In the woods outside the DuMoir Castle estate, I got ready. I messed up my hair, dirtied my clothes, and for the final touch, I found a sharp rock and swept it across my stomach.

I bit back a scream as the burn spread through my body and blood seeped out.

The gash hurt a lot, but not more than the pain I felt deep inside for having left Thea. I had thought about turning back many times. I wanted to be with her, but I couldn’t stroll into the Silverblood coven with her without being killed on sight, and she couldn’t come back to DuMoir Castle without being taken as a blood slave by Alex.

Rage tore through me.

Hell, I had always hated Alex, but now I loathed him. I could kill him with my bare hands. But that was too good for him. The bastard had to suffer before I ended him.

There was no choice here. If Thea and I wanted to be together, I had to follow the original plan: I would return to the castle and work to change things from within, while Thea returned the heart to her coven.

Difficult tasks that would take a long time. And the longer I stayed out here, hating everything that was to come, the longer it would take.

I sighed.

With a final prayer to whatever gods Thea believed in, I stumbled back onto the castle’s grounds.

As expected, I was found quickly.

“Over here!” a guard shouted as he ran toward me, his spear pointed at my chest.

“Help,” I croaked for show. I put a hand on my chest and doubled over, again for show. The slash hurt, but not that much.

Several guards rushed out of the castle and came at me.

“Prince Drake?” Holden, one of my men, stepped from among the crowd and approached me. “What happened?”

“Help,” I muttered.

Holden slug my arm across his shoulders and hauled me up. “What happened, my Prince?”

“What do you think you’re doing?” Eden asked. He and Ralf approached us with pure hatred in their gazes. They were Alex’s men, and I was sure they wanted to kill me right now.

“Helping my Prince,” Holden said, loud and firm.

Ralf snickered. “He’s a traitor.”

“I need to see the princes,” I said, my voice low. “I need to talk to them.”

“I don’t think so,” Eden said. “We have orders to capture you, and if you put up a fight, we can kill you.”

“He’s not putting up a fight,” Holden snapped. “He wants to talk to the princes. I’m sure Alex will want to hear whatever Prince Drake has to say.”

Then Lewis, another one of my men, appeared from the crowd. “My Prince.” He helped Holden hold me up, then he glared at Eden. “Alex ordered him to be captured. That means Alex wants to see him. Now move before I make you.”

Eden growled, but didn’t say anything as he stepped aside and let us walk by. The guards closed an arc behind us, pushing us forward, as if making sure Lewis and Holden wouldn’t take off with me.

One step into the courtroom and Alex was in my face. “You … traitor!” he shouted. His brown hair was a mess over his shoulders and face, and his tanned skin turning red with rage. “I will kill you for what you did.” He turned around. “Prepare the guillotine.”

The princes and vampires inside the courtroom didn’t move. They stared. At Alex and me. And I took my time trying to familiarize myself with what had changed since I had been gone.

The courtroom had been cleaned up. The guillotine had been fixed, the injured vampires had been taken to the infirmary—I assumed—and the blood had been wiped from the floors.

“Didn’t you hear me?” Alex asked, his voice rising. “Prepare the damn guillotine and let’s finish what we started.”

Prince Cain ignored Alex and walked to me. “Why did you come back?”

“Why would I not?” I glanced at the guillotine on top of the wood platform. “I don’t understand. Traitor? Execution? What’s happening?”

Cain’s eyes widened. “What do you mean? You don’t remember?”

“I … I don’t know. Just now I found myself in the woods, fighting a witch. She injured me.” I gestured to the bloody gash on my stomach. “But I have no idea how or why I got there.”

Alex scoffed. “Are … are you saying you can’t remember anything?”

“Anything what?” I asked, feigning innocence.

“Lord Reynard! Prince Albert! You killed them both,” he shouted. “And a couple of hours ago, we found Sarki’s body. It seems your witch did kill her.”

I put on a mask of shock and pain. “L-lord Reynard is dead? Prince Albert and Sarki too?” I shook my head. “No, no, that can’t be.” I blinked. “I remember … I remember the ball. I saw them all at the ball. I talked to Sarki at the ball. And then …” I blinked again for effect. “And then I don’t know. The next thing I remember is fighting the witch in the woods and running back here.”

Prince Gray stepped forward. “She must have put a spell on you.”

“Who?” I asked.

“The witch,” Dorian said. “Thea. Don’t you remember her?”

I frowned, as if I were reaching into the depths of my mind and coming up blank. “No … was that the witch I fought in the woods?”

“Apparently,” Cain said.

“You’re all buying this?” Alex asked, looking at each prince. “That the witch spelled him?”

“It sounds plausible,” Phelps said. “She was powerful enough to kill Sarki and fight us all. She could have easily put a spell on him.”

“No, that’s absurd,” Alex retorted. “Drake was planning something with the witch. He killed Lord Reynard and Prince Albert, and she killed Sarki. They were in this together.”

