Kingdom of the Feared

Kingdom of the Feared Plot Summary

Introduction

# Bound by Fury: A Goddess's Sacrifice for Love In the frozen depths of Hell's Seven Circles, where demon princes rule through eternal sin and vice, a young woman awakens to discover her entire life has been a lie. Emilia di Carlo believed herself a mortal witch from Sicily, raised among vineyards and olive groves by her loving grandmother. But when she accidentally summons Prince Wrath—the most feared demon king in the underworld—through an ancient ritual, she sets in motion events that will shatter the very foundations of reality. The truth is more devastating than any nightmare: Emilia is Fury incarnate, goddess of vengeance, her memories stolen by a spell that has kept her powerless for twenty years. Her twin sister Vittoria, the goddess of death, has already broken free from their mystical prison and now walks among demons and werewolves, leaving a trail of blood in her wake. As vampire courts scheme and witch covens conspire, Emilia faces an impossible choice between embracing her divine fury and losing her humanity forever, or remaining trapped in mortality while the realms burn around her. But the greatest revelation awaits in the arms of Wrath himself—the demon she once loved and betrayed, now cursed to lose everything he holds dear.

Chapter 1: Awakening Divine: The Goddess Unveiled

The summoning circle blazed with unholy light as Emilia spoke the Latin words in the candlelit monastery. She had come seeking answers about her twin sister Vittoria's brutal murder, but instead called forth something far more dangerous. Prince Wrath materialized in a storm of ice and shadow, his golden eyes burning with centuries of rage. The demon king stood before her, magnificent and terrifying, his presence turning the air to frost. Their first journey together took them through the Sin Corridor, that treacherous mountain pass between demon realms. Emilia marveled at the twisted beauty of hell—cities of black glass and silver spires, rivers of liquid starlight, skies that burned with eternal twilight. But it was Wrath himself who captivated her most. Beneath his cold exterior, she glimpsed flashes of something deeper: loneliness, loss, and a pain that mirrored her own. The truth struck like lightning when they found Vittoria very much alive in the Shadow Realm. Her sister's death had been an elaborate ruse, designed to break the spell that had bound them both. "We are not mortal witches," Vittoria revealed, her eyes now blazing with divine power. "We are the goddesses of Death and Fury, spell-locked by those who feared our return." As the revelation sank in, Emilia felt the first stirrings of her true nature awakening. Rose-gold flames erupted around her as ancient memories flooded back—ruling from a throne of black stone, wielding fire magic, feared and worshipped as a goddess of vengeance. The tattoo appeared on her ring finger—SEMPER TUUS, forever yours—binding her to the demon prince who had searched for her across centuries. But with awakening came devastating knowledge. The spell-lock that imprisoned her memories was anchored to a mortal heart—a heart torn from an innocent witch child and transplanted through the darkest magic. To become fully divine again, she would have to surrender the very thing that made her capable of love, compassion, and mercy. The cage was breaking, and soon the monster within would be free.

Chapter 2: Shadows of Betrayal: Ancient Conspiracies Revealed

The spell-lock that bound Emilia had been crafted by the Star Witches, led by her own beloved grandmother, Nonna Maria. The woman who had raised her with gentle hands and warm embraces had murdered innocent twin witches, carving out their hearts to create the magical prison that kept Fury contained. The betrayal cut deeper than any blade, shattering Emilia's understanding of love and family. Nonna's motivations were rooted in ancient duty—the Star Witches served as guardians, keeping the most dangerous beings locked away from the mortal world. But their methods were brutal, sacrificing the innocent to maintain their version of order. They had stolen twenty years of Emilia's life, trapping her in a false existence while the real world burned around them. The curse's origins traced back to Sursea, the First Witch, whose hatred for the demon princes had sparked this entire nightmare. She had struck a bargain with House Vengeance, hiring Emilia and Vittoria to seduce and betray the princes Pride and Wrath. The plan was elegant in its cruelty—make the demons fall in love, then destroy them with that very love. But love had proven more powerful than hate. When Wrath discovered the deception, he chose forgiveness over vengeance. This act of mercy had enraged Sursea, who cursed him to lose everything he held dear. His wings were torn away, his heart locked in ice, doomed to forget all but his wrath. The curse would only break if he found true love again—and then lost it forever. As Emilia's memories slowly returned, she recalled the night everything went wrong. She had been meant to betray Wrath at the Feast of the Wolf, but instead had confessed everything, choosing love over duty. In that moonlit garden, she had given her heart to the demon king, only to be ripped away by the Star Witches' spell. The last thing she remembered was his anguished roar as she vanished from his arms. Now the web of deception was unraveling, each thread revealing new layers of betrayal and manipulation. Time was running out—Wrath's bargain with Sursea allowed only six years, six months, and six days to break the curse. Failure would mean eternal separation, and the clock was already ticking toward their doom.

