Ridley was waiting for us behind the farthest row of crypts, which, judging by the number of
abandoned beer bottles in the bushes, was also a Gatlin County hot spot.
I couldn’t imagine hanging out here willingly. His Garden of Perpetual Peace still had
Abraham’s fingerprints all over it. Nothing seemed to have changed since he had called up the
Vexes only weeks before the Eighteenth Moon. Warning signs and yellow caution tape created a
labyrinth between the broken mausoleums, uprooted trees, and cracked gravestones in the new
section of the cemetery. Now that the Order of Things was repaired, the grass wasn’t burning up
anymore, and the lubbers were gone. But the other scars were still there if you knew where to look
for them.
True to Gatlin form, the worst of the damage had already been hidden under the layers of fresh
dirt Ridley was standing on now. The caskets had been reburied and the tombs sealed. I wasn’t
surprised. It wasn’t like the good citizens of Gatlin to keep the skeletons out of the closet for long.
Rid unwrapped a cherry lollipop and waved it around dramatically. “I sold it to him. Hook, line,
and stinker.” She smiled at Link. “That’s you, Shrinky Dink.”
“You know what they say. Takes one to know one,” Link shot back.
“You know I smell like frosting on a cupcake. Why don’t you come on over here, and I’ll
show you just how sweet I can be?” She wriggled her long pink nails like claws.
Link walked over to John, who was leaning against a weeping angel that was split right down
the middle. “Just callin’ it like I see it, Babe. And I can smell you just fine from here.”
Link was throwing Ridley more than just quarter-Incubus swagger today. Now that he’d
wrapped his head around the fact that she was back, it was like he lived to trade insults with her.
Ridley turned back to me, annoyed that she hadn’t gotten a bigger rise out of him. “All it took
was a little trip back to N’awlins, and I had Abraham eating out of my hand.”
That was hard to imagine, and John definitely wasn’t buying it. “You expect us to believe you
Charmed Abraham with a few Ridley pops? You and what chain of candy stores?”
Ridley pouted. “Of course not. I had to sell it. So I thought, who would be stupid enough to do
whatever I say and play right into my hands?” She blew Link a kiss. “Our little Dinkubus, of
course.”
Link’s jaw tightened. “She’s full of crap.”
“All I had to do was tell Abraham that I used Link and his feelings for me to infiltrate your
stupid little circle and figure out your even stupider little plan. Then I complained about him keeping
me caged like his prize pet. Of course, I said I couldn’t blame him. Who wouldn’t want me around
full-time?”
“Is that a question? Because I’d be happy to answer,” Link snapped.
“He wasn’t mad that you broke out of your fancy birdcage?” John asked.
Ridley’s voice edged up a little. “Abraham knew I wouldn’t stay in there if I could find a way
out. I’m a Siren; it’s not in my nature to be confined. I told him I used my Power of Persuasion on
his pathetic Incubus errand boy and convinced him to let me out. It didn’t end well. Abraham just
got a bigger cage for him.”
“What else did you say?” I wanted to know if there was really a chance we were getting the
Book. I twisted my charm necklace around my finger, trying not to think about the memories
slipping around it.
“I broke it down for him and said I’d rather bet on him than you guys.” She gave Link a sweet
smile. “You know how I like a winning team. Naturally, Abraham believed every word. Why
wouldn’t he? It’s so utterly believable.”
Link looked like he wanted to throw her across the graveyard.
“And Abraham will be there? Today?” John still didn’t trust her.
“He’ll be there. In the flesh. Of course, I’m using the term loosely.” She shuddered. “Very
loosely.”
“He agreed to trade me for The Book of Moons?” John asked.
Ridley sighed, leaning against the crypt wall. “Well, technically, I believe it went something like,
‘They’re stupid enough to believe you’ll trade John for the Book, but of course you won’t.’ And
then there might have been some laughing. And some drunken Casting. It’s all a haze.”
Link folded his arms across his chest. “The thing is, Rid, how do we know you’re not saying
the same thing to him? You’re Dark as they come. How can we know”—he stepped protectively in
front of me—“whose side you’re really on?”
“She’s my cousin, Link.” Even as I said it, I wasn’t really sure of the answer. Ridley was a
Dark Caster again. The last time she offered to help me, it was a trap, and she led me right to my
mother and my Seventeenth Moon.
But I knew she loved me. As much as a Dark Caster could love anyone. And as much as Rid
could love anyone other than herself.
Ridley leaned closer to Link. “Good question, Shrinky Dink. Too bad I have no intention of
answering it.”
“One of these days, I guess I’ll figure out that one for myself.” Link frowned, and I smiled.
