Beautiful Darkness (Caster Chronicles 2)

“You sure?” I didn’t want to be the reason she was going, at least not the only reason. That’s what I told myself, but I was full of crap.

“You know anyone else dumb enough to search for a mythical place where a rogue Supernatural is trying to call a Claiming Moon?” She smiled, opening the door.

“As a matter of fact, I do.”

6.18

Outer Doors

SUMMER SCHOOL: NEVER STOP LEARNIN’ IF YOU WANT TO START EARNIN’.

That’s what the letter board said, where it usually read GO WILDCATZ. Liv and I stared up at it, from the bushes lining the front steps of Jackson High.

“I’m reasonably sure there are G’s in learning and earning.”

“They probably ran out of G’s. You know, graduation, GED, Get Outta Gatlin.” This was going to be tricky. Summer or not, Miss Hester would still be sitting in the attendance office, keeping watch on the front door. If you failed a class, you had to enroll in summer school. But that didn’t mean you couldn’t ditch—if you could get by Miss Hester. Even though Mr. Lee never made good on his threat to fail us for not showing up at the Reenactment of the Battle of Honey Hill, Link had failed biology, which meant I had to find a way to get inside.

“Are we going to hang out in the bushes all morning?” Liv was getting cranky.

“Give me a second. I’ve spent all my time thinking up ways to get out of Jackson. I never put much thought into how to get in. But we can’t leave without Link.”

Liv smiled at me. “Never underestimate the power of the British accent. Watch and learn.”

Miss Hester looked over her glasses at Liv, who had twisted her blond hair into a bun. It was summer, which meant Miss Hester was wearing one of her sleeveless blouses and knee-length polyester shorts, with her white slip-on Keds. From where I was hiding under the counter next to Liv, I had a clear view of the bottom of Miss Hester’s green shorts and her buniony feet.

“I’m sorry. Who did you say you were with?”

“The BEC.” Liv kicked me, and I edged toward the hall.

“Of course. And that would be?”

Liv sighed impatiently. “The British Educational Consulate. As I said, we’re looking for high-functioning schools in the United States to use as models for educational reform.”

“High functionin’?” Miss Hester sounded confused. I made my way around the corner on my hands and knees.

“I can’t believe no one informed you of my visit. May I speak with your headmaster, please?”

“Headmaster?” By the time Miss Hester figured out what a headmaster was, I was halfway up the stairs. Beyond the blond, even beyond the brains, Liv was a girl with a lot of hidden talents.

“All right, enough a the Charlotte’s Web jokes. Grab your specimen firmly with one hand, and make your incision down the belly, top to bottom, with your scissors.” I could hear Mrs. Wilson through the door. I knew what was going on in biology today, from the smell alone. Not to mention the commotion.

“I think I’m going to pass out—”

“Wilbur, no!”

“Ewww!”

I looked through the window in the door. Pink fetal pigs were lined up in a row on the lab tables. They were small, pinned to black, waxy boards inside metal trays. Except Link’s.

Link’s pig was massive. He raised his hand. “Um, Mrs. Wilson? I can’t crack the sternum with scissors. Tank’s too big for that.”

“Tank?”

“Tank, my pig.”

“You can use the garden shears in the back a the room.”

I knocked on the window. Link walked right by, but he didn’t hear me. Eden was sitting at the long black lab table next to Link’s, holding her nose with one hand and poking around inside her pig with tweezers. I was surprised she was in there with the rest of the flunkies—not because she was a rocket scientist or anything, but because I would’ve expected her mom and the D