I had so many questions and concerns, but for now, I let him guide me. Maybe whatever he’d ordered would help.
Probably not. Nothing would help until I got back to Inferna and found my men.
But at least I’d have cake.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
NICO
Istood in the empty dungeon, the silence pressing against my ears. The cells were open, and the keys were on the ground, as if they’d been tossed aside in haste.
I ran a hand over my face, trying to think through the panic clawing at my chest. Where would Edmund have taken them? The square for public executions? A private dungeon somewhere else? The thought of Sammy in chains, scared and alone, made my blood hot enough to burn through my veins.
“We sh-sh-should go.” Kage’s voice was barely above a whisper, and I couldn’t blame him. The dungeon held an echo of terror that seemed to linger in the stone walls.
I nodded, forcing my feet to move toward the secret passage.
We retraced our steps through the narrow crawl space, Kage’s breathing shallow and rapid behind me. The tightness in my chest didn’t ease as we emerged into the forest. The moon cast silver light through the black branches, and I had never felt more alone in my life.
Not alone. I glanced at Kage, his form flickering in andout of visibility as his anxiety spiked. I had him, even though he was a nervous wreck, and I had no clue what I was doing.
I didn’t know how to plan a rescue mission. Some protector I was. The proof was all there. I crushed the thought before it could fully form. I needed to focus on Sammy.
The forest was quiet around us, too quiet. Even the insects seemed to have gone silent, and my shifter instincts screamed that something was wrong. I kept my pace steady but quick, scanning the shadows for movement.
Kage stumbled beside me, his muttering growing louder. “N-n-need to clean. Use m-my rag to w-w-wipe down. Dust, d-dust, du?—”
I slowed enough to grab his elbow, steadying him. “Are you okay?”
He shook his head rapidly. “N-no. No, I’m n-not okay. We n-need to f-find them. W-we need to?—”
“We’re going to find them.” I released his elbow and kept walking, my eyes on the dark path ahead. “But we need to rest first. We can’t help them if we’re dead on our feet.”
Kage made a noise that might have been agreement or might have been panic—I couldn’t tell. He followed me anyway, his footsteps almost silent beside the occasional crunch of a leaf.
The trees thinned as we moved north, and the path widened into a narrow road. I didn’t exactly know where Val’s village was, but I knew the general direction. If Val and Amari had escaped with Sammy, I could only assume they’d head there.
I didn’t trust Val, but he cared about Sammy, and that made him useful.
“Nico?” Kage’s worried voice pulled me from my thoughts. “W-where are we going?”
“Val’s village. I don’t think it’s that much farther. It’s the safest place we can go right now.”
His face went pale. “V-v-v-v-vampires?”
The house mage clearly did not like that idea. “Yeah. What’s the problem?”
Kage’s hands were twisting in front of him, his rag wrung into a knot. “V-v-vampires can s-s-smell house mages. It’s how they h-h-hunted—” He cut off, his jaw clamping shut.
I didn’t need him to finish the sentence. I knew the history of how house mages had been slaughtered, nearly driven to extinction. It was one of the darker chapters in Inferna’s history, one that most demons pretended didn’t exist.
“I’ll figure something out.” I reached for my pouch automatically, planning to grab a nut to calm him down, but my hand closed on empty air.
“Fuck.” The word came out harsher than I intended, and Kage flinched.
I stopped walking, my heart hammering. The nuts weren’t just weapons. Without them, I felt like I’d lost a part of myself all over again.
“What’s wr-wrong?”
