A Kingdom of Ruin (Deliciously Dark Fairytales Book 3) Read online

  A KINGDOM OF RUIN

  K.F. BREENE

  Copyright © 2022 by K.F. Breene

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  CONTENTS

  Foreword

  1. Finley

  2. Finley

  3. Finley

  4. Hadriel

  5. Finley

  6. Finley

  7. Finley

  8. Finley

  9. Finley

  10. Hadriel

  11. Finley

  12. Finley

  13. Hadriel

  14. Hadriel

  15. Finley

  16. Hadriel

  17. Finley

  18. Finley

  19. Finley

  20. Finley

  21. Finley

  22. Finley

  23. Finley

  24. Finley

  25. Hadriel

  26. Finley

  27. Finley

  28. Nyfain

  29. Finley

  30. Finley

  31. Nyfain

  32. Finley

  33. Finley

  34. Nyfain

  35. Finley

  36. Finley

  37. Finley

  Also by K.F. Breene

  About the Author

  FOREWORD

  “I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars.”

  – Og Mandino

  ONE

  FINLEY

  I slid off the demon king’s shoulder and crashed down into the soggy mud and weeds. My left hip struck a rock, and pain exploded through me, adding to the aches and bruises I’d accumulated on our three-day journey to this accursed place, the demons’ kingdom. My sword was still sheathed at my side. The demon king, Dolion, had allowed me to bring it, knowing I didn’t know how to use it. It was his little joke.

  “Yeah, sure, just put me anywhere,” I mumbled, wincing as I pushed away from the rock.

  The large, magically powered boat that had borne us to this dark and rain-streaked island bobbed in the murky sea behind us, anchored. Rowboats floated from it, washing onto the sandy shore and unloading the demons and various cargo.

  Boots squelched in the mud next to me before Jedrek, my dipshit betrothed, crashed down beside me, crying out.

  “Quiet,” I told him in a low voice.

  Too late.

  His previous transportation, a hard-faced demon with plenty of strength hidden within his wiry frame, swung a foot into Jedrek’s middle. Jedrek cried out again, rolling through the mud and weeds to get away.

  “It’s fine. He’s just getting used to this.” I put out my hand and leaned toward Jedrek, doing very little to shield him with my body. I’d learned by now that if they really wanted to lay into him—or me—they were going to do it. Still, I couldn’t help trying to intervene. The only reason Dolion had lifted his magical suppression spell from our people was because I’d agreed to marry Jedrek. Which meant he needed to stay alive for the time being.

  “Welcome to my castle, princess.” Dolion looked down at me with a smirk on his blue face. Rain slid down the dark horns curling from his head. “Your new home.”

  Sorrow rose and squeezed my heart. The hollow pang of loss threatened to bring tears to my eyes as I remembered the way Nyfain looked at me before I was taken away. His utter despair. His desperation to keep me with him, in his kingdom and in his life.

  In the end, he’d let me go. I knew he believed it would be forever. He thought I would break free from the demons, something he was confident I could do, and live my life elsewhere. My happiness mattered to him, and he didn’t think he had anything to offer. Idiot. I would absolutely go back to him. The only reason I’d agreed to this farce was to get the suppression spell lifted. I would suffer anything to free my kingdom and my mate. With that spell gone, Nyfain could use his alpha magic to pull out everyone’s animals. He could give our people a fighting chance… Because I would escape—straight back to Nyfain—and we would break the curse together. Then it would be time to fight.

  I held on to my resolve with everything I had and looked up through the driving rain, determined that Dolion would never see my pain. He would never know what all of this was costing me…or Nyfain.

  “Quite the welcome mat you’ve rolled out,” I said, lifting my hands and turning my palms up to look at the mud now caking my skin. “Did you do the landscaping yourself?”

  He scowled at me, his gaze roaming my face. Darkness cascaded around his narrow shoulders like a cloak. “So strong. So stupid.” He stepped forward and kicked, his heavy boot landing on my upper thigh. Pain vibrated through me. “Look at it!”

  I tsked, but did as he said to stave off another kick. He’d done a good job at acting suave and balanced within Nyfain’s castle—except when Nyfain was thwarting his commands—but he had a volatile temper. Not just directed at Jedrek and me, either. He doled out harsh punishments to his own people if they didn’t follow his commands quickly enough. Do something wrong, even by accident? The punishment was worse still. He used his power and position to bully others. He led through fear.

  I knew from history books that those types of leaders often had precarious perches on their thrones. I wondered how easy it would be to topple him.

  “It’s nothing like that dragon hovel you’re so fond of,” he said, and I could hear the smug pride in his voice.

  He’s got that right, my dragon murmured.

  A formidable castle sat on top of a hill. Pale moonlight peeked through a break in the heavy clouds, washing across thin spires, bulky towers, and the castle’s sprawling, disjointed architecture. Arrow slits punched through the first two levels, giving way to more modern rectangular windows for the next two. The fifth level looked like a sort of fortress, with sleek stone walls and a fresh feel that suggested it had been built sometime in the last hundred years.

