“Shh,” the old woman hissed, “I’m listenin’ to the Spirits. They know what you’ve done. They’re gonna tell us what this means.”
“From the earth a her bones and the blood a my blood.” Ivy pricked her finger with the edge of the broken mirror and smeared the tiny drops of blood into the earth she was sifting. “Lemme hear what ya hear. See what ya see. Know what ya know.”
Ivy stood up, arms open to the heavens. The rain poured down upon her, the dirt running down her dress in streaks. She began to speak again in the strange language and then— “It can’t be. She didn’t know no better,” she wailed at the dark sky above.
“Ivy, what is it?”
Ivy was shaking, hugging herself, and moaning, “It can’t be. It can’t be.”
Genevieve grabbed Ivy by her shoulders. “What? What is it? What’s wrong with me?”
“I told you not to mess with that book. I told you it was the wrong kinda night for Castin’, but it’s too late now, child. There’s no way to take it back.”
“What are you talkin’ about?”
“You’re cursed now, Miss Genevieve. You been Claimed. You’ve Turned, and there’s nothin’ we can do to stop it. A bargain. You can’t get nothin’ from The Book a Moons without givin’ somethin’ in return.”
“What? What did I give?”
“Your fate, child. Your fate and the fate a every other Duchannes child that’s born after you.”
Genevieve didn’t understand. But she understood enough to know that what she had done couldn’t be undone. “What do you mean?”
“On the Sixteenth Moon, the Sixteenth Year, the Book will take what it’s been promised. What you bargained. The blood of a Duchannes child, and that child will go Dark.”
“Every Duchannes child?”
Ivy bowed her head. Genevieve wasn’t the only one who was defeated on this night. “Not every one.”
Genevieve looked hopeful. “Which ones? How will we know which ones?”
“The Book will choose. On the Sixteenth Moon, the child’s sixteenth birthday.”
“It didn’t work.” Lena’s voice sounded strangled, far away. All I could see was smoke, and all I could hear was her voice. We weren’t in the library, and we weren’t in the vision. We were somewhere in between, and it was awful.
“Lena!”
And then, for a moment, I saw her face in the smoke. Her eyes were huge and dark—only now, the green looked almost black. Her voice was now more like a whisper. “Two seconds. He was alive for two seconds, and then she lost him.”
She closed her eyes and disappeared.
“L! Where are you?”
“Ethan. The locket.” I could hear Marian, as if from a great distance.
I could feel the hardness of the locket in my hands. I understood.
I dropped it.
I opened my eyes, coughing from the smoke still in my lungs. The room was swirling, blurry.
“What the hell are you children doing here?”
I fixed my eyes on the locket and the room came back into focus. It lay on the stone floor, looking small and harmless. Marian dropped my hand.
Macon Ravenwood stood in the middle of the crypt, his overcoat twisting around him. Amma was standing next to him, her good coat buttoned on the wrong buttons, clutching her pocketbook. I don’t know who was angrier.
“I’m sorry, Macon. You know the rules. They asked for help, and I am Bound to give it.” Marian looked stricken.
Amma was all over Marian, like she had doused our house in gasoline. “The way I see it, you’re Bound to take care a Lila’s boy, and Macon’s niece. And I don’t see how what you’re doin’ does either.”
I waited for Macon to lay into Marian, too, but he didn’t say a word. Then I realized why. He was shaking Lena. She had collapsed across the stone table in the center of the room. Her arms were spread wide, her face down against the rough stone. She didn’t look conscious.
“Lena!” I pulled her into my arms, ignoring Macon, who was already next to her. Her eyes were still black, staring up at me.
“She’s not dead. She’s drifting. I believe I can reach her.” Macon was working quietly. I could see him twisting his ring. His eyes were strangely alight.
“Lena! Come back!” I pulled her limp body into my arms, leaning her against my chest.
Macon was mumbling. I couldn’t make out the words, but I could see Lena’s hair begin to stir in the now familiar, supernatural wind I’d come to think of as a Casting breeze.
“Not here, Macon. Your Casting won’t work here.” Marian was tearing through the pages of a dusty book, her voice unsteady.
“He’s not Castin’, Marian. He’s Travelin’. Even a Caster can’t do that. Where she’s gone, only Macon’s kind can go. Under.” Amma was trying to be reassuring, but she wasn’t very convincing.
I felt the cold settling over Lena’s empty body and knew Amma was right. Wherever Lena was, it wasn’t in my arms. She was far away. I could feel it myself, and I was just a Mortal.
“I told you, Macon. This is a neutral place. There is no Binding you can work in a room of earth.”