Page 75 of Seasonal Fears

“Arson and torturing small animals, probably,” grumbles Jack. “All right, say I believe you. Matthew killed your candidate and your allegiance switched over to him. What about the other one?”

“He was at the bus station,” says Tommy. “He was on his way to Texas, I think, with his attendant. They’d heard a rumor the labyrinth was to the south. Matthew caught them before they could board, but there was no way to abduct them. He had to leave the bodies behind. Misty was furious. She’s been working for years to become what she calls a ‘real witch,’ and now her older brother is not only potentially more powerful than she is, he’s killing people and not bringing them home for her to harvest.”

“Has he killed people before?” blurts Harry.

Tommy just looks at him, flat and silent and disbelieving. Harry grimaces.

“Ew,” he says.

“Like I said, they move around a lot,” says Tommy.

“Takes a pretty fucked-up family to produce an alchemist,” says Jack. “All right, it can’t take that long to take out the trash. Now’s when you untie us.”

Tommy blinks at her. “I’m not going to untie you,” he says. “If I turn against Matthew, he’ll kill me too. He’s killed two candidates and one attendant. I don’t want to be next.”

“I don’t have an attendant,” says Harry quickly. “If you untie us, you can come with me. He can’t kill you if he can’t find you.”

Tommy looks momentarily tempted. “I’m not sure…” he says.

“We’ll call you by your actual name,” says Jack. “Jenny.”

Tommy jerks like he’s just been hit with a mild bolt of static shock.

“I know that other name doesn’t fit you anymore; it feels like they’re talking about someone else whenever they call you that,” says Jack. “Whoever that guy was, he went away a long time ago, and now you’re here, but you’re stuck with people who don’t respect you for who you are. Maybe you were also Tommy when Sandra was still here, but that was before the coronation started. Now that the seasons are spreading their influence over the people who serve them, you’re more Corn Jenny and less Tommy every day. That’s not going to stop. It’s just going to get worse and happen faster as we get closer to the coronation.”

Tommy and Harry are united in staring at her. Jack looks at Tommy, expression grim.

“You didn’t say any of this before,” says Harry. “Why didn’t you say any of this before?”

“Because it’s not going to happen to Mel, and it’s not going to happen to me,” says Jack. “I’m at the end of my season, and the two of you are at the start of yours. Mel’s already so snow-struck she’s basically incarnate already; the coronation is a formality to prove she deserves it. But you and Tommy, you have a long way left to fall. It’s a long way down to the bottom, in case you’ve never been a diver.”

“I’m not sure I can be,” says Tommy.

Jack shrugs. “That’s fine. I can be a diver for us both.”

A horn blares outside the plastic-draped room, loud and shrill as a klaxon. Harry turns toward it, trying not to get overly excited by the sound. It’s hard not to. He knows that horn, has been hitting it since he and his father drove the car off the lot and into the world.

Mel’s here.

His excitement dies almost as quickly as it dawned, sickening and twisting in his stomach. Mel’s here. Mel’s in range of this demented Summer attendant and his creepy alchemist sister.

Tommy moves toward him, faster now. “I’ll let you up,” he says. Harry eyes him warily. “I will,” he says. “Trust me.”

“You haven’t given me a lot of reason for that,” says Harry.

“I couldn’t with Matthew in the room,” says Tommy. He begins yanking at the rope holding Harry to the chair, which seems counterintuitive until Harry realizes he’s pulling so as to reduce the tension on the knots and make them easier to untie. “When he killed my original Summer, he claimed my loyalty. I’m his attendant right now. I can’t move against him any more than I can move against my own hand, it just won’t work. But if you were to claim me…” His hands keep working as he looks at Harry, blatantly hopeful.

“Okay, so we’re doing this,” says Jack. “We just need to get past Murderpants McGee out there. Got any idea how to find his original Corn Jenny?”

“No, not really,” says Tommy. “I just know the guy ran, and with the way Misty complains about me not letting her have at least a toe, I figure Matthew didn’t manage to catch him before he got away. If I’d realized how much of a danger he was, I would have run before the coronation started. I wouldn’t be sticking around if the rules hadn’t kicked in when the old Summer Queen died.”

Harry nods slowly. “If he’s already killed one Jenny, you’re in as much danger as the rest of us…”

“Now you’re getting it,” Tommy says wryly, yanking the first knot loose. Harry pulls his hands out of the loops of rope, moving them around to the front of his body and rolling his shoulders as he tries to get the circulation to come back. “He’s a malicious little fuck who didn’t see other people as people even before he understood that he wasn’t technically a person. Now he’s on his way to becoming the living Summer, and he thinks that means humans don’t have to matter at all anymore. The only reason Misty’s even halfway safe is that she’s as bloodthirsty as he is, and he knows having an alchemist on his side going into this will give him an advantage he can use. Try to hold still, I’ll get your feet.”

Harry, who hasn’t been considering that an alchemist could be an asset in this weird semi-competition, frowns and holds still as Tommy unties his feet. He kicks the rope away as Jack bucks on her own chair, straining against the rope that still holds her.

“Hey,” she says. “Do me next.”