Page 23 of All Hallows Trick (Sick and Twisted #3)

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CAT

W e let ourselves in a side gate and followed the dark castle walls around to the front entrance. Tor’s eyes were sharp on our surroundings, scanning for more threats. The spirits didn’t follow us beyond the gate. Their job was done, I knew, but I didn’t voice that theory. Even if unease closed around my chest and quickened my breathing.

I needed a plan. I needed a way to escape Tor because there was no way in hell he’d let me go meet an unknown person alone. And while the message didn’t say to come alone, it was heavily implied. I couldn’t risk Pain or the Stalker or whoever the fuck else seeing Tor and fleeing. We needed their help. Miz needed their help. Quickly.

How much longer did he have? Days? Hours?

“Come on,” Tor said gently, reading my stress. “We’ll make this quick.”

Guilt twisted my gut until I felt physically sick, but I followed Tor up the wide stone stairs where I’d slaughtered Poppy’s ghost, where there were still bloodstains where my men fought the creatures. What happened to them after the fight? They’d retreated and limped away but… what about after, when they shifted back? Poppy was gone. Had Nightmare found them, or had they escaped? Part of me hoped they had. The rest of me knew having them loose in Ford’s End spelled murder for the inhabitants.

I couldn’t think about that now, couldn’t wonder what would have become of me if I hadn’t had my brother and Honey and my husbands to guide me through the aftermath of shifting.

At least I was breathing, and alive, and not currently covered in fur with blood dripping from my fangs. I was alive. Miz dying put a lot into perspective, made me face facts that hurt. It could have been a lot worse than becoming a hybrid human-animal.

I swallowed the lump in my throat when the front door creaked open, the familiar noise arrowing into my chest. How many times had I heard that sound and knew it meant a homecoming? How many times had that squeak meant Tor had returned, or Death was back after going to inspect something in the neighbouring towns?

A tight pain formed in my chest as I followed Tor into the hallway, the scent of firewood and cloves hitting me so hard that my eyes stung.

“We’ll get back here,” Tor said gently, resting his hand on my shoulder, his thumb stroking over my coat.

“I know,” I replied, my voice croaky with emotion. “I just miss when things were… easier. Happier.”

Tor sighed and pulled me into a hug there in the foyer, and my heart twisted up so painfully that a tear escaped. I wanted to blurt out the real reason we were here, but I couldn’t risk it. Miz needed me not to screw this up, so I would lie to Tor, keep this secret, and hope he forgave me. God, what would I do if he didn’t?

“Everything’s going to be okay,” he promised, so determined there wasn’t room to doubt him.

But still I asked, “And Miz? Is he going to be okay?”

He stiffened instantly, hands flexing on my back. “He’ll be fine.”

“If I can sense it, you can too.”

“Don’t,” he bit out, his voice as tight as mine. “We’ll figure something out. He’s going to be fine.”

“Yes,” I agreed, and made it into a vow. “He’ll be fine.”

When he drew back, Tor cleared his throat and avoided my stare. It made it easier to take a tiny step to the right and unhook the keys that hung beside the door. A regular lock wouldn’t hold him for long, but I didn’t need long. Pain lanced the fragile organ inside my ribcage but I wouldn’t back down.

“Let’s grab Peach and get back to him,” Tor said gruffly, clearing his throat again. My heart broke a little more when he scrubbed both hands over his face and headed for the stairs. “Miz will feel better when she’s with him.”

He didn’t even notice that I wasn’t beside him, so terrified to lose Misery, so distracted that I was able to slip out the door and he just trudged on towards the stairs. I had to clench my jaw to ward off the emotion that wanted to drown me, but I managed to close the door quietly, get the key in the lock, and twist it.

“Cat?” I heard him call from within. The words were a direct hit to my heart. He wasn’t panicking—yet—but I knew it wouldn’t be long. Tor’s magic would allow him to bypass the doors, but I was already spinning, my shoes hammering the path as I sprinted around the other side of the castle.

I didn’t stop running until Death’s garden came into view, the rows of terracotta planters and fragrant flower boxes on my right, a blooming row of herbs and flowers on my left. It made no sense that something should grow and thrive in the realm of the dead, but I’d never seen anything that summed up Death quite so perfectly. He was oxygen and sunlight, nourishing and essential. The pain in my chest grew.