  The overall effect was grotesque. The designers had clearly been drunk.

  The murky sea wrapped around the island fortress, the sandy shore we’d landed on turning rocky and then jagged as the land rose. At the other side of the castle would be cliffs, something I remembered from the maps I’d studied and descriptions I’d read. The only way in or out would be this heavily guarded shore. That or flying.

  “It’s enormous,” I said in a level tone.

  He puffed up a bit, his smirk turning to a grin.

  I finished my thought: “It looks like you’re compensating for something…”

  His grin dripped off his face and his eyes sparkled with menace. “Welcome to your nightmare, highness.”

  “Cheers!” I said with a smile, raising my hand. “Actually, I need a drink for that toast, I believe. Fancy getting me one? You’ve left my butler behind. Oh, and I’m not anyone’s highness. I’m a commoner. I thought someone would’ve told you…”

  “You are the true mate to the dragon prince, or didn’t he mention it?”

  Nyfain’s letter felt heavy in my back pocket. I didn’t comment. Dolion was a cunning bastard who would use my weaknesses against me. One of them being that I was a blunt bitch who sucked at keeping secrets. But I would keep quiet about the important things, like how much I knew regarding Nyfain, his kingdom, his people, and breaking the demons’ curse.

  “But no, you’re right,” Dolion said. “You will never be royalty. You will die in my dungeon or at the hands of my cour
t. Eventually, your dragon prince will also die. Your death will be his ruin.”

  “He’s already ruined. We both are. But I admire your spunk.” I winked at him.

  His eyes narrowed as he stared down at me. He wasn’t quite sure what to say to that. I supposed it wouldn’t make much sense to him. He hadn’t had everything stripped from him, like Nyfain had. He hadn’t spent sixteen years watching his beloved kingdom crumble around him. And he certainly hadn’t grown up poor and trapped like I had. Unable to reach the magic I was born with, fighting a curse that was slowly stealing the lives of those I loved.

  No, he didn’t know what ruin looked like. And he didn’t know how to rise from the ashes. I’d make sure he never did.

  Because I would be the bitch that burned down his whole world.

  He pursed his lips and glanced at his minions behind him. “Take them to the dungeons. Around the side, mind. We’ll need to do something about the stench clinging to her before any of the court can see her.” He turned his attention back to me. “Clever of the dragon, to coat you in his scent. He is a conquered beast, but he still has his alpha legacy, it seems. But it won’t protect you for long.” Dolion studied me a moment. “Instruct the guards not to mar her face. I want my court to watch Beauty as she breaks.”

  “What about her arms?” asked the demon looming over Jedrek. “What skin will be visible?”

  “Yes, good point. Do not mar the arms, no. No neck, even though we will want to cover that ridiculous bite mark on her shoulder. Shifters,” he spat. “So barbaric, marking their mates. Disgusting.”

  “And this?” The demon stepped forward again, kicking at Jedrek’s legs. Jedrek curled up a little tighter.

  “That one is somewhat handsome for a shifter, no?” Dolion said, assessing Jedrek now. “I can think of a few ladies who might like him as a pet. Tell the guards to go easy on him if he cooperates.”

  “But not the princess?”

  Dolion sneered. “She won’t cooperate. Her dragon will forbid it.”

  He’s not wrong, my dragon thought.

  Dolion made a signal, and the demons around him moved forward. Two grabbed Jedrek and hauled him up, hustling him toward the castle. Two others grabbed my arms and yanked me to my feet, one tweaking my shoulder painfully.

  Dolion’s gaze traveled my face, and he reached out. I struggled not to jerk my head away as he lightly fingered the hair draping my cheek and then ran his manicured nails along my jaw and down to my chin. He applied pressure to tilt my face up a bit.

  “So pretty, even disheveled as you are. I wouldn’t mind using you as a pet myself. One mighty dragon on my leash, and his mate at my beck and call.” A ghost of a smile crossed his lips, and my dragon thrashed in my hold, wanting to break free and crush some bones. “As soon as we can get that stench off you, it will be so. I promise. You will beg for my cock. I’ll let your dragon prince watch as you do so…right before I kill you. It’ll finally break him. I know it will.”

  “Hmm. What an offer,” I said, winking. “Very tempting. I’ll need to pass, though. I’m partial to dragon-sized cocks. I don’t beg for appetizers.”

  He huffed out a laugh. “Even dragons break. In the end, you will be my little lamb, eager for affection. And my entire court will watch you fall.”

  A chill arrested me, but I kept myself from squirming. “Promises, promises.”

  “Time, your highness,” he said as his gaze roamed my body. “All one needs is time. Even the strongest beings will crack and crumble given enough time and pressure.” His eyes turned hungry. “And I have all the time in the world.”

  His hand drifted lower, toward my breast. I braced myself for the touch, but his hand stopped right before touching down, a wrinkle worming between his eyebrows. His jaw set, and a glimmer of fear sparked in his blood-red eyes.

