Page 44 of All Hallows Masque

“What kind of friendship can we have when you’re keeping me here by threatening Alfie?” My voice shook. Shit. “When he’s gone, you’ll know it’s real. That I’m here because I want to be.”

“You said you want to leave,” she retorted in a voice richer, deeper than I’d heard. The darkness seemed to pulse around her hands, death magic gathering. “You’re lying to me, Kitty.”

“I want to leave to take Alfie back to the domain,” I rushed out, stumbling into the sofa back. All the air left my lungs in a rush, instincts screaming at me to run. I scrambled around the sofa and kept backing up. “I’m not going to leave forever. I’ll come back. I wouldn’t want to miss the—the next masque,” I added quickly, fumbling for something believable. “I want to see the next theme. This one’s Roman heroes, right?”

“Yes,” she hissed, staring at me so intently that my stomach squired. Was that—oh fuck, that was definitely black bleeding into her eyes, covering the watery blue irises and expanding to devour the whites. “And I thought you’d be a little more grateful, Kitty, since you love the Roman Empire.”

At my blank look, her lip curled back and she snarled, “You wrote a story about it in your year six English lesson.”

“Ah.” Jesus, what didn’t she know about me? My heart thundered as I retreated, bumping into the door. Thank fuck, I was nearly out. But where could I go? The one time I tried to escape, she had the fountain burn me. “That’s—so thoughtful.”

Her eyes flashed. “Lies, again. You’ve been lying the whole time, haven’t you? Deceitful little Kitty.”

“No!” I rushed out, fumbling for the door behind me and opening it, fleeing into the hallway. “You knew I came here because you helped me save Misery. This was … me saying thank you,” I rushed out, panic making me jumpy. I wished I still had the spear, wished I had any weapon. I could shift, but there’d be a few seconds between forms where I’d be vulnerable, and I didn’t want to expose that weakness. “And I am grateful, really, andof coursewe’ll be friends forever.”

God, I felt spineless. I’d planned to confront her, to fight until she was dead but here I was trying to appease her again. Cruelty’s slow, cold laughter told me she knew the same.

The slow, melodic music from the string quartet was louder out here, grinding my nerves as bows sawed strings. It reminded me too closely of the masquerade last night, when she killed Death in front of me.

“Where will you run, Kitty?” she asked, pursuing me with a slow, deadly grace through the corridor. “You can’t escape the grounds; I’ll never let you leave.”

“Tell me where Aiden is, and I’ll stay. I promise.”

“Promises mean nothing from a liar.” Her upper lip curled, more power throbbing around her hands, sending a shudder down my spine.

“No, I—”

Her dark magic discharged so suddenly I didn’t see it happen, only felt the impact to my chest. It hit with the force of a cannonball, and I crashed into one of her precious statues,barely managing to catch myself on the wall as the statue tumbled to the ground.

And smashed.

I went utterly still, panic making me freeze. What would she do to me? How would she punish me for shattering her statue? Even my jaguar went still, waiting for a killing blow.

I opened my mouth to plead for forgiveness, but movement from below made me flinch into the wall, my frozen stupor broken by the sight of … of a lanky, gold-complexioned Adonis getting unsteadily to his feet. He wobbled like a newborn fawn, cerulean eyes wide and panicked as he stared at me and then Cruelty, his mouth opening and closing on wordless rasps. Like he’d forgotten how to speak. Because he … he was covered in plaster dust, and broken shards clung to his corduroys and white shirt, and he’d come frominside the shattered statue.

28

Cat

Igasped as my brain finally caught up to what I was seeing, and then I grabbed the man’s shoulders, gasping an apology as I threw him into Cruelty’s path and broke into a sprint. It wouldn’t slow her for long, but I only needed a few seconds.

The dark sapphire hallway blurred, and I saw none of its lush fixtures or adornments, my gaze zeroing in on every pale statue. They’d been there in the fucking masquerades the whole time—and there werepeopleinside. Alfie hadn’t been trapped in one before, but she must have cursed him to lifeless plaster sometime last night, after the wine shot knocked me out. She must have. It was the only thing that made sense, the last fragment of hope I had to hold onto.

If he was bonded to me like Cruelty said, he had to be a death god like my husbands. He would have magic and dark, seething power. We could get out of here.

“Get out of my way!” Cruelty hissed behind me, followed by a masculine grunt of pain. Guilt twisted my heart but I couldn’t regret throwing the stranger at the goddess when it had bought me enough time to reach the next statue.

I threw all my weight into it until it fell to the polished wood floor and exploded on impact. A stately, tanned woman crawled out of the shards and shook her head, dark curls tumbling from the elegant coif on her head, dust clinging to the swags of her velvet skirt. I didn’t stop, veering around a corner and down the next hall, my feet pounding the floor as I sprinted to the next statue, knocking it over. I waited only long enough to see that the person who crawled out wasn’t Alfie and then I ran on. Cruelty was close behind me, every enraged hiss made my skin crawl.

I reached for the next statue, and cried out when magic collided with my shoulder, hitting hard enough to bruise. My feet faltered, sending me skidding into a lacquer-inlaid cabinet, and I threw a frantic stare over my shoulder. Cruelty tossed her head back with a bright laugh.

I clutched my shoulder and ran on, my breathing shallow now. The next statue gave way to a portly man with three strands of hair and a twisted, annoyed expression. I left Cruelty to deal with him and burst into the foyer, my head starting to spin even as the pain faded from my shoulder. So the dark magic wasn’t permanent, even though I caught flashes of flickering shadows in the edge of my vision, each one making me flinch.

I grabbed the buxom statue’s shoulder and hauled her to the floor, racing upstairs. I threw a quick look back and watched a woman with the statue’s likeness sit up from the floor, wiggling up the sweetheart hem of her corset with a huff. Cruelty was right behind her, her eyes blazing like blue fire. Fear doused my blood stream with ice.

I whirled back to face the stairs and rushed on, panting, shaking too hard to grasp my jaguar. I’d practised shifting withall her tests, but never when I was this afraid. I tried to grab that vicious magic that allowed my subject form to burst free, but it slipped from my hands. A dark thought formed … did Cruelty’s magic block me from accessing my beast? Is that why she kept hitting me with painful pulses of it?

No time to think right now,I hissed at myself, rushing up the stairs on legs like jelly. At the top, another statue waited. My breath cut off when I paid attention to that gentle, rounded face, the wild curls rendered in plaster, the tall, rangy body, the golden mask of laurel leaves.

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