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PROLOGUE

PRINCESS ELOWEN

T he wedding bells chiming didn’t sound like a celebration.

They sounded like a funeral. The end of days. The end of times.

My death.

My gown was too tight around my skin, as if I were suffocating from the outside in.

I stood on the balcony that overlooked the grand hall. The room was decorated in my family colors. Red and golds that bespoke of wealth and bloodshed. The tight, gold threading bit into my ribs like a set of teeth, and I picked at the material trying to loosen it.

I could see nobles of the court whispering and sipping from jeweled goblets. My father’s men stood sentry on either side of the large, wooden doors of the room, guards to keep anyone in who thought of escaping.

I couldn’t breathe. Not with the weight of what was to come.

And then I felt him come up from behind. Prince Gavin. My betrothed.

He had this air around him of a man who’d already won at life and still wanted more.

I turned and faced him, not wanting my back to this living, breathing human monster who I’d be forced to call my husband. He was draped in his house colors of sapphire and silver. And his broad shoulders blocked out everything behind him. I couldn't help but notice the way he cracked his knuckles, his hands screaming they held enough power to break my neck as easily as if it were a twig.

Nothing about Prince Gavin was kind. He may have been handsome in the traditional sense, but the cracks in his facade revealed everything he truly was.

Pure evil.

And he was just like my father.

“You’re beautiful,” he said in an icy voice as he stepped closer. We were alone on the balcony, and it terrified me to be so isolated with this man. I’d have to get used to it, though. I’d be forced to share the same home—the same bed—with him.

His voice was like oil, all thick and slick. It felt like it was coating me in a slimy sheen.

“You’ll give me strong, beautiful heirs.”

My stomach roiled at the thought of him climbing on top and forcing me to be his childbearing vessel. I flinched as he reached for me.

“Don’t,” I said, that single word coming out of me before I could stop myself.

The anger on his face was tangible and instantaneous. He gripped my waist, his fingers digging hard into the silk of my dress as he pulled me flush against him. Instinctively, I flinched and pushed him away.

“We could skip the ceremony,” he murmured, his lips dragging along my jaw until I felt the urge to vomit rise. “No one would care if I sampled what’s already mine.”

I knew he spoke the truth. No one would care. I shoved at his chest. “I’ll never be yours.” Even if I was married to Gavin, I’d never truly be his.

He pulled back and his expression was cruel. He gripped my chin between his fingers so tightly I cried out and tried to pull away.

“You foolish, fucking girl. You are mine , Elowen. Bought, paid for, and bartered like a prize to do with as I will. And tonight,” his squeeze on my chin hard enough tears rolled down my cheeks from the pain. “Tonight, I’ll breed you like the bitch you are.”

I slapped him. The sound cracked across the balcony like lightning, his head cocking to the side. He laughed and ground out through his teeth, “Oh, you’ll be fun to break.” And then he licked me, his wet, disgusting tongue dragging up the side of my face from my jaw to the outer corner of my eye, his saliva laying like a poison on my skin.

I trembled—not with fear but with fury. I’d spent my entire life surrounded by men like him. Men like my father who saw me as nothing but flesh and the bearer of future heirs. Not a woman. Not a person. Just a body to control.

I couldn't do it any longer. I couldn’t be a slave to any more men.

Gavin suddenly moved away from me, smoothing his hand down his wedding outfit, and said in a hard, impersonal voice, “Get your ass down there for the ceremony, Elowen. Don’t make me come back to fetch you.”

My heart beat faster, louder, until it drowned out the distant murmur of guests filling the room below.

He turned and left me alone, and I whispered to myself, “I’d rather die than be yours.” My female rage was loud and proud inside of me.

I didn't think about anything else. I didn’t grab any clothes or items to help me escape.

I ran .

But I had to be careful. I couldn’t get caught. I left through a side corridor, lifted my skirts, and sprinted down the marble halls, the sound of my jeweled ballet flats echoing all around me.

But my escape was short-lived when I heard men shouting in the near distance. But I didn’t stop.

I burst through the back entrance, none of the staff stopping me. I ran through the gardens, my father’s guards mainly stationed at the front of the manor and inside as guests arrived.

After a few minutes, I was in the forest surrounding the property. Thorns tore at my gown, slicing open my skin. I didn’t care. I ran harder and faster, my shoes getting destroyed from the rough underbrush.

Faster, Elowen. Don’t look back.

The gates at the edge of the property were old, and the family crypt lay just at the edge. I squeezed through the cracks of the ancient tombs, spiders and webs, dust, and the stench of old death surrounded me.

I didn’t scream. I didn't let it affect me. I welcomed the dark and unknown because it was better than what was behind me. There was a massive crack in the ancient tomb, and I squeezed through it, jagged rock tearing through my gown and into my flesh. The moment I emerged from the other side of the wall, I didn’t stop.

I’d thought of doing just this so many times before, but fear held me back. Guards kept me a prisoner.

The wilderness spread before me like the gates of hell. And I welcomed it. The sky was black with no moon letting in silvery light, and the trees twisted around me like they were trying to reach out and take hold of me.

But I stepped into the night anyway.

I had no friends to aid me. And I certainly didn’t have a plan.

But I’d take my chance out here and any monsters that were hiding in the shadows.

They had always said there were twenty realms in our world—ten ruled by men, ten by monsters.

My father was one who ruled one of those realms. The human realm of Bone Ash.

But if the stories about the monster kings were true, I had no idea. Not until now.

Being sequestered away in my father’s castle had been my life. It was a beautiful prison of wealth and submission, but it couldn’t hide or dim the stories I heard were from hushed servants gossiping around every stone wall.

The human kings wanted everyone to believe they sat alone and controlled the thrones of power. But they didn’t. They couldn’t control the darkest parts of their realms.

And that’s where the monster kings ruled.

And if everyone whispered enough about these monster kingdoms within our own realms, surely they had to be true? That’s what I thought… that’s what I wondered. Until I’d been taken.

I came face-to-face with the monster king of the Dark Realm of Bone Ash.

And he was a knight in twisted, blackened armor.

And the further I ran, the deeper I went into the woods. I realized skeleton trees were all around me. Blood red leaves covered finger-like limbs, and the creek parallel to me ran darker than the night.

My scream caught in my throat and the sky cracked open with lightning the color of deep red blood. I felt the shift in the air, like the world itself had been cracked open and I was flailing into another one. Nothing looked the same. Nothing smelled familiar.

There was something wilder, Crueler, that walked close, hidden in the shadows. Watching me like the predator it was. One second, I was in the center of this monstrous forest. And the next, the ground really was cracking open, and I was swallowed whole. I fell faster than I could breathe, screams wrenching from my open mouth as horror and fear consumed me.