Page 132 of The Prince of Power

I sigh. “I don’t know what to say to you.”

Her lips curl into a thin smile. “I know.”

The breeze shifts, rustling the overgrown branches above us.

Her jaw hardens. “And I don’t feel sorry for what I’ve done.”

Her words dig into me like a hook. “What you’ve?—?”

But before I can finish, footsteps echo behind me. I barely have time to turn when a pair of hands clamp down on my shoulders.

A sharp sting blooms at the base of my neck. Cold spreads down my spine as my limbs go slack. The garden blurs, the edges softening. Coraline’s smile is at the center of it all.

And then the world goes black.

42

Damian

I pace the length of the room, each step measured but useless. My hands clench, then release. Again. Again. I can’t go to her until dusk—still a half hour away. Every minute drags like a blade across my nerves.

Why can’t it all be over already?

The door flies open, and Hunter barrels in. “I don’t know what the fuck is happening, but both the Sacred Light and Kane are gone.”

My heart jumps into my throat. “What the fuck?”

Hunter’s eyes are wild. “Every guard in the dungeon is dead. There were signs of a struggle in the Sacred Light’s room. I think—” He flinches.

“Gabriel did this,” I fill in for him.

“Yes.”

My heart pounds as my mind sharpens to a blade. “What about Ava?”

Hunter’s jaw clenches. “I have someone checking her room right now. And I have?—”

I don’t wait for him to finish. I’m already sprinting down the hall. When I burst into Ava’s room, it’s empty.

My chest heaves as I slam my fist into the wall. Hunter catches up behind me, his breaths coming in fast.

“Search the entire house,” I say. “And alert the patrolmen.”

Hunter scoffs. “I did that as soon as Kane went missing.”

I whirl on him, eyes blazing. “How the fuck could this have happened?”

Hunter’s jaw clenches, but he doesn’t flinch. “The patrolmen will catch them if they try to get off the estate.”

I’m about to bark another order when the sound of blades whipping through the air slices through the night. We both freeze.

A helicopter.

Hunter shuts his eyes. “Oh shit.”

We rush to the window as the black shape of an aircraft emerges beyond the cliffs.

“How the fuck did that get on the property?” I bark out.

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