Beautiful Darkness (25 page)

“I'm a terrible liar. I do have a scholarship, but it's paid by a
society of scholars that far predates Duke University.”

“Or the Harrow School.”

She nodded. “Or Harrow.”

“What about the Ovaltine? Was that even true?”

Liv smiled ruefully. “I'm from Kings Langley, and I do love Ovaltine, but if I'm to be perfectly honest, I've come to prefer Quik since arriving in Gatlin.”

Link sat down on the bed, speechless. “I don't understand a word she's sayin’.”

Liv turned the pages of the book until a timeline of Keepers appeared. My mom's name stared back at me. “Professor Ashcroft is right. I studied Lila Evers Wate. Your mother was a brilliant Keeper, a tremendous writer. It's part of my coursework to read the notes left by the Keepers who have come before me.”

Notes? My mom had notes Liv had seen, and I hadn't? I resisted the urge to punch a hole through the wall. “Why? So you don't make the mistakes they made? So you don't end up dead in an accident nobody saw and no one can explain? So you don't leave your family behind, wondering about your secret life and why you never told them about it?”

The two pink spots appeared on Liv's cheeks again. I was getting used to them. “So I can continue their work and keep their voices alive. So one day, when I become a Keeper, I'll know how to safeguard the Caster archive — the
Lunae Libri
, the scrolls, the records of the Casters themselves. That isn't possible without the voices of the Keepers who came before me.”

“Why not?”

“Because they're my teachers. I learn from their experiences, the knowledge they gathered while they were Keepers.
Everything is connected, and without their records, I can't make sense of the things I discover myself.”

I shook my head. “I don't understand.”

“You don't understand? What the hell are we even talkin’ about?” Link spoke up from the bed.

Marian put her hand on my shoulder. “The voice you heard, the laughter from the hall, I imagine it was your mother. Lila led you here, most likely because she wanted us to have this conversation. So you would understand your purpose, and Lena's or Macon's. Because you're Bound to one of their Houses and one of their destinies. I just don't know whose yet.”

I thought about the face in the column, the laughter, and the feeling of déjà vu in Macon's room. Was it my mom? I'd been waiting months for a sign from her, since the afternoon in the study when Lena and I found the message in the books.

Was she finally trying to contact me now?

What if she wasn't?

I realized something else. “If I am one of these Waywards — and I'm not saying I'm buying any of this — then I can find Lena, right? I'm supposed to take care of her because I'm her compass, or whatever.”

“We don't know that for sure. You're Bound to someone, but we don't know who.”

I pushed back the chair and walked over to the bookcase. Macon's book sat on the edge of the shelf. “I bet I know someone who does.” I reached for it.

“Ethan, stop!” Marian shouted. My fingers had barely scraped the cover when I felt the floor give way into the nothingness of another world.

At the last second, a hand grabbed mine. “Take me with you, Ethan.”

“Liv, no —”

A girl with long brown hair clung desperately to a tall boy, her face buried in his chest. The branches of a huge oak reached down around them, creating the impression they were alone instead of a few yards away from clusters of Duke University's ivy-covered buildings.

He cradled her tear-stained face gently in his hands. “Do you think this is easy for me? I love you, Jane, and I know I'll never feel this way about anyone again. But we don't have a choice. You knew there would come a time when we would have to say good-bye.”

Jane lifted her chin, resolute. “There are always choices, Macon.”

“Not in this situation. Not a choice that wouldn't put you in danger.”

“But your mother said there might be a way. What about the prophecy?”

Macon slammed his palm against the tree, frustrated. “Damn it, Jane. That's an old wives’ tale. There's no way it doesn't end with you dead.”

“So we can't be together physically — I don't care about that. We can still be together. That's all that matters.”

Macon pulled away, his face twisted in pain. “Once I change, I'll be dangerous, a Blood Incubus. They thirst for blood, and my father says I will be one of
them like he is, and his father before him. Like all the men in my family, as far back as my great-great-great-grandfather Abraham.”

“Grandfather Abraham, the one who believed the greatest sin imaginable was for a Supernatural to fall in love with a Mortal — to taint the supernatural bloodlines? And you can't trust your father. He feels the same way. He wants to keep us apart so you'll return to Gatlin, that god-awful town, and creep around underground like your brother. Like a monster.”

“It's too late. I can already feel the Transformation. I stay up all night listening to the thoughts of Mortals, hungering. Soon I'll be hungering for more than their thoughts. Already, it feels like my body can't hold what's inside me, as if the beast might literally burst free.”

Jane turned away, her eyes welling up with tears again. But Macon wasn't going to let her ignore him this time. He loved her. And because he loved her, he had to make her understand why they couldn't be together. “Even standing here, the light is beginning to burn through my skin. I can feel the heat of the sun with such intensity, all the time now. I'm changing already, and it will only get worse.”

Jane buried her face in her hands, sobbing. “You're saying this to scare me, because you don't want to find a way.”

