Claws (9780545469678) (23 page)

Emma could see now that the impossibly tall tree next to the stage was carved all over with runes and pictures that seemed to flow into one another. There were satyrs dancing, cats rearing up with claws extended, chains of ratters tail-to-tail, lone trolls and packs of wolves and snake people. There were creatures Emma had only read about on CragWiki and creatures she'd never heard of before. There were moons in different phases, and constellations she didn't know.

The tree had no leaves, but all manner of things hung off its branches — or were part of its branches: Emma couldn't tell. There were many-colored lanterns, glass jars with fireflies, cages made of bone that were filled with crows and bats and brightly feathered small birds that Emma had never seen before.

“What do you want us to do?” Cricket said, tense with excitement.

Emma thought. “The faeries need their humans to see. Knock the humans to the ground, stand on them, scare them so they run away or shut their eyes. But don't hurt them! Not if you don't have to. Just keep their eyes on you and away from me. Got it? Okay, everyone. On my count of three we charge. One . . .”

Helena and the three teens gathered around the tree, and placed their hands on the trunk. The carved images began to move. The crows in their cages cawed excitedly. Lanterns glowed with blue flame.

“Two . . .”

Emma stared, wide-eyed, as vines began to grow from the tree, snaking down over the four humans, wrapping around them, lifting them off the ground and binding them to the trunk, in green cocoons.

“Three!”

She didn't wait for her cats to respond. She was their Pride-Heart, and this was her hunt. She ran. She could feel them drawing magic from her, changing shape. Behind her the air filled with roars, and the humans all turned to look. They screamed and stumbled to their feet, unable to take their eyes off the cats.

“Stop them!” the faerie Corbin cried out. “It's the human Pride-Heart, she wants to ruin us!”

“But don't harm her!” Nissa shouted. “No one is to harm her!”

These contradictory instructions only served to confuse everything more. A few brave humans leaped at the cats, but they were quickly swatted aside by massive paws. A few more thought Emma would be easier prey, but her claws soon proved them wrong. As for the rest . . . a faerie enchantment could make them adore the faeries, but it couldn't make them brave, not with a pride of huge cats bearing down on them. They ran.

“Idiots! Don't take your eyes off her!” Corbin yelled, his head swiveling from side to side. “Find the girl, the little human girl, we need to see her!”

All this Emma took in with one quick glance, and then she was running past the faeries as they flailed blindly near the stage, up the steps, and past Corbin. Her claws were already out when she reached Helena.

“I knew you couldn't stay away, cat-girl!” Nissa called out. “I can hear you. Have you come to stay with Nissa at last?”

Emma ignored her. Up close, she could see the vines had thorns. But where they pierced Helena's skin only drops of clear, bright dew oozed out. Her sister's eyes were tightly closed, as if she were in a deep dream.

“Helena, it's me!” she cried. “I'm going to save you.” Jack and the Toe-Chewer were beside her. “Help me get her out of this,” Emma ordered, and together they scratched at the vines. But their claws just seemed to pass right through them.

“They're not real!” Emma shouted. She tried to pull Helena free, but her sister wouldn't budge.

“Well? Think of something!” Jack spat, as if it was his sister being turned into a faerie and not hers.

“Maybe I could turn into a troll for real this time and knock the tree down,” the Toe-Chewer babbled. “Or you could turn me into one of those things humans use to cut down trees. A knife, right? Or you could turn her into something really little, like a fly, and then she'd be able to get out —”

The vines are just like the faeries
, Emma thought.
Real, but not real. Nothing that cat magic couldn't deal with.

As she focused on the vines, they became solid under her fingertips. Carefully, she began to cut them away.

“Yes!” Jack hissed. “That's it!”

Helena's eyes were wide now, and Emma could hear her trying to speak. She slashed at the vines as quickly as she dared, more worried about saving Helena's life than giving her a few scratches here and there. Dew spattered over Emma's palms where her claws bit into Helena's skin, cool and sparkling like early morning moonlight.