“Let me give you a little clue,” Rid purred. “Today’s not the day.”
Then in a swirl of cotton candy body glitter, the Siren he loved to hate was gone.
It was just starting to get dark when we left Liv and Uncle Macon in the study, poring over every
Caster book they could find about Sheers and Ravenwood history, respectively. Liv was convinced
that Ethan was trying to contact us, and she was determined to find a way to communicate with
him. Every time I went down there, she was taking notes or adjusting the crazy gadget she used to
measure supernatural frequencies. I think she was desperate to find a solution that didn’t involve
trading John for The Book of Moons.
I didn’t blame her.
Uncle Macon was, too, even if he wouldn’t admit it. He was scouring every journal and scrap
of paper he could find for references to other places where Abraham could have hidden the Book.
That’s why I couldn’t tell them what we were doing. We already knew how Liv felt about the
idea of trading John for the Book. And Uncle Macon wasn’t going to trust Ridley. Instead, I told
them I wanted to visit Ethan’s grave, and John volunteered to go with me.
Link was waiting for John and me back at the cemetery. The sky was dark now, and I could
barely make out where a crow circled high in the air above us, shrieking, as we made our way
toward the oldest part of His Garden of Perpetual Peace.
I shivered. That crow had to be some sort of omen. But there was no way of knowing which
kind. Either things were going to go well, and I would end the day with The Book of Moons and a
chance at getting Ethan back, or I’d fail and lose John in the process.
John Breed wasn’t the love of my life, but he was the love of someone’s life. And John and I
had spent more than a few dark months together, when he and Rid seemed like the only people I
could talk to. But John wasn’t the same guy he was back then. He had changed, and he didn’t
deserve to go back to a life with Abraham. I wouldn’t have wished that on anyone.
What had I become?
bargaining with a life
that isn’t mine
isn’t a bargain
misery
doesn’t
come
cheap
John wouldn’t look at me. Even Link kept his eyes fixed on the path ahead of us. I felt like they
were disappointed in me for being so selfish.
I was disappointed in myself.
It is what it is, and I am what I am. I’m no better than Ridley. I only want what I want.
Either way, it didn’t stop my feet from walking.
I tried not to think about it as I followed Link and John through the trees. While most of His Garden
of Perpetual Peace was in the process of being restored to its pre–Vex attack state, the same wasn’t
true of the older part of the graveyard. I hadn’t seen it since the night the earth cracked open,
covering these hills with decomposing corpses and severed bones. Though the bodies were gone,
the ground was still overturned, huge sinkholes replacing the graves that had surrounded
generations of Wates since before the Civil War. Even if Ethan wasn’t here.
Thank God.
“This blows.” Link trudged up the hill with his garden shears in hand. “But don’t worry. I got
your back. He’s not going to take you off to creepy-old-guy-land. Not without a fight. Not with
these babies.”
John shoved Link to the side. “Put those things away, rookie. You won’t be able to get close
enough to Hunting to clip the grass around his feet. And if Abraham sees them, he’ll use them to slit
your throat without even touching them.”
Link shoved John back, and I ducked to avoid being knocked down the hill, as collateral
damage. “Yeah, well, they helped me out on the way to that guy Obidias’ place when I took out that
chicken-fried bat guy. Just don’t get me killed, Caster Boy.”
“Hold up a second.” John, now serious, stopped walking and turned to both of us. “Abraham is
no joke. You have no idea what he’s capable of—I’m not sure anyone does. Stay out of the way
and let me handle him. You’re backup, in case Hunting or your girlfriend gives us trouble.”
“Rid’s on our side, remember?” I reminded him.
“At least she’s supposed to be. And she’s not my girlfriend.” Link clenched his jaw.
“In my experience, the only side Ridley’s ever on is her own.” John stepped over a broken
statue of a praying angel, her hands cracked at the wrists. All the broken angels around here were
starting to feel like a bad omen.
Link looked annoyed, but he didn’t say anything. He didn’t seem to like it when anyone but him
criticized Ridley. I wondered if things could ever really be over between them.
He and John navigated around the broken caskets and tree limbs, reaching an enormous
sinkhole just beyond the old Honeycutt crypt. I did my best to keep up, but they were Incubuses, so
there was nothing I could do, short of Casting an Incubus-cloning spell.
But soon it didn’t matter, because we had nowhere left to go.
Abraham was waiting for us.
Either we had walked right into his trap or he had walked right into ours. It was almost time to
find out.
Abraham Ravenwood was standing on the far side of the sinkhole. Wearing a long black coat and
stovepipe hat and leaning against a splintered tree, he looked bored, as if this was an annoying
errand.
