“And the princess?” Nico was shaking with rage, and if he hadn’t been magically restricted, he would have shifted.
Valentino’s head cocked slightly. “Dead.”
I didn’t wait to see Nico’s response. I heard his wail of grief as I fled up the stairs.
I had to find the keys.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
KAGE
My chest heaved as panic threatened to consume me. Sammy dead? It couldn’t be true. It couldn’t.
My mind raced with a thousand fragmented thoughts as I steadied myself against a wooden post, trying to catch my breath. The horses shifted nervously in their stalls, sensing my unease.
Two guards stood near the entrance, their backs to me as they conversed in low tones. I froze, my body instinctively pressing against the post.
“She just vanished.” The taller guard gestured wildly with his hands. “One minute she was there, the next gone.”
“We need to find her.” The shorter guard kicked at some hay, sending it scattering across the stable floor. “Lord Sangre will have our hides if we don’t.”
“Maybe she’s got alpha abilities like her father.”
They both erupted into laughter, the sound grating against my already frayed nerves.
“Imagine a female alpha.” The shorter one snorted. “Andeven if they could be, they don’t get dream demon abilities. Besides, everyone knows the bitch is a null.”
Anger and relief flooded through me so intensely that my knees nearly buckled. Sammy wasn’t dead. She’d escaped somehow. I needed to tell Nico and give him hope before despair consumed him completely.
But Valentino would be coming up the stairs any minute. I glanced back at the trapdoor, my heart pounding against my ribs.
The keys. I had to get the keys.
I moved closer and scanned both guards, looking for any sign of them. Nothing visible on their belts, no bulges in their pockets as far as I could see. But one of them had to have them, and my time was running out.
How was I going to check their pockets without them noticing?
I needed a distraction. Something to get them moving in a way where they wouldn’t notice if I checked their pockets. Also, something to satisfy my innate need for chaos, since they had spoken badly about Sammy.
They were both shifters, and they were notoriously quick to settle their grievances with fists.
It would be the perfect opportunity for me to check for the keys.
And to get punched. But I tried not to think about that risk.
My eyes landed on a horseshoe hanging next to a stall. Perfect.
I crept forward, my invisible fingers wrapping around the cold metal. With a quick flick of my wrist, I sent it sailing through the air. It struck the shorter guard—he’d been the one to call Sammy a bitch—square in the back of the head with a satisfying thud.
He whirled around, eyes blazing. “What the fuck?”
The taller guard’s hand flew to his mouth, poorly concealing his laughter.
“You think this is funny?” The shorter guard’s face flushed crimson as he stalked toward his companion.
I held my breath, watching as the larger guard backed up, hands raised in mock surrender. “I didn’t throw it, you paranoid bastard.”
“Then who did?”
