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most of the space?”
    It wasn’t much fun looking stupid, but I’d tolerate it for
Mamie. “Darkness.”
    “Right, only five percent of the observable universe is
actually matter as we know it: stars, rocks, dust. With me so far?” I nodded,
and she said, “That leaves us with seventy percent unaccounted for. It’s not
just empty space, so something has to be out there. Which leads us to dark
energy. My professor believes dark energy is real, even if it’s not understood
or really provable yet.” She paused, lips pursed, probably looking for words small
enough for me to follow. “You know that the universe is expanding, right?”
    I nodded. I wasn’t that undereducated.
    “Good. So if it’s expanding, why do the galaxies themselves
stay together in clusters?”
    Shrugging, I said, “Stars? Gravitational pull?”
    “Yes, somewhat, but the reason they’re shaped like spirals
and discs and stuff is because dark matter is imposing an additional weak gravity
on them. Black holes probably are too, but that’s a whole other topic, and they
were stars once anyway.”
    My eyes were glazing over. “And the big deal is…?”
    She chuckled. “If galaxies are held together by the gravity
of the stars and super-massive black holes and dark matter, why is the universe
expanding rather than contracting? And not only expanding, but expanding at an
ever increasing rate.” Mamie paused, as if she really thought I’d try to answer
that questions. When I didn’t, she said, “The only answer? Some other force is
pulling everything apart.”
    Then it dawned on me, what she was trying to say. “Dark energy
is trying to rip apart the universe?”
    “Assuming the theories are correct, it’s a possibility,” she
said, her eyes gleaming with the academic fervor that gripped her when she
solved a new puzzle. “Dark matter tries to help hold light together, strangely
enough. Dark energy pulls it apart. And it’s incredibly strong, Matt. Much
stronger than the stars and dark matter. In a way, it’s at war with everything
else in the universe.”
    A shiver ran down my back at the thought of sentient darkness.
Like the Shadow Man: it was living, seething darkness, too. We had always
talked about Good and Evil in abstract terms. But what if Mamie said was right
and the Master of our enemies was universal, in the truest sense of the word? What
chance did we stand in a war if we had to fight the forces of the cosmos
itself?
     
     

Chapter Five
     
     
    On Monday morning, I stared glumly into my locker, looking
for the motivation to go to English. We were studying The Scarlet Letter and I couldn’t think of anything less interesting than a bunch of colonists
blathering about a woman who got knocked up. My bad mood was intensified by Mamie’s
departure back to Helena. Already feeling hollow and discouraged at facing another
week at school, I shoved my books into my backpack without enthusiasm and
closed my locker door, wishing Mom would relent and let me move to D.C. There
wasn’t much left for me here. The “real world” had faded to a dull gray and I
realized with a start that the only time I felt alive anymore was while on the
hunt.
    Not sure I liked what that said about me, I started toward
class. Will met me, wearing the predatory smile I’d come to recognize as
“that’s my next girlfriend, bro.” He pointed down the hall. “Who’s the new
girl?”
    I turned to catch a glimpse of a tiny girl with curly
golden-brown hair and the most gorgeous brown eyes I’d ever seen. Seriously,
her eyes rivaled Ella’s and I couldn’t give higher praise than that. Except
where Ella was tall with an athletic build, this girl was as delicate as a
living, breathing china doll.
    I turned to Will, frowning. “Dude, really? She’s barely five
feet tall, and if she weighs more than ninety pounds soaking wet, I’d be
shocked. You’d break her inside of two minutes.”
    “Maybe she needs a big, strong guy to protect her,” he