Beautiful Chaos (Caster Chronicles 3)

I know.

John shoved me aside and touched the surface of the doors with his hand. Then he yanked it away as if the wood burned. “That’s some serious mojo.”

Liv grabbed his hand, but there wasn’t a mark on it. “I don’t think there’s anything we can do to open those doors, unless they want to be opened.” She was talking about the last time they opened—for me. But they weren’t opening this time.

Liv examined the side of the doors, where the carvings were clearest.

“There has to be a way.” I threw myself back against the thick, carved planks. Nothing. “We have to think of something. Who knows what they might do to Marian.”

Liv looked away. “I can imagine. But we can’t help her if we can’t get inside. Give me a minute.” She pulled her red notebook out of her worn leather backpack. “I’ve been trying to figure out these symbols since the first time we saw them.”

Lena shot me a look. “The first time?”

Liv didn’t look up. “Didn’t Ethan tell you? He found these doors weeks ago. They let him pass, but they left me behind. And he wouldn’t tell me much about what he saw on the other side. But I’ve been studying the doors ever since.”

“Weeks ago?”

“I haven’t the exact date,” Liv answered.

Ethan?

I can explain. I was going to tell you the night at the Cineplex, but you were already mad because I had invited Liv to the party.

Secret doors? With your secret friend? And something secret you found behind them? Why would that make me mad?

I should’ve told you. It’s not like you’re worried about Liv.

I wasn’t getting off that easy. I tried not to look at Lena, focusing on a page of sketches in Liv’s red notebook. “That’s it.” I recognized the symbols in her notebook.

Liv held the paper up against the symbols carved into the doors, moving it from one wooden panel to the next, as she compared them. “See the recurring pattern in these three circles?”

“The Wheel,” I said automatically. “You said they were the Wheel of Fate.”

“Yes, but perhaps not only the Wheel of Fate. I think each circle might represent one of the Three Keepers. The Council of the Far Keep.”

“The ones who showed up in the archive?” Lena asked.

She nodded. “I’ve read everything I could find about them, which isn’t much. From what I can determine, the Three Keepers must have been the ones who visited us.”

I thought about it. “It makes sense. The first time I went through those doors, I ended up at the Far Keep.”

“So you think these signs stand for the three of them?” John looked over at me. “Those freaks that wanted to take Liv?”

I nodded. “And Marian.” He seemed more concerned about Liv than Marian, which didn’t surprise me, but it still made me angry. Like just about everything that came out of his mouth.

Liv ignored us both, pointing to the first circle, the one with the fewest spokes. “I think this one represents what’s happening now, the present. And this”—she pointed to the second circle, the one crossed with more spokes—“symbolizes what has been. The past.”

“Then what’s that one?” John pointed to the last circle, the one with no spokes.

“What will never be, or what will always be.” Liv traced the drawing with her finger. “In other words, the future.”

“If each of these symbols represents one of the Keepers, then which is which?” I asked.

Lena studied the circle with the most spokes. “I think that huge guy is the past. He was carrying that empty hourglass when we saw him in the archive.”

Liv nodded. “I agree.”

I reached out and touched the circles. They were hard and cool, different from the texture of the rest of the wooden door. I moved my hand to the empty circle, with no spokes. “The woman from the Council, the one who looked albino. She’s what hasn’t happened yet, right? The future? Because she’s nothing. I mean, she was practically invisible.”