  Touching my face was one thing—Dolion had a lot of power and could withstand Nyfain’s aromatic presence for such a benign gesture—but my breast was altogether different. Touching me there would be more intimate, erotic. And so he felt the full weight of the dragon’s protection. It didn’t matter that the golden prince wasn’t here in the flesh.

  Dolion pulled his hand away and turned. A burst of movement and he was walking toward the castle, a group of his strongest minions, similar in color to him, following at his heels.

  “Let’s go.” A black-scaled demon gave me a shove.

  As we crested the rise, the wind slammed into us, knocking me sideways into Jedrek. He huddled down into his sopping clothes, glancing beyond me. I followed his gaze, taking in the stark vegetation atop the hill—nothing but a few bare trees permanently bowed by the roaring wind, sickly bushes, and weeds. Beyond, the sea stretched out into the darkness. My dragon’s power meant I could see in the dark with a black, white, and yellow color spectrum, but not at great distances like that. In the day, it would probably look like that part of the sea carried on into eternity.

  Dolion’s crew continued forward toward the grand front entrance of the castle, with a large gate arching over what had to be the door. It was too far away for me to see much detail. Of course, we weren’t headed for the front entrance, and after we reached the windswept hilltop, our captors veered us right. We plodded along the side of the structure, likely aiming for a fast track to the dungeon.

  As we neared the castle, I looked up at the monstrous thing, reaching far into the rain-soaked sky with multiple towers practically piercing the thick, sodden clouds. Or so it seemed from the ground.

  My legs ached by the time we reached a little berm at the base of the wall. The metal door nestled within it clearly led down into the bowels of the castle. The hinges squealed as one of the demons bent and pulled it open, no key needed. He looked down into the dark depths, the blackness giving nothing away.

  “Did his majesty say anything about the magical lock?” He hesitated a moment before asking in a louder voice, “Does anyone know if they stripped the obice covering this entrance?” He looked at the demon holding Jedrek, his flat face lined with wariness. “Did anyone ask?”

  Obice. Ah. No key needed because the lock was magical in nature. Shit. In all the reading I’d done about the demons and their castle, trying to prepare myself for this moment, I didn’t recall anything regarding this type of demon magic.

  “Govam can release the obice,” someone said. “He has the magic to do it.”

  The crowd shifted around, looking for whoever that was.

  “Not at present,” a deep, somewhat bored-sounding voice said from somewhere behind me. “I had that ability and others, but they were suppressed as punishment while I’m on this detail.”

  A few grumbled at that, turning back to the demon standing near the gaping blackness.

  “Test it out,” someone called from the back. “Walk down a bit.”

  “What, and lose my foot? Fuck off.” The demon at the door looked through the crowd that had gathered around us. “Sonassa, try it.”

  A female laugh sounded behind me. “I don’t want to lose my foot any more than you do, Ressfu, and it won’t be me his majesty punishes for dereliction of duty.”

  The demon by the door, Ressfu, licked his pale yellow lips, the color a little lighter than the rest of his face. Like all demons, he was capable of using a human form, but he clearly couldn’t be bothered. Then again, why would he? He was among his kind, the rest of them in their natural forms as well, ranging from nearly human looking to leather or scaled or even feathered.

  “Zurgid, run around and find out whether the defenses are turned off,” Ressfu said.

  I heard shuffling in the back. “That would take forever. You know what it’s like in the dungeons. His highness doesn’t enforce any sort of regulations down there. He lets the officers run wild as long as they make his creatures.”

  The demon by the door looked down into the hole’s depths, clearly debating. He lifted his gaze again, zipping over Jedrek and then landing on me. My stomach flipped at his sudden look of decisiveness
.

  “You, shifter woman, come here.” He gestured me forward. Tingles of warning spread across my skin.

  Well, shit.

  TWO

  FINLEY

  “Not her, idiot,” a familiar voice said from behind. Sonassa. “She’s the dragon prince’s mate. The king has plans for her. Besides, didn’t you hear? He’ll want her as a pet eventually.”

  “His highness just said not to mar her face or arms,” Ressfu said. “He said nothing about her legs.”

  “He’ll want both of them to be there,” Sonassa replied.

  Ressfu looked beyond me, probably at Sonassa, clearly thinking it over. Anticipation rolled in my gut, and I got to work planning what I would do if they called on me to be the fall guy.

  No problem, my dragon thought. Grab that fuckstain Ressfu and toss him down the hole. See if he dies. They might beat the shit out of us, but that’s better than losing a leg.

  This was true.

  “Fine,” Ressfu said before spitting to the side. “Luru, come here. You have the least seniority. Dip your tail in and see if the coast is clear.”

  The demon beside me grunted as if he thought it a fine idea.

  Luru, a leathery-skinned demon with a hunch, didn’t seem to agree. He slunk closer with a slack face, looking between Ressfu and the gaping door at his feet.