by Smith, L. J.
She waited a moment to read Cassie’s expression and then added, “I don’t understand why your mom never told you.”
Cassie suddenly felt herself snap to a new level of awareness. She pulled her hand away. “Wait a minute. My mother knew about you?”
“Of course she knew.” Scarlett’s voice contained the slightest hint of outrage. “They were all still in New Salem when we were born.”
Cassie thought back to the conversation she recently had with her mother. How she’d looked deep into her eyes and swore she’d told Cassie the whole truth about her father. I loved that I was all his, and he was all mine, she’d said, but it was a lie. Her mother knew he was with someone else.
“How could my mother not have told me I had a sister?” Cassie said aloud. This was a new divide that had sprung up between her and her mother, and at the moment, it felt insurmountable. Her whole childhood and adolescence had been hindered by lies—that truth had come to light when they first moved to New Salem, and Cassie learned she was a witch. But she’d come to terms with all the covering up her mother had done in hopes of protecting her. Now it occurred to Cassie that even their more recent conversations had been poisoned by deceit. As of this very moment, her mother was still lying to her. Cassie never felt more estranged from her as she did now.
“She should have told you,” Scarlett said. “I wonder what else she’s kept from you.”
Cassie realized Scarlett was absolutely right. If her mom could lie about the existence of a sibling, she could lie about anything. And if she was keeping secrets, Cassie would, too. She decided right then not to tell her mom anything about meeting Scarlett. Her mother didn’t deserve her honesty. She hadn’t earned it.
Fortunately, now Cassie had a sister, and everything would be different. Everything would be better. If it had to be just the two of them against the rest of the world, so be it. They would remain inseparable, that was the one and only thing Cassie could feel secure about now.
“Scarlett,” she said, feeling her heart overflow with love and affection, “now that you’re here, I finally feel like I’m home.”
“Me, too.” Scarlett’s dark eyes shimmered. “I’ve never been more sure of anything,” she said. “This is where I belong.”
Chapter 19
“Do you want a latte or a cappuccino?” Adam asked from the head of the line at the coffee shop counter.
“Surprise me,” Cassie said, and then watched him interact with the barista, placing his order and counting out his money.
Cassie pretended not to know him for a moment and imagined he was a stranger she’d just seen for the first time. She observed his cut jaw and broad shoulders, those auburn curls. Yes, she thought to herself. It would be love at first sight all over again.
Things between Cassie and Adam had come around full circle. The past few days since the confrontation with Scarlett at the docks had been romantic and exciting, just like the first days of their relationship. When he kissed her, she shivered with that familiar pleasure and excitement, of loving him so completely with her entire body and soul, and knowing he felt the same.
Since the truth had come out about Scarlett, Adam went back to being Adam, and Cassie went back to being Cassie, but happier and more confident.
Adam returned to their table, setting down an iced mocha topped with whipped cream and a giant chocolate-chip cookie.
“You said to surprise you,” he said.
“You’re trying to get me high on sugar.”
“That’s how I like you best.” He dipped his finger into the whipped cream for a taste.
Cassie glanced at the door, but the girl entering wasn’t Scarlett.
Adam laughed. “She’s only a few minutes late, relax.”
“I know.” Cassie broke off a hunk of cookie and shoved it into her mouth while Adam took another swipe at the whipped cream. She looked away, not wanting to be caught watching him lick it from his fingers.
“Should I leave you and my iced mocha alone?” she asked.
Adam blushed, pushing the drink closer to Cassie and out of his reach. Then he wiped his mouth with a napkin and tried to be serious. “I’m so glad for you,” he said. “Scarlett is pretty amazing. I can totally see how the two of you are related.”
“I tried to tell you,” Cassie said.
“I know. And I’ve never been happier to admit that I was wrong.”
“Well, you can tell Scarlett that in person, if she ever gets here.” Cassie glanced at the door again and then took a sip of her drink. “I’m starting to worry that she hasn’t shown up yet. I’m going to call her.”
But Scarlett didn’t answer her phone, and Cassie began to worry even more.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” she said. She knew if she phrased it that way, Adam would take her seriously.
“Then we should go over to the B and B and see if she’s there.” Adam stood up, wasting no time.
It was exactly what Cassie wanted him to suggest. Sometimes his predictability was her favorite thing about him.
The bed-and-breakfast where Scarlett was staying was a Georgian building just off Old Town Square. It was one of the most beautiful historical B and Bs in New Salem, owned and operated by an old man whom Cassie knew by sight. She’d grown used to seeing him walking his three Pomeranians around town. A few times, she’d bent down to pet one of the dogs, but she never engaged in much conversation with the old man. He was who answered the door when they arrived, the dogs yapping and jumping around his feet.
Cassie introduced herself and Adam while the man ordered his dogs to be quiet. Once inside, she stuttered a bit before saying, “Sorry to bother you, but my sister, Scarlett, is a guest here. We were wondering if she’s here.”
It was the first time Cassie had ever said those words, my sister. It felt exhilarating to say it, but it also felt foreign, as if she were telling a lie.
The man nodded and rubbed at the silver scruff on his chin. “Yes, yes, Scarlett with the crazy hair,” he said.
