by L. J. Smith
“Are you kidding? I never want to let you out of my sight.”
Adam looked down at his hand, which he still hadn’t moved. “I wish it had been me to help you these past few days, not Nick. It should have been me.”
Cassie wondered if Adam remembered how close he’d gotten to Scarlett. Was that contributing to his shame?
“I don’t want you to think it’s because my love wasn’t strong enough,” Adam continued. “It wasn’t that. It was that Absolom was too strong.”
Cassie cuddled up to Adam, covering them both with her heavy cotton comforter. It sheltered them like a tent. “I do know that,” she said, as much for her own benefit as for Adam’s.
The pillow behind Cassie’s head was soft, and her sheets smelled fresh and clean. Having Adam with her made everything better.
“I want things to go back to normal,” Adam said. “Between you and me. And I’m willing to do whatever it takes.”
“I want that, too.” Cassie rested her head on his shoulder. “It’s already starting to feel that way.”
Adam pulled her in closer. “Good.”
Cassie closed her eyes to draw out the moment, to listen to his breath and his heartbeat. It was a slow and steady rhythm now, and she found her own heart adjusted to match it. Their chests rose and fell together, perfectly and unconsciously synchronized.
They began to doze off that way, wrapped up in each other’s arms, descending to restful sleep and sweet dreams.
CHAPTER 16
“Did you hear what happened at Old Town Hall?”
“I heard it was vandalized. And someone also broke into the history museum.”
“The shopping mall, too. The police are saying it may have been a group of people. They aren’t sure if all the incidents are related.”
Cassie was in English class, eavesdropping on Sally Waltman’s conversation with her friend Tina.
Sally shot Cassie a knowing look when she realized she’d been listening. Cassie returned the gaze and then politely looked away.
These stories of robbery and vandalism weren’t unique, unfortunately. Cassie had been hearing about similar strange things happening around town in the last few hours. The ancestor witches were creating havoc all over New Salem now that they had their bodies back. Cassie kept a mental list of it all, and she feared the worst: that the ancestors were seeking retribution for all they’d lost in their lifetimes, all that had been taken from them by Outsiders.
After the bell rang, Cassie approached Sally as she was packing up her books. “I couldn’t help but overhear,” she said.
Sally scanned the surrounding area to be sure nobody was listening. “I knew something was up when your friends attacked me and ambushed the auditorium, but now it seems like the trouble is spreading into town. What’s going on?”
“It’s a long story,” Cassie said.
“It is witch-related, isn’t it?”
“Ancient witches,” Cassie said as the two of them exited their classroom. “The worst in history.”
They reached Cassie’s locker. She opened it to exchange her English notebook for her math textbook. “I’m afraid what they’re after is revenge—on New Salem, on the whole world.”
“On Outsiders,” Sally added.
“You can be sure of that.” Cassie slammed her locker shut. “Even before they were killed, they wanted to destroy all non-witches. Now they have their own untimely deaths to avenge.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?” Sally asked.
The offer warmed Cassie’s heart. If only her ancestors had encountered Outsiders so willing to set aside their differences, they might not be so quick to judge.
“Thank you,” Cassie said. “I’ll let you know. For now, keep your eyes open, and be careful.”
Cassie turned around to make her way to her next class, and she came face-to-face with Alice.
She gasped.
“Sally, I’ll see you later,” Cassie said, and Sally had the good sense to walk away.
Black John’s sister still had a sadness about her, but she looked different from the last time Cassie had seen her. She’d let down her dark brown hair, and Cassie noticed it had been cut into layers. Her blue-gray eyes were subtly etched with liner, and her eyebrows had been plucked to a cleanly lined arch. She wore tight jeans, a sheer black blouse, and about a dozen necklaces of various sizes and styles, probably to cover the mark on her neck. She looked good, Cassie thought, and a second later the deeper truth sunk in: She looked modern.
So that’s what the ancestors were doing at the mall. They’d gone on a shopping spree and given themselves makeovers.
