Beautiful Chaos (Caster Chronicles 3)

Ethan, calm down. Don’t let him get to you.

Liv stepped in. “Ethan, I think we can keep things a little more civil down here. For all we know, John is as much a victim of Abraham’s reign of terror as the rest of us.” She sounded sympathetic—too sympathetic.

“Did he bite any of your best friends lately?” I snapped.

Liv looked embarrassed.

“Then I don’t want to hear about being civil.”

John pushed himself up from the cot. “You don’t have to talk to her like that. You’re pissed at me. Don’t take it out on Olivia. She’s busting her ass to help you.”

I looked at Liv. She was blushing as she checked the dials on her selenometer. I wondered if John’s Incubus magnetism was having an effect on her. “No offense, but shut the hell up.”

“Ethan!” Lena gave me her version of the Look. Now I was getting it from all sides.

John was amused. “You want me to talk, you want me to shut up. Let me know when you make up your mind.”

I didn’t want to talk to him at all. I wanted him to disappear. “Liv, what’s the point of keeping him around? He hasn’t told us anything. I bet he used his Caster power-sucking abilities to send a message to Abraham and Sarafine, and they’re on their way here right now.”

Liv crossed her arms, disapprovingly. “John hasn’t been sucking anyone’s powers. Most of the time, he’s alone with me. Or Macon and me.” She started to blush. “And yelling at him isn’t going to get you anywhere. John is basically a victim of torture. You can’t imagine the way Silas and Abraham treated him when he was growing up. Nothing you can say comes close to what he’s endured.”

I turned to John. “So, this is what you’ve been doing down here? Telling Liv sob stories so she’ll feel sorry for you? Man, you really are a manipulative asshole.”

John stood up and walked over to where I was standing. “Funny, I was thinking what a charming asshole you are.”

“Really?” I made a fist.

“No.” So did he.

“That’s enough.” Lena stepped between us. “This isn’t helping.”

“And it isn’t scientific, polite, or even remotely entertaining,” Liv added.

John wandered back to his cot. “I don’t know why everyone is so convinced this has to do with me.”

I wasn’t about to tell him about the messages from a kid who had suffered a head injury and didn’t speak. “This has something to do with the Eighteenth Moon. Lena’s isn’t until February, unless Sarafine and Abraham are pulling moons out of time again.” Lena crossed her arms, watching John.

He shrugged, revealing the black tattoo on his arm. “So you have a few months. Better get cracking.”

“I told you, she didn’t say it was Lena’s Eighteenth Moon. We may not have that much time.”

Liv whipped around to look at me. “Who didn’t say that?”

Crap. I didn’t want to tell her about the Lilum yet, especially not in front of John. Lena wasn’t the only girl I knew who was two things. Liv wasn’t a Keeper anymore, but she was still acting like one. “No one. It’s not important.”

Liv was watching me carefully. “You said a guy named John at County Care knew about the Eighteenth Moon—the one in the creepy birthday room. I thought that was the reason you’re here hounding John.”

“Hounding John? Is that what you think I’m doing?” I couldn’t believe how quickly he had gotten to her.

“Actually, I’d call it harassing.” John looked smug.

I ignored him. I was too busy trying to cover my tracks with Liv. “It was a guy named John, but he wasn’t in the Birthday—”

I stopped.

A guy named John.

Lena looked back at me.