Chapter 3: Twin Flames Divided: Death's Path and Fury's Choice

The werewolves came like a plague of shadows, their howls echoing across the bridge between demon territories. Domenico led them, the alpha who had once been Emilia's childhood friend, now transformed into something wild and dangerous. Behind the pack walked Vittoria, no longer the playful sister who had shared secrets and dreams, but a goddess drunk on her own terrible power. Vittoria demonstrated her abilities with casual cruelty, plunging her magically altered hand through Domenico's chest and ripping out his still-beating heart. Then, with a gesture that defied nature itself, she restored him to life, proving that death was merely another tool in her arsenal. "We are hell gods, Emilia," she declared, her lavender eyes burning with unholy light. "We are the Feared." She wanted her sister to embrace their true nature, to cast aside the mortal heart that had been magically implanted in her chest, to reclaim the power that was their birthright as goddesses of vengeance. But the price of awakening was steep—to become fully divine again, Emilia would have to surrender the very thing that made her capable of love. When Wrath intervened, his fury turning the very air to ice and flame, Vittoria was ready. The blade she wielded wasn't the legendary weapon that could kill a demon prince, but it was coated with a poison crafted by death herself. As Wrath collapsed, his bronze skin turning pale, Vittoria revealed the true scope of her plan. She would force Emilia to choose: watch her beloved die, or embrace the monster she was born to be. The battle that followed was chaos incarnate. Emilia's rage manifested as pillars of rose-gold fire that consumed everything in their path. But even divine fury couldn't save them from Vittoria's final gambit—a sleeping curse that dragged Emilia's soul into the Shadow Realm, leaving her body cold and lifeless in Wrath's arms. In the ethereal mists where spirits danced between life and death, Vittoria ruled through terror, demonstrating her control by casually murdering and reviving her followers. She had embraced her divine nature completely, discarding every trace of humanity in pursuit of absolute power. The sister Emilia had loved was gone, replaced by something beautiful and terrible and utterly without mercy.

Chapter 4: Courts of Deception: Murder, Politics, and Hidden Truths

The summons came at midnight, pulling Emilia and Wrath from their newfound intimacy into the political machinations of Hell's nobility. Prince Greed's message was urgent: his most valued commander had been murdered, and he demanded blood retribution against the only suspect—Vittoria di Carlo, the goddess of death. In Greed's opulent gaming hall, surrounded by demons who adorned themselves with jewels fused to their skin, the evidence seemed damning. Vesta, commander of Greed's armies, had been found torn apart in her private chambers. Werewolf blood saturated the scene, and an enchanted skull delivered a taunting message in verse, its ruby eyes gleaming with malice. But Emilia's investigative instincts detected inconsistencies in the narrative. The skull's voice was wrong—not Vittoria's familiar tone. The attack had been too brutal, too public for her calculating sister. And Vesta herself remained an enigma, a demon commander whose past was shrouded in secrecy. When Prince Sloth examined the remains, his clinical assessment revealed disturbing details. The blood evidence was contaminated, werewolf scent overwhelming any other traces. Vesta had been asking strange questions about blood detection, as if preparing for something. Most telling of all, no one could definitively identify the mangled corpse. The vampire court's gambit came next, audacious in its simplicity and terrifying in its implications. They had come to House Wrath under the pretense of alliance, bringing with them the First Witch herself—Sursea, the architect of so much suffering. But their true mission was theft: to steal Emilia away while a magically disguised vampire seduced Wrath with an illusion of his wife's face. The deception might have worked on a lesser demon, but Wrath had loved Emilia across lifetimes, had memorized the rhythm of her heartbeat, the cadence of her breath, the way her soul called to his. When the truth was revealed, his response was swift and brutal. He tore the vampire spy's head from her shoulders with his bare hands, sending a message that would echo through the southern courts: steal from the devil at your own peril.

