Page 40

Tor

“ T his is fucking creepy,” I muttered to Death, our steps soundless as we crept down a hallway wallpapered in dark blue damask that seemed to absorb all light.

Eerie music spilled from somewhere deeper in the house, and every so often there were shattered statues of people on the floor.

Even with all that, it was a relief to see something colourful, not opaque white fog.

“Careful,” I snapped, grabbing Death when he made to walk through the broken plaster.

I dug my fingers into his bicep, the look I levelled him with dark and furious.

Any normal person would have snapped back at me, and met my anger with flint-sharp temper, but Death was Death so he sighed and squeezed my hand, letting his eyes linger on mine a little longer.

“I’m fine,” he said gently.

I scoffed, releasing him and stalking ahead through the blue corridor.

Behind us, Neglect and Passion bickered about how best to attack Cruelty; it was like a mole getting into a fight with a great Dane.

Humour tried for form in me, but was snuffed out by the growing sense that everything was about to go to shit.

Death was by my side where he ought to be, but Miz was in the garden with Madde, both of them out of sight, and knowing Cat was here being tortured was like claws dragging down my soul, leaving visible marks.

“Tor,” Death said seriously, waiting until I scowled at him. “I’m fine. I mean it.”

Sure, if fine meant weakened by those white, clawing hands in Exile. Like he hadn’t already been weak because of the domain fading even before he went to Exile. Whatever the fuck Exile even was.

“Can we leave the romantic melodrama for another day?” Neglect drawled from behind us. And several feet lower. I gave her an arch look over my shoulder. 1 I made sure to pause at an intersection and crouched so Neglect saw every damn second of the middle finger I extended.

“Tor,” Death chided. “She’s helping us.”

“She’s being judgy. We’ve spoken about this,” I said to the older woman, raising a brow. “If you keep being judgemental, you’ll never keep any friends.”

The look she gave me could have turned sand to glass. “Takes a judgemental bitch to know one,” she retorted with a little smirk and shoved past me, knocking me into the wall.

Passion sighed and extended a hand to help me back up.

“Don’t antagonise her,” he murmured, even his quiet voice as flat and monotone as a shipping forecast. I felt bad for the guy, though.

If someone ripped my heart out and stomped all over it, I’d probably be drained of all emotions, too.

“I know you’re stressed, and rightly so, but—”

“Don’t piss off the bull by waving a red flag in its face?” I guessed.

Passion blinked, his pale eyes startling against his deep tan skin. “Well, I wouldn’t have worded it like that, but yes. Exactly.”

I clapped him on the shoulder in silent thanks for helping me stand and hurried to catch up to Death and Neglect. The goddess had powered ahead, her arms pumping at her sides like this was a power walking competition and not a stealth mission.

“We need to be more careful,” I whisper-hissed.

“I did try to suggest that,” Death replied, giving me a look. “Can you sense anything?”

“A fuck load of magic,” I replied, pushing off whatever amusement had begun to form. This was deadly fucking serious. Our girl was at risk, and I wasn’t leaving here without her, even if that meant fighting—

“Look,” Passion said urgently. I glanced back to find he’d stopped a few paces behind us, staring at the wall—this one half painted in an ugly orange straight from the seventies, the bottom half of the wall covered in wood panels.

Portraits of old, unfriendly guys stared at us from gloomy paintings. It took me a moment to spot it.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I hissed, ignoring the cold spill of alarm that trickled from the back of my neck to the base of my spine. “I didn’t sign up for this.”

“What?” Death demanded, stalking to my side and coming up short at the letters scratching themselves into the wall, peeling up the wallpaper. Like a ghostly finger dug into the wall, etching sharp, jagged letters that formed words.

LEAVE.

“As fucking if,” I spat, grabbing a fistful of magic and relieved to feel the rush of shadows cover my hands.

I wouldn’t forget the feeling of weakness after the Stalker cut me any time soon.

Being so fucking useless while the goddess of nightmares attacked my wife would haunt me for life, and I planned to live a very long time.

LEAVE OR SHE DIES.

Death snarled beside me, the sound so ragged and hoarse that I knew I’d find him in full-death mode before I even glanced sidelong at him. Yep, skull and bones and flowing cloak, in its full glory. He launched himself at the wall, as if he could remove the threat by pulling panels off the wall.

“Show yourself,” Passion demanded. “We do not fight with invisible spectres. Show your face, Cruelty. You coward.”

