The Hunt

by L. J. Smith

  She scanned through them nervously. “Faye went after the principal,” she said to Adam. “The rest of them are chasing after her, to keep her from doing anything stupid.”

  “Too late.” Adam slammed his hand down on the table. “That half-translated witch-hunter curse will never work.”

  “The last text says they were headed to the school.” Cassie stuffed her phone back into her pocket. “It was sent twenty minutes ago.”

  Without another word the two of them rushed upstairs. Cassie felt heat stealing into her face and a twisting panic in her stomach. She tried to catch her breath once they were inside Adam’s car, but it was no use.

  Adam floored the accelerator pedal, his eyes wild. Cassie watched the speedometer arc steadily from left to right. He had to be driving ninety miles per hour, but it still didn’t feel fast enough. If they didn’t make it to the school in time … Cassie couldn’t fathom it.

  But she had to be mentally prepared. Even if their friends were lying dead on the ground when they arrived, Cassie still had to be ready to fight.

  CHAPTER 20

  Arriving at the school, Adam and Cassie were unsure where to look first. The sky was dark as midnight, but there was enough security lighting to give them a decent view of the grounds. From the parking lot they scanned the empty bleachers and vacant football field. They checked the perimeter of the building, and the outer wing where the principal’s office was located.

  “Do you think they’re inside?” Cassie asked. “Maybe we should split up.”

  “Up there,” Adam said. “I think that’s them.”

  There was movement on the roof of the building, barely visible shadows, but clashing voices echoed down to the ground. Cassie pushed away her fear and forced the trembling within her stomach to steady her. If there were sounds of a scuffle, that meant there was still a fight.

  Adam rushed for the rusty fire escape that ran up the side of the building and Cassie followed just behind him. They quieted their steps as they neared the top. There, they discovered Diana, Melanie, Chris, Doug, and Sean hiding behind the metal railing.

  Diana noticed them and put her finger over her lips to indicate they should be quiet. Cassie and Adam moved to where they could view the action at the center of the roof. It was a formidable sight.

  Nick, Faye, Laurel, Deborah, and Suzan were aligned in a tight defensive circle. They appeared trapped and powerless, as if they’d been confined to a cage. And their marks glowed bright on their chests, like iridescent hearts beating over their clothes.

  The hunter marks must shine in the presence of the relics, Cassie thought. Three hunters surrounded the group, and each of them held a gray stone carved into the dreadful shape of the hunter symbol.

  It was the principal and two others—one man and one woman. Cassie wondered where Max was. Did Diana have something to do with his absence? But there wasn’t any time for questions.

  The man was older—Cassie would even call him elderly. He had long white hair and eyes the color of ice. The woman appeared to be around Cassie’s mother’s age. She was rail thin and had mousy brown hair and brown eyes, but there was no mistaking the resemblance between the two.

  Through her research, Laurel had identified two of the last remaining hunters as Jedediah Felton—an ancestor of one of the most feared hunter families in history—and his daughter, Louvera Felton. Now here they were in the flesh.

  The Feltons didn’t look as Cassie had expected they would. They seemed so normal. In Cassie’s imagination, the hunters were giant tribal-looking men wearing some sort of traditional garb, like a robe a martial-arts master would wear. But these hunters would have passed for three average adults if not for the ancient relics they wielded like weapons.

  “They don’t look so tough,” Adam said. “Without those stones, they’d have nothing on us.”

  “But those stones contain power that goes back over six hundred years,” Diana whispered. “Isn’t that what Laurel said?”

  Cassie nodded.

  “What are they mumbling?” Adam asked. “Do you think it’s the killing spell?”

  The hunters chanted in a low hum, repeating an ominous phrase:

  I sum eius agens,

  I occidere in eius nomen—

  I sum eius agens,

  I occidere in eius nomen—

  Just then, all five of their friends on the center of the roof dropped to their knees. They held their skulls as if they were suffering from terrible migraines.

