Throne of Ice and Blood (Flame and Thorns, #2)

by Marion Blackwood

Sheets tangle around my limbs. I shove them away impatiently before swinging my legs over the side of the bed. “You shouldn’t—” Draven begins. I shove myself to my feet. My legs immediately buckle. I suck in a sharp breath between my teeth as I topple towards the floor. But right before I can hit it, a pair of strong arms wrap around my body and hoist me back up.

He still collared me. He might have been trying to help me earlier, but when it all came down to it, he still made me his slave. Something hard settles around my heart. Something I’m not used to. But it helps keep the panic and hopelessness away, so I lean into it. A vicious scoff rips from my throat as I meet Draven’s gaze again. “No, I guess it doesn’t.” He smiles, but it’s a cold smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. While drawing a hand over the collar around my throat, I fix Draven with a hard stare. “I will kill you for this.”

“So I hear you killed someone.” I snap my head up. A small gasp escapes my lips when I find Draven standing right on the other side of the iron bars.

“So maybe I should leave you here for a while to teach you a lesson about disobedience.” His eyes glint. “And because you look really fucking hot in handcuffs.”

His dark brows furrow as he turns and looks back at me. Then realization pulses across his face. Averting my gaze, I clear my throat a tad awkwardly while another flicker of embarrassment sears my cheeks. Mabona’s fucking tits, one day, I swear I’m going to be the strong and powerful one standing before him while he kneels on the floor.

“Commander,” they murmur in unison. “Who handcuffed her?” Draven demands. They exchange a worried glance. “I did, sir,” the brown-haired one replies. A blast of wind shoots across the room. It hits all three guards straight in the chest, making them fly backwards. The two blond ones slam into the wall behind them and collapse to the floor while the brown-haired guy hits the side of a table, flips over it, and then crashes down on the other side. Draven stalks towards him while the two blond guards cough and struggle to their knees. “Commander,” the dark-haired one croaks as he tries to untangle himself from the chair he hit when he slid off the table. “I’m⁠—” His words are cut off as Draven yanks him up by the collar and slams his fist into the guy’s face.

And when Draven at last speaks, his voice is so cold and deadly that ice skitters down my spine. With a firm grip on the guard’s wrist, Draven stares him down with those furious golden eyes. “If you ever touch her again, I’ll break your fucking hands. She’s mine. Got it?” My heart flips.

He sets me down gently but keeps sharp eyes on me, as if he’s worried that I’m going to collapse.

He doesn’t look like he cares. But he… acts like it. “Why?” I ask. A ruthless glint appears in his eyes. “Because I don’t like it when people touch what belongs to me.” I grind my teeth. “I don’t belong to you.” “Yes, you do. In every way that matters.”

“Behave,” he commands, his voice hard. Snapping my gaze to him, I’m just about to growl back at him that I am not his pet. But the expression on his face stops me. His voice might be cold and ruthless, and his words might be an order, but when he meets my gaze, it looks more like a plea.

That cold hard wall around my heart thickens as I cast another glance at Draven. I will protect the Red Hand and the human rebellion. Even if it means that I have to kill Draven to do it.

“I will kill you for this!” I scream at him, and my voice almost cracks. “I swear I will fucking kill you for⁠—” The iron pressing against my throat disappears. I gasp as my connection to my magic is restored. Strength starts trickling back into my limbs again as my energy begins building back up to normal levels as well. Lying there on the floor, I stare up at Draven in utter shock.

“Why?” I manage to press out at last. It comes out like barely more than a whisper. He draws in another highly controlled breath and tightens his grip on the collar. “Because if I have to see you in this collar one fucking second more than absolutely necessary, I’m going to start killing people.” My heart flips. The muscles in his jaw flicker as he forces out a breath and flexes his fingers around the collar still in his hand. “Outside this room, you need to wear it. If you don’t, they will torture you. But in here, when it’s just us, I will take it off.”

“Why?” I manage to press out. “Why are you doing this?” His eyes soften for a fraction of a second. Then it’s gone, and he just blows out a small sigh instead. “I’ve already told you. Because you don’t deserve this.”

Cool fall winds whirl across the sloping mountainside and fill my lungs as I stride away from the Ice Palace a free woman. I did it. I made it out. I will never have to go back to that suffocating castle again. Never have to wear that awful iron collar again. Never have to kneel at Draven’s feet or watch the Icehearts smirk at me. I’m free. And now, it’s time to fight back.

All around me, people are chatting and going about their day like normal. As if this isn’t one of the most monumental moments in my entire life.

Someone should do something. Someone should step in. Someone should stop this. And then I realize that I am someone.

Logic and reason at last catch up with me. I shouldn’t have done that. I really shouldn’t have done that. From where he’s still standing pressed against the wall, the human gives me a look of gratitude. In front of him, the dragon shifter shoots me a death stare. He takes one slow step forward. Then he’s barreling straight towards me.

