Chapter 13

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

TOR

" I 'm thinking flowers, duck-shaped chocolates, and grand declarations of affection, the whole fucking shebang," I said, prowling between the tall trees that enclosed this side of Ford's campus.

"I didn't agree to this brainstorming session," Miz muttered, attempting to slip my hold on his wrist for the third time in as many minutes. He was too stubborn to realise that alone, he was in danger. Nightmare could get to him, reach her dark, spindly fingernails into his mind and rearrange shit until he was nothing but her puppet. With one of us nearby, he was protected.

"Tough shit," I said, tightening my grip on his wrist to bring his hand to my lips, feathering a kiss over knuckles he'd bruised by punching the wall. "You're gonna help me win Cat back whether you like it or not."

"She doesn't care about us anymore," he muttered, but he didn't try to rip his hand free this time.

"Bullshit," I huffed, eyeing the shadows of mausoleums behind the spire-topped building. No monster. No trace of the therapist's soul, either, which was worrying. "She cares, she's just scared and grieving. Are you in there?" I jerked my chin at the graveyard.

"No, I'm here," he deadpanned.

"Lo and fucking behold," I cried, scattered a bird from the tree beside us. "Was that humour I heard from you, Miz?"

He speared me with a glare, kicking a twig out of his path so aggressively that it shot into the side of a tomb. "Shut up."

"Or what?" I challenged. "What you gonna do if I don't shut up? What you gonna do if I keep brainstorming ways to get our girl back because she clearly misses us every bit as much as we miss her? What then, huh?"

"You don't want to push me, Torment," he replied in a voice as dark as the flickers of magic that kept escaping his usually ironclad control.

I let a slow smile stretch across my face. "Pretty sure I do, Misery."

Air whooshed past my face and my grin widened as he slammed my body into the hefty trunk of a tree, hard enough to punch a grunt from me.

"She doesn't care about us," Miz snarled, teeth bared. His breathing came faster, and while he made a convincing display of anger, I knew it was hurt that drove him. "You heard her that night. We are nothing. She feels nothing."

"She just watched her best friend get murdered, and she was forced to watch as Nightmare took control of you. Emotions were high; of course she lashed out." I reached up to touch his face, thumbs stroking his cheeks, but he caught my wrists in brutal hands and ripped them away, pinning them to the tree above me.

"Don't touch me," he rasped.

"That might be what you want, but it isn't what you need." I didn't fight the hands pinning my arms above me. "Why are you so determined to push us away, Miz? You need us more than ever. Nightmare wants this—she wants us fighting, she wants you alone so you're easier prey. Stop pushing and let me in."

His hands tightened on my wrists. His upper lip curled back. "I can't."

"Why?"

"Because I'll kill you, too!" he yelled, so loud that the woods captured his voice and echoed it back to us. It rang in my ears, cutting through my rib cage right into my soft heart.

Miz ripped himself away, tension running through his whole body as he stalked through the woods. I caught up to him in two steps and grabbed his rigid shoulder, spinning him at the same time I brought my arms around him.

"Don't," he choked out, starting to shake.

I held on tighter, not letting him budge an inch.

"I'll kill you too," he snapped, struggling against my hold. "Don't you get it? You know what happened right here, you know what she made me do, and now they're all gone. They're all dead because of me, and if I let you close, she'll take over again and by the time I come out of it, you and Death will be dead. Why won't you listen? You need to stay away from me."

"Not gonna happen. I love you, you stubborn, selfless bastard, and if you think I'm going anywhere, you're severely underestimating how stubborn I am."

"Are you trying to die?" he muttered, but the tension gradually bled from his body until he melted into me, his arms coming up to pull me closer.

I scoffed. "Been there, done that, and you know me, Miz. I never repeat a mistake."

"Yet you wear that crime to fashion every day," he drawled with heavy scathing.

"Hey, fuck you, this shit is vintage. It's worth a fortune now." 1

"Worth a fortune to who? Danny Zuko?"

I yanked a lock of messy white hair. "First of all, fuck you. Second, should I get a fifties pompadour?"

"God, no."

I laughed, my fingers busy working out the knots from his rat's nest. Miz had so much hair, it made a disastrous mess when he hit a low period. "Not even a wig? I could wear it in the bedroom. You could wear a Pink Ladies jacket and call me stud…"

"The only time I'd ever call you stud is if I got desperate enough to sell you at a cattle market."

"I'd fetch a pretty fortune," I said with a smirk, eyeing the woods around us. They always seemed to be dark, these woods, every bit as unsettling as the worst places in Death's domain. Like Nightmare's presence had stained the very earth here. No monsters so far, though. Not even a wild animal or a half-eaten carcass. Whatever killed Cat's therapist, it was nowhere to be seen.

"Hm." Miz's tone was dry but more lifelike than I'd heard it in days. "You do have your uses, I suppose."

I nudged his ribs, resting my forehead on his shoulder. 2 "You're supposed to agree I'd fetch a pretty fortune because I'm pretty."

Miz made a throaty sound. "You're just fishing for compliments now."

I drew back enough to give him a pout, my eyes wide and pitiful. "So… you're saying I'm not pretty."

His beautiful gold eyes flattened. "Don't make me punch you in the dick."

"You remember I have a dick? Could've fooled me."

"You really do want to die." He pulled away and this time I let him go but kept my hand on his wrist, fucking delighted when he tugged my hand down to his, lacing our fingers together. "Do you have any idea how stupid it would be to be vulnerable around me? I could strangle you in the throes of passion. I could rip out your throat while I have you pinned to the bed."

