Page 8

Cat

I couldn’t sleep at all Friday night, and not just because adrenaline pumped through my body after a whole day of ‘training’ with Cruelty.

She had an endless arsenal of visceral, graphic threats to hurl at me, triggering my protective rage and luring me towards her as she raced through the grounds.

I didn’t think it was helping me gain control over my jaguar, but I participated, mostly because if I caught her and ripped her arm off, I could blame it on ‘training.’

Because I was wide awake, there was no missing the scraping sound from outside.

I wasn’t dreaming this time, and it wasn’t a woman’s scream, but that didn’t stop my heart kicking up.

Goosebumps rippled down my arms when the scraping sound came again, and I climbed out of bed, approaching the window slowly.

My feet sunk into the plush carpet with every hesitant step, the back of my neck tingling with warning.

The manor was deadly quiet except for that noise from outside.

I cracked the curtains apart just enough to see outside, and peered down at the dark garden.

Silvery moonlight filtered through the clouds to cast everything in a ghostly glow.

My window looked out on the back garden, with the topiaries frozen in their poses, the manicured leaves almost black at night.

I could see the patio where I’d first shifted and chased Cruelty and failed, as always, to rip her to shreds.

Not that she knew I tried to kill her. She thought we were just having fun, as best friends did.

The noise came again, scraping and distinct, and I recognised it a moment before I spotted the two dark-coated figures hauling shovels full of dirt into a hole not too far from my window.

I couldn’t see what was in the hole because it was already heaped with dirt, but the sight of two tall, imposing men dressed all in black burying something under the cloak of darkness was enough to make me go cold all over.

Panic made my heart even faster, and I wanted my husbands with a desperation that made me want to cry. I just wanted to be in their arms, but the universe had a grudge against me because here we were miles apart again. Realms apart.

Against my better judgement, I peered closer at the two men and the hole they’d dug.

It was messy and big, but long enough to be a grave?

I didn’t think so. Relief had my breath expelling in a gust. Not unless the body was cut into pieces.

Seeing two people dig a hole was bad enough, but a grave right under my window? I didn’t—

Wait, I knew one of those men. It shouldn’t have taken me so long to realise, but I was so used to seeing him in a sturdy top hat that I didn’t recognise him in a dark beanie.

The porter from Ford. Doyle, who always gave me the creeps.

I remembered the way my dad joked when he dropped us off at the school and a lump rose into my throat.

I missed my mum and dad, too. Missed them so much it hurt.

But if I reached out, they’d get dragged into this like Virgil, and I couldn’t risk that. For the same reason, I hadn’t contacted Tannie. What would I tell them? Three of us had been in that car with them on opening day and only one of us had survived.

A tear escaped and tracked down my cheek, but I blinked my eyes clear and scrutinised the other man.

It wasn’t a huge leap to assume it was his brother, the mechanic from Ford’s village.

But this meant they were working for Cruelty, and probably had been Nightmare’s lackeys.

Her followers. No wonder Poppy had been so helpful about getting my car to the mechanic.

I bet they searched my car for things to use against me.

If they weren’t opposed to burying something for Cruelty, what else had they done? How much of the torment I went through was because of them?

I wanted to run out and confront them, but I didn’t have the nerve. I might have been a jaguar, but I was still a woman and running into the dark night to confront two men who could be capable of just about anything was a good way to die.

So I watched through the curtain as they packed the dirt flat to the ground, picked up their tools, and disappeared around the side of the manor, leaving me alone with the moon and the topiary figures.