Throne of Secrets (Prince of Sin #2)

Fifty-Two Adriana

A XTON’S AND MY love story was doomed to never to be written. What had seemed to be the most lavish winter garden turned unexpected proposal was now a scene straight out of the Underworld.

Ironic, given that’s precisely where we were.

I forced my way back into the ballroom, watching as Axton unleashed himself on the dragons, his House dagger glowing as it drank up blood.

My heart seized for a moment as jaws snapped perilously close to his throat. He’d thrown himself into their path without hesitation, forcing them to come for him instead of any of his court. It was courageous and fearless. And I wanted to slap him for being so reckless.

He was immortal, I reminded myself, and no stranger to fighting dragons.

He would survive, but my family might not.

With one last look at Axton, I shoved my way through the fleeing, hysterical crowd, jumping in place to see over the heads of the masses.

Tables were upturned, glasses of sparkling wine shattered, and everywhere I turned, demons were battling to get out of the chamber.

Eden and my stepmother were nowhere to be found.

Lust charged into the room, his dagger landing a blow to a dragon that sent it reeling back. Word must have already spread through the castle about the attack. Hopefully everyone else had taken cover. The cries of everyone still running for their lives would haunt my nightmares should I live through the battle. For every step forward I took, I lost an equal distance back. The crowd raged forward, shoving me along with them. I nearly lost my footing.

If I went down now, I’d get trampled to death.

With that constant fear driving me forward, I tried to see over heads and shoulders, bobbing my way across the room. I needed to get to the edge and wait.

A feat that was proving impossible.

Suddenly, the crowd paused for a moment, giving me a break to duck and run through an opening. I glanced back to see what had distracted them: Sloth and Greed had arrived in a burst of flame and smoke, immediately flinging themselves into the fray.

For a moment, I stood frozen along with the court, watching the battle rage.

Five of the seven princes fighting with all their strength was an image crafted of pure terror. I could not imagine fighting a dragon.

Nor would I want to end up on the wrong end of a demon’s blade.

The princes were rakish, wicked things… until challenged. Then they showed what they truly were underneath the courtly charm and polished veneer.

The temperature dropped significantly, the floor slowly being coated with ice. Soon it would be impossible to run without falling. The realization made the courtiers panic more. I tried to gather myself, looking for Eden’s pale blond hair. A flash of silver caught my attention.

“Camilla!”

I spotted her at the same time she found me, and we fought to get to each other as the chaos grew unhinged.

Dragons shrieked as they descended upon the ball, stampeding through the flowers and hedges. Icy flames spewed across the room, covering everything in their path in ice.

Cries of agony followed a blast of frozen fire. Someone hadn’t gotten out of the way.

I shuddered at the cold and the fear coursing through me. I’d always thought the ice dragons were beautiful, but they were equally wicked and ruthless.

Incredibly, Anderson Anders was furiously writing with his quill, hiding near a column that was half torn out. The idiot was perilously close to a dragon.

I lost Camilla and prayed Envy would race up from the dungeons and find her. That he wasn’t here yet made me think more dragons were hunting the corridors. If my sister and stepmother had gotten out of the ballroom, that meant they still might not be safe.

“Adriana!”

Eden’s scream yanked my attention toward her. And the threat. Several paces away, an enormous dragon locked eyes with me. An innate warning sounded as I took an unsteady step back. It was the wrong move. I made myself look like prey.

The crimson-eyed dragon roared as it charged me, marking me for death. The ground rumbled so hard I nearly lost my footing as I turned and ran.

I shoved Anderson Anders out of harm’s way and raced against the dwindling crowd, hoping to draw the creature as far away from my sister as possible.

I’d just bolted out of the destroyed wall and onto the veranda, sliding over a thick sheet of ice, when the prince appeared, suit splattered in blood, his expression dark and unforgiving.

His cravat was gone and along with it any trace of civility. He looked wild, untamed. The legendary hunter who ran headfirst into danger and adventure.

