Page 59 of All Hallows Trick

He didn’t hesitate. I fell for Madness the moment he leapt across the garden path, exploding into a cyclone of dark, writhing shadows and—wings. They beat the air, cutting the sudden silence so harshly that I jumped back with a cry, scanning the darkness for the Stalker and Tor.

I caught a split-second glimpse of Tor’s face, his golden skin drained of its usual colour, his tattoos standing out starkly against his throat. I jumped through the shadows, trusting Madde to never hurt me even if there were definitely wings and warm bodies and low, menacing cawing within the dark, almost like laughter.

“You,”Nightmare snarled, making me jump. But I was so close to Tor now that I could reach him, pulling him into my arms and gripping so tightly I would leave marks on his arms. The Stalker surrendered him far too easily.

“Wake up,” I pleaded, scanning the cloud of dark, dark smoke for the Stalker, knowing he was in here with us. “Please wake up, Tor.”

He didn’t. I choked down air, jumping when feathers brushed my face as a crow beat its wings, sailing out of the dark towards Nightmare. The others attacked too, like Madde had summoned a swarm of attack crows. My mind was reeling so much that it took me a moment to remember all the times I’d seen these birds before. Watching me when I found Caroline, when I dug up the box with the beating heart, when I walked alone. All the times I’d thought Nightmare was stalking me, threatening me, it had been Madde.

“Tor,” I breathed, shaking him, my eyes wide on the darkness, flinching at every movement. If a single cut had made him faint, what would another do? I couldn’t let the Stalker get close enough.

“Come out of the darkness, my terror,” Nightmare called.

I backed up further, my arms shaky, warning like a trickle of cold down the back of my neck. I couldn’t let her get to Tor either. She’d kill him. She’d already weakened Death, and driven Miz to such a panic that he’d bound his magic.

“You’re not taking Tor, too,” I hissed, my breathing so ragged my head swam a little. I backed up another step, scanning thedarkness, the garden beyond it visible in shades of greyscale. Madde strode among the crows, and hope made me breathless for a different reason when Nightmare stumbled. It was the only sign of weakness I’d ever seen.

Stay in the shadows,Madde ordered, his voice steely enough to make me gasp. I felt it—the power gathering outside the cloud of darkness, the insanity rife in the air. Nightmare cackled, her eyes flashing, mouth pulling into a smile, blood dripping from her eye over her lip.Don’t come out for anything.

“He took him,” Nightmare laughed with a gaping lack of sanity. “Did you know that? Deathtookhim and refused to give him back, even when I begged.”

“People die,” Madde replied with no mercy. “You scared my lioness, so you’ll die too. That’s what you really want isn’t it?” he laughed, the sound bright, sharp, a little shattered. “Beneath all the revenge and suffering you dole out, what you really want is to die so you can be reunited with whoever you’re ranting and raving about.”

A wave of power struck me with enough force that my breath left my lungs, and my knees buckled. I staggered backwards, only my grip on Tor keeping me upright with sheer panic. I couldn’t drop him. I couldn’t let go.

Relief escaped in a puff of breath when I stabilised, but air died in my lungs when my next stumble knocked me into something solid. Hairs rose on the back of my neck. I tore away, hoping, praying it was a wall even though I knew better. Walls weren’t ice cold and packed with muscle.

“Stay back,”I warned, squinting through the billowing dark at the tall, imposing form of the Stalker. “I’ll rip you apart, don’t fucking test me.”

The threat of him, the panic, the rage, it all combined until my fingertips stung with claws, and I knew my eyes must be black. The low, rippling noise of his laughter chilled my blood.

“So much for helping me,” he said in a dead rasp, a voice I didn’t recognise.

“Iwillhelp you,” I rushed out, scrambling for a way out that didn’t end in death for either Tor or I. Madde said to stay in the shadows, but with the Stalker here, that would only get us killed. “Just walk away from Nightmare, stop killing spirits, and I’ll help you. I swear it. You don’t have to do what she says.”

This laugh was lower, vicious. “You’re naïve.”

“Hopeful,” I countered breathlessly, backing up through the darkness. “I mean it. I’ll help you. Just please, don’t hurt us.”

His head tilted, top hat and all, his face hidden. “You have no idea what’s going on here, do you?”

I never did. I never knewanything.I was so far in the dark I should be a death god with my own damn shadows. “You need a way out, an escape from Nightmare and whatever control she has over you? Done.”

I couldn’t see his features, only the hint of a weak chin, but I sensed the smile, the condescension. My heart thrummed; I backed up another step. He didn’t follow, but Ifeltthe menace, the threat. He’d been watching me and Madde for days, watching all of us probably. He’d left that spirit on the doorstep as a message.

“Nightmare doesn’t control me,” the Stalker said in an unsettling rasp, like his vocal cords had been cut. “I’m Poppy’s greatest child.”

Jesus. My blood ran cold as I took another step back, inhaling sharply when he matched it this time, pursuing me. “Poppy’s gone now. She can’t hurt you.”

It was the wrong thing to say; I knew it instantly, read it in the sudden shift of his body language. It was like watching a panther shift from laziness to pure, lethal hunt.

“What do you mean she’s gone?” he demanded.

I scrambled back three steps this time, my hands trembling where I held onto Tor, my arms growing weak. He was heavier than I’d ever imagined. And he wasn’t waking up.

“What did you do to my husband?” I asked, reaching through the darkness inside me for Madde, not sure if I was asking for help or if he was hurt.

“Did you kill her?” the Stalker hissed, pale hands curling into fists at his side, his claws silvered in the darkness.

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