Beautiful Darkness (38 page)

S
UMMER 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 DAR 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?