by L. J. Smith
“I barely touched him,” Cassie screamed out.
“He’s in pain,” Diana said.
“Duh.” Doug helped Chris to his feet. “I think his arm is broken.”
“I guess Nick isn’t the only one with anger issues.” Deborah glanced at Cassie and then went to Chris’s other side for support.
“He’s in pain,” Diana shouted out again. “Do you understand what this means?”
Cassie thought back to her car accident a few weeks ago, when she walked away unscathed, and she suddenly comprehended Diana’s shock. “The protective spell is broken,” Cassie said.
A spine-chilling quiet fell over the room as everyone realized what this meant for their safety.
“Scarlett in the gym last night,” Diana said. “She wasn’t there to ruin our dance. She was destroying the only thing keeping us alive.”
Chapter 10
“I figured out a way to open my father’s book,” Cassie said to Adam, pulling the gunmetal chest out from under her bed and the key from its hidden compartment in her jewelry box.
She had asked Adam to stay while the others accompanied Chris to the hospital. Now that the protection spell had been broken, they didn’t have a moment to waste. They needed to end these hunters, once and for all.
“How?” he asked.
Cassie showed him the obsidian crystal and explained how it worked as a buffer to the book’s dark energy. Cassie and Adam settled down on her bedroom floor, the book in front of them. Cassie opened it, knowing it would singe her fingers a bit before she could get the crystal in place, and it did. But once the rock had been set down, weighing upon the book’s spine and clearing its energy, the book’s first two pages were visible.
“This is incredible.” Adam leaned over the book on his hands and knees, closely examining each brushstroke before him. “I recognize a few familiar symbols here. From my hunt for the Master Tools a while ago. Some of these same inscriptions were on Black John’s map.”
Cassie couldn’t keep herself from smiling. “I was hoping you’d say something like that.”
“I’ll look back through my old research and see what I can find. Do you think we can take the book to my house?”
The idea of the book leaving her bedroom rattled Cassie and she faltered. “I don’t think so,” she stuttered. “You’re better off bringing your research here.”
“You know, Cassie,” Adam said. “Now that the protection spell is broken, and Scarlett is getting closer, I think it’s time we looped in the rest of the Circle.”
Cassie shook her head before he could say anything more. “We’ve already discussed this. I told you, I need some time before I tell the Circle I have the book. I’m not going to say it again.”
“This is some really dark stuff, Cassie.” Adam pointed at the text’s ominous squiggly lines. “Look at it. Decoding this is going to require as many of us working on it as possible. I think it’s worth a shot.”
“Oh, is that what you think? You think it’s worth a shot?” Cassie realized she was shouting, but she couldn’t stop herself. “Well, here’s what I think,” she said. “I think it’s my book, not yours. And it’s my issue to deal with, not the Circle’s.”
“You don’t have to yell at me,” Adam said calmly.
“Sometimes it’s the only way to get you to listen!”
Adam leaned backward. “We’re dealing with dark magic here, Cassie. A curse of Black John’s that can save the lives of our friends who are marked, not to mention our Circle—but only if we translate it properly.”
“Exactly. The book is dangerous, Adam. I don’t want anyone to get hurt until I know I have something real that could help them. But if you’re so interested in dabbling in dark magic all of a sudden, maybe you should go find Scarlett.”
Adam looked stunned. Cassie was, too. She had thought she was feeling better after Adam’s romantic gesture before their meeting. She hadn’t realized last night’s conversation about the cord and Scarlett was still prodding at her heart. But it made her insides ache—even more now that she and Adam were disagreeing—and out it had come before she even knew what she was saying.
“That’s not what I meant at all.” Adam’s voice cracked with emotion, but he strived to maintain his composure. “How could you even think such a thing? You’re the one who said it was going to be okay last night. You said, ‘Everything will look brighter tomorrow.’ Well, that day is today, Cassie, and I’m still here, loving you.”
Cassie knew Adam was right. She had tried to assure him Scarlett wouldn’t come between them, and now she was ruining that effort. The heated anger within her was driving him away—she knew she should stop, but it felt like her emotions were beyond her control.
What Cassie did next surprised them both. She grabbed Adam’s face with her hands and brought his mouth to hers. She kissed him violently, like the life of their relationship depended on it—and maybe it did. Cassie climbed on top of Adam, and he resisted her at first, but as Cassie knew he would, he eventually gave in.
It had never been this way before. Fast, animalistic. Pulling Adam closer always felt good, but right now everything seemed blurry and confused. Cassie’s intentions were clouded.
Once they slowed down, Adam drew back and looked into her eyes with concern. “Does this mean we’re okay?”
“I don’t want to lose you,” Cassie said. Her own voice sounded foreign to her, almost anesthetized.
“You’re not going to lose me.” Adam began kissing her again, but this time Cassie drew back.
She regretted the way she’d yelled at Adam and wanted to react to him with warmth now, but she was oddly disconnected. She wasn’t really sure what she was feeling—or if she was feeling anything at all. All she was certain of was that she didn’t want to say or do anything else that might hurt him.
