by L. J. Smith
“Are you kidding?” Cassie broke in.
Laurel shook her head as Faye went relentlessly on. “Chris and Doug’s is November seventeenth, Suzan’s is the twenty-fourth, and Deborah’s is the twenty-eighth. Laurel’s is, um . . .”
“December first,” Laurel said. “And Sean’s is December third, and that’s it.”
“But that’s . . .” Cassie’s voice trailed off. She couldn’t believe it. Nick was only a month older than Sean? And all the witch kids were eight or nine months older than she was? “But you and Sean are juniors, like me,” she said to Laurel. “And my birthday’s July twenty-third.”
“We just missed the cutoff date,” Laurel said. “Everybody born after November thirtieth has to wait another year for school. So we had to watch everybody else go off to kindergarten while we stayed home.” She wiped away imaginary tears.
“But that’s still . . .” Cassie couldn’t express herself. “Don’t you think that’s pretty incredible? All of you guys being born within a month of each other?”
Suzan dimpled wickedly. “It was a very wet April that year. Our parents all stayed inside.”
“It seems odd, I admit,” Melanie said. “But the fact is that most of our parents got married the spring before. So it really isn’t that surprising.”
“But . . .” Cassie still thought it was surprising, although clearly all the members of the Club were so used to it they didn’t wonder about it anymore. And why don’t I fit in the pattern? she thought. I guess it’s because I’m half outsider. She shrugged. Melanie was probably right; anyway, there was no point in worrying. She let the subject drop and they went back to planning Nick’s party.
They finally decided to combine all the birthdays for that first week—Nick’s, Adam’s, and Melanie’s—and hold the party on Saturday, November seventh.
“And,” Laurel said, when they explained their plan to the boys, “this one is going to be really different. Don’t ask now—it’s going to be unique.”
“Uh, it’s not some health-food kind of thing, is it?” Doug said, looking suspicious.
The girls looked at each other and stifled laughter. “Well—it is healthy—or at least some people think so,” Melanie said. “You’ll just have to come and see.”
“But we’ll freeze to death,” Sean said, horrified.
“Not with this,” Laurel laughed. She held up a thermos.
“Laurel.” Adam was having a hard time not laughing himself. “I don’t care how hot whatever you’ve got in there is—it’s not going to keep us warm in that.”
A silver moon, slightly more than half full, was shining down on an obsidian sea. It was the sea Adam was pointing to.
“It’s not Ovaltine,” Deborah told him impatiently. “It’s something we mixed up.”
The five boys were facing the girls, who were lined up behind Laurel. There was a bonfire going on the beach, but at this distance it did nothing to cut the icy wind.
“They’re obviously not going to believe us,” Faye said, and Diana added, “I guess we’ll just have to show them.”
Laurel passed the thermos around. Cassie took a deep breath and then a gulp. The liquid was hot and medicinal-tasting—like one of Laurel’s nastier herbal teas—but the instant she swallowed it, a tingling warmth swept over her. Suddenly she didn’t need her bulky sweater. It was positively hot out here on the beach.
“To the sea, ye mystics,” Melanie said. Cassie wasn’t sure what it meant, but like the other girls, she was shedding suddenly unnecessary clothing. The boys were goggling.
“I want a birthday party like this,” Sean said urgently, as Faye unzipped her red jacket. “Okay? Okay? I want—”
The guys were mildly disappointed when it turned out the girls had bathing suits on underneath.
“But what are we supposed to do?” Adam said, sniffing at the thermos and grinning at the bikini-clad girls.
“Well . . .” Faye smiled. “You can always improvise.”
“Or,” Diana put in, “you can look behind the big rock. There just might be a pile of swimming trunks there.”
“Now this really is different,” Laurel said happily to Cassie some time later, while they were both floating in water up to their chins. “A midnight swimming party in November. This is witchy.”
“Be more witchy if we were all sky-clad,” Chris commented, shaking his shaggy blond head like a wet dog.
