Even worse, they were looking for blood. Someone to blame, and to punish.
It felt like the trial of the century, or a bunch of reporters waiting outside South Carolina’s Broad River Correctional Institution when someone from death row was about to get a lethal injection. The executions were covered by every TV station and newspaper. A few people showed up to protest, but they looked like they had been bused in for the day. Everyone else was hanging out, waiting to watch the spectacle. It wasn’t much different from the burning of the witches in The Crucible.
The crowd rushed forward, murmuring, just as I knew they would, and I heard the banging of a gavel. “Silentium.”
Something’s happening.
Lena grabbed my arm.
Liv pointed across the room. “I saw Macon. He’s over there.”
John looked around. “I don’t see Marian.”
Maybe she’s not here, Ethan.
She’s here.
She had to be, because I knew what was about to happen. I forced myself to look up to the balcony.
Look—
I pointed up at Marian, once again hooded and robed, once again tied at the wrists with a golden rope. She was standing on the balcony, high above the room, just as she had been the last time. The tall Keeper who had come to the archive was next to her.
The people around us were still whispering. I looked at Liv, who interpreted. “He’s the Council Keeper. He’s going to—” Liv’s eyes welled up. “It’s not a trial, Ethan. It’s a sentencing.”
I heard the Latin, but this time I didn’t try to understand. I knew what it meant before the Council Keeper repeated the words in English.
Marian would be found guilty of treason.
I listened without listening, my eyes locked on Marian’s face. “The Council of the Far Keep, which answers only to the Order of Things, to no man, creature, or power, Dark or Light, finds Marian of the Western Keep guilty of Treason.”
I remembered the first time I heard those words.
“These are the Consequences of her inaction. The Consequences shall be paid. The Keeper, though Mortal, will return to the Dark Fire from which all power comes.”
I might as well have been the one sentenced to death. Pain gutted my whole body. I watched as Marian’s hood was pulled from her shaved head. I stared into her eyes, surrounded by dark rings as if she had been hurt. I couldn’t tell if it was physical pain or mental or even Mortal. I imagined it was something worse.
I was the only one prepared for it. Liv broke down sobbing. Lena stumbled against me, and I held her up by the arm. Only John stood there, unfazed, his hands jammed into his pockets.
The Council Keeper’s voice echoed through the room again. “The Order is broken. Until the New Order comes forth, the Old Law must be upheld, and the Consequences paid.”
“All this courtroom drama. If I didn’t know you better, Angelus, I would think you were vying for a spot on cable television.” Macon’s voice carried over the crowd, but I couldn’t see him.
“Your Mortal levity defiles this sacred space, Macon Ravenwood.”
“My Mortal levity, Angelus, is something you cannot understand. And I warned you, Angelus, that I would not stand for this.”
The Council Keeper shouted over the crowd. “You have no power here.”
“You have no business finding a Mortal guilty of treason against the Order.”
“The Keeper is of both worlds. The Keeper knew the price. The Keeper chose to allow the destruction of the Order,” he answered.
“The Keeper is a Mortal. Her name is Marian Ashcroft. She has already been sentenced to death, like every Mortal. In forty or fifty years, she will face that sentence. It is the Mortal way.”
“This is not your matter to speak of.” The Council Keeper’s voice was rising, and the spectators were getting restless.
“Angelus, she is weak. She has no powers, no way to protect herself. You cannot punish a wet child for the rain.”
“I do not understand.”
“ ‘The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.’ ” Macon was quoting Harper Lee. I never knew any of Marian’s quotes, but I remembered that one from reading To Kill a Mockingbird in English class last year. And from my mom.
John’s head was bent toward Liv’s, and they were whispering about something. When he noticed me watching them, he stopped. “This is crap,” he said.
For once I agreed with him. “But we can’t stop it.”
“Why not?”
There was no way he would understand. “I know how it ends. They’ve found her guilty of treason. She’s going to be sent back to the Dark Fire, or whatever happens after that. There’s nothing we can do,” I said miserably. “I was here before.”
“Yeah? I wasn’t.” John stepped forward, clapping dramatically. The whole room went dead silent. He squeezed Lena’s shoulder as he passed. “Well, doesn’t this suck?” John shoved his way to the front of the hall, where Macon was standing. I could finally see him. John held up his hand, like he was waiting for Macon to give him a high-five. “Nice try, old man.”
Macon was surprised but held up his hand. His cuff was pulled down a little too far, as though his shirt was too long.
What’s going on, L?
I have no idea.
Lena’s hair started to curl. I smelled a faint trace of smoke in the air.
L, what are you doing?
I think you mean what is he doing?
John wove slowly toward the Council Keeper, who was holding Marian on the balcony. “I’m starting to think you’re not really listening to this fine former Incubus brother of mine.” He jumped up onto the pew, shoving a robed man out of his way.