Cassie sat up and brought her knees in toward her chest. “I’m sorry,” she said. “But I’m just not myself right now. I think you should go.”
Adam’s face crumpled, a combination of disappointment and confusion, but he simply nodded and got up to gather his things.
“Okay,” he said. He glanced down at Black John’s book still open on the floor but thought better of mentioning it. “When you’re feeling better, I’ll be waiting for your call.”
He left, quietly shutting Cassie’s bedroom door behind him.
The second Cassie heard Adam leave the house, she leapt out of bed. Her father’s book was still splayed open on the floor, held in place by the obsidian crystal. Suddenly it all became clear. Her charge of emotions with Adam just now—she’d felt it before. It was the same surge she felt when she handled her father’s Book of Shadows.
She got down on her hands and knees and examined the book at eye level. Her fingers trembled with anticipation, still warm from where she’d been singed earlier. The book had some power over her—she understood that now. Each time it burned her hands it affected her mind. It was changing her.
Cassie thought back to every time she’d lost her temper since she’d first opened the book, every disagreement with the Circle, every frustration with her mother. She’d handled the book just before each time. And what had just happened with Adam … Cassie had felt how destructive she was being in the moment, but hadn’t been able to stop herself. Cassie reached for the book with both hands and the obsidian crystal slid out of place and onto the floor.
The book is the problem, Cassie thought, but also the solution. She flipped through its pages in search of any symbols that struck her as familiar. Minutes passed before she realized she was holding the book without being burned.
Cassie lifted her fingertips up to her eyes. They were perfectly fine. No new marks, no tingling. It was what she’d been hoping for since she’d first taken the book from the basement. But deep down, she couldn’t ignore the dismal reason the book no longer rejected her hands. As she was turning darker, it was beginning to welcome her. The balance in Cassie was shifting.
But she cou
ldn’t let that scare her. Now that she’d come this far, abandoning her search for the witch-hunter curse wasn’t a choice. The threat the book posed would just have to be considered an occupational hazard, a risk that came with the job of saving her Circle.
She continued turning the pages, gaining momentum with every word, absorbing all she could from each dot and stroke. The book’s contents still appeared as an archaic code, and she didn’t understand most of what she took in, yet there were certain symbols she found especially curious, ciphers that seemed to reach out and speak to her. Cassie could feel the meanings of these lines like a bar of classical music; they moved her from the inside out.
Part of her wanted to run and tell Adam immediately, to show him how peacefully the book lay in her hands. But if touching the book was changing her, she didn’t want anyone else to fall victim to its curse. And she also shouldn’t handle the book more than she had to. Or as much as she wanted to.
Cassie thought for a moment about her options. She turned back to the book’s first page and carried it over to her desk. She pulled out a spiralbound notebook and took a ballpoint pen in hand. She sat and carefully copied the page, line for line, into her notebook, and then she copied the second page as well. It took nearly an hour to painstakingly duplicate every sign and symbol until she had an exact replica, one that could be translated without any doubt. When she was done, she admired the finished product. Cassie would show it to Adam in the morning and apologize to him for her weird behavior. It wouldn’t solve all their problems, but it was a good start.
Chapter 11
Normally Cassie would have called Adam before showing up at his house first thing in the morning, but she was too anxious to bother with that today. Adam answered his door wearing only striped pajama bottoms. He was surprised to see her, but he appeared pleased as he crossed his arms over his chest in embarrassment and invited her in.
Adam pulled out a kitchen chair for her. There was a half-eaten bowl of cereal on the table—she’d obviously caught him in the middle of breakfast.
“I hope you don’t mind me barging in on you like this,” Cassie said. “I wanted to say that I’m sorry about my behavior last night.”
Adam’s posture softened at her apology. “It’s okay. We’re all under a lot of stress, and emotions are running high.”
“It’s still no excuse for what I said about Scarlett.”
Adam turned away and Cassie felt vaguely uncomfortable. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
“I brought you something.” Cassie reached into her bag to pull out the pages she had transcribed. “I copied the first two pages of my father’s book for you.”
Adam took the papers and set them down flat on the kitchen table. “You copied these exactly?”
He quietly inspected each line, taking long enough that Cassie began to worry, but before he could say anything negative, she reached out to run her fingers through his unkempt hair.
“You know I can’t do this research without you,” she said. “That’s why I want you to have your own copy.”
Adam warmed to her touch. “Thank you for trusting me,” he said.
She wished she could be totally honest with him and tell him the book no longer burned her hands, but Adam wouldn’t view her ability to handle the book as a necessary evil like she did. He would be too concerned for her safety. Cassie was confident that if dark magic was allowing her to read the book, then she must be stronger now, strong enough to control it.
Adam was silent for a moment, and then he gave Cassie’s arm a light stroke. It was a small gesture, but it brought a murmur of release to her lips.
“Just to be extra cautious,” he said, “I want you to leave the book alone until I can get to work translating these pages. Can you do that?”
“Of course,” Cassie replied, hoping more than anything that she could.
The smell of garlic filled Cassie’s nose when she arrived home for dinner. Her mom was in the kitchen stirring a pot with a wooden spoon.
