Page 27 of All Hallows Masque

A beam of sunlight slashed through a dingy window, falling over Doyle’s feet, and then he was gone. Fuck. He was really a ghost.Fuck!

I dragged shaky hands down my face, spinning to make sure he hadn’t snuck up behind me. Or any other ghosts for that matter. “Shit,” I whispered.

A cleaner whose loyalties were compromised by madness.

Madde told me he had spies in Nightmare’s followers, but did he have someone here, too? The cleaner Cruelty complained had taken an extended leave of absence. Because she had her spectral fucking servantkillthe woman. Jesus. My hand shook, all my anger and strength sapped from me.

Anxiety, sensing weakness and opportunity, struck hard enough to cut off my air, squeezing my chest until it hurt.

I couldn’t stay here. I had to get out, just for a few hours, to remember how to breathe. I wanted to go home, to the domain, but I’d settle for the familiar halls of Ford right now.

I didn’t think about where I’d go; I just ran.

I made it as far as the fountain at the back of the house. My heart pounded. I was prepared for Cruelty to leap into my path, or for shadows to burst from the lawn and catch me before I could reach the gate at the side of the house. Instead, water drenched my whole body as red liquid burst from the fountain. The sound of roaring water was deafening as it gushed, pouring over the grass, over my body, slicking my hair to my skull.

I shrieked in surprise, jerking out of the spray. There was a moment where shock burst through me like a meteor shower. And then the water began to eat at my skin, to burn, toscald.My shriek became a scream as the pain scraped across all my nerves, sinking into my arms, my legs, my neck, my face.

“You shouldn’t have tried to run, Kitty.”

I flinched hard at the cool purr of Cruelty’s voice, lifting my head to stare at her with tears in my eyes. I’d ended up on theground, but I had no memory of getting there. I shook my head fast, my screams cut into jagged, pleading sobs. Fury knotted her brow, turning her eyes a deeper shade of blue. Her mouth pressed into a flat, foreboding line as she glowered down at me.

“Just … exercising,” I managed to choke out.

The fountain stopped, the loud crash of its spray cutting off instantly. “Oops.” She crouched in front of me, brushing a drenched lock of hair from my eyes, the white strands stained red. “I thought you were trying to run away from me.”

“No,” I rasped, tears flowing down my cheeks. It was like an acid burn on all my exposed skin, and I couldn’t bear it. “Wouldn’t.”

“Never fear.” Cruelty squeezed my shoulder, her expression kind now, all her rage wiped away. “I have a tonic that’ll clear this up in no time. Follow me, Kitty.”

Crying, I stumbled to my feet, holding my arms gingerly at my sides. They were burned raw, red all over. My face must have been the same. I was lucky my hair hadn’t begun to fall out.

I couldn’t try to run again, not even for an hour of breathing space, not even for a minute. She’d kill me before I stepped a single foot off of Darkmore’s property.

17

Cat

My nineteenth birthday began with a nightmare. I felt Death in my dream, knew he was just out of reach, that if I stretched out my fingertips just another millimetre they would brush the warm wool of his coat, but no matter how far I ran or how fast I pushed my aching body, I couldn’t reach him. And when he turned, it wasn’t my husband at all. All the warmth drained from my body, goosebumps rushing to my arms as my eyes connected with the sinister gleam of Doyle’s stare.

I shot upright in bed with Death’s name on my lips, gasping in the dark, the goosebumps from my dream covering my arms and legs. I wrapped my arms around myself as I choked down air, the velvet brush of the covers as abrasive as a razor on my sensitive skin. It was instinct to reach for my darkness, to call out to Madde for comfort and connection.

I hit a brick wall so hard it bruised, a small cry puncturing the silence of my room. I locked my jaw in a failed attempt to stop the hurt quiver in my bottom lip. My link to Madde was gone. I’d never hear his voice caress my mind, never feel the silken glide of shadow and darkness again.

I was on my own, my bond with his darkness killed by the ritual at the masquerade. By those bastard robed figures. ByDoyle,and no doubt his brother. But who was the third? I remembered there being five figures at the Halloween party; what happened to them? An easy guess would be that Poppy had been wearing one of the cloaks, and I killed her, explaining that absence. But who else?

“Happy birthday to me,” I muttered, my knees pressed to my chest and only the moonlight to witness me flick a tear off my cheek.

I couldn’t sit here and obsess over that dream the way I’d obsessed over my dream of Misery, the one I was convinced had been real, so I climbed out of bed, found slippers and a long sapphire-blue robe that reminded me too much of Madde’s eyes, and made my way slowly, quietly through the house.

Like the last time I ventured out of my room at night, it was utterly silent, the pervasive, threatening atmosphere of Darkmore strangely dormant. Or maybe that was Cruelty’s magic I usually felt, crushing all the oxygen from the air until I was faint and a sense of foreboding crawled down my spine. Maybe the house no longer felt like a threat because she was sleeping.

Although it was hard to imagine someone like Cruelty sleeping. She probably spent the dark hours of night planning new ways to torture me.

I reached the conservatory easily, though I kept expecting her to jump out and incapacitate me with pain like she did with the fountain when I tried to run. I’d managed to convince her Iwas just jogging across the grounds, but my skin was still pink and sore where the fountain’s violent water had burned my skin. The tonic she gave me had healed the worst of the burns, but the evidence was all over me. A physical warning not to step out of line, because she could so easily cause me pain—and cause the same to my husband.

To Death.

Real or not, the dream with Miz had cemented my belief that the man Cruelty held captive was Death. He was here somewhere, locked up and afraid. But I would find him. I didn’t know how, but I would.

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