"I'm intrigued. Go on."

The scowl he threw my way was pure Misery and made me grin shamelessly.

He used our linked hands to yank me closer; I tripped over an exposed root and had to splay my palm across his chest for balance. "I'm serious."

"So am I. You can't kill me, Miz."

A shadow chased through his eyes. "A death god can be killed by another death god."

"Which means Nightmare can be killed by us before she gets a chance to touch your mind again."

"You're delusional."

"Delulu is the solulu," I replied very seriously.

He groaned, as intended. "Where the fuck do you get these things?"

I leaned up to kiss him, taunting him with a light touch. If he wanted more, he'd have to initiate it himself. "Saw it on K-Pop TikTok."

"Why do you even have a TikTok? You're a death god."

I tilted my head, a smile pulling at my mouth. "Don't you mean what's TikTok, Mr. Allergic To Technology?"

His scowl deepened, but pink tinged his pale cheeks. "I'm aware of the world."

"You got addicted to cute animal videos after Cat showed you those prairie dogs, didn't you?"

"No," he scoffed, turning away, walking fast. "Fuck you. Why would you even suggest that? I never watch videos."

"That's a whole lot of protesting, darling."

His pink cheeks turned cherry red, and I grinned, satisfied with my progress. He wasn't silent and sullen now, wasn't stuck in his head, worrying about Nightmare. Plus, Miz was fucking cute when he was embarrassed.

"Come on, let's check the rest of the woods and you can make good on all those promises you made."

He gave me a blank look, his eyes pinched until understanding dawned and they rolled. Hard. "Those were warnings, Tor."

I squinted at him, making a show of it. "You're absolutely certain that wasn't a sales pitch?"

He answered with a low mutter I was ninety percent sure was a curse or plea to the gods for intervention. Since the stubborn bastard refused to tell me what it meant, I'd come up with my own meaning over the years.

"Asking the god of sex for an extra few inches on this baby?" I circled my hips for emphasis.

"You've already got enough inches for an ego of shocking magnitude," he drawled, golden eyes scanning the forest as the trees began to thin. I realised why a moment later, when fading light caught the silver surface of the lake.

"Stay here," I said firmly, yanking on our joined hands until Miz stopped walking. "I'll clear the lake."

"I'm fine—"

I shut him up with a kiss.

"Fine as hell? I agree. Stay here, I won't be long."

"Tor," he protested, but the fact he leaned against a tall tree and didn't follow me spoke volumes. He struggled with the trauma of what happened at Ford every day, but being near the lake made it a thousand times worse, and I wasn't about to let misery overwhelm him. I didn't give a shit if that was his name; I'd minimise his unhappiness as much as was within my power.

"Hey, asshole," I said when I reached the bank of the lake. I gave it my middle finger, as if the lake itself had done anything wrong. No, this was all Nightmare. Everything bad revolved around her.

I'd reached the other side and found nothing more than a rabbit scurrying from the underbrush when a low, mournful howl snapped my head up. That sure as shit wasn't a rabbit. A wolf maybe? Did Ford's End even have wolves on this shit stain of an island?

I froze in place, listening, the only noise the hushed whisper of the wind through the leaves and the panicked rush of the rabbit running in the opposite direction.

When the howl came again, much, much fucking closer, my stomach flipped. Whatever that was, animal or monster, it was loud, and unsettlingly close to the other side of the lake.

"Miz," I breathed, a surge of wrathful protectiveness filling my chest, swelling my heart against my ribs. A low, threatening sound rattled the back of my throat.

I grabbed a fistful of magic and jumped into the darkness that streaked the air, landing on the other side of the lake. Shadows scattered behind me as I stormed through the woods to the place I left Miz, my dead heart skipping when I found the tree he'd leaned against and no sign of Miz.

"Misery?" I yelled, unable to hide the panic in my voice. My ears began to ring.

Cat found her grief counsellor cut to shreds with fucking bites taken out of her. I hadn't seen the state of her, but I could smell the blood that still saturated the park, and I knew it had been a deadly amount. The idea of the same creature attacking Miz made me vibrate with rage.

I crouched, inspecting the footprints he'd left, the thump of my heart loud in my ears as I surveyed their trail—leading deeper into the woods. There were no paw prints but that didn't mean the beast hadn't got Miz. It didn't mean he wasn't being mauled to death. He was vulnerable, his self-preservation at an all-time low thanks to Nightmare screwing with his head.

I got back to my feet in a rush, turning towards the trail—and staggered when a pale figure collided with me. The second the scent of lilacs and snow hit my senses, I snapped my arms closed around Miz and held on so tight his ribs must have curved.

"Where the fuck were you?"

"I thought I could track the monster and kill it before it could hurt anyone else Cat loves."

Oh, Misery.

"But I didn't even get a glimpse of it before it vanished," he added sourly.

I sighed, brushing messy white strands from his face. "You don't have to make amends, and you certainly don't have to do it by risking your damn life. You heard Cat—she doesn't blame you, she knows it was all her."

"Cat can't have meant that."

"She did. She doesn't say empty words, and we both know it. Promise me—no more going off alone, confronting dangerous animals."

He sighed. "Fine."

"Thank you." I kissed him again, lingering this time. "Now, let's go find that damned animal together. When it's dead, we can watch animal videos, or you can fuck me to death—dealer's choice."

Miz groaned, following me away from the lake. "Why do I even like you?"