King's Cage is the third book in the Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard.
Synopsis
Mare Barrow is a prisoner, powerless without her lightning, tormented by her lethal mistakes. She lives at the mercy of a boy she once loved, a boy made of lies and betrayal. Now a king, Maven Calore continues weaving his dead mother's web in an attempt to maintain control over his country—and his prisoner.
As Mare bears the weight of Silent Stone in the palace, her once-ragtag band of newbloods and Reds continue organizing, training, and expanding. They prepare for war, no longer able to linger in the shadows. And Cal, the exiled prince with his own claim on Mare's heart, will stop at nothing to bring her back.
When blood turns on blood, and ability on ability, there may be no one left to put out the fire—leaving Norta as Mare knows it to burn all the way down.
Plot
The story starts off with Mare under Maven's captivity. She is displayed to look weak as they travel through Archeon, where she joins him on stage, and is forced to kneel. Maven wants to "display" her like she did to his mother, while Mare wears a spiked, chained, collar of silent stone. Maven delivers a big speech to the crowd of Silvers, and then abandons Mare, then she is led down to her bedroom "cell". Mare assumes that he hopes for her to be forgotten and to "rot". He does that by isolating her, and using the silent stone to contain her powers. Mare battles with Maven's two-sided personality as she is held captive and finds a small part of herself searching for the boy she once loved. Maven slowly starts revealing some of his tragic and sad story in which his late mother, Queen Elara, abused him within the mind. She manipulated and poisoned his thoughts out of what she called love, to shape him into a cruel and master mindful king. As he reveals small parts of himself, Mare learns that he has always loved her, in what poisoned way he can, and that he can't find it in him to let her go. Maven and some fellow significant people, along with Mare, leave Whitefire, when he repeals the measures executed by the late King Tiberias the sixth. Later, he ends the war with the Lakelands by agreeing to wed the Lakelander, Princess Iris. They return to Whitefire, soon to take place a royal wedding. At the wedding, chaos strikes as the Scarlet Guard attacks, rescuing Mare. Mare and Cal grow closer together when they return. Later, the Scarlet Guard ally with the Samos family and a few other rebelling houses whom which are against Maven's rule. They want to overthrow Maven, offering to make Cal king with Evangeline as Queen. Mare forces Cal to choose between his rightful place on the throne, or their relationship. Cal chooses the throne, resulted in Mare feeling betrayed once again, which damages their relationship