The Narrow Man, still wearing Kelly’s face, whipped his head round and Austin took that moment to tear free of his grip and run into the woods.

The thing-that-wasn’t-Kelly looked at Virgil, gave him a smile, and followed the boy.

Chapter 56

AMBER HAD BEEN HERE BEFORE.

Astaroth’s castle, with walls of stone that reached high beyond the wooden rafters, high into the darkness and the emptiness above. Here, the cold air danced to the distant symphony of screams and sobbing that rattled the stained-glass windows, in which each scene was another depiction of the depraved, the wanton, the butchered. Tapestries hung from those stone walls, different from those she had seen last time she had been here. Terrible splendours, new and fresh and eager to offend in their explicit extravagance.

No welcoming committee this time. No sign of the ungendered thing called Fool. Perhaps her arrival had gone unnoticed. She hoped so. This castle was one of many in the kingdom over which the Blood-dimmed King ruled, and as such it had its rules which could not be bent, bypassed or broken. It struck Amber that hell, no matter its faults and its cruelties, was at the very least honest. She wondered if heaven was half as trustworthy.

One of the rules for visitors, and this was the rule that had been repeated to her the most, was that she should never, under any circumstances, step outside the circle. Ever.

So Amber took a deep breath, and stepped out of the circle.

When the walls didn’t come crashing down upon her and she wasn’t immediately cast down into the fiery pits, she hurried through the first doorway, and found herself in a winding corridor with narrow windows on one side. Beneath a coal-black sky, and across a forest of twisting, clutching, grasping trees, a vast city rose from the horizon. There was a palace at the centre of that city – she could see it from here. She could even appreciate the beauty found in its sharp edges and sinister angles. The palace of the Blood-dimmed King, no doubt.

The corridor split into three directions, but only one was wide enough for her to comfortably fit. Even so, as she made her way through, her shoulders began tipping off the walls, again and again, until she was moving sideways, then grimacing and squeezing further.

There was an opening ahead. She just had to squeeze a little more. Just a little …

And then she was stuck.

The wall in front crushed against her belly and chest. The wall behind crushed against her ass. She could extend her left arm out into the opening, but she couldn’t even turn her head without jamming her horns. It was hard to breathe. Amber tried to suck her belly in, but she had no purchase with which to move. She couldn’t go forward or back. Panic began to claw at her mind.

“Hello,” said a voice.