“No,” Nightmare agreed softly, her expression altering to one in all sympathy, so convincing I nearly fell for it. “You didn’t wish to. However the distinction between you and Cat is you had a alternative, and also you selected to kill to guard your self. Cat didn’t select. That makes you the larger monster, don’t you suppose?”

All of the issues I believed had been Alastor Carmichael—the threats, the texts. It was Byron. I lined my mouth with a numb hand, chilly and sweaty throughout.

“Now, for the pièce de résistance,” Nightmare stated with a flourish, her eyes flashing with delight. “Darya, my pricey, go retrieve that object from the grass over there.”

I watched as Darya moved freely, not robotically. Not even floating like a ghost ought to. The smirk on her face and the understanding glint in her eyes made me sick. The second I noticed what she’d retrieved was a knife, I dropped my hand and lunged right into a run in direction of her.

I’d heard sufficient. Now it was time to seize my husband, my traitorous finest good friend, and get the hell out of right here.

I’d marvel how a ghost might maintain a knife later. Now, I ripped the deal with out of her chilly fingers, shuddering at how stable she felt, and earlier than I might query myself, earlier than nervousness might keep my hand, I drove the blade into her abdomen.

Darya simply laughed. “I’m a ghost, Cat. Do you actually suppose you’ll be able to kill me?”

I faltered again, making an attempt to maintain her and Nightmare each in my line of sight, not releasing my grip on the knife. “What occurred to you? You had been good, type, however now that you simply’re useless you comply with Nightmare?”

“I at all times adopted Nightmare,” she stated, her smirk remodeling her into an entire different particular person. “It’s not my fault you’re so determined for affection you fell for the friendship routine.”

However—there have been no indicators. Darya had been pleasant and accepting and type.

“You possibly can’t even settle for it now, are you able to?” Darya shook her head, making a lunge for the knife.

I twisted apart, solely adrenaline and panic preserving me out of her vary. She was a ghost; couldn’t she simply float and seize it again?

“My mom and my mom’s mom had been followers of Nightmare,” she knowledgeable me. “Proud followers. I willingly gave myself to her in order that Nightmare might obtain energy from my loss of life.”

Wait. I faltered, confused. “You selected to die? What the fuck?”

Darya determined that was sufficient speaking as a result of she got here at me once more, grabbing my wrist in a grip so tight I cried out. A ghost’s contact shouldn’t have damage.

“Sufficient, Cat keep the place you’re, let Darya take the knife.”

Nightmare’s voice hit me like a whip’s crack and I went lethal nonetheless. Paralysed. From this angle I might see Byron flip to Nightmare, heard him plead together with her to cease this. The reality hit me like a bullet. Darya was going to kill me, like I killed her. My loss of life would give Nightmare much more energy.

“Please,” Byron begged. “Depart Cat out of this.”

“Don’t fear,” Nightmare replied gently, “I’ll. Cai, take the knife and kill Byron.”

Her phrases hung within the chilly air for a second, till that means struck.

My coronary heart hurtled at my ribs in a violent thump. No. I attempted to shake my head, tried to throw myself at Miz, to catch him, cease him. Cai—that’s what she known as him earlier. And now she ordered him to kill my finest good friend?

“Chances are you’ll communicate, Cat,” Nightmare stated with unhidden pleasure, wind ruffling her lengthy hair.

“Don’t,” I blurted, my voice choked. “Miz, please. Don’t damage him.”

Distress strode previous me, his face unchanging, however these eyes reached by way of pores and skin, muscle, and bone and pierced my coronary heart.

“You’re a loss of life god,” I cried, making an attempt to maneuver my arms, to select up my toes so I might attain him. “You possibly can battle her. Please. Please don’t do that.”

However he took the knife from Darya’s spectral hand, and tears fell from my eyes as he brushed previous me once more.

“You may wish to run, Byron,” Nightmare recommended.

“No,” he replied, his throat bobbing. He regarded previous Miz and locked eyes with me. “I’m so sorry, Cat. You’re proper about all of it. I ought to have informed you and Honey. Deep down, I simply wished to remain your good friend, the man you knew and beloved. I didn’t need you to know what I used to be actually like. Don’t bear in mind me like this, yeah? Bear in mind the man I used to be earlier than we ever got here to Ford.”

I wished to shake my head, wished to run to him, wished to physique slam Miz to the bottom so he couldn’t do that. A horrible roaring noise began inside my head.

“Miz, please,” I screamed when he strode inside a number of paces of Byron, the knife gripped between white-knuckled fingers. Oh god, oh god. “Byron, run!”

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