by L. J. Smith
“The exorcism is the spell you have to find,” Timothy said. “But it might be dangerous. Absolom was an evil man who would have only copied the exorcism rite for wicked reasons. He may have doctored the text, changed things. And that could have consequences. But you must find it, Cassie. It’s a risk you’ll have to take. You’ll be shocked to see how quickly these evil spirits will adapt to your friends’ bodies and to the modern world. You don’t have much time.”
“What am I even looking for?” Cassie asked. “How will I know when I find it?”
“Absolom was definitely the one to add it to the book,” Timothy said. “So try to figure out which sections he might have contributed to.”
He turned to another page of the album. “Here’s another ancestor you should keep your eye out for. Another one who died young, like Alice.”
Timothy directed Cassie’s attention to a faded black-and-white pamphlet or what may have been a cutout of an old newspaper drawing. It was so frayed and soft at its edges it looked almost like felt. Cassie had to strain her eyes to make out its image.
It was a picture of a persecution, not of one person but many.
“It’s a witch trial,” Timothy said.
The writing beneath the picture was in German, and a barely legible caption stated the year: 1594.
“Beatrix Blak was burned alive in the Trier massacre,” Timothy said. “The charge was sorcery. They say her last words were ‘You haven’t seen the last of me.’ So you can be sure she’s one of the spirits who made it back—and is currently ravaging the insides of one of your friends.”
Timothy shut the book again and pushed it toward Cassie. “Take it home with you,” he said. “Study it.”
Cassie took the book into her lap.
“You must be very careful,” Timothy continued. “These spirits will try to trick you. Some of your friends might appear normal at times, like their regular selves, but don’t be fooled. The only way you’ll be able to tell if they’re possessed or not is by their heartbeats. Hearts can’t lie. The heart of a possessed body will beat four times faster than a regular heart. Remember that.”
“So it is possible then,” Cassie said. “For some of them to break through the possession.”
“Possible, but not likely.” Timothy’s eyebrows crumpled sadly over his eyes. “Pretty soon, Cassie, these friends of yours will be long gone. If the possession lasts until the next full moon, it’ll become permanent.”
“Permanent?” Cassie felt her face flush. “But the next full moon is less than two weeks away.”
“I told you,” Timothy said. “You don’t have much time.”
The sinking feeling in Cassie’s stomach dropped to a new low. This was a bad idea; she wasn’t strong enough to hear any more.
“I have to go,” she said, and stood up abruptly. “Thank you for your help.”
She turned toward the door, but Timothy grabbed her firmly on the wrist and pulled her back down to her seat. “Wait,” he said. “One last thing.”
His hand felt warm on her skin. She’d expected it to be cold, like his eyes.
“I’m a simple man,” he said. “A lonely, powerless man. Forgive me if I frighten you.”
He was still holding Cassie’s wrist. “But in you, I can see light,” he said.
Timothy gradually released his hold once he was sure Cassie wouldn’t run away. He stared deep into her eyes.
“The strength inside you,” he said. “And the love you have for your friends. That love can be the most powerful spell of all.”
Cassie wasn’t sure how to respond, or if she should respond at all.
“Do you understand?” he asked.
“I think so.” Cassie nodded hesitantly at first, then with more assurance. “Yes.”
Timothy came around his desk and opened his office door to the foyer. “Then there’s nothing else you need but luck.”
With the album tucked beneath her arm, Cassie ran back out to the library’s main room, though she wasn’t sure why she was running. Timothy was strange, but she didn’t think he was harmful. In a way, she felt sorry for him.
As Cassie rejoined her mother in the car, she couldn’t get Timothy’s last few words out of her head—that love was more powerful than all of this.
Silently, Cassie began to forge a plan. She needed to visit Adam in the cave. If Timothy was right about the power of love, maybe Cassie could break through to Adam after all. Whose love was stronger than theirs? And who better to help her search for the exorcism spell than Adam?
Cassie was calmed by this thought. In her mind it was decided. She would bring Adam through tonight, and together they would save the rest of their friends.
