Page 16 of All Hallows Trick

“Anyone could have done this,” I said, swallowing.

“Nah, it’s probably the shadow man,” Madde disagreed, far too chipper. “He’s stalking us. Ooh, that’s a better name. The Stalker. Let’s call him that.”

“What are we talking about?” Death asked, his hand flexing on my back. My shoulders tensed at his tone, but I pushed down my initial panic that he would suddenly change his mind about wanting me and see all the flaws that lurked just beneath my surface.

“Last night, I couldn’t sleep,” I answered, my stomach winding into a tight knot in anticipation of their reactions. “I went onto the balcony and saw a man in a black coat and a top hat watching us from the town.”

“I was there too,” Madde put in helpfully, framing his chin with both hands, annoyingly cute.

“Yes, thank you,” I huffed, and forced myself to look at Tor, Death, and Miz. I couldn’t read their reactions other than a baseline of worry and annoyance. At me? Or at the spirit? “He’s my darkness, so we have a… a bond. We talked on the balcony.” I shrugged, turning back to the ghost because that was more important right now.

I startled when I realised the ghost had floated closer, facing us fully, his face visible now, mouth hanging open in a rictus scream. Opaque white eyes stared unseeingly, and my blood chilled when I realised the jacket he wore was unbuttoned to show the word SURPRISE carved into his chest. It bled, vibrant, living red. How could ghosts bleed?

“I swear to fucking god, Madness,” Tor began, squeezing my hand and edging closer to me. “Leave our girl alone.”

“Our girl,” Madde replied in a low purr. “I like the sound of that. We could have so much fun sharing her, don’t you think? I have a bookfullof ideas.”

“How can a ghost bleed?” I cut in, ignoring the tight band around my chest, the fear creeping closer. “The ghost is bleeding. That’s not normal, right?”

I jumped back when the sailor floated closer, swaying on the top step of Madde’s castle. There was no scent of decay around him, no low moaning coming from his pained mouth, but it was eerie. Unsettling. And that word—surprise.

“No,” Miz was the one to answer me, stroking down my arm. “Ghosts can’t usually bleed. Blood is for the living. And us, I suppose. The half-alive.”

I bit my lip so hard the skin threatened to break, keeping the words trapped on the top of my tongue, not wanting Miz to be as scared as I was. Three words.This is her.Nightmare. She’d done this. She was taunting us. She couldn’t enter Death’s domain, so she’d used the ghosts to send us a message. My hands began to shake, my breathing coming faster, shorter.

“Cat,” Misery said gently, catching my hand and bringing my knuckles to his lips. I barely felt it; I was starting to go numb. “It’s okay. The ghost can’t hurt you.”

“What did this? What could make a ghost look like this?” I asked, something in my recoiling at the ghost’s milky eyes, the pain and horror stretched across his face.

“Torture,” Death sighed, dropping a kiss on my head before he brushed past Tor, approaching the dead sailor man. “Extreme pain and stress. Someone brutalised this ghost and sent them as a message for Madness.”

“Oh, don’t look at me,” Madde laughed. “I’ve lived here for a hundred years and I’ve never had a ghost like this before. This is a message for you three.”

Misery jolted like he’d been struck. “So this is a message from Nightmare. Surprise. Surprisewhat?”

“She knows where we are,” I suggested, still not brave enough to look any of them in the eye.

Tor stroked his thumb across my knuckles. “She watched Madde take us away, so of course she’d know where we went. But she can’t get to us here.”

“Our little Stalker clearly can,” Madde pointed out, pursing his lips as he looked at the ghost, Death observing the dead man, too. “Oh, good news! They couldn’t get inside the castle. We’re completely, utterly safe in here. Love that for us.”

“So, if we leave the castle, the Stalker will find us?” I asked, my voice faint. I couldn’t shake the image of him watching us from the rooftop. My panic compounded until I trembled all over.

“Cat,” Tor said, his gravelly voice calm as he turned me towards him. “Look at me.” I did but I had to drag my eyes to him, not sure what I’d find in his face. Rejection or disappointment or sadness. My fear projected onto him, my chest tightening more, but there was only steady, patient love in his brown eyes. “I need you to breathe for me. Can you do that, beautiful?”

“Madde kissed me,” I blurted, wheezed, rasped. I couldn’t breathe.

Tor shot a dirty look over my shoulder, but he folded me into his arms and squeezed tight. “That’s not important right now.Breathe with me, beautiful. Take a breath every time I do, exhale when I do. I’ve got you, okay? Nothing bad will ever happen to you. I won’t let it.”

But something bad had happened. Lots of somethings bad. Nightmare forced me to lie that I didn’t want them, forced me to kill Darya, to carry horrible secrets, to jump at her every whim, and now something had changed deep down in my make-up. My temper was a short fuse, rage lived in my blood, and at the first spark my eyes turned black and claws tipped my fingers. I was changing. No, I’d alreadychanged.And I didn’t think even Tor could change me back.

“Cat,” Tor warned. “Look at me.Breathe.”

I swallowed, grasping a thin breath, choking it into my lungs. Everything that had happened fell on me all at once and I broke. The ghost was forgotten in an instant as I suffocated on sobs, gasping for air, trembling from my knees to my hands to my shoulders. My men surrounded me in an instant. Cold spread through my insides but there was only warmth wrapped around me, unconditional and unwavering, holding the pieces of me together. Darkness brushed against me like an affectionate cat, but… tentative in a way it had never been.

When my cries finally died, words and voices broke through.

Misery’s was first. “—don’t care how afraid Nightmare makes me, if she comes anywhere near you, I’ll gouge out her good eye with my bare hands, rip the heart from her chest, and stamp out whatever twisted bit of magic is keeping her alive. She won’t hurt you, Cat. I promise.”

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