Marian calmly picked up a torch from an iron crescent on the wall and handed it to me. She handed another to Lena, and took one for herself. “Have a look around. I have to check the mail. I may have a transfer request from another branch.”
“For the Lunae Libri?” I hadn’t considered that there might be other Caster libraries.
“Of course.” Marian turned back toward the stairs.
“Wait. How do you get mail here?”
“The same way you do. Carlton Eaton delivers it, rain or shine.” Carlton Eaton was in the know. Of course he was. That probably explained why he’d picked Amma up in the middle of the night. I wondered if he opened the Casters’ mail, too. I wondered what else I didn’t know about Gatlin, and the people in it. I didn’t have to ask.
“There aren’t too many of us, but more than you’d think. You have to remember, Ravenwood has been here longer than this old building. This was a Caster county before it was ever a Mortal one.”
“Maybe that’s why you’re all so weird around here.” Lena poked me. I was still stuck back on Carlton Eaton.
Who else knew what was really going on in Gatlin, in the other Gatlin, the one with magical underground libraries and girls who could control the weather or make you jump off a cliff? Who else was in the Caster loop, like Marian and Carlton Eaton? Like my mom?
Fatty? Mrs. English? Mr. Lee?
Definitely not Mr. Lee.
“Don’t worry. When you need them, they’ll find you. That’s how it works, how it always has.”
“Wait.” I grabbed Marian’s arm. “Does my dad know?”
“No.” At least there was one person in my house who wasn’t living a double life, even if he was crazy.
Marian issued a final piece of advice. “Now, you’d better get started. The Lunae Libri is thousands of times bigger than any library you’ve ever seen. If you get lost, immediately trace your steps backward. That’s why the stacks radiate out from this one chamber. If you only go forward or back, you have less chance of getting lost.”
“How can you get lost, if you can only go in a straight line?”
“Try it for yourself. You’ll see.”
Lena interrupted, “What’s at the end of the stacks? I mean, at the end of the aisles?”
Marian looked at her oddly. “Nobody knows. No one has ever made it far enough to find out. Some of the aisles turn into tunnels. Parts of the Lunae Libri are still uncharted. There are many things down here even I’ve never seen. One day, perhaps.”
“What are you talking about? Everything ends somewhere. There can’t be rows and rows of books tunneling under the whole town. What, do you come up for tea at Mrs. Lincoln’s house? Make a left turn and drop a book off to Aunt Del in the next town? Tunnel to the right for a chat with Amma?” I was skeptical.
Marian smiled at me, amused. “How do you think Macon gets his books? How do you think the DAR never sees any visitors going in or out? Gatlin is Gatlin. Folks like it fine the way it is, the way they think it is. Mortals only see what they want to see. There’s been a thriving Caster community in and around this county since before the Civil War. That’s hundreds of years, Ethan, and that’s not going to change suddenly. Not just because you know about it.”
“I can’t believe Uncle Macon never told me about this place. Think of all the Casters that have come through here.” Lena held up her torch, pulling a bound volume from the shelf. The book was ornately bound, heavy in her hands, and sent a cloud of gray dust exploding out in every direction. I started to cough.
“Casting, A Briefe Historie.” She drew out another. “We’re in the C’s, I guess.” This one was a leather box that opened on top to reveal the standing scroll inside. Lena pulled out the scroll. Even the dust looked older, and grayer. “Castyng to Creyate & Confounde. That’s an old one.”
“Careful. More than a few hundred years. Gutenberg didn’t invent the printing press until 1455.” Marian took the scroll out of her hand gingerly, as if she was handling a newborn baby.
Lena pulled out another book, bound in gray leather. “Casting the Confederacy. Were there Casters in the War?”
Marian nodded. “Both sides, the Blue and the Gray. It was one of the great divisions in the Caster Community, I’m afraid. Just as it was for us Mortals.”
Lena looked up at Marian, shoving the dusty book back on the shelf. “The Casters in our family, we’re still in a war, aren’t we?”
Marian looked at her sadly. “A House Divided, that’s what President Lincoln called it. And yes, Lena, I’m afraid you are.” She touched Lena’s cheek. “Which is why you’re here, if you recall. To find what you need, to make sense of something senseless. Now, you’d better get started.”
“There are so many books, Marian. Can’t you just point us in the right direction?”
“Don’t look at me. Like I said, I don’t have the answers, just the books. Get going. We’re on the lunar clock down here, and you may lose track of time. Things aren’t exactly as they seem when you’re down below.”
I looked from Lena to Marian. I was afraid to let either one of them out of my sight. The Lunae Libri was more intimidating than I had imagined. Less like a library, and more like, well, catacombs. And The Book of Moons could be anywhere.
Lena and I faced the endless stacks, but neither one of us took even a single step.
“How are we going to find it? There must be a million books in here.”
“I have no idea. Maybe…” I knew what she was thinking.
“Should we try the locket?”
“Do you have it?” I nodded, and pulled the warm lump out of my jeans pocket. I handed Lena the torch.