“Let me guess,” Cassie said as she hung up her jacket. “Italian?”
“Spaghetti and meatballs,” her mother said, from over the stove.
Cassie noticed a new energy in her mother’s voice and a freshness to her face. Maybe it was having three more kids to keep an eye on that had given her a renewed sense of purpose. Not that Faye, Laurel, and Nick weren’t a handful, but it was clear her mother enjoyed having them around the house and playing a role in protecting them from the hunters, and she was flattered they hung around the secret room even more than they had to.
Cassie gave her mother a kiss on the cheek.
“What was that for?”
“Can’t I kiss my own mom without having a reason?” Cassie said.
“Of course you can. You just never do.” Her mother grinned and handed Cassie an onion and a knife. “But since you love me so much tonight, you can be my sous-chef.”
Cassie put on an apron and began chopping while her mother asked her questions about what was going on with her friends and at school. For a moment, Cassie feared her mother’s interrogation was trying to get her to admit she’d taken Black John’s book from the secret room, but as their small talk progressed, she realized her mother had no idea the book was missing. Cassie told her about what had happened at the dance and about the protection spell being broken. She told her about Diana agreeing to spend more time with Max in spite of the risk it posed. And then she thought about Adam. So much was happening with him, Cassie hardly knew where to begin.
“Scarlett is getting closer,” Cassie said. “And I’m a little worried she could be after more in my life than just my Circle, if you catch my drift.”
“You don’t mean Adam, do you?”
Cassie nodded and her mother shook her head sympathetically. “Cassie, I’m sorry. I’ve been through that and I know how it can turn your whole world upside down.”
This was the first time Cassie’s mom had ever alluded to what had happened with Black John and Scarlett’s mother. Cassie made no reaction, hoping her mother would say more.
“And when it’s not a Circle member,” her mother continued, “but someone close enough to the Circle, that’s even worse. Outsiders are always the most difficult to deal with.”
Cassie wiped a few onion tears from her eyes with her forearm. Did that mean Scarlett’s mother hadn’t been a Circle member? Cassie had always assumed she was.
“The tensions that kind of thing can cause within a Circle can be brutal,” her mother said. “No matter how strong that Circle is. Our Circle was strong, but it still tore us all apart.”
Then she put down her wooden spoon and her face became tender. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Pay no attention to me when I carry on like that. It’s just that sometimes old hurts are hard to shake.”
“It’s okay,” Cassie said. “It’s good for me to hear it. I can handle it.”
“I know you can, honey. But that doesn’t mean you should have to deal with my jaded past. My experiences aren’t yours, and they don’t have to be.”
Her mother rested her hands on Cassie’s shoulders. “Adam is a good boy,” she said. “He’s worth fighting for.”
“But what if I lose?” Cassie asked.
Her mother looked at her lovingly. “All that’s in your power is to try. The outcome will be what it’ll be. But ultimately, Cassie, the people who are meant to be together will end up together.”
In spite of all the heartbreak her mother had endured, Cassie could see she truly believed those words. But her mother had ended up alone after all. And Scarlett’s mother had ended up dead. Cassie wasn’t sure if her mother’s indestructible faith inspired her or filled her with sadness.
“So don’t you worry,” her mother said. “You just focus on figuring out what to do with your father’s book—figure out how to break that spell so you can open it safely, without getting burned. The rest will all fall into place.”
Cassie felt a twinge of guilt for not tell
ing her mother that she’d already been studying the book. But she couldn’t bring herself to confess. There still had to be some secrets, even between them.
Her mom was right about one thing, though: The book was the only thing capable of getting Cassie out of this mess.
Chapter 12
Cassie arrived at the beach for the full moon ceremony just as Diana was drawing a circle in the sand with her pearl-handled knife. It was already five minutes to midnight, when the moon would be at its highest point, so she had to hurry.
Diana went around the circle with water she’d collected from the ocean, then with a stick of calamus-scented incense, and finally with a lighted white candle. Pungent, smoky smells filled the air.
“Cassie,” Adam called out when he spotted her. “Where’ve you been? I’ve been calling you.”
“I’m sorry. I know.” Cassie continued watching Diana. “I was helping my mom clean up after dinner and I lost track of time.”
“Uh-oh,” Faye said, loud enough for everyone to hear. “Don’t you two know good communication is the foundation of a healthy relationship?”
“Actually,” Suzan said, “I’m pretty sure it’s trust.”
Faye smirked. “No, that can’t be it.”
Adam was not amused by their banter. “I had something important to tell you.” He made an effort to pull Cassie aside. “That’s why I kept calling.”
“You guys! It’s almost midnight, come on!” Diana held a lit candle in one hand and reached out to grab Cassie with the other. But she clutched Cassie’s pointer and index fingers just where her most recent burns had scabbed over. Cassie cried out softly in pain.
Diana looked at her, confused. “Are you okay?”
Cassie stretched the sleeves of her shirt down over her hands.
“Did I hurt you?” Diana asked.
Faye and the others gathered around Cassie. “Lift up your sleeves,” Faye commanded.
