Page 24 of Seasonal Fears

Aven likes the sound of that. She likes the idea of winning. Every word he says seems to unlock another cascade of things she already knows and understands. She doesn’t attack him. For now.

“And once you win, I’ll sit at your right hand forever, the Summer Ascendant, and we’ll keep anyone else who wants to walk the fields from challenging either one of us.” He smiles without humor. “If we play our cards right, you can even rule alongside your sister.”

Sister … yes. She remembers a sister, hair as black as the corners of this room, and a heartbeat like the rhythm of the universe, filling and defining everything, until the moment it had been terribly and traumatically taken away.

Aven would like to see her sister.

Would like to make her understand why she shouldn’t have gone away like that.

Slowly, she smiles at the tan boy who she still hates with all her heart but will listen to, for now. And Trevor, not recognizing the danger—or maybe simply not caring—smiles back.

Explanation

CALENDAR SEASON: FEBRUARY 11TH, 2017: WINTER, UNDER THE WORM MOON.

They’re almost to Melanie’s house before Harry realizes where he’s going, following a pattern of behavior that’s been with him for so long that he doesn’t even have to think about it anymore. He glances at Mel, alarmed.

“Sorry,” he says. “We can go somewhere else if we need to … Sorry.”

“No,” says Jack. “No, this is good. We know where her father is. This may be the only time it’s safe for us to go to their house.”

“What do you mean, ‘safe’?” asks Melanie. “It’s my house. He’s my father. Of course it’s safe for me to go there.”

“Then why is he at Harry’s house right now, yelling at his parents?” asks Jack. “Think for a second, Melanie. I know you can. You’re a smart girl, when you’re not drugging yourself to keep your heartrate down.”

Melanie says nothing, and Harry knows the barb hit home. Some of the drugs Mel takes to keep herself alive slow down her thinking, make him worry about taking advantage of her by mistake when he asks a question that would have been fine the day before but has somehow become dangerous ground. She hates them. She hates feeling like she can’t understand her own life, and he hates the way they steal the light from her eyes. He loves the way they keep her with him.

For the first time tonight, he realizes how sharp and present she’s been since he picked her up. Everything she’s been saying is absolutely ridiculous, this whole situation makes no sense at all, but she’s a part of it in a way that she so rarely is. She’s here. Whatever else is happening, he has to be grateful for that much.

“He’s just worried about me because he saw the news,” says Mel, and her voice is unconvincing, and Harry can tell she doesn’t quite believe what she’s saying. It’s not the truth, not even to herself.

“Yeah, sure,” says Jack. “That’s why he’s been stopping us from getting to you for the last ten years. You didn’t think I was the first one, did you? We’ve been trying to make contact for a decade, since the first time you made contact with your season. Every Jack Frost before me who’s gotten near you has disappeared. I wouldn’t have come if I’d been able to fight the pull of Winter trying to manifest.”

“You keep using words and terms like we’re supposed to understand them, and that doesn’t mean we do,” says Harry. He pulls up in front of Melanie’s house, the car perfectly visible to anyone who happens to drive by. If they’re really avoiding her father—if it’s really as important as this weird kid seems to think it is—they’re not going to have much time. “Mel, if you’re doing this, you’d better do it.”

“I’ll be right back; keep the engine running,” she says, and kisses his cheek before she slides out of the car and runs for the front door, surprisingly agile in her low heels.

Harry waits until he sees her unlock the front door and vanish into the house before he lifts his chin and looks at Jack in the rearview mirror.

“All right,” he says. “Stop being weird, stop being vague, and stop trying to talk me in circles. You’re going to tell me what’s going on, and you’re going to tell me right now, or else.”

“Or else what?” The girl folds her arms defiantly. He doesn’t get the sense she likes him very much, and that’s fine by him, because the feeling, such as it is, is more than mutual.

“Or else I kick you out of my car and lock the doors so you can’t weasel your way back in,” he says. “And then I take Mel back to my house so her father can make sure she’s okay. I don’t know what’s going on with her heart, but I do know that if the pulse oximeter can’t pick up her heartbeat, something’s probably bigtime wrong.” He’s not sure why he’s been humoring her as long as he has, really.

Probably because it’s getting warmer in the car by the second now that Mel’s gone, and because his boutonniere is continuing to bloom, putting out what look almost like new leaves, although they must have just been hidden behind the flowers before. Cut flowers don’t grow.

“Right,” says Jack. “You’re not primed to believe me the way she is, because I’m not yours the way I’m hers. I wish to hell I knew where Jenny was. She should be here by now.”

Harry says nothing, just frowns at her reflection and waits.

Jack, apparently seeing that she’s not going to win him over by complaining, takes a deep breath. “My name is Jack,” she says. “You already picked up on that part.”

“Never met a girl named Jack before.”

“Neither have my parents. They named me something else, and when I was tapped for this position, one of the things it cost was my name. I am the spirit of Winter Ascendant. I don’t necessarily exist the way normal human people do, not anymore, and I gave up all the things I was in order to become the thing I was meant to be.”

Harry manages, barely, not to twist in his seat and stare at her. “What the fuck are you talking about?”