Beautiful Chaos (Caster Chronicles 3)

“Usually?”

“I was following the signal.”

“What signal?”

My eyes adjusted from the darkness of Traveling to the darkness of wherever we had Traveled to. As the blurry shadows lightened from black to gray, I realized we were crammed into a tiny space.

Liv looked at John. “An Ad Auxilium Concitatio. It’s an ancient Homing Cast, like a Caster SOS. But only a Cypher can detect one.”

John shrugged. “I hung out with one at Exile with Rid and—” He didn’t finish, but we all knew who he was talking about. “I picked up some Cypher skills.”

I shook my head. Cyphers? There was so much about Lena’s world I would never understand, no matter how hard I tried.

“You’re a handy guy,” I said, annoyed.

“Who sent it?” Liv asked.

“I did.” Lena was standing behind us in the darkness. I could barely see her face, but her green and gold eyes were shining. She looked over at John. “I was hoping you would pick it up.”

“Glad I’m good for something.”

“The Far Keep is trying Marian for treason. It’s going on right now.” Lena sounded grim. “Uncle Macon went after Marian, but he wouldn’t let me come. He said it was too dangerous.”

Marian was on trial. It was really happening, the way I was afraid it would, ever since the day Liv and I found the Temporis Porta.

Everything I’d been feeling—the doubt, the panic, the wrongness—caught up with me in a crashing wave that nearly knocked my feet out from under me. Like I was drowning. Or falling.

“Don’t worry.” Liv tried to sound reassuring. “I’m sure she’s fine. This whole thing is my fault, not hers. The Council will have to admit that, sooner or later.”

John held up his hand. “Ignis.” A warm yellow flame flickered from the center of his palm.

“New party trick?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Fire was never really my thing. Guess I picked it up from hanging out with Lena.” Normally I would have punched him. At least, I would have wanted to.

Lena grabbed my hand. “These days I can’t even light a candle without torching the place.”

Light flooded the room, and I didn’t have time to hit him, because now I knew exactly where we were. Again.

I was on the other side of the pantry door. Ten feet under my kitchen, in my own house.

I grabbed the old lantern and took off down the crumbling tunnel, toward the door in the ceiling no one ever opened, to the place where the ancient doors would be waiting for me.

“Wait up! You don’t know where this tunnel ends,” John called after me.

“It’s all right,” I heard Liv say. “He knows where he’s going.”

I heard their footsteps behind me, but I only ran faster.

I started banging on the Temporis Porta as soon as I reached it. This time it didn’t open. Splinters dug into my skin, but I didn’t stop pounding on the thick wood.

Nothing I did mattered.

I rested my face against the wood. “Aunt Marian, I’m here! I’m coming.”

Lena came up behind me.

Ethan, she can’t hear you.