  “It has to be the killing curse,” Cassie said. She made a motion to lunge forward and reveal herself, but Diana grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back.

  “Wait,” she said. “If we show ourselves, we’ll be trapped just like the others. The witch-hunter curse we translated must not have worked. Otherwise Faye and the rest of them wouldn’t be in this state.”

  Laurel and Suzan were writhing on the ground at the hunters’ feet. Faye was on her knees, screaming out in pain. Nick cringed, holding his head like it was bleeding, and Deborah looked like she had passed out from the torture.

  “We have to try something,” Cassie said. “We probably only have a few minutes, maybe even seconds.”

  “A blocking spell,” Adam said. “To turn the energy of their curse back on them. With the seven of us, we might have enough power.” He closed his eyes and reached for Cassie’s hands. “Repeat after me: Hunters, disperse. We reverse your curse.”

  The group of them linked arms and did as Adam said, though Cassie didn’t have much faith that such a generic spell could be strong enough to have an effect on those ancient relics. Still, she concentrated all her energy on the chant. “Hunters, disperse. We reverse your curse.”

  At first nothing happened, but then the hunters paused. Continuing their low hum, they looked from side to side. The magic had caught their attention, but they continued with the chant.

  Then Cassie felt a change. A heated power. Not knowing where it came from, a string of new words sprouted from her mouth. “Venatores dispergam. Nos vertite maledictionem.” The words were rasping, guttural sounds that rose from deep in her throat. She immediately recognized the feeling as dark magic, but she allowed it to come. Her whole being trembled with a painful ecstasy.

  The hunters were truly startled now. They halted their chanting and searched the shadows for the source of the spell. They waved their relics, but they seemed not to understand what they were feeling. They only knew it wasn’t good.

  “Venatores dispergam. Nos vertite maledictionem,” Cassie said again.

  Mr. Boylan scolded the others for breaking their concentration. “Focus!” he shouted. “We’re not finished yet.”

  But within seconds the old man stopped reciting the curse. His face reddened and he clutched his chest. “It’s an ancient,” he said. “I don’t know how, but I’m sure of it.”

  Jedediah doubled over, and began pounding on his own heart. “Find him,” he screamed out to the others.

  But Cassie continued uttering her dark words, louder now that she saw how well they were working. Adam and the others stood silently by, their arms still linked.

  Louvera made a motion to go to her father’s aid, but then she also grabbed her chest as if she were having a heart attack. She gasped for air, unable to speak.

  Mr. Boylan was visibly weakening. His spine curved downward, bending his usually rigid posture into a rounded question mark. All the color had drained from his face and his whole body shook with exhaustion.

  Jedediah climbed to his hands and knees and began crawling to the hatch door in the roof that led down into the school building.

  Louvera cried out with whatever air she had left, “Release them!” She choked and crawled in the same direction as the old man, and slid down the gaping hole in the roof to safety.

  But the principal refused to run away. He continued reciting the curse, holding tight to his relic, as he fell to his knees.

  Cassie took a few steps forward, directing her words straight
for him. He tried to stand back up, but fell down again.

  One by one, the Circle members who had fallen began slowly rising to their feet. Faye and Laurel, then Nick and Suzan, and finally Deborah were shaking off the pain that had debilitated them only minutes earlier.

  Cassie could feel herself growing stronger as Mr. Boylan became weaker, as if she were sucking out his power and keeping it for her own use. She watched him shrivel before her eyes, panting like a cowardly animal. He clutched his chest and cried out. But Cassie felt no remorse for him whatsoever. She was only disgusted by his frailty. She was sure he would remain there withering to his death, and she would let him.

  Then, one last time, he got to his feet. He wobbled and, still unsure where the real opposition was coming from, he honed in on Faye. In a final desperate effort, he cast all his remaining energy at her, shouting the killing curse one last time as loud as he could.

  Before Faye knew what was coming, Suzan leapt in front of her, knocking her out of the way and onto the ground.

  His power spent, Boylan finally retreated. Defenseless and shambling, he dragged himself away, across the rooftop, and down the same escape route as his fellow hunters.

