Link unlocked the door.
Marian stood up. “You can't go after her. It's too dangerous. There are Casters and creatures of unfathomable power in those Tunnels. You've only been down here once before, and the sections you've seen are passageways compared to the larger Tunnels. They're like another world.”
I didn't need permission. My mom may have led me here, but she was still gone. “You can't stop me because you can't get involved, right? All you can do is sit there and watch me screw things up and write about it so someone like Liv can study it later.”
“You don't know what you'll find, and when you find it, I won't be able to help you.”
It didn't matter. I was at the door by the time Marian finished. Liv was following me. “I'm going, Professor Ashcroft. I'll make sure nothing happens to them.”
Marian moved to the doorway. “Olivia. This isn't your place.”
“I know. But they'll need me.”
“You cannot change what is to be. You have to stay out of it. No matter how much it pains you. A Keeper's role is only to record and bear witness, not to change what unfolds.”
“You're like a hall cop.” Link grinned. “Like Fatty.”
Liv's eyes narrowed. They must have truant officers in England, too. “You don't need to explain the Order of Things to me, Professor Ashcroft. I've studied it since my K levels. But how can I witness what I'm never allowed to see?”
“You can read about it in the Caster Scrolls, like the rest of us.”
“I can? The Sixteenth Moon? The Claiming that could've broken the Duchannes curse? Could you have read about any of that in a scroll?” Liv glanced at her moon watch. “There's something happening. This Supernatural with unprecedented power, Ethan's visions — and there are scientific anomalies. Subtle changes I've picked up on my selenometer.”
Subtle, as in nonexistent. I recognized a scam when I saw one. Olivia Durand was as trapped as the rest of us, and we were her ticket out. She wasn't worried about Link and me in the Tunnels. She wanted to have a life. Like another girl I knew, not too long ago.
“Remember —”
The door closed before Marian could finish, and we were gone.
6.15
Exile
The door slammed behind us. Liv straightened her worn leather knapsack, and Link grabbed a torch from the wall of the tunnel. They were ready to follow me into the great unknown, but instead we stood there, staring at each other.
“Well?” Liv looked at me expectantly. “It's not rocket science. You either know the way, or you —”
“Shh. Give him a second.” Link clamped his hand over Liv's mouth. “Use the force, young Skywalker.” This Wayward thing apparently carried some weight. They actually thought I knew where to go, which only left one problem. I didn't.
“This way.” I was going to have to make it up as I went along.
Marian said the Caster Tunnels were endless, a world beneath our own, but I never really understood what she meant until now. As we turned the first corner, the passage changed, narrowing into damper and darker circular walls that felt more like a tube than a tunnel. I pressed against the walls to push myself forward, and my torch fell in the mud.
“Crap.” I gripped the torch's wooden handle between my teeth and kept going.
“This sucks.” Link was muttering behind me as his torch burned out.
Liv was behind him. “Mine's out, too.” We were in complete darkness. The ceiling was so low, we had to duck beneath the muddy rock.
“This is really freakin’ me out.” Link had never liked the dark.
Liv called out from behind us. “Eventually you're going to reach the …”
I hit my head against something hard and splintery in the darkness. “Ouch!”
“… Doorwell.”
Link must have pulled his flashlight out of his pocket, because a flickering circle of light hit the round door in front of me. It was some kind of cold metal, not the splintering wood or crumbling stone of the other doors we'd seen. It looked more like a manhole cover in the wall. I pushed my shoulder against it, but it didn't budge.
“What now?” I called back to Liv, my standin for Marian on all Caster-related issues. I heard her flipping pages in her notebook.
“I don't know. Maybe push harder?”
“You had to check your little book for that?” I was annoyed.
“You want me to crawl up there and do it for you?” Liv wasn't happy either.
“Come on, kids. I'll push Ethan, you push me, Ethan pushes the door.”
“Brilliant,” Liv said.
“Shoulder to shoulder, MJ.”
“Excuse me?”
“Marian Junior. You're the one who wanted an adventure. You got a better idea?”