His attention swept over me before settling on something just above my head.

I didn’t have to turn to know the dragon had followed me out.

The roar that erupted from much too close behind me shook the ground, knocking me off-balance as the air from its lungs froze strands of my hair. The ice coating the stone made it impossible to stay on my feet in the cursed heeled slippers, I was no better than a baby fawn attempting its first steps. I fell forward right as the dragon’s jaws snapped at my back.

“Axton!”

The prince’s wings erupted in a show of pure, overindulgent rage as he flung himself between me and the bloodthirsty creature, his body taking the hit meant for me.

He pivoted and kicked, launching the dragon back several feet.

Blood dripped down his arm from where the beast’s teeth had torn into his flesh. The dragon tried to dodge around him, its glowing red gaze fixed on me.

I glanced behind the prince, staring at the monster stalking forward, my heart seizing. It was no longer alone. All the dragons were storming the terrace, heading our way.

The ice and frigid temperatures preceded them, the white flames slamming into the ground at our feet.

Chills that had nothing to do with the mighty creatures raced down my spine.

All their bloodthirsty gazes were locked on me.

Unholy gods below. The entire pack was coming for me.

I didn’t need to have any previous experience with them to know they would tear through the prince and anyone else standing in their way.

“Axton!” I shouted, a plan whirling into place. He narrowly avoided the next strike, spinning to face me as he kept the dragon in his sights. “Take me north to draw them away. Once we’re at Merciless Reach, you can take the fight deeper into their territory.”

He flashed me an appreciative look.

“Have I mentioned how much I hunger for you?”

I couldn’t stop the shocked laughter from spilling out. Leave it to the rake to flirt as several dragons closed in all around us. Axton landed another solid kick to the dragon’s center, sending it flying backward into the rest of the pack.

“Hurry!”

I launched myself into Axton’s arms and he had us airborne in seconds, the dragons shrieking as they took the bait and pursued us. Their wings flapping against the night was the single most terrifying sound as they slowly gained on us.

Axton’s heart pounded furiously against mine and I hugged him tighter.

A blizzard raged around us, in part from the dragons’ icy nature and in part from the winter itself. Soon I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face, and if it wasn’t for his supernatural powers, I’d be worried about how Axton was navigating us to the outpost.

He ran a hand up and down my spine, trying to warm me.

“We’ll be there soon. If I didn’t need them to follow us, I’d magic us there.”

“I know.” I nestled against him, teeth chattering.

Leave it to the prince to be more concerned with my comfort than the raging dragons pursuing us. He was positively ridiculous and I couldn’t love him more.

Moments later, lashes coated in snow, I blinked at the towering wall that ran along the entire northern border. Snow covered the top of it, a frosted layer that glinted dangerously in the moonlight. A large stone building rose behind it, almost daring anyone to bring a fight to it.

Axton aimed straight for it, his flight a punishing momentum that defied any laws of nature. He was a force unto himself. All I could do was hold on as he tucked his wings in close and dove toward a narrow opening on the upper floor.

We landed with a soft thud and Axton set me down.

“You all right?” he asked, scanning me as if dragons weren’t swarming the fortress.

“Yes.” I swallowed thickly. “You?”

“I’d be better if you agree to marry me.” He gave me a wolfish grin. “But, yes. I’m fine.”

The levity was gone the next instant. A dragon thundered past the opening we’d come through. Axton took my hand and guided me deeper into the room, far from the opening that was too big to be a window but too small for a door. Perhaps it was used for a demon prince in flight.

“Don’t let them see you.” He took a dagger from his ankle and placed it in my hands. “Strike for their eyes if necessary. The fortress is warded; you’ll be safe if you stay within it.”

He stalked away then cursed and rushed back.

“I swear to the old gods if you put yourself in danger, I will tie you to my bedposts and make you regret scaring me for hours on end.”

