HEAD and saw lamps of yellow glass dangling in front of black drapes patterned with gold suns. She was in a pavilion. A human-sized doll made from wax was seated in a chair. A large wooden harp formed into a girl stood in a corner. There was a sentience to the doll and the harp that made her skin crawl—
“Fairy dust,” she said through her teeth, remembering the flung glitter and falling asleep. She struggled to rise.
Someone grabbed her. As she was hauled out of the pavilion, she lashed out. She was released. She staggered back and stared at a golden-haired figure in a white suit. “Leander?”
“That”—Leander pointed to the pavilion—“belongs to Lot’s lieutenant. She’s here with Caliban.”
“Caliban already attacked us.”
“Go back to Jack, Finn. I can’t help you.” He began walking.
She strode alongside him. “Did you help Seth Lot steal Lily? Did you?”
“You shouldn’t have come.”
“I saw you bleed. You still love her! What did you expect me to do, Leander? Forget her? Pretend she was really dead? Seth Lot came to me and told me to find him or he’d kill Lily. Seven days, Leander. I have seven days.”
Leander stepped back, whispered, “No . . .”
“Just tell me how to get Lily out of the Wolf’s house. And where it is.”
“I don’t know where it is and you can’t get her out. I’ll find your sister. But I won’t give you to the Wolf in exchange.” He leaned close to her and whispered, “They’re watching me, Finn. I can’t help you. Return to Jack before they get him.”
He backed away and vanished among the pavilions. She started after him, realized he might be leading them, the enemy, away.
She turned and ran through the fair, terror for Jack causing her to shove past Fatas, to ignore anything that might be following.
A fist slammed into her stomach. She fell to the ground, blood filling her mouth as she bit through her lip and curled around pain.
Then she was being dragged through the shadows, away from the fair, into the field. She spat blood and yelled, attempting to clutch at grass, weeds, dandelions, until her hands were streaked with green. When she was finally released, she heard a voice that made her flinch. “Well. That was easy.”
She raised her head to see Caliban walking around her. “Do you know who’s going to gut your Jack? David Ryder’s Jill. You remember the Stag Knight, don’t you? The one who burned? His Jill is with the Wolf. And she doesn’t like you.”
Fighting the pain in her skull, Finn bit her lip against a whimper. Don’t let him know how scared you are.
A summery breeze drifted through her hair. She smelled flowers. She focused on something not far away, a blur of yellow. Daisies, her mom’s namesake. She remembered her mom making daisy chains in the spring. Protection from the fairies, she’d say.
Finn scrambled up, reeling, and lunged.
Caliban snarled, “Oh, no, you don’t.”
She rolled into the circle of daisies, where she lay, staring up at the night sky. She waited breathlessly, her stomach clenched, hands curled at her sides.
AS JACK HUNTED FOR FINN, anger and fear tearing him to pieces, he ripped open pavilions and pushed into stalls and wagons.
Then he saw Leander striding toward him.
“Where is she?” He stalked toward Leander, who backed away. “I don’t know, Jack. She didn’t go back to y—”
There was an immense rustling, like the leaves of a thousand trees being struck by the wind. Jack’s body iced.
He stared around at the cavernous forest that now surrounded the pavilions and glittering rides. Scarborough Fair, which had not been scheduled to leave until winter’s end, had moved and taken him with it.
AS CALIBAN CROUCHED outside of the daisy circle, Finn sat up and slid as far away from him as the border of flowers would allow.
“Lucky you,” he said. “And clever. Daisies . . . bloody stinking things. But you can’t stay in there forever.”
She was exhausted—she’d been running from this psycho all night and it had been a very long night. Her voice scraped out of her. “The Wolf sent you to separate me and Jack, didn’t he? It’s part of his game . . . a trick . . .”
Caliban shrugged, his predatory gaze fastened on her.
“Calib—”
“Don’t,” he hissed. “Don’t say my name. You took her away from me.”
The fair looked miles away. Jack didn’t know where she was. She had to stall. She said, “Reiko never loved you—she loved Jack. That’s why she died. And you