Page 58 of All Hallows Trick

CAT

Tor shot to his feet, darkness crashing down in a wall around us. Madde drew me close as he stood, rare anger tightening his features. BecauseNightmarestood on the path that led to the gates, as if she’d strolled right into the realm. But that wasn’t possible. She couldn’t enter. We’d been safe here; we’d always been safe.

And the spirits who followed us up the road… they’d never been luring me to the meeting. They’d been herding us forNightmare.They stood behind her in a silvery army, broken only by… by the subjects we’d fought in the courtyard only days ago. Well, that answered that question. I was going to be sick.

“Oh darling,” Nightmare chuckled, giving Tor a little smile. “Did you think a little ward kept me out all these years?”

“Go,” I said, scrambling to push Tor and Madde behind me. “Get out of here. The subjects can’t hurt me.”

“Very gallant,” Nightmare remarked, strolling closer, looking as put-together and stately as always, not a hair out of place.She was only a few metres away, too fucking close. My heart galloped, a shivery alertness coursing through me. “You can run if you like,” she told my men. “I’ll be generous and give you this chance.”

“Get thefuckout of my realm,” Tor snarled, his voice deeper, a crackle of lethal intent making me shudder.

“Ourrealm, Torment,” Nightmare replied with a smile, pausing when only a metre separated us, Death’s garden an eerily beautiful backdrop for what was about to be a bloodbath. There were three of us against… I tallied quickly. Ten subjects, over twenty spirits, and Nightmare. Fuck. We were screwed.

“Please,” I tried, regardless of the hopeless odds, pushing against Tor’s shoulder, Madde’s chest. “Go. Get help. I can hold her off.”

“Ah, on the subject of help,” Nightmare said, feathering a hand through her long red hair, looking far too at ease in a long wine-red dress, matching gloves all the way up to her elbows, like she was a socialite at a Christmas ball or an actress on the red carpet of the latest premiere. Not here to threaten us. “Pay very close attention.”

“To what?” I breathed, wishing my voice was stronger, wishingIwas stronger.

“This,” she answered, her smile such a lie that it made me want to scream. My emotions were a wreck, my fear still too prevalent, its grip on me making my knees shake.

Madde’s hand wrapped around my elbow, and I felt his shadows near, ready to rip me away at the slightest shift of Nightmare’s body. But it was the subjects who moved, a sudden and violent explosion of movement that made me jump so hard I felt it through my whole body. The screams made my hackles rise.

I would have lunged forward if Madde didn’t have hold of me. The bottom dropped out of my stomach, and I foughtagainst his hold when the creatures turned on thespiritswho’d stood at their sides. In the seconds I fought to get free, to stop them, to dosomethingthey shredded six ghosts. I didn’t know how Nightmare controlled them, but clearly Poppy had designed them—designedus—to answer to her every whim. That thought sent a rush of ice through my system.

“You’ve proven your point,” I snapped at the goddess. “Enough.”

“Call Death,” Nightmare replied, not looking at the carnage behind her as wild animals tore through ghosts until their eyes turned white and their mouths hung with screams that raked across my ears, bunching my shoulders.

My anger mounted when the screams began to peter out. Madde didn’t release me, didn’t let me run at Nightmare, but I didn’t know what I would have done anyway. And all the time we stood here, Miz was dying.

I waited for Tor to tell Nightmare she was out of her damn mind if she thought we’d bring Death here, where he could be hurt, when every one of those spirits’ deaths weakened him but—silence.

I know you want to kill her,Madde said, eerily serious,and I want to let you, but we need to get away from here.

The subjects were prowling towards us, every ghost that Nightmare had rallied slaughtered. My breath caught.

“Tor,” I said in a small voice, my eyes burning. I was so afraid to turn, to see why he wasn’t shouting at Nightmare, why he wasn’t trying to push me behind him like he always did, protective to a fault.

I knew it was bad when Madde sucked in a sharp breath and let go of me, turning so quickly he must have been dizzy. I moved slowly, my heart in my throat, beating in triple time.

I expected to see Poppy somehow returned from true death, or the bride goddess who’d come back to force me into a bargain,but it was worse. Tor was limp in the white-knuckled grip of a tall man in an austere black coat and a stern top hat. The Stalker.

“Tor,” I breathed, half expecting him to move at the sound of my voice. But his eyes were closed like the Stalker had knocked him out, and my whole world slowed, dragging around me.

The rough shaking of my hands broke my moment of horror, and I lunged towards him.

“Ah ah,” Nightmare stopped me, clearly enjoying herself. “A single cut rendered him unconscious. Think what a second could do.”

A single…? I stopped inches away from Tor, frantic as I scanned him, my heart beating strangely at the sight of claws on the Stalker’s death-pale fingers. Claws like I had when I lost control. He was one of us, a subject like me and Virgil.

“Please don’t,” I whispered, talking to him instead of Nightmare. My heart clattered my ribcage, my blood jittery in my veins, burning with the intensity of my panic as I inched closer, scanning Tor’s slack face, finding the tiny slice of blood on his throat where a claw had clearly punctured him. “I know she has you in a chokehold, and Iknowwhat it’s like, but please don’t hurt my husband.” I lowered my voice to a breath. “I can help. We can get you away, where she can’t hurt you.”

Lioness,Madde warned in a tight voice. I’d heard it once before, when I was in the cottage searching for Virgil. Hairs rose down my arms at the memory but Tor needed me to focus. Misery’s life was dwindling, but Tor’s life was inimmediatedanger and I could hardly breathe.

Do something,I begged Madde.Please.

---