Chapter 49

Nightmare released me enough to let me drop to the ground, and my knees hit hard-packed dirt and grass, dew soaking through the ragged hem of my dress. I didn't care about the cold or the damp. I didn't care about anything. Byron was dead.

"Ah, here comes the cavalry," Nightmare said cheerfully. Pay close attention, my terror. Her voice flowed through my mind like smoke, wisps reaching even the deepest recesses. I flinched, digging my fingers into the dirt, and realised I was still screaming.

She took a step forward, the train of her black lace skirt sliding over the grass. "You can go now, Darya. You've been very helpful."

"Happy to serve my goddess," Darya murmured, sounding thoroughly brainwashed.

My scream died, a horrible silence filling its void. I stared across the moor to where Byron had fallen, the blade sticking out of his gut. I couldn't look away even when cold, dark shadows glided across the grass like a river flooding its banks. I didn't look away even when Tor rasped, "Miz? Cat? What's going on?"

He killed my best friend.I didn't bother saying it; one look and they'd know what happened. Miz's hands were covered in blood. Byron's blood. My best friend's blood. My best friend was dead. Dead, and a murderer, a liar, a traitor, and I was screaming again.

Grass rustled as Death knelt beside me, throwing up a veil of darkness between us and Nightmare.

"It's okay, it's okay," he soothed.

"Liar," I cried, pulling away from him. Cold rushed into my side but I didn't care. "It's not okay. Byron is dead."

"Miz, come here," Tor said in a strange tone. Something like blind terror shone on his face when I glanced up, another wave of tears spilling from my eyes at the motion. "Come here."

I laughed bitterly. "He won't answer you."

Tor's face twisted with anguish as he looked at Misery, standing a little too close to Nightmare, then at me. I didn't bother getting to my feet. Didn't lean closer to Death.

"She's right," Nightmare said amiably. "He won't answer you until I tell him too."

"You took control of him again," Death growled, his voice unsettling and deep, the air vibrating around him until all my hairs stood on end. I swore the temperature dropped.

"Again?" Nightmare's soft laugh was a whisper on the air. She was enjoying this immensely. "Oh no, I never lost control of him. I've been speaking to him this whole time. I simply commanded him to forget our little conversations."

"Did you never wonder why all your plans never quite worked? Why books and weapons went missing? Cat, you must have wondered who trashed your room, who planted the cameras I used to monitor your every movement." She lifted her hand to Miz's tense shoulder but a lash of darkness from Tor snapped her hand away.

She'd been watching me? Because Miz planted cameras? Oh god, he was there when I found my room open and all my things ransacked, wrecked. The room he ushered me into with promises that I'd be safe… bugged, watched at every moment. All the times I'd been with Miz, with Tor, with Death, she'd watched.

I twisted aside and vomited the contents of my stomach into the grass.

Death rose slowly to his feet, power vibrating around him, his rage palpable. "Release your hold on him. This is your only warning."

Nightmare snorted. "No. And this is your only warning. If you take so much as a single step towards my first disciple, I will end everything you hold dear."

"Miz," Tor said quietly. "Fight this."

Words I"d said to him, right before he killed Byron. I looked at my friend, laying cold and still in the grass, his blue eyes open and unseeing. Miz did that. Miz who—who I was falling for. I covered my mouth with my hands, choking back a sob and tasting bile.

Tor took a step. Nightmare smiled.

My stomach roiled harder when a ripple of magic went through the air like a heartbeat, like a pulse. I'd felt it before, in Ford House.

"What did you do?" Death demanded of Nightmare, rushing to Tor, grabbing his shoulder to keep him in place. "What the fuck did you do?"

"That," the goddess said with a smile pinned on Death, "was a blanket of power cloaking the island. No one will find their way on or off the island until the blanket falls. Fun, isn't it?"

"To what end?" Death demanded.

"She's not done," I muttered, but I was. I was done with these liars, these scheming assholes who knew Nightmare did all this, targeted Ford students, all to get back at Death. Everything that happened was because of him. "This is just the first phase of her plan."

"Correct, darling," Nightmare said, beaming as I got to my feet and turned away. "Now we enter phase two."

I turned my back on them, not caring right now if Nightmare struck me. Byron was dead. Miz killed him. They all lied to me, every last one.

Oh, Cat. Nightmare's voice was sing-song and taunting, and I only realised it was inside my head when none of the others reacted. Don't you want to know about Virgil?

I froze. Turned back to her.

Not a word out loud, my terror, or I'll be forced to murder him. She locked eyes with me. Not by my own hand, of course. But I think Cai here would love to draw more blood, don't you?