Lurking behind Alice was the other ancestor who was young enough to easily pass as a student: Beatrix. She had also updated her look to blend in unnoticed at school, but more shockingly, she no longer appeared burned. She must have done a spell to heal her mottled skin, because it shimmered in a way Cassie could only describe as magical. Her face was pale and smooth and new, untouched by her difficult life.
Alice blinked her cheerless eyes at Cassie. “Niece,” she said.
Her voice startled Cassie just as it did the first time she heard it. It reminded Cassie of the way her own voice had sounded when she had strep throat. She remembered how it felt like someone was stabbing her in the tonsils every time she tried to utter a word.
Cassie unconsciously brought her hand up to her own neck. She swallowed carefully.
Alice reached out to her, but Cassie took a step back, suddenly repulsed by the idea of this body—practically a living corpse—touching her.
Alice wrinkled her eyes, seeming hurt by Cassie’s aversion.
“I want nothing to do with you,” Cassie said, her voice cracking. Before she even realized what she was doing, she took aim at Alice and Beatrix and called out a spell: “Infirmitate super vos!”
Alice deflected Cassie’s magic with a leisurely wave of her hand. “See,” she said. “Now that’s the Blak spirit.”
Cassie’s own surprise at casting that spell wasn’t lost on Alice.
“Those instincts of yours,” she said. “Don’t you feel it? You’re with us. You’re one of the greats.”
She exchanged a side glance with Beatrix. “We need a twelfth member to our Circle, Cassie. And we want that member to be you.”
Cassie considered this. Was she one of them regardless of how hard she tried not to be? So many people, loved ones, had died on her watch as she’d striven to be good. And she was the one who performed the spell that released them into the world in the first place. She’d resurrected their evil, willingly or not.
The thought of it made Cassie sick. The urge to cast another dark spell at them was overwhelming.
“You’ll never have me,” Cassie said, fighting off her baser impulse.
A flush of anger crossed Alice’s face, and Cassie was shocked at how quickly her expression could change from hurt to raw rage. “You think quite highly of yourself, don’t you? Good. You should. But you can’t resist your destiny.”
“My Circle is my destiny,” Cassie said. But her self-assurance was immediately overshadowed by another thought: What about the rest of her friends? The ancestors wanted Cassie, but if they couldn’t get her, they’d just try for someone else. And they’d keep trying until they—
“Forget her,” Beatrix said to Alice. “Every family has a weak link.”
“She isn’t weak,” Alice snapped back.
It occurred to Cassie that the other ancestors might already be going after the members of her Circle—at this very moment. She didn’t have time for this standoff with Alice and Beatrix.
Cassie turned on her heels and left them standing there. Let them think her a coward if they wanted to. She didn’t care. She needed to find her friends, and fast.
Cassie texted the entire Circle: Emergency meeting. Meet at the Colony Diner ASAP!
The Colony Diner was just off school grounds. Close enough to walk to within minutes, but far enough away to be priv
ate and protected. Cassie arrived first and sat alone for a few minutes, tapping her fingernails on the orangey-yellow faux wood table. She ordered a strawberry milkshake to keep the waitress occupied. With each second that passed, the knot in her stomach tightened. What if none of them came? What if she’d already lost them?
But Adam arrived within minutes, then Diana, and finally Cassie calmed down enough to take a sip of her shake. Nick, Deborah, and Faye had been in the middle of Phys. Ed together, their least favorite class, so they were quick to cut out and make their way to the diner.
Melanie and Laurel appeared next, from study hall at the library, with overstuffed book bags weighing down their shoulders.
“What’s the emergency?” Melanie asked.
“Has anyone heard from Sean, Chris, or Doug?” Cassie asked. It was no secret those three were all on the impressionable side. Some might even call them reckless.
Just after placing a food order with the waitress, Cassie caught sight of Chris’s Jeep zipping into the parking lot. It settled into a spot, and Sean and Doug jumped out of the backseat. Cassie’s whole body relaxed as she watched them dash for the diner’s entrance.
