Beautiful Darkness

  “What? The missing star?”

  Liv closed her eyes. “It’s more than the star. Calling a moon out of time could change the whole Order of Things, from every magnetic field to every magical one. It would explain any shift in the Caster sky. The natural order in the Caster world is as delicately balanced as our own.”

  “What could do that?”

  “You mean who.” Liv hugged her knees.

  She could only be talking about one person. “Sarafine?”

  “There are no records of a Caster powerful enough to call out the moon. But if someone is pulling a moon out of time, there’s no way to know when the next Claiming will come. Or where.” A Claiming. Which meant Lena.

  I remembered what Marian said in the archive. We don’t get to choose what is true. We only get to choose what we do about it.

  “If we’re talking about a Claiming Moon, this is about Lena. We should wake up Marian. She can help us.” But even as I said it, I knew the truth. She might be able to help us, but that didn’t mean she would. As a Keeper, she couldn’t get involved.

  Liv was thinking the same thing. “Do you really think Professor Ashcroft is going to let us chase after Lena in the Tunnels, after what happened the last time we were down there? She’ll have us locked up in the rare-books collection for the rest of the summer.”

  Worse, she’d call Amma, and I would be carting the Sisters to church every day in Aunt Grace’s ancient Cadillac.

  Jump or stay in the boat.

  It wasn’t really a decision, not anymore. I’d made it a long time ago, when I first got out of my car on Route 9, one night in the rain. I had jumped. There was no staying in the boat, not for me, whether Lena and I were together or not. I wasn’t going to let John Breed or Sarafine or a missing star or the wrong kind of moon or some crazy Caster skies stop me now. I owed the girl on Route 9 that much.

  “Liv, I can find Lena. I don’t know how, but I can. You can track the moon with your selenometer, right?”

  “I can measure variances in the magnetic pull of the moon, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  “So you can find the Claiming Moon?”

  “If my calculations are correct, if the weather holds, if the typical corollaries between the Caster and Mortal constellations stay true…”

  “It was more of a yes or no question.”

  Liv tugged on one of her braids, thinking. “Yes.”

  “If we’re going to do this, we have to go before Amma and Marian wake up.”

  Liv hesitated. As a Keeper-in-Training, she wasn’t supposed to get involved. But every time we were together, we found our way to trouble. “Lena could be in a lot of danger.”

  “Liv, if you don’t want to come—”

  “Of course I want to come. I’ve been studying the stars and the Caster world since I was five. All I’ve ever wanted was to be part of it. Up until a few weeks ago, the only thing I’d done was read about it and watch it through my telescope. I’m tired of watching. But Professor Ashcroft…”

  I had been wrong about Liv. She wasn’t like Marian. She wouldn’t be content shelving Caster Scrolls. She wanted to prove the world wasn’t flat.

  “Jump or stay in the boat, Keeper. Are you coming?” The sun was rising, and we were running out of time.

  “Are you sure you want me to?” She didn’t look at me, and I didn’t look at her. The memory of the kiss that never happened hung between us.

  “You know anyone else with a spare selenometer and a mental map of missing Caster stars?”

  I wasn’t sure her variances or corollaries or calculations were going to help me. But I knew the song was never wrong, and the things I saw tonight proved it. I needed help, and so did Lena, even if what we had was over. I needed a Keeper, even a runaway Keeper with a crazy watch, looking for action everywhere but inside a book.

  “Jump,” Liv said softly. “I don’t want to stay in the boat anymore.” She turned the handle on the screen door quietly, without making so much as a click. Which meant she was going inside to get her stuff. Which meant she was going with me.

  “You sure?” I didn’t want to be the reason she was going, at least not the only reason. That’s what I told myself, but I was full of crap.

  “You know anyone else dumb enough to search for a mythical place where a rogue Supernatural is trying to call a Claiming Moon?” She smiled, opening the door.

  “As a matter of fact, I do.”

  6.18

  Outer Doors

  SUMMER SCHOOL: NEVER STOP LEARNIN’ IF YOU WANT TO START EARNIN’.

