Page 66 of All Hallows Masque

“I know where your bonded one is,” the Stalker said with a grim smile. “Or wife, or whatever you call her. Cactus. I know where she is, and I know how to killthatthing, too. I’ll tell you the answer to both.”

“At what price?” I demanded in a furious rattle, every syllable a hiss. “What do you want?”

“You’re taking her out of here, right? Or am I wrong and this is a sad suicide attempt and not a rescue mission?”

“Don’t make light of suicide, boy,” Hunger snapped, surging towards the Stalker so fast, radiating so much menacing hunger, that he swallowed hard.

“Take me with you,” the Stalker blurted, his attention returning to me even as he struggled to remove Madde’s hands from around his throat. “Get me out of here. Promise that, and I’ll help you. Unless you want to tackle that thing yourself. In which case, go right ahead.”

His attention went to something behind us, and the shudder of the ground warned what I’d see before I turned my head. The green man towered twenty feet above the ground, limbs sturdy and solid in a way the small topiaries hadn’t been. Its powerful foot rose, like it would kick us across the garden. I grabbed Madde and hurtled left, skidding across the grass out of its path. Hunger and Wrath leapt right.

“Deal!” I yelled to the Stalker. I’d figure out what to do with him later. Right now taking this green man out and getting to Cat was the most important thing. “Tell us how to kill it.”

“The plants were made from people Cruelty murdered. Each had a living heart at its centre, and now all those hearts are insidethatthing. We need to find them, rip them out, and crush them until they stop beating.”

“How do you know this?” Madde demanded, grabbing my arm and rolling us in the grass as the green man’s foot came down right where we’d just been. The whole world seemed to shake, setting my teeth on edge. I squeezed Madde’s arm in silent thanks, jumping to my feet.

“Cruelty likes to talk, and she’s got Pain all locked up where she thinks he can never tell anyone.”

“But he told you?”

The Stalker shrugged, a strangely mortal gesture for a supernatural threat. “He did, before she moved him. It took me hours to find him—and Cat. She’s with him.”

“You’ve seen my lioness?” Madde demanded, launching himself across the garden at the Stalker. He grabbed him by the lapels of his coat. “Where is she? Take me to my lioness!”

“Guys!”Wrath screeched, propelling me into motion. Madde and the Stalker, or whatever his name actually was, stood in the path of the green man’s next step.

“Find the hearts,” I shouted, soaring into the sky towards the oversized topiary. I waved my skeletal arms to get its attention while Hunger whipped Madde and the Stalker out of danger. “Rip them out and—did you say crush them?”

“They have to be crushed to ashes,” the Stalker confirmed, sounding a little breathless. Dead, but still with mortal behaviours. That was an interesting enigma for another day. Although I supposed he wasn’t so different from us gods. We only retained some of the traits we had in life, but there were still fragments we held onto.

I soared up to the green man’s shoulder and shoved my hand inside, searching for something gooey and beating. Nothing. I repeated the motion, and tried not to think about how much fucking easier this would have been when the topiaries were all separate. It took four attempts before my bony fingers brushed slick, beating flesh. I grabbed it tightly and ripped itfree, clenching my fist hard, crushing it—to dust. Huh. I wasn’t expecting that to work.

The green man didn’t stumble, but a low groaning did come from it, like it felt the absence.

“Got one!” Wrath cried.

“Crush it,” Hunger instructed. “They fall to dust easily; there’s barely anything keeping them alive. Little more than a scrap of—” His voice cut off in a roar that faded into the distance.

“Hunger?” I shouted, and swore soundly. The green man had knocked him from the air and now he soared across the valley. Great. I plunged my hand back into the tangle of leaves and branches, searching for another heart, glad my hands had no flesh on them. They’d be weeping blood by now.

A shadow moved to my left, and I jumped, but it was just Madde, punching his fist into the green man’s stomach, ripping out one heart, then another, crushing them in rapid succession. Even the Stalker crept close, ripping a heart from the plant-thing’s leg and crushing it to ashes.

We worked in breathless silence, punctuated by the odd grunt and curse. Hunger raced back to our side, seething mad, and between the five of us we crushed ten hearts, then twenty, then thirty.

“Seven left,” Wrath panted, driving her hands into its back. The green man swatted at her, but both Madde and Hunger leapt onto its arm, pushing it down before it could knock her to the ground. “Make that six,” she added with a vicious grin, crushing a throbbing heart in her hand. “Thanks, boys, you’re a great help.”

Hunger speared her with an unimpressed glare.

I found another heart, then Hunger got one, the Stalker unearthed two, Wrath got another, and Madde reached into the green man’s chest and ripped out the final heart animating it. The more we found, the more unsteady it grew on its feet,movements weak and slow. But I was unprepared for it to simply fall apart.

“Move!” I yelled, rushing out of its path as the leaves and branches fell apart and crashed down to the long grass. It fell in the shape of a man, but was no more alive than any regular bush.

“Fuck me, that was ridiculous,” Madde groaned, landing on the ground beside it, brushing sweat off his freckled brow. I floated down to stand beside him, knocking my shoulder into his in acknowledgement of how well we worked together, how glad I was to have him here. He wasn’t Tor, Cat, or Death, but he was okay.

“I believe,” Hunger said, landing beside me and fixing his attention on the Stalker, “you owe us a location. Where are Cat and Pain?”

The Stalker removed his top hat and ran his fingers through his brown hair. He considered the hat for a moment, then threw it into the grass, letting wind rake itself through his hair. “I’ll show you. But you better be ready with some heavy hitting magic.” He avoided our gazes. “Cruelty gave Cat to Violence.”

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