Casters and Mortals can't be together. That's what the visions were tel ing me, as if the Caster world didn't think I understood by now.
I heard the sound of footsteps echoing against the cobblestones behind me. "Ethan, are you okay?" Liv put her hand on my shoulder. I hadn't realized she was fol owing me.
I turned around, but I didn't know what to say. I was standing on a street out of the past, in an underground Caster Tunnel, thinking about Lena with some guy who was my polar opposite. A guy who could take whatever I had, whenever he wanted. Tonight had proven it.
"I don't know what to do. This isn't Lena. Ridley and John have some kind of hold on her."
Liv bit her bottom lip nervously. "I know it's not what you want to hear, but Lena's making her own decisions."
Liv didn't understand. She had never seen what Lena was real y like before Macon died and John Breed showed up. "There's no way you can be sure. You heard Aunt Marian. We don't know what kind of powers John has."
"I can't imagine how hard this is for you." Liv was speaking in absolutes, and there was nothing absolute about what was happening to Lena and to me.
"You don't know her --"
Liv's voice dropped to a whisper. "Ethan, her eyes are gold."
The words echoed in my head, like I was underwater. My emotions sank like a stone as logic and reason fought their way to the surface.
Her eyes are gold.
It was such a smal detail, but it meant everything. No one could force her to go Dark, or make her eyes turn gold.
Lena wasn't being control ed. No one was using the Power of Persuasion to manipulate her into jumping onto the back of John's bike. No one was forcing her to be with him. She was making her own choices, and she was choosing him.
I don't want you here, Ethan. I heard the words over and over. Which wasn't even the worst part. She meant them.
Everything felt hazy and slow, like none of this could real y be happening.
Liv's face was ful of concern as she stared up at me with her blue eyes. There was something soothing about their blueness -- not the green of a Light Caster, or the black of an Incubus, or the gold of a Dark Caster. She was different from Lena in the most important way. She was a Mortal. Liv wasn't going to go Light or Dark or run off with a guy with superhuman strength who could suck your blood or steal your dreams while you slept. Liv was training to be a Keeper, but even then she would stil be an observer. Like me, she would never real y be part of the Caster world. Right then, there was nothing I wanted more than to be as far away from that world as I could get.
"Ethan?"
But I didn't answer her. I pushed her shiny blond hair away from her face and leaned down, our faces only inches apart. She inhaled softly, our lips so close I could feel her breath and the scent of her skin, like honeysuckle in the springtime. She smel ed like sweet tea and old books, like she had always been here.
I pul ed my fingers through her hair and held it at the back of her neck. Her skin was soft and warm, like a Mortal girl's. There was no electric current, no shocks. We could kiss for as long as we wanted. If we had a fight, there wouldn't be a flood or a hurricane, or even a storm. I wouldn't find her on the ceiling of her bedroom. No windows would shatter. No exams would catch fire.
Liv held up her face to be kissed.
She wanted me . Not lemons and rosemary, not green eyes and black hair. Blue eyes and blond hair ...
I didn't realize I was Kelting, reaching out for someone who wasn't there. I pul ed away so fast, Liv didn't have time to react. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that."
Liv's voice was shaky, and she put her hand on her neck, where my hands had been a moment before. "It's okay."
It wasn't. I watched the emotions play out in her eyes -- disappointment, embarrassment, regret. "It's no big deal." She was lying. Her cheeks were flushed, and she was staring at the ground. "You're upset about Lena. I get it."
"Liv, I'm --"
Link's voice interrupted my lame attempt at an apology. "Hey, man, nice exit. Thanks for ditchin' me." He pretended he was joking, but his voice was edgy. "At least your cat waited for me." Lucil e was trotting casual y behind him.
"How did she get here?" I bent down to scratch her head, and she purred. Liv didn't look at either of us.
"Who knows? That cat's as crazy as your great-aunts. It was probably fol owin' you."
We started walking, and even Link could feel the weight of the silence. "So what happened back there? Was Lena with Vampire Boy, or what?" I didn't want to think about it, but I could tel he was trying not to think about someone, too.
Ridley wasn't just under his skin. She was crawling around in there.
Liv was walking a foot or so ahead of us, but she was listening.
"I don't know. That's how it looked." There was no point in trying to deny it.
"The Doorwel should be straight ahead." Liv held her head high and almost tripped over a cobblestone. I could see how awkward things were going to be between us. How many things could a guy screw up in one day? I had probably set some kind of record.
Link put his hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry, dude. That's real --" Liv stopped so fast neither of us noticed, until Link bumped right into her. "Hey, what's up, MJ?" Link nudged Liv with his elbow playful y.
But she didn't move or make a sound. Lucil e froze, the hair on her back standing on end, her eyes transfixed. I fol owed her gaze to see what she was staring at, but I had no idea what it was. There was a shadow across the street, lurking just inside a stone archway. It was formless, a dense fog, constantly shifting in a way that gave it shape. It was wrapped in some kind of material, like a shroud or a cloak. It had no eyes, but I could tel it was watching us.