  That’s what the letter board said, where it usually read GO WILDCATZ. Liv and I stared up at it, from the bushes lining the front steps of Jackson High.

  “I’m reasonably sure there are G’s in learning and earning.”

  “They probably ran out of G’s. You know, graduation, GED, Get Outta Gatlin.” This was going to be tricky. Summer or not, Miss Hester would still be sitting in the attendance office, keeping watch on the front door. If you failed a class, you had to enroll in summer school. But that didn’t mean you couldn’t ditch—if you could get by Miss Hester. Even though Mr. Lee never made good on his threat to fail us for not showing up at the Reenactment of the Battle of Honey Hill, Link had failed biology, which meant I had to find a way to get inside.

  “Are we going to hang out in the bushes all morning?” Liv was getting cranky.

  “Give me a second. I’ve spent all my time thinking up ways to get out of Jackson. I never put much thought into how to get in. But we can’t leave without Link.”

  Liv smiled at me. “Never underestimate the power of the British accent. Watch and learn.”

  Miss Hester looked over her glasses at Liv, who had twisted her blond hair into a bun. It was summer, which meant Miss Hester was wearing one of her sleeveless blouses and knee-length polyester shorts, with her white slip-on Keds. From where I was hiding under the counter next to Liv, I had a clear view of the bottom of Miss Hester’s green shorts and her buniony feet.

  “I’m sorry. Who did you say you were with?”

  “The BEC.” Liv kicked me, and I edged toward the hall.

  “Of course. And that would be?”

  Liv sighed impatiently. “The British Educational Consulate. As I said, we’re looking for high-functioning schools in the United States to use as models for educational reform.”

  “High functionin’?” Miss Hester sounded confused. I made my way around the corner on my hands and knees.

  “I can’t believe no one informed you of my visit. May I speak with your headmaster, please?”

  “Headmaster?” By the time Miss Hester figured out what a headmaster was, I was halfway up the stairs. Beyond the blond, even beyond the brains, Liv was a girl with a lot of hidden talents.

  “All right, enough a the Charlotte’s Web jokes. Grab your specimen firmly with one hand, and make your incision down the belly, top to bottom, with your scissors.” I could hear Mrs. Wilson through the door. I knew what was going on in biology today, from the smell alone. Not to mention the commotion.

  “I think I’m going to pass out—”

  “Wilbur, no!”

  “Ewww!”

  I looked through the window in the door. Pink fetal pigs were lined up in a row on the lab tables. They were small, pinned to black, waxy boards inside metal trays. Except Link’s.

  Link’s pig was massive. He raised his hand. “Um, Mrs. Wilson? I can’t crack the sternum with scissors. Tank’s too big for that.”

  “Tank?”

  “Tank, my pig.”

  “You can use the garden shears in the back a the room.”

  I knocked on the window. Link walked right by, but he didn’t hear me. Eden was sitting at the long black lab table next to Link’s, holding her nose with one hand and poking around inside her pig with tweezers. I was surprised she was in there with the rest of the flunkies—not because she was a rocket scientist or anything, but because I would’ve expected her mom and the D
AR mafia to find a way to get her out of it.

  Eden pulled a long yellow rope out of her pig. “What is all this yellow stuff?” She looked like she was going to hurl.

  Mrs. Wilson smiled. This was her favorite moment of the year. “Miss Westerly, how many times did you go to the Dar-ee Keen this week? Did you have a shake with your fries and your burger? Onion rings? A side a pie?”

  “What?”

  “It’s fat. Now let’s look for the bladder.”

  I knocked again, as Link walked by with a pair of enormous shears. He saw me and opened the door. “Mrs. Wilson, I gotta use the bathroom.”

  We took off down the hall, shears and all. When we banged our way around the corner in front of the attendance office, Liv smiled at Miss Hester and closed her notebook. “Thanks ever so much. I’ll be in touch.”

  She disappeared out the front door behind us, her blond hair falling out of her bun. You would have to be brain-damaged to not realize Liv was a teenager, in her ripped jeans.

  Miss Hester watched in bewilderment, shaking her head. “Redcoats.”

