Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles 1)

“It’s some kind of Dark talisman, whatever that means, and your uncle told Amma that I never buried it. They were really freaked out about it.”

“How would they know it’s a talisman?”

I was starting to get annoyed. She didn’t seem to be focusing on the right thing. “How about, how do they even know each other? Did you have any idea your uncle knew Amma?”

“No, but I don’t know everyone he knows.”

“Lena, they were talking about us. About keeping the locket away from us, and keeping us away from each other. I got the feeling they think I’m some kind of threat. Like I’m getting in the way of something. Your uncle thinks—”

“What?”

“He thinks I have some kind of power.”

She laughed out loud, which annoyed me even more. “Why would he think that?”

“Because I brought Ridley into Ravenwood. He said I’d have to have power to do that.”

She frowned. “He’s right.” That wasn’t the answer I was expecting.

“You’re kidding, right? If I had powers, don’t you think I’d know it?”

“I don’t know.”

Maybe she didn’t know, but I did. My dad was a writer and my mom had spent her days reading the journals of dead Civil War generals. I was about as far from being a Caster as you could get, unless aggravating Amma counted as a power. There was obviously some kind of loophole that had allowed Ridley to get inside. One of the wires in the Caster security system had blown a fuse.

Lena must have been thinking the same thing. “Relax. I’m sure there’s an explanation. So Macon and Amma know each other. Now we know.”

“You don’t seem very upset about this.”

“What do you mean?”

“They’ve been lying to us. Both of them. Meeting secretly, trying to keep us apart. Trying to get us to get rid of the locket.”

“We never asked them if they knew each other.” Why was she acting like this? Why wasn’t she upset, or angry, something?

“Why would we? Don’t you think it’s weird that your uncle is out in the swamp in the middle of the night with Amma, talking to spirits and reading chicken bones?”

“It’s weird, but I’m sure they’re just trying to protect us.”

“From what? The truth? They were talking about something else, too. They were trying to find someone, Sara something. And about how you can damn us all if you Turn.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I don’t know. Why don’t you ask your uncle? See if he’ll tell you the truth for once.”

I had gone too far. “My uncle is risking his life to protect me. He’s always been there for me. He took me in when he knew I might turn into a monster in a few months.”

“What is he really protecting you from? Do you even know?”

“Myself!” she snapped. That was it. She pushed the door open and climbed off my lap, out into the field. The shade of the massive white water tower shielded us from Summerville, but the day didn’t seem so sunny anymore. Where there had been a cloudless blue sky just a few minutes ago, there were streaks of gray.

The storm was moving in. She didn’t want to talk about it, but I didn’t care. “That doesn’t make any sense. Why is he meeting Amma in the middle of the night to tell her we still have the locket? Why don’t they want us to have it? And more important, why don’t they want us to be together?”

It was just the two of us, shouting in a field. The breeze was churning into a strong wind. Lena’s hair started to whip around her face. She shot back, “I don’t know. Parents are always trying to keep teenagers apart, it’s what they do. If you want to know why, maybe you should ask Amma. She’s the one who hates me. I can’t even pick you up at your house because you’re afraid she’ll see us together.”

The knot that was building in the pit of my stomach tightened. I was angry at Amma, angrier than I’d ever been at her in my whole life, but I still loved her. She was the one who had left letters from the Tooth Fairy under my pillow, bandaged every scraped knee, thrown me thousands of pitches when I wanted to try out for Little League. And since my mom died and my dad checked out, Amma was the only one who looked out for me, who cared or even noticed if I skipped school or lost a game. I wanted to believe she had an explanation for all of this.

“You just don’t understand her. She thinks she’s… ”