Link took a step backward. "What the --"
"Shh." Liv hissed. "Don't attract its attention." The color drained from her face.
"I think it's too late for that," I whispered. The thing, whatever it was, shifted slightly, moving closer to the street and to us.
I took her hand without thinking. It was buzzing, and I realized it wasn't her hand but the contraption on her wrist. Every dial was spinning. Liv stared at its face, unbuckling the black plastic strap to get a better look.
"I'm getting insane readings," she whispered.
"I thought you made that up."
"I did," she whispered again. "At first."
"Then what? What does it mean?"
"I have no idea." She couldn't take her eyes off the device, but the black shadow shifted closer to us.
"I hate to bother you when you're having so much fun with your watch, but what is that thing? A Sheer?"
She looked up from the spinning dials, her hand shaking in mine. "I wish. It's a Vex. I've only read about them. I've never seen one, and I bloody wel hoped I never would."
"Fascinatin'. Why don't we bolt and talk about this later?" The Doorwel was in sight, but Link was already turning around, wil ing to take his chances with the Dark Casters and creatures at Exile.
"Don't run." Liv put her hand on Link's arm. "They can Travel, disappear and materialize anywhere faster than you can blink."
"Like an Incubus."
She nodded. "This could explain why we saw so many Sheers at Exile. It's possible they were responding to some kind of disturbance in the natural order. The Vex is most likely that disturbance."
"Speak English, real English." Link was panicking.
"Vexes are part of the Demon world, the Underground. They're the closest things to pure evil in the Caster or Mortal world." Liv's voice was shaky.
The Vex continued to move slightly, as if it was being blown by the wind. But it didn't come any closer. It seemed to be waiting for something.
"They aren't Sheers, ghosts as you cal them. Vexes don't have a physical being, unless they possess the living. They have to be summoned from the Underground by someone very powerful, for only the Darkest tasks."
"Hel o. We're already underground." Link didn't take his eyes off the Vex.
"Not the kind of Underground I'm talking about."
"What does it want with us?" Link risked a glance down the street, mental y calculating the distance to Exile.
The Vex began to move, dissolving into mist and back into shadow again.
"I think we're about to find out." I squeezed Liv's hand, trembling in my own.
The black fog, the Vex itself, thrust forward like angry open jaws. And a sound, loud and shril , erupted from deep within. It was impossible to describe -- fierce and menacing like a roar, but terrifying like a scream. Lucil e hissed, her ears flattening against her head. The sound intensified, and the Vex reared back, rising above us as if it was planning to attack. I pushed Liv to the ground and tried to shield her body with mine. I covered my neck, like I was about to be devoured by a grizzly bear instead of a body-snatching Demon.
I thought about my mom. Was this how she felt when she knew she was about to die?
I thought about Lena.
The scream reached a crescendo, and I heard another sound rising above it, a familiar voice. But it wasn't my mother's, or Lena's.
"Dark Demon a the Devil, bend to Our wil and leave this place!" I looked up and saw them standing behind us under the lamplight. She was holding a string of beads and bone in front of her like a crucifix, and they were gathered around her, glowing and luminous, with purpose in their eyes.
Amma and the Greats.
I can't explain what it was like to see Amma and four generations of the spirits of her ancestors towering above her, like the faces from old black and white pictures. I recognized Ivy from the visions, her dark skin gleaming, dressed in a high-necked blouse and calico skirt. But she looked more intimidating than she had in the visions, and the only one who looked fiercer stood to her right, her hand on Ivy's shoulder. She had a ring on every finger, and she was wearing a long dress that looked like it had been stitched from silk scarves, with a tiny bird embroidered on the shoulder. I was staring at Sul a the Prophet, and she made Amma look about as harmless as a Sunday school teacher.
There were two other women, most likely Aunt Delilah and Sister, and an old man, his face punished by the sun, standing in the back with a beard that would've put Moses to shame. Uncle Abner. I wished I had some Wild Turkey for him.
The Greats tightened their circle around Amma, chanting the same verse again and again, in Gul ah, the original language of her family. Amma repeated the same verse in English, shaking the beads and bone, shouting to the heavens.
"Of Vengeance and Wrath, Bind the Suspended, Hasten his path."
The Vex rose even higher, the fog and shadow circling and swirling above Amma and the Greats. Its scream was deafening, but Amma didn't even flinch. She closed her eyes and raised her voice to meet the demonic cry.
"Of Vengeance and Wrath, Bind the Suspended, Hasten his path."
Sul a raised her bracelet-laden arm, spinning a long stick with dozens of tiny charms dangling from it, back and forth between her fingers. She took her hand from Ivy's shoulder and rested it on Amma's, her glowing, translucent skin glimmering in the darkness. The second her hand touched Amma's shoulder, the Vex let out a final gnarled cry and was sucked into the void of the night sky.