Beautiful Darkness (Caster Chronicles 2)

“Are you asking me if I could’ve prevented your mother’s death?” She knew I was. I looked down at my sneakers. I wasn’t sure I was ready to hear the answer.

Marian put her hand under my chin and pulled my face up to meet hers. “I didn’t know your mother was in danger, Ethan. But she knew the risks.” Her voice was uneven, and I knew I had gone too far, but I couldn’t help it. I’d been trying to get up the courage to have this conversation for months now. “I would have gladly taken her place in that car. Don’t you think I have wondered a thousand times if there was something I knew or could have done that might have saved Lila…” Her voice trailed off.

I feel the same way. You’re just holding on to a different edge of the same jagged hole. We’re both lost. That’s what I wanted to say. Instead, I let her put her arm around my shoulder and pull me into a rough hug. I barely felt it when the arm slipped away and the door closed behind her.

I stared at the stacks of paper. Lucille jumped down from the chair and onto the table. “Be careful. These are a lot older than you.” She tilted her head and looked at me with her blue eyes. Then she froze.

She was staring at my mother’s chair, eyes wide, fixated. There was nothing there, but I remembered what Amma told me. “Cats can see the dead. That’s why they stare at things the way they do for so long, like they’re just lookin’ into thin air. But they’re not. They’re lookin’ through it.”

I stepped closer to the chair. “Mom?” She didn’t answer, or maybe she did, because there was a book lying on the chair that wasn’t there a minute ago. Darkness and Light: The Origins of Magic. It was one of Macon’s books. I had seen it in his library at Ravenwood. I lifted it up, and a gum wrapper fell out—one of my mother’s bookmarks, no doubt. I bent down to pick up the wrapper, and the room began to sway, the lights and colors swirling around me. I tried to focus on something, anything, to keep from falling, but I was too dizzy. The wood floor rushed up to meet me, and as I hit the ground the smoke burned my eyes—

By the time Abraham returned to Ravenwood, the ash had already made its way inside the house. The charred remnants of Gatlin’s great houses wafted down from the open windows on the second floor like black snowflakes. As he ascended the staircase, Abraham’s footsteps left impressions in the thin black layer already coating the floor. He secured the upstairs windows, without putting The Book of Moons down for a second. But he couldn’t have put it down even if he had wanted to. Ivy, the old cook from Greenbrier, was right; the Book was calling him, a whisper only he could hear.

When he reached the study, Abraham rested the Book on the polished mahogany desk. He knew exactly which page to turn to, as if the Book was flipping the pages itself. As if it knew what he wanted. Even though he had never seen the Book before, Abraham knew the answer was in those pages, an answer that would guarantee Ravenwood’s survival.

The Book was offering him the one thing he wanted above all else. But it wanted something in return.

Abraham stared down at the Latin script. He recognized it immediately. It was a Cast he had read about in other books. One he had always considered more of a myth. But he had been wrong, because it was staring back at him.

Abraham heard Jonah’s voice before he saw him. “Abraham, we have to get out of the house. The Federals are coming. They’ve burned everything, and they aren’t planning to stop until they reach Savannah. We have to get into the Tunnels.”

Abraham’s voice was resolute, and it sounded different somehow, even to him. “I’m not going anywhere, Jonah.”

“What are you talking about? We have to save what we can and get out of here.” Jonah grabbed his brother’s arm, noticing the open page beneath them. He stared at the script, unsure he could trust what he was seeing.

“The Daemonis Pactum? The Demon’s Trade?” Jonah stepped back. “Is this what I think it is? The Book of Moons?”

“I’m surprised you recognize it. You never paid much attention during our studies.”

Jonah was used to Abraham’s insults, but there was something different about his tone tonight. “Abraham, you can’t.”

“Don’t tell me what I can’t do. You would watch this house burn to the ground before you thought to act. You have never been capable of doing what was required. You are weak, like Mother.”

Jonah flinched, as if someone had struck him. “Where did you get it?”

“You don’t need to worry about that.”

“Abraham, be sensible. The Demon’s Trade is too powerful. It cannot be controlled. You are making a bargain, without knowing what you will have to sacrifice. We have other houses.”

Abraham pushed his brother aside. Though Abraham barely touched him, Jonah flew across the room. “Other houses? Ravenwood is the seat of our family’s power in the Mortal world, and you think I intend to allow a few soldiers to burn it to the ground? I can use this to save Ravenwood.”

Abraham’s voice rose. “Exscinde, neca, odium incende; mors portam patefacit. Destroy, kill, hate; death opens the gate.”

“Abraham, stop!”

But it was too late. The words rolled off Abraham’s tongue as if he had known them his entire life. Jonah looked around, panicked, waiting for the Cast to take effect. But he had no idea what his brother had asked for. He only knew that whatever it was, it would be done. That was the power of the Cast, but there was also a price. It was never the same. Jonah rushed toward his brother, and a small, perfectly round orb, the size of an egg, slipped from his pocket and rolled across the floor.

Abraham picked up the sphere, glowing at his feet, and rolled it between his fingers. “What are you doing with an Arclight, Jonah? Is there a particular Incubus you’re planning to imprison in this archaic device?”

Jonah backed away as Abraham advanced, matching him step for step, but Abrah

am was too fast. In the blink of an eye, he pinned Jonah against the wall, his iron grip closing around his brother’s throat.

“No. Of course not. I—”

Abraham tightened his hold. “What would an Incubus be doing with the only vessel capable of imprisoning his kind? Do you think I’m that stupid?”

“I am only trying to protect you from yourself.”