Macon grabbed Jane's shoulders, forcing her to look at him. “You're right. I am trying to scare you. Do you know what my brother did to his Mortal girlfriend after
the Transformation?” Macon paused. “He ripped her apart.”

Without warning, Macon's head jerked back, his golden-yellow eyes shining around strange black pupils, like the eclipse of twin suns. He turned his head away from Jane. “Don't ever forget, Ethan. Things are never as they seem.”

I opened my eyes, but I couldn't see anything until the fog lifted. The vaulted ceiling of the study came into focus.

“That was creepy, man. Like
The Exorcist
creepy.” Link was shaking his head. I held out my arm, and he pulled me up. My heart was still pounding, and I tried not to look at Liv. I had never shared a vision with anyone except Lena and Marian, and I wasn't too comfortable doing it now. Every time I looked at her, all I could think about was the moment I walked into this room. The moment I thought she was Lena.

Liv sat up, groggy. “You told me about the visions, Professor Ashcroft. But I had no idea they were so physical.”

“You shouldn't have done that.” It felt like I was betraying Macon by bringing Liv into his private life.

“Why not?” She rubbed her eyes, trying to readjust.

“Maybe you weren't supposed to see it.”

“What I see in a vision is totally different from what you see. You're not a Keeper. No offense, but you have no training.”

“Why do you say ‘no offense’ when you're planning to offend me?”

“Enough.” Marian looked at us expectantly. “What happened?”

But Liv was right. I didn't understand what the vision meant, except that Incubuses couldn't be with Mortals any more than Casters could. “Macon was there with a girl, and he was talking about becoming a Blood Incubus.”

Liv looked smug. “Macon was going through the Transformation. He appeared to be in a very vulnerable state. I don't know why the vision showed us that particular moment, but it must be significant.”

“Are you sure you weren't seeing Hunting, not Macon?” Marian asked.

“No,” we said, our voices overlapping. I looked at Liv. “Macon wasn't like Hunting.”

Liv thought for a moment, then reached for the notebook on the bed. She scribbled something and snapped it shut.

Great. Another girl with a notebook.

“You know what? You're the experts. I'm going to let you two figure this one out. I'm going to find Lena before Ridley and her friend convince her to do something she'll regret.”

“Are you suggesting Lena is under Ridley's influence? That's not possible, Ethan. Lena's a Natural. A Siren can't control her.” Marian dismissed the idea.

But she didn't know about John Breed. “What if Ridley had help?”

“What sort of help?”

“An Incubus who can walk around in the daylight, or a Caster with Macon's strength and the ability to Travel. I'm not sure which.” It wasn't the best explanation, but I didn't know what John Breed really was.

“Ethan, you must be mistaken. There's no record of an Incubus
or a Caster with those abilities.” Marian was already pulling a book from the shelves.

“There is now. His name is John Breed.” If Marian didn't know what John was, we weren't going to find the answer in one of those books.

“If what you're describing is accurate, and I find it hard to believe that it could be, I'm not sure what he might be capable of.”

I looked at Link. He was twisting the chain on his wallet. We were thinking the same thing. “I have to find Lena.” I didn't wait for a response.

Link unlocked the door.

Marian stood up. “You can't go after her. It's too dangerous. There are Casters and creatures of unfathomable power in those Tunnels. You've only been down here once before, and the sections you've seen are passageways compared to the larger Tunnels. They're like another world.”

I didn't need permission. My mom may have led me here, but she was still gone. “You can't stop me because you can't get involved, right? All you can do is sit there and watch me screw things up and write about it so someone like Liv can study it later.”

“You don't know what you'll find, and when you find it, I won't be able to help you.”

It didn't matter. I was at the door by the time Marian finished. Liv was following me. “I'm going, Professor Ashcroft. I'll make sure nothing happens to them.”

Marian moved to the doorway. “Olivia. This isn't your place.”

“I know. But they'll need me.”

“You cannot change what is to be. You have to stay out of it.
No matter how much it pains you. A Keeper's role is only to record and bear witness, not to change what unfolds.”

“You're like a hall cop.” Link grinned. “Like Fatty.”

Liv's eyes narrowed. They must have truant officers in England, too. “You don't need to explain the Order of Things to me, Professor Ashcroft. I've studied it since my K levels. But how can I witness what I'm never allowed to see?”

“You can read about it in the Caster Scrolls, like the rest of us.”

“I can? The Sixteenth Moon? The Claiming that could've broken the Duchannes curse? Could you have read about any of that in a scroll?” Liv glanced at her moon watch. “There's something happening. This Supernatural with unprecedented power, Ethan's visions — and there are scientific anomalies. Subtle changes I've picked up on my selenometer.”

Subtle, as in nonexistent. I recognized a scam when I saw one. Olivia Durand was as trapped as the rest of us, and we were her ticket out. She wasn't worried about Link and me in the Tunnels. She wanted to have a life. Like another girl I knew, not too long ago.

“Remember —”

The door closed before Marian could finish, and we were gone.

6.15