“We need to see what happens. There has to be something else.” I unwrapped the locket and placed it on the round stone table in the center of the room. I saw a familiar look in Marian’s eyes, the look she and my mother shared when they dug up a particularly good find. “Do you want to see this?”
“More than you know.” Marian slowly took my hand, and I took Lena’s. I reached over, with my fingers intertwined with Lena’s, and touched the locket.
A blinding flash forced my eyes shut.
And then I could see the smoke and smell the fire, and we were gone—
Genevieve lifted the Book so she could read the words through the rain. She knew speaking the words would defy the Natural Laws. She could almost hear her mother’s voice willing her to stop—to think about the choice she was making.
But Genevieve couldn’t stop. She couldn’t lose Ethan.
She began to chant.
“CRUOR PECTORIS MEI, TUTELA TUA EST.
VITA VITAE MEAE, CORRIPIENS TUAM, CORRIPIENS MEAM.
CORPUS CORPORIS MEI, MEDULLA MENSQUE,
ANIMA ANIMAE MEAE, ANIMAM NOSTRAM CONECTE.
CRUOR PECTORIS MEI, LUNA MEA, AESTUS MEUS.
CRUOR PECTORIS MEI. FATUM MEUM, MEA SALUS.”
“Stop, child, ’fore it’s too late!” Ivy’s voice was frantic.
The rain poured down and lightning sliced through the smoke. Genevieve held her breath and waited. Nothing. She must have done it wrong. She squinted to read the words more clearly in the dark. She screamed them into the darkness, in the language she knew best.
“BLOOD OF MY HEART, PROTECTION IS THINE.
LIFE OF MY LIFE, TAKING YOURS, TAKING MINE.
BODY OF MY BODY, MARROW AND MIND,
SOUL OF MY SOUL, TO OUR SPIRIT BIND.
BLOOD OF MY HEART, MY TIDES, MY MOON.
BLOOD OF MY HEART. MY SALVATION, MY DOOM.”
She thought her eyes were playing tricks on her, when she saw Ethan’s eyelids struggling to open.
“Ethan!” For a split second, their eyes met.
Ethan fought for breath, clearly trying to speak. Genevieve pressed her ear closer to his lips and she could feel his warm breath on her cheek.
“I never believed your daddy when he said it was impossible for a Caster and a Mortal to be together. We would have found a way. I love you, Genevieve.” He pressed something into her hand. A locket.
And as suddenly as his eyes opened, they closed again, his chest failing to rise and fall.
Before Genevieve could react, a jolt of electricity surged through her body. She could feel the blood pulsing through her veins. She must have been struck by lightning. The waves of pain crashed down on her.
Genevieve tried to hold on.
Then everything went black.
“Sweet God in Heaven, don’t take her, too.”
Genevieve recognized Ivy’s voice. Where was she? The smell brought her back. Burnt lemons. She tried to speak, but her throat felt like she had swallowed sand. Her eyes fluttered.
“Oh Lord, thank you!” Ivy was staring down at her, kneeling beside her in the dirt.
Genevieve coughed and reached for Ivy, trying to pull her closer.
“Ethan, is he…” she whispered.
“I’m sorry, child. He’s gone.”
Genevieve struggled to open her eyes. Ivy jumped back, as if she’d seen the Devil himself.
“Lord have mercy!”
“What? What’s wrong, Ivy?”
The old woman struggled to make sense of what she saw. “Your eyes, child. They’re… they’ve changed.”
“What are you talkin’ about?”
“They ain’t green no more. They’re yellow, as yellow as the sun.”
Genevieve didn’t care what color her eyes were. She didn’t care about anything now that she’d lost Ethan. She started to sob.
The rain picked up, turning the ground under them to mud.
“You’ve got to get up, Miss Genevieve. We have to commune with the Ones in the Otherworld.” Ivy tried to pull her to her feet.
“Ivy, you’re not makin’ sense.”
“Your eyes—I warned you. I told you about that moon, no moon. We have to find out what it means. We have to consult the Spirits.”
“If there’s something wrong with my eyes, I’m sure it was because I was struck by lightnin’.”
“What did you see?” Ivy looked panicked.
“Ivy, what’s goin’ on? Why are you actin’ so strange?”
“You weren’t struck by lightnin’. It was somethin’ else.”
Ivy ran back toward the burning cotton fields. Genevieve called after her, trying to get up, but she was still reeling. She leaned her head back in the thick mud, rain falling steadily on her face. Rain mixed with the tears of defeat. She drifted in and out of the moment, in and out of consciousness. She heard Ivy’s voice, faint, in the distance, calling her name. When her eyes focused again, the old woman was next to her, her skirt gathered in her hands.
Ivy was carrying something in the folds of her skirt, and she dumped it out on the wet ground next to Genevieve. Tiny vials of powder and bottles of what looked like sand and dirt knocked against each other.
“What are you doin’?”
“Makin’ an offerin’. To the Spirits. They’re the only ones who can tell us what this means.”
“Ivy, calm down. You’re talkin’ gibberish.”