Page 5 of All Hallows Masque

Through the dredge of fear, I seized onto those words.Shewas behind the experiments, the kidnapping, the mutilations and murders. She knew everything, had masterminded it. “Do you have any of the serum she used to change us? Do you have an antidote?”

A furrow formed on Cruelty’s brow, crinkling her watery blue eyes. “There’s no antidote for perfection, Kitty.”

The name made me grit my teeth. I heard this same rhetoric from my deranged professor, and I wasn’t keen to hear it again. I wanted—actually, I didn’t know what I wanted. I wanted to go home to Miz, Tor, Death, and Madde, but the gates to the domain had collapsed into mist and there was no way back.

So I’d stay, just for a few days, until I’d figured out what her scheme was. Everything Nightmare had done came from her; I had no doubt Cruelty was scheming something dark and evil. Something worse than anything we’d endured yet.

Where do you think you got all your ideas?

That’s what she said that night in the garden. Nightmare had been fixated on Death, finding fucked-up ways to weaken him, which meant that was Cruelty’s aim. And likefuckwould I let her hurt my husband.

So I swallowed my rage, choked down every barbed argument I wanted to throw in her face even if I tasted blood, and said, “I don’t want to kill anyone else.”

“Why not?” She snorted, releasing me and taking a step back. “It’s fun.”

Fun?All the people I killed gave me nightmares, and haunted every waking moment. Darya, Poppy, Nightmare. The latter was the only one I didn’t regret. I didn’t like to think about Poppy and everything she’d done, but she was still my professor no matter how insane she was. She’d been kind to me.

“I don’t like to kill,” I managed to say after an awkward silence fell over the foyer.

“Well.” Cruelty pirouetted to my side and linked our elbows, infernal heat bleeding into my chilled body. “Luckily, you have me for all that fun stuff. Are you hungry?”

“I—”What the fuck?“I just found out my best friend isdead,and my husband would be dead if I hadn’t given up a drop of my own life. I don’t think I can ever eat again.”

“Don’t be silly.I’myour best friend and, dead though I might be, I’m not going anywhere.” Cruelty patted my arm, towing me across the smooth floor and into a short hallway. She ignored my resistance and my dumbstruck expression as she led me through a dark-wood doorway into a kitchen decorated in dark, velvety shades of green. The stormy sky shone dreary light through a big, arched window in the same style as the conservatory’s glass and iron design.

I didn’t know what kitchen I’d expected Cruelty to have, or if I’d expected her to have one at all, but this fit her perfectly. Dark, a little ominous, but beautiful. Deep green cupboards, exposed brick walls, with appliances and shelves in a gleaming gold to offset all the darkness. Pots of herbs overflowed the windowsill, crowded the shelves above the oven, and even sprawled across the marble-topped island that Cruelty led me towards. Theyreminded me of the bright riot of plants in Madde’s home, and pain seized my heart in my chest, making every breath painful.

I wanted to go home.

But Miz was still alive because of Cruelty, so I’d pay the price. What if she could revoke her help, somehow undo what I’d done so he truly died?

She deposited me on a stool by the island and bustled around the kitchen towards the fridge, moving with a spring in her step. She was truly crazy, because she seemed genuinely happy to have me here. God, she really thought we were friends, as if she hadn’t killed or traumatised nearly everyone I loved. Only my younger brother Tannie and my parents had been spared. I’d lost two best friends because of this bitch and whatever ambition she hid with bright smiles and musical laughter. I’d left my men behindagainbecause of her.

Not forever,I told myself. Just for a few days, to see what she really wants.

Because she did want something, and I would be right here to stop her.

With what power? With what strength?I ignored my inner voice, shutting it up with the memory of killing Poppy. It haunted me hourly; I might as well use the memory as proof that I was capable, I could defend myself, and I could keep my husbands safe.

Cruelty turned from the fridge with Tupperware in each hand and a giddy smile on her face. “Prawn cocktail or beef bourguignon? Oh! I know! Let’s have fondue!”

“Sure,” I managed to say with only mild snarling and teeth baring. “Fondue sounds great.”

If nothing else, I could stab her with the fondue fork.

I’ll make her pay for every time she hurt you.I sent the words through the ether, through the mist, to Madde, Miz,Death, and Tor. To Virgil. To Honey and Byron beyond the grave. I’d get vengeance for everyone she’d wronged.

Cruelty thought we were friends. I was her undoing. I was her death.

3

Cat

Cruelty was still alive by the time I closed myself in the bedroom she’d magnanimously showed me to. I’d almost shifted and ripped her throat out sixteen times, and only the memory of the nonexistent gates held me back. And the fact she wanted my husband weak, hurt. Dead?

She was delusional enough to be committed to an asylum. I was exhausted by the time I locked the solid oak door and checked it was truly locked four times. Then I showered, changed into a vintage white lace nightgown—the only available pyjamas—and climbed into the enormous walnut four-poster bed. I knew a locked door wouldn’t keep Cruelty out, but I felt better with those metal tumblers in place.

When I closed my eyes, I saw Honey the night of the memorial, wearing her bright pinkfuck youdress, and carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders, but trying so damn hard to hide it. My first tears were slow and hot, but when Ithought of Honey at the memorial, I thought of Professor Poppy fending off the vultures pretending to grieve our friend, and I remembered Phil glaring with fury at that dick who livestreamed the event. Liars and traitors, both of them.

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