TRIBUTE: Part Two

   JACK strode toward the Mercedes as Finn and Phouka got out. He said to Phouka, voice low with fury, "Why did you bring her?"
   "Because Christie's my friend." Finn wasn't going to let him do that thing he did. When his gaze fell upon her, she continued, "She said he needed help."
   "Did she?" Jack's eyes glinted as he turned back to Phouka. "You didn't tell me Christie Hart was involved in this. How did that happen?"
   Phouka, who was polishing her nails on one coat sleeve, shrugged. "It's too late to turn back. We'll meet our new family members and get Christopher home."
   Jack didn't move. "Did she send Christie Hart into this?"
   "Not Reiko." Phouka glanced carelessly over one shoulder at Finn, who was trying to control her temper. "We'd best be on our way."
   Finn could scent something in the crisp air, an incendiary fragrance that always made her think of magic. It made her less scared. "What is this place?" she asked as they began walking.
   "This is what's left of the town of Greenfield." Jack spoke gently. He indicated the street of rundown row houses and bars. "Glove factories and textiles didn't so so well, so now Greenfield isn't. Phouka, the meeting place is through there." He pointed to a wooded lot and a barely discernible path lit by a single street lamp.
   "Let's go then." Phouka strode toward the path.
   Despite fresh misgivings, Finn followed.
   "I thought I'd dissuaded you from wanting to know more about me," Jack said idly.
   "I'm here for Christie. Your family has gotten him into something. Would you please tell me what?"
   "The ones we're going to see are visiting. They were supposed to let our family know they were here. They didn't. I have no idea how your friend ended up in this tangle."
   "Are these 'family members' involved in criminal activities?"
   "Sometimes."
   Finn took out her phone and tried to call Christie again. Her hand shook. She hoped Jack didn't notice.
   Then they were on the path and the trees closed over them, a gloom broken only by spatters of moonlight. Her phone went dead. Her blood iced. She pocketed the useless phone. "Where exactly do they live? These people holding Christie hostage?"
   "In a house. In this lot. And they're not holding him hostage."
   Finn swatted aside a branch fluttering with ragged leaves. "This is like a forest."
   She jumped when she glimpsed a figure moving between the trees. She squinted and realized it was a full-length mirror, antique and clouded, leaning against a tree. She looked away from it.
   They passed a motorcycle tangled in creepers. A woman's red, high-heeled shoe dangled from a tree branch, over the path.
   Phouka looked back at Jack--meaningfully, Finn decided. Not wanting to seem like a scaredy-cat, Finn said, "We couldn't have driven to this house?"
   "No. There's no road."
   A few minutes later, Finn asked Jack if he watched horror movies. He glanced at her with a crooked smile. "Don't worry. If Phouka and I were going to kill you, don't you think we'd have done it by now?"
   "I don't think you're going to kill me. I don't like mysteries, Jack. That's all."
   "You liar." His smile was the equivalent of a swagger.
   She turned and deliberately and defiantly pressed one hand against his chest, over his heart. "I can feel your heart beating."
   He looked at her and something like pain flickered in his eyes. "I know."
   They began walking again, Finn with a little more confidence as she thought, There's nothing supernatural about you, Jack Fata.
   When she heard a rustling in the trees to her right, she turned her head and glimpsed a large shadow that promptly shoved that last confident thought out of her head. It looked very much, that shadow, like a goat walking upright.
   No, she told herself as horror gnawed at the edges of reality. It's not.
   Then Jack's hand closed warm and strong around hers and his voice was in her ear. "Don't stare at the shadows. You'll start to see things." He let go of her, leaned toward Phouka to whisper in her ear. Finn thought she heard him say "Skriker."
   Phouka glanced at Finn and said, "She's stronger than you think."
   They passed a clutch of creeper-draped oaks cradling a grandfather clock, its face stained and cracked. She almost refused to go any further.
   Then she saw the lights of house silhouetted against the sky behind the trees--a brick apartment building in a wooded lot. With its swooping roofs and scarlet trim, the structure looked slightly Asian and antique. Beyond, the headlights from traffic on the highway streaked the night.
   Finn glanced at Jack and Phouka,. She felt as if this were a test of some sort and she was determined to pass it because she wasn't about to let Phouka Fata think her a coward.
   Jack, on the other hand--and this was somewhat daunting--seemed genuinely concerned. He scrutinized the building like a knight about to break into an enemy's castle. He moved forward.
   Finn trudged after him, with Phouka, up the stairway. That's just an ordinary door, Finn told herself despite its fairy-green paint and the brass doorknocker shaped into a scowling gargoyle.
   "Don't think this is ordinary," Jack said as he bypassed the gargoyle and pressed the doorbell.
   No one answered. Jack and Phouka exchanged a glance.
  Jack turned the knob and shoved the door open.
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TRIBUTE: A Lost Chapter of Thorn Jack by Katherine Harbour

('Tribute' takes place between Chapters 7-8 of Thorn Jack)

'Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles it is to school an intelligence and make it a soul?'     John Keats

