Chapter 9
CAT
Iwatched the choker melt to liquid metal in Madde’s hands, then blue shadow-fire consumed it until there was nothing left. No sign at all that Cruelty had used the choker to punish me for disobeying her.
Madde rubbed his hands, looking pleased with himself. I grunted, every part of me tender, when his soul rammed into mine with the force of an overenthusiastic, ten-stone cat. His love and excitement burned literal heat across my insides pulsing almost giddily.
“What was that fire?” I asked, staring at his empty hands, letting the fire of him soothe my battered soul as Pain mended my body.
“Not a clue.” Madde bounced on the balls of his feet. “A little madness, a little darkness, a bucketload of my love for you.”
“Your love gives you power,” I realised, brushing my hand to Pain’s arm when he let go of me, all my hurt swept away.
“Yup. It’s magic.” Madde booped the tip of my nose, smiling with pride.
“Maybe you really are Love, not Madness,” I mused, rubbing my chest and a little baffled to find smooth, unblemished skin. No choker for the first time in forever, no pain, no magic hanging over the back of my neck like an executioner’s blade. “Shall we do the trackery thing now?”
“Cat needs rest,” Miz said with a shake of his head, coming closer to peer into my eyes, searching for something. “We’re going to talk soon.”
“I’m f—”
A flicker of darkness went through his eyes.
He stroked the back of a finger down my cheek.
“You’re not arguing, surely. Because if you did, if you intentionally stopped me protecting this perfect mind, or this miraculous body, I would be extremely unhappy.
” He lips brushed the shell of my ear. “I may not have my wand here, but there’s plenty of rope to tie you up with. I could play with you for hours.”
My breathing sped, heat pooling between my thighs.
“Why do you look excited, my universe? I never said I’d let you come.”
My brows slammed down in a scowl, and if I couldn’t so easily remember the way he’d looked laying in his bed, dying, I would have shoved him. Instead, I glared. “You’re forgetting, my husband, that it’s your turn to be tormented, and Death promised we’d ruin you together.”
“That’s true, I did,” Death agreed with a strained smile.
“When Tor’s back,” I promised, holding Miz’s golden stare and ignoring the jagged rocks that scraped my throat with every word. “Maybe we can all ruin you.”
“Can I buy a ticket to watch?” Madde asked, stealing me away from Miz for a squeezing hug.
“Why would you pay for that?” Pain muttered, shaking his head.
“I like tickets.” Madde flicked his hand, and a shadow floated above his palm and formed the shape of a ticket. “I have scrapbooks full of them. Stamps are good, too. Those orange train tickets people throw on the floor. Ooh—receipts.”
I buried a smile in his shoulder. So my husband was a hoarder. Good to know.
“How does tracking work?” I asked, looking from Pain to Death since they seemed to have all the answers. Pain shrugged though, ruffling his mousy curls as he gazed towards the window, his shadows tracing things I couldn’t even see from here.
“I know how to do it,” Miz sighed, riffling through the ornate chest and lifting out a gold-link bracelet with a coin stamped with an elaborate T. “I’ve seen Tor do it enough times to copy him. He’s hardly a magical genius.”
Madde nodded seriously. “Not like me. You could never copy anything I do.”
Miz blinked. “I’m struggling to find an argument against that.”
“What can I do?” I asked, watching Miz pull a coffee table closer to the armchair, sinking into it. I cast the thread of our bond out again, waiting, hoping I reached Tor, but like before, it was like reaching blindly into the dark, hoping to catch his hand.
“Stay close,” Miz said, batting a lock of pale hair out of his face. “Now the bonds are solidified, we might be able to share power.”
“Unless you want to shift into a jaguar, I might not be much help.” But I sat on the arm of his chair and watched him spread a map of the UK over the table. “Oh god—Virgil! He was with you in the domain…” The look in Death’s eyes made me cold all over. “What happened to him?”
“The fog swallowed the whole realm. He’s among the people lost,” he replied gently, a rush of care and calm brushing against my soul. “But not forever,” he hurried to say. “There’s a way to fix it, and we’ve already made progress towards it.”
