Thorn Jack (39 page)

Finn spoke the summoning, “ ‘
Thou art mine and I am thine. 'Til the sinking of the world.
' ”

A shadow stepped into the circle. A scent of wild roses and evergreen shielded Finn from the darkness writhing around her as cool hands cupped her face and a mouth blossomed over hers in a lovely, biting kiss that drew out all the fear even as it warmed her iced body. She could taste the salt of her tears on Jack's lips.

He drew away. The moth key and the locket he'd given her gleamed against his blood-streaked chest. There were rose petals in his hair. One hand was wrapped in strips of blood-soaked cloth; the other held the glass box she'd discarded, the one encasing the heart
he
had caused Reiko to grow.

“Jack.” The black ribbons of the thorn and bone scarecrow snaked loose from around Finn's wrists. “What have you done?”

“No.” Behind him, Reiko Fata was in her human glamour again, her gown a blossom of fire and blood. She stepped forward and struck an invisible barrier, shrieking, “
No!
”

“Only two souls in the circle, Reiko—the summoner and the summoned.” Jack didn't drop his gaze from Finn's as he held out the glass box. He smiled. His hands were shaking. “I brought you a present.”

“It's the same present,” Finn whispered. “Jack, it won't—”

“Jack”—Reiko's voice held a note of panic—“Jack, what are you doing?”

“My lady, like most old things, you are a creature of habit. Same box. Same spell.” Without dropping his gaze from Finn's, Jack raised one hand. Between two fingers, he held a bone roughly carved into the shape of a key. “Different key.”

Finn, dizzy and sick, looked at his hand wrapped in bloody cloth and a small, hurt sound escaped her. Jack had caused the birth of Reiko's new heart. Jack's finger bone would be needed to make that key. “What did you
do
?”

“I'd rather not go into detail,” he whispered in her ear, pressing the grotesque key into her hand, “but I believe I've come to your rescue.”

Reiko spoke in a voice close to shattering. “
Serafina.
Do you want this world of absolutes and accidents? Of hopelessness and ugly deaths? If
we
die, there will be no hope, nothing but what you see.”

“Wysiwyg.” Her heart slamming, Finn gently took the glass box from Jack. “What you see is what you get.”

Reiko stepped forward. No one else moved. “Serafina.
Listen.
You will grow middle-aged, ugly, thick. Your hair will gray. You'll be a crone while Jack remains as he is. Serafina, I can make you
immortal
.”

Finn pushed Jack's finger bone into the lock. There was a click and, at the moment, it was the most wonderful sound she'd ever heard in her life.

Reiko whispered, “
I can bring back your sister.
”

Finn's fingers froze on the lid.

Jack spoke gently. “You can't bring back the dead.”

Reiko turned on him, her alien glamour veiled by a schoolgirl's anguish. “You choose
her
over
me
?”

Jack looked at her. “It was never a choice.”

Finn lifted the lid of the glass box. Nestled within black velvet was the knot of shiny red coral shaped like an anatomical heart. No one came at them. No one spoke. The branches of the corrupted oak clattered softly. The candles sparked with falling leaves that became webs of golden soot drifting over the gathering.

Reiko lifted her head, inky hair falling away from her face, her wide, green eyes. She took another step forward, and desperation broke the beauty of her voice. “Serafina Sullivan. Give me the heart and I will give you the
world
.”

Finn carefully lifted the heart from the box and met Reiko's gaze as she held the thing over a bowl of fire. Her voice was raw. “I'm eighteen—I already have the world.”

She dropped the heart into the flames. The border of blue light around the oak flared and vanished. Tiny fires began in the foliage. Reiko screamed and lunged at Finn. Jack grabbed her.

A pale figure swept forward and snatched the heart from the bowl of flames.

Straightening, Caliban grinned at Finn. “You're dead, girl.”

A body struck the
crom cu,
tackling him into the leaves. When Caliban twisted away, he no longer held Reiko's heart. He held a knife, and Christie was curled on the ground. Caliban snarled, “
You? Again?
”

“No!” Finn ran toward him.

Caliban went for her. She reeled back from the shine of his knife.

Then Jack was there, yanking Caliban back and flinging him against a tree.