He’d forgive me. They’d all forgive me for being so reckless if this saved Misery.

My shoes skidded on the dirt path as I stopped between a lush rose bush and a tree growing white, perfectly circular berries. Ghost fruit. The first time I’d eaten them had been at breakfast with Misery’s arms around me while he bickered with Tor. I choked down the emotion and scanned the garden for Miz’s mystery saviour, my breathing tight at the idea they might never come to meet me.

I should have found a way to lose Tor sooner or at least tried to convince my husbands to let me come alone. The only problem was Madde’s castle was so far from here, I didn’t know the route between them, and I’d had to fight to go to the bathroom alone, let alone across the realm.

But what if the person who wrote the message never came?

I scanned the area, slipping into a shadow between the dark castle wall and a standing planter overflowing rich green climbers.

“There’s no need to hide,” a clear, musical voice said—female. “I’ve cloaked the area. He won’t find you.”

I turned towards the voice with a frown, my shoulders climbing by my ears, a strange mix of disappointment and wariness forming where before there was only determination, fear for Miz and… anticipation. That last emotion made no sense. What was there to anticipate? But I couldn’t deny the crash of emotions in my chest. It felt a lot like disappointment.

The figure walking towards me, lit only by the stars and moon, was definitely a woman. She was around the same height as me but slimmer, and I’d guess in her late twenties. Brunette hair pulled into an elegant updo, her hair half covered by a detailed lace hood draped with an expert hand. A matching ivory dress had been tailored perfectly to her delicate body. She looked like she should be on a runway for couture wedding gowns. She had the face of a model, too, her porcelain skin enviably clear, a gentle flush across her cheeks, nose, and rosebud mouth. I’d never seen this woman in my life.

She came closer, watching me intently, the train of her dress caressing grass and wildflowers. “I wasn’t sure if you’d come,” she said, meeting my eyes. The look was guileless; there was a tentative kindness to her expression. None of the sadism I saw in Nightmare. And she definitely wasn’t the Stalker, so that was one thing I could stop worrying about.

“Who are you?” I asked, matching her steps until we met, two feet apart in the middle of the garden, surrounded by wild blooms and night flowers that lifted their fragrant faces to the moon. I wasn’t sure if the beautiful scent came from them or from the delicate doll in front of me. She wasn’t what I’d been expecting.

“I don’t remember my name,” she replied with a sad sigh and downcast eyes. “It’s been too long.”

Was she one of Nightmare’s victims, too? Or was she a god like my men? “You said you could save Misery?”

“Yes, poor Misery.” She reached forward and took my hands in hers, startling me before I could avoid the touch. “You must be so worried.”

I nodded, trying to conceal the sheer terror that crushed me at the thought of never seeing him smile or feeling his arms tighten around me in his sleep or hearing his voice ever again. “How can I save him?”

“It’s such a simple thing. Even Death could help you if he knew how to do it. But he doesn’t, you see.” She ran her thumb over my knuckles, smiling down at our hands, and alarm bells began to whisper through me. “My brother and I are the only ones who know how. But I’ll tell you.”

“Please,” I breathed, hope quickening my heart.

“All it will take is a little bargain.”

I yanked my hands out of hers and took a step away, the back of my neck tingling. Of course it required a bargain. “You’re working for Nightmare.”

The woman laughed, the sound musical and sweet. “I’m definitely not. I have my own agenda and helping you would fall into that.”

“What’s your agenda?” I asked, trying to keep my voice even and failing.

“Oh, Kitty, I can’t tell you that.”

“Cat,” I corrected, the alarm ringing louder. I shouldn’t have come alone. I was so stupid. She’d said no one would find us here, that she’d cloaked the garden. I felt the first slow curl of awareness inside me and froze. Shit. I didn’t know what was worse—being here with no way to get back, or Madde knowing I’d snuck away from Tor. “How can I save Misery? Please.”

“He doesn’t have long left,” she said sadly, genuinely, and I wondered if I’d overreacted to nothing. She didn’t seem like a psycho. She wasn’t Nightmare. “I don’t want much. Just a small bargain. I can’t give you something for nothing, or what will stop you telling everyone this little trick?”