Chapter 5: The Curse's Grip: Racing Against Magical Bonds

The discovery of Wrath's secret broke something fundamental in Emilia's understanding of their relationship. In Celestia's tower, surrounded by grimoires and alchemical formulas, she found the recipe for the tonic her husband consumed: the Bleeding Heart, designed to prevent strong emotions from taking root. He was medicating himself against love, using magic to numb his feelings and circumvent the curse that would destroy them both if he allowed himself to care too deeply. The revelation was both heartbreaking and illuminating. Wrath's emotional distance wasn't rejection—it was protection. Every measured response, every careful word, every moment when he seemed to hold himself back was an act of love so profound it defied comprehension. He was sacrificing his own emotional freedom to keep her safe, to prevent the curse from activating and tearing them apart again. But Emilia refused to accept a love built on such foundations. With Fauna's help, she began researching ways to break both the spell-lock that bound her power and the curse that constrained Wrath's heart. The answers lay buried in ancient texts, in the intersection of divine magic and mortal sacrifice, in the very nature of what it meant to be both goddess and woman. Deep beneath House Wrath, in caverns carved from living stone, lay the Well of Memory—a repository of nightmares and forgotten truths. Emilia descended into its crystal-clear waters, seeking the location of the legendary Blade of Ruination, the only weapon capable of severing Wrath's curse. The memories she witnessed were fragments of anguish: Sursea's bitter hatred, a werewolf pup torn from her family, and most shocking of all, the truth about her friend Claudia. The memory stone revealed Claudia's true identity as Lucia, Pride's lost wife and daughter of the First Witch. She had chosen to forget her divine heritage and demon husband, fleeing to a life of mortal simplicity rather than face the complexities of love and duty. The Blade of Ruination lay hidden beneath her cottage floor, waiting for the day someone would be desperate enough to pay its terrible price. The blade's magic was elegant in its cruelty. To break a curse, it demanded an equal exchange—all of the wielder's power, willingly given. Lucia's blood would activate the weapon, but Emilia would have to sacrifice every drop of her divine magic to fuel its work. The goddess who had just reclaimed her fire would have to surrender it forever.

Chapter 6: Sacred Sacrifice: Trading Divinity for Freedom

Standing in Claudia's humble kitchen, surrounded by the scents of herbs and home-baked bread, Emilia made her choice. Her friend activated the blade with trembling hands, tears streaming down her face as she understood the magnitude of the sacrifice. "You have one hour," Claudia whispered, "before the magic fades and the opportunity is lost forever." Racing back to the Seven Circles through werewolf portals, Emilia found Wrath in his private library, surrounded by ancient tomes and flickering candlelight. When she explained what must be done, his face went white with horror. "I will not stab my wife," he declared, his voice shaking with barely controlled emotion. But Emilia pressed the blade into his hands, her eyes blazing with determination. "You called me Death once," she reminded him, "and you were right. I am willing to die to break this curse, to free us both from the chains of the past. Trust me, Samael. Trust in our love." With tears streaming down both their faces, Wrath positioned the blade over her heart. As their lips met in a desperate kiss, he drove the weapon home, speaking the activation spell against her mouth as her scream of agony was swallowed by his own cry of anguish. The Blade of Ruination blazed with rose-gold fire as it drank her power, leaving her mortal and gasping in his arms. The moment the blade withdrew from Emilia's chest, the curse shattered like glass. Wrath's magnificent wings erupted from his shoulders in a blaze of silver-tipped flame, their heat warming the frozen library as his full power returned. But the victory felt hollow as he cradled his weakened wife, her divine fire extinguished forever. She had given up everything—her magic, her immortal strength, her very identity as Fury—to free him from Sursea's hatred. Yet love proved stronger than any curse. As Wrath held Emilia close, whispering words of devotion he had been unable to speak for years, she felt no regret. The hollow ache where her power once lived was filled with something far more precious—the certainty that she had chosen correctly. She had traded godhood for humanity, infinite power for finite love, and found the bargain more than fair. No longer the feared goddess of vengeance, she had become something new—a mortal woman who had touched divinity and chosen to let it go.

