Page 60 of All Hallows Masque

“Tor,” Death chided. “She’s helping us.”

“She’s being judgy. We’ve spoken about this,” I said to the older woman, raising a brow. “If you keep being judgemental, you’ll never keep any friends.”

The look she gave me could have turned sand to glass. “Takes a judgemental bitch to know one,” she retorted with a little smirk and shoved past me, knocking me into the wall.

Passion sighed and extended a hand to help me back up. “Don’t antagonise her,” he murmured, even his quiet voice as flat and monotone as a shipping forecast. I felt bad for the guy, though. If someone ripped my heart out and stomped all over it, I’d probably be drained of all emotions, too. “I know you’re stressed, and rightly so, but—”

“Don’t piss off the bull by waving a red flag in its face?” I guessed.

Passion blinked, his pale eyes startling against his deep tan skin. “Well, I wouldn’t have worded it like that, but yes. Exactly.”

I clapped him on the shoulder in silent thanks for helping me stand and hurried to catch up to Death and Neglect. The goddess had powered ahead, her arms pumping at her sides like this was a power walking competition and not a stealth mission.

“We need to be more careful,” I whisper-hissed.

“I did try to suggest that,” Death replied, giving me a look. “Can you sense anything?”

“A fuck load of magic,” I replied, pushing off whatever amusement had begun to form. This was deadly fucking serious. Our girl was at risk, and I wasn’t leaving here without her, even if that meant fighting—

“Look,” Passion said urgently. I glanced back to find he’d stopped a few paces behind us, staring at the wall—this one half painted in an ugly orange straight from the seventies, the bottom half of the wall covered in wood panels. Portraits of old, unfriendly guys stared at us from gloomy paintings. It took me a moment to spot it.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I hissed, ignoring the cold spill of alarm that trickled from the back of my neck to the base of my spine. “I didn’t sign up for this.”

“What?” Death demanded, stalking to my side and coming up short at the letters scratching themselves into the wall, peeling up the wallpaper. Like a ghostly finger dug into the wall, etching sharp, jagged letters that formed words.

LEAVE.

“As fucking if,” I spat, grabbing a fistful of magic and relieved to feel the rush of shadows cover my hands. I wouldn’t forget the feeling of weakness after the Stalker cut me any time soon. Being so fucking useless while the goddess of nightmares attacked my wife would haunt me for life, and I planned to live a very long time.

LEAVE OR SHE DIES.

Death snarled beside me, the sound so ragged and hoarse that I knew I’d find him in full-death mode before I even glanced sidelong at him. Yep, skull and bones and flowing cloak, in its full glory. He launched himself at the wall, as if he could remove the threat by pulling panels off the wall.

“Show yourself,” Passion demanded. “We do not fight with invisible spectres. Show your face, Cruelty. You coward.”

My eyes widened at the fervency in his voice. For a moment, he sounded like the old Passion, but then the scraping came again, the sound like a saw cutting metal. My temper spiked, but fear obliterated it when I saw the words.

THEN YOU’VE MADE YOUR CHOICE.

THE MIRROR WILL DEVOUR HER.

“Mirror?” I demanded, teeth bared and my magic going haywire. I lunged at the wall, deciding Death had the right idea. My shadows ripped through the words, leaving plaster hanging off the wall. “What fucking mirror?”

“Where is my wife?”Death asked in a cold, cold voice. “You have one chance to tell me.”

“Still got a flare for the dramatics, I see,” Neglect muttered as words scratched themselves into the walls to our left, then a horrible screech of nails on a blackboard as warnings and threats carved into the ceiling, the floor, ripping up carpet. They gouged into the sideboard and the paintings and the doorways up ahead.

I shuddered, and had to use all my fucking willpower not to read them all. Words stood out anyway. DRAINED. WEAK. DIE. SCREAMING. BROKEN.

“Show yourself, you spineless coward!”I snarled, shadows writhing around me. The magic in the air made my own power volatile. Where I’d normally have darkness pooled around my shoulders, now they spilled to the floor and crept up the hallway, searching, eager to sink shadow teeth into my enemies.

A laugh came frombehindus, in the form of noise instead of words scratched on the wall. I spun, throwing myself at Cruelty as she stood there smirking at us, but Death got there before me.

“Where is my wife?” he roared, bone hands snapping out, grabbing her hair and dragging her forward. “What have you done to her?”

“No less than what traitors who pretend to be my friends deserve,” Cruelty replied with that smile on her smooth, eternally-young face. A new smile, not genuine and bright like usual, not even with a fine edge of insanity. This was brittle and angry. Hurt. Looked like our Cat had managed to wound her. Good. “You won’t find her.”

I grabbed every last flicker of power, surging deep into my aspect, and dropped enough torment on her to level a fucking city. She winced when she should have screamed. There was no warning that she would retaliate; one moment there was only our shadows and snarls and demands, and then power pulsed through the world like an earthquake.

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