The Book of Moons was tucked under his arm.
I breathed a sigh of relief. “He brought it,” I said quietly.
“We don’t have it yet,” Link said under his breath.
Wearing a black turtleneck and a leather jacket, Hunting stood behind his great-great-greatgrandfather.
He was blowing smoke rings at Ridley. She coughed, waving the smoke away from
her red dress, and gave her uncle a dirty look.
There was something disturbing about seeing her dressed in red, standing a few feet away
from two Blood Incubuses. I hoped John was wrong and Ridley really was on our side—for Link’s
sake as much as my own.
We both loved her. And you couldn’t control who you loved, even if you wanted to. That had
been Genevieve’s problem with Ethan Carter Wate. It had been Uncle Macon’s problem with Lila,
Link’s with Ridley. Probably even Ridley’s with Link.
Love was how all these knots started to unravel in the first place.
“You brought it,” I called across to Abraham.
“And you’ve brought him.” Abraham’s eyes narrowed at the sight of John. “There’s my boy.
I’ve been so worried.”
John tensed. “I’m not your boy. And you’ve never cared about me, so you can stop
pretending.”
“That’s not true.” Abraham acted hurt. “I’ve put a great deal of energy into you.”
“Too much, if you ask me,” Hunting said.
“No one did,” Abraham snapped.
Hunting clenched his jaw and flicked his cigarette into the grass. He didn’t look pleased. Which
meant he would probably take that anger out on someone who didn’t deserve it and didn’t expect it.
We were all plausible candidates.
John looked disgusted. “You mean treating me like a slave and using me to do your dirty work?
Thanks, but I’m not interested in the kind of energy you put into things.”
Abraham stepped forward, his black string tie blowing in the breeze. “I don’t care what
interests you. You serve a purpose, and when you stop serving it, you won’t be useful to me
anymore. I think we both know how I feel about things that aren’t of any use to me.” He smirked.
“I watched Sarafine burn to death, and the only thing that bothered me was the ash on my jacket.”
He was telling the truth. I had watched my mother burn, too. Not that I thought of Sarafine
that way. But hearing Abraham talk about her like that made me feel something, even if I didn’t
know what.
Sympathy? Compassion?
Do I feel sorry for the woman who tried to kill me? Is that possible?
John had told me that Abraham hated Casters as much as Mortals. I hadn’t believed him until
that moment. Abraham Ravenwood was cold, calculating, and evil. He really was the Devil, or the
closest thing I’d ever met.
I watched as John raised his head high and called to Abraham. “Just give my friends the Book,
and I’ll leave with you. That was the deal.”
Abraham laughed, the Book still safely tucked under his arm. “The terms have changed. I think
I’ll keep it after all.” He nodded at Link. “And your new friend.”
Ridley stopped sucking on her lollipop. “You don’t want him. He’s worthless—trust me.” She
was lying.
Abraham knew it, too. A vicious smile spread across his face. “As you wish. Then we can feed
him to Hunting’s dogs. When we get home.”
There was a time when Link would’ve backed up, scared out of his mind. But that was before
John bit him and his life changed. Before Ethan died and everything changed.
I watched Link standing next to John now. He wasn’t going anywhere, even if he was afraid.
That Link was long gone.
John tried to step in front of him, but Link held out his arm. “I can defend myself.”
“Don’t be stupid,” John snapped. “You’re only a quarter Incubus. That makes you half as
strong as me, without the Caster blood.”
“Boys.” Abraham snapped his fingers. “This is all very moving, but it’s time to get going. I
have things to do and people to kill.”
John squared his shoulders. “I’m not going anywhere with you unless you give them the Book.
I’ve come into contact with some powerful Casters lately. I make my own choices now.”
John collected powers the way Abraham collected victims. Ridley’s Power of Persuasion, even
some of my abilities as a Natural. Not to mention the ones he absorbed from all the other Casters
who unknowingly touched him. Abraham had to be wondering whose power John had tapped into.
Still, I started to panic. Why hadn’t we taken John back down into the Tunnels to collect a few
more? Who was I to think we could take on Abraham?
Hunting glanced at Abraham, and a flash of recognition passed between them—a secret they
shared.
“Is that so?” Abraham dropped The Book of Moons at his feet. “Then why don’t you come
over here and take it?”
John had to know it was some kind of trick, but he started walking anyway.
I wished Liv were here to see how brave he was. Then again, I was glad she wasn’t. Because I
could barely stand to watch him take another step closer to the ancient Incubus, and I wasn’t the
girl who loved him.
Abraham held out his hand and flicked his wrist, like he was turning a doorknob.