As the Fatas and their guests drew away from the fight—David Ryder had turned to them and was speaking—Finn dropped to her knees beside Christie. Sylvie was already crouched beside him as he clutched at his side. Blood stained his hand. “
Christie . . .”

“I'm good.” He tore open his shirt, revealing a shallow cut. He grinned and handed her Eve Avaline's silver knife. “Break the bitch's heart.”

Finn took the knife and slid to her feet. She glimpsed Wyatt and Hobson pushing through the Fatas toward her. Jack and Caliban were still fighting. Reiko crouched near the scarecrow, her hair in her face, the heart glistening in her hands. She raised her head to glare at Finn and her voice slithered through the air. “
Girl. I will make you crawl for a thousand years
.”

Gripping the knife, Finn moved forward.

David Ryder appeared behind Reiko, who rose to face him. He grimly took the heart from her hands. They began to argue. Finn turned away from them. The Fatas and their allies continued slipping into the night, discarding their masks, their faith.

“Serafina!” Sophia Avaline was also trying to reach her and was being held back by the crowd of retreating Fatas.

Jack and Caliban had slammed against one of the lanterns, which broke against the scarecrow. The scarecrow became an instant inferno, fire leaping into the branches of the oak, shadows swooping as mayhem erupted. The remaining Fatas shouted, avoiding the smoke and snaking flames.

When Finn felt someone grab her by the hair, she yelped, her hands scrabbling against a relentless grip. The knife was ripped from her hands. She fell, and someone started to drag her through leaves and cinders.

“Reiko!” David Ryder shouted. “What are you
doing
?”

“Saving us, my love.” Reiko looked down at Finn, and her smile was pure malice. Her eyes were green and wide and filled with horror.

David Ryder shouted, “Reiko—let her go!”

Finn was released. She twisted around and up, avoiding the black blade Reiko slashed toward her. Reiko whispered, “Not fire. It
will
be knives.”

“Reiko!”

Finn cried out as the blade slammed into the tree beside her. Reiko pulled it out, her teeth bared. Finn shoved her away and realized no one could help her in the chaos.

David Ryder dragged Reiko back. She whirled, and Finn saw David Ryder's eyes widen.

Still gripping the knife, Reiko stepped back.

David Ryder slid to his knees. His hands dropped to his sides. Blood, impossible for his kind unless they loved, began to stain his shirt.

Finn backed away.

“
David . . .”
Reiko dropped the knife.

He coughed, smiled. It was a terrible, bloodstained smile. “Do you see now, Reiko? What we are?”

He collapsed into the leaves.

Reiko turned on Finn. Her face was white, her green eyes electric with rage. “I
knew
it when I saw you two together that night, that bloody innocence between you like armor. You think you have won? That you've taken
everything away from me
?”

Finn felt an invisible force slam her back against a tree. She cried out and slid to the ground as bits of burning leaves fell over her like butterflies made of flames. Reiko's fingers knotted in her hair and yanked, and Finn felt as if her scalp was being torn away. She was pulled, twisting, toward the inferno that had once been the oak. She choked from the pain of her splintered rib. Heat licked at her. She screamed as fire kissed her skin. Her tulle gown blazed at the hem. The flames were green, unnatural, cold.

Hands gripped her then, pulling her from the flames and flinging her away. She hit the ground, twisted up in a tangle of charred tulle.

As Reiko backed away, Jack stood before the supernatural fire. Shapes moved toward him—tall, spindly things with the wings of dragons, their faces masked because their terrible beauty would shatter the souls of anyone who looked upon them.

“
Jack!
” Her voice tearing, Finn scrambled up.

Christie, pushing through the fleeing Fatas, yelled a warning.

Finn whirled to find Reiko standing with the black knife against Sylvie's throat.

“Join him in that fire, Serafina.” Reiko smiled. “Or I will
flay
her—”

Sylvie smashed her elbow into Reiko's face, and Reiko stumbled back with an enraged scream. Sylvie dashed forward and grabbed Finn's hand. “Stop him!”

Astonished, Finn met Sylvie's gaze, then saw Sophia Avaline and Professor Fairchild running in their direction. She turned and raced toward the fire and Jack, who smiled at her as if she were the sun.