As soon as Helena's mouth was free of vines she started shouting. “Emma, stop, you're ruining everything!”

“It's all right,” Emma said, still slicing through the vines. “You think you love him, but you don't. You don't know what you're saying.”

Emma heard her cats fighting, felt them using her magic. A mountain lion blurred past her as Cricket leaped toward a human that had pulled out his cell phone and was desperately jabbing at the screen, trying to dial. She knocked him to the ground and smacked the phone out of his hands, sending it sliding across the grass.

“Stop it, Emma, please! You don't understand, you don't know what this means to me!”

Emma freed Helena's hands, only to have to fend off Helena's attempts to push her away. She clawed through the remaining vines gripping Helena's legs, then retracted her claws and took her sister by the hand, pulling her away from the tree. “Come on, I'm getting you out of here before they turn you into one them.”

“Emma, you're not listening to me!”

It was true, Emma hadn't been listening, or paying much attention. She barely saw Helena's hand rise.
Crack!

Emma sat back on the stage, stunned. Her head swam. Helena had slapped her. Hard. Emma shook her head, trying to clear it — just in time to see Helena running from her, straight into Corbin's arms.

“Corbin! Corbin, I'm here, I'm sorry,” Helena cried. “I didn't know about her, I swear! Please don't make me leave. I want to be like you, I want to be with you!”

“It's all right,” Corbin said softly as he stroked her hair. “I found out she was your sister. One of her cats told me. I knew she would try to find you. I just hoped it wouldn't be tonight.”

“Why didn't you tell me our Lady Helena had such an interesting family?” Nissa said. “Oh, the cat-girl has to stay. Why don't you trade Helena for her? You can get another Helena, they're all over the place.”

“Shut up, Nissa,” Corbin growled.

Elsewhere in the clearing, the cats had done as Emma ordered. Too scared to run off into the darkness beyond the trees, the humans huddled together in small groups while cats circled around them, growling and snapping their teeth and occasionally administering a scratch if they caught a human so much as looking at the stage. Nearby, the faeries stood, blind and furious and powerless.

Powerless except for their hold over Helena.

“What are you doing?” Jack said to Emma. “Get up! Stop sitting there trembling like a little mouse!”

“She hit me,” Emma said, touching her face. It didn't even hurt that much, except . . . except Helena had actually hit her.

“So? The last girl you tried to save threw you off a roof.”

“I know, but . . . she's my sister. I'm here to rescue her!”

Jack rubbed his head against her arm. He purred. “You won't rescue her by sitting there. You have to be smart and sneaky, remember? Like me.” He jumped up on her shoulder. “Now get up.”

Emma got up.

“Emma! Call off your cats, Emma!” Helena said, clinging to Corbin's arm. “Please. Can't you see you're spoiling everything?”

“If you don't call off your cats,” the honeysuckle faerie said, “Corbin will have to ask Helena to run off into the forest, or maybe hang herself from the sacred tree. You wouldn't want that, would you?”

“No!” Emma and Corbin yelled at the same time.

For a moment the clearing was silent except for the growl of massive cats and the whimper of humans.

“I don't think you should do that,” Jack said, loud enough for everyone to hear.

“What is this?” Corbin said. “Who are you?”

“What are you doing?” Emma hissed.

“Trust me. I have a plan,” Jack said into her ear. “Well, I had a plan. It's been changing as we go. You need to turn Helena into one of us. Into a cat.”

“What? Why — ?”

Jack's claws dug into her shoulder. “Trust me.”

“What are you even doing here, Emma?” Helena said.

“I'm trying to rescue you!”

Helena took a step toward her. “But Emma, I don't want to be rescued. I never did. I want to be here. I'm
happy
here. Can't you understand that? Mom and Dad were driving me crazy. I was going to move out in a year or two anyway. Does it really matter when I leave?”

“What about me?” Emma said quietly. “Was I horrible, too?”