Cassie and Laurel looked at each other, then at Deborah, who was bobbing nearby.
“Good idea,” Deborah said, nodding at the other girls. “How about you first, Chris?”
“Wait a minute—I didn’t mean—hey, Doug—help!”
“Come on, girls,” Laurel shouted. “Chris wants to go skinny-dipping, only he’s a little shy.”
“Help! Guys, help!”
It turned into a sort of combination of tag and aquatic wrestling. Everyone joined in. Cassie found herself being chased by Nick and she fled, kicking up great splashes while he cut cleanly through the surf behind her. He got close enough to grab her.
“Help!” Cassie shrieked, half laughing, so that she accidentally drank some salt water. But there was no help in sight. Laurel and Deborah were heading an assault on the Henderson brothers, and Adam and Diana were far away, their sleek heads bobbing side by side.
Nick tossed wet hair—blacker than onyx in the moonlight—out of his eyes and grinned at her. Cassie had never seen him smile before. “Surrender,” he suggested.
“Never,” Cassie said, with as much dignity as she could muster while wavelets slapped her. Nick was handsome—but she didn’t want him to get hold of her out here. He made another grab at her and Cassie shrieked for help again, and suddenly there was a heaving wave between them.
“Go on! Get out of here!” Faye said. Her eyes gleamed wickedly under long, wet lashes. “Or do we have to make you? Cassie, grab him around the neck while I get his trunks!”
Cassie had no idea how to grab a guy as strong as Nick around the neck, especially when she was laughing so hard, but she surged forward. Faye dove like a dolphin, and Nick twisted and made a hasty retreat, swimming away as fast as he could.
Cassie looked at Faye and found Faye smiling sideways at her. Cassie grinned.
“Thanks,” she said.
“Any time,” Faye said. “You know I’m glad to do anything for my friends. And we are friends, aren’t we, Cassie?”
Cassie thought about that, treading water in the silver-glinting ocean. “I guess,” she said, finally, slowly.
“That’s good. Because, Cassie, there’s a time coming up when I’m going to need all my friends. This Tuesday, when the moon is full, the Circle is going to have a meeting.”
Cassie nodded, not getting it for a moment. Of course they were going to have a meeting. And another party; it was Faye’s and Diana’s birthday. They were both seventeen—
“The leadership vote!” Cassie said, taking an involuntary gulp of salt water again. She stared at Faye with a sudden terrible apprehension. “Faye . . .”
“That’s right,” Faye said. In the moonlight she looked like a mermaid, staying afloat effortlessly. Her glorious mane of hair hung soaking-wet down her back like twining seaweed. Her eyes held Cassie’s. “I want to be leader of this coven, Cassie. I will be leader. And you’re going to help me.”
“No.”
“Yes. Because this time I’m serious. I’ve been going easy on you, letting you have your way, not making you play by the rules. But that’s over now, Cassie. This is the one thing I want more than anything else in the world, and you are going to help me. Otherwise . . .” Faye looked over her shoulder to where Adam and Diana were still bobbing, far away. Then she turned back.
“Otherwise, I’ll do it,” she said. “I’ll tell Diana—and not just about that little cuddling session on the bluff. I’ll tell her about the way you and Adam were kissing at the Homecoming dance—did you think nobody would see that? And the real reason Adam went through four circles of pro
tection to save you at Halloween. And”—she floated closer to Cassie, her hooded golden eyes as unblinking as the eyes of a falcon—“I’ll tell her about the skull. How you stole it from her and gave it to me, so we could kill Jeffrey.”
“That’s not what happened! I’d never have let you have it if I’d known—”
“Are you sure, Cassie?” Faye smiled, a slow, conspiratorial smile. “I think, deep down, that you and I are just the same. We’re . . . sisters under the skin. And if you don’t vote for me on Tuesday, I’ll let everyone know the truth about you. I’ll tell them what you really are inside.”
Evil, Cassie thought, staring out at the ocean. It reflected the moonlight back like a mirror, like a piece of hematite, and it surrounded her. She couldn’t say a word.
