I didn’t wait for him to answer; just headed toward the rounded archway, passing the guards stationed there. They bowed their heads and turned, prepared to follow. “Please stay at your posts,” I told them as we walked out into air that was even cooler than that morning—too cold.
We were quiet as we crossed under the breezeway and stepped onto the path. Weeds had begun to grow between the marble pavers, something I couldn’t remember ever seeing as a child. It worsened as we passed under the stone arbor. Creeping vines had found their way across the path, the small yellow blooms wilted due to the cold. Hedges once neatly trimmed had begun to blur at the edges and grew irregularly. Hardier blooms had spilled from their mulched beds as I veered from where the night-blooming roses grew. I kept walking, wanting to ensure we were far enough away from prying eyes and ears. We walked past the branches of the jacaranda trees, their limbs heavy with trumpet-shaped blooms that were a dull shade of pink instead of their normal vibrant hue.
A marble statue of who I assumed was Aios appeared behind the overgrown hedges. Stopping, my gaze swept over the spikes of blueish-purple blooms and the carpet of tiny white flowers at the foot of the statue that reminded me of snow. I turned, checking the distance between the castle and us.
“This should work,” I said, noting that Kieran lingered just beyond the jacaranda trees, close enough to hear but not too close. Casteel stood in front of some bushy shrubs, his boots planted on the pink petals the blossoms had shed. I made sure I stayed close because I had no idea how he would respond to this.
Valyn sat on a stone bench and dropped his arms onto his thighs, staring at where his hands dangled between his knees.
“Does anyone want to tell me why we’re out here?” Casteel asked, crossing his arms.
“Your father has something he wants to share,” I suggested.
“He does?” Casteel arched a brow and stared down at his father’s bowed head.
My eyes narrowed on Valyn.He’d better.
Lifting his gaze to mine, Valyn cleared his throat. “I don’t know where to start.”
Casteel stiffened, and Kieran stepped forward, his gaze fixed on him.
I could easily think of where. “You’re not Atlantian.”
“What the fuck?” whispered Casteel, and I inched closer, letting my shoulder rest against his.
“I am Atlantian,” Valyn said, glancing at his son. He looked like he’d aged years in the time it took for us to come out here.
“I can sense the eather in you, Valyn.” I had my suspicions regarding what he was, especially with Setti, and where the bloodsteed had been discovered. And, of course, with what Seraphena had mentioned. “You are notjustan Atlantian. And I’m betting it has something to do with Attes.”
Valyn turned his head slightly at the name. “I’m half-Atlantian. My mother was an Elemental, and…”
“Your father?” It was almost as if he couldn’t say it.
“Was—is—a god,” he admitted. Casteel’s body was so taut he practically vibrated with the tension. “My father went to sleep when the rest of the gods did.” Exhaling heavily, he reached back to rub his neck. “I imagine he’s awake now. Likely in…Vathi.”
“Your father?” I shifted my weight as the air hummed with the rise of eather. A breeze picked up, stirring the jacarandas’ limbs.
He nodded. “He’s Attes’s son.”
Casteel looked at me, and I let out a long breath and nodded. “Fucking gods,” he muttered, unfolding his arms to shove the hair back from his eyes. “Attes is my great-grandfather?”
“He is,” Valyn said, his gaze searching his son’s face.
“And exactly who is your father?” Casteel demanded as I leaned into his side. I ignored the faint charge of energy that danced from his body to mine. After a moment, the contact seemed to help him. Some of the tension faded from his body. “Since I’m guessing it wasn’t the man you claimed died when you were a boy.”
Valyn took a deep breath. “Elian.”
“That’s…” Casteel trailed off, shaking his head as my suspicions were confirmed. The history I’d heard was that Elian was an ancestor, perhaps a great-grandfather, and King of Atlantia at some point before Valyn. And I didn’t think anything Casteel had been told disputed that.
“I know you probably think this is just another lie—”
“If it isn’t that,” he interrupted his father, “what would you call it?”
“I’d call it something I was warned to never speak of,” Valyn replied. “Not even your mother knows.”
That surprised me. Clearly, Casteel was shocked, too, because he went silent. Then, so did his father. I glanced at Kieran. His face was blank, but I assumed he was just as shocked.
“Why don’t you tell us what you are?” I said, ending the tense silence. “You’re not a godling.” That was the result of a mortal and a god, and obviously something that hadn’t happened in many years. Thevadentiawas silent on what happened when it came to a god—who was apparently only two generations removed from the Ancients—and an Elemental Atlantian.
