Beautiful Darkness

Dark Fire

When we reached the base of the cliff, we hid behind a rock formation a few yards from the cave. Two Incubuses were guarding the entrance, talking in low tones. I recognized the scarred one from Macon's funeral. "Great." Two Blood Incubuses, and we weren't even inside. I knew the rest of the pack couldn't be far away.

"Leave them to me, but you may not want to watch." Leah signaled Bade, who loped to her side.

The staff flashed through the air like lightning. The two Incubuses never saw it coming. Leah had the first Incubus on the ground in seconds. Bade lunged, catching the other by the throat and pinning him. Leah rose, wiping her mouth on her sleeve, and spat, a bloody spot marking the sand. "Old blood, seventy, a hundred years. I can taste it."

Link's mouth hung open. "Is she expecting us to do that?"

Leah bent at the neck of the second Incubus for barely a minute before she was waving us on. "Go."

I didn't move. "What do we -- what do I do?"

"Fight."

The entrance to the cave was so bright, the sun could have been shining inside. "I can't do this."

Link looked into the cave nervously. "What are you talkin' about, man?"

I looked at my friends. "I think you guys should go back. This is too dangerous. I shouldn't have dragged you into this."

"Nobody dragged me anywhere. I came to --" Link looked at Ridley, then turned away awkwardly. "To get away from it all."

Ridley flipped her muddy hair dramatically. "Well, I certainly didn't come here because of you, Short Straw. Don't flatter yourself. As much as I like hanging out with you dorks, I'm here to help my cousin." She looked at Liv. "What's your excuse?"

Liv's voice was quiet. "Do you believe in destiny?"

We all looked at Liv like she was crazy, but she didn't care. "Well, I do. I've been watching the Caster sky for as long as I can remember, and when it changed, I saw it. The Southern Star, the Seventeenth Moon, my selenometer that everyone at home teased me about -- this is my destiny. I was supposed to be here. Even if ... no matter what."

"I get it," said Link. "Even if it wrecks everything, even if you know you're gonna get busted, sometimes you gotta do it anyway."

"Something like that."

Link tried to crack his knuckles. "So what's the plan?"

I looked at my best friend, who had shared his Twinkie with me on the bus in second grade. Was I really going to let him follow me into a cave to die? "There's no plan. You can't come with me. I'm the Wayward. This is my responsibility, not yours."

Ridley rolled her eyes. "Obviously the whole Wayward thing hasn't been explained to you properly. You don't have any superpowers. You can't leap over tall buildings in a single bound or fight Dark Casters with your magic cat." Lucille peeked out from behind my leg. "Basically, you're a glorified tour guide who's no better equipped to face a bunch of Dark Casters than Mary P. over here."

"Aquaman," coughed Link, winking at me.

Liv had been quiet until now. "She's not wrong. Ethan, you can't do this alone."

I knew what they were doing -- or more like not doing. Leaving. I shook my head. "You guys are idiots."

Link grinned. "I'd have gone with 'brave as hell,' myself."

We stayed pressed against the cavern walls, following the moonlight pouring through the crack in the ceiling. As we rounded a corner, the rays became impossibly bright, and I could see the pyre below us. It rose from the center of the cave, golden flames encircling it and licking up the pyramid of broken trees. There was a stone slab, which almost resembled some kind of Mayan altar, balanced on top of the pyre as if suspended from invisible wires. A set of weathered stone stairs led up to the altar. The snaking circle worn by Dark Casters was painted on the cave wall behind it.

Sarafine's body was lying on top of the altar, just as it had been when she had appeared in the woods. Nothing else was the same. Moonlight streamed through the roof and hit her body, radiating outward in all directions as if refracted by a prism. It was like she was holding light from the moon she was calling out of time -- Lena's Seventeenth Moon. Even Sarafine's golden dress looked like it was stitched together from a thousand shining metallic scales.

Liv breathed. "I've never seen anything like it."

Sarafine seemed to be in some kind of trance. Her body rose a few inches above the stone, the folds of her dress cascading down like water, past the edges of the stone altar. She was amassing some serious power.

Larkin was at the base of the pyre. I watched as he moved closer to the stone stairs. Closer to --

Lena.

She lay collapsed, her hands extended toward the flames, her eyes shut. Her head was in John Breed's lap, and she looked unconscious. He looked different -- blank. Like he was in a trance of his own.

Lena was shaking. Even from here, I could feel the biting cold radiating from the fire. She must have been freezing. A circle of Dark Casters surrounded the pyre. I didn't recognize them, but I could tell they were Dark by their crazed yellow eyes.

Lena! Can you hear me?

Sarafine's eyes flashed open. The Casters began to chant.

"Liv, what's happening?" I whispered.

"They're calling a Claiming Moon."

I didn't need to understand what they were saying to know what was happening. Sarafine was calling the Seventeenth Moon so Lena could make her choice while she was under the influence of some sort of Dark Cast. Or the weight of her guilt, a Dark Cast of its own.

"What are they doing?"

"Sarafine is using all her power to channel the Dark Fire's energy, and her own, into the moon." Liv was fixated on the scene as if she was trying to memorize every detail, evil or not. It was the Keeper in her, compelled to record history in the making.