“Sorry we’re late,” Sean said, squeezing into the booth beside Nick, with Chris and Doug behind him. “We were at the park.”
“In the middle of the school day?” Melanie raised her eyebrows.
“Never mind that,” Doug said. “What did we miss?”
Cassie pushed her milkshake away and cleared her throat. “Alice and Beatrix showed up at school today. They need a twelfth member for their dark Circle. Which means they’re going to be coming for every one of you.”
Cassie focused on Sean, Chris, and Doug, and then, finally, Faye. “They’re going to corner you, try to manipulate your weaknesses.”
The waitress arrived with their order just as Cassie’s last words trickled into the air. She set down plate after greasy plate and over-full cups, leaving no portion of the tabletop uncovered. It gave the group a much-needed moment to process what Cassie had just told them.
Once the waitress stepped away, Diana spoke. “We have to stand strong,” she said. “We have to be a united front.”
“I think it’s a given,” Deborah said, reaching for the pickle off Melanie’s plate. “Who here wants to side with the demons?” She waited dramatically for a hand to go up. When none did, she said, “I rest my case.”
“You’re missing the point,” Adam said. “You may not want that now, but these spirits were in our bodies. They know every one of our weaknesses, our every dream and desire. They’re experts at manipulation.”
Sean shoved a french fry into his mouth. “Being able to perform dark magic would be pretty cool.”
Nick smacked him on the shoulder, causing him to choke.
“I was kidding,” Sean said, coughing. “Jeez.”
“Not funny,” Laurel said. “Everyone has to promise to have no contact with any of the ancestors. We can’t give them the chance to tempt us.”
“Why are you looking at me?” Faye asked.
It had been obvious that Laurel directed her statement at Faye, but she denied it.
“I said everyone,” Laurel insisted.
“At this point,” Melanie said, tapping the top of Laurel’s hand with her own, “I think it’s safe to say we’re all committed to avoiding the ancestors. We’ll just have to watch each other’s backs to keep it that way, that’s all.”
Faye forked at her Caesar salad without looking up. “Fine,” she said. “As long as the puritanical goody two-shoes of our group don’t use that as an excuse to butt into my private life.”
Laurel opened her mouth to defend herself, but no sound came out.
“Agreed,” Diana said. “We’ll watch each other while respecting one another’s privacy.” She passed a stern look over the group until they all showed their assent.
“Sounds like a good plan to me,” Cassie said. But she was more worried than she let on. Faye’s face had changed at the mention of dark magic. It was no secret that she’d always been jealous of Cassie’s powers.
After they finished eating, and the group dispersed to make it to their next classes, Cassie took Adam and Diana aside.
“I think the three of us should go tonight to steal the book back from Scarlett,” she whispered. “Just the three of us. I’m worried about exposing the others to the ancestors.”
Adam nodded, and a look of trepidation crossed Diana’s face. “How will we do it?” she asked.
“By any means necessary,” Cassie said.
CHAPTER 17
It was a well-known New Salem fact that the old warehouse where Scarlett was staying had one window in the back that was large enough to crawl through. For years it had served as the entrance to secret rendezvous and underage keg parties. Tonight it would be Cassie, Adam, and Diana’s way to the book.
Adam ran ahead of Cassie and Diana to make sure the window was still penetrable and unguarded. Cassie watched him fiddle with the half-rotten wooden board and slide it out of place. The gaping hole in the building’s facade reminded her of a missing tooth.
“You’re as good as in,” Adam said. “Just wait for the diversion to make your move.”
Adam and Diana left her there to sneak around to the front of the warehouse. Cassie wasn’t supposed to climb into the window until her cue, but she couldn’t help herself. She desperately wanted the few extra minutes to look around.
She silently lifted herself inside and eyed the surrounding space, mentally calling to the book, alerting it that she had arrived—that she’d come to take it back home. She knew the book would answer her call.
