Page 11 of All Hallows Trick (Sick and Twisted #3)

CHAPTER TEN

CAT

“ I t’s a pretty shocking bail amount,” the gruff officer at the small police station in Ford’s End told me, oblivious to the fact Tor and Madde were beside me, glamoured invisible to the mortal eye. Virgil and Miz waited outside. I could only hope they didn’t kill each other.

“It’s fine,” I said, reaching for a purse I didn’t have in a bag that I’d never taken out with me. I’d hardly been expecting to go shopping at Byron’s memorial. I could go to my room while we were on the island, but the thought of venturing into the campus proper was unappealing. My anxiety had been bad enough at the cottage. At least in Madde’s castle, there was a level of security there. At Ford, Nightmare could get to me any time she wanted.

I jumped when a cool plastic card slid into my fingers, relief scattering the first traces of panic that had begun to form.

“Forgot you Ford types have endless money,” the officer muttered when I handed over the card, my heart jumping into my ribs when I saw it was a black card. I was well used to throwing money around but a black card was a whole new level of wealth. And it had come from the man on my right. Jesus. What was Madde doing handing me a black card? 1 “Probably why the bail’s so high. Make an example of him.”

I winced. Duncan Ford was only locked up in a cell, left to rot, because of me.

“He’s my friend,” I said to the officer defensively. I wondered if he was the one I’d spoken to on the phone when I found Caroline. His voice matched, and he looked the way I’d expected him to—late fifties, sagging around the middle, sturdy shoulders, with brown hair slowly succumbing to silver. A pair of glasses perched on his red nose; he squinted at me through them. “He’s worth anything.”

Tor glanced at me in calculated surprise—I was trying not to think about why the glamour on mortal eyes didn’t work on me—but I subtly shook my head. There was nothing between Duncan and I, only friendship. His eyes drifted over my head to Madness but he said nothing. Madde and I were… a complication.

“There,” the officer said, pushing the black card across the counter towards me with a sigh as he heaved himself out of his seat. “I’ll go fetch him.”

Why was Duncan still here? Why had no one else come to pay his bail? He was a Ford, the latest generation of the family who owned this island. The whole damn thing was named after them, for god’s sake. Even if his friends were shallow assholes at the academy, he should have had family show up to free him.

I chewed my bottom lip as I waited for the officer to return with Duncan. “I’ll pay you back,” I told Madde, handing back his card. Or trying to. He crossed his arms across his chest, tucked in his hands, and refused to take it. “Madde,” I sighed, thrusting the card at him. “Madness. Seriously.”

“It’s yours,” he said stubbornly.

“I can’t take that.”

When I managed to wedge the card into the fold of his arms, he retaliated by nestling it in my cleavage. I sighed and fished it out.

“Take him for all he has,” Tor suggested, gruff laughter in his voice. “If the madman wants to give you it, take it.”

“I do wanna give it to her,” Madde agreed with a heavy dose of suggestiveness, darkness stroking along my soul. “And I bet she’s so good at taking it.”

“No fighting,” I warned before either of them could shift a muscle, pointing the card at each of Tor and then Madde in warning. I acted unaffected, like I wasn’t throbbing around the vibrator still inside me. “No. Fighting.”

Madde sulked, arms yet again crossed. Tor stuffed his hands in his leather jacket pockets, glaring at him. I fought a giddy smile when neither of them threw fists or hostile words. I hadn’t honestly expected that to work, and it was a heady feeling. I got butterflies, until Duncan rounded the corner ahead of us. My stomach plummeted. The guilt that twisted up my chest was bad enough that Madde brushed my arm and Tor angled himself towards me.

Duncan was a mess, his model-worthy hair shaved off, his clothes slouchy, rumpled, and dirty. Tiredness dragged his face down so much that for a split second I thought the officer had brought the wrong guy. But then his eyes met mine, a sapphire blue almost as bright as Madde’s eyes, the only vibrancy to him, and a long breath exhaled from Duncan. I gave him a little wave even as guilt ate at my insides like acid.

“Thanks,” he rasped, walking around the counter.

I swallowed, glancing away. “Are you okay?”

“I’m alive,” he said with a pitiful attempt at a laugh. “And I don’t have to sleep in a cell tonight, so things are looking up.”

