Page 57 of All Hallows Trick

“Cat,” I corrected, the alarm ringing louder. I shouldn’t have come alone. I was so stupid. She’d said no one would find us here, that she’d cloaked the garden. I felt the first slow curl of awareness inside me and froze. Shit. I didn’t know what was worse—being here with no way to get back, or Madde knowing I’d snuck away from Tor. “How can I save Misery? Please.”

“He doesn’t have long left,” she said sadly,genuinely,and I wondered if I’d overreacted to nothing. She didn’t seem like a psycho. She wasn’t Nightmare. “I don’t want much. Just a small bargain. I can’t give you something for nothing, or what will stop you telling everyone this little trick?”

I grazed my lip with my teeth, noticed her watching, and immediately stopped. She had to know I was desperate, but I didn’t want her to know quite how badly. She had the advantage here. But Miz needed me…

“What kind of bargain?” I asked warily.

“Come with me,” she replied, holding out a hand, her skin like alabaster in the moonlight. “Come with me right now, and I’ll tell you how to save your husband. But after that, you stay with me. As my friend and guest of honour.”

My heart knocked against my ribs. “Come with you… as in, leave? Leave my friends and family, and live with you?”

“Not forever,” she assured me, her voice still musical and sweet. But why did every instinct I hadscreamat me to run? “Just for a little while.” She sighed, glancing away, the expression on her face utterly forlorn. “I think I used to have friends, but since I woke up here, I’ve been starved for female company. I’d like a friend. And I want to help you.”

I didn’t think she was lying, but… “I can’t walk away from them.” It killed me to even say it, to bite the words out. “I already did that once, and it almost broke me. I can’t do it again. Ask something else. Please.”

I jumped when she moved, but her step carried herawayfrom me, not closer. I let out a slow breath, until she said, “There is nothing else. You’ll come, when it’s time, when there’s nothing left.”

I began to reply, but the moonlight shifted and—she was gone. She disappeared into shadow the way my men did. The composure that had held me together tore away, and I gasped, my heart beating frantically. With her gone, the fear grew teeth and sank them into me. What if that was the only chance I had to save Miz? What if he—if he—

I knelt in the grass and vomited, acid burning my throat as the full weight of reality drove into me.

Snow had begun to fall while I was in the bubble with the woman, whoever she was. Fat, cold flakes hit my knuckles as I curled them into fists on my thighs, a deep tremor starting, rattling my arms. What had I done? I’d chosen to stay with my husbands over saving Misery. In the moment, all I could think of was Nightmare forcing me to say I loved Death and only Death. All I could remember was the looks on Tor’s and Miz’s faces. But it was better they were heartbroken and angry than dead.

“Oh, god,” I gasped, shivering as snow collected on my shoulders, a matching cold spreading through my insides.

I’m coming,Madde said in a heated, furious voice I hadn’t heard before.Stay right there, I’m coming.

He found me at the same time Tor burst around the corner of the castle and stomped over Death’s wildflowers to get to me.

“What the fuck, Cactus?” Tor growled, grabbing my hands and gripping tight.

“Don’t shout at her,” Madde snapped, avoiding the spot where I’d thrown up as he knelt on my other side. His hand caressed up and down my back, the comfort making me sicker. “She was trying to save Misery.”

My head shot up, my eyes locking with soft, loving blue. He looked like a rockstar in the dark, a black blouse hanging open over his heavily inked chest, red hair artfully disarrayed, his eyes shadowed with purple and black liner. My chest hurt. “You knew?”

“Only a couple minutes ago.” He leaned against me, offering his warmth as I shook.

“It didn’t work. I fucked up,” I choked out, staring at the place where moonlight silvered the edge of a rose in front of me. “I didn’t save him.”

Tor expelled a rough breath, palming the side of my head to pull me closer, his lips finding my temple. “He’s going to be okay.”

“No, he isn’t,” I croaked.

“He is.”

“He’s dying!” I snapped, my voice reverberating around the garden, shattering the quiet.

Tor flinched hard, and regret made my stomach roil again.

“She wanted me to walk away from you all, but I—I couldn’t do it again. But by refusing, I’ve condemned him todeathand—”

“Shh,” Madde hushed, stroking my hair now. I could feel the rage in him, darkness seething where it brushed my soul, but somehow, I knew it wasn’t directed at me.

I didn’t know what happened when a death god met their true, final death. I knew he’d be replaced, that some newly dead person would become Misery, but what happened tohim,to my husband, to the man I loved? Would he disappear forever? Would there be nothing left to show he’d ever existed? I choked back a sob. I should have taken the bargain.

“Sorry to interrupt,” a new voice said. Sly, amused, female. My shoulders tensed, my whole body recoiling.Nightmare.“But I’ve gone to all this trouble with the spirits and you haven’t even noticed I’m here. I’m offended.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

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