   The book was called Wonder Tales from Antiquity. Phouka, who usually didn't like old things, who didn't like to dwell in the past, had found it in a bookshop in Detroit and fallen in love with its stories of Greek myths transformed into Victorian fairy tales.
   She sat on a windowsill of a Tirnagoth tower, her jeans and Dresden Dolls T-shirt sprinkled with pollen from the poppies she'd been eating. As she turned another page, she gazed down at a Rackham illustration of a tenuous girl dressed as Diana, goddess of the moon.
   A whisper of malice alerted her to an unwelcome presence in the candlelit corridor. She said, "Stop lurking."
   A young man appeared, his eyes sly beneath platinum hair. He leaned against the wall near the window. This evening, he'd opted for an elegant-thug look, all black beneath an overcoat. "Seth Lot scolded me. And it's all the fault of those school children."
   "They're nothing to worry about."
   Caliban's smile was a gash. "I'm thinking of paying a visit to the schoolgirl with the big eyes."
   "Then you're an idiot." Phouka rose. She set the picture book on the windowsill and turned and walked away.
   Caliban lifted the book and opened it to the illustration of  naked, bat-winged fairy. The caption read ARIEL. He curled up on the windowsill and began to read.
                                                                              ***
An hour later, Caliban stood in a yard, in the shadows of trees, gazing up at the lit window of Serafina Sullivan's bedroom. He enjoyed stalking, the idea that his prey didn't know he was there but sensed his presence because of an uneasiness, a chill in the air.
   "Why are you here, malevolence?"
   Jack's voice made Caliban reach for his knives.
   Jack crossed the yard swiftly and struck Caliban, slamming him against a tree.
   Caliban cursed. Jack glided back. Caliban slid into a crouch, his nails sinking into the earth. He no longer knew his place in Reiko's court. He was losing everything to the Jack. He tensed, to leap, to claw, to spill the Jack's insides all over the leaves.
   "You go near her again," Jack told him, a silhouette against the house, "and I'll take you to pieces."
   Caliban growled.
   "Boys." Another shadow parted from the night, auburn-haired and sleek, a stylish peril.
   "Phouka." Jack inclined his head.
   "Stop playing. Go away now. Reiko has sent me to watch her."
   "Why?" Caliban and Jack spoke at the same time.
   Phouka shrugged. "Who knows? I'm just to stand guard." She looked pointedly at Caliban.
   He slunk away. He heard Jack tell Phouka, "I'm not a threat to her."
   "Aren't you, Jack?" Phouka spoke with skepticism. "Scram."
   Jack glanced away from Finn's house and narrowed his eyes at Phouka. "What does Reiko want from her?"
   "Nothing, Jack. I'm doing this for you."
                                                                         ***
Two days later . . .
   Finn had become quite fond of the swing set in the backyard. She liked how her toes scarcely touched the ground as she swayed back and forth.
   She'd been ridiculous last night, believing Jack didn't have a heart. Of course he had a heart. She'd panicked.
   She began to sway, leaning back onto the swing as she grasped the chains, gazing up at the star-shimmering sky. She swung faster, until her feet were in the air and she felt as if she was flying--
   She swung down, forward--
   A shadow was standing directly before her.
   Finn yelped and slammed her sneakers down into the dirt. She jerked violently forward and met Phouka Fata's silver gaze.
   "Do you want to know more about my family?" Phouka invited. "Come with me."
   "I don't think so."
   Phouka held out an amulet on a thin chain. It glinted like a wink. "Wear this. Don't take it off. And come with me."
   Finn stood up. She touched what she wore beneath her T-shirt; the locket Jack had given her and the moth key on a silver chain. "I've enough jewelry."
   "I'm not playing a game, Finn Sullivan." Phouka's face had become a stern mask. "You know too much. You need to learn some things to keep safe."
   Finn began to back away.
   Phouka, clearly irritated, said, "You know about Jack's condition."
   Finn's breath hitched. 
   "You want to know, don't you?" Phouka still held out the amulet. It gleamed, rotating slowly. "Who we are?" She continued, "Christopher needs you."
   "What?"
   "He was convinced to bring a gift to new family members of ours. We need to pick him up."
   Finn checked her phone. And there it was, a text from Christie: STRANDED HERE. HELP. There was no address.
   She tried his cell phone number. No answer. She looked suspiciously at Phouka. "Who convinced him to run this errand?" She thought about all she knew concerning the Fatas, all the little hints of something other, and her pulse accelerated. "Where is he?"
   "Next town over. We'll get him, but I need you with me."
   "Again, who sent him on this errand?"
   "Someone who likes to cause mischief." Phouka's mouth tightened.
   Finn snatched the amulet from the other girl. It was a tree in a circle made of bronze. She carefully drew the chain over her head. "Let's go."
   Phouka stepped back. With a sweeping gesture, she indicated a silver Mercedes parked at the curb.
   Finn grimaced. She walked toward the Mercedes.
   Phouka was suddenly there before her, opening the passenger side door. Finn came up short.
   "Go on." Phouka jerked her head at the Mercedes. Her auburn hair, wound in knots, was the same flame-red as the car's leather interior. Finn ducked in.
   As Phouka slid behind the wheel and started the car, Finn asked, "Where are we going?"
   "To meet Christie."
   Finn was fed up with the Fatas and their word games. "I'll repeat myself: Where are we going?"
   "You sure do ask a lot of questions." Phouka steered the Mercedes onto the street.
   Finn had learned that causing frustration was one of the Fata family's secret weapons. She didn't speak again, gazing out the window as they left Fair Hollow's streets behind and curved onto the road into the mountains. After fifteen minutes of gazing at dark forest on either side, she couldn't keep silent. "Seriously, where--"
   Phouka made a sharp turn. Finn winced as she was jostled against the door. Then the Mercedes swerved onto a broken road. They passed a rusting sign, but Finn only caught WELCOME TO--because the rest was slathered in rust.
   They drove through an ugly neighborhood with flickering streetlights and boarded up houses and a bar on every corner.
   Phouka halted the Mercedes a foot away from a figure leaning against a black sedan. The figure turned. Finn's heart lurched.
   "Jack." Finn hunched her shoulders.
                                                                          ***