Briar Queen_ A Night and Nothing Novel - Katherine Harbour Page 0,103
on the conservatory, revealing the witch runes scratched across them.
Christie stepped out of the shadows, shoving back the hood of his coat. He grinned, but his eyes were dark. “I carved the Dragonfly’s spell onto the doors—they would’ve sensed her getting in. They didn’t sense me—was that Lily Rose who just ran past?” His eyes widened as he saw Sylvie. “Is that really y—”
He was nearly knocked over by an armful of Sylvie, who, still clutching Moth’s cage, threw herself on Christie, wrapping her arms and legs around him. “You’re alive!” She pulled back, puzzled. “Why are you covered with words?”
Jack told them, “Time to leave.”
AS FINN RACED BACK toward the entrance of the Mockingbird Hotel, the doors burst open, revealing a figure in a black gown racing toward her.
“Finn!” Lily flung herself forward, into Finn’s arms. Finn held her tightly and closed her eyes.
Then Lily cried out.
Finn felt something sharp against her abdomen. She opened her eyes—
—and met the silvery gaze of Amaranthus Mockingbird as the Fata queen, standing behind Lily, drew back, a blade of blood-streaked bone in one hand.
Horrified, Finn clutched at her sister, who had folded her hands across her midriff. Dark blood was trickling over her fingers. She slowly looked up. “Damn . . .”
Finn caught her as she collapsed.
Amaranthus vanished in a small cyclone of tattered wings, bones, and eyes.
Then Sylvie and Christie—the real Christie, her Christie, alive—came running down the hall. He and Sylvie helped her haul Lily up and they staggered down the stairs, toward the Mercedes. Sionnach and his two companions were still fighting Caliban.
A Mockingbird with spiky white hair lunged at Finn, a curved dagger in one hand.
A reindeer motorcycle ridden by a black-haired girl in a dark gown knocked the Mockingbird over. Still holding Lily up, Christie met Finn’s gaze and said, “That’s Sylph Dragonfly. She’s a witch. It’s quite a story.”
“Finn,” Sylvie said as they hauled Lily Rose toward the Mercedes, “Jack’s still in there.”
The Mockingbird Hotel was beginning to flicker with orange flames in the lower windows.
Christie yanked open the Mercedes’s rear door. As Sylvie set the moth cage on the floor and helped Lily into the back, he said, “Finn, he’d want you to be safe.”
“I’m not leaving him.” Finn snatched up the dagger the Mockingbird had dropped and turned toward the hotel now billowing with smoke. “And we need a Fata to drive the damn car—”
A hooded figure strode toward them from the smoke and ashes clouding the stair. The figure pushed the hood away and it was Jack who smiled at her. “Is that the only reason you were coming back for me?”
She rushed to him and flung her arms around him, whispered, “Lily’s hurt. How did the fire start?”
“One of the Mockingbirds fell into the fireplace.”
The fox knights were circling on their motorcycles, preparing to leave—Caliban was gone. Flame-light cast wild shadows on Sionnach’s helmet and bike as he curved to Sylvie’s side. As he removed his helmet, Christie whispered, “Holy f—”
“Hullo, Christie.” Sionnach winked at him. To Sylvie, he said, “You stole my heart.”
Everyone stared at him, then at Sylvie.
Sylvie clarified, “I saw these things for sale at Goblin Market—Fata hearts, I was told. I didn’t know they were real hearts. Some were glass, some metal, some like keys or jewelry.” She took a shiny black stone shaped like a Valentine’s Day heart from her pocket. “So when I saw Sionnach with this—I lifted it from his jacket and put another stone in its place. I figured he’d want it back.”
“You never trusted me.” Sionnach held out a hand, and Sylvie dropped the heart into his palm. He nodded. “My fault, for being so careless with my heart near a crow girl. I should have checked it.”
He put his helmet back on and spun away on his bike.
Christie said, “Sylvie, I am mightily impressed. Jack, can we get out of here now?”
As Jack slid behind the wheel of the Mercedes, Sylvie got into the passenger seat while Finn and Christie clambered into the back. Finn gathered her sister against her, glancing over one shoulder.
A hurricane of giant, skeletal wings, eyes, and howling fury swept down the hotel’s stairs, toward them.
Finn met Jack’s gaze in the rearview mirror. She knew that, here, only Fatas and Fata creatures could give energy to things—if Jack started the Mercedes, he truly was reverting back to what he had been.
He turned the key in the ignition and slammed his foot down on the pedal. The engine roared.