The Hunt

by L. J. Smith

“Really, Cassie,” Scarlett said, standing. “You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?” She raised her arms and focused on Cassie, but Cassie beat her to the punch.

  “Cadunt,” Cassie commanded. Scarlett dropped to her knees again, and then tipped over onto the ground. She fell straight-limbed and unyielding in one swift motion, the way a tree goes down in the forest.

  “What were you saying about this being easy?” Cassie quipped.

  Scarlett lay unmoving flat on her back.

  “Untie me, Cassie!” Adam screamed. “We need to get out of here.”

  Cassie pretended not to hear him. At the moment she could have easily freed Adam from the ropes without even using her hands. A simple unraveling spell would have done it. But being tied up is what kept Adam safe and out of the crossfire. This fight was between her and her sister, and she was prepared to finish it right then and there.

  Cassie yelled over to where Scarlett was lying on the floor. “Have you had enough yet? Or should we keep going? Because I’m just getting warmed up.”

  Scarlett refused to surrender. The defense spell she hollered out sounded like a cry for help, or a plea to her own body. “Oriuntur,” Scarlett demanded, and she used every bit of strength she had to stand up again.

  The book, though, Cassie noticed—her book—had slipped from Scarlett’s grasp.

  Cassie thrust her charged fingers toward its pages and called to it, “Mihi venit!”

  To Scarlett’s surprise, and much to her own, the book quivered and rose up from the floor until it was eye-level with Cassie. Then it floated across the room like a leaf caught in the wind, right into Cassie’s outstretched hands.

  Cassie gripped the book’s soft cover and hugged it close to her chest.

  Scarlett desperately cast her trembling fingers at Cassie again. “Praestrangulo,” she screamed. “Caecitas!” She was frantic, trying every spell she knew. But Cassie had the upper hand now.

  “Divorsus,” Cassie said calmly. A simple wave of her arm blocked all of Scarlett’s feeble spells.

  With her father’s book in hand, Cassie understood where her new power was coming from. Somehow, it had seeped into her veins those past weeks; Black John’s spells were now hers. She could feel the book’s power coursing through her. This was right. It was Scarlett who had to go.

  “And I thought you were going to put up a fight,” Cassie said, egging Scarlett on. “I mistook you for a worthy opponent.”

  Scarlett was running out of options. Barely able to stand, exhausted from casting too many spells, she momentarily glanced at the shallow closet closed off from the room by two folding doors.

  The quick look wasn’t lost on Cassie. “Hmm,” she said, turning to face the closet. “I wonder what’s in there. Could it be my Tools? The ones you stole from me?”

  Scarlett’s eyes widened, and she dashed for the closet doors.

  “Desiccare!” Cassie shouted.

  Scarlett dropped to the floor once more. Her legs and arms stiffened like the limbs of a corpse.

  “I guess that answers that.” Cassie casually walked over to Scarlett. She watched the spell collapse Scarlett’s spine and wrinkle its way up the length of Scarlett’s neck.

  “Cassie!” Adam cried out desperately. “Untie me, now!”

  Finally Scarlett’s face succumbed to the spell. It dried and shriveled like a preserved peach, then turned gray and ashen—motionless as a mask, except for her eyes, which darted frantically back and forth.

  “You know this already,” Cassie said. “But I’ll remind you again just this once. The Master Tools belong to me. And from now on, they answer only to me. And that boy over there?” She gestured to Adam. “He’s mine.”

  Scarlett’s dark eyes slowed to a stop, hardening to a stony gray that matched the rest of her desiccated body.

  Cassie grinned. “Who do you think is Daddy’s favorite now? I’ll give you a hint: It’s not you.”

  “Cassie,” Adam called to her, but he sounded far away, as if he were at the opposite end of a long tunnel. She knew he was there in the room with her, but at the moment he seemed small and unimportant. He may as well have not been there at all.

  “You’re nothing,” Cassie said to Scarlett. “Nothing.”

