A KINGDOM OF BLOOD AND BETRAYAL
HOLLY RENEE
Copyright © 2022 by Holly Renee
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.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Visit my website at www.authorhollyrenee.com.
Cover Design: Forensics and Flowers | @forensicsandflowers
Editing: Brittni Van of Overbooked Author Services, Cynthia Rodriguez of The Beta Bruja, Ellie McLove of My Brother’s Editor, Tori Ellis, and Rumi Khan
AUTHOR’S NOTE
A Kingdom of Blood and Betrayal should only be read by mature readers (18+) and contains scenes that may make some readers uncomfortable.
This book contains depiction of sexually explicit scenes, violence, assault, and sexual assault. It contains mature language, themes, and content that may not be suitable for all readers. Reader discretion is advised.
For Adrina—
I love you, little one.
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Thank you
Also by Holly Renee
About the Author
Acknowledgments
CHAPTER 1
I hated him.
It was the only truth I could cling to because I was unsure of everything else.
I hated him for making me trust him when I shouldn’t have. I loathed him for making me see a future that was nothing more than a deception.
He was no better than his brother. At least Gavril had the decency to show me who he really was. He took from me, but not in the same way Evren had. Evren had made me want him, beg for him, and it was nothing more than a manipulation.
I fell for him when I wasn’t supposed to, and he had let me fall.
He was the heir to the Blood kingdom, everything I had been taught to fear, and he had let me fall.
I stared at his back as he started to set up the tent. I was surrounded by my enemies, but all I could look at was him. His gaze landed on me, and I forced myself to look away. I refused to meet his eyes. Instead, I stared ahead and watched his mother as she spoke softly to one of her guards. The guard that had been ready to hurt her son only hours before.
She was so different than what I expected the Blood queen to be. She was softer than the legends that were told of her. The way she continuously pushed her hair out of her face as she helped her men set up camp reminded me of my mother. My chest ached as I thought of her; after all, she was the one who had so easily handed me over to people who were only planning to use me.
She had sealed my fate as easily as the star marks on my skin.
Evren’s magic caressed my skin like a whisper, but I refused to acknowledge it. He hadn’t let it fall from me since we left the forest edge en route to the Blood Court. He hadn’t refused me my own horse, not after I absolutely declined to go anywhere near him, but he did refuse to give me space. He kept his dark magic wrapped around me for the duration of the ride. It moved and embraced me as if it was checking to make sure I was all right.
But I wasn’t. How could I be?
I tried to garner up my own power to blast his touch away from me, but I was tired. Far too tired, and I didn’t know how to control my magic like he did. Magic that I didn’t understand, that I hadn’t even known I had.
Magic that felt so familiar even though we had just met.
I thought back to a time before Evren, when I had been alone with my mother in our village. Had my magic been with me all along even then? Had my mother known? Had my father?
I could still feel it coursing under my skin. My magic had been awoken inside me, and I wasn’t sure how I had never noticed it before. It felt wild and reckless, like an extension of me I’d yet to meet.
“Princess,” Evren whispered his name for me, and my gaze slammed into his. It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him not to call me that, but I didn’t say a word. I just stared up at him and prayed that he could see the anger writhing inside me. “You need to get some rest. We’ll reach the Blood Court by morning.”