“Maybe the Book’s too heavy,” Link offered. “That little black rock wasn’t any bigger than a quarter.”
“I’m not sure that’s the reason, Wesley. Though anything is possible,” Marian said.
“Or impossible.” Ridley pushed her sunglasses back into place and stuck out her red tongue.
“So why can’t it make the jump?” John asked.
Marian glanced at Liv’s notes, considering the question. “The Book of Moons is a powerful supernatural object. No one really understands the scope of its power. Not the Keepers or the Casters.”
“And if the origin of its magic is in the Caster world, it could be deeply rooted here,” Liv said. “The way a tree is rooted to a particular spot.”
“Are you saying the Book doesn’t want to cross over?” John asked.
Liv tucked the pencil behind her ear. “I’m saying maybe it can’t.”
“Or shouldn’t.” Uncle Macon’s tone grew more serious.
Ridley slid to the floor and stretched out her long legs. “This is so messed up. I risked my life, and now we’re stuck with that thing. Maybe we need to hit the Tunnels and see if any of the other bad guys know the answer. You know—Team Dark.”
Liv crossed her arms over her EDISON DIDN’T INVENT THE LIGHTBULB T-shirt. “You want to take The Book of Moons to a Dark Caster bar?”
“You have a better idea?” Rid asked.
“I think I do.” Marian slipped her red wool jacket on.
Liv scrambled after her. “Where are you going?”
“To see someone who knows a great deal about not just that book but a world that defies the physics of both the Caster and Mortal worlds. Someone who just may have the answers we need.”
My uncle nodded. “An excellent idea.”
There was only one person who fit that description.
Someone who loved Ethan as much as I did. Someone who would do anything for him, even rip a hole in the universe.
CHAPTER 27
The Cracks in Everything
Now, don’t you tell me you’re thinkin’ a settin’ foot on my front walkway, you hear?” Amma refused to let Ridley anywhere near Wate’s Landing. She said so in about fifteen different ways in the first conversation we unsuccessfully tried to have with her.
“Mmmm-nnnnnnn. No Dark Casters are comin’ into this house while I’m here on this sweet earth. Or after I leave it. No, sir. No, ma’am. No how.”
She agreed to meet us at Greenbrier instead.
Uncle Macon hung back. “It’s better this way. Amarie and I haven’t seen each other since the night… it happened,” he explained. “I’m not sure this is the right moment.”
“So what you’re saying is that you’re scared of her, too?” Ridley eyed him with new interest. “Imagine that.”
“I’ll be at Ravenwood if you need me,” he said, giving Ridley a withering stare.
“Imagine that.” I smiled.
The rest of us waited inside the crumbling wall of the old graveyard. I resisted the urge to wander over to Ethan’s plot, though I felt the familiar pull, the longing to be with him there. I believed, with all my heart, that there was a way to get Ethan back, and I wasn’t going to stop trying until I found it.
Amma was hopeful, too, but I had seen the fear and doubt in her eyes. She had already lost him twice. Every time I took her another crossword puzzle, she was desperate to get him back.
I think Amma wasn’t about to let herself believe in anything she could stand to lose again.