Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles 1)

“Don’t worry, she’s downstairs.” She pulled me back down, and the fire in the grate crackled even louder, threatening to overpower the chimney with smoke and flame.

Jewelry, I’m telling you. It’s a thing. And love.

And maybe danger.

“Coming, Uncle Macon!” Lena turned to me and sighed. “I guess we can’t put it off any longer. We have to go down there and see my family.” She stared at the door. The bolt unlocked itself. I rubbed her back, making a face. It was over.

The day had turned to dusk by the time we made it out of Lena’s room. I had thought we’d have to sneak down to visit Kitchen, around lunchtime, but Lena simply closed her eyes and a room service cart rolled through the door and into the middle of her room. I guess even Kitchen was feeling sorry for her today. Either that, or Kitchen couldn’t resist Lena’s newfound powers any more than I could. I ate my weight in chocolate chip pancakes drenched in chocolate syrup, washed down with chocolate milk. Lena had a sandwich and an apple. Then everything dissolved back into kissing.

I think we both knew this could be the last time we lay around in her room like this. It seemed like there was nothing else we could do. The situation was what it was, and if today was all we had, then at least we would have this.

In reality, I was as terrified as I was exhilarated. But still, it wasn’t even dinnertime, and it was already the best and worst day of my life.

I grabbed Lena’s hand as we headed down the stairs. It was still warm, which was how I could tell Lena was in a better mood. The necklaces sparkled at her neck, and silver and gold candles hung in the air, as we walked through them and beneath them, down the stairs. I wasn’t used to seeing Ravenwood looking so festive and full of light, which for a second made it feel almost like a real birthday, where the people celebrating are happy and light-hearted. For a second.

Then I saw Macon and Aunt Del. They were both holding candles, and behind them, Ravenwood was shrouded in shadows and darkness. There were other dark figures moving in the background, also holding candles. Worse, Macon and Del were dressed in long, dark robes, like acolytes of a strange order, or druid priests and priestesses. It just didn’t seem like, well, a birthday party. More like a really creepy funeral.

Happy Sweet Sixteen. No wonder you didn’t want to come out of your room.

Now you see what I was talking about.

When Lena reached the last stair she paused and looked back at me. She looked so out of place in her old jeans and my oversized Jackson High hoodie. I doubted Lena had ever dressed like this in her whole life. I think she just wanted to keep a piece of me with her as long as she could.

Don’t be scared. It’s just the Binding, to keep me safe until Moonrise. The Claiming

can’t happen until the moon is high.

I’m not scared, L.

I know. I was talking to myself.

She let go of my hand and took the last step down from the landing. When her foot touched the polished black floor, she was transformed. The flowing dark robes of the Binding now hid the curves of her body. The black of her hair and the black of the robes blended into a shadow that covered her from head to toe, with the exception of her face, which was as pale and luminescent as the moon itself. She touched her throat, my mother’s gold ring still hanging at her neck. I hoped it would help to remind her that I was there with her. Just as I hoped it was my mom who had been trying to help us all along.

What are they going to do to you? This isn’t going to be some freaky pagan sex thing, is it?

Lena burst out laughing. Aunt Del looked over at her, horrified. Reece smoothed her robe primly with one hand, looking superior, while Ryan started to giggle.

“Compose yourself,” Macon hissed. Larkin, somehow managing to look as cool in a black robe as he did in a leather jacket, snickered. Lena smothered the giggles down into the folds of her robe.

As their candles moved, I could see the faces nearest to me: Macon, Del, Lena, Larkin, Reece, Ryan, and Barclay. There were also faces that were less familiar. Arelia, Macon’s mother, and an older face, wrinkled and tanned. But even from where I stood, or tried to stand, she looked enough like her granddaughter that I instantly knew who she was.

Lena saw her at the same time I did. “Gramma!”

“Happy birthday, sweetheart!” The circle broke, briefly, as Lena ran over to fling her arms around the white-haired woman.

“I didn’t think you would come!”

“Of course I did. I wanted to surprise you. Barbados is an easy trip. I was here in the blink of an eye.”

She means that literally, right? What is she? Another Traveler, an Incubus like Macon?

A Frequent Flyer, Ethan. On United.

I could feel what Lena was feeling, a brief moment of relief, even if I was only feeling stranger and stranger. Okay, so my dad was certifiable, and my mom was dead, sort of, and the woman who raised me knew a thing or two about voodoo. I was okay with all of that. It was just, standing there, surrounded by the actual card-carrying, candle-bearing, robe-wearing Casters, it felt like I needed to know about a lot more than living with Amma had prepared me for. Before they started in with all the Latin and the Casting.

Macon stepped forward in the circle. Too late. He held his candle high. “Cur Luna hac Vinctum convenimus?”

Aunt Del stepped up next to him. Her candle flickered as she raised it, translating. “Why on this Moon do we come together for the Binding?”