A Kingdom This Cursed and Empty

The second installment in the Kingdom of Lies series picks up after the first book, in which Prisca, a young village woman, discovered she is Nelayra Valderyn, heir to the lost hybrid kingdom. Hybrids are descendants of both fae and humans, with magical abilities the Eprothan king has spent centuries suppressing. The king, whose true name is Regner, is a four-hundred-year-old ruler who perpetuates his reign by faking his death and killing the boys raised as his heirs. Prisca freed over three hundred imprisoned hybrids from Regner's dungeon and delivered a stolen fae amulet to Lorian, a man she believed was a human mercenary. At the city gates, Lorian revealed himself as a fae prince known as the Bloodthirsty Prince, rumored to have destroyed the hybrid refuge city of Crawyth, where Prisca's birth parents died.

Aboard a merchant ship bound for the fae lands, Prisca refuses to speak to Lorian. She agreed to travel with him only because he saved her brother Demos's life at the city gates. Her aunt Telean tutors Prisca in continental politics, explaining that the gods gave each kingdom a divine artifact: The fae received three amulets, the humans a mirror, and the hybrids an hourglass that amplifies time magic and eases its physical toll. Telean warns that attempting to reverse time would cost Prisca her life or demand an equivalent sacrifice.

A Gromalian warship intercepts them, commanded by Daharak Rostamir, a pirate queen. Prisca negotiates safe passage in exchange for a future favor sealed by a blood vow, a magically binding promise enforced through blood. She and Lorian disembark in Thobirea while Telean continues to the fae capital with the weakest hybrids. Prisca discovers her blood vow with Lorian has vanished, meaning nothing forces her to remain with him. Lorian leaves a message where Prisca can find it, revealing that Conreth's spies have located the hybrid hourglass; he cannot share the location directly without betraying his brother, the fae king. Prisca writes to her brothers in code, asking them to search for it.

Traveling overland, Lorian trains Prisca in combined sword-and-power combat. Regner's iron guards, elite soldiers trained from birth, ambush them with fae-iron-tipped bolts that suppress magical abilities. Prisca takes a bolt through her arm, hides the wounded Lorian, removes the iron from her flesh, and freezes time long enough to kill a guard. Lorian, despite three arrows in his back, slaughters the rest. When Prisca asks whether he destroyed Crawyth, Lorian asks her to promise to believe him. She cannot, and he walks away.

At the hybrid camp in fae territory, hidden by ancient wards, Prisca reunites with her best friend Asinia, her brother Tibris, and Demos. She learns that Regner is conducting daily executions of hybrids in retaliation for the prison break. Demos reveals his own power, which makes him nearly impossible to kill and grants him extraordinary tactical instincts. To silence rumors that she is a fraud, Prisca demonstrates her time magic publicly by freezing a challenger in place during a knife fight.

Conreth, the fae king, arrives unannounced while Lorian is away from camp. He agrees to a blood vow ensuring honest answers and reveals how Regner obtained the last fae amulet. Lorian's aunt Eirathia, a hybrid kidnapped as a child, was conditioned as one of Regner's "sleeping spiders," agents broken in childhood and activated to serve the king on command. She poisoned Lorian's uncle into madness. When Regner took their children hostage, the uncle stole the amulet. Regner killed the family and set a trap that killed Lorian's parents. Young Lorian, who followed and witnessed everything, was found alone amid the destruction, and the Bloodthirsty Prince legend was born. Conreth announces he will send Lorian on a mission to separate them, and when Lorian discovers the meeting, he storms the tent and extracts Prisca.

Prisca asks Galon, Lorian's mentor, about Crawyth, and Galon confirms Lorian did not destroy it. Lorian explains that Regner staged the attack using an impostor wielding stolen lightning magic. Lorian arrived in time to kill the impostor but dropped his protective ward, and a nearby child died from the released energy. Residents found only the real prince among the ruins, and Conreth maintained the terrifying reputation for strategic advantage. Prisca weeps in grief for the boy Lorian was, and their relationship begins to mend.

In a parallel storyline, Queen Kaliera schemes against Regner to protect Jamic, the latest boy raised as his heir. She discovers Regner keeps a second amulet at a granite mine and sacrifices her ability to bear children through forbidden magic, tying her awareness to Madinia, a powerful hybrid, to aid the resistance indirectly.

Lorian departs on Conreth's mission, and Prisca leaves camp with Asinia and Telean to visit the hybrid kingdom across the Sleeping Sea. Lorian discovers she has gone and rides after her with his companions: Rythos, a fae ally; Galon; Marth; and Cavis. He leads them to Quorith, homeland of the Arslan, a scholarly fae people, where they steal a ship capable of traveling underwater.

Near the western coast, iron guards attack. Prisca is pulled underground by hybrid magic and transported to Lyrinore, the hybrid kingdom. There she faces a Drakoryx, a massive horned creature that judges the worthiness of potential rulers. Remembering a bedtime story about bowing before such creatures, she drops her weapons, and the Drakoryx accepts her. The five elders governing in the royal family's absence show Prisca visions of Lyrinore's fall but refuse to ally with her. Prisca deduces that her cousin Zathrian, whose parents betrayed the kingdom to Regner, reached the elders first. Despite the rejection, she vows to become the queen her people deserve.

On the return journey, Lorian privately acknowledges that Prisca is his mate, a rare fae bond representing a soul-deep connection, but resolves not to tell her, wanting her to choose him freely. In Gromalia, Prisca and Lorian meet King Eryndan, who is allied with Regner. Prisca destabilizes the alliance by having her brothers attack Eprothan guards in Gromalian colors and arranging to be seen with Prince Rekja while the Eprothan ambassador watches. When Eryndan's guards draw swords, Lorian involuntarily summons fae fire, an impossibly hot flame that encircles Prisca protectively, terrifying the court.

Thol, a man from Prisca's village, arrives with devastating news: Regner's guards destroyed the village, killing everyone. A lightning-wielder framed the massacre as the Bloodthirsty Prince's work. Prisca collapses into grief before Asinia pulls her back. She sends Tibris into Gromalian rebel territory as a healer-diplomat, then leads the remaining group into a cave labyrinth near Crawyth to retrieve the hourglass. Fae iron embedded in the walls drains their powers. After days of traps and ambushes, Thol is killed by iron guards. Lorian tells Prisca he is in love with her.

The group discovers the hourglass on a pedestal, protected by a ward tied to Regner's blood. When Prisca's blood touches the ward, the hourglass recognizes her as the hybrid heir. Before she can claim it, Cavis, one of Lorian's closest companions, seizes her from behind. A glowing spider-web pattern on his face reveals he is a sleeping spider, activated by a hidden trigger. Cavis fights the compulsion, bleeding from his eyes, and begs Lorian to kill him. He shifts Prisca aside to give Lorian a clear shot, but the cave floor crumbles, and Prisca and Cavis plunge into darkness as Lorian lunges after them. The novel ends on this cliffhanger.