Ridley glared, but she didn’t say a word.
“Dr. Ashcroft, have you ever delivered a book to the Otherworld?” Liv asked.
Marian shook her head. “I can’t say that I have.”
“Maybe Carlton Eaton could just run it on over.” Link looked hopeful. “You could wrap it up in one a those brown paper packages, like you do for my mom’s books. And, you know, circulate it or somethin’.” Marian sighed. “I’m afraid not, Wesley.” Even Carlton Eaton, who had his nose in every letter in town in both the Mortal and Caster worlds, couldn’t make a delivery like that.
Frustrated, Liv flipped through her little red notebook. “There has to be a way. What were the odds you could get the Book from Abraham at all? And now that we have it, we’re just going to give up?” She pulled the pencil from behind her ear, scribbling and mumbling to herself. “The laws of quantum physics must allow for this sort of eventuality….” I didn’t know anything about the laws of quantum physics, but I knew one thing. “The stone from my charm necklace disappeared when I left it for Ethan. Why would the Book be any different?” I know you took it, Ethan. Why couldn’t you take the Book, too?
I realized Uncle Macon could probably hear me, and I tried to stop.
It was no use. I couldn’t stop Kelting any more than I could stop the words that strung themselves together, waiting for me to write them down somewhere.
laws of physics
laws of love
of time and space
and the (in)between place
(in)between you and me
and where we are
lost and looking
looking and lost
“Maybe the Book’s too heavy,” Link offered. “That little black rock wasn’t any bigger than a quarter.”
“I’m not sure that’s the reason, Wesley. Though anything is possible,” Marian said.
“Or impossible.” Ridley pushed her sunglasses back into place and stuck out her red tongue.
“So why can’t it make the jump?” John asked.
Marian glanced at Liv’s notes, considering the question. “The Book of Moons is a powerful supernatural object. No one really understands the scope of its power. Not the Keepers or the Casters.”
“And if the origin of its magic is in the Caster world, it could be deeply rooted here,” Liv said. “The way a tree is rooted to a particular spot.”
“Are you saying the Book doesn’t want to cross over?” John asked.
Liv tucked the pencil behind her ear. “I’m saying maybe it can’t.”
“Or shouldn’t.” Uncle Macon’s tone grew more serious.
Ridley slid to the floor and stretched out her long legs. “This is so messed up. I risked my life, and now we’re stuck with that thing. Maybe we need to hit the Tunnels and see if any of the other bad guys know the answer. You know
—Team Dark.”
Liv crossed her arms over her EDISON DIDN’T INVENT THE LIGHTBULB T-shirt. “You want to take The Book of Moons to a Dark Caster bar?”
“You have a better idea?” Rid asked.
“I think I do.” Marian slipped her red wool jacket on.
Liv scrambled after her. “Where are you going?”
“To see someone who knows a great deal about not just that book but a world that defies the physics of both the Caster and Mortal worlds. Someone who just may have the answers we need.” My uncle nodded. “An excellent idea.”
There was only one person who fit that description.
Someone who loved Ethan as much as I did. Someone who would do anything for him, even rip a hole in the universe.
CHAPTER 27
The Cracks in Everything
Now, don’t you tell me you’re thinkin’ a settin’ foot on my front walkway, you hear?” Amma refused to let Ridley anywhere near Wate’s Landing. She said so in about fifteen different ways in the first conversation we unsuccessfully tried to have with her.
“Mmmm-nnnnnnn. No Dark Casters are comin’ into this house while I’m here on this sweet earth. Or after I leave it.
No, sir. No, ma’am. No how.”
She agreed to meet us at Greenbrier instead.
Uncle Macon hung back. “It’s better this way. Amarie and I haven’t seen each other since the night… it happened,” he explained. “I’m not sure this is the right moment.”
“So what you’re saying is that you’re scared of her, too?” Ridley eyed him with new interest. “Imagine that.”
“I’ll be at Ravenwood if you need me,” he said, giving Ridley a withering stare.
“Imagine that.” I smiled.
The rest of us waited inside the crumbling wall of the old graveyard. I resisted the urge to wander over to Ethan’s plot, though I felt the familiar pull, the longing to be with him there. I believed, with all my heart, that there was a way to get Ethan back, and I wasn’t going to stop trying until I found it.
Amma was hopeful, too, but I had seen the fear and doubt in her eyes. She had already lost him twice. Every time I took her another crossword puzzle, she was desperate to get him back.
I think Amma wasn’t about to let herself believe in anything she could stand to lose again.
With the Book, though, we were one step closer.
Ridley was leaning against a tree, a safe distance from the hole in the stone wall. I knew she was just as afraid of Amma as Uncle Macon was, even if she wouldn’t admit it.
“Don’t say anything to her when she gets here,” Link warned Ridley. “You know how she gets about that book.” Ridley rolled her eyes. “I thought Abraham was a pain. Amma’s even worse.” I saw a black orthopedic lace-up step through the opening.
“Worse than what?” Amma demanded. “Worse than your manners?” She looked Ridley up and down. “Or your taste in clothes?”
She was wearing a yellow dress, all sunlight and sweetness, which didn’t match her expression. Her grayish-black hair was twisted into a neat bun, and she was carrying a patterned quilting bag. I’d been around long enough to know there weren’t any quilting supplies inside.
“Or a stitch worse than the girl who gets pulled outta Hell only to walk back into the fire on her own?” Amma watched Ridley carefully.
Ridley didn’t take off her sunglasses, but I could see the shame anyway. I knew her too well. There was something about Amma that made you feel completely awful if you disappointed her—even if you were a Siren with no ties to her.
“That’s not what happened,” Ridley said quietly.
Amma dropped her bag on the ground. “Isn’t it, then? I have it on good authority that you had a chance to be on the right side a wrong for once, and you gave it up. Did I miss somethin’ in the fine print?” Ridley shifted nervously. “It’s not that simple.”
Amma sniffed. “You go on tellin’ yourself that if it helps you sleep at night, but don’t try to sell it to me, because I’m not buyin’ it.” Amma pointed to the lollipop in Ridley’s hand. “And all that sugar will rot those teeth right outta your head, Caster or no Caster.”
Link laughed nervously.
Amma focused her eagle eye on him. “What’re you laughin’ about, Wesley Lincoln? You’re knee deep in more trouble than the day I caught you in my basement when you were nine years old.” Link’s face reddened. “It sorta finds me, ma’am.”
“You know you go lookin’ for it, sure as the sun shines the same on the saints as it does on the sinners.” She glanced at each of us. “So what is it this time? And it better not have anythin’ to do with destroyin’ the balance a the universe.”
“All saints, ma’am. No sinners.” Link backed away an inch or two, looking at me for help.
“Spit it out. I’ve got Aunt Mercy and Aunt Grace at the house, and I can’t leave them alone with Thelma for too long, or the three a them will order everything that comes on the shoppin’ channel.” Amma rarely called Ethan’s great-aunts