Beautiful Chaos (Caster Chronicles 3)

“ ‘This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.’ ”

12.21

Remainders

Lena wasn’t in her bedroom at Ravenwood. I sat down on her bed to wait, staring up at the ceiling. I thought of something and picked up her pillow, rubbing it against my face. I remembered smelling my mom’s pillowcases after she was gone. It was magic to me, a piece of her that still existed in my world. I wanted Lena to at least have that.

I thought about Lena’s bed, the time we broke it, the time the roof caved in on it, the time we broke up and the plaster had rained down on everything. I looked at the walls, thinking about the words that wrote themselves there the first time Lena told me how she felt.

You’re not the only one falling.

Lena’s walls weren’t glass anymore. Her room was the same as it was the day we first met. Maybe that was how she was trying to keep things. The way it was at the beginning, when things were still full of possibility.

I couldn’t think about it.

There were bits of words everywhere, I guess because that’s how Lena felt things.

WHO CAN JUDGE THE JUDGE?

It didn’t work like that. You couldn’t reset the clock. Not for anyone. Not even for us.

NOT WITH A BANG BUT A WHIMPER

What was done was done.

I think she must have known, because she left a message for me, written across the walls of her room in black Sharpie. Like the old days.

DEMON MATH

what is JUST in a world

you’ve ripped in two

as if there could be

a half for me

a half for you

what is FAIR when

there is nothing

left to share

what is YOURS when

your pain is mine to bear

this sad math is mine

this mad path is mine

subtract they say

don’t cry

back to the desk