When I opened my eyes, Liv was crying, and Ridley was trying to pretend she wasn't. "Oh, please. Enough with the drama." A tear leaked onto her cheek.
Liv wiped her eyes, sniffling. "I had no idea a Sheer was capable of anything like that."
"You would be surprised what we are capable of when the situation warrants it." Macon clapped his hand on my shoulder. "Isn't that right, Mr. Wate?"
I knew he was trying to thank me. But as I looked around our broken circle, I didn't feel like I deserved thanks. Ridley had lost her powers, Link was wincing in pain, and Liv had destroyed her future. "I didn't do anything."
Macon's hand tightened on my shoulder, forcing me to face him. "You made yourself see what most would have overlooked. You brought me here; you brought me back. You accepted your fate as a Wayward and found the way here. None of that could have been easy." He looked around the cave at Ridley, Link, and Liv. His eyes lingered a moment on Liv, and then his eyes locked on mine. "For anyone."
Including Lena.
I almost couldn't stand to tell him, but I wasn't sure if he knew. "Lena thinks she killed you."
Macon didn't speak for a second, but when he did, his voice was even and controlled. "Why would she think that?"
"Sarafine stabbed me that night, but you died. Amma told me. But Lena can't forgive herself, and it's ... changed her." I wasn't making sense, but there was so much Macon needed to know. "I think she may have made a choice in her heart without realizing it."
"She didn't." Macon dismissed me.
"It was The Book of Moons , Mr. Ravenwood." Liv couldn't help herself. "Lena was desperate to save Ethan, and she used the Book. It made a trade, your life for his. Lena had no way of knowing what would happen. The Book can't be properly controlled, which is why it's not meant to be kept in Caster hands." Liv sounded even more like a Caster librarian than usual.
Macon tilted his head slightly. "I see. Olivia?"
"Yes, sir?"
"With all due respect, we've no time for a Keeper. This day will require certain actions best left unkept. At the very least, untold. Do you understand?"
Liv nodded. Her expression said she understood more than he knew.
"She's not a Keeper, not anymore." Liv had saved his life and destroyed her own in the process. She deserved Macon's respect, at the very least.
"Not likely, after this," she sighed.
I listened to the waves crashing, wishing they could carry my thoughts out to sea with them. "Everything's changed."
Macon's eyes flickered again to Liv, then returned to me. "Nothing's changed. Nothing important. It could, but it hasn't yet."
Link cleared his throat. "But what can we do? I mean, look at us." Link paused. "They've got a whole army a Incubuses and who knows what else down there."
Macon took stock of us. "What do we have? A powerless Siren, a renegade Keeper, a lost Wayward, and ... you, Mr. Lincoln. A motley but resourceful crew, indeed." Lucille meowed. "And yes, you, Ms. Ball."
I realized what a train wreck we were, hammered, dirty, and exhausted.
"Yet, somehow you made it this far. And you released me from the Arclight, which was no small feat."
"Are you sayin' you think we can take them?" Link had the same look on his face as the one he had when Earl Petty started a fight with the whole Summerville High football team.
"I'm saying we don't have time to stand here and chat, as much as I enjoy your fine company. I have more than a few things to take care of, my niece being first and foremost." Macon turned to me. "Wayward, show us the way."
Macon took a step toward the mouth of the cave, and his legs collapsed under him. A cloud of dust rose where he fell. I looked at him, sitting in the dirt in his charred dinner jacket. He hadn't recovered from whatever happened in the Arclight. I hadn't exactly called in the Marines. We needed a plan B.
6.20
Army of One
Macon was insistent. He was in no condition to go anywhere, but he knew we didn't have a lot of time, and he was determined to go with us. I didn't argue, because even a weakened Macon Ravenwood was more resourceful than four powerless Mortals. I hoped.
I knew where we had to go. The moonlight was still pouring through the ceiling of the coastal cave in the distance. By the time Liv and I helped Macon navigate the shoreline leading to the moonlit cave, one painstaking step at a time, he had finished asking me his questions and I was asking him mine. "Why would Sarafine call up the Seventeenth Moon now?"
"The sooner Lena is Claimed, the sooner the Dark Casters will have secured their fate. Lena is growing stronger every day. They know the longer they wait, the more likely she is to make up her own mind. If they know the circumstances surrounding my demise, I imagine they want to take advantage of Lena's vulnerable state."
I remembered when Hunting told me that Lena killed Macon. "They know."
"It's of the utmost importance that you tell me everything."
Ridley fell into step alongside Macon. "Ever since Lena's birthday, Sarafine's been summoning power from the Dark Fire to become powerful enough to raise the Seventeenth Moon."
"You mean that crazy bonfire she started back in the woods?" The way Link said it, I was pretty sure he imagined a trash can burning by the lake at night.
Ridley shook her head. "That wasn't the Dark Fire. It was a manifestation, like Sarafine. She created it."
Liv nodded. "Ridley's right. The Dark Fire is the source of all magical power. If Casters channel their collective energy back into the source, it becomes exponentially more powerful. A sort of supernatural atomic bomb."