“Think about it, Cassie,” Faye said pleasantly. “You have until Tuesday night to decide.” And then she swam away.
It was Tuesday night.
The full moon was directly overhead, the circle had been cast. The members of the Club sat around it. Diana, who was wearing all the symbols of the Queen of the Witches, had called on the four elements to protect them, but now she was silent. It was Melanie who was calling for the vote, from oldest to youngest.
“Nicholas,” she said.
“I told you before,” Nick said. “I won’t vote. I’m here, because you two insisted”—he glanced from Faye to Diana—“but I abstain.”
With a strange feeling of unreality, Cassie watched his handsome, cold face. Nick had abstained, why couldn’t she? But she knew that would never satisfy Faye, unless Faye had already won. And Cassie was no closer to knowing which way to vote tonight than she had been three days ago. If only she had a little more time—
But there was no time. Melanie was speaking again.
“Adam.”
Adam’s voice was firm and clear. “Diana.”
From a pile of red and white stones in front of her, Melanie put forward one white. “And as for me, I vote for Diana too,” she said, and put out another white stone. “Faye?”
Faye smiled. “I vote for myself.”
Melanie put out a red stone. “Diana.”
“I vote for myself too,” Diana said quietly.
A third white stone. Then Melanie said, “Douglas.”
Doug grinned one of his wildest grins. “I’m voting for Faye, naturally.”
“Christopher.”
“Uh . . .” Chris looked confused. Despite Faye’s frown and Doug’s frantic coaching, he was squinting into nothingness as if searching for a lost decision. Finally, he seemed to find it and he looked at Melanie. “Okay; Diana.”
Everyone in the circle stared at him. He glared back defiantly. Cassie’s fingers clenched on the piece of hematite in her pocket.
“Chris, you feeb—” Doug began, but Melanie shut him up.
“No talking,” she said, and put out a fourth white stone next to the two red. “Suzan.”
“Faye.”
Three red, four white. “Deborah.”
“Who do you think?” Deborah snapped. “Faye.”
Four red, four white. “Laurel,” said Melanie.
“Diana’s always been our leader, and she always will be,” Laurel said. “I vote for her.”
Melanie put a fifth white stone out, a trace of a smile hovering on her lips. “Sean.”
Sean’s black eyes shifted nervously. “I . . .” Faye was staring at him relentlessly. “I . . . I . . . Faye,” he said, and hunched up his shoulders.
Melanie shrugged and put out another red stone. Five red, five white. But although her gray eyes remained serious, her lips were definitely curved in a smile. All of Diana’s adherents had relaxed, and they were flashing smiles at each other across the circle.
Melanie turned confidently to the last member of the coven and said, “Cassandra.”
Chapter 6
There was silence under the silver disk of moon.
“Cassie,” Melanie said again.
Now everyone was looking at her. Cassie could feel the heat of Faye’s golden eyes on her, and she knew why Sean had squirmed. They were hotter than the pillar of fire Diana had summoned up to protect them at Halloween.
As if compelled, Cassie glanced the other way. Diana was looking at her too. Diana’s eyes were like a pool adrift with green leaves. Cassie couldn’t seem to look away from them.
“Cassie?” Melanie said for the third time. Her voice was tinged with the slightest note of doubt.
Still unable to look away from Diana’s eyes, Cassie whispered, “Faye.”
“What?” cried Laurel.
“Faye,” Cassie said, too loudly. She was clutching the piece of hematite in her pocket. Coldness from it seemed to seep through her body. “I said Faye, all right?” she said to Melanie, but she was still looking at Diana.
Those clear green eyes were bewildered. Then, all at once, understanding came into them, as if a stone had been tossed into the tranquil pool. And when Cassie saw that, saw Diana really understand what had just happened, something inside her died forever.
Cassie didn’t know any longer why she was voting for Faye. She couldn’t remember now how all this had started, how she’d gotten on this path in the first place. All she knew was that the coldness from her hand and arm was trickling through her entire body, and that from here on, there was no turning back.
