by Smith, L. J.
Diana was writhing on the floor, turning blue and coughing. Cassie had no strength, but she had to do something. The darkness was in her; she couldn’t be afraid to reach down into it. Even if it killed her, it was the only way to save her friends.
It took all her might to climb to her feet.
Scarlett, seeing her get up, grabbed her bags and ran for the door.
Cassie pushed with her mind and let loose a debilitating cry. “Scarlett!”
She searched her soul for the words, the darkest most debilitating spell she could think of, but Scarlett was out the door and gone within seconds.
“Magicae negrae conversam,” Cassie said feebly. Those were the words that came to her after Scarlett had escaped.
Diana gasped and inhaled. Adam blinked his eyes back to sight. Slowly, everyone regained their senses. Cassie’s strength returned, and she went to Adam and held him. There were scratches where he’d been clawing at his eyelids.
“Did you just undo Scarlett’s spells?” he asked.
Cassie nodded, and then she looked at the sooty, sweaty faces of her friends who’d risked their lives to save her. How could she ever apologize enough for what they’d just been through?
“I was wrong about Scarlett,” she said. “But I guess you figured that out by now.”
The tint of suffocation still hadn’t fully left Diana’s face. “What just happened?” she asked. “Scarlett was untouchable.”
“You were right that she’s evil,” Cassie said, hardly able to look Diana in the eye. “She was doing black magic. She said that was the only magic that would work here. That’s why none of you could cast spells.”
“But then how did you—?” Diana stopped herself mid-question, when the answer occurred to her.
Cassie looked down. She could hear Faye walk a circle around the burnt-out room, her boots crackling upon the ruined floor with each step.
“I knew it all along,” Faye said. “Cassie has black magic in her.”
It was true. There was no use denying it, as much as Cassie wanted to.
Cassie searched Adam’s face for a reaction, terrified of what it might be.
But Adam’s eyes filled with tears, and he pulled Cassie in toward his chest. “I’m so glad you’re okay,” he said.
Cassie didn’t feel like she deserved his comforting, and tried to break free from his arms.
Adam squeezed her tighter. “You just saved our lives,” he said.
“I almost cost you your lives,” Cassie said, no longer able to stop herself from crying. “All of this is my fault. All of it, and I am so sorry.”
Diana placed her hand on Cassie’s back. “We’re all in this together,” she said. “And we’re all okay. That’s what matters.”
Cassie began to sob into Adam’s chest. “But I want to be good.”
“You are good.” Diana hugged Cassie from behind, sandwiching her between herself and Adam. “You can’t start doubting that.”
“Scarlett is the evil one,” Adam said. “Not you.”
Cassie appreciated their support. They meant well, and she knew that, but the truth was, none of them could be sure what the ability to perform black magic meant for Cassie.
Faye smiled at her like a new discovery. “How does it feel?” she asked.
“I just feel like going home,” Cassie said.
Chapter 29
They all recovered from the morning’s battle miraculously well. A little soap and water, and a change of clothes, and each of them were mostly back to their old selves.
Diana prepared an herbal tea in the kitchen and returned to the living room carrying a tray. “Is Faye here yet?” she asked.
The Circle was desperate to hear what had happened at Cape Cod before they arrived and to fill in the holes of what they still didn’t understand.
“We should start without her,” Suzan said, picking at her nail cuticles.
Diana shot Adam a concerned look and asked Suzan, “Where is she?”
“We know exactly where she is,” Laurel said. “She’s with Max.”
“I didn’t tell you that,” Suzan said.
“Maybe we should begin without her,” Cassie said. She knew how unbelievably lucky it was that none of them had been badly hurt, and she was anxious to apologize again for her mistakes. “I want to make sure I don’t ever put any of you at risk again. So I have a lot to tell you.”
Just then Faye swept through the door. Her eyes were infused with an energy that was palpable. Her cheeks were flushed, and her plump red lips looked almost like they were swollen with blood.
“Sorry I’m late,” she said.
“You need to quit it with Max already,” Adam said. “How many times do we have to tell you? We don’t know if we can trust him.”
Faye felt for a black pendant hanging from her neck, and Cassie caught something unusual in her eyes.
“I said I was sorry.” Faye continued toying with the pendant. She always wore a red star ruby necklace, but the pendant was new. It was a shimmering black opal.
“Did Max give you that?” Cassie asked.
Faye let go of the necklace immediately and shot Cassie a threatening look, but Cassie noticed that she also blushed. All at once, Cassie realized the truth: Faye’s feelings for Max were real.
Melanie exhaled loudly. “Don’t we have more important things to talk about than Faye’s love life?”
“Yes, we do,” Diana said. “Cassie, why don’t you fill us in on what we missed?”
Cassie stepped to the center of the room. “First, I want to apologize formally to all of you,” she said. “I should have never betrayed you the way I did. Especially my fellow leaders, Diana and Faye.”
“An apology isn’t necessary,” Nick said from where he was sitting in the corner.
There were nods all around.
Faye scoffed. “I can’t believe you pansies are letting her off this easy. If it were me who’d stolen the Master Tools, and then lost them to boot—”
“The Circle forgives you, Cassie,” Diana said, cutting Faye off. “But remember, for the future, that we’re your family, too.”
