Before we continue, this article contains affiliate links to Amazon. By purchasing through them, you are supporting The Game of Nerds.
“To get what you want, you have to know exactly how much you are willing to give up.”
Enemy princes Damen and Laurent return in C.S. Pacat’s novel Prince’s Gambit, the sequel to Captive Prince and the second book in its trilogy.
Something fundamental changed between Damen and Laurent on the night Laurent’s death was meant to start a war. The death of a Veretian prince at the hands of his Akielon slave. It was the perfect plan, except, against all odds, they chose to protect each other.
Now backed into a corner, there is only one thing Laurent can do: submit to his uncle’s wishes and lead a small team of men to the border of Vere and Akielos, where his uncle surely means for him to die. While Damen should rejoice at the thought of the death of his enemy, nevermind his captor, he knows that Laurent’s life is the one thing standing between tentative peace and an all-out war between their countries.
If Damen wants to save Akielos, he must protect Laurent, no matter how wrong it feels. But away from the polished unpleasantness of court, Laurent is not what Damen expected.
“‘I intend to survive, I intend to beat my uncle, and I will fight with every weapon that I have.’”
As Laurent schemes away, stealing off into the night and spinning mad plans with unlikely allies, Damen begins to see the kind of king he would grow to be if he can survive this, and the king he sees is one he finds is worth fighting for. As their hesitant trust begins to shift into something more, Damen realizes that the choice he must make at the end of this will not be as easy as he once thought.
“Never had he wanted something this badly, and held it in his hands knowing that tomorrow it would be gone, traded for the high cliffs of Ios, and the uncertain future across the border, the chance to stand before his brother, to ask him for all the answers that no longer seemed important. A kingdom, or this.”
The redemption arc
“‘I thought you had more sophisticated tastes than that,’ said Damen.
‘Did you?’ said Laurent.
‘I’ve seen your court,’ Damen reminded him gently.
‘You’ve seen my uncle’s court,’ said Laurent.”
After suffering through hell in Arles, Damen thinks he knows Laurent. He thinks he understands Veretians and their dark, malicious scheming. He thinks he knows what he is getting into when choosing to ally himself with their prince, because despite everything Laurent has put him through, he is the one person standing between his uncle and a war with Akielos. He thinks he is choosing the lesser evil. But outside the walls of Arles and away from his uncle, away from his backstabbing, duplicitous court, away from the home he had to learn how to protect himself from, Damen quickly realizes that there is much more to Laurent than he thought possible.
“His own reaction had him feeling oddly off balance. It was just that it was–unexpected. He had not known this about Laurent, that he was trained like this, capable like this. He wasn’t sure why he felt as though something, fundamentally, had changed.”
And something fundamental has changed. Seeing Laurent like this, in a space where he is able to act like a leader, the king he is meant to be, instead of a prince fighting to survive in a game that started when he was far too young to understand it, has changed something. It has made Damen realize that he has fallen into the same trap Laurent has laid for everyone.
You’re more likely to win the game if you don’t play your whole hand at once, is what Laurent told him, in a moment that feels like a lifetime ago. This is the beginning of Laurent as he was meant to be. Not the Laurent who was angry, finding any excuse to lash out at the man leeching his power away from him. Or at the slave, powerless to defend himself, who has done nothing wrong but remind him of the man who killed the person he loved most in this world.
And although this does not erase the way Laurent treated Damen during Captive Prince, it does provide them with the space and time to understand each other. Here, away from Arles, Damen sees a Laurent who is mischievous and surprisingly playful, deliberately pushing roof tiles onto the street to chase the thrill of the game. A Laurent who takes risks and leaps even when he isn’t quite sure he can make the distance. A Laurent who has come to trust Damen to catch him if he ever falls short.
Laurent started off as the enemy. The cruel prince. The malicious captor. And Laurent is still these things. He’s still angry. Still arrogant and mistrusting. Still a mouthy brat and a golden prince who picks the wings off flies. But he is also more.
“‘I didn’t understand what being king meant to you.’
‘What’s that?’
‘An end to fighting.’”
That is all he wants, really. For the fighting to be over. The fighting between their countries. The fighting that killed his brother. The fighting in his own home, for a court and a throne that is meant to be his. The fighting for his life. For Damen’s. For the chance to be seen and understood and accepted for everything he is. For someone to see all the ugly parts of him and choose to stay. Even if that chance is fleeting. Even if he is gone tomorrow.
The shifting of feelings
After the events of Captive Prince, Damen and Laurent are forced to trust each other if they want to survive the regent’s schemes and the war that will subsequently follow Laurent’s death if he is to have his way. Neither of them trust each other, but they are smart enough to recognize that they must work together if they are to have a shot at beating the odds. They have come from enemies to tentative allies and as they work together, witnessing each other outside the roles of slave and captor, the trust that grows between them allows their relationship to grow into something more.
“‘You’re alive,’ Damen said, and the words came out in a rush of relief that made him feel weak.
‘I’m alive,’ said Laurent. They were gazing at one another. ‘I wasn’t sure you’d come back.’
‘I came back,’ said Damen.”
They have changed. They have learned to trust and rely on each other in ways they have never been able to before with another person. It says so much about how their relationship has already shifted when Damen finds himself relieved to see that Laurent is alive, and Laurent likewise so when he sees that Damen chose to come back. There is no longing, no pining, no sexual tension. But the words passed between them are filled with so much unexpected emotion that it feels just as emotionally vulnerable as a love confession. And that’s what makes their journey from enemies, to reluctant allies, to friends, to lovers so perfect.