With that one motion, everything changed. Instantly, John grabbed his head like someone had
just cracked it open from the inside, and dropped to his knees.
Abraham kept his arm in front of him, closing his fist slowly, and John jerked violently,
screaming in pain.
“What the hell?” Link grabbed John’s arm and yanked him to his feet.
John could barely stand. He swayed, trying to regain his balance.
Hunting laughed. Ridley was still standing next to him, and I could see the lollipop shaking in
her hand.
I tried to think of a Cast, anything that would stop Abraham, even for a second.
Abraham stepped closer, gathering up the bottom of his coat to keep it from dragging in the
mud. “Did you think I would create something as powerful as you if I couldn’t control it?”
John froze, his green eyes fearful. He squinted hard, trying to fight the pain. “What are you
talking about?”
“I think we both know,” Abraham said. “I made you, boy. Found the right combination—the
parentage I needed—and created a new breed of Incubus.”
John staggered back, stunned. “That’s a lie. You found me when I was a kid.”
Abraham smiled. “That depends on your interpretation of the word found.”
“What are you saying?” John’s face was ashen.
“We took you. I did engineer you, after all.” Abraham dug around in his jacket pocket and
removed a cigar. “Your parents had a few happy years together. It’s more than most of us get.”
“What happened to my parents?” John gritted his teeth. I could almost see the rage.
Abraham turned to Hunting, who lit the cigar with a silver lighter. “Answer the boy, Hunting.”
Hunting flipped the top of the lighter closed. He shrugged. “It was a long time ago, kid. They
were juicy. And chewy. But I can’t remember the details.”
John lurched forward and ripped through the darkness.
One second he was there. The next, he was gone, sliding away in a ripple of air. He reappeared
just inches in front of Abraham and wrapped his hand around the old Incubus’ throat. “I’m going to
kill you, you sick son of a bitch.”
The tendons in John’s arm tightened, but his grip didn’t.
The muscles in his hand were tensing, his fingers obviously trying to close, but they wouldn’t.
John grabbed his wrist with his other hand, trying to brace it.
Abraham laughed. “You can’t hurt me. I’m the architect of the design. Think I would build a
weapon like you without a kill switch?”
Ridley stepped back, watching as John’s hand loosened against his will, his fingers opening as
he tried to force them closed again with his other hand. It was impossible.
I couldn’t bear to watch. Abraham seemed more in control of John now than he had on the
night of the Seventeenth Moon. Worse, John’s awareness didn’t seem to change the fact that he
couldn’t control his body. Abraham was pulling the strings.
“You’re a monster,” John hissed, still holding his wrist inches from Abraham’s throat.
“Flattery won’t get you anywhere. You’ve caused me lots of problems, boy. You owe me.”
Abraham smiled. “And I plan to take it out of your flesh.”
He twitched his hands again, and John rose off the ground further, clutching his own neck
with his hands, strangling himself.
Abraham was trying to do more than make a point. “You have outlived your usefulness. All that
work for nothing.”
John’s eyes rolled back in his head, and his body went limp.
“Don’t you need him?” Ridley shouted. “You said he was the ultimate weapon.”
“Unfortunately, he’s defective,” Abraham answered.
I noticed something move in my peripheral vision a moment before I heard his voice.
“One could say the same thing about you, Grandfather.” Uncle Macon stepped out from behind
one of the crypts, his green eyes glowing in the darkness. “Put the boy down.”
Abraham laughed, though his expression was anything but amused. “Defective? That’s a
compliment, coming from the little Incubus who wanted to be a Caster.”
Abraham’s grip on John loosened just enough for John to get some air. The Blood Incubus was
focusing his anger on Uncle Macon now.
“I never wanted to be a Caster, but I’m glad to accept any fate that unburdens me from the
Darkness you brought upon this family.” Uncle Macon pointed a hand at John, and a wave of
energy flashed across the graveyard, the blast hitting John squarely.
John yanked his hands away from his neck as his body dropped to the ground.
Hunting started toward his brother, but Abraham stopped him, clapping dramatically. “Nicely
done. That’s quite a party trick, son. Maybe next time you can light my cigar.” Abraham’s features
settled in his familiar sneer. “Enough games. Let’s finish this.”
Hunting didn’t hesitate.
He ripped through the darkness as Uncle Macon focused his green eyes on the black sky.
Hunting materialized in front of his brother just as the sky exploded into a blanket of pure light.
Sunlight.
Uncle Macon had done it once before, in the parking lot of Jackson High, but this time the light
was even more intense—and focused. That light coming from him had been Caster green. This time
it was something stronger and more natural, as if the light came from the sky itself.
