But he was faster. John ripped, materializing in Liv’s path and gathering her up in his arms. My heart broke a little as I watched the relief spread across her face. I tried not to feel envious.
“You’re all right!” Liv threw her arms around John’s neck. She pulled back, her expression changing. “What were you thinking? How many times are you going to sneak off to do something completely insane?” Liv turned her scowl on Link and me. “And how many times are you going to let him?”
Link raised his hands in surrender. “Hey, we weren’t even there the last time.”
John leaned his forehead against hers. “He’s right. I’m the one you should be angry with.”
A tear rolled down her cheek. “I don’t know what I would have done—”
“I’m okay.”
Link puffed his chest out. “Thanks to me.”
“It’s true,” John said. “My protégée saved our asses.”
Link raised an eyebrow. “That better mean somethin’ good.”
Uncle Macon cleared his throat and adjusted a cuff of his crisp white shirt. “It does indeed, Mr. Lincoln. It does indeed.”
Arms crossed, Marian stepped out from behind the desk. “Would someone like to tell me exactly what happened tonight?” She stared at my uncle expectantly. “Liv and I have been worried sick.”
He glared at me. “As you can imagine, their little showdown with my brother and Abraham did not go according to plan. And Mr. Breed almost met an untimely end.”
“But Uncle M saved the day.” Ridley didn’t even try to hide her sarcasm. “He gave Hunting a sunburn where the sun don’t shine. Now let’s get on with the part where you give us a big lecture and we all get grounded.”
Marian turned to my uncle. “Is she implying—?”
Uncle Macon nodded. “Hunting is no longer with us.”
“Abraham’s dead, too,” John added.
Marian stared at Uncle Macon as if he had just parted the Red Sea. “You killed Abraham Ravenwood?”
Link cleared his throat loudly, grinning. “No, ma’am. I did.”
For a moment Marian was speechless. “I think I need to sit down,” she said, her knees beginning to buckle. John rushed behind the desk to get her a chair.
Marian pressed her fingers against her temples. “You’re telling me that Hunting and Abraham are dead?”
“That would be correct,” Uncle Macon said.
Marian shook her head. “Anything else?”
“Just this, Aunt Marian.” Ethan’s nickname for her just slipped out before I realized it. I dropped The Book of Moons on the polished wood tabletop next to her.
Liv inhaled sharply. “Oh my God.”
I stared down at the worn black leather, embossed with a crescent moon, and the weight of the moment closed in on me. My hands shook, and my legs felt like they were about to give out, too.
“I can’t believe it.” Marian inspected the book suspiciously, as if I were returning a late library book into her system. She would never be anything less than 100 percent librarian.
“It’s the real deal.” Ridley leaned against one of the marble columns.
Marian stood up in front of her desk as if trying to position herself between Ridley and the most dangerous book in the Mortal and Caster worlds. “Ridley, I don’t think you belong in here.”
Ridley pushed her sunglasses up on her head, yellow cat eyes blinking back at Marian. “I know, I know. I’m a Dark Caster, and I don’t belong in the good guys’ secret clubhouse, right?” She rolled her eyes. “I am so over this.”
“The Lunae Libri is open to all Casters, Light and Dark,” Marian answered. “What I meant is that I’m not sure you belong with us.”
“It’s okay, Marian. Rid helped us get the Book,” I explained.
Ridley blew a bubble and waited for it to pop, the sound echoing loudly off the walls. “Helped you? If by help, you mean set Abraham up for you so you could get The Book of Moons and kill him, then, yeah, I guess I helped.”
Marian stared at her, speechless. Without a word, she walked over and held up a trash can in front of Ridley’s mouth. “Not in my library. Spit it out now.”
Ridley sighed. “You know it’s not just gum, right?”
Marian didn’t move.
Ridley spit.
Marian dropped the can. “What I don’t understand is why you would risk your lives for that dreadful book. I appreciate the fact it is no longer in the hands of Blood Incubuses, but—”
“Ethan needs it,” I blurted out. “He found a way to contact me, and he needs The Book of Moons. He’s trying to get back here.”
“Have you gotten another message?” Marian asked.
I nodded. “In the latest Stars and Stripes.” I took a deep breath. “I need you to trust me.” I looked into her eyes. “And I need your help.”
Marian studied me for a long moment. I don’t know what she was thinking, or debating, or even deciding. All I know is, she didn’t say a word.
I don’t think she could.
Then she nodded, pulling her chair a bit closer to me. “Tell me everything.”
So I started talking. We took turns filling in the blanks—Link and John all but acting out our encounter with Abraham, and Rid and Uncle Macon helping me explain our plan to trade John for The Book of Moons. Liv looked on unhappily, as if she could hardly bear to hear it.
Marian didn’t say a word until we finished, though it was easy to read her expressions, which ranged from shock and horror to sympathy and despair.