  The thing about Link was, he never asked for details. He just went with it. He went with it when we tried to cut a real tire to make a tire swing. He went with it when I made him help me build a gator trap in my backyard, and every time I stole the Beater to chase a girl the rest of the school thought was a freak. It was a great quality in a best friend, and sometimes I wondered if I would do the same for him if things were reversed. Because I was always the one who asked, and he was always the one who was game.

  Within five minutes, we were rolling down Jackson Street. We made it all the way to Dove Street, when we pulled over at the Dar-ee Keen. I checked my watch. Amma would know I was gone by now. Marian would be waiting for Liv at the library, if she hadn’t missed her at breakfast. And Mrs. Wilson would’ve sent someone to drag Link out of the bathroom. We were running out of time.

  The actual plan didn’t come together until we sat down with greasy food on greasy yellow trays at our greasy red table.

  “Can’t believe she ran off with Vampire Boy.”

  “How many times do I have to tell you? He’s an Incubus,” Liv corrected.

  “Whatever. If he’s a Blood Incubus, he can suck your blood. Same difference.” Link shoved a biscuit into his mouth while he rolled another one around in the pool of gravy on his plate.

  “A Blood Incubus is a Demon. A vampire is something in a movie.”

  I didn’t want to do it, but there was something I had to get out on the table. “Ridley’s with them, too.”

  Link sighed and crumpled up the biscuit paper. His expression didn’t change, but I knew he was feeling the same knot in his stomach I had in mine. “Well, that blows.” He tossed the paper at the trash can. It hit the rim and fell onto the floor. “You’re sure they’re in the Tunnels?”

  “That’s what it looked like.” On the way to the Dar-ee Keen, I told Link about the vision, but I left out the part about how I saw it in my bathroom mirror. “They’re headed for some place called the Great Barrier.”

  “A place that doesn’t exist.” Liv was shaking her head, checking the rotating dials on her wrist.

  Link pushed away his plate, still covered with food. “So let me get this straight. We’re gonna go down into the Tunnels and find this moon outta time with Liv’s fancy watch?”

  “Selenometer.” Liv didn’t look up from copying numbers from the dials into her red notebook.

  “Whatever. Why don’t we tell Lena’s family what’s goin’ on? Maybe they can make us invisible or lend us some crazy Caster weapons.”

  A weapon. Like the one I had with me right now.

  I could feel the curve of the Arclight in my pocket. I had no idea how it worked, but maybe Liv did. She knew how to read the Caster sky.

  “It won’t make us invisible, but I have this.” I held the sphere above the shiny plastic table.

  “Dude. A ball? Seriously?” Link wasn’t impressed.

  Liv was stunned. She reached out tentatively, her hand hovering. “Is that what I think it is?”

  “It’s an Arclight. Marian gave it to me on All Souls. It belonged to my mom.”

  Liv tried to hide her irritation. “Professor Ashcroft had an Arclight all this time, and she never showed it to me?”

  “Here you go. Knock yourself out.” I dropped the sphere into Liv’s hands. She held it carefully, as if it was an egg.

  “Careful! Do you have any idea how rare these are?” Liv couldn’t take her eyes away from its glossy surface.

  Link sucked down the rest of his Coke until he hit ice. “Anyone gonna clue me in here? What’s it do?”

  Liv was mesmerized. “This is one of the most powerful weapons in the Caster world. It’s a metaphysical prison for an Incubus, if you know how to use it.” I looked at her hopefully. “Which, unfortunately, I don’t.”

  Link poked at the Arclight. “Like Incubus kryptonite?”

  Liv nodded. “Something like that.”

  There was no doubt the Arclight was powerful, but it wasn’t going to help us with the problem at hand. I was out of ideas. “If this thing can’t help us, how do we get into the Tunnels?”

  “It’s not a holiday.” Liv handed me the Arclight reluctantly. “If we’re going to get into the Caster Tunnels, it has to be through one of the Outer Doors. We can’t go through the Lunae Libri.”

  “So there are other ways in? Through these Outer Door things?” Link asked.

