Beautiful Darkness(117)

Macon tilted his head slightly. “Who might you be, dear? I imagine it was your voice I heard calling me from the Arclight.”

Liv blushed. “It was, sir. My name is Olivia Durand, and I was training with Professor Ashcroft. Before …” Her voice dwindled.

“Before you Cast the Ob Lucem Libertas?”

Liv nodded, ashamed. Macon looked pained, then smiled at her. “Then you gave up a great deal to save me, Miss Olivia Durand. I am in your debt, and, as I always repay my debts, I would be honored to answer a question. At the very least.” Even after being trapped all those months, Macon was still a gentleman.

“Obviously, I know how you got out of the Arclight, but how did you get in? It's impossible for an Incubus to imprison himself, especially when, by all accounts, you were dead.” Liv was right. He couldn't have done it alone. Someone had to have helped him, and the minute the ball released him, I knew who it was.

It was the one person we both loved as much as Lena, even in death.

My mother — who had loved books and old things, nonconformity and history and complexity. Who had loved Macon so much she walked away when he asked her to, even though she couldn't bear to leave him. Even though a part of her never had.

“It was her, wasn't it?”

Macon nodded. “Your mother was the only one who knew about the Arclight. I gave it to her. Any Incubus would have killed her to destroy it. It was our secret, one of our last.”

“Did you see her?” I looked out at the sea, blinking hard.

Macon's expression changed. I could see the pain in his face. “Yes.”

“Did she seem …” What? Happy? Dead? Herself?

“Beautiful as ever, your mother. Beautiful as the day she left us.”

“I saw her, too.” I thought about Bonaventure Cemetery and felt the familiar knot in my throat.

“But how is that possible?” Liv wasn't trying to challenge him, but she didn't understand. None of us did.

Macon's face was full of grief. It wasn't any easier for him to talk about my mom than it was for me. “I think you'll find the impossible is possible more often than we think, particularly in the Caster world. But if you would care to take one last trip with me, I can show you.” He opened his hand to me, offering Liv the other. Ridley stepped forward and closed her hand around mine, and hesitantly Link limped over, completing the circle.

Macon looked over at me, and before I could read his expression, the air was filled with smoke —

Macon tried to hold on, but he was blacking out. He could see the ebony sky above him, streaked with orange flames. He couldn't see Hunting as he fed, but he could feel his brother's teeth in his shoulder. When Hunting had his fill, he let Macon's body drop to the ground.



When Macon opened his eyes again, Lena's grandmother, Emmaline, was kneeling over him. He could feel the heat of her healing power as it coursed through his body. Ethan was there, too. Macon tried to speak, but he didn't know if they could hear him. Find Lena, that's what he wanted to say. Ethan must have heard him, because he took off into the smoke and fire.



The boy was so much like Amarie, so stubborn and fearless. He was so much like his mother, loyal and honest, and bound for the heartbreak that came from loving a Caster. Macon was still thinking about Jane when his mind faded.



When Macon opened his eyes again, the fire was gone. The smoke, the roaring of flames and ammunition — it was all gone. He felt himself drifting in the darkness. It wasn't like Traveling. This void had weight. It was pulling him through. Yet when he reached out, he could see that his hand was hazy, only partially materialized.



He was dead.



Lena must have made the Choice. She had chosen to go Light. Even in the darkness, knowing the fate of an Incubus in the Otherworld, a sense of calm washed over him. It was finished.



“Not yet. Not for you.”



Macon turned, recognizing her voice immediately. Lila Jane. She was luminous in the abyss, shimmering and beautiful. “Janie. There's so much I have to tell you.”



Jane shook her head, her brown hair falling over her shoulder. “There's no time.”



“There's nothing but time.”



Jane stretched out her hand, her fingers glimmering. “Take my hand.”



As soon as Macon touched her, the darkness began to bleed into colors and light. He could see images, familiar shapes and forms swimming around him, but he couldn't anchor them. Then he realized where they were. The archive, Jane's special place.



“Jane, what's happening?” He saw her reach out, but everything was blurry and unclear. Then he heard the words, the words he had taught her.



“In these walls with no time or space, I Bind your body and from this Earth erase.”



There was something in her hand. The Arclight. “Jane, don't do it! I want to be here with you.”



She was floating before him, already beginning to fade. “I promised if the time came, I would use it. I'm keeping my promise. You can't die. They need you.” She was gone now, a voice, nothing else. “My son needs you.”



Macon tried to tell her everything he had failed to say in life, but it was too late. He could feel the pull of the Arclight already, impossible to break. As he spun into the abyss, he heard her seal his fate.