Vexes whipped around the cavern, threatening to bring down the walls -- spiraling, gaining strength and mass. "We need to get down there." Liv nodded, and Link grabbed Ridley's hand.

We made our way down the side of the cavern, keeping to the shadows until we reached the wet, sandy cave floor. I realized the chanting had stopped. The Casters were silently transfixed, watching Sarafine and the pyre, as if they were all under the same mind-numbing spell.

"Now what?" Link looked pale.

A figure stepped into the center of the circle. I didn't have to guess who it was, because he was wearing the same Sunday suit and string tie from the visions. His white summer suit made him look even more out of place among the Dark Casters and the helix of Vexes.

It was Abraham, the only Incubus powerful enough to summon this many Vexes from below. Larkin and Hunting stood behind him, and every Incubus in the cavern fell to one knee. Abraham raised his hands up toward the vortex. "It's time."

Lena! Wake up!

The flames surrounding the pyre surged higher. In front of the pyre, John Breed gently lifted Lena to wake her up.

L! Run!

Lena looked around, disoriented. She didn't react to my voice. I wasn't sure if she could hear anything. Her movements were unsteady, as if she didn't know where she was.

Abraham reached out toward John and lifted his hand slowly. John jerked, then picked Lena up in his arms, rising as if being pulled by a string.

Lena!

Lena's head fell to the side, her eyes closing again. John carried her up the stairs. The cocky attitude was gone. He looked like a zombie.

Ridley pushed her way closer. "Lena's totally disoriented. She doesn't even know what's happening. It's an effect of the fire."

"Why would they want her to be passed out? Doesn't Lena have to be conscious to Claim herself?" I thought that was a given.

Ridley stared at the fire. Her voice was uncharacteristically serious, and she was avoiding my eyes. "The Claiming requires volition. She'll have to make the Choice." Ridley sounded strange. "Unless ..."

"Unless what?" I didn't have time to try to interpret Ridley.

"Unless she already has." By leaving us behind. By taking off the necklace. By running off with John Breed.

"She hasn't," I said automatically. I knew Lena. There was a reason for all of it, everything. "She hasn't."

Ridley looked at me. "I hope you're right."

John reached the top of the altar, Larkin following behind him. Larkin bound Sarafine and Lena together under the light of the Seventeenth Moon.

I felt my heart pounding. "I have to get Lena. Can you help me?"

Link grabbed two chunks of rock, big enough to do some damage if he could get close enough to use them. Liv flipped through her notebook. Even Ridley unwrapped a lollipop and shrugged. "You never know."

I heard another voice behind me. "You aren't gonna be able to get up there unless you're fixin' to take care a all those Vexes on your own. And I don't remember teachin' you how to do that." I smiled before I turned around.

It was Amma, and this time she had brought some of the living with her. Arelia and Twyla stood nearby, and together the three old women looked like the Three Fates. Relief washed over me, and I realized part of me had thought I'd never see Amma again. I crushed her in a hug, which she returned, straightening her hat. That's when I saw Gramma's old-fashioned lace-up boots, as she stepped out from behind Arelia.

Make that Four Fates.

"Ma'am." I nodded to Gramma. She nodded back, as if she was about to offer me tea on the veranda at Ravenwood. Then I panicked, because we weren't at Ravenwood. And Amma and Arelia and Twyla weren't the Three Fates. They were three ancient, brittle-boned Southern ladies who were probably about two hundred and fifty years old between them -- wearing support hose. And Gramma wasn't much younger. These Four Fates, in particular, had no business being on a battlefield.

Come to think of it, neither did this one Wate.

I slipped free from Amma's grip. "What are you doing here? How did you find us?"

"What am I doin' here?" Amma sniffed. "My family came to the Sea Islands from Barbados before you were a thought in the Good Lord's mind. I know these islands like my kitchen."

"This is a Caster island, Amma. Not one of the Sea Islands."

"'Course it is. Where else would you hide an island you can't see?"

Arelia put her hand on Amma's shoulder. "She's right. The Great Barrier is hidden among the Sea Islands. Amarie may not be a Caster, but she shares the gift of Sight with my sister and I."

Amma shook her head so hard I thought it was going to fly off. "You didn't really think I was gonna let you wade knee-deep in quicksand on your own, did you?" I threw my arms around her and hugged her again.

"How did you know where to find us, ma'am? We had trouble findin' this place ourselves." Link was always a step ahead or a step behind. The four of them looked at him like he was a fool.

"Bustin' open that ball a trouble the way you boys did? With a spell older than my mamma's mamma? Might as well have dialed up the Greater Gatlin Emergency Phone Tree." Amma took a step toward Link, who took a step backward, out of pointing range. She didn't let go of me, though. That's how I knew what she was really saying: I love you and I couldn't be prouder. And you'll be grounded for a month when we get home.

Ridley leaned closer to Link. "Think about it. A Necromancer, a Diviner, and a Seer. We didn't stand a chance."

Amma, Arelia, Gramma, and Twyla turned to Ridley as soon as she spoke. She reddened, lowering her eyes respectfully. "I can't believe you're here, Auntie Twyla." She swallowed. "Gramma."