  Liv nodded. “Yes. But only Casters and a few Mortals, like Professor Ashcroft, know where they are. And she’s not going to tell us. I’m sure she’s packing my things right now.”

  I had expected Liv to have the answer, but it was Link who came up with it. “You know what that means?” He grinned and put his arm around Liv. “You’re finally gonna get your chance. Time for the Tunnel of Love.”

  Fairgrounds after the fair were just grounds. I kicked a clump of dirt and weeds.

  “Look, you can still see the indentations where the rides were.” Liv pointed, Lucille trailing behind her.

  “Yeah, but how do you know which rides the marks are from?” It seemed like a good idea at the Dar-ee Keen, but now we were standing in an empty field.

  Link shouted and waved from a few yards away. “I think this is where the Ferris Wheel was. I can tell by all the cigarette butts. That old carny was chain-smoking all day.”

  We caught up with him. Liv pointed to a black patch in the distance. “Isn’t that where Lena saw us?”

  “What?” I stumbled over the word us.

  “I mean, saw me.” She blushed. “I think that’s where the popcorn machine blew up when she walked by. Before she popped the clown’s balloon and made the little children cry.” How could I forget?

  It was hard to find the impressions in the ground under the tall grass. I bent down and pushed the weeds out of the way, but there was nothing. Just a few paper snow cone cups and tickets. As I stood up, I felt the Arclight heating up in my pocket again, and a dull buzzing. I took it out of my pocket, and it was glowing a clear blue.

  I waved Liv over. “What do you think this means?”

  She studied the sphere, watching the color intensify. “I have no idea. I’ve never read about them changing color.”

  “What’s up, kids?” Link wiped the sweat off his forehead with his ratty Black Sabbath T-shirt. “Whoa. When did it start with the mood ring action?”

  “A second ago.” I don’t know why, but I started walking slowly, a few steps at a time. As I walked, the glow of the Arclight grew stronger.

  “Ethan, what are you doing?” Liv was right behind me.

  “I’m not sure.” I switched directions, and the color began to fade. Why was it changing?

  I turned around and headed back the other way. Sure enough, with every step the Arclight grew warmer in my hand, the vibrations stronger. “Look.” I opened my hand so Liv could see the deep blue color radiating from it.

  “What’s happe
ning?”

  I shrugged. “It’s like the closer we get, the crazier it goes.”

  “You don’t think…” She stared down at her dusty silver high-tops, thinking. We were thinking the same thing.

  I turned it over in my hand. “Could it be some kind of compass?”

  Liv watched as the sphere glowed so brightly that Lucille was leaping along beside us, like she was trying to catch fireflies.

  When we reached a bleached patch of grass, Liv stopped.

  The Arclight was swirling a dark, inky blue. I looked at the ground carefully. “There’s nothing here.”

  Liv bent down, pushing the grass aside. “I’m not so sure about that.” A shape emerged as Liv brushed away the dirt.

  “Look at the lines. It’s a door.” Link was right. It was like the trapdoor under the rug in Macon’s room.

  I knelt next to them and ran my hand along the edges of the door, clearing away the remaining dirt. I looked at Liv. “How did you know?”

  “You mean, aside from the fact the Arclight is going crazy?” She looked smug. “The Outer Doors aren’t that difficult to find if you know what you’re looking for.”

  “I hope they aren’t too difficult to open either.” Link pointed at the center of the door. There was a keyhole.

  Liv sighed. “It’s locked. We need a Caster key. We can’t get in without one.”

  Link pulled the massive garden shears he stole from the bio lab out of his belt. Far be it from Link to put anything back in its rightful place. “Caster key, my ass.”

  “It’s not going to work.” Liv squatted next to Link in the grass. “It’s a Caster lock, not something on your locker door.”

  Link huffed as he worked the gardening shears into the crack. “You’re not from around here. Isn’t a door in this whole county that can’t be opened with a set of pliers or a sharp toothbrush.”

  I looked at Liv. “You realize he makes this stuff up.”

  “Yeah?” Link grinned up at us as the door opened with a resentful creak. He held up his fist to me. “Pound it.”

  Liv was shocked. “Well, that’s not in the books.”