Page 118 of Sold to the Dark Vampire Prince

Forget his sister, if they managed to get him out of this hellhole, he would kiss the fae king himself.

Working by feel and hours spent staring at the damned cuffs, he managed to fit the tip of the dagger into the keyhole.

This was it.

His heart hammered in his chest. He just needed to mutter the Elvish words to the spell and he would be free.

Lara put her phone down, frowning at him.

“What’s wrong with you?” She crossed the room, dress swishing.

Quickly, Alex shoved the dagger into his sleeve. “What do you mean?”

“Your heartrate is going wild.” Her eyes flared with sudden understanding, and Alex nearly dropped the dagger when she slapped him across the face. “After everything I’ve done for us, you just can’t stop obsessing over that bitch and move on. She’s poisoned your mind, Alex.”

Tears shimmered in her eyes. “If it’s the last thing I do, I will release her hold over you so we can finally be together.”

“Lara, don’t—” he began just as the door burst open.

Two guards entered, dragging Dani and Sera. They were kicking and fighting like wild alley cats for all they were worth despite their restraints. His father and Luciano Cavalieri followed, looking triumphant. In the commotion, Finneas shot him a quick look, eyebrows raised.

Alex quickly shook his head, then slid the dagger from his sleeve. He had to get the cuffs off.

“Alex!” Dani cried, and in the instant their eyes met, he felt something inside him shatter, weeks of desperation and longing nearly causing his knees to give out in relief. She was alive. Whole. Fully vampire.

“How dare you speak my mate’s name, you cheap blood whore.” Lara slapped Dani. A bright red mark bloomed on her cheek. “Bow before me, like the trash that you are.”

The guard that had dragged her in forced her to her knees. Alex’s hands shook as he worked to fit the tip of the dagger into the cuff’s lock. He had to stop this. But how?

“All along, you’ve blamed Dani for spoiling your plans,” he said softly. “And I think that’s true, just not in the way you want us to believe.”

The room went still. Lara turned to face him, eyes wild with barely contained rage.

“You don’t know what you’re saying. She’s twisted your mind. There’s no convincing you of the truth at this point.”

“It’s taken me weeks and several interesting conversations with my sister to recognize that this has been a longer con than any of us realized.” He nodded across the room to where Judas stood. “And it all started shortly after our mother died when he suddenly fell ill.”

“Not this again.” The king shook his head. “This is what comes of allowing a boy with his head in a cloud to pursue a law degree. You always were one for crazy theories and wild conspiracies.”

“Oh, I have no doubt you believe you’re really ill. But I also find it highly suspect that the timing coincided with the Cavalieri’s push for a marriage alliance just after Sera and Finneas’s contract fell apart.”

“Our family is the wealthiest in the sector.” Luciano Cavalieri puffed out his chest. “You’re frankly not good enough for my daughter, not with the way you’ve treated her like an afterthought this entire courtship. You made her wait years to be courted properly, with no proposal in sight. Then you had to have your arm twisted by your father to get a proposal agreement, which I know perfectly well you were flatly against. Only to have you go chasing after that human whore.”

Alex’s eyes flicked to Dani, who knelt at the guard’s feet, strangely calm. Her arms were still cuffed behind her back, and yet she didn’t appear worried. He had to trust she and Sera wouldn’t have come in here if they didn’t have a plan for how to get out.

“I’ve told Lara several times to call this debacle off,” Luciano continued. “I believe that perhaps it’s time the monarchy comes to an end so a new ruling class can rise from its ashes. But my daughter truly cares for you, Alex, despite everything you’ve done to hurt her. That’s what disappoints me the most.”

Alex had the dagger in the lock. But with all eyes on him, he couldn’t risk uttering the Elvish spell or all hell would break loose. No, he had to keep them talking.

“How many vampires develop cancer?” he asked instead. When Cavalieri began to sweat, he forged ahead. “I’m guessing he’s been treated around the clock with drugs provided exclusively by your company. It would allow you to continue to deliver a slow dose of poison that might not be easy to find using traditional testing, drugs that might mimic the effects his doctors would expect to see. And how interesting that our father falling ill would be just the push it would take to drive Isabella over the edge. If we look far enough back, would we find evidence you had something to do with our mother’s deterioration as well?”

“That’s preposterous.” Luciano turned to Judas. “The boy is out of his mind, surely you can see that? I have tried everything within my power to eradicate your disease, as has Isabella, whose work on the new drug we’ve been developing has been groundbreaking. Your cancer is rare and very advanced. We’ve tried to give you more time. I can’t believe you would entertain any of this nonsense.”

But Alex wasn’t so sure. Judas was frowning. They all knew how desperately Cavalieri wanted his daughter to ascend to the throne and be queen. Enough that he’d been secretly poisoning the king? Quietly supplying a new wonder drug to treat his cancer, knowing all along that it was actually toxic.

Lara’s eyes flicked to her father’s. And in that instant, Alex knew. They would never admit it. Judas was too prideful and stubborn to ever acknowledge he’d been played for a fool. But he knew the truth, even if the rest of the world might never see it.

Seizing the second of opportunity while Lara’s attention was diverted, he whispered the Elvish spell.