It was almost noon by the time I started the long walk home. The blue skies were streaked with dark gray and gold. The pressure was building, but it seemed a few hours from breaking. I think Lena was still in shock. But I was ready for the storm. And when it came, it would make Gatlin’s hurricane season look like a spring shower.
Aunt Del had offered to drive me home, but I wanted to walk. Though every bone in my body ached, I needed to clear my head. I jammed my hands in my jeans pockets and felt the familiar lump. The locket. Lena and I would have to find a way to give it back to the other Ethan Wate, the one lying in his grave, just as Genevieve had wanted us to. Maybe it would give Ethan Carter Wate some peace. We owed them both that much.
I came down the steep road leading up to Ravenwood and found myself once again at the fork in the road, the one that had seemed so frightening before I knew Lena. Before I knew where I was going. Before I knew what real fear felt like, and real love.
I walked past the fields and down Route 9, thinking of that first drive, that first night in the storm. I thought about everything, how I had almost lost my dad and Lena. How I had opened my eyes to see her staring at me, and all I could think was how lucky I was.
Before I realized we had lost Macon.
I thought about Macon, his books tied with string and paper, his perfectly pressed shirts, and his even more perfect composure. I thought about how hard things were going to be for Lena, missing him, wishing she could hear his voice one more time. But I would be there for her, the way I wished someone had been there for me when I lost my mom. And after the past few months, after my mom sent us that message, I didn’t think Macon was really gone, either. Maybe he was still out there somewhere, looking out for us. He had sacrificed himself for Lena, I was sure of that.
The right thing and the easy thing are never the same. No one knew that better than
Macon.
I looked up at the sky. The swirls of gray were seeping across the flat blue, as blue as the paint on my bedroom ceiling. I wondered if that one shade of blue really kept the carpenter bees from nesting. I wondered if those bees really believed it was the sky.
It’s crazy what you see if you aren’t really looking.
I pulled my iPod out of my pocket and turned it on. There was a new song on the playlist.
I stared at it for a long time.
Seventeen Moons.
I clicked on it.
Seventeen moons, seventeen years, Eyes where Dark or Light appears, Gold for yes and green for no, Seventeen the last to know.
Acknowledgments
IT ONLY TOOK THREE MONTHS to write the first draft of Beautiful Creatures. Turns out, the writing was the easy part. The getting it right part was harder, and took the help of a lot more people. Here is the Beautiful Creatures family tree:
RAPHAEL SIMON & HILARY REYL
Who saw it before there was anything to see
SARAH BURNES, OF THE GERNERT COMPANY, AGENT EXTRAORDINAIRE
Who read it & got it from the start
COURTNEY GATEWOOD, OF THE GERNERT COMPANY, AGENT 007
Who got it across the pond & beyond
JENNIFER HUNT & JULIE SCHEINA
LITTLE, BROWN’S MERCILESSLY GENIUS EDITORIAL TEAM
Who made us sweat & cry until we got it right
DAVE CAPLAN, OUR TALENTED AND PSYCHIC DESIGNER
Who created the road to Ravenwood just as we imagined it
MATTHEW CHUPACK
Who translated our Pig Latin into actual Latin
ALEX HOERNER, PHOTOGRAPHER TO THE STARS (AND US)
Who made us look good without any Casting
OUR NORTH CAROLINA RELATIVES, ESPECIALLY
HAYWOOD AINSLEY EARLY, GENEALOGIST
Who helped us plant our family trees
& ANNA GATLIN HARMON, OUR FAVORITE DAUGHTER OF THE CONFEDERACY
Who lent us her maiden name & kept us talkin’ right
AND OUR READERS:
HANNAH, ALEX C, TORI, YVETTE, SAMANTHA, MARTINE, JOYCE, OSCAR, DAVID, ASH, VIRGINIA, JEAN X 2, KERRI, DAVE, MADELINE, PHILLIP, DEREK, ERIN, RUBY, AMANDA, & MARCOS
Whose wanting to know what happened next changed what happened next
ASHLY, AKA TEENAGE VAMPIRE QUEEN
SUSAN & JOHN, ROBERT & CELESTE, BURTON & MARE
Who listened & cheered us on, as they have our whole lives
MAY & EMMA
Who stayed home from school twice to edit out the cheese, & who figured out the missing bit of the end, as only a 13 & a 15 year old could
KATE P AND NICK & STELLA G
Who fell asleep every night to the sound of a laptop clicking
& OF COURSE, ALEX & LEWIS
Who found all the holes