Page 3 of All Hallows Trick

“Protect Cat and Tor,” I breathed to Miz, reaching out to squeeze his arm, the touch grounding me, shoring up my determination. “They need you.”

“Death,”Miz warned, desperation squeezing his voice.

“They need you.” I tightened my grip on his arm, then forced myself to let go, my palm burning, frantic to hold onto him. Instead, I put distance between me and Misery, walking closer to the nightmare goddess. I had no illusions about overpowering her. If she wanted us dead, we would be dead in a second. The only reason we were breathing was to suffer a bigger, grander death.

“Honey, kill the subject,” Nightmare ordered without breaking my stare.

Honey lifted the gun, her hand shaking less, but when the blast went off,Nightmarestaggered back, clutching her arm. Nostrils flared. Teeth bared on a fierce hiss. Virgil was unharmed.

“How?” Nightmare hissed, her face a mask of ugly rage. I walked faster, my breathing rasping.

Honey scrambled backwards, Virgil following her down the road towards us, both of them palpably terrified.

“Oh god, she’s gonna kill me,” Honey squeaked, jumping when Virgil grabbed her arm and pulled her faster, the two of them running past me to where I’d laid Cat on the ground.

“Not if I can help it,” I heard Virgil growl.

I didn’t look back. Couldn’t look away from Nightmare as she seethed, the true monster of her on full display. Her head tilted, long wine-red hair spilling over a pale shoulder as blood spilled between her fingers. She held my stare and finally replied, “Not yet.”

Her words struck me like a prophecy. I stood in the road, a lone shield between her and the people I loved. A suffocating doom gathered in my chest when crows began to gather along the walls and hills to either side of us, alighting on trees, fluttering to the grass, landing anywhere there was space.

“Your demise belongs to me,” she snarled, “but notyet.I want you broken andcrawlingbefore I—”

Her stare snapped over my shoulder and my skin tingled all down my back. What was she looking at? What was happening? What had caught her attention?What was it?

“I think you’ll find,” came a deadly voice that made me want to weep, “every last part of this man belongs tome.Even his demise. So back the fuck off, Nightmare.”

“Stay back,” I warned Cat, holding a trembling hand behind myself.

I knew by the crunch of feet on tarmac she’d disobeyed, and it was suddenly impossible to breathe.

“Cat,” Virgil warned.

Nightmare drew herself upright, her back straight, her hand falling away from the wound in her shoulder. “Come with me, my terror, and I’ll leave your men alone.”

“Like I’d believe a single word from your deceitful mouth,” Cat snarled, her voice so clear, so close. My heart nearly collapsed in my chest when her hand wrapped around mine,fingers sliding into the empty spaces between mine, clinging tight.

I watched the words hit Nightmare, watched her eyes flash with warning, her chin lifting, fingers twitching at her side. I braced for pain, tightening my grip on Cat, ready to push her behind myself so I took the brunt of Nightmare’s attack.

Stillness—pure utterstillness—fell over every person standing on the road at the high, piercing noise that cut the night. Out of place, completely incongruous, and the part that sent a shock of warning through me; it came from none of us. Not my loves, not Virgil or Honey, not Nightmare who spun and latched her bleeding stare onto something in the distance.

With a chill, I looked beyond the goddess, my gaze spearing through the darkness until moonlight caught on… what the fuck was that?

“Is that… a veil?” Cat whispered at my side. She tipped her head back to give me a baffled, panicked look. I squeezed her hand, keeping her close as I retreated quickly, my steps careful on the tarmac. We could use this distraction to get away from Nightmare. All of us, unharmed. It seemed like a fairy tale, but here was a chance, a single opening. I wouldn’t waste it. I wouldn’t—

That sound cut through the silence again, so obviously a whistle that I didn’t know how I hadn’t placed it the first time. It rose and fell in a series of four notes.

“Um,” Cat whispered, pressing close to my side. “Why’s there someone in a veil whistling the wedding march?”

She was right. Thatwasthe wedding march. I fought a shudder as I turned, pulling her with me when I broke into a run.

“What the fuck is happening?” Miz demanded, supporting Tor against his side. Honey and Virgil stood close around them, faces pale.

“Not a clue. Let’s go—”

Cat inhaled sharply, her attention elsewhere. I looked back down the road at Nightmare and the veiled figure to see tanned hands push back the long white lace, baring a masculine face dominated by freckles and vibrant blue eyes. Tor groaned, dropping his head on Miz’s shoulder.

“Who are you?” Nightmare demanded in a voice so guttural it made my stomach knot.

---