  Cassie continued moving toward him, still uttering the curse.

  “Cassie,” Adam called out. “That’s enough. He’s gone.”

  But Cassie couldn’t stop—the words continued coursing through her like a piano that played itself. She didn’t want the sensation to end.

  Adam grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her furiously. “Snap out of it,” he shouted. “The hunters are gone.”

  Somehow Adam’s words reached Cassie through the long tunnel she’d gotten lost in. She snapped to consciousness and looked around hazily.

  Chris and Doug came into view, then Sean and Melanie, and even through her clouded vision Cassie could see the hunter symbols glowing on their clothes. Each of them had been marked. Then Cassie turned to Diana and saw that she, too, had the symbol glowing on her sleeve. And so did Adam. Cassie pointed to it, shaking.

  “I know,” Adam said. “I saw it.”

  Then Cassie looked down and saw the front of her shirt gleaming as well. Now they were all on equal footing. The entire Circle had been marked. A strange calm came over Cassie, like the worst had finally happened and now they could move forward—but then Faye shrieked in a haunted pitch that made Cassie’s blood run cold.

  Faye was kneeling, shaking, over an unmoving Suzan.

  Everything started to blur as they all rushed to where Suzan was lying. Adam reached her first. He dropped to his knees and checked her neck and wrist for a pulse. Then he listened to see if she was breathing.

  “Call an ambulance!” he screamed, but nobody moved. Suzan’s eyes had already glassed over. Her face had hardened to a lifeless mask.

  “She’s dead,” Faye said, to herself as much as to Adam. “She died saving my life.”

  “No.” Adam shuddered, refusing to accept the truth. He tried CPR. He tried mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Finally he just pounded on Suzan’s chest. But it was too late.

  Cassie kneeled down to see for herself what none of them could bear to register. The witch hunter’s death symbol was glowing bright on Suzan’s forehead.

  CHAPTER 21

  A warm breeze rustled the graveyard’s foliage as the Circle and Suzan’s father gathered for her burial. It was an impossibly sunny day, which only made Cassie feel guilty that she could enjoy it when Suzan couldn’t. Suzan had been such a lighthearted person, always able to find the fun in any situation. How was it possible that they could all be standing here now beneath the bright sun, while Suzan would be buried beneath heavy black dirt? It wasn’t fair, and nothing anyone said would make sense of it.

  The graveyard was mostly flat, comprised of a few small ponds and crooked streams. The jagged coastline was visible in the distance to the east. To the west were wooded, rolling hills. And prevailing over all of it were the granite cliffs in the far north. This was a beautiful place. Why were such wonders made so much more visible by death and loss? Was that why tragedies happened? To open our eyes to the miraculous, to force us to appreciate joy?

  Only Deborah had the courage to say a brief eulogy over Suzan’s casket, to reach for a few words that might capture what the whole Circle was feeling. She cleared her throat and looked affectionately at Suzan’s father.

  “Suzan was easy to underestimate,” she said, and a few people giggled. “In fact, Suzan wanted you to underestimate her, so she could later surprise you with her wit and intelligence, her goodness, her generosity, and let’s not forget, her sarcasm. Beneath all her fancy clothes and makeup, Suzan was a pure soul.” Deborah was choking back tears now. “She was pure through and through. And we’re all going to miss her very much.”

  They all began to cry, but Faye was the most distraught of all. She could barely keep herself upright, she was so overcome with grief. To keep her sobbing from disrupting the ceremony, she staggered off to the side to lean against a barren tree.

  Cassie went to her. She approached her the way she would have approached an injured street cat, with carefulness and caution, fully prepared to back off if necessary. She tried putting her arm around her, but Faye immediately pushed her away. “I don’t want your pity. Just leave me alone.”

  “Faye,” Cassie said. “None of this is your fault. You can’t be blaming yourself.”

  Faye stared viciously at the ground. “It should have been me. I wish it was me in that box right now.”

