Kings Rising (captive Prince, #3)

The third and final installment of the Captive Prince trilogy is set in a fantasy world divided between two rival kingdoms, Akielos and Vere. Damen, the true heir to the Akielon throne, was betrayed by his half-brother Kastor, enslaved, and sent as a gift to Prince Laurent of Vere, the man whose older brother, Auguste, Damen killed in battle years earlier. Over the previous books, Damen and Laurent formed an unlikely alliance against Laurent's uncle, the Regent of Vere, who conspired with Kastor to seize both thrones. Now Damen's identity as Damianos of Akielos has been revealed.

The novel opens at the border fort of Ravenel, where Nikandros, Kyros (governor) of Delpha and Damen's closest friend, kneels before him as King, presenting the golden lion pin he secretly preserved after Damen's supposed death. The Veretian people in the fort call Damen "prince-killer" and hurl rocks. Damen secures the fort and persuades Jord, the captain of Laurent's personal guard, to ride with him against the Regent.

Damen and Laurent had planned to split their forces at the battle of Charcy: Damen's men would draw the Regent's army while Laurent swept in from behind. Laurent never arrives. Damen's outnumbered forces fight alone through hours of brutal combat, winning at staggering cost. A herald delivers a note in Laurent's handwriting: Laurent has taken the fort of Fortaine.

At Fortaine, Damen confronts Laurent, who reveals he has known Damen's identity since they first met. Laurent claims their night together was purely strategic, but Damen insists Laurent knew who he was and chose to be with him. Laurent shifts to politics, revealing the Regent has sailed for the Akielon capital of Ios. He demands the province of Delpha in exchange for troops and the testimony of Guion, the Regent's former councillor, proving Kastor's treason. They reach a bitter agreement: Delpha for Laurent's aid, with Nikandros to receive the governorship of Ios.

In a public ceremony, Damen and Laurent sit on twin thrones declaring their equality. Laurent presents a gold Veretian whip, the same one used on Damen during his enslavement, along with bound mercenaries who attacked the Akielon village of Tarasis, ordering them flogged before the army. The brutal display of justice wins Akielon approval. Damen presents Laurent with a matching gold slave cuff, establishing mutual symbolic ownership. They sign a treaty uniting their kingdoms against their usurpers.

From Guion, Damen learns Laurent was captured en route to Charcy and imprisoned with Govart, a violent enforcer in the Regent's service. Laurent killed Govart and leveraged Guion into switching sides. As tensions between the camps escalate, Damen discovers soldiers under Makedon, commander of the largest northern army, have abducted and brutalized a young Veretian boy, and he confronts Makedon directly.

The joint armies ride to Marlas, the site where Damen killed Auguste, for the bannermen's pledges. When a bannerman demands to know if Laurent is Damen's lover, Laurent displays the gold cuff and asks, "You are asking if I lay with the man who killed my own brother?" (107). His composure makes the idea seem impossible. Soon after, 200 unidentified riders attack a nearby village shouting "Damianos," though evidence links them to the Regent rather than Makedon. The attack is designed to fracture the alliance.

An intense sword fight between Damen and Laurent in the training arena becomes emotional catharsis, with Laurent admitting of Auguste: "He was everything I had" (137). When Makedon challenges Laurent to ride in the okton, a dangerous mounted spear competition, Laurent's extraordinary performance wins Makedon's pledge.

Damen carries a drunk Laurent to his chambers, where Laurent's guard drops entirely. Laurent tells Damen he misses him, and when Damen says he should take Laurent to bed, Laurent invites him to. Damen puts Laurent on the bed without taking advantage. As Laurent falls asleep, he murmurs, "Yes, uncle," an involuntary reference implying the Regent's sexual abuse when Laurent was thirteen. The next morning, Damen assures Laurent nothing happened and admits he misses Laurent too.

The armies march to the fort of Karthas, only to find it abandoned. Damen discovers Jokaste, Kastor's consort and his former lover, left behind after giving birth. The Regent's herald arrives accusing Damen of killing his own father, King Theomedes. Devastated, Damen sends Laurent to question Jokaste in his place. She reveals the child she bore is Damen's son, sent to the Regent as leverage.

Damen grieves alone until Laurent comes to him. Damen proposes they rule their territory together; Laurent asks how Damen can trust him, and Damen responds: "Because he was false and you are true" (200). They make love with full knowledge of each other's identities. Damen arranges to exchange Jokaste for the child at the Kingsmeet, an ancient ceremonial site with sacred laws forbidding violence. The night before departure, Laurent secretly frees Jokaste, believing the child is Kastor's and that Jokaste originally saved Damen's life by persuading Kastor to enslave rather than kill him.

Disguised as cloth merchants, the small party crosses Kastor's territory through improvised ruses, growing closer on the journey. At an inn, Laurent reveals, "I'm the last. My line ends with me" (270).

At the Kingsmeet, the Regent sits waiting. He reveals Laurent freed Jokaste to surrender himself in the child's place, sacrificing his life to free Damen from the Regent's leverage. The Regent then describes his abuse of Laurent, recounting how he entered the boy's bedroom after Auguste's death. Damen draws his sword in the sacred hall, an act forbidden on pain of death, and is restrained. Laurent, to save Damen's life, kneels before his uncle and begs to be taken for trial.

Released at dawn, Damen rides alone to Ios and surrenders publicly at the palace gates, forcing Kastor to bring him before the court where Laurent's trial is underway. Damen delivers a passionate defense, but Guion betrays them. Guion's wife Loyse steps forward instead, the witness Laurent planned to call. She reveals the Regent arranged access to her youngest son Aimeric in exchange for Guion serving as intermediary in the conspiracy to assassinate King Theomedes. Laurent's physician Paschal then presents papers that Nicaise, the Regent's former child companion, stole before Nicaise's execution. The papers prove the Regent ordered the assassination of his own brother, King Aleron of Vere, at Marlas, engineering the battle strategy that exposed Aleron and exploiting both Aleron's and Auguste's deaths to seize the Regency.

The Council kneels before Laurent as King. The Regent is executed. Kastor flees, and Damen pursues him to the slave baths where he was once chained. Damen offers mercy, but Kastor feigns acceptance and drives a knife into Damen's body. Laurent appears, locks Damen's gold cuff to a floor chain, and kills Kastor in single combat.

Laurent kneels beside the wounded Damen. "I killed your brother," Laurent says. "I know," Damen responds. Laurent tells him Ios is his; Damen says Laurent has Vere. Laurent says quietly, "And the centre. We both hold the centre. It was one kingdom, once" (340), proposing a united realm. Damen says yes. As he asks to be unchained, the bells of Ios ring out, proclaiming a new king.