It only took a few seconds for Cassie to hear the voices coming from the warehouse’s makeshift dining room. She recognized Scarlett’s high shrill and Alice’s oppressive monotone, as well as an ambient collage of tapping forks upon plates, and water glasses shifting.
Cassie inched toward their sounds and ducked behind some old metal containers to watch them for a few seconds. She was surprised by the portrait that spread before her eyes. Scarlett and all the ancestors were gathered around a circular table that was covered with fine foods: roasted chicken, baked potatoes, salad greens, and vegetables. They were enjoying a meal together, smiling, laughing, debating. They looked like a family, a happy family.
Charlotte sliced a loaf of corn bread into thick squares while Samuel doled out crisp-looking cobs of yellow corn.
“Those hunters you killed,” Alice said, “were of the same bloodline as the ones who had me hanged at Salem. Just as your bloodline is the same as ours, Scarlett.” She raised her glass. “True justice.”
“That’s what family’s for,” Scarlett said, clinking her glass to Alice’s.
They all seemed so at ease with each other. Witnessing their interaction made Cassie wonder if this was what Scarlett had been longing for all along—the connection of a family. The thought made Cassie’s own heart begin to beat more heavily.
“It’s a shame about Cassie,” Beatrix said to Alice. “She’s a stubborn girl; I don’t think there’s any convincing her.”
“But we still need a twelfth,” Absolom said. “By the full moon. Otherwise we’ll have to wait another whole month to perform the spell.”
What spell? Cassie wondered.
Alice glumly set down her water glass. “I really wanted it to be Cassie,” she said.
Cassie felt a lump form in her throat, and she was overcome with a grief she couldn’t identify. From the Blak family album, she’d learned that Alice began her life trying to be good. It wasn’t until she turned fifteen that she came into her full power and was overcome by her own dark magic. Then the curse Timothy spoke of got the best of her—it drove her to do awful things to the non-witches of Salem. A year later she was hanged.
Cassie couldn’t help but see a little of herself in her young aunt; they were both the same age when they discovered their magic. And she sensed Alice also saw something of herself in Cassie.
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“I just wouldn’t be able to stand it,” Scarlett said, “if we have to wait another whole month to perform the spell.”
Cassie primed her ears to take in more. She needed to learn about this spell they were planning—but just then Adam and Diana’s commotion from outside became audible.
“Ssh,” Thomas said. “What was that?”
All the ancestors halted their talk and listened. Scarlett dashed for the front of the warehouse, and Alice followed just behind.
Scarlett slid the rusty door open. The ancestors gathered around it to an unexpected spectacle. Diana and Adam had conjured a brilliant sphere of light, like a planet or spinning disco ball in the sky. They recited a chant:
Dark spirits, look at this light, look not away, give no fight.
The ancestors were dazed, caught off guard. Their eyes widened to the hypnotic shimmering orb before them. They were mesmerized by it.
Cassie knew this was her cue to snatch the book. She raised her arms and whispered her call: “Liber, libri exaudi me venire ad me.”
From across the warehouse she heard movement, and then a sound like a latch coming undone. She repeated her call again and waited with open hands.
The book showed itself to her. Freed from its hiding place, it hovered above an open metal chest.
“Venire ad me,” Cassie said, and the book swiftly flew to her hands.
Cassie could see that Alice and Beatrix and a few of the stronger ancestors were beginning to resist Adam and Diana’s conjuring. It couldn’t be long before they harnessed enough energy to break their spell.
With the book safely in hand, Cassie ran back to the window. She’d almost made it through when Absolom dropped in front of her, like a bat from the ceiling. He was wearing his black clothes and priest’s collar, and his face was twisted in a cruel sneer. He readied himself to cast a spell, and Cassie froze with terror.
“Give me the book,” he said.
Then he turned and pointed at Adam and Diana, bursting their ball of light into thick black smoke.
Alice shook herself awake. Alert now to her surroundings, she locked eyes with Cassie and saw the book in her grasp.