“Duncan, why didn’t someone else come to bail you out? Your parents—”

He laughed. That answered my question even before he said, “They don’t notice anything outside their society bubble. They don’t live in England, and I doubt they’d bother coming here if they knew I was banged up.”

I noticed the officer watching us as he sat at his desk again, and I motioned for Duncan to follow me out the door, Tor and Madde invisible behind us.

“Tell me you brought a car,” Duncan said, stretching his arms above his head with a groan.

“Uh…” I gave him an apologetic look.

“Well. The walk up will get my blood flowing, I guess.”

It was extremely awkward to talk to someone who thought we were alone, knowing there were invisible men listening in. Virgil stepped forward; I exhaled a rough breath of relief.

“Duncan, this is my brother, Virgil. Virgil, this is Duncan, my friend.” Who I got arrested because Nightmare held Virgil captive.

“I know absolutely nothing about you, nice to meet you,” Virgil said, ignoring the look I shot his way. At least he sounded like himself, not like he’d been captive and experimented on for weeks.

“Likewise, Virgil,” Duncan said with a rusty laugh. “Thanks for coming to bail me out, anyway,” he said to me, casting a look around the street the station sat on. The same street where I watched Virgil mutilate the florist while in beast form. If he was remembering that, he didn’t let it show.

“I…” I dragged a hand down my hair. “Duncan, there’s something I need to tell you. Poet, can you give us a little privacy on the way back?”

“Sure.” Virgil’s eyes lingered, weighing my mood. I’m fine, I said with a long look. I was tangled up with guilt, but I was better than Duncan; I hadn’t been locked up for days.

“What’s up?” Duncan asked when I set off walking towards the road that curved all the way up to Ford. It was hell to walk, but at least it wasn’t raining. Or snowing. I still couldn’t shake the unease I felt whenever it snowed, the reminder of the day I found Caroline mauled too fresh in my mind. I didn’t ask if Virgil killed her, or if one of the other subjects did. I didn’t want to know.

“The reason I asked Virgil to hang back is because…” I sighed, stuffing my hands in my pockets, brushing my thumb over the black card there, over and over. “Nightmare took him. Kidnapped him. Held him captive.”

“Jesus,” Duncan breathed, his eyes wide when he darted a look at me. “I’d never have guessed to look at him.”

“She…” I couldn’t look at him, could only look at the road stretching away in front of us, snaking its way up the hill to where Ford lorded over the whole island. “She said she’d kill him if I didn’t do what she told me to.”

He was quiet for a moment. I sensed him watching me, but I was too big a coward to look at him. “Did she make you kill someone else?”

He remembered me telling him about Darya. I shook my head.

“Then what?” he asked, his voice quiet and non-judgemental. It hurt, a direct hit to my conscience.

I forced myself to look at him, regret and apology making my eyes wet as I looked at him for a long moment, trying to find the words.

“She made you get me locked up,” Duncan sighed, figuring it out. “Yeah, that fits her twisted M.O.”

“I’m so—” I choked out. “So sorry, Duncan.”

He shook his head hard, the lack of his hair still new and strange. He looked different, harsher. It fit everything that had happened to him since Halloween, I guessed. “She had you over a barrel. You weren’t going to let your brother die. I wouldn’t have, either. Not that my brother’s worth saving. But I’d have done the same for Orwell.”

“Your cousin,” I murmured, guilt choking my words. I still remembered the vacant look on his face at the Halloween party, his aubergine emoji costume a horrific contrast to the glassiness of his eyes. Nightmare had sucked the life from him. “I remember.”

I wasn’t just saying I remembered his name. I remembered him that night. Remembered his Death. Duncan’s shoulders hunched, his head down. Had he spoken to anyone about what happened? His friends had turned against him, Fashion Magazine doing a good job of slandering his reputation. Had Duncan processed losing Orwell at all? Had I processed losing Byron?

“Yeah,” Duncan said, a world of pain in that word.

“If you—if you ever need to talk about any of this shit,” I said haltingly, “I think it’s probably better to talk about it than let it fester. If you don’t hate me for what I’ve done, that is.”

