Beautiful Darkness (Caster Chronicles 2)

I nodded. “First the moon. Then the star follows. I’m sure.”

The sky was now streaked with light. “Calling a Claiming Moon out of time. That would explain it.”

“What? The missing star?”

Liv closed her eyes. “It’s more than the star. Calling a moon out of time could change the whole Order of Things, from every magnetic field to every magical one. It would explain any shift in the Caster sky. The natural order in the Caster world is as delicately balanced as our own.”

“What could do that?”

“You mean who.” Liv hugged her knees.

She could only be talking about one person. “Sarafine?”

“There are no records of a Caster powerful enough to call out the moon. But if someone is pulling a moon out of time, there’s no way to know when the next Claiming will come. Or where.” A Claiming. Which meant Lena.

I remembered what Marian said in the archive. We don’t get to choose what is true. We only get to choose what we do about it.

“If we’re talking about a Claiming Moon, this is about Lena. We should wake up Marian. She can help us.” But even as I said it, I knew the truth. She might be able to help us, but that didn’t mean she would. As a Keeper, she couldn’t get involved.

Liv was thinking the same thing. “Do you really think Professor Ashcroft is going to let us chase after Lena in the Tunnels, after what happened the last time we were down there? She’ll have us locked up in the rare-books collection for the rest of the summer.”

Worse, she’d call Amma, and I would be carting the Sisters to church every day in Aunt Grace’s ancient Cadillac.

Jump or stay in the boat.

It wasn’t really a decision, not anymore. I’d made it a long time ago, when I first got out of my car on Route 9, one night in the rain. I had jumped. There was no staying in the boat, not for me, whether Lena and I were together or not. I wasn’t going to let John Breed or Sarafine or a missing star or the wrong kind of moon or some crazy Caster skies stop me now. I owed the girl on Route 9 that much.

“Liv, I can find Lena. I don’t know how, but I can. You can track the moon with your selenometer, right?”

“I can measure variances in the magnetic pull of the moon, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“So you can find the Claiming Moon?”

“If my calculations are correct, if the weather holds, if the typical corollaries between the Caster and Mortal constellations stay true…”

“It was more of a yes or no question.”

Liv tugged on one of her braids, thinking. “Yes.”

“If we’re going to do this, we have to go before Amma and Marian wake up.”

Liv hesitated. As a Keeper-in-Training, she wasn’t supposed to get involved. But every time we were together, we found our way to trouble. “Lena could be in a lot of danger.”

“Liv, if you don’t want to come—”

“Of course I want to come. I’ve been studying the stars and the Caster world since I was five. All I’ve ever wanted was to be part of it. Up until a few weeks ago, the only thing I’d done was read about it and watch it through my telescope. I’m tired of watching. But Professor Ashcroft…”

I had been wrong about Liv. She wasn’t like Marian. She wouldn’t be content shelving Caster Scrolls. She wanted to prove the world wasn’t flat.

“Jump or stay in the boat, Keeper. Are you coming?” The sun was rising, and we were running out of time.

“Are you sure you want me to?” She didn’t look at me, and I didn’t look at her. The memory of the kiss that never happened hung between us.

“You know anyone else with a spare selenometer and a mental map of missing Caster stars?”

I wasn’t sure her variances or corollaries or calculations were going to help me. But I knew the song was never wrong, and the things I saw tonight proved it. I needed help, and so did Lena, even if what we had was over. I needed a Keeper, even a runaway Keeper with a crazy watch, looking for action everywhere but inside a book.

“Jump,” Liv said softly. “I don’t want to stay in the boat anymore.” She turned the handle on the screen door quietly, without making so much as a click. Which meant she was going inside to get her stuff. Which meant she was going with me.