My eyes widened at the fervency in his voice. For a moment, he sounded like the old Passion, but then the scraping came again, the sound like a saw cutting metal. My temper spiked, but fear obliterated it when I saw the words.

THEN YOU’VE MADE YOUR CHOICE.

THE MIRROR WILL DEVOUR HER.

“Mirror?” I demanded, teeth bared and my magic going haywire. I lunged at the wall, deciding Death had the right idea. My shadows ripped through the words, leaving plaster hanging off the wall. “What fucking mirror?”

“Where is my wife?” Death asked in a cold, cold voice. “You have one chance to tell me.”

“Still got a flare for the dramatics, I see,” Neglect muttered as words scratched themselves into the walls to our left, then a horrible screech of nails on a blackboard as warnings and threats carved into the ceiling, the floor, ripping up carpet.

They gouged into the sideboard and the paintings and the doorways up ahead.

I shuddered, and had to use all my fucking willpower not to read them all. Words stood out anyway. DRAINED. WEAK. DIE. SCREAMING. brOKEN.

“Show yourself, you spineless coward!” I snarled, shadows writhing around me. The magic in the air made my own power volatile. Where I’d normally have darkness pooled around my shoulders, now they spilled to the floor and crept up the hallway, searching, eager to sink shadow teeth into my enemies.

A laugh came from behind us, in the form of noise instead of words scratched on the wall. I spun, throwing myself at Cruelty as she stood there smirking at us, but Death got there before me.

“Where is my wife?” he roared, bone hands snapping out, grabbing her hair and dragging her forward. “What have you done to her?”

“No less than what traitors who pretend to be my friends deserve,” Cruelty replied with that smile on her smooth, eternally-young face.

A new smile, not genuine and bright like usual, not even with a fine edge of insanity.

This was brittle and angry. Hurt. Looked like our Cat had managed to wound her. Good. “You won’t find her.”

I grabbed every last flicker of power, surging deep into my aspect, and dropped enough torment on her to level a fucking city.

She winced when she should have screamed.

There was no warning that she would retaliate; one moment there was only our shadows and snarls and demands, and then power pulsed through the world like an earthquake.

Death roared as he was thrown back. I lunged across the hall to catch him, but his momentum was too powerful even for the storm of shadows churning around me, and we both slammed into the wall hard enough to daze me.

“Oh, no you don’t,” Neglect spat, blurring past us as fast as a cheetah, dark coils of smoke brimming around her, too.

I shuddered when they brushed my shoulder, gritting my teeth against a rush of insecurity.

There was no listening to logic that this was magical influence; I was filled with the certainty I would be abandoned and left alone.

“Breathe through it,” Death said, clasping the back of my neck and forcing all my attention to him for a moment. “We’re not going anywhere. None of us.”

The issue with that reassurance was we’d already lost Cat, and despite being in the same damn house as her now, we still couldn’t sense her, smell her, or hear her. Even my shadows couldn’t find her. What if we got this far, this close, and still—

Death kissed me hard, startling me enough that Neglect’s power lost its grip on me.

It was rare that the two of us came together like this.

We hugged and shit all the time, but I’d forgotten how it felt to be kissed by him.

Like heat and possession and an addictive sense of safety.

The last time I kissed him, he tasted of whiskey and sin, but this time it was spicy and sweet, like honey and aniseed.

It was over far too fucking soon, but I was too conscious of Cat being hurt somewhere in this fucked-up manor to complain.

“Could have done without the boner,” I muttered, giving him a dark glance when he moved back, throwing up a wall of darkness to intercept a sudden pulse of death magic from Cruelty.

“Oh, you want to play dirty?” Neglect hissed in a chilling voice. 2 “I can play dirtier, Cruelty. You’ve never known neglect and abandonment like this.”

Well. I blinked, watching through the veil of darkness as Neglect jumped off the floor, buoyed by a stream of darkness, and soared at Cruelty with her hands punched forward.

“We’ll buy you time,” Passion offered, reaching out to touch Death and thinking better of the gesture when he caught my dark glare. So I was feeling a little possessive of everyone I loved. Sue me. “Find Cat and Pain.”

I nodded, swallowing back words. He knew there was a chance Cruelty was backed up by Violence, and they’d be at a disadvantage. He didn’t need me to say any of that shit, so I just said, “Be careful.”