I yanked him close. “Make sure you come back and punish me soon. Or I will hunt you down.”

He laughed softly and without another word, he was off and back into the battle, which already raged on here, twice as brutal as the one we’d just fled.

My pulse pounded as I lingered by the interior wall. It was far worse to hear the sounds of attack without seeing it. My imagination always was a bit too wicked.

Had the dragons somehow found a way to end an immortal? Was Axton hurt?

I inched closer to the opening we’d flown through and noticed a door a room over that led onto a parapet. Carefully, quietly, I moved just inside the doorway, watching as hunters and dragons and princes fought with brutal grace. It was unlike anything I’d seen.

The sheer majesty of the background—the mountains towering in the distance, the ice-covered building and stables—it was the most beautifully macabre location.

If it wasn’t for the war taking place, I could understand why so many wanted to join the guild. Up here nature reigned supreme, the rules of court and society far away.

And nature was a ruthless leader. Dragons clawed their way through bodies, never looking back at who they felled as they raged toward Axton. Blood splattered across the snow, the sight as ghastly and as unnerving as the shrill cries of the beasts.

It was a battle that shouldn’t be happening; the dragons hadn’t done a thing to deserve the madness. They’d been pawns in a game none of us knew someone had played.

If the Hexed Quill hadn’t been wielded, they would be continuing to live as they had for the last one hundred years, content in their northern playground. My senses were struggling to piece it all together—the mystery didn’t feel solved. It felt like we were missing something.

Something that could truly end all this. But what…?

Ryleigh. Strained friendship or not, my intuition was having a hard time accepting the evidence the prince put forth to damn her. Especially after our confrontation earlier.

Something didn’t sit quite right. There wasn’t any real motivation for Ryleigh to destroy my happiness. Or to rewrite that night. But there were a lot of unanswered questions.

If she had the quill, wouldn’t she have used it to stop Duchess Oleander from hating her? Or wouldn’t she have used it on her stories to gain wider circulation for her columns?

Why would she hunt the quill so hard only to never use it to advance herself?

Prince Wrath flew past the outpost, his face a mask of pure, untamed fury.

To distract myself from the sounds of battle and to feed that growing hunger to solve the mystery, I kept going over everything Axton had revealed.

It was a solid trail, yet Ryleigh denied the accusation. In front of the whole court.

More secrets and lies? I didn’t think so.

A hunter shouted from directly below where I remained hidden within the magical ward. Axton appeared from almost out of thin air, putting himself between the dragon and the hunter.

I screamed as the mad creature lunged for his throat, racing to peer over the stone wall. I’d crossed out of the magical barrier and was exposed to the dragon circling above.

A moment later I was hauled back, an immovable wall of muscle locking me in place as I thrashed. “Let go! He’s hurt!”

“He will heal. You won’t.” Lust wrangled me back into the safety of the ward. “He’ll also kill me if you die. So do the realm a favor and remain here. ”

He was right, I knew that logically, but my heart… my cursed heart was pounding so hard it felt as if it would break out of my chest.

I wanted to launch myself over the wall, make sure the stupid, idiotic rake was indeed breathing. So I could throttle him myself when this was over.

Lust gave me a knowing smirk. “Thinking of hitting him? Don’t worry, we all do.”

I paced around the room, feeling like a caged animal. The sounds of battle raged on, driving me to the brink of madness myself. I couldn’t stay here and do nothing.

“You’re keeping him from pain,” Lust said, reading my thoughts. “He won’t admit it, but it’s partly why he took so long to heal after the last incident.”

I thought back to the kissing competition. To the pain that had flashed in his face. One day I would dunk his head under water.

“Has anyone found the damned paper Ryleigh wrote on yet?” I asked, still needing to do something. Standing around so the prince and I weren’t in pain wasn’t ideal.

Lust shook his head. “They’re tearing the flat apart and looking in other known locations she frequents. It’s only a matter of time before they find it.”