She had my brother.

I do, she confirmed, her eyes gleaming. Death snapped something at her; she ignored him, fixed on me.

"Let her go," Tor snarled. "Cat has nothing to do with this."

"Oh, I think your bride has everything to do with this," Nightmare taunted. In the sanctum of my mind she whispered, One false move and Virgil meets the same fate as Byron.

I thought of the missed calls, the ignored messages. I knew I hadn"t been paranoid worrying about him. I knew something was wrong. How fucking stupid could I have been to brush off my worries?

What do you want? I asked, testing communicating with her by thought. I didn't know if it would work, if she'd even hear me, but a corner of her mouth curled into a pleased smile.

Nothing much.

"Miz," Tor whispered. "Come here. Please."

"What do you want, Nightmare?" Death demanded, echoing my words again, sending a shiver down my spine. "To release him, to undo your curse on Cat—what do you want?"

"Hmm." Nightmare tapped her bottom lip with a long fingernail. "Why don't we start with you kneeling?"

I clenched my jaw when Death's knees hit the grass instantly, and no matter how furious and upset I was, I hated the sight of him kneeling before Nightmare.

Stop it, I snapped.

What will you give me, Cat? To release your precious Misery, to undo the curse, if that's what you truly want.

Yes, I said quickly. To have the shadow of her curse lifted from my soul, to never be terrified she'd make me kill again, to finally be able to scrub the makeup off my face… yes. I wanted to reply that I'd give her anything, but that was too dangerous.

"I'll lift the curse," Nightmare said aloud to me, to Death, "but are you so sure of their affections without it, Cat? Are you so sure of her affections without the curse binding you, Death?"

"Just release her," Death snapped. As if it made no difference to him either way. That was fine. Byron was dead. Miz killed him. They all lied to me. It was fine.

Nightmare's smile grew as she strode forward a step, batting aside the darkness hurled at her to rest a hand on Misery's shoulder. "Say the magic word, Death, and it's done."

"Please," he said through gritted , almost instantly a ripple of dense, oily magic spread across Ford's End, clinging to my skin like a layer of dirt until I gagged. When the magic seeped away, I felt off balance. I remembered feeling the same when the curse first took me, that I'd been taken apart and put back together wrong, and I felt the same way now. I'd gotten so used to the weight and poison of the curse that I staggered now, gasping for air.

Death was at my side in an instant. The comfort of his hands on my face, turning it up so he could scan my eyes, made tears drip from the corners of my eyes.

"It's going to be alright, Cat. I promise you."

"You lied," I said, my voice ragged. I couldn't stand eye contact; I ripped my gaze away. "You lied to me. She only cursed me to get back at you. I killed Darya because of you, and this—this revenge—"

"It wasn't malicious, little bride. We're just so early in this relationship—"

Nightmare scoffed. "Relationship. How much of a relationship is it now, without the curse?" Her mismatched eyes speared me, making my heart pulse. "Do you still care for Death, Cat?"

Say yes, or Virgil dies.

I jumped. Swallowed. Said, "Yes."

Death released a breath I didn't know he was holding, his hands dropping to my waist and squeezing tight. "We're going to get out of here," he promised me quietly.

I froze when Nightmare spoke again, a chill going through me. "And do you still care for Torment and Misery?"

I opened my mouth, not entirely sure what I'd reply. Miz had killed Byron. But her smoky voice slid through my mind before I could get a word out.

Say no, or I'll carve Virgil into a hundred different pieces and leave a new one for you to find every day.

My breath caught.

"Cat?" Tor asked, turning with a frown. He wore his heart on his sleeve, hurt and pleading hope in his eyes, and I wanted to scream.

Tell him you feel nothing.

My mouth was dry as I met his eyes. "I feel nothing for you."

And Misery.

"And Misery," I breathed, choking back tears. My heart was already broken by Byron's death, but now the shard crushed into dust. "I'm so sorry."

"You only—" Tor staggered back, surprise bleeding into devastation. "You only wanted me because of the curse."

I pictured Virgil's face and nodded, tears dripping over my lips until I tasted salt. Death let go of me to step back, staring at me.

"I'm sorry," I said again, my hands shaking, and I understood how Nightmare had kept Byron under her thumb. She didn't even need a curse to control me when she had Virgil.

Nightmare's voice slid like smoke through my mind, and I said the final damning words.

"I only wanted you and Misery because of the curse, but what Death and I have is real. Why would I want you when I have Death?"

Thankyou SO much for reading Cat's first book and joining me in a new series.