“You’re out of line, spawn of Abraham. And do not think The Caster Chronicles have been kind to you, Breedling.”
“Oh, I don’t think they’ve been kind. Since when are people kind to me? I’m a jerk. On the other hand, you’re kind of a jerk, too.” John jumped up above the pew, barely catching the bottom of the wooden balcony. His black boots swung back and forth in the air.
The massive gold drapes behind us exploded into flames.
John kicked a bald, tattooed man in the head. I recognized the tattoo. It was the mark of a Dark Caster.
Now John had climbed up onto the wooden balcony, above us all. He put one arm around Marian, the other around the Council Keeper. “Angelus, that’s your name, right? Man, who came up with that one? Here’s the thing. My friend Lena over there, she’s a Natural.” There was a murmuring around us, and I saw the crowd part around Lena as they backed a few feet away.
“Why don’t you show them?” Lena smiled at him, and the drapes closest to the altar caught fire. The whole room was beginning to fill with smoke.
“And Macon Ravenwood, he’s—messed up. Okay, I don’t really know what he is. It’s a long story. There’s this ball, and this fire, and some bad, bad Casters…. But you’ve probably read all about that, haven’t you?” John snapped. “In your little Caster spy book.”
Between Marian and Angelus, I didn’t know who looked more surprised.
“Anyway, back to Macon. Powerful guy. He likes to do this trick—come on, don’t be shy.” Macon closed his eyes, and a green glow flared above him. The crowd tried to rush back toward the walls, but there was too much smoke.
“Which leaves me. I’m not a Natural.” John nodded in Macon’s direction. “I’m not whatever he is either.” John grinned. “But the thing about me is, I’ve touched both of them. So now I can do whatever they can do. It’s kinda my thing. Bet you don’t have a Caster like that in your little book, do you?” As the Keeper tried to pull away, John yanked him even closer. “So, Angelus. Let’s go for a spin and see what a strange guy like you can do.”
The Keeper was furious and backed away, holding up his hand, fingers pointed at John. John imitated him, exactly.
There was a flash of light, like lightning—
We were all standing back on the other side of the Temporis Porta.
Even Marian.
12.13
The Day After Forever
Was that real?” Lena whispered. I pointed to the doors, where smoke was snaking out from under the bottom of the wood.
I grabbed Marian and hugged her, at the same time Liv did. I backed away, awkwardly, and Lena took my place.
“Thank you,” Marian whispered.
Macon clapped his hand on John’s arm. “I can’t decide if that was a brilliant act of pure selflessness back there, or if it was simply an attempt to collect all our powers for yourself.”
John shrugged. “I noticed you didn’t give me any skin.” I remembered the cuff of Macon’s shirt pulled down over his hand.
“You aren’t quite ready to share my power. Either way, I owe you greatly. You showed real courage back there. I won’t soon forget it.”
“Oh, come on. Those guys were jerks. It was nothing.” He walked away from Macon, but I could see the pride on his face. I could see it on Liv’s face even more clearly.
Marian took Macon’s arm, and he started helping her back through the tunnel. At the rate they were going, even the short span of the dirt tunnel was going to be a long hike.
“This is ridiculous,” said John, and in a rip we were all gone.
In seconds, we were in Macon’s study.
“What are Angelus’ powers, exactly?” I was still trying to figure out what we had witnessed.
“I don’t know, but he certainly didn’t seem to want us to find out.” Macon was deep in thought.
“Yeah. He got us out of there pretty fast. I didn’t get to touch him,” John said.
“I feel horrible. Do you think I torched that beautiful old room?” Lena was lost in a different thought entirely.
John laughed. “No, I did.”
“It’s an evil room,” Macon said. “We can only hope you did.”
“Why would that guy Angelus involve himself so closely with this case? What could this be, like one page in The Caster Chronicles?” John asked.
Macon helped Marian into a chair. “He loathes Mortals.”
She was still shaking. Macon pulled a blanket from the foot of his bed and wrapped it around her. I remembered Marian doing the same for the Sisters the night of the Vex attack. The worlds—they weren’t two separate universes anymore, Caster and Mortal. It was all crashing together now.
Things couldn’t stay like this, not for long.
Liv pulled her chair next to Marian’s and put her arms around her. Lena twitched a finger in the direction of Macon’s fireplace grating. Flames lurched up from the logs, shooting ten feet up to the ceiling. At least it wasn’t rain.
“Maybe it’s not just him. Maybe it’s Abraham.” John sighed. “He doesn’t give up easily.”
Macon’s brow furrowed. “That’s interesting. Angelus and Abraham. A common goal, perhaps?”
Liv spoke up. “Are you suggesting that the Keepers are in collusion with Abraham? Because that is so wrong, on so many levels. It can’t possibly be true.”