Time our circle and realm didn’t have. Nor did the dragons. A shrill cry rent the air followed by the most mournful noise I’d ever heard. My blood ran cold.

“Does that mean…” I couldn’t put my fears into words.

Lust’s expression turned morose. “A dragon was killed.”

“This is a nightmare.”

And it needed to end. Now .

I paced more, mind spinning. If they hadn’t already located the journal or parchment Ryleigh used to rewrite the All-Sinners Ball, it stood to reason she wasn’t the suspect.

My intuition seemed to buzz harder at that, making me think I was correct.

If not Ryleigh, then who? Who would have motive and intent to—

I stopped pacing as a series of clues and comments fell into place.

“Dear gods. Axton got it wrong.”

My father’s ledger mentioned a quill.

I glanced sharply at my companion, but he wasn’t listening.

Lust was on the terrace, muscles taut. He’d been tasked with guarding the outpost and looked ready to immerse himself in the action.

I inwardly scrambled to think before I plotted my next move. I had to be very, very certain I was correct before I flung out such a serious accusation.

No matter how I tried to spin it, I believed I knew exactly who had ruined our lives.

Sophie Everhart. The demon obsessed with material wealth. And the very same demon who hated losing to a commoner above all else.

The clues had been there all along and I hadn’t wanted to see them. But now I couldn’t seem to stop fitting puzzle pieces together.

My stepmother’s knowing smile when Eden was chosen as a suitor. I’d guessed she’d used a spell; she never confirmed my suspicion.

My stepmother had been at the All-Sinners Ball that night. She’d not been pleased with the outcome… but that wasn’t quite true, was it?

The longer I forced myself to recall details, the more confused I became about the sequence of events. Had Sophie been strangely excited when we’d left the All-Sinners Ball?

Even though I hadn’t secured a good match and that was all she claimed my worth to be?

Eden had only been a child at the time, but foggy memories emerged.

Even then Sophie had said her daughter was worthy of becoming a princess, that she’d be eligible for welcoming suitors in less than a decade. That my failure would still be our family’s gain, mark her words. She’d worn a ridiculous feather in her hair that night.

A feather I’d recently seen with my father’s ledger. Ryleigh had tucked it back into the little book the day she was in our home collecting recipes. It had to be the Hexed Quill.

The world around me came to a crashing halt. That was it. My father’s ledger. The one item she continued to threaten to sell but never actually followed through with it. That had to be the place she wrote out our new fate, damning us all, intentionally or not.

“Prince Lust!” I shouted, racing to the walled terrace. “I know where the—”

Lust was battling a dragon in the sky, his attention wholly fixed on the beast who’d been about to storm our shelter. I swallowed hard, gaze darting around at the scene below.

It was chaos unleashed. And no one could escort me to my home without leaving a hole in our defenses. Wrath and Gluttony, Envy and Lust—each prince was a force on the battlefield, a force our realm desperately needed to hold the line.

I couldn’t stand here, waiting for a break in the fight that might never come. I needed to act.

I said a silent prayer that Axton wouldn’t be harmed as I bolted for the stairs. I raced past the wounded, jumping over bodies slumped in the corridor, shoving the images and fear from my mind. I burst out the door, finding a hell horse and rider slowing to a walk.

That was my ride.

I ran over to the hunter as he dismounted and staggered to the ground, grabbed his mount, and launched myself into the saddle.

With a shout of apology, I kicked my heels into the horse’s flank, and we took off. I silently thanked Axton for his horseback riding lesson. Instead of being scared out of my wits, I rode with confidence.

The hell horse raced like his life depended on it, which it did. All our lives came down to this moment, and I prayed my intuition hadn’t failed me.

We ran hard and fast, the horse swallowing up the northern terrain as if sparked by magic. Soon we clambered across the cobbled streets of our circle, streets that were eerily silent.

