Lena turned toward a vase, sitting on the credenza at the end of the hall. As if pulled by a string, the vase followed her eyes to the wall next to Macon’s bedroom door, flying across the room and smashing against the plaster. It was far enough from Macon to be sure it wouldn’t have hit him, but close enough to make a point. It wasn’t an accident.
It wasn’t one of those times Lena had lost control and things just happened. She had done this on purpose. She was in control.
Macon spun around so fast I didn’t even see him move, but he was standing in front of Lena. He was as shocked as I was, and he had come to the same realization; it was no accident. And the look on her face told me she was just as surprised. He looked hurt, as hurt as Macon Ravenwood was capable of looking. “As I said, when you need to do something, you’ll do it.”
Macon turned to me. “It will be even more dangerous, I’m afraid, in the coming weeks. Things have changed. Don’t leave her alone. When she is here, I can protect her, but my mother was right. It seems you can also protect her, perhaps better than I can.”
“Hello? I can hear you!” Lena had recovered from her display of power and the look on Macon’s face. I knew she’d torture herself over it later, but right now she was too angry to see that. “Don’t talk about me like I’m not in the room.”
A lightbulb exploded behind him, and he didn’t even flinch.
“Are you listening to yourself? I need to know! I’m the one being hunted. I’m the one she wants, and I don’t even know why.”
They stared at each other, a Ravenwood and a Duchannes, two branches of the same twisted Caster tree. I wondered if this would be a good time for me to go.
Macon looked at me. His face said yes.
Lena looked at me. Hers said no.
She grabbed me by the hand, and I could feel the heat, burning. She was on fire, as angry as I’d ever seen her. I couldn’t believe every window in the house hadn’t blown out.
“You know why she’s hunting me, don’t you?”
“It’s—”
“Let me guess, complicated?” The two of them stared at each other. Lena’s hair was curling. Macon was twisting his silver ring.
Boo was backing away on his belly. Smart dog. I wished I could crawl out of the room, too. The last of the bulbs blew, and we were standing in the dark.
“You have to tell me everything you know about my powers.” Those were her terms.
Macon sighed, and the darkness began to dissipate. “Lena. It’s not as if I don’t want to tell you. After your little demonstration, it’s clear that I don’t even know what you’re capable of. No one does. I suspect, not even you.” She wasn’t completely convinced, but she was listening. “That’s what it means to be a Natural. It’s part of the gift.”
She began to relax. The battle was over, and she had won it, for now. “Then what am I going to do?”
Macon looked distressingly like my father when he came into my room when I was in fifth grade to explain the birds and the bees. “Coming into your powers can be a very confusing time. Perhaps there is a book on the subject. If you like, we can go see Marian.”
Yeah, right. Choices and Changes. A Modern Girl’s Guide to Casting. My Mom Wants to Kill Me: A Self-Help Book for Teens.
It was going to be a long few weeks.
Domus Lunae Libri
Today? But it’s not a holiday.” When I opened the front door, Marian was the last person I had expected to see, standing on my doorstep in her coat. Now I was sitting with Lena on the cold bench seat of Marian’s old turquoise truck, on our way to the Caster Library.
“A promise is a promise. It’s the day after Thanksgiving. Black Friday. It may not seem like a holiday, but it is a bank holiday, and that’s all we need.” Marian was right. Amma had probably been in the line at the mall with a handful of coupons since before dawn; it was dark out now, and she still wasn’t back. “The Gatlin County Library is closed, so the Caster Library is open.”
“Same hours?” I asked Marian, as she turned onto Main.
She nodded. “Nine to six.” Then, winking, “Nine p.m. to six a.m. Not all my clientele can venture out in the daylight.”
“That hardly seems fair,” complained Lena. “The Mortals get so much more time, and they don’t even read around here.”
Marian shrugged. “Like I said, I do get paid by Gatlin County. Take it up with them. But think how much longer you’ll have until your Lunae Libri are due back.”
I looked blank.
“Lunae Libri. Roughly translated, Books of the Moon. You might call them Caster Scrolls.”
I didn’t care what you called them. I couldn’t wait to see what the books in the Caster Library would tell us, or one book in particular. Because we were short on two things: answers and time.
When we piled out of the truck, I couldn’t believe where we were. Marian’s truck was parked at the curb, not ten feet from the Gatlin Historical Society, or, as my mom and Marian liked to say, the Gatlin Hysterical Society. The Historical Society was also the DAR headquarters. Marian had pulled her truck forward enough to avoid the puddle of light spilling down to the pavement from the lamppost.
Boo Radley was sitting on the sidewalk, as if he had known.
“Here? The Lunae whatever is at the DAR headquarters?”
“Domus Lunae Libri. The House of The Book of Moons. Lunae Libri, for short. And no, just the Gatlin entrance.” I burst out laughing. “You have your mother’s appreciation for irony.” We walked up to the deserted building. We couldn’t have picked a better night.
“But it’s not a joke. The Historical Society is the oldest building in the County, next to Ravenwood itself. Nothing else survived the Great Burning,” Marian added.
“But the DAR and the Casters? How could they have anything in common?” Lena was dumbfounded.
“I expect you’ll find they have quite a bit more in common than you think.” Marian hurried toward the old stone building, drawing out her familiar key ring. “I, for example, am a member of both societies.” I looked at Marian in disbelief. “I’m neutral. I thought I made myself perfectly clear. I’m not like you. You’re like Lila, you get too involved….” I could finish that sentence for myself. And look what happened to her.
Marian froze, but the words hung in the air. There was nothing she could say or do to take them back. I felt numb, but I didn’t say anything. Lena reached for my hand, and I could feel her pulling me out of myself.
Ethan. Are you okay?
Marian looked at her watch again. “It’s five to nine. Technically, I shouldn’t let you in yet. But I need to be downstairs by nine, in case we have any other visitors this evening. Follow me.”
We made our way into the dark yard behind the building. She fumbled through her keys until she drew out what I had always thought was a keychain, because it didn’t look like a key at all. It was an iron ring, with one hinged side. With an expert hand, Marian twisted the hinge until it snapped back upon itself, turning the circle into a crescent. A Caster moon.
She pushed the key into what appeared to be an iron grating, in the foundation at the back of the building. She twisted the key, and the grating slid open. Behind the grating was a dark stone staircase leading down into even more darkness, the basement beneath the basement of the DAR. As she snapped the key one more rotation to the left, a row of torches lit themselves along the sides of the wall. Now the stairwell was fully illuminated with flickering light, and I could even see a glimpse of the words domus lunae libri etched into the stone archway of the entrance below. Marian snapped the key once more, and the stairs disappeared, replaced by the iron grating once again.