Beautiful Creatures (60 page)

So later, when Lena and I were dancing and five minutes came and went, and then twenty-five, and then fifty-five, neither
one of us even noticed or cared. We were stopping time—at least that’s how it felt. We had one dance, but we had to make it
last as long as we could, in case it was all we had.

Larkin was in no hurry. He was all tangled up with Emily, making out by the side of one of the bonfires someone had made out
of old garbage cans. Emily was wearing Larkin’s jacket and every now and then he’d pull down the shoulder and lick her neck
or something gross. He really was a snake.

“Larkin! She’s, like, sixteen,” Lena called over toward the fire from where we were dancing. Larkin stuck out his tongue,
which rolled further down toward the ground than any Mortal’s could have.

Emily didn’t seem to notice. She untangled herself from Larkin, motioning to Savannah, who was dancing in a group with Charlotte
and Eden behind her. “Come on, girls. Let’s give Lena her present.”

Savannah reached into her little silver bag and pulled out the little silver package that was sticking out of it, wrapped
with silver ribbon. “It’s just a little somethin’.” Savannah held it out.

“Every girl should have one,” Emily was slurring.

“Metallic goes with
everything
.” Eden could barely stop herself from ripping off the paper herself.

“Just big enough for, like, your phone and your lip gloss.” Charlotte pushed it toward Lena. “Go on. Open it.”

Lena took the package in her hands, and smiled at them. “Savannah, Emily, Eden, Charlotte. You have absolutely
no idea
what this means to me.” The sarcasm was lost on them. I knew exactly what it was, and exactly what it meant to her.

Stupid to the power of stupid.

Lena couldn’t look me in the eye, or we both would have burst out laughing. As we made our way back into the crowd of dancers,
Lena tossed the little silver package into the bonfire. The orange and yellow flames ate their way through the wrapping, until
the tiny metallic purse was nothing but smoke and ash.

The Holy Rollers took a break, and Link came over to bask in the glory of his musical debut. “I told ya we were good. Just
one step away from a contract.” Link elbowed me in the ribs like old times.

“You were right, man. You guys were great.” I had to give him that, even if he did have the lollipop on his side.

Savannah Snow sauntered up, most likely to burst Link’s bubble. “Hey, Link.” She batted her eyes suggestively.

“Hey, Savannah.”

“Do you think you could save me a dance?” It was unbelievable. She was standing there, staring at him like he was a real rock
star.

“I just don’t know what I’ll do if I don’t get one.” She gave him another Snow Queen smile. I felt like I was trapped in one
of Link’s dreams, or Ridley’s.

Speak of the devil. “Hands off, Prom Queen. This is my Hot Rod.” Ridley draped her arm, and a few other key parts, around
Link to make her point.

“Sorry, Savannah. Maybe next time.” Link stuck his drumsticks in his back pocket and headed back onto the dance floor with
Ridley and her R-rated dance moves. It must have been the greatest moment of his life. You would’ve thought it was his birthday.

After the song ended, he hopped back onto the stage. “We got one last song, written by a good friend a mine, for some very
special
people at Jackson High. You’ll know who you are.” The stage went dark. Link unzipped his hoodie, and the lights went up with
the twang of the guitar. He was wearing a Jackson Angels T-shirt with the sleeves ripped off, looking as ridiculous on Link
as he intended it to. If only his mother could see him now.

He leaned into the microphone and began to do a little Casting of his own.

“Fallin’ angels all around me

Misery spreads misery

Your broken arrows are killin’ me.

Why can’t you see?

The thing you hate becomes your fate

Your destiny, Fallen Angel.”

Lena’s song, the one she wrote for Link.

As the music swelled, every card-carrying Angel swayed to the anthem targeted at them. Maybe it was all Ridley, and maybe
it wasn’t. The thing is, by the time the song was over, and Link had tossed his winged T-shirt into the bonfire, it felt like
a few more things were going up in flames along with it. Everything that had seemed so hard, so insurmountable for so long,
just sort of went up in smoke.

Long after the Holy Rollers had stopped playing, even when Ridley and Link were nowhere to be found, Savannah and Emily were
still being nice to Lena, and the whole basketball team was suddenly speaking to me again, I looked for some small sign, a
lollipop, anywhere. The lone, telltale thread that could come loose to unravel the whole sweater.

But there was nothing. Just the moon, the stars, the music, the lights, and the crowd. Lena and I weren’t even dancing anymore,
but were still clinging to each other. We swayed back and forth, the current of heat and cold and electricity and fear pulsing
through my veins. As long as there was any music at all, we were in our own little bubble. We weren’t alone in our cave under
her covers anymore, but it was still perfect.

Lena pulled back gently, the way she did when something was on her mind, and stared up at me. Like she was looking at me for
the first time.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I—” She bit her lower lip nervously, and took a deep breath. “It’s just, there’s something I want to tell you.”

I tried to read her thoughts, her face, anything. Because I was starting to feel like it was the week before Christmas break
all over again, and we were standing in the hall at Jackson, instead of in the field at Greenbrier. My arms were still around
her waist, and I had to resist the urge to hold her tighter, to make sure she couldn’t get away.

“What is it? You can tell me anything.”