“I don’t hate you.” At my surprised look, he added, “Don’t get me wrong, I’m angry. At you and at Nightmare. But I don’t hate you. How did you do it? Get me set up for murder?”

My stomach whirled as we climbed the hill until I felt sick. “She made me sneak into Ford House with the crossbow. I planted it in your wardrobe.” I couldn’t look at him. I was going to throw up.

He sighed. “That makes sense.”

I stared at him. “That’s all you have to say? That makes sense?”

Duncan shrugged, the movement drawing my attention to the shirt he wore. Shit, he must be freezing. “I wondered how it had ended up there. I had a lot of time to think while I was locked up. I knew it had to be Nightmare and one of her followers—”

“I am not one of her followers.”

“We’re all a single threat away from being her followers,” Duncan sighed, frowning when I unbuttoned my coat. “I’m not sure it’s my style, Cat.”

“Shut up and take the damn coat,” I huffed, plucking the card from the pocket and putting it in my jeans pocket. “You look freezing; it’s making me feel cold.”

“As opposed to being coatless and toasty as fuck,” he drawled, giving me a beleaguered look as he accepted the coat and yanked it up his arms. It strained at his shoulders but he got a few buttons fastened. “Very chivalrous,” he remarked.

“Don’t get used to it.” I watched him as we walked on. “You’re strangely okay with me setting you up for murder.”

“They sent the crossbow off for lab testing. It won’t come back with my prints on it. And if it does, Mummy and Daddy will just pay off the judge.”

Hearing him say Mummy and Daddy so seriously like that, no sarcasm at all, reminded me of Byron. My heart squeezed into a tight, compact pain. “I’m so sorry, Duncan, seriously. I didn’t want to do this to you.”

“I know. How much was the bail?”

“A hundred thousand.”

“Jesus.”

“That’s what I said.”

“What do they think I am, a serial killer?”

“I think they’re making an example of you.”

“Because I’m a student?” he demanded, affronted.

“Because you’re a rich boy,” I laughed. “And a Ford, with the whole island named after you.”

“Named after my asshole great-great-great-et-cetera-uncle Bartholomew Andrew Glothen Ford.”

“Glothen?” I gave him a horrified look.

“A name he made up himself at the ripe age of thirty-eight.”

“God,” I said.

“Exactly. Since I don’t have Glothen in my name, I don’t think I should be punished like that crusty old bastard. If anyone should have been locked up it was old uncle Bartholomew. He owned people. People, Cat.”

“I should have saved my ‘ god’ for now.”

Duncan nodded, eyeing the gates of Ford when they came into view. “Yeah, that was a premature use on your part. Owning people definitely deserved an appalled god.”

My chest tightened as I looked at him, seeming for all the world like he was okay and amused and not traumatised. “Will you be okay, Duncan? Honestly, no bullshit.”

“Honestly, no bullshit, I haven’t been alright since I got here.”

“Well, I don’t know if you still want a friend when they got you arrested, but I’m here for you. Fuck, that’s cliche.”

Duncan gave me a look. “You’re cheesy as fuck, Wallison. But I appreciate it.” He stopped on the path, unbuttoned my coat and handed it back. “Thanks for coming to bail me out. Hopefully I never have to return the favour someday.”

“I don’t plan on getting arrested, so you’re in the clear. And thanks for understanding.”

His attention drifted to Virgil, walking a clear distance behind us. Tor and Madde were right behind us, protective mother hens that they were. Or—oh, no. Judging by the dark looks on their faces, jealous husband hens was more accurate.

“Not your fault. Just don’t make a habit of getting me locked up,” Duncan replied. He walked backwards a few steps. “You’re not staying, are you? You look like you’re waiting to run.”

I sighed. “Yeah, I—”

My whole body jolted when the vibrator turned on. Ohhhh fuck no.

“I can’t stay here,” I managed to finish, my voice strangled. Luckily, Duncan must have thought bad memories were getting to me because he didn’t question it.

“Take care,” he said, glancing at Virgil, then the empty road. “I hope she leaves you alone.”

“Likewise,” I breathed, pulling my coat back on for something to do. I shot Miz a warning glare. He just watched me with a dark, intense stare.

It was going to be a long day.