“I know that now,” Cassie said. “I knew it before, but I guess it slipped away from me.”
Cassie’s heart was thumping in her chest. “You’ve been a sister to me since I arrived here,” she said to Diana. “And you’re the only sister I’ll ever need.”
Diana’s eyes misted over. “Thank you,” she said.
Melanie cleared her throat. “I hate to interrupt this sentimental moment, but maybe Cassie can tell us what she learned about Scarlett, so we know what we’re up against.”
“Of course,” Cassie said. She went on to explain how Scarlett had tricked her, to lure her away from the protective spell, and that Scarlett was the daughter Black John intended for the Circle.
Nick walked solemnly over to Cassie. “So Scarlett wants to kill you.”
“Yes,” Cassie said. “So she can have my place in the Circle, because we’re the same bloodline.”
“What about the witch hunters?” Melanie asked. “Who killed Great-Aunt Constance and Portia?”
“And who burned the symbol onto my front lawn?” Laurel asked, her voice high-pitched with fright.
Cassie took a deep breath. “The hunters are real, and they’re still out there. But Scarlett had nothing to do with them. She just seized the opportunity to use our fear of the hunters against us.”
“We are so screwed,” Faye said, and Cassie noticed her reach for the pendant again. There was something about it drawing Cassie in, the way it caught the light.
“Can I get a closer look at that?” she asked, reaching for it. Before Faye could resist, Cassie caught the stone in her hand and studied its surface. It was slightly translucent, not totally black, but a play of green and blue and red. As Cassie tilted it back and forth, she noticed how it diffracted the light in a continually changing play of color.
The moment Cassie saw it, her blood ran cold. Camo
uflaged within the opal’s fascinating surface was the hunter symbol, shimmering iridescently.
“Oh my God,” Cassie said. “Faye, you’ve been marked.”
The rest of the group gasped.
“That’s not possible,” Faye said. She looked down at the necklace. “No!” she screamed, recognizing the symbol immediately. “He couldn’t have!”
For a few minutes, nobody spoke. Cassie glanced around the room at each of her friends. How quickly the energy of the room had shifted. The almighty Faye had fallen.
Faye looked like a different person. Her broad shoulders were rounded forward, and all the color had drained from her face. She sat down on the couch, slumped over crying. It was a sight none of them could fathom.
“How?” she asked. Her eyes were bloodshot, and black mascara streamed down her face. It was the first time Cassie had ever seen Faye cry. “I just don’t understand how this could have happened.”
“Max is a witch hunter,” Melanie said declaratively. “He’s the one who gave that to you.”
“And that means the principal is probably a hunter, too.” Adam glanced at Cassie with meaning. “Just like you suspected.”
Melanie nodded. “Like father, like son.”
Cassie couldn’t feel good about being right about the principal, especially at a moment like this. She would rather it had turned out to be silly paranoia.
Diana sat down beside Faye and gently took her hand. “I know you’re still in shock, Faye, but we need to know everything you’ve told Max.”
Faye lifted her head. Tears hung from her dark lashes, and her expression was beyond stricken. “I don’t even remember.”
She unclasped the necklace from behind her neck and dropped it onto the table. “I thought he really liked me,” she said softly, almost to herself. “I didn’t want to tell you all this, but I undid the love spell a while ago. To see if his feelings were . . .” She couldn’t even say it.
Diana wrapped both her arms around Faye and, unbelievably, she let her. Cassie had to look away. Seeing Faye heartbroken was nearly as brutal as seeing her marked.
“But he seemed so overpowered by the spell,” Laurel said.
“He might have been resistant to her magic the whole time, but was playing along to get close to us,” Adam said.
Cassie shot Adam a look to quiet him. He and Laurel may have been putting the necessary pieces together, but they could do it in the other room, where Faye wouldn’t hear them. They were unaware of the effect their words were having on her as she began crying harder. But Cassie understood. When Faye undid the love spell and Max was still acting like he couldn’t live without her, she mistook it for true love.
Melanie shook her head in disbelief. “So the hunters know about two of us,” she said. “And without the Master Tools, we’re not strong enough to fight them.”
“And Scarlett still wants to kill Cassie,” Nick said.
Diana continued holding Faye in her arms. “There’s no time to panic,” she said, but her voice was trembling. “It’s time to come together to support and protect one another.”
She focused her eyes directly on Cassie. “We’ll figure out a way,” she said. “We always do.”
Chapter 30
From her front porch, Cassie could see the flickering blue of the television flashing like a strobe light in a haunted house. Her mother must be waiting up for her.
“I should go right in,” Cassie said, gripping the door handle. “She’s up.”
“Not yet.” Adam reached for her hand and squeezed it. “With everything going on,” he said, “and everything that’s happened, I want you to know that we’ll get through it.”
“I know,” Cassie said.
“Are you sure?” He leaned in for a kiss, but he stopped just shy of her lips.
Cassie could feel his breath on her skin and the warmth of his body so close to hers. She held his gaze, and her heart pounded heavily in her chest.
