Beautiful Chaos (Caster Chronicles 3)

“You think I cared about that?”

She laughed. “You would’ve, trust me. I was nothing.”

“You were something to me.” He looked up at the ceiling, as if the answer to this mess was written on the worn squares.

Ridley closed the distance between them. “Come with me. Tonight. I can’t stay here, but I came back for you.”

As I watched her, I saw Sarafine—the one from the visions. The one who was trying to fight her nature, the Darkness taking hold within her. Maybe Lena’s family was wrong.

Maybe there was still Light in the Dark.

Link leaned his head against hers, their foreheads touching for a second. “I can’t. Not after what they did to my friends, and to you. I can’t be one of them, Rid. I’m not like you—and I don’t want to be.”

She was stunned. You could see it in her eyes, even if they were yellow.

“Rid?”

“Take a good look, Hot Rod. This is the last time you’re ever gonna see me.” She was walking backward, still looking at him.

Then she turned and ran.

A cherry lollipop rolled across the floor.

Link’s voice was so quiet I barely heard him as his hand closed around it.

“Bad or not, you’ll always be my girl.”

After seeing Ridley, Link didn’t care about being a rock god. He was in bad shape, and he wasn’t the only one. Lena had barely said a word since I told her about Ridley. The dance was over for us.

The parking lot was deserted. No one left a Jackson dance this early. The hearse was parked at the far end of the lot, under the broken streetlight. Link was behind us, and Liv and John were walking in front, holding hands. I listened to our shoes against the asphalt as we walked. That’s how I knew John had stopped walking.

“No. Not now,” he whispered.

I followed his eyes, but it was pitch-black and I couldn’t see anything. “What is it?”

“What’s up, man?” Link stepped up next to me, his eyes focused on the hearse. I knew he could see in the dark, like John. “Please tell me that isn’t who I think it is.”

John didn’t move. “It’s Hunting and his Blood Pack.”

Liv tried to find them in the darkness, but it was impossible until Hunting stepped into the pale glow of another streetlight.

She pushed John. “Go! Get back in the Tunnels.” Liv wanted him to rip, dematerialize before Hunting had the chance to do the same.

He shook his head. “I can’t leave you. I won’t.”

“You can rip us out of here.” Liv reached for his hand.

“I can’t take all of you at once.”

“Then go!”

It didn’t matter what Liv said. There was no time.

Hunting leaned against the streetlight, a cigarette burning between his fingers. Two more Incubuses stepped into view. “So, this is where you’ve been hiding out. High school. I never would’ve guessed. You never were that smart.”

John pushed Liv behind him. “How did you find me?”

Hunting laughed. “We can always find you, kid. You’ve got your own personal LoJack. Which makes me wonder how you managed to hide out this long. Wherever you were, you should’ve stayed there.”