“Is that everything?” She looked at me, exhausted by our story.
“It gets worse.” I looked at Ridley.
“You mean aside from the fact that Link dissected Abraham with the giant scissors?” Rid made a face.
“No, Rid. Tell her about Abraham’s plans. Tell her what you heard about Angelus,” I said.
Uncle Macon’s head snapped up at the sound of the Keeper’s name. “What is Lena talking about, Ridley?”
“Angelus and Abraham were up to something, but I don’t know the details.” She shrugged.
“Tell us exactly what you know.”
Ridley twisted a lock of pink hair around her finger nervously. “This Angelus guy is a nutcase. He hates Mortals, and he thinks the Dark Casters and the Far Keep should be in control of the Mortal world, or something like that.”
“Why?” Marian was thinking out loud. Her fists were clenched so tightly that her knuckles were white. Marian’s own trouble with the Far Keep was all too fresh in her memory.
Rid shrugged. “Ah, maybe because he’s Special K-razy?”
Marian looked over at my uncle, a silent conversation passing between them. “We can’t let Angelus gain a foothold here. He’s far too dangerous.”
Uncle M nodded. “I agree. We need—”
I cut him off before he could finish. “All I know is first we need to get The Book of Moons to Ethan. There’s still a chance we can get him back.”
“Do you really think so?” Marian said the words quietly, almost under her breath. Though I couldn’t be certain, it seemed like only I could hear them. Still, I knew Marian believed in the impossibilities of the Caster world—she’d seen them firsthand—and she loved Ethan as much as I did. He was like a son to her.
We both wanted to believe.
I nodded. “I do. I have to.”
She rose from her chair and came back around the desk, poised as ever.
“Then it’s settled. We’ll get Ethan The Book of Moons, one way or another.” I smiled at her, but she was already lost in thought, looking around the library as if it held the answers to all our problems.
Which, sometimes, it did.
“There has to be a way, right?” John asked. “Maybe in one of these scrolls or one of these old books—”
Ridley unscrewed the top of her nail polish bottle, wrinkling her nose. “Goody. Old books.”
“Try to have a bit more respect, Ridley. A book is the reason the children in the Duchannes family suffered for generations.” Marian was referring to our curse.
Rid crossed her arms, pouting. “Whatever.”
Marian swiped the bottle out of her hand. “Another thing I don’t allow in my library.” It clattered to the bottom of the trash can.
Ridley glared, but she didn’t say a word.
“Dr. Ashcroft, have you ever delivered a book to the Otherworld?” Liv asked.
Marian shook her head. “I can’t say that I have.”
“Maybe Carlton Eaton could just run it on over.” Link looked hopeful. “You could wrap it up in one a those brown paper packages, like you do for my mom’s books. And, you know, circulate it or somethin’.”
Marian sighed. “I’m afraid not, Wesley.” Even Carlton Eaton, who had his nose in every letter in town in both the Mortal and Caster worlds, couldn’t make a delivery like that.
Frustrated, Liv flipped through her little red notebook. “There has to be a way. What were the odds you could get the Book from Abraham at all? And now that we have it, we’re just going to give up?” She pulled the pencil from behind her ear, scribbling and mumbling to herself. “The laws of quantum physics must allow for this sort of eventuality.…
I didn’t know anything about the laws of quantum physics, but I knew one thing. “The stone from my charm necklace disappeared when I left it for Ethan. Why would the Book be any different?”
I know you took it, Ethan. Why couldn’t you take the Book, too?
I realized Uncle Macon could probably hear me, and I tried to stop.
It was no use. I couldn’t stop Kelting any more than I could stop the words that strung t hemselves together, waiting for me to write them down somewhere.
laws of physics
laws of love
of time and space
and the (in)between place
(in)between you and me
and where we are
lost and looking
looking and lost
“Maybe the Book’s too heavy,” Link offered. “That little black rock wasn’t any bigger than a quarter.”
“I’m not sure that’s the reason, Wesley. Though anything is possible,” Marian said.
“Or impossible.” Ridley pushed her sunglasses back into place and stuck out her red tongue.
“So why can’t it make the jump?” John asked.
Marian glanced at Liv’s notes, considering the question. “The Book of Moons is a powerful supernatural object. No one really understands the scope of its power. Not the Keepers or the Casters.”
“And if the origin of its magic is in the Caster world, it could be deeply rooted here,” Liv said. “The way a tree is rooted to a particular spot.”
“Are you saying the Book doesn’t want to cross over?” John asked.
Liv tucked the pencil behind her ear. “I’m saying maybe it can’t.”
“Or shouldn’t.” Uncle Macon’s tone grew more serious.
Ridley slid to the floor and stretched out her long legs. “This is so messed up. I risked my life, and now we’re stuck with that thing. Maybe we need to hit the Tunnels and see if any of the other bad guys know the answer. You know—Team Dark.”