"By the year three thousand?"

"Exactly. In a thousand years. A star can't suddenly disappear, not without a serious cosmic bang. It's not a subtle thing."

" 'This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.' " I remembered the line from a T. S. Eliot poem. Lena couldn't get it out of her head, before her birthday.

"Yes, wel , I love the poem, but the science is a bit off."

Not with a bang but a whimper. Or was it not with a whimper but a bang? I couldn't remember the exact words, but Lena had written it into a poem on the wal of her bedroom when Macon died.

Had she known where this was going al along? I had a sick feeling in my stomach. The Arclight was so hot, it was singeing my skin.

"There's nothing wrong with your telescope."

Liv studied her selenometer. "I'm afraid something is off. It's not just the scope. Even the numbers don't fol ow."

"Hearts wil go and Stars wil fol ow." I said it without thinking, as if it was any old song stuck in my head.

"What?"

" Seventeen Moons. It's nothing, just a song I keep hearing. It has something to do with Lena's Claiming."

"A Shadowing Song?" She looked at me in disbelief.

"Is that what it is?" I should've known it would have a name.

"It foreshadows what's to come. You've had a Shadowing Song this whole time? Why didn't you tel me?"

I shrugged. Because I was an idiot. Because I didn't like to talk about Lena with Liv. Because horrible things came out of that song. Take your pick.

"Tel me the whole verse."

"There's something about spheres, and a moon before her time appears. Then it says the part about the stars fol owing where the hearts go.... I can't remember the rest."

Liv sank down onto the top step of the porch. "A moon before her time appears. Is that exactly what the song said?"

I nodded. "First the moon. Then the star fol ows. I'm sure."

The sky was now streaked with light. "Cal ing a Claiming Moon out of time. That would explain it."

"What? The missing star?"

Liv closed her eyes. "It's more than the star. Cal ing a moon out of time could change the whole Order of Things, from every magnetic field to every magical one. It would explain any shift in the Caster sky. The natural order in the Caster world is as delicately balanced as our own."

"What could do that?"

"You mean who." Liv hugged her knees.

She could only be talking about one person. "Sarafine?"

"There are no records of a Caster powerful enough to cal out the moon. But if someone is pul ing a moon out of time, there's no way to know when the next Claiming wil come. Or where." A Claiming. Which meant Lena.

I remembered what Marian said in the archive. We don't get to choose what is true. We only get to choose what we do about it.

"If we're talking about a Claiming Moon, this is about Lena. We should wake up Marian. She can help us." But even as I said it, I knew the truth. She might be able to help us, but that didn't mean she would. As a Keeper, she couldn't get involved.

Liv was thinking the same thing. "Do you real y think Professor Ashcroft is going to let us chase after Lena in the Tunnels, after what happened the last time we were down there? She'l have us locked up in the rare-books col ection for the rest of the summer."

Worse, she'd cal Amma, and I would be carting the Sisters to church every day in Aunt Grace's ancient Cadil ac.

Jump or stay in the boat.

It wasn't real y a decision, not anymore. I'd made it a long time ago, when I first got out of my car on Route 9, one night in the rain. I had jumped. There was no staying in the boat, not for me, whether Lena and I were together or not. I wasn't going to let John Breed or Sarafine or a missing star or the wrong kind of moon or some crazy Caster skies stop me now. I owed the girl on Route 9 that much.

"Liv, I can find Lena. I don't know how, but I can. You can track the moon with your selenometer, right?"

"I can measure variances in the magnetic pul of the moon, if that's what you're asking."

"So you can find the Claiming Moon?"

"If my calculations are correct, if the weather holds, if the typical corol aries between the Caster and Mortal constel ations stay true ..."

"It was more of a yes or no question."

Liv tugged on one of her braids, thinking. "Yes."

"If we're going to do this, we have to go before Amma and Marian wake up."

Liv hesitated. As a Keeper-in-Training, she wasn't supposed to get involved. But every time we were together, we found our way to trouble. "Lena could be in a lot of danger."

"Liv, if you don't want to come --"

"Of course I want to come. I've been studying the stars and the Caster world since I was five. Al I've ever wanted was to be part of it. Up until a few weeks ago, the only thing I'd done was read about it and watch it through my telescope.

I'm tired of watching. But Professor Ashcroft ..."

I had been wrong about Liv. She wasn't like Marian. She wouldn't be content shelving Caster Scrol s. She wanted to prove the world wasn't flat.

"Jump or stay in the boat, Keeper. Are you coming?" The sun was rising, and we were running out of time.

"Are you sure you want me to?" She didn't look at me, and I didn't look at her. The memory of the kiss that never happened hung between us.