“I’m positive.” She pulled him in toward her, meeting his soft lips with hers. With a wild abandon she had forgotten, she and Adam melded into one, and she let herself be swept away.
They kissed like that until they were both heated and flushed. Cassie allowed her breathing to slow and her heart to settle. Then she stared up at him, captivated for a moment by the course of life pulsing between them. The silver cord, she thought, the mystifying bond that had connected her to him from the beginning, and always would. It was stronger now than ever. After the wild mix of emotions Cassie had experienced these past few weeks, one thing emerged solid and bright. She realized in a whole new way just how lucky she was to have Adam by her side.
“I love you,” she said.
He smiled brightly. “And I love you.”
She kissed him once more, tenderly, and inhaled a full breath of him. “I really love you,” she said.
His blue eyes sparkled, and he laughed aloud. “We can play this game all night.”
“Or our whole lives,” Cassie said, beaming back at him. She found she couldn’t take her eyes from his. They drew her closer and closer in.
“Maybe even longer.”
When Cassie finally made her way into the house, she shut the front door behind her and paused. Her mother looked almost like a ghost, and about as frightened as if she’d seen one. Cassie felt awful she’d caused her to worry so much. Her mother had every right to be angry with her.
“Mom,” she said. “I am so sorry.”
When her mother made no response, she added, “I needed to go to Cape Cod; it was an emergency. And then—”
“Forget about the car,” her mother said. “Are you okay?”
Cassie nodded and dropped her bag at the door. When she reached her mother’s arms, she looked up at her, hoping to see a sign of reprieve in her eyes. But instead, a saddened expression passed over her mother’s face, like a massive wave of pain.
“Mom?” Cassie asked, not even sure what to say.
Her mother’s large black eyes, shadowed by dark circles, filled with tears. “I thought you ran away,” she said. “And then I thought you were dead. I swear I could feel your pain.”
She spoke quietly and regretfully, and Cassie realized her mother probably could feel when she was in pain. They were connected, and she was a witch, after all.
“You seem to be pulling away from me, just when I thought we were becoming closer,” her mother said. “Was it something I did or said that upset you? Tell me.”
When Cassie found out her mother kept Scarlett a secret, it seemed like such a betrayal, like the worst secret in the world to keep hidden for her entire life. But now, looking at her mother’s frail, penitent face, Cassie realized she’d done it to protect her. She must have known Scarlett was evil.
“Oh, Mom,” Cassie said. “I wasn’t angry, just confused. I was confused about so much.”
After everything that had happened, Cassie realized it was time to finally tell her mom the truth.
“I have so much to tell you,” Cassie said.
Cassie didn’t even know where to begin, but she did her best to speak evenly and not leave anything out. She dug her nails into her palms and went on, uninterrupted, for what felt like forever. Then her mother took a shallow breath in and shut her eyes. Cassie knew it was time to be quiet and let her speak.
“Scarlett’s mother didn’t shy away from the dark side of Black John either,” she said. “She’d been banned from our Circle for performing dark magic. But I’d hoped those days were behind us now. That’s why I never mentioned Scarlett.”
Cassie nodded, and her mother took her face into her hands. “I would have never kept it from you if I thought you were in danger.”
“It’s not your fault,” Cassie said. “I should have told you when I found out about her.”
“It’s not anybody’s fault,” her mother said. “But it’s still come to this.” She took a deep breath and stood up.
“There’s something I’ve been waiting to give you until it
was necessary,” she said cryptically. “Now seems to be that time.”
The tone of her voice was puzzling. “What is it?” Cassie asked.
“I’ll be right back.”
Her mother left the room and was gone longer than Cassie expected her to be. But just when Cassie was about to go looking for her, she returned with a book in her hands. It was a faded leather-bound journal with gold, deckle-edged pages. It looked to Cassie like an old bible.
“This was your father’s Book of Shadows,” her mother said, holding it out to her with both hands.
Cassie froze, paralyzed, and felt the blood drain out of her face. Black John’s Book of Shadows—just the thought of it made her shudder. Black magic was something she felt was better left unexplored.
Her mother continued holding the book out to her. “It’s okay,” she said. “You can touch it.”
Cassie reached out to take it from her mother reluctantly. The book felt cruel and cold in her hands—it almost felt alive.
“How did you get this?” Cassie asked.
Her mother sat back down beside her. “It’s a long story. But it’s been hidden here in this house for quite some time. You have to understand, in the wrong hands, this book could be extremely dangerous.”
Like the Master Tools, Cassie thought. “And you want me to have it?”
Her mother’s face was stern. “You’ll need it if you stand any chance of defeating Scarlett.”
The book was heavier than it appeared to be, like its contents were greater than the sum of its pages. It was impossible to comprehend the dark spells and secrets it enclosed. Cassie noticed that its black leather cover wasn’t completely smooth. It was faintly embossed with a symbol that reminded Cassie of the inscriptions on the silver bracelet and the diadem. There were also dull scratches and indentations, like fingernails had worn into its surface. And its upper-right-hand corner was eroded almost completely gray, like a deteriorated oval-shaped stamp.
Black John’s fingerprint, Cassie realized.