All my life, people have kept me at arm’s length because they were afraid that I might do something like this to them. And I have been angry at them for that assumption. But now, I’m becoming the person that they always feared I was. The person I swore I wouldn’t

“I could always just handcuff you to your desk again.” His eyes glitter. “You’re welcome to try, little rebel. But you and I both know that you look a lot hotter in handcuffs than I do.”

There is no companionship, no respect, no warmth, in any of their eyes when they look at him. Instead, their expressions are full of resentment. And not just any resentment. It’s so strong that I can practically feel their acidic hatred even without using my magic. And so obvious that it’s impossible to miss. It shocks me to my core. After that conversation I eavesdropped on back in the Seelie Court, I knew that some of the people in Draven’s clan resent him. But I thought they did it in secret. They don’t. They resent him, and they don’t even try to hide it. And I thought it was only some of his clan members. But it’s not. It’s all of them.

Hatred once again pulses on their faces as they stare daggers at Draven’s disappearing back. I always thought that he didn’t care that his own people hated him. But maybe this all bothers him more than he admits.

“You wanna talk about being deceived?” Pain flickers in his eyes. It’s followed by something deeper. Something more like hurt. “How do you think I felt back in that underground forest? How do you think I felt when I realized that you didn’t fuck me because you genuinely wanted to? That it was all an act. That you didn’t really want me. That you only fucked me as a distraction to steal the ring from me.” His words hit me like a stab right through the chest.

Nothing else. I slept with him because I wanted to. Solely because I wanted to, even though doing so risked my plan. My chest rises and falls as I stare up at Draven. The words are right there on my tongue, but for some reason, I can’t make myself say them. Him knowing the truth won’t change anything. We’re still enemies. I’m still his slave. And I’m still plotting to ruin him by helping the human resistance pull off a devastating heist against the Iceheart Dynasty. Our already far too complicated feelings for each other will only make everything worse. So in the end, I just close my mouth again.

where people can see, you need to act as if you’re my slave.” Slapping his hand away, I glare up at him so that he will understand that I truly mean every single word that I’m about to say. “I will never be your slave.”

Pain and dread and utter fucking heartache stabs at my chest like a hot knife as I stare at the two people kneeling on either side of the Icehearts’ table. Isera and Alistair.

“So you need to act as if I have already broken you. Do you understand?” His eyes burn into my very soul. “If they think that I have failed to break you, they will eagerly try to break you themselves. And there is nothing I can do to stop them.” I draw in an unsteady breath. “So hate me all you want, little rebel. And fight me all you want in private. But out here, in public, you need to act as if I’m your God.”

Why do you serve them?” Anger flashes across his face. “Because I don’t have any other choice.” “There is always a choice!” “You have no idea what you’re talking about.” The anger on his face transforms into searing pain for a second before his expression becomes unreadable again. Clenching his jaw, he flexes his hand and draws in a controlled breath. “You don’t know them like I do. You don’t know what they’re capable of. What they’ve already done. To me. And to others.” “You’re just a coward!” Hurt flits across his face for a fraction of a second.

A ripple of forbidden desire courses through me when he brushes his thumb over my bottom lip again. I slap his hand away. His eyes glint and that devilish smirk widens. “Good. Hate me. Fight me. Take it all out on me.” Grabbing the collar of his armor, I yank his face down closer to mine while a matching smirk full of challenge spreads across my own mouth. “You’re going to regret that wish. Because inside these walls, I’m going to become your worst nightmare, and I won’t stop until you bow down before your own personal Queen of Hell.” He slides his fingers down from my lips to instead circle my throat. A shudder ripples through my body as he slants his mouth over mine, just shy of touching. And when he speaks, his breath caresses my lips in a way that makes pleasure curl around my spine. “As long as you act like I’m your God outside these walls, I welcome your hell in here, little rebel.”

A room full of cages meets me on the other side. I stop dead in my tracks. Cages. Not cells. Cages.

“I will get you out of here,” I finish. “I promise. After the heist, I will get us all out of here. So you have to hold on. For just a little while longer.” Sitting there at the back of the cage, he watches me in silence for a few seconds. My heart pounds as I wait for him to say something. To tell me that I’m an idiot. That I should have run when I had the chance. That I should try to steal the keys to their cages from Bane and Jessina and just get us all the hell out of here. But to my surprise, he doesn’t. Drawing in a long breath, he instead says, “What do you need?”

Which is why I couldn’t risk drawing attention to you by tearing this whole fucking castle apart with my bare hands to find you the moment I discovered that you were gone, even though every nerve inside my body was screaming at me to do exactly that.” The sheer worry and protectiveness in his voice, and the fear in his eyes, stun me so much that all I manage is to stare back at him. He truly is worried about my safety.