  Cassie felt invincible. She could destroy Scarlett so easily now. She suddenly knew the right words. They came to her strikingly from deep within her gut. She could taste them, bitter like licorice on her tongue:

  I maledicentibus vobis in mortem.

  I curse you to death.

  CHAPTER 18

  “Cassie!” Adam screamed. “Your eyes. You have to stop!”

  Cassie heard Adam’s cries, but couldn’t register their meaning. All she could see was the image of Scarlett in front of her, dead.

  “You’re going to kill her!” Adam screamed, just before Cassie could speak the words that would murder her sister.

  Cassie sputtered, confused, as if Adam had finally shaken her awake from a nightmare.

  “It’s Black John. It’s the darkness controlling you,” Adam said. “This isn’t you, Cassie.”

  Cassie gazed around the room like she’d never seen it before, and then at Scarlett, who was dying at her feet.

  Cassie felt her own insides cave in. Her legs went soft, and she felt light-headed. Adam was right. This wasn’t her.

  She carefully set her father’s Book of Shadows on the table and backed away from it with caution. Then she looked at Adam. “What have I done?”

  Some of the color returned to Adam’s face and his shoulders settled. “Not what you almost did, thank goodness.” He took a deep breath. “I thought I’d lost you for good.”

  Cassie ran to Adam and wrapped her arms around him.

  “There’s a better way to deal with Scarlett,” he said. “We’ll figure out what it is together. But you have to untie me first.”

  Cassie’s first instinct was to use magic to set Adam free, but then she thought better of it. She untied him the old-fashioned way, tugging and untwisting the ropy threads confining him to the chair until he was free.

  Adam stood up and stretched his legs. He rubbed his sore, rope-burned wrists. “Where did you learn all those dark spells?” he asked. “Have you been able to translate that much of the book?”

  “No. I don’t know,” Cassie said. “They just came to me.”

  “What do you mean, they just came to you? Like from inside you? Your eyes were as black as marbles.”

  “Adam, I don’t know. Can we just focus on Scarlett right now?” Scarlett was still lying motionless on the floor, gray and desiccated.

  “Will she be okay?” Adam asked.

  “I think so,” Cassie said. “But I can also do a reversal spell.”

  Adam considered their options for a minute. “Before she can move again,” he said, “there’s another spell I think we should try. It’ll prevent her from ever returning to New Salem. What do you think? Are you up for it?”

  “A magical restraining order,” Cassie said. “That sounds great, but I don’t think our regular magic is strong enough to work on her.”

  “It will be.” Adam nodded toward the closet.

  The Master Tools. Of course. In all the commotion, Cassie had almost forgotten about them.

  Cassie stepped around Scarlett to open the closet’s folding doors. She rummaged through some junk on the floor and moved around some boxes on a high shelf, and there they were. Just sitting there for the taking. The silver bracelet, the leather garter, and the sparkling diadem.

  Cassie reached for each one individually. First the bracelet. She fastened it around her upper arm. Its smooth silver felt cool against her skin. Next she secured the soft leather garter on her thigh. Adam came up behind her as she reached for the diadem. He straightened it on her head for her.

  “Now that’s more like it,” he said. “That’s the Cassie I know and love.”

  Cassie tried to soak up the positive energy from each Tool—to feel like the Cassie Adam k
new and loved. She tried her best to smile.

  “I feel good,” she said. “Better.” Then she looked at Scarlett. “Let’s try the restraining spell.”

  “We’ll need a few things first.” Adam hurried around the house, searching for supplies, digging through a few different drawers and cabinets. “I’ll be right back,” he said, and ran out to the front yard.

  Cassie had a few moments to think about what she’d just been through. She’d come so close to killing her sister. How could Adam ever look at her the same way? How could she wear the Master Tools now, or ever be worthy of them again?

  Adam returned from outside, rosy cheeked and with a fistful of dirt. “Okay,” he said. “Let’s give this spell a try.”

  He bent down to Scarlett and guided Cassie’s hand to Scarlett’s forehead. “You hold her here and concentrate. It’s important that your intentions remain clear, Cassie, can you do that?”