I grazed my lip with my teeth, noticed her watching, and immediately stopped. She had to know I was desperate, but I didn’t want her to know quite how badly. She had the advantage here. But Miz needed me…

“What kind of bargain?” I asked warily.

“Come with me,” she replied, holding out a hand, her skin like alabaster in the moonlight. “Come with me right now, and I’ll tell you how to save your husband. But after that, you stay with me. As my friend and guest of honour.”

My heart knocked against my ribs. “Come with you… as in, leave? Leave my friends and family, and live with you?”

“Not forever,” she assured me, her voice still musical and sweet. But why did every instinct I had scream at me to run? “Just for a little while.” She sighed, glancing away, the expression on her face utterly forlorn. “I think I used to have friends, but since I woke up here, I’ve been starved for female company. I’d like a friend. And I want to help you.”

I didn’t think she was lying, but… “I can’t walk away from them.” It killed me to even say it, to bite the words out. “I already did that once, and it almost broke me. I can’t do it again. Ask something else. Please.”

I jumped when she moved, but her step carried her away from me, not closer. I let out a slow breath, until she said, “There is nothing else. You’ll come, when it’s time, when there’s nothing left.”

I began to reply, but the moonlight shifted and—she was gone. She disappeared into shadow the way my men did. The composure that had held me together tore away, and I gasped, my heart beating frantically. With her gone, the fear grew teeth and sank them into me. What if that was the only chance I had to save Miz? What if he—if he—

I knelt in the grass and vomited, acid burning my throat as the full weight of reality drove into me.

Snow had begun to fall while I was in the bubble with the woman, whoever she was. Fat, cold flakes hit my knuckles as I curled them into fists on my thighs, a deep tremor starting, rattling my arms. What had I done? I’d chosen to stay with my husbands over saving Misery. In the moment, all I could think of was Nightmare forcing me to say I loved Death and only Death. All I could remember was the looks on Tor’s and Miz’s faces. But it was better they were heartbroken and angry than dead.

“Oh, god,” I gasped, shivering as snow collected on my shoulders, a matching cold spreading through my insides.

I’m coming, Madde said in a heated, furious voice I hadn’t heard before. Stay right there, I’m coming.

He found me at the same time Tor burst around the corner of the castle and stomped over Death’s wildflowers to get to me.

“What the fuck, Cactus?” Tor growled, grabbing my hands and gripping tight.

“Don’t shout at her,” Madde snapped, avoiding the spot where I’d thrown up as he knelt on my other side. His hand caressed up and down my back, the comfort making me sicker. “She was trying to save Misery.”

My head shot up, my eyes locking with soft, loving blue. He looked like a rockstar in the dark, a black blouse hanging open over his heavily inked chest, red hair artfully disarrayed, his eyes shadowed with purple and black liner. My chest hurt. “You knew?”

“Only a couple minutes ago.” He leaned against me, offering his warmth as I shook.

“It didn’t work. I fucked up,” I choked out, staring at the place where moonlight silvered the edge of a rose in front of me. “I didn’t save him.”

Tor expelled a rough breath, palming the side of my head to pull me closer, his lips finding my temple. “He’s going to be okay.”

“No, he isn’t,” I croaked.

“He is.”

“He’s dying!” I snapped, my voice reverberating around the garden, shattering the quiet.

Tor flinched hard, and regret made my stomach roil again.

“She wanted me to walk away from you all, but I—I couldn’t do it again. But by refusing, I’ve condemned him to death and—”

“Shh,” Madde hushed, stroking my hair now. I could feel the rage in him, darkness seething where it brushed my soul, but somehow, I knew it wasn’t directed at me.

I didn’t know what happened when a death god met their true, final death. I knew he’d be replaced, that some newly dead person would become Misery, but what happened to him, to my husband, to the man I loved? Would he disappear forever? Would there be nothing left to show he’d ever existed? I choked back a sob. I should have taken the bargain.

“Sorry to interrupt,” a new voice said. Sly, amused, female. My shoulders tensed, my whole body recoiling. Nightmare. “But I’ve gone to all this trouble with the spirits and you haven’t even noticed I’m here. I’m offended.”