Page 34 of All Hallows Masque

“It’s okay,” I promised, pushing away a flash of unease that sparked. “I’m here now, I’ve got you. You protect me, and it’s always been mutual.” I brushed aside a thin braid, looking into his eyes. They were a darker grey than I remembered, filled with the shadows of Cruelty’s treatment. Did she torture him? Was his body covered in scars and bruises beneath the black tunic he wore, the edges embroidered in silver and so similar to what he wore the first time we met?

I leaned onto my tiptoes to kiss the edge of his jaw, and he froze. My heart crashed into my ribs. “What’s wrong?”

“I can’t,” he said in that same tight voice, rougher than I remembered.

“No,” I breathed when he pulled away. I caught his hand and grabbed it tight. “We need to get you out of here. I know the gates aren’t in Ford’s End anymore but—”

But we can find another, or hide in the fucking forest for all I care.I didn’t get to speak those words because Death ripped his hand from mine and stumbled back.

“I’m not doing this!” he shouted, his head tipped back. Panic and confusion both crashed into my chest, quickening my heartbeat, turning my breathing erratic. Apprehension crawled down the back of my neck. “Do you hear me?”

“Doing what?” I whispered, cold slithering across my skin. “Stop drawing attention to yours—”

“Well, this is disappointing,” Cruelty remarked, slipping into our path as Death tried to flee. Why did he have to shout?If he’d kept his voice down, we could have got out of here. “You,” she emphasised, giving Death a pouty scowl, “are a disappointment.”

I saw it in her eyes—the crescendo of rage, the spill of murder through her soul—and I hadsecondsto push Death behind me, to sink into the roiling, snarling power of my jaguar.

She shouldn’t have pushed me with tests, shouldn’t have helped me hone my ability to change forms, because I used that knowledge now to shift in seconds. My paws dug furrows into the polished floor as I curled my upper lip and let out a warning snarl to Cruelty—

Where was she?

Breath sawed into my lungs, exhaling as a snarl. I was vaguely aware of courtiers backing up with cries of alarm to have a wild creature in their midst, and even the string quartet fleeing their seats, letting a tense silence fall over Old Ford House. But when I turned and my eyes fell on Cruelty lunging at Death in her dress the colour of dried blood, her eyes hungry for his suffering, my snarl died. She had one hand on his neck, one knotted in his braids and—

The snap of his neck echoed, too loud in the stillness.

It sounded like a gunshot, like a building collapsing. Like my heart collapsing.

I stumbled forward in a daze, my growl dying, something crumpled inside me when Cruelty let Death thud to the floor, not laying him gently but letting him hit the ground like a sack of bricks. Like a dead body.

He was a death god, and surely he couldn’t be killed by snapping his neck, but this wasCruelty,and her power was endless. I shifted back, my head so foggy and so much pain in my chest that I barely processed the change. I knelt at his side, my bottom lip quivering, and blinked a tear free so I could look at him, his face so peaceful and still that he might only be asleep.

“There, see?” Cruelty said with a smile in her voice. “Don’t say I never give you anything.”

I lashed my head up, glaring at her with all the hatred in my heart, but she wasn’t talking tome.I followed her line of sight and found the horrified faces of the courtiers, the staff, and the bartender who’d been the only friendly face in a room full of sharks. I blinked, remembering his words, remembering the note in my pocket.

I sucked down air, a tremor shaking my shoulders.

It’s not real. Choose with your instincts.

It’s not real.

I swallowed, my mouth dry. “It’s not real.” The words were faint, a barely audible rasp, but Cruelty laughed brightly, seeming delighted with me.

“Oh, how clever you are, Kitty.”

“It’s not real,” I repeated, my voice stronger. I stared at Death’s unmoving body, obsessing over every incorrect detail. Tiny things that were easily missed unless you were his wife. His skin tone two shades lighter. His braids a little too thin, the intricacy of them off where Death’s were perfect. The smooth, unblemished column of his throat, missing the tiny, pale nick of a scar. It wasn’treal.It wasn’t him.

I got to my feet in a rush, shaking with rage now instead of agony. “You’re supposed to be my friend,” I spat, my canines still sharp. “Friends don’t do this. They don’t hurt each other like this.”

Cruelty rolled her eyes. “It’s only a little fun.”

“It’s not fun for me!”I screamed, my temperature spiking, my hands shaking now. I was going to shift; I couldn’t control it. “I thought you’d killedmy husband,Cruelty. How fucked in the head do you have to be to—”

I didn’t get another word out. The rose choker bit into my throat so tightly I grunted, my eyes watering as the thornsgouged my skin, the stems of roses carving deep trails into my throat.

Movement surged through the crowd, but my eyes were too teary to see more than a blur of gunmetal through a sea of black and crimson.

“Oh, enough of you,” Cruelty huffed, and I braced for her to kill me, the nearness of my death spiking my heart into a panicked sprint. “Now, where were we, Kitty? Oh, that’s right, you were apologising for snapping. Again.”

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