  “Yes,” Cassie said easily. But she knew she would really have to try.

  Scarlett’s forehead was cold and hard; it was almost like touching a corpse. Adam lit a candle and swung it above Scarlett’s body, back and forth from the top of her head, down to the bottoms of her feet. Then he recited the chant. “I banish you from New Salem, Scarlett, with the power of fire.”

  Cassie imagined a soothing white light. She pictured it growing brighter and more intense until it had enveloped not only Scarlett but herself and Adam as well.

  Adam secured the lit candle in a holder upon the floor, just north of Scarlett’s head. Then he scattered the fistful of dirt he’d collected from the front yard onto the floor, encircling Scarlett within it. He said, “I banish you from New Salem, Scarlett, with the power of earth.”

  Cassie could smell the loamy trail of dirt and was reminded of the elemental wholesomeness of the earth, the cleanliness of stark terrain. She imagined the white light filling the whole room, and then the entire house from the inside out.

  Next Adam reached for a cup of water he’d set on the table. He dipped his hand deep into the cup and then sprinkled drops of water, like rain, over Scarlett’s skin. “I banish you from New Salem, Scarlett, with the power of water,” he said.

  Finally Adam went to open the front door of the house and a large window on the opposite side, creating a strong cross-breeze in the main room. The rush of air blew out the candle he’d set on the floor. “I banish you from New Salem, Scarlett, with the power of air,” he said.

  He placed his hands gently over Cassie’s, joining her in holding Scarlett’s forehead. He closed his eyes and said, “Fire, earth, water, and air, and the power of the Master Tools, mote it be.”

  Scarlett stirred and Adam opened his eyes. “That’s it,” he said.

  Cassie let her hands drop to her sides. “Did it work?”

  “We’ll find out,” Adam said. “But after all this, I don’t think she’ll be much of a threat anymore.”

  Cassie nodded, but she wasn’t so sure. She couldn’t imagine a time when Scarlett would no longer be a menace.

  Adam picked up Black John’s Book of Shadows and gestured to the door. “What do you say we get out of here?”

  Cassie looked Scarlett over one last time and nodded.

  She went to the front door and put one hand on the knob. With her other hand, she waved her fingers at Scarlett. “I tollere malum incantatores,” she said, the words of the reversal spell.

  Scarlett’s color came back and she gasped for breath just as Cassie and Adam stepped outside, slamming the door behind them.

  CHAPTER 19

  Once they were back at Cassie’s house, Adam and Cassie took a few minutes to sit down on the front porch swing and collect themselves. It was dark, and they both began to yawn now that their adrenaline had settled. Adam turned to Cassie and shyly smiled. “Thanks for saving my butt back there.”

  Cassie was comforted by Adam’s ability to make light of the situation—it meant he was beginning to get over the shock of seeing her overcome by dark magic. Maybe things could finally go back to normal for them. But first she had to address what he’d done.

  “I owed you one,” Cassie said. “But it was stupid of you to go after Scarlett by yourself. You could have been killed.”

  “It didn’t seem stupid in my head. I knew where you’d hidden the book, and I had hoped to trade it for the Master Tools.”

  “But do you know how dangerous that book could be in Scarlett’s possession?”

  “To be honest with you, Cassie, I did it because I wanted to get the book away from you. I thought getting it out of your hands might save you from its darkness. You have to believe me. I was trying to help.”

  Cassie recalled how the book seemed to be summoning her each time Scarlett turned one of its pages, how it beckoned her to attack Scarlett with black magic.

  “After how I acted back there,” Cassie said, “I’m worried it’s too late. I think the book has done its damage.”

  “No. Don’t talk like that,” Adam said. “It was a close call, but nothing irreparable was done.”

  Cassie’s heart instantly flooded with regret. She knew this was the moment to tell Adam what had happened the night before with Nick. If she didn’t tell him now, she may never have the courage again.

  “I did do something irreparable,” she said. “I wish it wasn’t true, but it is.”