Gramma held Ridley by the chin and stared into her bright blue eyes. "So it's true." She broke into a smile. "Welcome back, child." She kissed Ridley on the cheek.

Amma looked smug. "Told you. It was in the cards."

Arelia nodded. "And the stars."

Twyla scoffed, dropping her voice to a low whisper. "Cards only show da surface a things. What we have here, this is cut deep, past da bone and out da other side." A shadow crossed over her face.

I looked at Twyla. "What?" But she smiled, and the shadow was gone.

"You need some help from La Bas." Twyla waved her hand back and forth over her head. Back to the business at hand.

"The Otherworld," Arelia translated.

Amma knelt down, unwrapping a cloth filled with small bones and charms. She might as well have been a doctor preparing her surgical tools. "Callin' the sorta help we need's my specialty."

Arelia took out a rattle, and Twyla sat down and got comfortable. Who knew what she was going to have to raise. Amma spread out her bones and struggled with one of her mason jars. "South Carolina graveyard dirt. Best there is. Brought it from home." I took the jar from her and opened it, thinking about the night I followed her into the swamp. "We can take care a those Vexes. Won't stop Sarafine or Melchizedek's good-for-nothin' brother, but it'll cut off some a her power."

Gramma looked up at the dark cyclone of Vexes fueling the fire. "My goodness, you weren't exaggerating, Amarie. There are a lot of them." I saw her eyes move from Sarafine's motionless body to Lena, in the distance, and the lines in her brow deepened. Ridley let go of her hand, but didn't leave her side.

Link let out a sigh of relief. "Man, I'm goin' back to church next Sunday for sure." I didn't say anything, but what I was thinking wasn't that far off.

Amma looked up from the dirt she was spreading below her feet. "We're gonna send them back down where they belong."

Gramma adjusted her jacket. "Then I'll deal with my daughter."

Amma, Arelia, and Twyla sat cross-legged on the damp rocks and joined hands. "First things first. Let's get rid a those Vexes."

Gramma stepped back and gave them some room. "That would be lovely, Amarie."

The three women closed their eyes. Amma's voice was strong and clear, despite the whirring of the vortex and the humming of Dark magic. "Uncle Abner, Aunt Delilah, Aunt Ivy, Grandmamma Sulla, we are in need a your intercession once more. I call you now to this place. Find your way into this world and banish the ones that don't belong."

Twyla's eyed rolled back in her head, and she began to chant.

"

Les lois,

my spirits, my guides,

Tear apart the Bridge

That carries these shadows from your world into the next."

Twyla raised her arms above her head. "Encore!"

"Again," Arelia spoke the word in English.

"

Les lois,

my spirits, my guides,

Tear apart the Bridge

That carries these shadows from your world into the next."

Twyla continued to chant, mixing her French-Creole with Amma and Arelia's English. Their voices overlapped like a chorus. Through the crack in the cavern ceiling, the sky darkened around the ray of moonlight, as if they had summoned a thundercloud to bring on a storm all their own. But they weren't calling a thundercloud. They were creating a different kind of vortex, darkness spiraling above them like a perfectly formed tornado touching down in the center of their circle. For a second, I thought the enormous spiral was only going to get us killed faster, attracting every Vex and Incubus within sight of it.

I should have known better than to doubt the three of them. The ghostly figures of the Greats began to emerge: Uncle Abner, Aunt Delilah, Aunt Ivy, and Sulla the Prophet. They were forming from the sand and dirt, their bodies being woven from it bit by bit.

Our Three Fates kept spinning.

"Tear apart the Bridge

That carries these shadows from your world into the next."

Within seconds, there were more spirits from the Otherworld, Sheers. They were being born from the spiraling earth, like butterflies from a cocoon. The Greats and the spirits attracted the Vexes, causing the shadowy creatures to rush toward them with the horrible scream I remembered from the Tunnels.

The Greats began to grow. Sulla was so big, her rows of necklaces looked like ropes. All Uncle Abner needed was a thunderbolt and a toga, and he could've been Zeus looming above us. The Vexes shot out from the flames of the Dark Fire, black streaks tearing across the sky. Just as quickly, the shrieking streaks disappeared. The Greats inhaled them, as Twyla had seemed to inhale the Sheers that night in the cemetery.

Sulla the Prophet glided forward, her heavily ringed fingers pointing at the last of the Vexes, turning and screaming in the wind. "Tear apart the Bridge!"

The Vexes were gone, leaving nothing except a dark cloud overhead and the Greats, Sulla in the forefront. She was shimmering in the moonlight as she spoke her final words. "Blood is always Blood. Even time cannot Bind it."

The Greats disappeared, and the dark cloud dissipated. Only the billowing smoke from the Dark Fire remained. The pyre was still burning, and Sarafine and Lena were still tied to the slab.

The vortex of Vexes was gone, and something else had changed. We were no longer silently watching, waiting for an opportunity to make our move. The eyes of every Incubus and Dark Caster in the cave were on us, canines bared and yellow eyes blazing.

We had joined the party, whether we liked it or not.