"You mean it's gonna blow up?" Link didn't look as sure about hunting down Sarafine now.
Ridley rolled her eyes. "It won't blow up, Genius. But the Dark Fire can do some serious damage."
I looked up at the full moon and the beam of moonlight creating a direct path into the cavern. The moon wasn't feeding the fire. The power of the Dark Fire was being channeled into the moon. That's how Sarafine called the moon out of time.
Macon was watching Ridley carefully. "Why would Lena agree to come here?"
"I convinced her, me and this guy John."
"Who is John, and how does he fit into all this?"
Ridley was biting her purple nails. "He's an Incubus. I mean, a hybrid, anyway. Part Incubus and part Caster, and he's really powerful. He was obsessed with the Great Barrier and how everything would be perfect if we got here."
"Did this boy know Sarafine would be here?"
"No. He's a true believer. Thinks the Great Barrier will solve all his problems, like it's some kind of Caster Utopia." She rolled her eyes.
I could see the anger in Macon's eyes. The green reflected his emotions in a way the black never had. "How is it that you and a boy who isn't even a full-blooded Incubus were able to talk Lena into something so absurd?"
Ridley looked away. "It wasn't hard. Lena was in a bad place. I think she believed there was nowhere else for her to go." It was hard to look at the blue-eyed Ridley without wondering how she felt about the Dark Caster she was only a few days ago.
"Even if Lena felt responsible for my death, why would she think she belonged with the two of you, a Dark Caster and a Demon?" Macon didn't say it with spite, but I could tell the words stung Ridley.
"Lena hates herself and thinks she's going Dark." Ridley glanced at me. "She wanted to go to a place where she wouldn't hurt anyone. John promised he'd be there for her when no one else would."
"I would have been there for her." My voice echoed off the rock walls surrounding us.
Ridley looked right at me. "Even if she went Dark?"
It all made sense. Lena was guilt-ridden and tormented, and John was there with all the answers, in ways I couldn't be.
I thought about how long he and Lena had been alone together, how many nights, how many dark Tunnels. John wasn't a Mortal. Her touch wouldn't kill him with its intensity. John and Lena could do anything they wanted -- all the things Lena and I could never do. An image crept into my mind, the two of them curled up together in the darkness. The way Liv and I had been in Savannah.
"There's something else." I had to tell him. "Sarafine didn't do this alone. Abraham has been helping her."
Something passed across Macon's face, but I couldn't pin it down. "Abraham. That's no surprise."
"The visions have changed, too. When I was in them, it seemed like Abraham could see me."
Macon lost his footing, nearly tripping me. "Are you certain?"
I nodded. "He said my name."
Macon looked at me the way he had the night of the winter formal, Lena's first dance. As if he felt sorry for me, the things I had to do, the responsibilities that fell to me. He never understood I didn't care.
Macon kept talking, and I tried to focus. "I had no idea things had progressed so quickly. You must exercise extreme caution, Ethan. If Abraham has established a connection with you, then he can see you as clearly as you can see him."
"You mean, outside of the visions?" The idea of Abraham watching my every move wasn't a comforting thought.
"At this point, I don't have an answer. But until I do, be careful."
"I'll get right on that. After we fight an army of Incubuses to rescue Lena." The more we talked about it, the more impossible it felt.
Macon whipped around to face Ridley. "Is this boy John involved with Abraham?"
"I don't know. Abraham's the one who convinced Sarafine she could raise the Seventeenth Moon." Ridley looked miserable and exhausted and filthy.
"Ridley, I need you to tell me everything you know."
"I wasn't that high on the food chain, Uncle Macon. I never even met him. Everything I know came from Sarafine." It was hard to believe Ridley was the same girl who almost convinced my father to jump off a balcony. She looked so sad and broken.
"Sir?" Liv's voice was tentative. "Something's been bothering me ever since we met John Breed. We have thousands of Caster and Incubus family trees in the Lunae Libri, hundreds of years of history. How is it that this one person comes along out of nowhere, and there's no record of him? Of John Breed, I mean."
"I was wondering precisely the same thing." Macon started walking again, leaning heavily to one side. "But he's not an Incubus."
"Not strictly speaking," Liv answered.
"He's as strong as one." I kicked at the rocks under my feet.
"Whatever. I could take him." Link shrugged.
Ridley fell into step next to us. "He doesn't feed, Uncle M. I would have seen it."
"Interesting."
Liv nodded. "Very."
"Olivia, if you don't mind --" He held out his arm to her. "Have there been any cases of hybrids on your side of the Atlantic?"
Liv slipped her shoulder underneath Macon's arm, taking my place. "Hybrids? I should hope not...."
As Liv continued along the rocks with Macon, I lagged behind. I pulled Lena's necklace out of my pocket. I let the charms roll around in my palm, but they were tangled and meaningless without her. The necklace was heavier than I imagined, or maybe it was the weight of my conscience.