She put her hands on my chest. “In case something happens tonight, I wanted you to know—”

She looked into my eyes, and I heard it as clearly as if she had whispered it in my ear, except it meant more than it ever
could have if she had spoken the words aloud. She said them in the only way that had ever mattered between us. The way we
had found each other from the beginning. The way we always found our way back.

I love you, Ethan.

For a second, I didn’t know what to say, because “I love you” didn’t seem like enough. It didn’t say everything I wanted to
say—that she had saved me from this town, from my life, my dad. From myself. How can three words say all that? They can’t,
but I said them anyway, because I meant them.

I love you, too, L. I think I always have.

She settled back into me, resting her head on my shoulder, and I felt her hair warm against my chin. And I felt something
else. That part of her I thought I would never be able to reach, the part she kept closed off to the world. I felt it open
up, just long enough to let me in. She was giving me a piece of herself, the only piece that was really hers. I wanted to
remember this feeling, this moment, like a snapshot I could go back to whenever I wanted.

I wanted it to stay this way forever.

Which, it turns out, was exactly five more minutes.

2.11

L
ena and I were still swaying to the music when Link elbowed his way through the crowd. “Hey, man, I’ve been lookin’ for you
everywhere.” Link bent over and put his hands on his knees for a second, trying to catch his breath.

“Where’s the fire?”

Link looked worried, which was unusual for a guy who spent most of his time trying to figure out how to hook up and hide from
his mom at the same time. “It’s your dad. He’s up on the balcony a the Fallen Soldiers, in his pajamas.”

According to the
South Carolina Visitor’s Guide
, the Fallen Soldiers was a Civil War Museum. But really it was just Gaylon Evans’ old house, which was full of his Civil
War memorabilia. Gaylon left his house and his collection to his daughter, Vera, who was so desperate to become a member of
the DAR she let Mrs. Lincoln and her cronies restore the house and turn it into Gatlin’s one and only museum.

“Great.” Embarrassing me in our house wasn’t enough. Now my dad had decided to venture out. Link looked confused. He probably
expected me to be surprised that my dad was wandering around in his pajamas. He had no idea this was an everyday occurrence.
I realized how little Link actually knew about my life these days, considering he was my best friend—my only friend.

“Ethan, he’s out on the balcony, like he’s gonna jump.”

I couldn’t move. I heard what he was saying, but I couldn’t react. Lately, I was ashamed of my dad. But I still loved him,
crazy or not, and I couldn’t lose him. He was the only parent I had left.

Ethan, are you okay?

I looked at Lena, at those big green eyes full of concern. Tonight I could lose her, too. I could lose them both.

“Ethan, did you hear me?”

Ethan, you have to go. It’s going to be okay.

“Come on, man!” Link was pulling me. The rock star was gone. Now he was just my best friend, trying to save me from myself.
But I couldn’t leave Lena.

I’m not going to leave you here. Not by yourself.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Larkin coming toward us. He had untangled himself from Emily for a minute. “Larkin!”

“Yeah, what’s up?” He seemed to sense something was going on, and actually looked concerned, for a guy whose general expression
was disinterest.

“I need you to take Lena back to the house.”

“Why?”

“Just promise you’ll take her back to the house.”

“Ethan, I’ll be fine. Just go!” Lena was pushing me toward Link. She looked as scared as I felt. But I didn’t move.

“Yeah, man. I’ll take her back right now.”

Link gave me a final jerk, and we were tearing through the crowd. Because we both knew I might be a few minutes away from
being a guy with two dead parents.

We ran through the overgrown fields of Ravenwood, toward the road and the Fallen Soldiers. The air was already thick with
smoke from the mortar, compliments of the Battle of Honey Hill, and every few seconds you could hear a round of rifle fire.
The evening campaign was in full force. We were getting close to the edge of Ravenwood Plantation, where Ravenwood ended and
Greenbrier began. I could see the yellow ropes that marked the Safe Zone, glowing in the darkness.

What if we were too late?

The Fallen Soldiers was dark. Link and I took the steps two at a time, trying to get up the four flights as quickly as possible.
When we got to the third landing, instinctively, I stopped. Link sensed it, the same way he sensed when I was going to pass
him the ball when I was trying to run out the clock, and stopped alongside me. “He’s up here.”

But I couldn’t move. Link read my face. He knew what I was afraid of. He had stood next to me at my mom’s funeral, passing
out all those white carnations for folks to put on her coffin, while my dad and I stared at the grave like we were dead, too.

“What if… what if he’s already jumped?”

“No way. I left Rid with him. She’d never let that happen.” The floor felt like it dropped out from under me.

If she used her power on you, and she told you to jump off a cliff—you’d jump.

I pushed past Link, up the stairs, and scanned the hallway. All the doors were shut, except one. Moonlight spilled onto the
perfectly stained pine floorboards.

“He’s in there,” Link said, but I already knew that.

When I entered the room, it was like going back in time. The DAR had really done their job in here. There was a huge stone
fireplace at one end, with a long wooden mantel, lined with tapered wax candles, dripping as they burned. The eyes of fallen
Confederates stared back from the sepia portraits hanging on the wall, and across from the fireplace was an antique four-poster
bed. But something was out of place, disrupting the authenticity. It was a smell, musky and sweet. Too sweet. A mix of danger
and innocence, even though Ridley was anything but innocent.