Beautiful Darkness (Caster Chronicles 2)

“We’re not going anywhere with you.”

She rolled her eyes, twisting her gum around her finger. “If you’d rather be my uncle’s lunch, suit yourself. It’s a personal choice, but I’ve gotta tell you, he has disgusting table manners.”

“Why did you help us? What’s the catch?” I asked.

“No catch.” Ridley looked over at Link, who was recovering from the shock of seeing her. “Couldn’t let anything happen to my boy toy.”

“Because I mean so much to you, right?” Link snapped.

“Don’t look so wounded. We had fun while it lasted.” Link may have been hurt, but Ridley was the one who looked uncomfortable.

“Whatever you say, Babe.”

“Don’t call me Babe.” Ridley tossed her hair and popped another bubble. “You can follow me, or stay here and try to take on my uncle by yourselves.” She stalked off into the trees. “The Blood pack will be tracking you the second I get out of their heads.”

The Blood pack. Great. They had a name.

Liv said what we were all thinking. “Ridley’s right. If the pack is tracking us, it isn’t going to take them long to catch up with us again.” She looked at me. “We don’t have a choice.” Liv disappeared into the forest after Ridley.

As much as I didn’t want to follow Ridley anywhere, getting killed by a pack of Blood Incubuses wasn’t an appealing alternative. We didn’t discuss it, but Link must have agreed, because we fell in line behind them.

Ridley seemed to know exactly where she was going, though I noticed Liv never put away the maps. Ridley cut across the meadow, ignoring the path, and headed for a cluster of trees in the distance. Her sandals didn’t seem to slow her down, and the rest of us had trouble keeping up.

Link jogged ahead to catch up with her. “So what’re you really doin’ here, Rid?”

“It’s pathetic to admit, but I’m here to help you and your merry band of fools.”

Link stifled a laugh. “Yeah, right. The lollipops don’t work anymore. Try again.”

The grass was higher as we neared the trees. We were walking so fast the blades cut against my shins, but I didn’t slow down. I wanted to know what Ridley was up to as much as Link did.

“I don’t have an agenda, Hot Stuff. I’m not here for you. I’m here to help my cousin.”

“You don’t care about Lena,” I snapped.

Ridley stopped and turned to face me. “You know what I don’t care about, Short Straw? You. But for whatever reason, you and my cousin have a connection, and you may be the only person who can convince her to turn around before it’s too late.”

I stopped walking.

Liv looked at her coldly. “You mean before she gets to the Great Barrier? The place you told her about?”

Ridley’s eyes narrowed, and she glanced at Liv. “Give this girl a prize. Keeper does know a thing or two.” Liv didn’t smile. “But I wasn’t the one who told her about the Barrier. It was John. He’s obsessed with it.”

“John? You mean the John you introduced her to? The guy you convinced her to run away with?” I was shouting, and I didn’t care if the whole Blood pack heard me.

“Slow down, Short Straw. Lena makes her own decisions, whether you believe it or not.” Ridley’s voice lost some of its edge. “She wanted to go.”

I remembered watching Lena and John, listening to them talk about a place where they could be accepted for who they were. A place where they could be themselves. Of course Lena wanted to go there. It was what she had dreamed about her whole life.

“Why the sudden change of heart, Ridley? Why do you want to stop her now?”

“The Barrier is dangerous. It’s not what she thinks.”

“You mean Lena doesn’t know Sarafine is trying to pull the Seventeenth Moon out of time? But you knew, didn’t you?” Ridley looked away. I was right.

Ridley was picking at the purple polish on her nails, a nervous habit Casters and Mortals shared. She nodded. “Sarafine isn’t doing it alone.”

My mother’s letter to Macon flashed through my mind. Abraham. Sarafine was working with Abraham, someone who was powerful enough to help her call the moon.