Melanie was sitting motionless, stunned, not touching the pile of red and white stones. She seemed to have forgotten about them. It was Deborah who leaned forward and picked up the sixth red stone, adding it to Faye’s pile.
And somehow that act, and the sight of the six red stones beside the five white ones, made it real. Electricity crackled in the air as everyone sat forward.
Slowly, Melanie said, “Faye is the new leader of the coven.”
Faye stood up.
She had never seemed so tall before, or so beautiful.
Silently, she held out a hand to Diana.
But it wasn’t a gesture of friendship. Faye’s open hand with the long crimson nails was demanding. And in response to it, very slowly, Diana got to her feet as well. She unclasped the silver bracelet from her upper arm.
Adam had been staring, thunderstruck. Now he jumped to his feet. “Wait a minute—”
“It’s no use, Adam,” Melanie said, in a deadened voice. “The vote was fair. Nothing can change it now.”
Faye took the silver bracelet with the mysterious, runic inscriptions, and clasped it about her own bare, rounded arm. It shone there against the honey-pale skin.
Diana’s fingers trembled as she undid the garter. Laurel, muttering something and brushing tears out of her eyes with an angry gesture, moved forward to help her, kneeling before Diana and tugging at the circle of green leather and blue silk. It came free and Laurel stood up, looking as if she wanted to throw it at Faye.
But Diana took it and placed it in Faye’s hand.
Faye was wearing the shimmering black shift that she’d worn to the Halloween dance, the one slit up both sides to the hip. She buckled the garter around her left thigh.
Then Diana put both hands to her hair and lifted off the diadem. Fine strands of hair the color of sunlight and moonlight woven together clung to the silver crown as she removed it.
Faye reached out and almost snatched it from her.
Faye held the circlet up high, as if showing it to the coven, to the four elements, to the world. Then she settled it on her own head. The crescent moon in its center gleamed against her wild black mane of hair.
There was a collective release of breath from the Circle.
Cassie didn’t know how she’d gotten to her feet, but suddenly she was running. She bolted out of the circle and ran beside the ocean, her feet sinking into wet sand. She ran until something caught her from behind and stopped her.
“Cassie!” Adam said. His eyes looked straight into hers, as if he was searching for her soul.
Cassie hit out at him.
“Cassie, I know you di
dn’t want to do it! She made you, somehow, didn’t she? Cassie, tell me!”
Cassie tried to shake him off again. Why was he bothering her? She was furious, suddenly, with Adam and Diana and their everlasting faith in her.
“I know she made you,” Adam said forcefully.
“Nobody made me!” Cassie almost shouted. Then she stopped fighting him and they stood and stared at each other, both breathing hard.
“You’d better get back there,” Cassie said. “We’re not supposed to be alone—remember? Remember our oath? Not that I guess you need to think about it much anymore. It’s pretty easy to keep these days, isn’t it?”
“Cassie, what’s going on?”
“Nothing is going on! Just go, Adam. Just—” Before Cassie could stop herself she had grabbed Adam’s arms and pulled him forward. And then she kissed him. It was a hard, angry kiss, and the next moment when she released him she was as stunned as he was.
They stared at each other speechlessly.
“Go back,” Cassie said, hardly able to hear her own voice through the pounding in her ears. It was over, it was all over. She was so cold . . . not just her skin, but inside her, deep in her core, she was freezing. Freezing over like black ice. Everything was black around her.
She pushed Adam away and made for the distant glow of the bonfire.
“Cassie!”
“I’m going back. To congratulate our new leader.”
It was chaos back at the circle. Laurel was crying, Deborah was shouting, Chris and Doug were glaring like a couple of tomcats about to fight and calling each other names. Sean was hovering behind Faye to keep his distance from a disdainful Melanie. Suzan was telling Chris and Doug to grow up, while Faye laughed. Of all of them, only Nick and Diana were utterly still. Nick was smoking silently, away from the rest of the group, watching them with narrowed eyes.
