floor tangled with morning glories and the roots of pale plants snaking out of stone urns. Mold furred the tiles and cracks spiderwebbed the grimy, glass dome of the ceiling. Nightshade, and briars dripping livid roses, ran riot. Contained within the cavernous mouth of a hearth hewn into a gorgon face were porcelain hands holding lit candles.
Jack stood before the Medusa hearth. As the glass doors shut behind Finn, she stood very still, afraid that if she moved, he’d disappear like the Fata trick he might be. “Are you real?”
“I feel that way.” He was half in shadow.
She walked to him, raised her hands to his face. His skin was cooler than usual, and ancient rings decorated his fingers again—but the lions-and-the-heart ring was among them. He bent his head and kissed her as if she were a succulent thing, drawing her onto her toes as his arms slid around her until she was crushed against him and the burning butterflies coursed up from deep inside of her.
She didn’t feel his heartbeat. She stumbled back against the sofa. “Jack?”
He stood still, candlelight threading his eyelashes and tied-back hair, the fur of his coat. He said, “I couldn’t be weak anymore, Finn.”
She kept her voice steady. “You are not a Jack. Please tell me you’re not a—”
“Finn.” He shed his coat and held it out to her. “Aren’t you cold in that little dress?”
“I’m not cold, Jack, because I took the elixir.”
His gaze was sharp. “How much?”
“Only enough.”
He tossed the coat over a chair. “You’re all soft skin and delicate bones. Aren’t you tired of hurting and bleeding? I know I don’t want to go back to it again.”
Confused and a little defiant, she didn’t move as he stepped close and slid those ring-jeweled hands up her bare arms to cup her face. His touch, despite his cool skin, was hot. Gently, he said, “You don’t really want a mortal man, Finn, someone weak and prone to dying. You want a dark and perfect elf knight who can never be harmed, who’ll always protect you.”
Desire turned to anger and she struck his hands away. “I don’t want a dark, cold thing. I want someone . . . I want you . . . What did you do to yourself, you idiot?”
A muscle twitched in his jaw as if he was repressing a smile. “I don’t like how the Mockingbirds have dressed you, like some tarted-up Alice in Wonderland.”
“You look like you just joined the Fata mafia.”
“Why do you keep backing away from me?”
“I’m not.” But she was, because there was a dangerous look to him now that she remembered from his Jack days. As calmly as she could, she said, “Why do you smell like roses? Please just tell me what happened to you.”
His smile was wild. “Remember those westerns you like? Where any man can be saved by the love of a good woman?”
“That never happens in the westerns I like—stop.” She held up a hand. He stopped. She’d somehow circled back to the doors.
“I did it for you,” he said, his voice rough. “Do you really think I’m going to harm you?”
“I don’t know, Jack.” It hurt her to say that.
The silver ghosted his eyes and she saw a true Jack, a spirit twisted into the eternal shape of something made to stalk and harm. She turned and yanked the doors open—
He pushed them closed with her against them, imprisoning her with his arms. He whispered in her ear, “You’ll need to do more than kiss me to change me back.”
She flung herself around. “You were afraid to touch me when you were a Jack before.”
He stepped away, and the room’s shadows seemed to close over him. He said, “Finn. I need to be like this, to fight Seth Lot.”
She heard the click as the doors opened behind her, and she said, “I love you,” before sliding out.
The porcelain-masked Fata girl stood in the hallway. “You’re to return to your room.”
As the doors closed between her and Jack, Finn said, “Tell Amaranthus we’ll do it. We’ll kill Seth Lot.”
FINN DIDN’T KNOW how much time passed while she waited in her prison. Restless, she used the Leica camera to take pictures of the room and regretted it when one of the flashes caught a shadow with a broken doll face crouched in a corner. Finn kept away from that corner and didn’t take any more pictures.
She studied the vial of elixir. She took another drop.
Then she was summoned. She was