Beautiful Chaos (Caster Chronicles 3)

“In broad terms, yes. Perhaps not so much born as bred, one assumes. Which would explain why he is so important to Abraham.” Macon paused. “That sort of dull wit I would expect from my brother, not Abraham. I’m disappointed.”

“John Breed,” Liv said slowly. “Oh my God. It was right there in front of us, all along.” Liv sunk onto the ottoman across from Macon’s desk.

I held Lena tighter. When her thoughts came, they were a whisper.

It’s sick. He’s sick.

I didn’t know if she meant John or Abraham, but it didn’t matter. She was right. It was all sick.

Abraham’s gone, L.

Even as I thought the words, I knew I was lying. John might have been gone, but Abraham wasn’t.

“So we’re left with two questions, Miss Durand. How and, more important, why?”

“If John Breed is gone, it doesn’t matter.” Liv’s face was pale, and it occurred to me that she looked as exhausted as Macon did.

“Is he? I’m not entirely willing to make assumptions without a body.”

“Shouldn’t we turn our research to the more pressing issues—the infestations, the climate change? How to stop these plagues that Lena’s Seventeenth Moon seems to have brought on the Mortal world?”

Macon leaned forward in his chair. “Olivia, do you have any idea how old this library is?”

She shook her head doubtfully.

“Do you know how old any of the Caster libraries are? Across the pond and beyond? In London? Prague? Madrid? Istanbul? Cairo?”

“No. I suppose not.”

“In any of these libraries, many of which I’ve visited myself in the past few weeks, do you imagine there is one reference to how to restore the Order of Things?”

“Of course. There has to be. This must have happened at least once before.”

He closed his eyes.

“Never?” She was trying to say the word, but from where we stood, we almost couldn’t hear it.

“Our only clue is the boy. How did he come to be, and for what purpose?”

“Or the girl?” Liv asked.

“Olivia. That’s enough.”

But Liv wasn’t deterred that easily. “Perhaps you already know? How did she come to be, and for what purpose? Scientifically speaking, it would be relevant.”

Lena shut me out, willing her mind apart from mine, until I was alone in the passageway even as we clung to each other.

Macon shook his head. When he spoke, his voice was harsh. “Don’t say anything to the others. I want to be absolutely certain.”

“Before you tell Lena what she’s done,” Liv said flatly. It was a fact, but somehow she didn’t say it that way.

Macon’s green eyes held all the emotion his black ones never had. Fear. Anger. Resentment. “Before I tell her what she has to do.”

“You might not be able to stop this.” She looked down at her selenometer out of habit.

“Olivia, it’s not only the universe that could be destroyed. It’s my niece. Who is, as far as I am concerned, more important than a thousand lost universes.”

“Believe me, I know.” If Liv was bitter, she didn’t let on.