deadly thinness. “You will address her as Queen Penellaphe or Your Majesty.”

Slowly, the King turned his head to the wolven, the mannerism serpent-like. “The one beside you?” He sniffed the air. “Nothing more than a heathen. An overgrown dog.” The King sneered. “Disgusting.”

“Disgusting?” I repeated. “The one beside me comes from the line of those given mortal form by Nyktos himself. The one who stands to your left reeks of decay and rot.”

The Revenant frowned. “I do not.” He plucked at the front of his tunic. “Rude.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.” I stared up at the Blood King. “Is it you who taints the air instead?”

There was a sugary burst of amusement from the Revenant as a muscle flexed in King Jalara’s jaw. “I would watch your tongue, Maiden.”

I held up my left hand as a low snarl rumbled from Delano.

King Jalara smirked. “Or maybe not. Every word you speak that irritates me, I will be sure to take it out on the one you call your husband.”

Every part of me screamed in rage—screamed for blood and pain, even as I showed no emotion and looked up at the Blood King. The Ascended who had never been cruel to me as a child. Who had just been there, in the background.

“You do know that he has found his stay with us to be less than pleasant. Dear Ileana almost had him convinced that you had been captured in spite of his sacrifice. His screams of rage were a serenade for the ages.”

My jaw clenched.

A smug look settled onto his features. “What? You have nothing to say? You do not ask about his well-being? No begging?” His head tilted. “No threatening? I at least expected one threat from you after hearing Ileana wax poetically about her—”

“Call her by her real name,” I interrupted. “I’m sure you know it is Isbeth.”

His eyes narrowed. “She is no longer Isbeth.”

“And what do you think she is? Ileana, the goddess?”

“What do you think?” he challenged.

“I know a god cannot be made,” I said. “She is nothing more than a twisted mess of bitterness and greed made manifest.”

“And what does that make you?”

“An actual god,” I replied as flatly as Casteel would’ve.

“And yet you couldn’t defeat her?” He laughed coldly. “You may be born of Nyktos’s blood, but you and I both know what you are and what you will always be. The Maiden who is part beauty and part disaster.”

I said nothing. I felt nothing.

His chin dipped as he drew closer. “You should do as she requests. She is your mother.”

“And yet, I couldn’t care less.” I held his stare. “Believe it or not, I didn’t come here to spend time insulting the Blood Queen.”

King Jalara inhaled sharply. “You came to surrender? To submit?”

“I came to send a message to the Blood Queen.”

His brows flew up so fast and so far, I was surprised they didn’t topple his precious crown. “A message? I came all the way out to this godsforsaken place on the edge of the Wastelands to deliver a message for you?”