She realized what he was going to do. “Jack . . .
no
. . .”

Then a hand glittering with ancient rings grabbed him by the shoulder and threw him aside. As Jack fell, David Ryder looked back at Reiko.

Reiko screamed, “
What are you doing?
”

David Ryder, who held her heart, smiled. “Saving us, my love.”

He stepped into the fire.

Reiko raced toward her consort. Jack lunged to stop her and they whirled together. Reiko, silvery-eyed and anguished, wrapped her arms around him.

“
No!
” Finn ran toward them.

Jack closed his eyes as Reiko dragged him into the burning green.

Finn dove forward, to pull Jack out of that supernatural inferno—

Two pairs of hands dragged her back. She struggled against Christie and Sylvie, sobbing and raging as she watched the emerald fire overwhelm the oak, driving into the night the acrid odor of a burning forest, of green curling from rot. The silhouettes within the inferno crumbled. As the fire continued to burn until the oak became a tree of flames, its branches arcing outward, shimmering with leaves of green fire, Finn slid to her knees, gasping as if the heart had been torn from her.

The Fatas who remained were silent, hair and clothes fluttering in a wind flecked with soot and molten sparks. Caliban Ariel'Pan was nowhere to be seen.

Sooty, bruised, with blisters on her arms, Finn couldn't look away from the fiery tree and its halo of light. Reiko and David Ryder were gone. And Jack . . .

A tall man stepped from among the Fatas. Rowan Cruithnear, the dean of HallowHeart, glanced at Finn. Ivory totems were braided into his silver hair. He wore a gray suit and carried a cane with an onyx raven for a handle. His eyes reflected the light as he turned to the Fatas and spoke in a baritone that carried: “I've a message from the old country; a new queen has been chosen for you, and you will serve her, and obey her, and you will cease all works of mischief, malice, and mayhem . . . or you will be harmed.” Cruithnear inclined his head to Professor Avaline. “Our apologies to you and yours, Sophia Avaline.”

Professor Avaline and the teachers walked to Finn, Christie, and Sylvie. As Mr. Wyatt gently lifted Finn to her feet, she glimpsed the silver revolver holstered beneath his coat and, startled, met his gaze. He murmured, “It seems you rescued yourselves. And, here we were, risking violence by bringing silver and iron.”

Sophia Avaline stared at Rowan Cruithnear. “Who
are
you?”

Mr. Cruithnear didn't answer. He gravely met Finn's gaze. “Miss Sullivan . . . we are sorry for your loss.”

Finn couldn't speak at first. Christie and Sylvie slid their arms around her waist, flanking her, keeping her upright. She finally found her voice. “Is he really dead?”

“Yes, Finn Sullivan.” It was Phouka who answered, turning to regard the Fatas. Her voice rang out, above the roar of the burning tree. “If you are Fata, you are under my protection, for I will be regent. As for these three human children, blessed by the oak, they are also protected. The
ban nathair
and the
Damh Ridire
have passed. Honor them. Their sacrifice has bought us two centuries.”

She walked to the burning tree and knelt. The Fatas folded with her, heads bowed, among them the Rooks and Jack's vagabonds.

Finn stood very still, gazing at the tree that had become Jack's funeral pyre.

“Finn.” Christie's voice was raw, as if he could feel the pain shattering through her. As Sylvie laid her head on Finn's shoulder, Finn watched the tree-shaped inferno while ashes swirled and the pain slicing her to pieces became almost unbearable.

She heard someone clear his throat. Her attention slid to Absalom Askew, who stood to the side, who hadn't knelt to the tree. He met her gaze. And winked.

She stared at him. She slowly returned her gaze to the tree made of shimmering green fire.

Nothing is as it seems.

And so the trick is done.

Her eyes widened as understanding and fear and fury and hope battled within her.

She strode forward, leaving Christie to call her name and Sylvie to say, “Let her say good-bye to him.”

“No—
Finn
!” Sophia Avaline reached out.

Finn, avoiding her, began running toward the burning tree, past the Rooks, through the Fatas rising to their feet. She ran as if the thing called a heart made her invincible.

Someone grabbed her—and Finn stared into Phouka's silver eyes flickering with green flames.