by L. J. Smith
After a glance at Adam, Cassie did as she was told.
Immediately, everyone’s eyes settled on the scars and scabs she’d been working so hard to keep hidden. Cassie looked around and realized the time had come for her to tell them about her father’s book. There was no other way of explaining the burns, and Cassie didn’t want to outright lie to her Circle—they didn’t deserve that.
With an encouraging nod from Adam, and with the group’s rapt attention, Cassie made a clear, concise announcement: “I have Black John’s Book of Shadows,” she said. “It’s what gave me these scars.”
“You found—you mean—are you serious?” Diana sputtered.
Cassie nodded. “I’ve been searching it for any hint on how to defeat the hunters or Scarlett. But it’s dangerous,” Cassie continued, holding up her hands as an example. “You have to understand, I don’t want anyone else to get hurt, not until I know it can help us.”
Faye leaned on Sean to keep from falling over. “Black John’s book has been in your house this whole time? And you kept it from me?” She was practically hyperventilating. “I can’t even imagine the spells that must be in there. Go get it, Cassie. Right now.”
Cassie shook her head. “I can’t read it, and neither can you. It’s written in an ancient language. And besides, we don’t know what the book is capable of.”
“Actually, Cassie,” Adam interrupted, “that’s why I kept calling you earlier.”
Seagulls squawked in circles overhead as Adam regarded the group, a gloomy look on his face. “Cassie showed me a portion of the book yesterday, and I was up all night trying to translate it. I compared some of the symbols in the book to the ancient map I used to locate the Master Tools.”
Diana nodded, knowing that map well. “I remember those inscriptions,” she said. “Black John had written them himself.”
Adam fixed his eyes on Cassie again. His voice was a stricken monotone. “From the little bits and pieces I could figure out, Cassie is now bound to Black John’s book.”
For a few seconds Cassie lost her hearing. The hammering thump of her heartbeat was the only sound in her ears. She could see everyone’s reactions—Diana’s terror, Faye’s apprehension, Adam’s distress—but she felt like she was watching them from somewhere hushed and far away. It was gruesome, the way the faces of her friends altered. Not one of them would ever think of Cassie the same way again.
“Are you sure?” Diana asked. Her voice hit Cassie’s ears with a pop.
“Bound was definitely the word I translated,” Adam said. “And any dark magic involving that word can’t be good.”
Diana took a deep breath. “No. Not good at all.”
“What exactly does this mean?” Suzan asked.
“In the scientific sense,” Laurel said, “being bound simply means being held to another element. It’s a union, physical or chemical. And it’s inseparable.”
Melanie cut in to clarify. “Simply put, it means Cassie’s obligated to the book. As in tied in bonds. Like a prisoner.”
“Melanie.” Diana chastised her with a glare. “It’s an attachment. That’s all. Don’t jump to worst-case scenarios.”
Cassie wanted the group to believe Diana was right: that being bound to the book only meant she was attached to it, nothing more. But Cassie couldn’t deny what she knew to be the truth: The book did have an influence over her. Every time she touched it, it was like darkness took her over. She was beginning to feel like she had a split personality.
Cassie began to cry, and Adam walked slowly over to her. He put his arm around her torso. “Cassie, I’m sorry you’re going through all this. But the Circle can help you now. You’re not in this alone.”
“That’s right.” Diana took a step closer and also put her arm around Cassie. “We can all look into those symbols and help with the translation.”
“You can copy a few pages at a time for us to study,” Adam said. “Using the obsidian crystal, so you’re as safe as possible.”
There were supportive nods around the Circle, except from Faye who crossed her arms over her chest. “Just to be clear,” she said. “We are talking about Cassie being undeniably linked to dark magic, right? That’s what Black John’s book is, and that’s what Cassie’s bound to.”
A heartrending stillness settled over the group like a heavy quilt. There was absolute silence except for the roar and crashing of waves in the distance.