“We have?” Madde asked, a furrow between his brows. He dropped the fireplace poker that had caught his eye and paid attention.
Death sighed, rubbing his face. His shoulders slumped, the weight of two worlds upon them. “The decay in the domain started with Nightmare’s manipulation. You’re our bride, Cat, which means you’re as linked to the realm as we are.”
My mouth opened, but I didn’t have a single thing to say. I was linked to the domain of the dead?
“The curse made you ours, but even after we broke it, that link remained. And when rifts appeared between us, when you were taken from us… the domain suffered. But you’re here, and when we’ve got Tor back, we’ll be whole.
No more threats, no stress, nothing putting pressure on our relationship.
We can restore the realm and free everyone from the fog.
Including your brother. He’s not dead or hurt, just… swept away.”
My stomach knotted, but there was nothing in it to throw up. “When I went with Cruelty… I did that to the domain?”
“No,” Death said firmly, shaking his head.
“The domain’s stupid if it can be brought down by a lover’s tiff,” Madde said with a huff, wrapping himself around my back and scattering kisses over my head. “It’s not your fault, my lioness. You couldn’t know the realm would get its feelings hurt.”
That was such a Madde way of looking at it that a rusty laugh bubbled up in me.
Guilt tangled in my chest, but I was already so full of doom and dread and anxiety that there wasn’t space for much else.
“We can’t fix it without Tor,” I guessed, swallowing the lump from my throat. “Finding him is the priority.”
I hoped Virgil would forgive me for putting my husband first, but the acidic taste of guilt didn’t fade as Miz leaned over the map, Tor’s bracelet dangling from his fist as inky magic spilled from between his fingers.
“Oooooh.” Madde leaned over my shoulder to watch. “Spinny.”
He was right. The bracelet spun erratically over the map, and I got a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.
I glanced up when Pain came to stand beside me, reaching up to catch his hand in mine and surprised by the ease of the touch. I felt like I’d known him for months, that we’d met at the beginning, when I first came to Ford’s End. Maybe I’d been sensing him all this time.
“Do you want me to describe what’s happening?” I asked, running my thumb over the bandage of shadow on his finger. I frowned, inspecting it. What happened to his finger?
“I’ve got a clear enough impression from my shadows,” he replied, tightening his fingers around mine. “I just wanted to be close to you.”
“Smooth talker,” I accused him.
The brightest, most sunshine grin filled his face. “Why, thank you.” His smile fell when the bracelet and Miz’s tracking spell caught his attention. “Aw, Jesus.”
“It won’t pin to any location,” Miz groaned, a knot at his brow. “I’ve moved it over the whole map.”
“Could he be outside the UK?” I asked, straightening my spine, fully prepared to travel anywhere if it meant finding Tor.
I’d go to Antarctica if that’s what it took to get him back.
I had to grit my teeth as a wave of emotion crushed my throat, stung my eyes.
I wanted Tor back. I wanted him safe. I wanted to throw my arms around him and never let go. “Do we have a bigger map?”
“Yes.” Death rushed from the room, tendrils of magic left in his wake. He returned, unfolding a huge map that was yellowed at the edges and looked as old as the house. Miz swept the old map off the coffee table, the new one so big it hung onto the floor.
I held my breath when Miz concentrated on the cities inked on the old paper, the roads and rivers and villages. Again, the bracelet spun, like it couldn’t find a single hint of Tor. Like he was no longer on the planet. Or no longer alive.
I clutched Pain’s hand like a lifeline, pressure crushing all the air from my chest.
“We’ll find him,” he promised, his voice low and steady.
Full of belief. If he didn’t think Tor was gone, maybe there was hope.
But I hadn’t been able to find him with the bond, and now Miz couldn’t track him to anywhere in the world.
“We’ve tracked down plenty of people over the years, it’s just a matter of time before we find him. ”
“Oh. Idea!” Madness raised his hand, palm out like he was about to swear an oath. “What if they’ve taken him somewhere off grid? Like a secret world. Or a hidden city. Oh my god, he’s in Atlantis.”
