Beautiful Creatures (65 page)

“Are you in, or not?”

Link looked at the grating. Without saying another word, he stuck his hand through. It disappeared.

He was in.

I ducked through the doorway and started down the old stone stairs. “Come on. We gotta book.”

Link laughed nervously as he stumbled after me. “Get it? Book? Library?”

The torches lit themselves as we scrambled down into the darkness. I grabbed one out of its metal crescent holder and tossed
it to Link. I grabbed another and jumped the last stairs to the crypt room. One by one, the wall torches ignited as we stepped
into the center of the chamber. The columns emerged, along with their shadows, in the flickering light from the mounted torches.
The words domus lunae libri reappeared in shadow on the entranceway, where I had last seen them.

“Aunt Marian! Are you here?” She tapped my shoulder from behind. I almost jumped out of my skin, bumping into Link.

Link screamed, dropping his torch. I stomped on the flames with my feet. “Jeez, Dr. Ashcroft. You about scared the pants offa
me.”

“Sorry, Wesley—and Ethan,
have you lost your mind
? Do you have any recollection who this poor boy’s
mother
is?”

“Mrs. Lincoln’s unconscious. Lena’s in trouble. Macon’s been hurt. I need to get into Ravenwood, I can’t find Amma, and I
can’t find a way inside. I need to go through the Tunnels.” I was a little boy again, and it all just came tumbling out. Talking
to Marian was like talking to my mom, or at least like talking to someone who knew what it was like to talk to my mom.

“I can’t do anything. I can’t help you. One way or another, the Claiming comes at midnight. I can’t stop the clock. I can’t
save Macon, or Wesley’s mother, or anyone. I can’t get involved.” She looked at Link. “And I am sorry about your mother, Wesley.
I mean no disrespect.”

“Ma’am.” Link looked defeated.

I shook my head and handed Marian the nearest torch from the wall. “You don’t understand. I don’t want you to do anything,
other than what the Caster librarian does.”

“What?”

I looked at her meaningfully. “I need to deliver a book to Ravenwood.” I bent down and reached into the nearest stack, and
randomly pulled out a book, singeing the tips of my fingers.
“The Complete Guide to Poisonous Herbiage and Verbiage.”

Marian was skeptical. “Tonight?”

“Yes, tonight. Right away. Macon asked me to bring it to him personally. Before midnight.”

“A Caster librarian is the only Mortal who knows where to access the
Lunae Libri
Tunnels.” Marian looked at me shrewdly and took the book from my hands. “Good thing I happen to be one.”

Link and I followed Marian through the twisting tunnels of the
Lunae Libri.
At one point I counted the oaken doors we passed through, but I stopped after we got to sixteen. The Tunnels were like a
maze, and each one was different. There were low-ceilinged passageways where Link and I had to duck to walk through, and high-ceilinged
hallways where there seemed to be no roof over our heads at all. It was literally another world. Some passages were rustic,
adorned with nothing but their modest masonry, while others were more like the hallways in a castle or museum, with tapestries,
framed antique maps, and oil paintings hanging from the walls. Under different circumstances, I would’ve stopped to read the
tiny brass plaques under the portraits. Maybe they were famous Casters, who knew. The one thing the passageways had in common
was the smell of earth and time, and the number of times Marian found herself fumbling for her
lunae
crescent key, the iron circle she wore at her waist.

After what seemed like forever, we arrived at the door. Our torches were nearly out, and I had to hold mine up so that I could
read
Rayvenwoode Manor
carved into the vertical planks. Marian twisted the crescent key through the final iron keyhole and the door swung open.
Carved steps led up into the house and I could tell from the glimpse of ceiling above that we were on the main floor.

I turned to Marian. “Thanks, Aunt Marian.” I held out my hand for the book. “I’ll give this to Macon.”

“Not so fast. I’ve yet to see a library card issued in your name, EW.” She winked at me. “I’ll deliver this book myself.”

I looked at my cell. 11:45 again. That was impossible. “How can it be the same time that it was when we arrived at the
Lunae Libri
?”

“Lunar time. You kids never listen. Things aren’t always as they seem, down below.”

Link and Marian followed me up the stairs and into the front hall. Ravenwood was just as we had left it, down to the cake
left out on plates, to the tea set, and the stack of unopened birthday presents.

“Aunt Del! Reece! Gramma! Hello? Where is everybody?” I called out, and they came out of the woodwork. Del was positioned
by the stairs, holding a lamp over her head as if she was going to whack Marian over the head with it in another second. Gramma
was standing in the doorway, shielding Ryan with her arm. Reece was hiding under the stairs, brandishing a cake knife.

They all started to talk at once. “Marian! Ethan! We were so worried. Lena has disappeared, and when we heard the bell from
the Tunnels, we thought it was—”

“Have you seen
Her
? Is she out there?”

“Have you seen Lena? When Macon didn’t come back, we began to worry.”

“And Larkin. She didn’t hurt Larkin, did she?”

I looked at them in disbelief, taking the lamp out of Aunt Del’s hands, and handing it to Link. “A lamp? You really thought
a lamp was gonna save you?”

Aunt Del shrugged. “Barclay went up to the attic to Shift some weapons out of curtain rods and old Solstice decorations. It’s
all I could find.”

I knelt down in front of Ryan. There wasn’t much time, about fourteen minutes to be exact. “Ryan. Do you remember when I was
hurt, and you helped me? I need you to come do that right now, over at Greenbrier. Uncle Macon fell down, and he and Boo are
hurt.”

Ryan looked like she was going to cry. “Boo’s hurt, too?”