“Since I clearly can’t trust you to follow the simplest of rules,” he gives me a pointed look, “even though they’re for your own safety, you will now be accompanying me everywhere.” “What?” “You heard me.” “Yes, but⁠—” “But what?” He arches a dark brow. “Do you have something else you need to do?” Frustration pulses through me. How am I supposed to sneak away and search for the treasury if he takes me with him to hunt the Red Hand? Goddess damn it. But I can’t exactly tell him any of that, so I just mutter, “No.” “Good.” He flashes me another satisfied smile. “Then it’s settled.” I yank my hands back the moment he releases my wrists. After shooting him one more glare, I turn and begin stalking back to my bedroom. But before I can take more than two steps, Draven speaks up again. “And where do you think you’re going?” Confusion swirls through me, and I turn back to frown at him. “Back to my bed?” His gaze sears into me. “I said everywhere.”

A sudden realization hits me like a fucking lightning strike. I know who the Red Hand is. Hector.

“So I don’t wring my hands about collateral damage,” he says as he holds my gaze with those intense eyes of his. “I take what I want from this world. And God help anyone who stands in my way.”

Narrowing my eyes, I level a stare full of challenge on him. “Mark my words, oh Shadow of Death, I will put you in your place one day.” With his pants still hanging low on his hips, he lifts a hand and draws soft fingers along my jaw. And the grin on his mouth would have made the King of Hell himself proud. “Come try it, little rebel.”

His words are abruptly cut off mid-sentence when his breath hitches the moment his gaze lands on me. Sparkling warmth floods my entire body at the look in his eyes. He is staring at me as if I’m the most beautiful thing he has ever seen.

“This doesn’t change the fact that I’m wearing an iron collar too,” I say. But my voice doesn’t come out nearly as hard as I had intended it to. Instead, it comes out sounding more like a confused question. Pain flits across Draven’s face for a moment. “I know.” His eyes are serious as he holds my gaze. “But it hides it a little, which will help stop me from murdering someone tonight.”

“I thought you would be in the middle of breaking her,” she continues. “This is the most fun part, after all.” “Indeed,” Emperor Bane picks up. “And yet, there she is. In a dress. No handcuffs. No blindfold. Nothing.” “Why would I need that?” I can practically hear the wicked smirk in Draven’s voice. “When I have already broken her.”

I glance up at him. The moment that we reach a spot where our faces are no longer visible to anyone, he clenches his jaw and flexes his hand while fury so cold that it could’ve frozen the sun itself crackles across his features. He looks like he’s going to murder someone.

“I’m about to murder someone,” Draven growls in his face. “And unless you want that to be you, you watch her until I get back.”

There is too much outrage. Too much anger. Too much frustration. Too fragile hope. It’s just… too much.

“You’re right,” he says, tilting his head back so that he meets my gaze. “I kneel for nothing and no one.” His golden eyes burn like flames, searing right through my soul. “But for you… For you, I would kneel.” I drag in an unsteady breath. My mind is spinning and my heart is beating like a battle drum in my chest. Draven Ryat, the Shadow of Death, leader of the feared Black Dragon Clan and the Commander of the Dread Legion, is on his knees before me.

He raises his eyebrows, that wicked satisfaction still on his features. “What?” I slide my free hand along his jaw. To my utter astonishment, it makes a shudder roll through his body. The sight of it makes my heart do a backflip in my chest. A wicked grin spreads across my mouth. “I was just thinking how good you look on your knees before my feet.”

“Commander,” a man calls from the other side while continuing to pound on the door. “Commander.” Draven keeps his hands on my throat and my pussy, but his gaze darkens as he turns his head to glare at the door. And when he shouts back to the person on the other side of the door, his voice is dripping with threats. “Someone had better be dead, or I’m going to rip your fucking throat out for disturbing me over nothing!”

And I decide, then and there, that just ruining them financially isn’t enough. The humans are going to pull off this heist. But that is not enough for me. I want the Icehearts hurt. I want them to suffer. I want them to despair. I want a fucking war. I want to make them watch as this whole castle burns to the ground around their heads. I’m going to turn this whole fucking city against them.

“The Icehearts won’t die of old age, no,” I say. “But if someone shoves a blade through their hearts, they will die as easily as the rest of us. And besides, we have something they don’t.” I pause for dramatic effect. “Numbers. This is our city. We outnumber the shifters. If we just band together, we can overthrow them.”

“Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop.” I snap my gaze towards the sound of the voice. Pain pulses through my heart when I find Lavendera sitting in the middle of her cage, rocking back and forth and gripping her hair with both hands. “Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop,” she whispers over and over again.

My heart squeezes hard as I watch her. And that ruthlessness that has been growing inside me seeps deeper into my soul, intertwining with all the rage and pain already festering in there. I will get Lavendera out of here. I will get them all out of here. And I will burn this fucking castle to the ground. Even if it means that I have to manipulate every single human in this city to do it.

A yelp escapes my mouth, cutting off my sentence, as I’m suddenly hoisted into the air. I suck in a sharp breath to clear my head, but the scene around me still isn’t making any bloody sense. Because Draven has just picked me up and thrown me over his shoulder.