  “What did you do?” Adam asked, but when Cassie remained silent, he tried a less accusatory tone. “Whatever it is, we can work through it,” he said. “As long as you’re honest with me.” Cassie still picked up on the hint of dread in his voice.

  “Last night,” Cassie said, feeling sick with shame, “I kissed Nick.”

  Adam’s whole body constricted. “I can’t believe him,” he mumbled to the air.

  “It was all me,” Cassie insisted. “Nick was a perfect gentleman. I practically forced myself on him.”

  Adam glared straight ahead for a few seconds.

  “I am so unbelievably sorry,” Cassie said.

  She was hoping Adam would say something in return, but he was dead silent.

  “I know it’s no excuse,” Cassie continued. “But when it happened it was like the book was making me want to hurt you. Like it had taken over my mind and my body. I couldn’t control myself.”

  “I get it,” Adam said. His voice cracked with emotion. “I don’t want to hear any more.”

  “But I want you to understand that I didn’t mean for it to happen. That’s not how I feel about Nick. I know that still doesn’t make it okay, and you have every right to hate me—”

  “I can never hate you,” Adam said. “But I can’t say I’m not a little hurt.”

  Cassie placed her hand on Adam’s knee, relieved he was at least speaking to her. “It will never happen again,” she said. “I promise.”

  “I know it won’t happen again. Especially after we figure out what to do with that book.” Adam glanced at the book, which was resting between them alongside the Master Tools. “It’s the book I hate, not you.”

  A pang of worry shot through Cassie’s chest. What if Adam’s resentment for the book caused him to do something drastic? He wouldn’t try to destroy it, would he?

  “We’ve both made mistakes recently,” Adam said. “And we have bigger concerns to deal with. One kiss is hardly the worst of them.”

  “Bigger concerns,” Cassie said. “Like me being altogether evil.”

  Adam shook his head. “You’re not evil, Cassie. One day, I promise, our lives will be normal enough that I will sufficiently freak out if you kiss another guy of your own volition, not because a cursed book made you do it.”

  Cassie had to laugh as Adam gave the porch swing a little nudge, sending them gently back and then forward again.

  Adam took a long breath in, held it, and exhaled heavily, as if he were blowing out every hurt feeling and negative thought within him. He looked longingly at Cassie and then leaned over and kissed her.

  Cassie had never felt so gratified by a
kiss in all her life. For a few blissful minutes she forgot all her troubles. She was healed. She was with Adam and that was all that mattered.

  Adam must have felt it, too, because his passion for Cassie now was pressing and pleading. He kissed her like he hadn’t seen her in years, like he wanted to erase her kiss with Nick from her mind and claim her for himself.

  But Cassie finally, reluctantly pulled away. “We should go inside,” she said. “We can continue this later in private, after we tell everyone about getting the Master Tools back.”

  Adam agreed and the two of them got up from the swing. They straightened their clothes and gathered the book and Tools to carry them inside.

  “They’re going to freak out when they see these,” Adam said, holding the Tools up like a trophy. They glistened in the moonlight.

  “I know,” Cassie said. “But maybe we can leave out the worst parts of the story about how we got them back?”

  Adam didn’t argue. The two of them made their way through the house and jogged down the basement stairs. They excitedly revealed the hidden door—but on the opposite side, they found an empty room.

  “Hello!” Cassie called out. “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”

  Within a few seconds her joviality was quelled. This was no game of hide-and-seek. Not a single member of the Circle was to be found in the room.

  There were laptops left open and dishes with food on them still on the table. Laurel’s desk lamp hadn’t been turned off and neither had the light in the bathroom.

  Cassie set down her father’s book and the Master Tools, and a knot formed in her throat. “Where could they have gone?” she said. But she couldn’t state the worry nagging her: If their friends were discovered, they most likely had been killed.

  “There’s no way the hunters got in here.” Adam scrutinized the room in a desperate search for clues. “They must be with the rest of the Circle. Text Diana.”

  Cassie rummaged through her bag for her phone. She’d silenced it on her way to Stockbridge and forgot to turn the ringer back on. Now a list of urgent text messages, mostly from Nick, stared her in the face.