Beautiful Darkness(87)

I remembered slowly — the stars, the Tunnels, the attic, the guest room. Then I realized why the mattress looked different.

Liv was gone.





It didn't take long to figure out where Liv was. “Do you ever sleep?”

“Not as much as you do, apparently.” As usual, Liv didn't look up from her telescope, though this one was aluminum and much smaller than the one she kept on Marian's porch.

I sat down next to her on the back step. The yard was as calm as my aunt herself, a quiet patch of green spreading underneath a broad magnolia tree. “What are you doing up?”

“I got a wake-up call.” I tried to sound casual, instead of how I actually felt. Awkward. I motioned at the guest room window on the second floor. Even from down here, you could see pulsing green light shining through the glass panes.

“Strange. I suppose I got one as well. Take a look through the celestron.” She handed me the miniature scope. It looked like a flashlight except for the large lens fitted to one end.

Our hands touched as I took it. Not so much as a shock.

“Did you make this, too?”

She smiled. “Professor Ashcroft gave it to me. Now stop talking and look. There.” She pointed right over the magnolia, which to my Mortal eye looked like a dark expanse of starless sky.

I fitted the scope to my eye. Now the sky over the tree was streaked with light, a kind of ghostly aura trailing toward the ground not far from us. “What is that, a falling star? Do falling stars leave trails like that?”

“It might. If it was a falling star.”

“How do you know it's not?”

She tapped the scope. “It might be falling, but it's a Caster star falling in the Caster sky, remember? Otherwise we could see it without the scope.”

“Is that what your crazy watch is saying?”

She picked it up from the step next to her. “I'm not sure what it's saying. I thought it was broken until I saw the sky.”

The Arclight was still flashing in the window, a constant green strobe light.

I remembered something from my dream. It felt as if the Harley was headed right at me. “We can't stay here. Something's happening.” Something here in Savannah.

Liv strapped her selenometer back onto her wrist. “Whatever it is seems to be happening over there.” She dropped the scope into her backpack and pointed into the distance. It was time to go.

I held out my hand, but she pulled herself to her feet. “You wake up Link. I'll get my things.”

“I still don't see why this couldn't wait until mornin’.” Link was grouchy, and his spiky hair was sticking up everywhere.

“Does this thing look like it could wait until morning?” The Arclight was so bright now, it lit up the whole street in front of us.

“Can you put it on a lower setting or somethin’? Switch off the high beams already.” Link shielded his eyes.

“I don't think it's working.” I shook the Arclight, but the flashing green light didn't stop.

“Man, you broke the Magic 8 Ball.”

“I didn't break it. I —” I gave up, jamming it into my pocket. “Yeah, it's pretty much broken.” The light was shining through my jeans.

“It's possible some sort of Caster power surge triggered it and shifted the normal balance of how the Arclight functions.” Liv was intrigued.

Link wasn't. “Like an alarm? That's not good.”

“We don't know that.”

“Are you kidding? It's never good when Commissioner Gordon activates the Bat-Signal. When the Fantastic Four see the number four in the sky.”

“I get the idea.”

“Yeah? Can you get one that gets us where we're tryin’ to go, since Ethan broke the 8 Ball?”

Liv consulted her selenometer and started walking. “I can get us to the general area where the star fell.” She looked at me. “I mean, if it was a star. But Link might be right. I don't know exactly where we're going, or what we'll find when we get there.”

“Almost makes a guy wish he had his own pair of garden shears,” I said, following Liv down the street.

“Speakin’ a things that aren't normal, look who's here.” Link pointed to the curb in front of a house with red shutters. Lucille was sitting on the edge of the sidewalk, staring at us as if we were holding her up. “Told you she'd come back.”

Lucille licked her brown paws sulkily, waiting.

“Couldn't live without me, could you, girl? I have that effect on women.” Link grinned, scratching her head. She batted his fingers away.

“Come on, now. Aren't you comin’?” Lucille didn't budge.

“Yep. He's got that effect on women,” I said to Liv as Lucille stretched out in front of the house.

“She'll come around,” Link said. “They always do.”

That's when Lucille took off running down the street, in the opposite direction from the way we went.





It was the middle of the night and pitch-dark by the time we found ourselves heading out of town. It felt like we had been walking for hours. The main road was always busy during the day. Now it was deserted. Which made sense, considering where it had led us. “You sure about this?”