“That’s all you want?” Pain clarified, shadows wrapped around his knuckles as his hands formed fists. “If we play along with this charade, you’ll give Tor back.”
It was Violence who replied, his voice like claws slashing through my skin “One term, and we’ll give you the mirror.”
“Not a fucking chance,” Miz snapped, teeth bared. “That’s too long.”
“A month, then,” Cruelty said with a shrug that told me she’d expected pushback. She never relented this easily; I eyed her suspiciously. Why did she want us here so badly? What did shegetout of us pretending to be good little med students?
“A week,” Miz bartered, his entire body tight with rage. A powder keg one false move away from detonation.
“Two,” Cruelty chirped, bouncing on her heels. She might look like Honey and sound like her, but every mannerism was Cruelty, through and through. Insanity, grace, and ruthless mind games all rolled into one fucked-up person. I’d recognise her anywhere. “Two weeks, and we’ll give Torment back to you, safe and sound.”
“Well,” Violence disagreed, with a laugh like rocks colliding, like thunder itself.
“More or lesssafe and sound,” his sister corrected with a tinkling laugh that made me want to throat-punch her.
“You touch him,” I seethed, starting forward a step—all I dared with her brother beside her and an army of compelled students at their backs, “and I will skin you alive.”
“And the scooping,” Madde stage-whispered.
“And scoop out all your fucking organs to make a soup to feed to my new best friend,” I added in a snarl. When she reeled back with a gasp of horror, I added, “Or maybe I’ll just let her rip you apart with her bare teeth.”
“That’s my girl,” Madde said, wiping away a tear. “Hey, everyone, you hear that? This is my wife!” He pointed to me, a huge grin on his face. His shirt, I noticed now, had red sequined hearts that looked like a burlesque performer’s nipple covers.
Cruelty’s lip curled, and I caught Madde’s arm to pull him back when she gestured. Instead of her magic slamming into him, a crack went through the world. Then another. Only on thethird did I realise it wasn’t gunshots or the beat of a war drum. Footsteps—a hundred synchronised footsteps.
And when they came into view, it wasn’t more students in red Ford blazers.
It took me a moment to realise that some of these people were familiar faces too, but they werehuge.No matter their gender, they were stacked with muscle and all over six foot tall. Their eyes pointed forward, unwavering as they marched around the side of Milton Hall and lined up in neat formation. An army of powerfully built threats, whose eyes reflected the watery light through the clouds like a cat’s, each one an eerie mirror that made me stiffen in Death’s arms. They didn’t wear armour, instead clad in long black coats, and they didn’t hold shields or swords, but they were so obviously an army.
“Shit,” Misery breathed, staring, counting I realised. “There are a hundred of them.How?”
I glanced at him when the warm rain of his bond turned to an icy deluge against my soul.
“How does she have a hundred Stalkers?”
CHAPTER 15
MADNESS
Ahundred beefy, bulky Stalkers, exactly like the one who watched us like a creep in our realm. They were just missing top hats to complete the look, but it was probably hard to find a hundred hats on an island as small as this.
I glanced down when Cat grabbed my hand, squeezing tight enough that my finger bones shifted. I didn’t blame them; I’d twist myself into whatever arrangement my Lioness wanted, too.
“The vials in the cabin,” she whispered, little tremors moving through her as she stared at the kitty corner space between two buildings where the Stalker squad lined up and waited for orders. I slid a glance at their generals, contemplating how to kill them to draw out their pain the most. I’d make Violence’s last the longest. My wife couldn’t sleep because of him. Her body was lashed with scars and bruises, and I knew there were worse things he did to her, mind games and detailed verbal threats, that hadn’t left a mark.
I brought our hands to my mouth and kissed her knuckles. Soon, we could kill them. We just had to rescue a damsel from a mirror first.
“I have a question,” I said, peering at the Stalker squad again. I pointed at the super-tall, super soldiers. Or rather, at a grassy green structure above their heads. Call me crazy, but I was a teeny bit suspicious of all bush and hedge related things after that green man attacked us at Cruelty’s mansion.1 “What is that?”
“The main event,” Cruelty said in a whisper, like she was sharing a secret. “But don’t worry about that. Your first class starts in five minutes. Are you excited?”
I exchanged a glance with Cat and my brother-husbands. I thoughtIwas crazy, but I had nothing on this lunatic.
“One toe out of line,” Violence warned in an ominous rumble. I wondered if he practised it, if he spent hours in his bedroom trying to get his voice as low and deep as possible. He probably practised that steely expression in the mirror, too.2 “Mirrors break so easily, and my sister is so clumsy.”
Cruelty grinned at the threat, the impact it made on our little group. Miz hissed, canines bared, but he couldn’t launch himself at them like he wanted. Couldn’t even rip their hair out or snap off a fingernail without risking Tor. It sucked.
On an unspoken command, the students in their blood red uniforms turned and marched back towards the main building’s entrance, unmoved by the psychotic gods or the gothic building that loomed over them. Not as impressive as my castle, obviously, but game recognise game.
