Chapter 22

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CAT

" E verything is fine and nothing bad is going to happen," I said like a chant, my hands white-knuckling the steering wheel of my Lamborghini Urus as I took the moors road slowly, no matter how badly I wanted to speed along it until it was in my rear view.

I didn't put the radio on. The haunting memory of the radio glitching last time I drove down this road was far too fresh. I scanned the fields around me, waiting for fog, for robed cult members, for Nightmare herself.

The sky was gathering rainclouds overhead, but that didn't mean it was an omen. It rained all the time in Ford's End. The sea thrashed violently where I glimpsed it as I rounded a bend, the village spread out below me, but that was normal too. We were halfway between Britain and Ireland; rough weather and choppy seas were to be expected. Not an omen.

"Everything is fine and nothing bad is going to happen."

If I said it enough times, would I believe it? I needed a hand free to spin my crown ring around my finger for strength but I didn't dare lift a single fingertip off the steering wheel, visions of me crashing over the edge of the winding road filling my head. I might have been having a horrific time, but my anxiety was happy and thriving. And intent on driving me to madness.

Movement caught the corner of my eye and I whipped my head around, my hands jerking on the steering wheel.

"Shit!" I screeched, forcing my attention back to the narrow road before I crashed into the fucking ocean. "You're fine, you're fine," I chanted. "You're fine."

Except a flutter of dark wings and beady eyes had lit on a tree to my right, and I couldn't dismiss my panic about omens. Another crow.

One crow for bad luck.

A tremor of cold went down my arms, raising goosebumps, and I fumbled for my phone, sending it straight to speed dial.

"Come on, come on, please," I whispered, keeping my eyes on the road through sheer effort, taking the next bend with painstaking care. As the road curved, I couldn't help but notice two more crows watching me. But that was just my paranoia. They weren't watching me. They were crows.

Two crows for good luck, three crows for health.

"They're not a fucking omen," I growled under my breath, but the shivery sensation never left my body, and the call to Tor rang and rang and rang. I very carefully ended the call and tried Zoltan, to the same end. Then Honey, Mum, Dad, and even Wil and Phil. In a rush of desperation, I called Virgil's phone, and for a delusional moment I was convinced he'd answer and all Nightmare's threats would be just that—threats. She'd played mind games before; it wouldn't be the first time.

But Virgil didn't answer, and all the call did was ring and ring and—

"Hello, darling terror. I'm afraid Virgil can't come to the phone right now, so you've reached voicemail. Leave a message and I'll reply when we're a little less busy."

Oh, god.

"We," I echoed, cold all over as I hung up. My stomach lurched violently. I slammed on the breaks, throwing open the door the moment vomit burned up my throat. I moaned pitifully as it sprayed the grass, the cramp in my stomach all the worse for its lack of food.

I fumbled in the glove compartment for the Stanley cup I kept in my car and gulped down water, spitting out the rancid taste. And still that word repeated.

We.

When we're a little less busy.

What was she doing to my brother? Another nauseating cramp of sickness had me retching on the side of the road, but my stomach was empty. I choked down water and slumped back into the driver's seat, slamming the door shut with weak arms.

Three more crows sat on the wall that wound along the road. That made six. Again.

Four crows for wealth, five crows for sickness, six crows for death.

My hand shook as I reached for the steering wheel again, but I couldn't bring myself to move the car forward. They watched me, and I watched them, and I knew without a doubt they were Nightmare's creatures. They were there the day I found Caroline mutilated, and their presence here now…

What was she doing to my brother? And why was my phone cut off from everyone? Whatever she had planned, I couldn't call for help, couldn't warn Honey, couldn't tell Tor to bring the other gods or—

A dark shadow shot across the bottom of the road, too big to be a dog. A bear? Fuck, did Ford's End have bears? The shivery feeling intensified until I shuddered, and I couldn't deny that the birds were indeed an omen. Because the huge creature I saw loping its way across the moors towards the village at an alarming rate was covered in black fur, but unlike a bear it had inky ram's horns and claws the size of my forearm. There was only one word I could use to describe it: monster.

A rush of noise filled my head, a dark compulsion swelling in my chest. The familiar seductive heat of violence wrapped around me.

Slaughter it before it can hurt anyone else.

I blinked, watching that creature bound across the moors to the village, and my heart rate steadied. My back straightened; my fingers unclenched.

Yes. I would hunt it and kill it, and my friends and family would be safe.