Throne of Secrets (Prince of Sin #2)

Thirty-Four Adriana

I THRASHED AGAINST my captor, trying in vain to smash my head into his, my muffled cries swallowed by his hand.

“You’re testing my patience, Miss Saint Lucent. Calm down.”

His voice was familiar, but it was hard to place it with his steel-like arm banded around me. He dragged me back to the stairwell, my pulse pounding the entire way.

“If I drop my hand, you must promise not to scream.”

He didn’t add “or I’ll knock you out using magic or any means necessary” but the threat was clear enough from his tone.

“Understand?”

I nodded, and after another painfully long moment, he finally set me free.

I whirled around, stunned. “Prince Envy.”

He looked me over coolly, his green gaze calculating and hard. “What are you doing down here?”

I could ask him the same thing. It wasn’t typical for Princes of Sin to be wandering around each other’s Houses alone.

I tamped down that urge, knowing I was already on the verge of uncovering something very, very wicked.

Another low growl had the fine hair on my arms standing on end.

For a second, I could have sworn Envy looked rattled.

My focus drifted behind the prince, down the long corridor filled with cells we’d come from. And whatever that creature with the crimson eye had been.

If he was unnerved by it, that meant we were all in trouble if it got out.

I shuddered at the thought.

“What was in that cell?”

“Does Gluttony know you’re down here?”

It didn’t escape me that he’d ignored my question and responded with another. It was a typical diversionary tactic employed by each Prince of Sin.

My intuition went on alert. I’d bet anything the creature in that cell was responsible for Jackson’s death. I’d been checking the royal report daily and they still hadn’t mentioned anything about him. It wasn’t standard procedure for a noble’s death, especially one who’d been trying to enter the prized hunting guild.

“He never said I couldn’t be down here.”

Envy scanned me again, his dark brows slightly knitted. “Let’s get you out of here before anything goes wrong.”

I wanted to ask if that meant murder but refrained.

“Is he experimenting on that… creature?”

“You are far too curious.”

“I’m a reporter; it comes with the profession.”

His smile was all teeth. “Curious creatures typically end up dead. I’d be very careful if I were you.”

It was advice from a rival court. My pulse raced harder.

“Why are you helping me?”

“I’m not altruistic, Miss Saint Lucent. I promise my motivation is entirely self-serving. Well, almost entirely. I am rather interested in your peculiar association with my brother. You seem to feel very strongly about him. I’d like to know why.”

I searched his face. He wore the cold mask of a Prince of Sin well. But there was something else in his expression—there and gone in a blink—that hinted his questions might not be fully selfish in nature. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think he was genuinely interested in helping his brother.

I thought of his recent engagement announcement. I’d missed the party but had heard from Ryleigh it was quite the event. Envy had fallen hard. Rumors claimed he and his fiancée had met while he was engaged in a Fae game—a deadly game with a hexed object at stake.

Ryleigh had investigated the matter, always curious when it came to hexed objects and the one that had eluded her all those years ago. She hadn’t uncovered what Envy had been after, though. As far as I knew, no one had. His secrets were nearly impossible to unravel.

Which made me wonder all the more why he was here, potentially helping his brother with a reporter who kept needling him in the papers.

Maybe I was reading too much into our encounter; maybe he was just being kind. Or maybe he was helping his brother cover up something that would rattle the whole realm.

I gave him a polite, if bland, smile. “I’m afraid the past cannot be unwritten; therefore, it’s best to leave it alone. Good day, Your Highness.”

I stole one last look behind Prince Envy, no closer to knowing what that terrifying red-eyed creature was, then headed back up the stairs.