Buildings were shuttered, the normal hustle and bustle gone. Everyone was hiding from the dragons. Pain began in my chest, winding itself around my heart until it squeezed.

Everything in me wanted to turn back to make it end. I hoped Axton wasn’t feeling it as strongly. He didn’t need any distractions right now.

Instead of giving in to the agony, I didn’t let up on the horse until we skidded to a halt in front of my building. I nearly toppled out of the saddle; as my feet hit the ground I took off up the stairs. Each breath felt strained as the magical bond tugged me back.

My front door was unlocked, but there was no time to stop to consider why.

I rushed over to my father’s things, frantically flipping through his ledger.

It slipped from my hands, and I forced myself to pause, to breathe. I was shaking far more than I thought.

Once I pulled myself together, I snatched it back up and scanned every page. I’d never realized just how many notes he’d made. It felt like time was ticking faster, that the fate of our circle came down to these moments. That if I failed here, I’d fail us all.

My pulse had never thrashed as hard or as fast, my lungs working so quickly I felt faint. All the while the pain ratcheted up, never relinquishing its power over me. I prayed Axton wouldn’t fall in battle. We were so close. If only I could just find it!

“Come on. Come on.”

I read faster than I ever have before, my body growing more tense by the second. There was no note. No rewritten event. I had been so sure…

If I was wrong, then all I’d accomplished by leaving Merciless Reach and coming here was weakening Axton when he most needed his strength.

I flipped to the next page, and it nearly fell out.

I paused, glancing down at the sheet of paper that had been hastily glued into the ledger.

“It can’t be.”

I scanned the note, which wasn’t penned in my father’s familiar scrawl. Tears flowed hot down my cheeks. I’d been correct: this was the evidence we’d been searching for.

Sophie had—

“Oh, my gods. No.”

A wave of icy dread swept through me as the initial sense of elation passed. The note wasn’t written in Sophie’s hand. Nor Ryleigh’s. And it certainly wasn’t my father’s doing. The scrawled note had been written in a child’s hand.

“Eden. What have you done?”

As if my whispered plea summoned her, my sister stepped into the room, a candle held in her shaking hands. The flame danced wildly as her tearstained face came into view.

“I didn’t mean for any of this to happen, Ad. You must know that. I swear, I didn’t know—”

Her voice broke as she wept.

I held my hand out, my voice taking on the authoritative note of the eldest sibling.

“Give me the candle, Edie. We must destroy this at once.”

There would be plenty of time for teary confessions later.

For a taut moment that stretched uncomfortably into the next, I thought my sister would blow the candle out, damning us all. But she carefully made her way to me, a hand shielding the little flame, and handed the taper over.

I didn’t hesitate to set the parchment ablaze, watching as it slowly caught fire.

In theory the hex should break the moment it turned to ash. If only the damned paper would ignite.

“Cursed thing. Hurry!”

I’d never known patience as I had in that moment, watching the fire slowly lick at the parchment before deciding to swallow it down. It was only moments, but it felt like an interminable wait. Every second that ticked by could mean another death.

Once the flames flickered over my fingertips, I dropped the burning fragment into a little bowl Eden had fetched, watching until nothing but ash remained.

The embers faded from red to orange, then winked out.

I supposed we would find out soon enough if it was over, or if we’d failed. As if that worry manifested my darkest fears, I heard the shrill cry of dragons approaching.

I swore and rushed over to the window, yanking the curtain back. In the distance, I saw the unmistakable silhouettes of beasts flying through the clouds.

The dragons escaped Merciless Reach.

The cries carrying in on the storm indicated the battle was coming south to the heart of Gluttony’s circle. The hex might have burned, but until the magic receded, we were all still very much in danger as the sound of attack drew closer.

Unholy gods below. They were heading our way.

“Eden!”

I grabbed my sister and raced to the other end of the room, clutching her to me as a giant shadow from above suddenly darkened the street.