Briar Queen_ A Night and Nothing Novel - Katherine Harbour Page 0,93
the altar steps. “Who are the two big bad Fatas you and your people have ended? It might make my day to know their names.”
“The Gray Tinker and the Night Spindle.”
“Bloody ridiculous names for two awful things. I recognize their titles—one came from Scotland and the other from Prague. One slaughtered adolescents, correct? And the other terrorized children. Did you do this, like, to impress me?”
She smiled wryly. “No.”
“Who, exactly, is in your band of rebels?”
“Changelings and aislings torn from their world and enslaved in this one. I’ve kept them safe, away from Fata kings and queens. And there are others—Fatas tainted by the true world, friends and lovers to mortals. Where is Serafina Sullivan?”
“On her way to the Mockingbirds. You’ve kept track of your descendants. You and the Black Scissors have communicated with Lily Rose Sullivan.”
“Only the Black Scissors could speak with Lily Rose—they used insects as messengers. I didn’t know Serafina and Lily Rose Sullivan were my blood until the Black Scissors and Leander Cyrus came to me for help. The Black Scissors told me about the trinity death, and about the girls.”
Jack twisted the ring Finn had given him. “What was your name when you were a real girl?”
“Bronwyn Rose Govannon. I was wed to a man”—her voice cracked with grief—“named Jonathon Sullivan. Seth Lot made me a widow and my two children orphans.”
Jack was silent for a moment, acknowledging her grief. “Finn’s coworker is named Micah Govannon—”
“My descendant. He works for me.”
“You sent him to watch over Finn. You’re not the only immortal from their family tree. I knew a Jack named Ambrose Cassandro, their mother’s ancestor. Finn came here to get her sister from the Wolf. I was trying to get to Finn before she reached the Mockingbirds.”
Jill Scarlet looked down at her boots. Her hands knotted together. “Will you reach her in time?”
“No. And, really, this delay . . . it wouldn’t have made a difference. I knew I’d need to snake my way into the Mockingbirds’ nest.”
“Let me come with—”
“No. I need to do this discreetly. Why do the Mockingbirds want Finn? And me?”
“The Mockingbirds are no friend to the Wolf. He once did away with an entire clan of them in South Carolina. They fear him.”
Jack smiled darkly. “Well, then . . . I think I know what they want.”
CHRISTIE WALKED WITH SYLPH DRAGONFLY through Jill Scarlet’s courtyard. Lights glittered in the citrus trees, and exotic plants cast soothing fragrances into the air. The Dragonfly’s bare legs flashed beneath her black gown as it billowed in a honeyed breeze. She said, “What are you afraid of, Christie Hart?”
“I’m afraid that we won’t get to Finn and Sylvie in time. I’m afraid we won’t get home. I’m afraid that we’ll all die here. And I’m so fucking useless . . .”
“Christie Hart.” She turned, her eyes shining like starlight on water.
Her hair and gown began to swirl. Her lips pulled back from teeth like thorns. Shocked, Christie reeled back and chanted words that came to him in a heartbeat: “She is darkness, an elemental sprite. Her words mean nothing. I am stone. My heart protects me from this wight. Against her power, I stand alone.”
The dangerous mood fell from Sylph Dragonfly as if she’d discarded knives, and she became herself again. “Do you quote poetry often, Christie Hart? That’s a symptom.”
Christie couldn’t move. “What the hell . . . ? A symptom of what?”
“In the words of one of your people, ‘Red blood out and black blood in, my Nannie says I’m a child of sin. How did I choose me my witchcraft kin?’”
“That’s Walter de la Mare. Or is it Nathaniel Hawthorne? What are you telling me in your spooky, roundabout way?” He felt as if his stomach had dropped into his boots.
“Fear dorchadas are very rare.” Sylph Dragonfly drew closer.
“What is a—”
“A male witch.”
His heart galloped. “I am not a witch. Sylvie is. Reiko Fata said so.”
“My original, Sylvie Whitethorn, is not a witch. I would sense it if she was. Your power must have lingered near her and Reiko mistook it for Sylvie’s.”
“No. I don’t want to be a—”
“Christie Hart, if you ignore this, it will hurt you. This world tried to take you once—the fox knight who led Serafina Sullivan away is your double. He was to replace you.”
“What?”
She reached out, her brows slanting. “Take my hands.”
Grudgingly, he did so, and clenched his teeth against a fierce desire as he remembered last night and what had happened after the