Into the Woods: Tales from the Hollows and Beyond(83)
Author: Kim Harrison

"But Uncle Jenks won’t touch the flowers," she whined. "Papa, please come with us. Don’t let the ghost out. Please!"

Smiling, Jenks gestured for Jumoke, who was bored and flying up and down like a yo-yo. They had time before the moon hit its zenith point. Daryl wouldn’t appear until Sylvan did, and hopefully the statue would be demolished before then. Jenks had to give Jumoke something to do. That darting up and down was irritating.

"Come here," he said as he brought out from the bag a pot the size of two fists. "I want you to hold on to the coal pot," he said, handing it to the excited pixy.

"Got it," he said, wings clattering, and Jenks reached up, snagging his foot when he started to flit away.

"Keep it lit, Jumoke," he said, yanking him back down so hard Jumoke lost his balance and had to scramble to find it again. "Give it sips of air, nothing more. If it goes out from too much or too little air, I’m going to have to ask Ivy for a light, and that would be embarrassing."

"Uh, guys?" Bis interrupted, claws scraping as he slid to a stop beside them.

"Just a minute, Bis," Jenks said, turning back to Jumoke. "When I ask, take the top off, okay? Not before. The coal won’t last long given full air." His voice was severe, but Jumoke was holding the small pot with the right amount of care now, and Jenks was satisfied.

"Go wait with your mother!" Vincet shouted across the way, and his two boys darted away to leave a heavy dust trail. But Vi . . . Vi didn’t look so good.

"Jenks?" Bis said, clawed feet shifting, but Jenks’s attention was riveted to Vi. Her dust didn’t look right, and as he watched, her eyes rolled back and her wings collapsed. And her aura-went silver.

Shit.

"Vi!" Vincet shouted, scooping up the girl as she fell into convulsions. "The dryad’s taking her!" he exclaimed, eyes wide in horror as he held his daughter. "She wasn’t even asleep! Blow it up! Blow it up now!"

"Sorry," Bis said, ears pinned as he looked sheepish. "I tried to tell you."

Feeling betrayed, Jenks looked at the moon. It wasn’t anywhere near its zenith! Reaching behind him, he fumbled for one of his arrows tied with dandelion fluff at the tip. Wings clattering, he turned to Jumoke, finding him . . . gone.

"What the hell?" he stammered, rising up to scan the area, but there wasn’t a single twinkle of dust anywhere. He was gone! "Jumoke!"

Vincet flew to him with Vi in his arms, his wings clattering and desperation falling from him like the dust he was shedding. "He’s hurting her!" Vincet shouted, Vi’s skin red and her dust white-hot. "Blow it up! Free him!"

"I can’t! Jumoke has the firepot!" Jenks hovered, poised and scanning. Bis waited on the sidewalk, tail lashing, but Jumoke was gone. Ivy was gone. By the dogwood, Noel was a faint glow gathering the two boys and pulling them underground. They were safe. Where the hell is Jumoke!

"Jumoke!" Jenks shouted, exasperated, and Bis took to the air with two heavy wing beats to find him. They didn’t have time for this, but as Jenks started off in the other direction, he jerked to a halt in midair. Something smelled like honey and sun-warmed gold.

Tink’s dildo, the warrior woman was back.

"You will not!" echoed a vehement voice off the nearby townhouses, and there she was, standing on the sidewalk beside her statue, her bare feet spread wide and her robes shifting. Her expression was frantic, and upon seeing the bow in his hands, she flung her hand out.

"Look out!" Bis shouted, leaping for him.

A blast of honey-smelling air hit them. Tumbling into the air, Jenks felt his heart pound, but he fought with his instinct, folding his wings against him and tightening into a ball as he flew out of control. Holy crap, he was heading right for the trees!

"Gotcha!" came Bis’s faint exhalation, and the wind shifted as the gargoyle caught him, pulling him close.

Jenks’s eyes opened to see the world dip and swoop. In Bis’s other hand were Vincet and Vi. Vincet looked terrified, but Vi’s expression held a shocking amount of hatred. It was Sylvan. That’s why Daryl had appeared! The stupid dryad. Couldn’t he have waited a few more minutes?

With a sharp drop and a wrench that hurt Jenks’s neck, Bis dropped to the ground beside the sidewalk next to a large rock. The wind died. Daryl was coughing with her hand to her chest, shaking as she tried to catch her breath in the pollution-stained air.

Jenks unwedged himself from Bis’s grip and flitted down to feel small beside him. Taking to the air was too chancy, and he could hit the statue from here.

"Why didn’t you shoot it!" Vincet yelled at him, angry as he struggled with Vi, they, too, firmly on the earth.

Where the hell is Jumoke! Jenks thought, still not sure what end was up yet.

"I warned you," Daryl wheezed, pulling herself straight again. She wiped her mouth, then hesitated, shocked at the sheen of blood glinting in the lamplight. Gathering her resolve, she hid it, shouting, "You will die before I allow Sylvan to perpetrate his abuse on another!"

"You’re a whiny little nymph!" Vi shouted as she struggled to be free. "The gods are dead, and actors play their rules! You’re alone! Give up! The world’s too ugly for your kind!"

"That’s the trouble with you dryads. You talk too much," Daryl said. Eyes narrowed, she raised her sword. The nearby light flickered and went out. The one behind it went black, too, and like dominos, the townhouses across the park went dark. A distant chorus of complaint rose, joined by the beeping of smoke detectors.

Bis shifted his wings, his back to the rock. "I got a bad feeling about this!" he squeaked.

"Hey! Golden girl!" Ivy shouted from behind them, and Jenks rose up, wings flashing red when he saw the silver dusting of Jumoke with her. "Pick on someone your own size!" she added as she strode forward, boots clacking aggressively.

"Dad!" Jumoke exclaimed as he darted to him.

"Where have you been?" Jenks shouted, his relief coming out as anger. "We can’t blow up the statue without that pot!"

Jumoke’s wings drooped as he landed beside him, pot hugged to his middle. "I’m sorry. I was getting Ivy. I saw Daryl, and I just . . ." The boy’s face screwed up. "I’m sorry, Dad. I shouldn’t have left."

"Blow it up!" Vincet exclaimed, jerking when Vi got her arm free and smacked his face. He caught her wrist, and Sylvan howled. The white-hot dust spilling from Vi was turning the moss black, burned.

"Let me out!" she said, her childlike voice sounding wrong. "Before that bitch stops you!"