Adam nodded grimly. “Like Scarlett, Cassie does have dark magic in her blood, and the book is obviously reacting to that.” He turned to Cassie and swallowed hard. “In fact, as someone who knows dark magic so well, Scarlett might be able to tell us something useful about the book. Maybe she can help.”
Cassie stared down at the sand, unable to speak.
“Adam,” Nick shouted. “You do remember that Scarlett is out to kill your girlfriend, right?”
Faye raised an eyebrow. “Trading off Princess Cassie for Evil Witch Scarlett? That sounds like a great suggestion to me.”
“And while we’re at it, we can get the Master Tools back,” Deborah said.
“That’s not what I meant.” Adam shot Cassie a desperate look. “I just meant we could confront her. Maybe even bargain with her.”
“No way,” Nick said. “If we find Scarlett, we’re taking her down, not asking her for advice.”
Cassie forced down the bile that had risen in her throat. She staggered back to the center of the group and everyone got quiet again, their faces turned toward her expectantly.
“It’s not a bad idea to try to get information out of Scarlett.” She looked at Adam with a strained smile, though she was beginning to wonder if he had feelings for Scarlett he wasn’t admitting—even to himself. “But we’re dealing with two evils here, and at least the book can’t fight back.” And with that, Cassie had the final word.
Chapter 13
Cassie was nodding off in eighth-period math to the drone of Mr. Zitofsky explaining the quadratic equation when she heard the unmistakable buzz of her phone vibrating in her bag. It was a text message from Diana:
COME TO THE BAND ROOM. NOW. EMERGENCY MEETING.
Cassie looked across the room at Melanie, who had clearly gotten the same text message. They exchanged a worried glace as Melanie started gathering her things. The Circle had spent the last week translating Black John’s book in bits and pieces from the pages Cassie had copied; maybe someone had stumbled onto something important. Cassie preferred that theory to the alternative: that something terrible had happened.
But how would Cassie and Melanie escape from the classroom now without drawing suspicion?
As if someone had read her mind, the fire alarm went off. Mr. Zitofsky took off his glasses and rose from his seat. “Okay, everyone,” he said. “You know the drill. Up and out, single file.”
Another text, this time from Nick, confirmed Cassie’s suspicions:
FALSE ALARM. YOU’RE WELCOME. BAND ROOM, NOW.
Cassie fought the urge to grin as she and Melanie followed her classmates, soldierlike, out the door. The crowded hallways teeming with students striding toward the emergency exits made sneaking away to the band room easy. They let themselves in just as Chris asked, “What are we doing in here?” Then he picked up a French horn and blew into it with all his might.
“It was the only empty room we could find that also happens to be soundproofed,” Deborah said. And then she looked at Cassie. “Glad you could make it.”
Everyone from the Circle except Adam was already gathered in the dimly lit room the band kids called the Pit. But only Chris and Doug fiddled with the assorted brass instruments strewn about.
Adam stepped in the door and Nick said, “That’s everyone. Now what’s going on?”
Chris and Doug set down their clarinets and waited, along with the rest of the group, for Diana to say something. Cassie got the sense this announcement had nothing to do with the book. Diana had been trailing Max quite a bit, spending more and more time alone with him t
his past week, and Cassie had an awful feeling her announcement had something to do with him.
Diana stepped to the center of the floor and stood in front of an empty music stand. “I have disheartening news,” she said.
“We’re shocked,” Faye called out.
“Do we ever have emergency good news meetings?” Deborah added.
Diana took something out of her back pocket. “I found this today when I was going through Max’s bag.”
Faye mumbled under her breath, “You’ve been spending enough time together, it’s about time you found something useful on him.”
“Excuse me?” Diana said. “Do you have something you’d like to say to me?”
Faye shook her head. “No. Nothing. Just wondering what you found.”
Diana walked solemnly over to Suzan and Deborah. “It’s a picture,” she said. “Of the two of you.”