Hunting’s body jerked. He reached out and grabbed his brother’s shirt, taking them both to the
ground.
But the killing light only intensified.
Abraham’s skin went pale, the color of white ash. The light seemed to weaken him, but not
nearly as quickly as it was draining Hunting.
Even as Hunting desperately tried to stay alive, Abraham only seemed interested in trying to kill
us. The old Blood Incubus was too strong, and he reached out for Uncle Macon. I knew better than
to underestimate him. Even wounded, he wouldn’t give up until he destroyed us all.
An overwhelming sense of panic surged inside me. I concentrated every thought, every cell on
Abraham. The earth around him bucked, tearing itself from the ground like a rug being pulled out
from under him. Abraham staggered and then turned his attention to me.
He closed his hand around the air in front of him, and an invisible force tightened around my
throat. I felt my feet rise off the ground, my Chucks kicking below me.
“Lena!” John shouted. He closed his eyes, concentrating on Abraham, but whatever he was
planning, he wasn’t fast enough.
I couldn’t breathe.
“I don’t think so.” Abraham twisted his free hand, bringing John to his knees in seconds.
Link charged Abraham, but another simple flick of the Blood Incubus’ wrist sent him flying.
Link’s back hit the jagged stone crypt with a loud crack.
I struggled to stay conscious. Hunting was below me, his hands around Uncle Macon’s neck.
But he didn’t seem to have enough strength left to hurt his brother. The color slowly drained from
Hunting’s skin, turning his body hauntingly transparent.
I gasped for breath, transfixed, as Hunting’s hands slid from Uncle M’s neck and he started
writhing in pain.
“Macon! Stop!” he pleaded.
Uncle Macon focused his energy on his brother. The light held steady as the darkness leached
out of Hunting’s body and into the overturned earth.
Hunting seized, and sucked in his last breath. Then his body shuddered and froze.
“I’m sorry, brother. You left me no choice.” Macon stared down at what was left before
Hunting’s corpse disintegrated, as if he had never existed at all.
“One down,” he said grimly.
Abraham shielded his eyes, trying to determine if Hunting was really gone. The color was
beginning to seep out of Abraham’s skin now, but it had only made it as far as his wrists. He would
kill me long before the sunlight took him out. I had to do something before we all ended up dead.
I closed my eyes, trying to push past the pain. My mind was slipping into numbness.
Thunder rumbled overhead.
“A storm? Is that all you’ve got, my dear?” Abraham said. “Such a waste. Just like your
mother.”
Anger and guilt churned inside me. Sarafine was a monster, but she was a monster Abraham
had helped create. Abraham had used her weaknesses to lure her into Darkness. And I had watched
her die. Maybe we were both monsters.
Maybe we all are.
“I’m nothing like my mother!” Sarafine’s fate was decided for her, and she wasn’t strong
enough to fight it. I was.
Lightning tore across the sky and struck a tree behind Abraham. Flames raced down the trunk.
Abraham took off his hat and shook it with one hand, careful to keep the hand tethered to my
throat tightly clenched. “I always say it’s not a party until something catches fire.”
My uncle rose to his feet, his black hair messy and his green eyes glowing even brighter than
before. “I would have to agree.”
The light in the sky intensified, blazing like a spotlight on Abraham. As we watched, the beam
exploded in a blinding flash of white—forming two horizontal beams of pure energy.
Abraham swayed, shielding his eyes. His iron grip retracted, and my body fell to the rotting
soil.
Time seemed to stop.
We all stared at the white beams spreading across the sky.
Except one of us.
Link ripped before anyone else had a chance to react—dematerializing in a split second, like he
was a pro. I couldn’t believe it. The only times he’d ever ripped in front of me, he practically
flattened me like a pancake.
Not this time.
A crack in space opened up for him, only inches in front of Abraham Ravenwood.
Link yanked the garden shears out of the waistband of his jeans, raising them above his head.
He plunged them into Abraham’s heart before the old Incubus even realized what had happened.
Abraham’s black eyes widened and he stared at Link, struggling to stay alive as a circle of red
seeped slowly out around the blades.
Link leaned in close. “All that engineerin’ wasn’t for nothin’, Mr. Ravenwood. I’m the best a
both worlds. A hybrid Incubus with his own onboard navigation.”
Abraham coughed desperately, his eyes fixed on the mostly Mortal boy who had taken him
down. Finally, his body slid to the ground, the stolen science lab shears protruding from his chest.
Link stood over the body of the Blood Incubus who had hunted us for so long. The one person
generations of Casters hadn’t been able to touch.
Link grinned at John and nodded. “Screw all that Incubus crap. That’s how you do it Mortalstyle.”
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