Beautiful Creatures (34 page)

I like the sound of that.

Lena nudged me. “It’s from the Celtic side of our family. It’s how Casters used to get messages to each other, during the
Trials. In the States, they used to call it ‘The Whispering.’”

“But I’m not a Caster.”

“I know, it’s really weird. It’s not supposed to work with Mortals.” Of course it wasn’t.

“Don’t you think it’s a little more than weird? We can do this Kelting thing, Ridley got into Ravenwood because of me, even
your uncle said I can protect you somehow. How is that possible? I mean, I’m not a Caster. My parents are different, but they’re
not
that
different.”

She leaned into my shoulder. “Maybe you don’t have to be a Caster to have power.”

I pushed her hair behind her ear. “Maybe you just have to fall for one.”

I said it, just like that. No stupid jokes, no changing the subject. For once, I wasn’t embarrassed, because it was the truth.
I had fallen. I think I had always been falling. And she might as well know, if she didn’t already, because there was no going
back now. Not for me.

She looked up at me, and the whole world disappeared. Like there was just us, like there would always be just us, and we didn’t
need magic for that. It was sort of happy and sad, all at the same time. I couldn’t be around her without feeling things,
without feeling everything.

What are you thinking?

She smiled.

I think you can figure it out. You can read the writing on the wall.

And as she said it, there was writing on the wall. It appeared slowly, one word at a time.

You’re

not

the

only

one

falling.

It wrote itself out, in the same curling black script as the rest of the room. Lena’s cheeks flushed a little, and she covered
her face with her hands. “It’s going to be really embarrassing if everything I think starts showing up on the walls.”

“You didn’t mean to do that?”

“No.”

You don’t need to be embarrassed, L.

I pulled her hands away.

Because I feel the same way about you.

Her eyes were closed, and I leaned in to kiss her. It was a tiny kiss, a nothing of a kiss. But it made my heart race just
the same.

She opened her eyes and smiled. “I want to hear the rest. I want to hear how you saved my life.”

“I don’t even remember how I got here, and then I couldn’t find you, and your house was full of all these creepy people who
looked like they were at a costume party.”

“They weren’t.”

“I figured.”

“Then you found me?” She laid her head in my lap, looking up at me with a smile. “You rode into the room on your white stallion
and saved me from certain death at the hands of a Dark Caster?”

“Don’t joke. It was really scary. And there was no stallion, it was more like a dog.”

“The last thing I remember was Uncle Macon talking about the Binding.” Lena twirled her hair, thinking.

“What was the Circle thing?”

“The
Sanguinis
Circle. The Circle of Blood.”

I tried not to look freaked out. I could barely stomach the idea of Amma and the chicken bones. I didn’t think I could handle
real chicken blood; at least, I hoped it was just chicken blood. “I didn’t see the blood.”

“Not actual blood, you idiot. Blood as in kin, family. My whole family is here for the holiday, remember?”

“Right. Sorry.”

“I told you. Halloween is a powerful night for Casting.”

“So that’s what you were all doing up here? In that Circle?”

“Macon wanted to Bind Ravenwood. It’s always Bound, but he Binds it again every Halloween for the New Year.”

“But something went wrong.”

“I guess so, because we were in the circle, and then I could hear Uncle Macon talking to Aunt Del, and then everyone was shouting,
and they were all talking about a woman. Sara something.”

“Sarafine. I heard it, too.”

“Sarafine. Was that the name? I’ve never heard it before.”

“She must be a Dark Caster. They all seemed, I don’t know, scared. I’ve never heard your uncle talk like that before. Do you
know what was happening? Was she really trying to kill you?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer.

“I don’t know. I don’t remember much, except this voice, like someone was talking to me from really far away. But I can’t
remember what they were saying.” She squirmed into my lap, awkwardly leaning against my chest. It almost seemed like I could
feel her heart beating on top of mine, like a little fluttering bird in a cage. We were as close as two people could be, without
looking at each other. Which was, this morning, the way I think we both needed it to be. “Ethan. We’re running out of time.
It’s no use. Whatever it was, whatever she was, don’t you think she was coming for me, because in four months I’m going to
go Dark?”

“No.”

“No? That’s all you have to say about the worst night of my whole life, when I almost died?” Lena pulled back.

“Think about it. Would this Sarafine, whoever she is, be hunting you down if you were one of the bad guys? No, the good guys
would be coming after you. Look at Ridley. Nobody in your family was exactly pulling out the welcome mat for her.”

“Except you. Jerk.” She jabbed me playfully in the ribs.

“Exactly. Because I’m not a Caster, I’m a puny Mortal. And you said yourself, if she told me to jump off a cliff, I’d do it.”

Lena tossed her hair. “Didn’t your mamma ever ask you, Ethan Wate, if your friends were about to jump right off a cliff, would
you jump, too?”