“He’s got a point,” Pain said with a shrug.
I gave him a dubious look. “I doubt Tor’s in Atlantis.”
“Not that.” He nudged me. “He might be in a realm we can’t search. Maybe one that has never been mapped.”
“There’s no cause for panic yet,” Death agreed, his eyes on me. “Tor’s strong, little bride. He won’t let someone like Cruelty beat him.”
I looked at the map, watching the bracelet spin wildly out of control, unable to find Tor anywhere. “What about Violence?” I choked out, tensing as fists cracked into my ribs, blows hit my chest, my stomach, my arms, his cold voice like a knife to my lungs until I couldn’t breathe.
Pain pulled me into a hug, warm arms tight around me.
It didn’t take a genius to guess what I was reliving, but Pain had been there.
Had he heard my screams? Did he feel my suffering?
Could he feel the echo of my pain even now?
“You have to remember that Tor is the embodiment of torment,” he said.
“Not only can he endure torment far stronger than the rest of us, he inflicts it.”
“It’s not the first time he’s been hurt,” Miz added in a raw voice, running a hand through his long hair. “Before Nightmare and Ford, the previous Fear went rogue and took Tor and Passion hostage in a power play.”
“What happened?” I breathed, my chest hurting.
“Tor ripped his head off,” Miz answered with pride. “Literally.”
“Yeah, then he kept the body alive to torture for months,” Madde added with an unabashed level of glee. “When he cut it, it jiggled.”
“That’s… a vivid picture,” I said, jumping when the bracelet spun so erratically that it flew out of Misery’s hand and crashed into the roaring fireplace.
“No!” Miz leapt to his feet, dark coils of magic around his hands as he reached for the bracelet. But he froze as it melted into the flames, and stayed there for a long moment, his hands limp at his sides.
“Maybe we can salvage it,” I suggested tentatively, getting to my feet and approaching slowly, the stiff line of Miz’s back a warning, an omen.
“It won’t make a difference,” he replied in a flat voice. “Madde’s probably right. Tor’s gone somewhere we can’t find him.”
“But we will,” I insisted, as if I hadn’t feared that very thing just minutes ago. I couldn’t let Miz sense my doubt, though; his fear carved a wound in my chest and all I wanted was to ease it. “There are other things we can try. Right?”
He was quiet for a long moment, but when I rested my cheek on his back, reaching for the warm rain of his soul, he sighed. “Right.”
I opened my mouth to ask what our next step was, but howling wind picked up outside the house like a sudden scream, hammering the windows until the old glass groaned. Rain followed, then hail cracked into the warped windows.
“Uh, guys,” Pain said with a nervous laugh. “Does that storm feel normal to you?”
“No,” Death replied grimly. “Everyone get behind—”
The window shattered before he could finish.
I locked my arms around Miz and twisted away from the spray of glass, ducking my head as warped, old glass rained around us.
A wall of shadow erupted around us in the next moment.
Misery vibrated with rage, his eyes blazing like a living fire as he whipped around to unleash more death magic upon the assailant who broke through both the shields and the window.
But there was nothing except the wind and hail.
I tightened my arms around him, staring at the broken glass.
“Is it… just a storm?” I asked, checking Madde, Pain, and Death were okay. All windblown, all furious, but unharmed.
“No,” Pain disagreed, a hard line to his mouth, tendrils of darkness rippling from him. “Something got through the shield. Not a person, not even a monster. Smaller than that. Rectangular, but flat. Like an—”
“Envelope,” I finished with a gasp as a dark green envelope with blood-red edging sailed across the room and delivered itself to my hand.
The name written in swooshing, cursive gold ink made my stomach plummet, nausea climbing up my throat.
Kitty.
I ripped it open, anger clashing with fear until I shook as badly as Miz. The message within made blood pound in my ears.
One last game. If you win, I’ll give you the mirror and your husband within.
I’ll await you for the new term at Ford School of Cruelty, 8PM sharp tomorrow morning.
Love,
Your Bestie