Link cleared his throat in the back of the room. “And my mom. I mean, I know she’s been a pain and everything, but could she—could
she help my mom?”

“And Link’s mom.”

Gramma pushed Ryan back behind her, patting her on the cheek. She adjusted her sweater and smoothed her skirt. “Come, then.
Del and I will go. Reece, stay here with your sister. Tell your father where we’ve gone.”

“Gramma, I need Ryan.”

“For tonight, I am Ryan, Ethan.” She picked up her bag.

“I’m not leaving here without Ryan.” I held my ground. There was too much at stake.

“We can’t take an Unclaimed child out there, not on the Sixteenth Moon. She could be killed.” Reece looked at me like I was
an idiot. I was out of the Caster loop again.

Del took my arm reassuringly. “My mother is an Empath. She is very sensitive to the powers of others and she can borrow those
powers for a time. Right now, she has borrowed Ryan’s. It won’t last for very long, but for now she is capable of anything
Ryan can do. And Gramma was Claimed, obviously quite some time ago. So we’ll go with you.”

I looked at my cell. 11:49.

“What if we don’t make it in time?”

Marian smiled and held up the book. “I haven’t made a delivery to Greenbrier, well, ever. Del, do you think you could find
the way?”

Aunt Del nodded, putting on her glasses. “Palimpsests can always find ancient lost doors. It’s just brand new ones we have
a little trouble with.” She disappeared back down into the Tunnels, followed by Marian and Gramma. Link and I scrambled to
keep up with them.

“For a bunch a old ladies,” Link panted, “they really know how to move.”

This time, the passageway was small and crumbling, with speckled black and green moss growing in sprays across the walls and
ceiling. Probably the floors, too, but I couldn’t see them in the shadows. We were five bobbing torches in otherwise total
darkness. Since Link and I were at the back of the pack, the smoke was wafting into my eyes, making them tear and sting.

As we got closer to Greenbrier, I could tell we were there by the smoke that started seeping down into the Tunnels, not from
our torches, but from hidden openings leading to the world outside.

“This is it.” Aunt Del coughed, feeling her way around the edges of a rectangular cut in the stone walls. Marian scraped off
the moss, revealing a door. The
lunae
key fit perfectly, as if it had opened just days ago, rather than hundreds of thousands of days ago. The door wasn’t oak,
but stone. I couldn’t believe Aunt Del had the strength to push it open.

Aunt Del paused on the stairwell and motioned to me to pass. She knew we were nearly out of time. I ducked my head under the
hanging moss and smelled the dank air as I made my way up the stone steps. I climbed out of the tunnel, but when I got to
the top, I froze. I could see the crypt’s stone table, where
The Book of Moons
had lain for so many years.

And I knew it was the same table, because the Book was lying on it now.

The same book that was missing from my closet shelf this morning. I had no idea how it had gotten there, but there was no
time to ask. I could hear the fire before I saw it.

Fire is loud, full of rage and chaos and destruction. And fire was all around me. The smoke in the air was so thick, I was
choking on it. The heat was singeing the hair right off my arms. It was like a vision from the locket, or worse, like the
last of my nightmares—the one where Lena was consumed by fire.

The feeling that I was losing her. It was happening.

Lena, where are you?

Help Uncle Macon.

Her voice was dimming. I waved the smoke away so I could see my cell.

11:53. Seven minutes to midnight. We were out of time.

Gramma grabbed my hand. “Don’t just stand there. We need Macon.”

Gramma and I ran, hand in hand, out into the fire. The long row of willows that framed the archway leading into the graveyard
and the gardens was burning. The brush, the scrub oaks, the palmettos, the rosemary, the lemon trees—everything was on fire.
I could hear the last few canisters in the distance. Honey Hill was wrapping up, and I knew the reenactors would be on to
the fireworks soon, as if the fireworks in the Safe Zone could in any way compare to the fireworks going on out here. The
whole garden as well as the clearing was burning, surrounding the crypt.

Gramma and I stumbled through the smoke until we neared the burning oaks, and I found Macon lying where we had left him. Gramma
leaned over him and touched his cheek with her hand. “He’s weak, but he’ll be all right.” At the same moment, Boo Radley rolled
over and jumped up onto all fours. He slunk over and lay down on his belly next to his master.

Macon struggled to turn his head toward Gramma. His voice was barely a whisper. “Where’s Lena?”

“Ethan’s going to find her. You rest. I’m going to help Mrs. Lincoln.”

Link was by his mom’s side and Gramma hustled in their direction without another word. I stood up, scanning the fires for
Lena. I couldn’t see any of them, anywhere. Not Hunting, Larkin, Sarafine—anyone.

I’m up here. On top of the crypt. But I think I’m stuck.

Hold on, L. I’m coming.

I made my way back through the flames, trying to stick to the pathways I remembered from being in Greenbrier with Lena. The
closer I got to the crypt, the hotter the flames were. My skin felt like it was peeling off, but I knew it was actually burning.

I climbed on top of an unmarked gravestone, found a foothold in the crumbling stone wall, and pulled myself up as far as I
could. On top of the crypt was a statue, some kind of angel, with part of her body broken off. I grabbed onto its—I don’t
know what, it felt something like an ankle—and pulled myself over the edge.

Hurry, Ethan! I need you.

That’s when I found myself face to face with Sarafine.

Who plunged a knife into my stomach.

A real knife, into my real stomach.

The end of the dream we had never been allowed to see. Only this part wasn’t a dream. I know, because it was my stomach, and
I felt every inch of the blade.