“That doesn’t make any sense, Alex,” Gray said. “Why would Drake ally with witches? We all hate them. Besides, Drake doesn’t remember anything from the ball on. That was when she approached him. That must be when she started the spell.”

Alex growled. “Now you’re going to tell me you believe Sarki killed Lord Reynard and Prince Albert.”

“The witch used blood magic to show us her memories,” Patrick said. “That can’t be changed.”

“All lies!” Alex’s face became even redder. “It was another trick, another spell. She pretended to be using blood magic. And now our dear Prince Drake comes back conveniently not remembering anything. Don’t you see how all the pieces fit too well? All lies!”

“Alex, calm down,” Prince Nolan said. “Let’s say you’re right and Drake is lying. We still need to investigate this before executing him. You don’t want your first act in the castle to be unjust.”

First act in the castle? What the hell did that mean?

“I’m not lying,” I insisted, despite the red flags going on all around me. “Hell, I can’t believe Lord Reynard, Prince Albert, and Sarki are gone. That’s … that’s not true.”

Lewis clutched my shoulder. “I’m sorry, my Prince. I know how much Lord Reynard meant to you.”

“Stop with this nonsense!” Alex shouted. He was all about shouting tonight. “Put him back in the guillotine and let’s end this shit right now!”

“Alex, please,” Dorian said. “Nolan is right. You don’t want to start your reign by condemning a dear prince to death.” I barely contained the gasp that wanted to rip out of my chest. “Let’s investigate this and be smart about it.”

Alex glared from him to me and back to him.

His first act. Reign. Then, I saw it. Lord Reynard’s silver cross pendant with the thin chain hanging from Alex’s neck. Somehow, Alex had become Lord of the castle in the last twenty-four hours.

A heavy ball of dread and disgust sank into my stomach. It seemed my mission in this castle had just gotten a whole lot harder.

Alex let out a long breath. “All right. We’ll investigate this, but I have two demands. One, Drake will continue being a prince in name only with no real power, he has no voting rights and no voice among the princes anymore. Two, Drake will be executed immediately if he’s lying. The other vampires need to learn what happens if they lie to me, too.”

Eden and Ralf entered the room then, carrying Thomas with them.

“My Prince,” Thomas said, looking at me with wide eyes. “What’s happening?” His gaze found the cut across my stomach. “Are you okay?”

I glared at Alex. “What are you doing?”

“Someone has to pay,” he said.

“For what? I wasn’t myself. Even if I committed crimes, it wasn’t me. I was out of my mind and forced to do things I didn’t want to. Thomas has nothing to do with it.”

“I don’t care,” Alex said. He nodded to Eden and Ralf. “I need to set an example.”

Eden and Ralf pulled Thomas to the center of the room—toward the guillotine.

“Alex,” I called out. I pushed Lewis and Holden away and approached Alex. “Please, Alex, he’s a boy. He can’t be punished for my crimes.”

Alex leaned over me. “Don’t you see you’re the one being punished here?” He then turned and approached the guillotine.

“No,” I said, stumbling closer. The other princes closed in around me. “Please, Gray, Phelps, Cain … help me here. He can’t do this.”

Phelps sighed. “He’s the Lord of the castle now. He can do pretty much anything.”

“We already stopped him from killing you,” Cain said. “That’s all we’ll get from him right now.”

Despair flooded my senses. No, this couldn’t be it. There had to be a way. Alex couldn’t be this cruel. Except, he was. I knew he was. He had been the cruelest prince I ever met in my five hundred years. He killed humans for pleasure every opportunity he had. Of course he would kill Thomas, a human I cared about, because it angered me and that pleased him immensely.

“Prince Drake!” Thomas cried as he was pushed down the guillotine and strapped to the sides. “My Prince!” A sob broke his voice. “Please, save me.”

I pushed through the burn of my injury and charged to the platform. A hand closed around my arm before I made it two steps out.

“Don’t be stupid,” Cain hissed. “If you interfere in any way, you’re next. And there will be nothing we can do to stop Alex then.”

He was right. I knew he was right, but it was Thomas. I couldn’t let Thomas die. He had suffered too much in this life already, and it had been because of me. I couldn’t be the reason his life ended, so short and unhappy.

Ignoring Cain’s words, I pushed through. Only to have too more hands hold me back.

“If you won’t listen to reason, then we’ll make you,” Gray said.

“Close your eyes,” Phelps warned.

But I didn’t. I couldn’t.

I listened as Thomas’s cries echoed through the room. I watched as the blade came down and his cries stopped. My stomach revolved, and my legs gave out when his head fell on the stone ground with a dull thud.

Lewis and Holden appeared by my side and held me up. “We’ll take you to the infirmary now.”

I protested, or at least I thought I did. I opened my mouth to yell, but no sound came out. I jerked against Lewis and Holden, but I was too weak from the blood loss and too shaken to really do anything. They carried me out of the room as the other vampires advanced on Thomas’s fallen body to drink the remaining blood.