Page 21 of All Hallows Masque

“What gift are you casting?” I asked without missing a beat, my back crawling with awareness of the power hanging in the air. It didn’t throb with a beat like when Nightmare resurrected, killing four students, but there was a clear tingle of magic all around us. Nothing good could come of this.

“Just a little something something,” she replied, as giddy as a kid on Christmas morning.

From a distance we could be inverted twins, her brown-haired and fair in a blue dress, me pale-complexioned with pink-threaded white hair in my silver dress. Up close, would anyone notice the rage and desperation in my eyes? Would they see that this friendship was all a charade? Could they see beyond the perfect illusion to the mask of death Istillsaw whenever I looked in the mirror, a sick, twisted remnant of Nightmare’s curse.

“I just thought, we’ve been having so much fun lately.Andyou’re getting quicker at shifting every time I set you one of my little tests.Andyou need to keep all your focus on the masquerades.”

Masquerades, plural? Ice shot through me, forcing a shudder.

“And keep your focus on your best friend, of course!” she added with a little shimmy of excitement. “I know you’ve been distracted lately, but my little gift will take awayallthose distractions, and you can focus on being strong and deadly and my best girl.”

I blinked fast to keep my eyes focused, but the room was blurring and I regretted not staying sober. “What distractions?” I asked, dread creeping up on me like a shadow. Cold and foreboding and all-consuming.

She gave me a sly look. “Don’t think I didn’t notice that little tête-à-tête you had with Madness. Naughty Kitty,” she chided playfully, smiling from me to the three robe-clad cultists as their chanting grew louder. Ice solidified in my veins, making every breath I dragged in as sharp as shattered pieces of a frozen lake. I’d rather jump into the lake on Ford’s grounds than witness whatever Cruelty was doing here.

“It was nothing,” I breathed, faint and dizzy. “We were talking about the weather.” Did she hear us speaking? Could she reach through my skull and brain matter into that secret space where Madde’s voice lived? Fear made my temperature plummet, when I should have been hot with protective rage.

“Of course it was nothing, but you can’t let Madness steal your focus. You’re doing so well! Just yesterday you hunted that deer, and you took it downsofast.”

I was trying to forget.

“You could have lost yourself to the bloodlust but you came right back, and shifted into your pretty human form.” She squeezed my arm. “So this is my gift to you, to help you control your creature like I promised. I always keep my promises, Kitty.”

“I know,” I muttered, hairs rising on the back of my neck. Oh god, had I miscalculated and she hadn’t taken Death butMadde?“But I can concentrate, you don’t need to hurt Madde. I promise. And I don’t break my promises, either.”

“We’re so alike,” Cruelty said with a soft smile, meeting my eyes. “And this won’t hurt one bit. Pinky swear.”

I didn’t know what I was going to say, but her chanting, robed guys took a step back, revealing a collapsed mass on the ground. Red velvet clung to frail shoulders, masking their shape so I couldn’t see who was beneath the cloak. Their head was bowed, lank hair concealing their face.

I was moving before I could second guess myself, my wobbly legs and weak knees somehow carrying me through the murmuring crowd of masked, glittering courtiers. I elbowed aside a tall, hooded figure, my stomachdroppingat the way my arm went all the way through their incorporeal body.

They werespirits?But how did their chanting have power? How could they hurt people? Kill people? How the fuck did three ghosts summon Nightmare to Ford?

Questions for later.

I dropped to the polished hall floor beside the slumped figure and reached for their face, moulding my hand to their cheek to lift their face, to see which of the people I loved Cruelty had kidnapped and threatened and—

A stranger lifted her face. Dark eyes locked on mine with visceral demand, and my heart clanged against my ribs as I dropped my hand. Not my men, not my family, not my friends. They were safe. My shoulders slumped. The woman’s body did the opposite, tightening in increments.

“Who are you?” I whispered, my words drowned out by the sudden rise in chanting. Shivers rolled over my skin, especially now I knew the robes were hiding ghosts, but I blocked them out.

Her hair was a striking contrast, ink-black on her left side, ash-silver on her right, and she was beautiful. Young, only a few years older than me, with a heart-shaped face and delicate features. Her eyes were fierce, though, blazing with pure rage.

“Moth,” she hissed, her voice an accusation and an omen.

“Don’t spoil my fun, Kitty,” Cruelty chided, the sharp clip of her shoes cutting through the silence. A chill crawled across my spine when I realised the string quartet had gone silent, and even the chanting had cut off dead. “It took a lot of convincing for my brother to give up his pet project.”

Moth bared her teeth in a deeper hiss, hatred turning her eyes into a void. “Fuck you, and fuck your brother.”

Cruelty’s laugh was bright and loud. It turned the ice in my blood to stone. “Oh, don’t be that way. Kitty, tell her to stop being so dull.”

I’d never met this woman before but I knew instantly she was like me—a fly caught in the web of a vindictive spider.

“You can’t kill her,” I said, standing with my arms tight to my sides so I didn’t bump into the ghostly cultists. Had they always been dead, even at the Halloween party?

Cruelty rolled her eyes. “I don’t need tokillher. You’re always so dramatic, Kitty. I just need to pinch a little magic, that’s all.”

“Getfucked,”Moth spat, shaking as she tried to stand. She fell back to the ground, slumping beneath the swath of crimson velvet. “Up the arse. With a broken bottle, and no lube.”

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