Page 2 of All Hallows Trick

“M’up,” Tor slurred, lurching in Miz’s arms so suddenly that he dropped to the floor with a grunt. “Why’s my head merry-go-rounding?”

“You were hurt, you fucking idiot,” Miz snapped, grabbing Tor’s shoulder as he lumbered unsteadily to his feet. “Are you strong enough to go home?”

“Nobody’s going anywhere,” Nightmare declared. I jolted at the crackle of her magic, a power surge compared to the sad spark I had left. I held Cat in trembling hands, my heartbeat rapid. There were no good options, but letting indecision freeze me to the spot while Nightmare came closer wasn’t one of them.

Tor’s head whipped around, rage twisting his face the second he saw her. Calloused brown fingers slashed through the air in a move I’d seen reduce people to shredded skin, shards of bone, and boiling blood. Nothing happened. Tor shook his hand out like that would make his power work and thrust it forward again.

“Time to go,” I said under my breath, flicking a glance at Miz as I sent another thin veil into the shields. “Grab him.”

The skirt of Nightmare’s dress poured across the old tarmac like fresh blood as she reached Virgil, his fear overpowered by rage for the moment.I hope you survive,I thought, and turned to Miz just as he grabbed Tor. I hadjustenough power left to take us back to my castle, but nothing besides that. Even now, I felt the shield around us shudder, buckling under the force and weight of Nightmare’s sheer magic and—

A gunshot tore through the hushed quiet of the dark island road, so loud that I staggered back on instinct, takingrapid inventory of my body, searching for the wound. It was Nightmare that staggered, the crimson of her dress darkening around her torso.

“Get away from my friends, you psychopath!” Honey Livingston stormed down the hill beside the winding tarmac road, the moonlight making her skin and hair silver, limning the double barrel of the shotgun she held in front of her. The hot muzzle sent curls of steam into the frosty night.

I cut off the shadows ready to carry us home. Cat might hate me if I left her brother to die, but if I abandoned her brotherandher only remaining best friend, she would die, too. A slow, insidious death of the spirit and the heart. I couldn’t do that to her.

“Tor, grab onto me,” I ordered, my voice coming out in a rush, nothing like the cool composure I should have possessed. My heart thundered, my head a little faint. I had to protect them. I couldn’t lose them. I couldn’t be alone again. The physical weakness was spreading, and on its heels raced panic, and we were stillstanding there in the middle of the road.

“You can feel it, can’t you?” Nightmare asked, her voice sharp around the edges now. “All the pieces are falling into place. Everything issoclose to ready.” She locked eyes with me, locking me in place, freezing my magic even as I reached for it. Fear was inescapable, a mire that sucked me in, burying me until I could only choke on the mud. I could lose them all, right here. “Your downfall, finally delivered to your doorstep,” she gloated.

I jumped when Tor grasped my shoulder, the scent of blood thick around him. His back had been clawed, his thigh ripped open, and the copper scent of it mingled with the gunshot bleeding down Nightmare’s stomach until I choked on it. I didn’t feel my own injuries, only the weakness, the lack of my power. I’d never been this afraid. Never.

“Why?” Virgil demanded, his voice mangled with bestial fury. I tried to shake my head at him, to tell him to stay silent, to avoid angering her. I was a death god but it was my own death and the ones of the people I loved that I felt creep nearer, nearer…

Honey raised the gun again when she skidded down the bottom of the hill, and another blast tore through the night, making me jump. Gasping, I stumbled back.

I’m supposed to be strong. I’m supposed to protect them.It was my job to keep them safe, but Tor was bleeding on me and Misery was slowly crossing the road towards Nightmare, pushing against his instinct and terror like a strong wind, wading through the mud of trauma. Because Honey and Virgil were inches from death, and Cat loved them. They couldnotbe lost.

“Tor, take Cat,” I ordered quickly, trying to hand her over and swearing when he slumped into me.

“Trying,” he slurred, fingers grasping at my shirt. “Sorry.”

Pain gripped my chest and I wanted to soothe him but there wasn’t the time. I could do nothing but stand here, supporting them. No, that wasn’t true. I could wrap us in shadow and whisk us to the castle, but what would happen in the minute I was gone? A minute was long enough for Nightmare to sink into Honey’s mind, turn the shotgun on Virgil, then command Honey to blow her own head off when he was dead. It was long enough for Nightmare to take control of Miz again. Or to kill him.

I couldn’tmove.My feet refused to shift from where they glued to the tarmac, my knees starting to shake at the pressure building inside me. I needed to run. I couldn’t shift an inch. I needed to put Cat down and attack Nightmare. I couldn’t unclench my fingers from her.

Nightmare turned at the shot, her movement eerily slow. Cold sent another shudder through my aching bones when her eyes brightened, one white, one as black as water at night. I’dseen it before, that look, in the middle of Ford’s unnamed forest when I’d been summoned to find Misery broken, Rosalind’s corpse splayed across his arms, and Nightmare gloating on the banks of the lake with that exact gleam in her eyes.

Honey’s shot went wide, blasting harmlessly into the night.

“Missed,” Nightmare purred, taking a single step towards Honey. I could see the mortal shaking from this distance, the gun rattling in her hand. No wonder the second shot had missed. Virgil stepped smoothly into the space between her and the goddess before Nightmare could get closer.

“You know what was done to me,” he said in a voice rife with violence, “and you know what I’ve become. Do you really want all of that unleashed on you? Because I won’t hold back. Youmademe into this, but I’ll fucking use it. So go on, tempt me.”

Nightmare’s laugh was no louder than a whisper. “I can smell the antidote on you from here, subject. You’re no threat to me. But it’s delightful that you think you’d earn even a gasp of fear from me when three death gods occupy the same space.”

When she said the wordsdeath godsher eyes poured over the dark road until her eyes settled on Misery. Not because she hated him like she hated me. Cold skated through every vein in my body. No, she fixed on him because she knew I loved him and hurting him would hurt me. Not again.Never. Again.

“Nightmare!” I shouted, projecting my voice as loudly as I could, my magic sluggish to respond. “I’m tired of you dancing around your true goal. Ignore them. Put your wrath where it truly belongs.”

“No,” Tor slurred, his hand grasping weakly at my shirt. “Stop.”

“Death,” Miz warned without turning from Nightmare.

But I’d had enough. I was so fucking tired of the people I loved suffering because of me. Without looking away from Nightmare, I bent and laid Cat gently on the ground. Tor wasn’tin a fit state to guard her, and Virgil was busy protecting Honey, but I wouldn’t let Nightmare past me. I’d hold the damn line and keep her from all of them, no matter what it took.

My heart beat so hard it tried to take flight from my chest as I walked through the sheer gauze of my shield, bare cobwebs left to keep them safe. Nightmare’s eyes settled on me, hatred shining through them. I’d barely uncovered the source of her rage. This whole campaign couldn’t be because the man she loved died as all mortals die. It felt bigger, feltmore.She couldn’t wage war against a whole island because of one death.

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