“So she’s here?” Cassie was momentarily relieved.
“No,” he replied. “She hasn’t been here since yesterday.”
Adam noticed the panic in Cassie’s eyes and pressed for more information. “Are you sure? She never came home last night, not even to sleep?”
“No, she didn’t,” the man said, straightening his posture. “But that’s really not your business. A girl has a right to her privacy.” His eyes ricocheted between Adam and Cassie, and then he raised his white eyebrows. “I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to ask you to leave. I can’t give out information on my guests to two strangers, kids or not.”
“Of course,” Adam said. “We understand. Thank you for your help.” He left a phone number so they could be reached in case Scarlett returned, or if he heard anything of her whereabouts.
Back in the car, Cassie turned to him. “Now I’m really worried sick. What should we do?”
Adam focused on his driving. “I think we should give it a little more time,” he said calmly. “We don’t know that she’s in trouble. She could just be out and about.”
“Out and about?” Cassie was exasperated. “If she was just out and about, then she would have shown up at the coffee shop when she was supposed to, or at least answered her phone.”
“Cassie.” Adam chose his words carefully. “Try to remember that we don’t know all that much about Scarlett. She could be off visiting friends and forgot to call you.”
“So you think she’d just stand up her new sister?”
“That’s not what I’m saying.”
“You think she’s some kind of flake,” Cassie said. “Just because she’s not as uptight as all of you.”
“All of you?” Adam gripped the steering wheel tightly and brought the car to a halting stop. “You mean us, the Circle? Why do you keep insisting on separating yourself from us? I don’t understand it, Cassie.”
Cassie was feeling too much all at once to make sense of it. But here th
ey were again, having the same fight they seemed to keep having. She was tired of Adam always trying to reason her out of her true feelings.
“I’m not separating myself,” she said. “But I don’t know what more you need to fully accept Scarlett. She’s my sister, Adam.”
“I know,” he said, continuing along Crowhaven Road to Cassie’s house. “I didn’t mean anything by suggesting she might not be in trouble. Do you see how quickly you jumped to that conclusion?”
Cassie didn’t want to admit it, but she did see that. She was silent until they reached her house. “I guess I’m just shaken up,” she said finally.
“Let’s just give it the night,” Adam said. “If you still don’t hear from her, I promise we’ll get the group to look for her in the morning.”
“Okay.” Cassie reached over and gave Adam a kiss on the cheek, but she didn’t invite him into her house.
That night Cassie had a dream. One minute she was on a beach, tanning beneath the summer sun with the sound of the ocean and seagulls filling her ears, and the next minute she heard a scream. It was a bloodcurdling scream for help, much like Melanie’s scream the night Constance was killed at the festival. In the dream, Cassie opened her eyes and found she was no longer on a sunny beach but in a field or a meadow, at night. And the sky overhead had turned murky, like a polluted body of water.
The scream for help came louder. Cassie thought it was coming from a shadowy house in the distance. It was unmistakably Scarlett’s voice, but Cassie couldn’t get to it. In fact, she couldn’t move at all.
Scarlett! Cassie yelled out, still within the dream. I can hear you!
It was all so vivid, Cassie was sure it was real.
The connection worked, Scarlett replied, relieved but still terrified.
Where are you? Cassie asked.
I don’t know! The hunters are holding me captive. They’re torturing me, studying my powers. Please help me!
Try to stay calm, Cassie said. Think hard, is there any clue as to where you are?
Help me, Cassie. Please, hurry. I think they’re going to kill me soon.
No! Cassie was losing her. The connection was fading. Scarlett, can you still hear me? I promise we’ll find you, somehow. Scarlett? Hello? Hang on. We’ll save you!
Cassie sat up in bed, startled. She was fully awake now, in her bedroom, alone. Her mahogany furniture stared back at her. She could hear her mother snoring down the hall. All was as it should be.
It was three in the morning. Adam had said to give it the night. But what if Scarlett didn’t have till morning? She had to call him.
Shaking, she dialed Adam’s number, and the moment he answered, she said, “Scarlett’s been kidnapped.”
Adam sounded groggy and confused. “What?”
“I dreamt it. But it wasn’t a dream. She came to me, Adam. We communicated.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’ve never been more sure of anything. It’s the hunters. They have her.”
“Okay.” Adam cleared his throat. “I’ll put out a call to the others. Where should we meet?”
“Behind my house, out on the bluff. We can’t risk waking my mom.”
“Done. I’ll be right there.”
“Adam, one more thing.” Cassie could hardly express how thankful she was to have him at a time like this. “I love you.”
She could almost hear him smile. “I love you, too,” he said.
Chapter 20
Faye, Deborah, and Suzan were the last to arrive on the bluff. They staggered toward the others, bleary-eyed and disheveled, and severely underdressed for the pre-dawn chill. “They were out having a good time,” Adam said when he saw them coming. “Looks like they still are.”
“So what’s the big emergency?” Faye called out in a voice much too loud. “It better be good. Do you have any idea what time it is?”
“What’s wrong with you?” Melanie asked.