“No! No, of course not. I just —” She looked away, and Emma noticed Corbin didn't reprimand her, even though he had to be using her eyes to see Emma. “I meant to call you, or send you an e-mail. But it's easy to forget things with the faeries. Sometimes a single day can take forever.”

“That's just an excuse,” Emma said. “If you knew you were forgetting, you could have done something. I missed you. You have no idea what's been going on. You don't even care.”

“Of course I care,” Helena said.

“Nissa cares,” said Nissa. “Nissa wouldn't abandon you.”

“If you really care, then you'll come home,” Emma said, ignoring the willow-leaf faerie again.

“Emma, that's not fair,” Helena said. “I'm allowed to be happy, too.”

“Well what about Mom and Dad? They gave up everything trying to find you.”

“It's not that simple.”

“If you could just see what he really looks like, though! He's not human. He's like . . . he's some kind of toad thing! How can you love that?”

“Get on with it!” Jack hissed.

“I'm sorry, Emma,” Helena said.

But she wasn't really sorry. She wanted to stay, and she didn't seem to care about anything or anyone else. Well, except for her toad faerie. This wasn't the Helena Emma knew. The faeries must have done something to her, cast a spell that didn't just change what Helena could see, but what she believed. Helena would want to come home, to be with her family again. Emma had to believe that.

She rushed forward and wrapped Helena in a hug, pressing her face against her sister's shoulder. “I'm not leaving you here. I'm not.”

Helena tried to pull away. Emma extended her claws, keeping her close.

“Emma, ow! What are you doing?”

She focused her magic, ready to fight against someone who didn't want to change, and Helena's cry turned into a yowl as she shrank and became a tiny brown cat even smaller than the Toe-Chewer.

“Well, that's an interesting new way to make more cats,” Fat Leon said from somewhere.

Nissa giggled and clapped her hands, bouncing up and down like an excited child. “Someone get over here so I can see. This sounds so fabulous!”

“What did you do to her?” Corbin yelled. He tried to run at Emma, but he could only see what Helena saw.

Emma grabbed cat-Helena by the scruff of her neck, and turned her to face Corbin. The cat began to tremble.

“She can see you,” Emma said.

Corbin took a hesitant step forward, watching himself — his real toad self — through Helena's cat eyes. Helena backed away, pressing herself against Emma's chest. “No. Please,” Corbin whispered. “Helena, please. I love you. It won't matter once you change. You'll see the world through human eyes, you'll only see the magic. What you really look like won't matter. You won't be able to see yourself.” He turned toward Emma, even though he couldn't see her. “Please. Don't do this. Change her back.”

The power of his glamour, the sadness and desperation in his voice might have broken Emma's human heart. But the Pride-Heart wasn't moved at all. She shook her head. “She doesn't want to stay with you now. She doesn't want to lose her eyes and look like some kind of monster. That means I can take her home. And if any of you try to stop me, if any of you come near me or my family or any of my friends . . . I'll turn all your humans into cats. Then they will know what you are. Everyone will.”

The faeries said nothing to this, but Emma could feel their anger and fear. No wonder Corbin had been afraid of a human Pride-Heart.

“Well, that's settled, then,” Jack said. He sounded almost happy. “Now, you need four in the ceremony, don't you?”

“Four people,” Corbin spat. “Not three people and a cat, if that's what you're suggesting.”

“He's not suggesting that,” Emma said, turning to Jack. “Are you?”

But Jack spoke as if she hadn't said anything. “What does the forest care what kind of thing it changes?” he purred. “Cat, human, any creature that thinks and speaks would probably do. And I'm the solution to your problem. You've returned my Pride-Heart's sister to her, so you're one short. Take me instead. Turn me into whatever I desire. Give me back my magic.”

CRAG FACT OF THE DAY:

“Do not open image texts when you don't know the sender! You can catch magical diseases such as Ficklerot by reading runes or hexes on your phone.”

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