Chapter 7: Love Triumphant: Power Reborn Through Unity

The Sin Corridor blazed with unholy light as representatives from all Seven Circles gathered for Emilia's coronation. Snow fell like silver tears from the twilight sky, each flake catching the glow of torches and magical flames. Wrath stood beside his bride, magnificent in his black and gold regalia, his crown gleaming like captured starlight. But all eyes were on Emilia, resplendent in a gown that incorporated symbols from every House of Sin, marking her as queen over all. The ceremony was interrupted by revelations that shook the very foundations of hell. Vittoria arrived with Domenico and the very much alive Vesta—now calling herself Marcella—proving that the "murder" that had nearly sparked a war was nothing more than an elaborate rescue. Greed's rage at being deceived was matched only by his shame at having his cruelty exposed before all the courts. As the truth unfolded, the complex web of relationships and betrayals became clear. Marcella was Domenico's sister, stolen as a child to serve Greed's ambitions. Her father had died helping her escape, his body left behind to maintain the illusion of her death. Vittoria had aided their reunion not out of malice but from a deeper understanding of what it meant to be separated from those you love. The coronation proceeded despite the chaos, each prince offering their blood to seal Emilia's rule. When Vittoria stepped forward as the final witness, representing the newly restored House Vengeance, the magical threads of all eight Houses wove together in a display of power that lit up the mountain peaks. The broken crown on Emilia's head became whole, marking her transformation from mortal witch to Queen of the Seven Circles. But the greatest magic was yet to come. In their private bonding ceremony, witnessed only by their closest friends, Wrath and Emilia spoke vows that transcended politics and power. They bound themselves soul to soul, sharing not just their lives but their very essence. When Wrath split his divine fire between them, Emilia's magic returned—not as the destructive force of Fury but as something new and beautiful, tempered by love and sacrifice. Her power was reborn, not as the rose-gold flames of vengeance but as something entirely new—a force born of love and sacrifice, tempered by mortality and made stronger through loss. Together, they would rule not as god and goddess but as partners who had chosen each other over everything else the universe had to offer.

Summary

In the frozen depths of Hell, Emilia di Carlo discovered that love could be both salvation and damnation, that the greatest prisons were built not of stone and steel but of false memories and stolen hearts. Her journey from mortal witch to awakening goddess revealed the terrible price of power and the even greater cost of denying one's true nature. Wrath, the demon prince who had loved her across lifetimes, showed her that even the damned could choose sacrifice over selfishness, that true strength lay not in the absence of feeling but in the courage to feel despite the consequences. The revelation that their entire existence had been orchestrated by those who feared them transformed both sisters into something beyond mortal comprehension. Yet where Vittoria chose the path of absolute vengeance, embracing the monster she was born to be, Emilia stood at the crossroads between divine fury and human compassion. Her sacrifice had not diminished her but revealed her true strength—she was no longer Fury incarnate but something far more dangerous: a queen who ruled through love rather than fear. In the end, the greatest magic was not the power to destroy or create, but the strength to love in defiance of fate itself, to forge bonds that could survive the collapse of worlds and the machinations of gods. Their love had become the crucible in which curses were broken and new forms of divinity were born.

About Author

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Kerri Maniscalco

Maniscalco reframes gothic storytelling by weaving together historical intrigue and supernatural fantasy. Her fascination with gothic settings and forensic science, rooted in her upbringing in a semi-haunted house outside New York City, informs her unique narrative style. With books like "Stalking Jack the Ripper," Maniscalco blends historical fiction with mystery, immersing readers in atmospheric details and fast-paced plots. The transition to her "Kingdom of the Wicked" trilogy showcases her ability to integrate fantasy elements, such as witches and demons, into richly imagined worlds. This dual focus on the eerie and the fantastical captivates readers who appreciate strong female protagonists and the exploration of identity and family dynamics.\n\nIn her writing, Maniscalco delves into themes of identity and the intersection of reality and fantasy, a combination that engages fans of both historical thrillers and modern fantasy. The author's detailed settings and complex characters allow readers to immerse themselves in her narratives, gaining insight into human nature and societal constructs. Her works, consistently appearing on bestseller lists, resonate with audiences seeking both escape and depth. Notably, "Throne of the Fallen," her adult debut set in the same universe as her young adult series, further extends her reach, appealing to a broader audience while maintaining the thematic integrity her readers expect.

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