Authors: Katherine Harbour
Bones and Heart (3 page)
Jack knelt and pulled his daggers from the shattered skull and metal heart of the doll-man. He picked up Lacroix’s top hat and tipped it onto his own head.
“Jack.” Phouka stepped in, boot heels crunching on the broken glass. Jack had shattered all the bottles, releasing dozens of glowing orbs that trailed out of a window. As much as he hadn’t wanted to believe, Jack knew what powered the Grindylow, what the orbs were: souls.
“He completed the other two Grindylow.” Jack indicated the two doll-things on the tables. “I believe the red-haired one was to house your . . . essence . . . and the black-winged one, mine. After he’d murdered us.”
Phouka stared at him as if he’d lost his mind. He walked past her, out of the chamber of horrors, as he said, “I think he was under the impression we still had souls.”
The raven-haired girl in red held Jack’s hand as they stood before the grand mansion illuminated by expensive lamps. The stone wolves on either side of the stair were eerily lifelike in the golden light. But Jack still remembered the ruinous aspect the house had once worn. The rage and hurt crawling around inside of him had faded. The doll in red was a nightmare that still roamed the streets. He wouldn’t destroy it, because he didn’t want to believe what it was, or that it was the true reason his father had come to London. He didn’t want to hurt
anymore. Lately, his life had been nothing but sorrow, anger, and emptiness.
“Welcome to Sombrus.” The girl who was not a girl whispered in his ear as the mansion’s doors opened. “Braveheart.”
AS JACK AND THE RAVEN-HAIRED
girl stepped into the house of the Wolf and the snake, two figures emerged from the darkness of the night.
“Well, that was easy.” The pale-haired shadow admired a ring on its finger—a hound curled around a sardonyx. “I thought he’d put up more of a fight. Like his dad.”
The other shadow said softly, “So did I.”
“Ambrose.” The pale-haired shadow’s smile was cruel. “Did you try to save that boy?”
“Yes, Caliban. I tried.”
Neither of them saw or sensed the female figure in the darkness across the street, her greatcoat and tricornered hat concealing her identity but for a curve of auburn hair against her white cheek. The queen of shadows and fairies had protected her people from the nomads. She had given them their sacrifice.
Jack stood on a balcony of the Tirnagoth Hotel in Fair Hollow. Behind him, yet another revel dazzled the September evening. He’d dreamed last night (and he never dreamed) of a girl in a hooded coat, standing in a whirlwind of scarlet leaves. She’d raised her head to reveal a face similar to one from his past, a girl blushed with mortality, her tangled brown hair and caramel eyes promising warmth. He could still feel the silver knife with which she’d pierced his newly grown heart.
As the leaves crackled past him, he closed his eyes. He raised a hand heavy with rings against his mouth, as if he could feel her kiss.
Tick-tock.
Engraved with his mother’s name, the pocket watch in his coat reminded him:
Time doesn’t stand still for mortals.
He smiled. “Come get me, dangerous girl.”
The End
KATHERINE HARBOUR
was born in Albany, New York, and now lives in Sarasota, Florida, with a tempestuous black cat named Pooka and too many books.
Visit her website at www.katherineharbour.com.
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BONES AND HEART
. Copyright © 2015 by Katherine Harbour. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition MARCH 2015 ISBN: 9780062413000
FIRST EDITION
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