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Trueblood!” But he was gone.
    The end of the Mortal world.
    The words kept replaying themselves over and over in Link’s head.
    He walked over to the ashtray, where a pipe was stil smoking, and knocked the embers out of it.
    Obidias Trueblood wouldn’t need it anymore. Link pul ed the heavy cream envelope out of his pocket.
    Something else the dead Caster wouldn’t need.
    He stared at Macon’s handwriting scrawled across the envelope. The letter wasn’t meant for Link. He knew that. But he also knew the guy it was meant for was dead. He tore open the envelope, cutting his finger on the edge of the paper.
    He pul ed out a card from inside, his blood smearing across the front. He stared at it for a long time, his hand shaking.
    The card was completely blank.
    “No way.”
    Link looked from the card to the Dark Caster lying dead next to it. There wasn’t a letter. There never had been. The message was from Macon Ravenwood, but it wasn’t for the dead guy. It was for Link—even he knew that much.
    If it was a test, Link hoped he had passed. It didn’t happen very often, but there was a first time for happen very often, but there was a first time for everything.
    Besides, this time Link knew there was more at stake than summer school.
    Much more.

    About the Authors
    Photo Credit: Alex Hoerner
    Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl came up with the concept for the world of Beautiful Creatures over lunch. Margaret had always been captivated by fantasies and wanted to write a supernatural novel, while Kami loved stories set in the South and wanted to write a book that drew upon her deep Southern roots. With nothing to write on, they scribbled their ideas for a story that combined their shared passions on a paper napkin. By the time they left, the world of Beautiful Creatures had been born. Both Kami and Margaret live in Los Angeles, California, with their families. They now write on computers instead of napkins and invite you to visit them online at www.beautifulcreaturesauthors.com.
    Also by Kami Garcia and Margaret
    Stohl

    The Beautiful Creatures Novels
    Beautiful Creatures
    Beautiful Darkness
    Beautiful Chaos

    Bonus Material
    Some choices are difficult.…
    Others are deadly.
    Find out what happens next! Here’s a sneak peek at Beautiful Chaos , the gripping third book in the Beautiful Creatures series, coming October 18, 2011.

    BEFORE
    Sugar and Salt
    In Gatlin, it’s funny how the good things are al tied up with the bad. Sometimes it’s hard to tel which is which. But either way, you end up taking your sugar with your salt and your kicks with your kisses, as Amma would say.
    I don’t know if it’s like that everywhere. I only know Gatlin, and this is what I know: By the time I got back to my usual seat at church with the Sisters, the only news being passed along with the col ection plate was that the Bluebird Café had stopped serving up hamburger soup, peach pie season was winding down, and some hooligans had stolen the tire swing from the old oak near the General’s Green. Half the congregation was stil shuffling down the carpeted aisles in what my mom used to cal Red Cross shoes. With al the purple knees puffing up where the knee-highs ended, it felt like a whole sea of legs was holding its breath. At least I was.
    But the Sisters stil propped their hymnals open to the wrong pages with their curled knuckles, wadded up handkerchiefs buried in the spotted roses of their hands. Nothing kept them from singing the melody, loud and shril , as they tried to drown one another out. Except Aunt Prue. She accidental y hit on a real harmony about three notes out of three hundred, but nobody minded. Some things didn’t have to change, and maybe they shouldn’t. Some things, like Aunt Prue, were meant to be off-key.
    It was as if this summer had never happened, and we were safe within these wal s. Like nothing but the thick, colored sunlight streaming through the stained-glass windows could force its way in here. Not