Page 10 of All Hallows Masque (Sick and Twisted #4)

Madness

D mitry was coming to torture me, to finish the job, to cut me to bits and make me scream.

I could feel his hot breath on the back of my neck, could smell the stale cigarette stench that clung to him.

His taunting laugh scratched my ear drums, making me flinch.

I needed Cat here. He’d never get through my lioness; she’d shred him to pieces, or cave his skull in with a brick, or drag a knife across his jugular.

Even a ghost couldn’t hurt me if my wife was here. My wife. Mine. My lioness. Mine.

She needs you to focus, to ground yourself.

That was Tor’s voice, steady and low, as reliable as a castle in a storm.

Unmoving and resilient and a little bit spiky.

I focused on his breathing, not liking the way my own breaths caught against my lungs with every inhale, rasping and short.

I tried to slow them, to match Tor’s, or even Misery’s panicked breaths, still slower than mine, but it was almost impossible.

Dmitry was coming for me, and without Cat here, he’d finish the job he started. He’d kill me all over again.

She needs you to focus.

Focus.

Focus.

I remembered the hallway of my castle where Cat wrapped her legs around my hips, the soft fleece of her hooded duck blanket brushing my skin, her eyes bright with need and love and danger, always danger. It was what drew me to her. It was why I loved her. My wife was dangerous.

We needed a proper wedding. And rings. And a veil. I had one of those—I wore it that time I saved them all from Nightmare on the bleak road that wound across Ford’s End. I remembered the look on her face when she first saw me. Shining with love and fascination.

Focus. She needed me to focus.

Focus on what?

The impact of those words, that voice, the familiar husky softness, the warmth and affection… It travelled through my whole body like lightning.

My lioness, my Cat, my salvation, my light, my saviour—

Madde, she interrupted with a soft laugh. How can I hear you? Where have you been? I’ve been trying to talk to you for days.

Wait. Days? But that doesn’t make any sense, because we just woke up today in the courtyard. But if we’ve only just woke up and it’s been days —

Madde, love, slow down.

Love. She called me love. All the tightness and painful tension gripping my muscles relaxed until I could breathe properly, until my body didn’t hurt.

Where are you? I asked, my tone embarrassingly whiny. Come home, I need you here.

Madde, she breathed, sadness wrapping around her voice in my mind. I can’t. I made a deal—

I’ll just kill her, problem solved.

Her laughter was like music. No, finer than any music. Better than any melody or aria. Sweeter than any strain of piano or violin. For me. That laugh was all for me. My eyes stung, tears pooling in the corners.

You can’t just kill people when—

Yes, I can.

If you could, I’d love you to kill her, but it’s Cruelty. She’s clever and manipulative, and ten steps ahead. Let me do this, Madde, okay?

No. Come home.

The veil, the gates—

I don’t care. Come home.

I was being petulant but I didn’t care. I gripped the amplifying stone tighter, aware of Tor and Miz making demands, but drowned them out with Cat’s laughter, her voice.

I couldn’t smell her, feel her, taste her, but she was here, inside my head where she belonged, her voice reaching into even the darkest chambers of my mind.

I want to. I want to come home more than anything, but how? If you can fix the gates, I’ll come home right now.

More tears slipped from my eyes. How the fuck was I supposed to fix a gate? I needed to, or else my lioness couldn’t come home. I needed to fix them right the fuck now.

I’ll do it, I promised her. I opened my eyes, already rushing out of the room, into the hall, ready to fix the gates. Fuck knows how, but I’d do it. I’d do anything for her.

I want to marry you, I blurted, my heart racing. Tor and Miz ran after me, Misery rushing ahead to open the door before I raced into it head-first. I refused to let go of the stone, my lifeline. I want a proper wedding and a church and a white dress and a corgi ring-bearer and—

A corgi? She laughed, her voice lighter than it was when I first heard her. Alright, but we’ll have to actually get a corgi first, and you’d better get permission from Death, Tor, and Miz for that.

Done. I’d plead and beg and whine until they eventually gave in.

“Slow down,” Tor barked somewhere behind me as I rushed down the steps and across the mist-shrouded courtyard towards the place where the gates should be. Everything else was here, but the gates were gone. Why?

Madde, Cat said, her voice different, quieter. Sad and worried, and I didn’t fucking like it. I needed to rip the hearts from the chests of every last person who’d made her sound so sad. I should use a rusty spoon to scoop out their eyeballs, then force them to eat them like gooey mochi balls—

Her voice interrupted my rage.

Everyone’s there, right? Because Cruelty said she found someone in the garden around her manor, and she’ll hurt them unless I play along with her.

She’s not hurting me, she rushed out, possibly sensing the sudden flare of violence in me even across the distance between us, across the vanished gates.

She likes mind games, but she hasn’t done anything to hurt me.

Just tell me everyone’s with you. Please.

I paused in the space where the gates used to stand, chewing my bottom lip as I looked at Tor and Miz, both frantic, both expectant.

Of course they’re all here, I lied, pushing brightness and confidence into my voice, letting it fill my head, my soul, so she sensed nothing amiss.

I bit my lip so hard I tasted blood. Lying to her went against everything I stood for, every last little thing that made me Madde.

Madde, are you—

I waited. Am I what, lioness?

The longer the silence spun between us, emptiness rushing back into the places she’d occupied in my heart and head and very essence, the more my panic flared. It grew fangs and sank them into me until I bled.

“Don’t bite your lip off, you stupid bastard,” Tor grumbled, shocking me with the sensation of soft fingers on my mouth, stopping me from doing worse damage. Blood still filled my mouth, coated my tongue.

“I lost her,” I said, bereft. Chains of pain twisted and twisted up my heart until everything hurt. “I heard her, and she was in my head, but now she’s gone.”

My voice broke on gone, then I was sobbing uncontrollably.