I drew my arms around her, feeling happier than I should’ve, given last night. Or maybe it was Lena who was feeling better,
and I was just picking up on it. These days, such a strong current flowed between us that it was hard to sort out what was
me, and what was her.

All I knew was, I wanted to kiss her.

You’re going Light.

And so I did.

Definitely, Light.

I kissed her again, pulling her up into my arms. Kissing her was like breathing. I had to do it. I couldn’t help myself. I
pressed my body against hers. I could hear her breathing, feel her heart beating against my chest. My whole nervous system
started firing at once. My hair was standing on end. Her black hair spilled into my hands, and she relaxed into my body. Every
touch of her hair was like a prick of electricity. I had been waiting to do this since I had first met her, since I had first
dreamed about her.

It was like lightning striking. We were one thing.

Ethan.

Even in my head, I could hear the urgency in her voice. I felt it too, like I couldn’t get close enough to her. Her skin was
soft and hot. I could feel the pinpricks intensifying. Our lips were raw; we couldn’t kiss each other any harder. The bed
started to shake, and then lift. I could feel it swaying underneath us. I felt like my lungs were collapsing. My skin went
cold. The lights in the room flashed on and off, and the room was spinning, or maybe growing dark, only I couldn’t tell and
I didn’t know if it was me, or if it was the light in the room.

Ethan!

The bed crashed to the floor. I heard the sound of splintering glass, in the distance, as if a window had shattered. I heard
Lena crying.

Then the voice of a child. “What’s wrong, Lena Beana? Why are you so sad?”

I felt a small, warm hand on my chest. The warmth radiated out from the hand, through my body, and the room stopped spinning,
and I could breathe again, and I opened my eyes.

Ryan.

I sat up, my head pounding. Lena was next to me, her head pressed against my chest, just like she had been an hour before.
Only this time, her windows were broken, her bed had collapsed, and a little blond ten-year-old was standing in front of me
with her hand on my chest. Lena, still sniffling, tried to push part of a broken mirror away from me, and what was left of
her bed.

“I think we figured out what Ryan is.”

Lena smiled, wiping her eyes. She pulled Ryan close. “A Thaumaturge. We’ve never had one in our family.”

“I’m guessing that’s a fancy Caster name for a healer,” I said, rubbing my head.

Lena nodded and kissed Ryan’s cheek.

“Something like that.”

11.27

A
fter Halloween, it felt like the calm after the storm. We settled into a routine, even though we knew the clock was ticking.
I walked to the corner to hide from Amma, Lena picked me up in the hearse, Boo Radley caught up with us in front of the Stop
& Steal and followed us to school. With the occasional exception of Winnie Reid, the only member of the Jackson Debate team,
which made debating difficult, or Robert Lester Tate, who had won the State Spelling Bee two years in a row, the only person
who would even sit with us in the cafeteria was Link. When we weren’t at school eating on the bleachers, or being spied on
by Principal Harper, we were holed up in the library rereading the locket papers and hoping Marian might slip up and tell
us something. No sign of flirty Siren cousins bearing lollipops and death grips, no unexplained Category 3 storms or ominous
black clouds in the sky, not even a weird meal with Macon. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Except for one thing. The most important thing. I was crazy about a girl who actually felt the same way about me. When did
that ever happen? The fact that she was a Caster was almost easier to believe than the fact that she existed at all.

I had Lena. She was powerful and she was beautiful. Every day was terrifying, and every day was perfect.

Until out of nowhere, the unthinkable happened. Amma invited Lena to Thanksgiving dinner.

“I don’t know why you want to come over for Thanksgiving anyway. It’s pretty boring.” I was nervous. Amma was obviously up
to something.

Lena smiled, and I relaxed. There was nothing better than when she smiled. It blew me away every time. “I don’t think it sounds
boring.”

“You’ve never been to Thanksgiving at my house.”

“I’ve never been to Thanksgiving at anyone’s house. Casters don’t celebrate Thanksgiving. It’s a Mortal holiday.”

“Are you kidding? No turkey? No pumpkin pie?”

“Nope.”

“You didn’t eat much today, did you?”

“Not really.”

“Then you’ll be okay.”

I had prepped Lena ahead of time so she wouldn’t be surprised when the Sisters wrapped extra biscuits in their dinner napkins
and slipped them into their purses. Or when my Aunt Caroline and Marian spent half the night debating the location of the
first public library in the U.S. (Charleston) or the proper proportions for “Charleston green” paint (two parts “Yankee” black
and one part “Rebel” yellow). Aunt Caroline was a museum curator in Savannah and she knew as much about period architecture
and antiques as my mom had known about Civil War ammunition and battle strategy. Because that’s what Lena had to be ready
for—Amma, my crazy relatives, Marian, and Harlon James thrown in for good measure.

I left out the one detail she actually needed to know. Given how things had been lately, Thanksgiving probably also meant
dinner with my dad in his pajamas. But that was something I just couldn’t explain.