“Ready?” he asked. When I nodded, he peeled away from the wall. “Lead the way.”
I did just that, and it gave me great satisfaction to do so. Opening the door, I stepped outside and headed down the walkway. Why did it never feel nearly as cold when it snowed?
A better question resurfaced as I opened the door to the stairwell. “Are all Atlantians’ eyes a golden shade?”
“That’s an incredibly random question,” he said, catching the door before it swung shut in his face. “But, yes, most Atlantians have some shade of gold in their eyes. Only those of the elemental bloodline have pure golden eyes.”
I almost missed a step. “Elemental bloodline?” I asked, looking over my shoulder.
“Not all Atlantians are the same,” he remarked. “Did your history books leave that out?”
“Yes,” I grumbled, facing forward. The texts mentioned the wolven as being a part of Atlantia, but nothing had ever suggested there were different…bloodlines. “What is the elemental bloodline?”
“Those whose blood is purely Atlantian and can be traced back to the earliest known Atlantians,” he answered. “Not descendants by blood but by creation.”
“They were created by other…Atlantians?”
“Yes, by the deities, the children of the gods.”
“Really?” I said doubtfully. “Deities?”
“Really.”
My brows knitted as we reached the landing. I wasn’t sure if I believed that, but what did I know? I looked back at him. “Are any of them still in Atlantia?”
“If there were, Cas would not be our Prince.” A muscle flexed in Kieran’s jaw. “The last of their line was gone by the end of the war.”
“What does that mean? That Casteel wouldn’t be the Prince?”
“They were deities, Penellaphe. The ones who created the elemental Atlantians. A drop of their blood is a drop from the gods. They would usurp any bloodline that sat on the throne.”
“All because they can link their blood back to these…deities?”
“They ruled Atlantia since the dawn of time, up until the last of them died. They weren’t just a bloodline,” he said. “They were Atlantia.”
Okay, then. “And Casteel is of the elemental line?”
“He is.”
Well, if anyone would somehow be connected to deities and gods, it would be him. It explained his arrogance and high-handed attitude. “So, there are others who live in Atlantia? Besides the wolven?”
“There are,” he said, surprising me. I half expected him to deem the information confidential. “Those with mortal blood, usually first or second-generation with one Atlantian and one mortal parent.”
Those had been the half-Atlantians Casteel had spoken of the night prior.
“Very rarely does a third-generation or more removed have any discernible Atlantian blood or traits. But even though they have mortal lifespans, they aren’t often plagued by illnesses or disease.”
“Since their blood can feed one of an elemental line and be used to make vamprys, they don’t need blood after their Culling, do they?” I asked, realizing I hadn’t talked with Casteel about that part.
Kieran raised an eyebrow. “No. They do not need blood.”
That was a relief, although Casteel’s blood tasted nothing like I’d ever imagined. “Do those of the elemental line need food?” I’d seen Casteel eat. I’d actually seen the Ascended eat. “Do vamprys?”
“Those of the elemental line can go long periods without food but doing so requires them to take blood more often. Vamprys can eat, but they don’t need to. Food does nothing to slake their bloodlust.”
I stopped in the stairwell. “The ones who are part mortal…those are the ones with eyes that are hazel but more gold?”
“You’d be correct in your assumption.”
“Then why are mine green? Neither of my parents had hazel eyes,” I told him. “My mother could’ve had golden brown, but I’m pretty sure her eyes were just brown.”
He glanced at the door. “If your mother or father had Atlantian blood in them, that doesn’t mean they were purely Atlantian. They could’ve been second-generation and your memory of their eye color faulty.”
I frowned. “I remember the color of their eyes.”
He glanced down at me. “It’s also possible that neither of them were your birth parents.”
I almost tripped again. “Did they just find me in a field or something and decide to keep me?”