Deborah took the photograph from Diana’s hand and stared at it. Suzan looked at it over her shoulder.
Cassie watched Deborah’s face turn from pink, to red, to light purple. Then she crumpled the picture in her fist and threw it violently onto the floor.
Cassie bent down to pick it up, smoothing it out to view its image. It was a photograph of Suzan and Deborah on the night of the Spring Fling. It looked like it had been taken from far away, maybe on a cell phone—it had a grainy surveillance look to it. It was from after the power had gone out, and it looked like Deborah and Suzan had used magic to light their way in the dark. But the most disturbing part was that over Suzan’s and Deborah’s faces, the photo was stamped with the mark of the hunter.
Cassie turned the photo around so the whole Circle could see it. “Now almost half of us are marked,” she said.
“How did this happen?” Melanie asked, examining the photograph. “This was taken the night of the dance. How did we not know about this until now?”
Suzan nodded soberly. “We knew we’d been marked. We just … we didn’t want to tell you all just yet. It was stupid of us.”
“The secret is out now.” Deborah retreated to the corner. She pounded the wall with her fist, and Cassie worried that she might have punched right through the plaster.
It was stupid of them—to use magic in the first place, and to not tell the Circle they’d been caught—but nobody had the heart to criticize them for their poor judgment. Not when they were facing far graver consequences.
“This has gone way too far.” Adam stood up. “Two more members being marked means we have to take action.”
“We’ve made some progress translating the book,” Laurel offered. “The pages we worked on yesterday could be the witch-hunter curse we’ve been looking for.”
Diana shook her head. “But it’s a haphazard translation. It’s nowhere near ready yet.”
“I’d say giving it a try is long overdue.” Faye went over to where Deborah was hovering in the corner and led her back to the group. “Let’s go get our revenge.”
But Diana stood her ground in spite of the circumstances. “We don’t want to use dark magic we don’t understand. It’s too dangerous.”
“Then it’s time we go after Scarlett.” Faye was growing frustrated. She leaned forward with her jaw set and her golden eyes gleaming. “She’s the only one who can help us understand dark magic.”
Adam sensibly kept quiet on the matter this time, but Diana surprised everyone by speaking up. “I agree,” she said, and then she looked at Cassie regretfully. “It’s time.”
“We’re not strong enough to overpower Scarlett, remember?” Melanie said. “Not even all of us put together.”
Diana took a chance and put her arm around Cassie. “We’re strong enough if we get the Master Tools back.”
Cassie raised her eyes just in time to see Adam smile. “Exactly,” he said. “With the Tools, we were strong enough to defeat Black John himself.”
“Then I guess we have to find Scarlett,” Nick said. “But just to get the Tools back. That’s all we can risk right now.”
Everyone seemed to be in agreement—even Nick. But all Cassie could think about was her mother telling her that if she had any chance of defeating Scarlett, the answers were in the book. Nothing seemed possible or realistic anymore without the secrets it contained.
“Cassie,” Diana said, and only then did Cassie realize the whole group was watching her. “We need you with us on this.”
Cassie looked at each of them. Diana appeared desperate but sincere. Deborah and Suzan were newly terrified. Faye was out for blood. Finally, Cassie rested her eyes on Adam. He appeared repentant and regretful for bringing Scarlett back to the forefront of their lives. But he was doing what he thought was best for her, and for their friends. That was plain to see.
The whole Circle really believed they could do it. They thought they could triumph over evil without resorting to darkness. Cassie envied them, really. There was a time she had believed that was possible, too.
But what could she say? They were her Circle, and she was obligated to go down with them, if that’s what they were going to do.
“I’m with you,” she said. “Let’s go get our Tools back.”
