Throne of the Fallen

Throne of the Fallen (2023) is a novel by the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Kerri Maniscalco. The novel explores the story of the Prince of Envy, a secondary character from Maniscalco’s Kingdom of the Wicked series, and is set in the same universe. 

Throne of the Fallen is an addition to the new adult fantasy genre and joins the growing trend of novels that blend magic and romance—the “romantasy” subgenre—like Shelby Mahurin’s Serpent & Dove series, Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses series, and Tricia Levenseller’s The Shadows Between Us. 

Maniscalco crafts a narrative of lies and deception, hope and yearning, and lust and passion amid the political intrigues and dastardly plots of the Underworld. The novel also explores themes including The Importance of Achieving Balance, The Gap Between Public and Private Personas, and The Far-Reaching Repercussions of Revenge.

This study guide refers to the Little, Brown, and Company e-book edition published in 2023.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide feature depictions of sexual content, sexual assault, death, and death by suicide.

Plot Summary

Prince of Envy is a prince of one of the seven circles of hell. When a member of Envy’s court burns alive, muttering a nonsensical anagram, Envy suspects that Lennox, King of the Unseelie, is behind the attack (the Unseelie are dark fae or fairies). After solving the anagram, Envy follows the clue to Camilla Antonius, a painter and gallery owner in the human town of Waverly Green, who already has her own problems. Subjected to Lord Vexley’s extortion and his unwarranted marriage proposal, Camilla is desperate to stop making forgeries for him. However, she worries about provoking a scandal and ruining herself socially and financially. 

Envy, portraying himself as Lord Ashford, visits Camilla’s gallery to commission a painting of the Hexed Throne, a hexed object created by the First Witch, to get the next clue in Lennox’s game. She refuses but encounters Envy again at Lord Vexley’s party, where she intends to steal the object that gave him the power to extort her: the forgery she’d made of her father Pierre’s most famous painting. Intrigued by Camilla’s activities and his growing attraction, Envy intervenes when she is nearly discovered and helps her escape. 

Back at her home, Envy once again asks for her cooperation. He attempts to seduce her to ensure her help but fails. With only one more chance to convince her, Envy organizes a ball and invites her to Hemlock Hall, the manor he recently purchased. However, events take a turn as another player in Lennox’s game attacks Camilla, and she kills him in self-defense. Envy helps her cover up the murder and proposes they fake their betrothal to avoid scandal. With no other option, Camilla accepts and complies with his request to paint the Hexed Throne.

Camilla delves deep into her magic to paint the Throne and summons it into existence after days of ceaseless work. The Throne takes the appearance of a demon and after Envy destroys it, they are given the location of the next clue: the home of Envy’s brother Sloth. Though Envy had planned to leave Camilla in Waverly Green, the clue explicitly states she must come with him—a demand Camilla grudgingly accepts. (Unbeknownst to Envy, Lennox took away Camilla’s magic after the demon was summoned and told her that she needed to finish the game with Envy if she wanted it back.) 

They depart for the Sin Corridor in the Underworld, an area that divides the Seven Circles and tests its inhabitants by subjecting them to every sin. Camilla is unaffected, which deepens Envy’s suspicions that she is not quite human. As their attraction grows, Envy and Camilla arrive at House Sloth and search the library-like home for an out-of-place object. While there, Camilla learns that Envy has a steadfast rule: He only takes his lovers for one night. She then finds the next clue: the Orb of Golath, a magicked orb that brings forth an ancient being. This being speaks in riddles, informing Envy that he will need to orchestrate a regicide in the vampire court to obtain his next clue.

As they make their way out of Sloth’s home and into Bloodwood Forest, Camilla accidentally invokes the vampire prince Prometheus, also known as Zarus. She is kidnapped by Blade, another vampire, and brought to Malice Isle, where the vampire court reigns. 

Envy, meanwhile, discovers that another player has carved his true name into the Curse Tree. To remove the curse, he agrees to a bargain with Vittoria, the Goddess of Death, and trades his beating heart for the player’s life. Though losing his heart doesn’t kill him, it severely weakens him. 

As Camilla attempts to resist Zarus’s thrall, Envy enters the court and challenges him. Zarus accepts, but Envy proves stronger, winning their fight. He allows Blade, who is actually his spy in the vampire court, to deal the killing blow and usurp Zarus’s throne. Camilla and Envy return to Hell, where they encounter Wolf, an Unseelie Fae. 

Jealousy brews in Envy, as he deduces that Camilla and Wolf share a past. Wolf delivers the next anagrammed clue, which Camilla and Envy solve as a reference to “dearly twins.” As Envy seeks out Vittoria, who is a twin, for the clue, Camilla confronts Wolf alone. He confirms that the clue is a reference to the Twin Pillars of Faerie, former gates between the realm and the human world. 

Wolf demands that Camilla acknowledge that she is a Fae, but she dismisses him. She goes to Envy’s House, where few of his members of court can be found, and those who can seem paranoid and troubled. She finds Envy in a compromising situation with Vittoria, who leaves upon Camilla’s entrance. In a fit of frustration, Camilla and Envy finally indulge their lust for one another.

After their night together, Envy still desires Camilla but chooses to deny it. Instead, he and Camilla travel to House Wrath, where the Twin Pillars are located. Envy’s brother Wrath forces him and Camilla to go through the Shallow Crescent, a magic spring that forces bathers to speak the truth, and Abyssus, the Pillars’ guardian, to reach their goal. 

While in the spring, Envy confirms that his court is failing, and he is playing the game to restore it. When they face Abyssus, however, Camilla is transported away to face her biggest fear while Envy is captured and tortured by Vexley. When she returns, she and Envy only have a handful of minutes to solve the remaining clue to win the game. 

Camilla kills Vexley and solves the final clue, opening a portal to the Wild Court. Before they pass through the gate, however, she tries to disclose her greatest secret: She is an Unseelie princess and Lennox’s daughter. Envy, however, presses on and discovers the truth when he faces off against Lennox. Feeling betrayed, he considers taking the Chalice of Memoria—the artifact that would cure his court—back with him and leaving Camilla behind. 

Lennox, meanwhile, forces Camilla to make a portal key to the human world, cages her, and tortures her while the Unseelie torture her human friends. Envy arrives to free Camilla. He fights Lennox, killing him with Camilla’s help, and in a blink, he returns to his court. There, he cures his court of their memory fog. However, when he learns that one of Camilla’s Unseelie siblings is planning to assassinate her, Envy returns to the Wild Court. Unable to deny his love any longer, he asks Camilla to return to his court as his consort. Camilla accepts, and together, they live both in Waverly Green and House Envy.