Faye cracked up laughing and patted Melanie on the shoulder. “You and Laurel aren’t the only ones interested in herbology.” She pulled an eyedropper from her pocket. “Care for a taste? It’s all natural.”
Melanie’s face hardened. “This is no time for that,” she said. “The hunters have Scarlett.”
Faye returned the eyedropper to her pocket. “I guess that’s a no, then.”
Cassie chose to ignore Faye, Deborah, and Suzan and only address the others, who were capable of paying attention.
“Scarlett doesn’t know where she is,” Cassie said. “But she’s terrified they’re going to kill her.”
She went on to describe her dream in vivid detail, how the hunters were holding Scarlett captive, torturing her, and studying her powers, and how she begged Cassie to come save her.
“What should we do?” Adam directed the question to Diana, but it was Cassie who answered.
“We need to find out where the hunters are keeping her,” she said. “We can use the locator spell Constance taught us.”
“Yes!” Faye said, staring up at the moon as if it were speaking to her. “We’re back to using magic!”
“Not so fast.” Diana pursed her lips. “We have to navigate this very carefully.”
“Buzz-killer,” Faye said.
“What we did on the docks was an exception,” Diana said firmly. “Using magic still puts us at risk. What if this is a trick to help the hunters figure out who we are?”
“I don’t care about that,” Cassie blurted out.
Everyone swung their head in her direction, awestruck by her outburst.
“My sister is in danger,” Cassie continued, refusing to be dismayed. “It’s worth the risk.”
Deborah was the first to break the silence with cackling laughter. “That’s not your call to make, princess.”
Cassie had the urge to scream out again, but she restrained herself and simply said, “As one of the leaders of this Circle, it is partially my call to make.”
“When are you going to get it?” Faye shouted. “You don’t get to put your own petty needs before the Circle.”
“This is hardly a petty need, Faye,” Cassie said. “Scarlett is being tortured. They’re probably going to kill her.”
“But it’s fine with you if we all get killed trying to save her.” Faye turned her back on Cassie dismissively, swatting her pitch-black hair in her direction. “You’re just being selfish.”
“You’re one to talk about being selfish,” Cassie shot back. “Who’s more selfish than you?”
“Okay. That’s enough.” Diana raised her clear, overpowering voice and called for order.
Adam placed his hand on Cassie’s back to calm her. “There must be a way to perform the locator spell without the hunters tracing it.”
Everyone got quiet for a moment to think, but Cassie couldn’t understand all this deliberation. A feeling of heat overcame Cassie, not from outside—the bluff remained cool and breezy—but from deep inside her gut, where a boiling anger seethed.
There’s just no way, she thought to herself. She’d have to find Scarlett on her own.
Then Adam shot up from the log he was sitting on. “We can do it in a crowded place,” he said.
Nobody responded, but Adam had a look of delight across his face, and his breathing was heavy. “Don’t you get it?” he said. “If we do it in a crowd, the hunters will have a harder time deciphering the source of the magic.”
“That, my friend, is brilliant,” Chris said, giving Adam a high five.
Melanie’s gray eyes widened. “That totally could work. We could do it during some school event.”
“Under the bleachers,” Laurel called out. “During the big track meet after school today.”
Cassie threw herself at Adam and wrapped her arms tightly around him. “This is why I love you,” she said. “You always have the best ideas.”
Adam’s eyes radiated an enchanting blue light. “Is that why?” He started laughing and then said, “Okay, so it’s a plan. We do the locator spell this after
noon.”
“We should still put it to a vote,” Diana said brusquely.
Faye smirked. “Way to kill a moment, D.”
“It’s only fair to let everyone have their say on this,” Diana insisted. “And we should all keep in mind that locating Scarlett is only half of it.” She paused to look at Cassie. “Deciding what we do from there should be another vote entirely.”
Cassie lashed out, unable to stop herself. “Do you not understand that they’re going to kill her? She’s my family. Does that mean nothing to you?”
Diana’s lips parted, but no sound escaped. She searched Cassie’s eyes as if she were looking for something in them she’d lost.
Cassie’s anger wasn’t intended solely for Diana, but it may as well have been. She had screamed almost directly into her face. It was no way to behave, but the way Cassie saw it, this wasn’t a time for cool analytics and meticulous strategy. Not when Scarlett’s life was at stake.
Diana looked at Cassie for another bewildered and speechless moment before turning away. “We’re getting ahead of ourselves,” she said. “There’s no guarantee the locator spell will even work.”
Adam went to Cassie’s side and put his arm around her. “But we’re going to try it. Do we all agree?”
There were nods all around.
Adam was so good to her, and it was something that the group was willing to try the spell, but it still wasn’t enough to console Cassie. All this voting and planning was wasting too much time. At this rate, they’d never get to Scarlett in time.
Chapter 21
Cassie went home during lunch to go over all her notes on the locator spell Constance had taught them. Since she’d never actually performed the spell, the details of how it worked were fuzzy in her memory. Her notes went on for a few pages, but as far as Cassie could tell, the spell was intended to locate lost objects. Nowhere had she written about using the spell to find a lost person.
Just then there was a knock on her front door. It was Adam; she should have known.