  “Faye.”

  “No, Cassie. It’s easy for you to say it’s nobody’s fault. You saved the day. You’re the hero. But I’m the reason Suzan was on that roof to begin with. And then she threw herself in front of the killing curse to save me. So don’t stand there and try to make me feel better. I don’t deserve it.”

  Cassie could understand the sentiment. She didn’t want to feel better either. And if Faye wished to punish herself, there was nothing Cassie could do to convince her otherwise. She took a step closer to Faye but didn’t attempt to touch her this time. She just stood near her quietly and respectfully, hoping at the very least to make Faye feel less alone in her remorse.

  They watched the remainder of the service together from afar. After the casket was lowered into the ground, there was nothing left for anyone to do but file back to their cars.

  Cassie took Faye’s hand and guided her across the grass to the rest of the group. With her other hand, she reached for Adam. Together, the eleven of them walked solemnly across the graveyard, but Cassie felt as if each step took them further away from one another. This devastation had broken their bond and weakened their allegiance.

  Then Cassie looked down at her and Adam’s intertwined fingers. She willed it to be there. The silver cord. But nothing appeared.

  The town of New Salem oddly came to life around funerals. People Cassie had never even seen before poured into Suzan’s house with flowers and food for Suzan’s dad. He was polite, but dazed. It might take weeks for the reality of Suzan’s death to actually hit him. Cassie wished she could go to him now and offer him some kind of explanation for what had happened to his little girl. He must have so many questions. But Cassie restrained herself. It was probably better to leave those things unsaid. None of it really added up to an explanation anyhow.

  Diana huddled close to Cassie and whispered in her ear. “See those?” she said, pointing to a bouquet of lilies. “They’re from Max.”

  Cassie could see Diana was hurting. Not having Max nearby when she needed him the most couldn’t have been easy. This day would have been impossible for Cassie to endure without Adam. But then again, Adam wasn’t the Circle’s sworn enemy.

  Diana touched one of the lilies longingly. “I broke it off with him, you know.”

  Cassie tried not to appear relieved.

  “After what happened with Suzan, I realized how dangerous it really was,” Diana continued. “I told him I needed to stand with my Circle.”

&nb
sp; “And he’s okay with that?”

  “He doesn’t have a choice,” Diana said, but she gazed around the room as if she were still hoping Max might step inside at any moment.

  Cassie could relate. She had given up Adam once for the good of the Circle and her friendship with Diana. She searched her mind for the right thing to say. Max hadn’t been on the roof the night of their battle, so maybe he wasn’t so bad after all—maybe he was having second thoughts about being a hunter. But Cassie still couldn’t ignore the facts: It was Max who’d marked Faye. It was Max’s father who’d killed Suzan—Suzan, who they’d just buried less than an hour before. Cassie couldn’t help but be glad Diana had broken up with him, at least for the time being.

  “Look, Diana,” Cassie said. “None of us knows what the future holds. What’s going to happen between you and Max down the road isn’t something we can predict. But today, you have your friends. And we’re here for you—we have to be, now more than ever.”

  “You’re right. And I’m grateful. Believe me, I am.” Diana paused. “It’s just that sometimes I wish everything could just be normal. Do you know what I mean?”

  “Well,” Cassie said, looking over at Adam. He was greeting strangers at the door, thanking them for their casseroles and flowers, directing them toward the sitting room. He was always the helper, always the gentle knight. How could Cassie judge Diana harshly for choosing a complicated person to love, when she knew it was hardly a choice at all?

  “You know what I think?” Cassie put her arm around Diana and brought her in for a hug. “I think sometimes, normal is overrated.”

  CHAPTER 22

  Later that night, after the mourners had gone home, the Circle convened in Diana’s living room. They sat motionless, leaning on one another, staring into space as if waiting for something none of them could name. They listened to the sound of the driving rain on the roof and the savage gusts of wind buffeting the bay window. Outside, the night sky had turned pink in the storm: Suzan’s favorite color.