Although Captive Prince is a romance series, Pacat places importance on all aspects of the book. The plot and character development are just as important as the romance and this creates an authentic foundation for the romance that comes after. But before the romance can start, they each need to overcome the preconceived notions they have of each other, bred from the hatred of their nations. Although Damen has witnessed firsthand the cruelty that festers in the court of Arles, we have to remember that Damen is not innocent in this either.
When Damen killed Laurent’s brother, he became the reason for one of the biggest traumas of Laurent’s life. Both Laurent and Damen have such prejudiced views about the other, but together they are able to see each other through what they have come to expect. Laurent is not the cruel, manipulative Prince of Vere Damen thought he was and Damen is not the violent, heartless barbarian Laurent assumed a soldier of Akielos was. They have both been prejudiced and unfair with each other. And that is why their relationship works so well despite the abuse they have both suffered.
“‘I didn’t think he’d really try to kill me,’ he said. ‘After everything…even after everything. So you see I can be surprised.’
Damen said, “It’s not naive to trust your family.’
‘I promise you, it is,’ said Laurent. ‘But I wonder, is it less naive than the moments when I find myself trusting a stranger, my barbarian enemy, whom I do not treat gently.’”
In a reality where Laurent cannot trust his own family, this admission means everything. The Captive Prince series could have so easily been turned into a dark romance, or fallen victim to the tropes popular in the kinds of enemies-to-lovers books that are raved about on BookTok. But instead of being overcome by their attraction to each other while at each other’s throats, they find safety. They find a person they can rely on in the most unlikely of places: their enemy. And when the romance does come, it feels inevitable that they could have ended up anywhere but here, despite the odds against them.
The reminder of trauma
As I touched upon in my review of Captive Prince, one of my biggest reservations about reading this series was that the romance is between the main character and his abuser. Now, as the relationship between Damen and Laurent begins to change, the romance between them feels successful in its authenticity because Pacat doesn’t leave the trauma and abuse of the first book behind. Damen doesn’t forget what Laurent has done to him even as his feelings start to change and neither does Laurent.
“‘In Arles, I treated you with malice and cruelty. I will not insult you by attempting to atone for deeds with words, but I would not treat you that way again. I was angry. Angry, that isn’t the word.’ it was bitten off; a jagged silence followed.
Laurent said steadily, ‘I have your oath that you will see this border skirmish through to its end? Then you have mine: stay with me until this thing is done, and I will take off the cuffs and the collar. I will release you willingly. We can face each other as free men. Whatever is to fall out between us can do so then.’”
It isn’t quite an apology, but Laurent is right. There are simply some things you cannot apologize for. But it means something that he regrets the way things transpired between them, especially as someone who does not easily admit when he is wrong. He cannot take back the things he said or erase the things he has done. But he can do the one thing that truly matters: set Damen free. Laurent risks losing everything. His slave. His captain. His friend. Their chance at something more, and that is why Laurent’s oath means something.
Because of the way their relationship started, as slave and captor, there is something particularly vulnerable about it as it begins to change. As Laurent’s slave, Damen has a lot to lose by putting his trust in the man who has utter control over his life. But Damen also sees a side to Laurent that no one else does. The way Laurent conducts himself, all tightly laced up and heavily guarded, cold and standoffish and even dangerous to anyone who attempts to get close to him, leaves no opportunity for intimacy or vulnerability. But Damen is there when no one else is. Damen is there when Laurent sneaks out into the middle of the night, leaving the mask of the prince behind. Damen is there to see Laurent climb out of brothel windows and sprint across rooftops. And he is there when Laurent loses his carefully cultivated control. He is the one who has learned to pull him back from the anger he gets consumed by.
“Laurent’s laugh was strange, a breathless sound. ‘Didn’t you hear anything that I just said to you?’
‘Yes,’ said Damen. ‘You tried to hurt me, and you have. I wish you would see that what you have just done to me is what your uncle is doing to you.’
He saw Laurent receive that like a man at the very ends of his endurance being given another hit. ‘Why,’ said Laurent, ‘do you–do you always–’ He stopped himself. The rise and fall of his chest was shallow.”
Laurent’s less flattering qualities don’t disappear just because he has grown to trust and care for someone. That isn’t how people work, and Pacat crafts her characters like real, authentic people, flaws and all. After everything, Laurent has become just as vulnerable as Damen, despite the fact that he is the one to hold all the power. Damen has seen Laurent at his worst, and that is what allows him to understand him, to see past the cruel words that might have blinded him with anger once. He is there, and does not flinch when Laurent lashes out, despite the pain his words cause. What’s different this time is that Damen understands him. He knows Laurent on a level no one has ever known him and he isn’t afraid to push back.
But Damen and Laurent are more than just the budding romance between them and that is why their relationship is so successful despite the way it started. They are the struggle of overcoming trauma and prejudice. They are the war between their countries, and their desire for peace. They are two people who were never meant to last, despite how real it is. Despite how much they need each other. They both know it.
“A kingdom, or this.”
My final thoughts…
I gave Prince’s Gambit five out of five stars. This was truly the perfect sequel to Captive Prince.
In my last review I said that all the choices Pacat made felt very intentional. Nothing was included for shock value. Nothing was romanticized. As the second book in a series following a book that contained sexual abuse between the two main characters, I think Pacat made the perfect choice to focus on the plot and to have Damen and Laurent learn to trust each other through the conflict they have to endure together before allowing the romance to start.
While I do still think that making Damen Laurent’s sex slave was certainly a choice and that starting off their relationship with so much anger and abuse can be hard to read, seeing each other at their worst seems to be exactly what allows them to be the exact person the other needs and there is something really beautiful in that.
And now with Damen’s identity in the open, I cannot wait to read what happens next in the final book in the trilogy: King’s Rise.