Chapter 14
That night Diana and Adam gathered salt water from the rising tide, while Cassie and the others prepared the secret room for a locator spell to find Scarlett. Suzan and Deborah set up candles on all four cardinal points: north, south, east, and west. Sean lit their wicks one at a time. Chris and Doug cleansed the air with smoking jasmine censers, while Melanie laid out energy-clearing crystals. Cassie allowed a small part of herself to fill with hope. Maybe they did have enough good magic behind them to stand a chance in this fight. Getting the Master Tools back from Scarlett could change everything.
Diana and Adam returned from outside with a stone cauldron filled to the brim with seawater. They set it down on the floor, and the group joined hands around it, enclosing it in a circle. Just as they had the last time the Circle performed this spell, they all concentrated on the water—on its clarity and depth, its ability to reshape its form to any container, and its utility as a mirror. Then they invoked the elements.
“Power of water, I beseech you,” Diana said. Together the Circle softly repeated the locator chant four times:
She who is lost shall now be found
Hiding places come unbound
They stared into the cauldron as Diana called out, “Let the water show the location of Scarlett.”
Then they watched, waiting for the images to come.
Cassie focused hard, directing all her yearning and desire onto the water. She bent her mind, begging it to cooperate. When the first image started to form she felt a gust of energy rush through her.
It was an old house—seventeenth-century old. And it was surrounded by a heavy iron gate. The house looked like it should have been a museum, no longer suitable to live in, but not unlike many houses in New Salem and on the mainland.
Then Cassie saw a bridge, but not one she recognized. It could have been any bridge anywhere; nothing about it struck her as unique. It disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.
Finally a strange picture began coming together on the surface of the water. Bit by bit, a startling portrait came to light: a man with his head and feet locked through holes in a wooden board. His hands were chained behind him. Cassie knew what she was looking at—she’d seen one of these before. It was a prisoner in colonial-era stocks. Then the water turned to a disquieting black.
Cassie wasn’t sure what to make of the strange series of images. It seemed like the spell hadn’t worked nearly as well as it had the last time. But Adam looked up at the others with understanding in his eyes. “I can’t believe it,” he said. “She’s so close to New Salem.”
“I know that place.” Nick nodded along. “It’s the old Stockbridge Mission House, just on the other side of the bridge. It’s supposed to be abandoned, but I guess it’s not anymore.”
“Well, what are we waiting for?” Faye asked. “Let’s g
o get her.”
“Hold on.” Diana blew out all the candles and snuffed out the incense. “First we should research what spells would be useful against Scarlett. So we’re at least prepared for a face-off.”
Laurel pulled out a notebook and began jotting down a list. “We should study our defense spells,” she said. “And definitely remote summoning spells. Melanie, can you look into what crystals might be of use?”
Faye flicked Laurel’s pencil from her fingers. “Forget all that. We’ve got Cassie.”
Cassie looked down at the tattered throw rug, not wanting to acknowledge Faye’s comment. Of course Faye was champing at the bit to attack the hunters. All she cared about was breaking her mark, even if it meant Cassie performing dark magic. But what Faye didn’t understand was the more Cassie used dark magic, the darker she became. Or maybe Faye did understand that, but she was still willing to sacrifice Cassie to the dark side for their cause.
“Cassie’s not using black magic when we go up against Scarlett,” Adam said. “Under any circumstances. But aside from that, I agree with Faye. We need to act right away, even if we don’t have all the research.”
Diana gawked at Adam from across the living room table. “This isn’t something to rush into,” she said. “Need I remind you how in our last battle with Scarlett, she made you blind with a single wave of her hand?”
Suzan and Deborah, who were sitting side by side on the sofa, chuckled meanly.
“I remember,” Adam said. “And it wasn’t just me, it was all of us. But thanks for bringing that up.”
Adam turned to Nick for support, assuming they might for once fall on the same side of a dispute. “Don’t you think it’s do-or-die time?” Adam said to Nick. “Study period is over. Am I right?”
Cassie’s insides were seething. She wanted to go after Scarlett and get the Master Tools back more than any of them, but deep down she knew what they were up against—she was the only one who really understood what they were up against. It was her responsibility to speak up.