She leaned into my shoulder. “Maybe you don’t have to be a Caster to have power.”

I pushed her hair behind her ear. “Maybe you just have to fall for one.”

I said it, just like that. No stupid jokes, no changing the subject. For once, I wasn’t embarrassed, because it was the truth. I had fallen. I think I had always been falling. And she might as well know, if she didn’t already, because there was no going back now. Not for me.

She looked up at me, and the whole world disappeared. Like there was just us, like there would always be just us, and we didn’t need magic for that. It was sort of happy and sad, all at the same time. I couldn’t be around her without feeling things, without feeling everything.

What are you thinking?

She smiled.

I think you can figure it out. You can read the writing on the wall.

And as she said it, there was writing on the wall. It appeared slowly, one word at a time.

You’re

not

the

only

one

falling.

It wrote itself out, in the same curling black script as the rest of the room. Lena’s cheeks flushed a little, and she covered her face with her hands. “It’s going to be really embarrassing if everything I think starts showing up on the walls.”

“You didn’t mean to do that?”

“No.”

You don’t need to be embarrassed, L.

I pulled her hands away.

Because I feel the same way about you.

Her eyes were closed, and I leaned in to kiss her. It was a tiny kiss, a nothing of a kiss. But it made my heart race just the same.

She opened her eyes and smiled. “I want to hear the rest. I want to hear how you saved my life.”

“I don’t even remember how I got here, and then I couldn’t find you, and your house was full of all these creepy people who looked like they were at a costume party.”

“They weren’t.”

“I figured.”

“Then you found me?” She laid her head in my lap, looking up at me with a smile. “You rode into the room on your white stallion and saved me from certain death at the hands of a Dark Caster?”

“Don’t joke. It was really scary. And there was no stallion, it was more like a dog.”

“The last thing I remember was Uncle Macon talking about the Binding.” Lena twirled her hair, thinking.

“What was the Circle thing?”

“The Sanguinis Circle. The Circle of Blood.”

I tried not to look freaked out. I could barely stomach the idea of Amma and the chicken bones. I didn’t think I could handle real chicken blood; at least, I hoped it was just chicken blood. “I didn’t see the blood.”

“Not actual blood, you idiot. Blood as in kin, family. My whole family is here for the holiday, remember?”

“Right. Sorry.”

“I told you. Halloween is a powerful night for Casting.”

“So that’s what you were all doing up here? In that Circle?”

“Macon wanted to Bind Ravenwood. It’s always Bound, but he Binds it again every Halloween for the New Year.”

“But something went wrong.”

“I guess so, because we were in the circle, and then I could hear Uncle Macon talking to Aunt Del, and then everyone was shouting, and they were all talking about a woman. Sara something.”

“Sarafine. I heard it, too.”

“Sarafine. Was that the name? I’ve never heard it before.”

“She must be a Dark Caster. They all seemed, I don’t know, scared. I’ve never heard your uncle talk like that before. Do you know what was happening? Was she really trying to kill you?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer.

“I don’t know. I don’t remember much, except this voice, like someone was talking to me from really far away. But I can’t remember what they were saying.” She squirmed into my lap, awkwardly leaning against my chest. It almost seemed like I could feel her heart beating on top of mine, like a little fluttering bird in a cage. We were as close as two people could be, without looking at each other. Which was, this morning, the way I think we both needed it to be. “Ethan. We’re running out of time. It’s no use. Whatever it was, whatever she was, don’t you think she was coming for me, because in four months I’m going to go Dark?”

“No.”

“No? That’s all you have to say about the worst night of my whole life, when I almost died?” Lena pulled back.

“Think about it. Would this Sarafine, whoever she is, be hunting you down if you were one of the bad guys? No, the good guys would be coming after you. Look at Ridley. Nobody in your family was exactly pulling out the welcome mat for her.”

“Except you. Jerk.” She jabbed me playfully in the ribs.

“Exactly. Because I’m not a Caster, I’m a puny Mortal. And you said yourself, if she told me to jump off a cliff, I’d do it.”

Lena tossed her hair. “Didn’t your mamma ever ask you, Ethan Wate, if your friends were about to jump right off a cliff, would you jump, too?”

I drew my arms around her, feeling happier than I should’ve, given last night. Or maybe it was Lena who was feeling better, and I was just picking up on it. These days, such a strong current flowed between us that it was hard to sort out what was me, and what was her.

All I knew was, I wanted to kiss her.

You’re going Light.

And so I did.