The Vampire Prince Is All Yours

"You're really giving me the chance to marry Lucian?"Rosalie covered her mouth, her eyes wide with disbelief.Our mother, Evelyn Ashford, slammed her palm on the table and jabbed a finger in my face."Iris, what kind of trick are you pulling now?""Offering to step aside, are you? Trying to play the victim in front of Lucian so he'll feel sorry for you?"I stared coldly at my mother and sister and said nothing.I pulled the marriage contract bearing the Vampire Court's gold seal from my bag and slammed it onto the table."The Elder Council has already replaced Iris Ashford with Rosalie Ashford on the contract.""Tomorrow, she marries Lucian.""I'll take her place in the diplomatic marriage and wed the Lord Commander of the Hunters' Order."The moment Rosalie saw her name on the contract, a squeal of pure delight escaped her.She snatched the contract and clutched it to her chest."You really went and changed the name?"Rosalie stared at the contract, her voice trembling with excitemen

Night fell, and the governor's estate blazed with light.The governor was hosting a banquet for both brides-to-be.I sat alone in the shadows of a corner, wearing the cheap, revealing white dress Lucian had forced on me.At the center of the hall, Rosalie swept through the crowd in her priceless custom-made black gown, the undisputed star of the evening.Lucian stayed glued to her side, his gaze lingering on her with barely concealed longing."The prince certainly seems devoted to the younger Ashford sister.""What a pity. A perfect couple like that, torn apart tomorrow."The murmurs around them were relentless.Hearing these whispers, the grief in Lucian's eyes deepened. He gripped Rosalie's hand tighter, as though she might vanish at any moment.I watched this pitiful melodrama from the sidelines, cold and unimpressed.Without warning, the hall's glass windows exploded inward.Three massive shadow demons, their bodies reeking of decay, came charging through the shattered glass with d

The carriage glided through the perpetual silver mist and landed before Silverkeep, deep in the Hunters' Order's territory.The grounds lay silent. Only the occasional flash of silver eyes in the high towers betrayed the hunters watching from within.I paid no attention to the scenery outside. All my focus was on the mirror in my hands.In the mirror, Lucian pushed open the door to the bridal chamber with a tipsy roughness.Lucian shoved open the bridal-chamber door, already drunk and in no mood to pretend tenderness."Satisfied now, Iris?"Lucian sneered and ripped the black veil from the bride's head."Rosalie has gone to the Order to die. You got what you wanted. You're a princess now, and you..."His words stopped dead.Beneath the veil was a face painted with exquisite makeup, blushing with coy anticipation."Lucian..."Rosalie looked up at him, her eyes full of tender affection.Lucian recoiled as if struck. His body locked, his eyes widening in panic.He stumbled back two steps

Lucian's adjutant and a handful of soldiers dragged him away like a carcass.The broken half of his scepter lay abandoned on the barren ground, stripped of all its luster, much like his pathetic pride.Back at the castle, Nathaniel immediately ordered the finest medicinal bath prepared for me.The silver-white healing waters filled the air with a strange, delicate fragrance, gently mending my body.Nathaniel dismissed everyone and stood guard by the bath himself.He studied the welts carved across my skin, violence gathering behind his ice-blue eyes."I should have just snapped his neck out there."He spoke through gritted teeth, his fingers barely skimming the surface of the water, as though afraid of hurting me.I leaned against the edge of the bath, feeling warmth I hadn't known in ages, and gently shook my head."Letting him die would be too easy.""I want to watch him lose his throne and crawl through the mud. I want the thing he treasures most to destroy him."Nathaniel studied m

The heavy iron doors of the castle's great hall groaned open.The guards dragged Lucian and Rosalie into the great hall like a pair of prisoners.Lucian was nothing like the man he used to be.His hair was disheveled, his complexion ashen, his face covered in ugly black curse marks. His once-fine clothes hung in tatters, and his entire body reeked of decay.Rosalie looked even worse.She had spent the night in the same water dungeon that had been used to torture me. Her body was caked in filth and covered in leech bites.Her once-delicate face was so swollen it was unrecognizable, and the Heartstone that had hung from her neck was long gone.They looked up and saw me enthroned above them. Shock and disbelief flooded their faces."Iris..."Lucian's voice trembled as he spoke my name.He wrenched free of the guards and crawled on hands and knees to the foot of the steps, staring up at me, his eyes pleading."Iris, I was wrong! I know I was wrong!""I shouldn't have taken your Heartstone,