Chapter 4
The caves felt frigid in the dark of night even though the temperature hovered around a balmy eighty degrees. Cassie found herself shivering as she rowed the final few feet to land. She wasn’t sure what to expect traveling here alone. In her imagination the whole angry mob of her friends would be waiting for her, salivating, hungry to return the pain she’d caused them by trapping them there.
Dry-mouthed, she brought in her oars and awaited the worst. She was relieved to see there was only one person visible at the mouth of the cave. A dark shadow of the tall, strong body she knew well. Adam. He was sitting out near the exit, hugging his knees toward his chest, looking lonely. The others must have been deeper within the cave, sleeping.
Cassie beached her rowboat and moved toward Adam with careful determination. Her heart knocked against her ribs as she took quiet steps, one foot in front of the other, until she stood before him—just out of his reach beyond the barrier in the cave. At first she said nothing, just watched him, and tried to locate the real him somewhere inside this shell of the boy she loved.
“Cassie,” he said, sounding just like his true self. He stood up with joy. “I was just watching the water wishing you would appear, and now here you are.”
He looked good, she thought. A little dirty, but aside from that nothing about him appeared different. His hair still shone with multicolored streaks of auburn in the moonlight, and his eyes were their natural, gorgeous blue. There was a vulnerability to their depth that couldn’t be feigned.
“How do you feel?” she asked.
“Better now that you’re here.” Adam reached out his hand, but it couldn’t pass through the bound cave entrance. “If only I could touch you,” he said, frowning.
Cassie was careful not to get too close. “How do I know it’s really you?” she asked. “And not the demon.”
Adam reached out his hand again, this time open palmed with his fingers outstretched. “It’s me,” he said. “I swear. Let me prove it to you. Raise up your hand to mine.”
The binding spell Cassie had cast on the cave trapped all witches inside. If she entered the cave, she wouldn’t be able to come back out. But she could simply meet Adam’s hand like he’d asked her to.
She watched his eyes. There was nothing strange or distorted about them.
“I can’t,” Cassie said, though she wanted to.
“Just meet my fingertips. You’ll still be safe.” He poked at the invisible border, causing it to sizzle against his skin. “See? I can’t reach through.”
The truth was, Cassie longed for Adam’s touch, even if he was still possessed. It would be worth it to feel him for only a second and then pull her hand away.
“Our bond is stronger than all of this,” Adam said. “Not even a demon can break it.” He stretched his fingers toward Cassie again. “Believe me.”
Only for a second, Cassie thought, as she slowly raised her hand. That was all she’d allow herself. She guided her fingers to Adam’s, precisely at the border between the inside of the cave and out.
The sensation was electric. From her fingertips, down her spine, all the way to her feet, sparks fired. Her skin tingled. It felt like the first time she ever performed magic.
She looked at the meeting point between her hand and Adam’s, where th
e silver cord manifested and hummed. It wrapped itself around them, entwining their arms, their entire bodies, in a band of light.
That was all the convincing Cassie needed. Adam was still in there, and she was sure this was him with her now. The cord binding them heart to heart, drawing them closer, didn’t lie. It couldn’t lie.
Adam made no attempt to grasp Cassie’s wrist or pull her toward him, none of the things he could easily have done to overpower her if he’d been possessed by an evil demon. He simply enjoyed the sensation of the tips of his fingers joining hers and the cord reinforcing their bond.
Cassie thought back to what Timothy had said, that love was the strongest of all magic. That’s what she felt coursing through her veins now—love. And Adam’s love for her was so strong that it was proving to be more powerful than the demon battling for his body.
“I want to hold you,” Adam said. “I need to.”
Cassie brought her hand back down to her side. “But if I let you out, the others will also be free.”
“Together we can handle them, Cassie. There’s no telling what they’ll do to me if I’m stuck in here and they figure out I’m not one of them. Why do you think I’ve been sitting here, as far away from them as possible?”
Cassie hadn’t thought of that. Adam could be in danger if she left him here another night. She’d never forgive herself if something happened to him.
And she was so lonely. So alone. How different this battle would be with Adam at her side. Why not set Adam free and then quickly recast the spell to keep the others in the cave?
“Okay,” Cassie said. “Stand back.”
Without another thought, she raised both her hands up and called out in her most commanding voice: “Hoc captionem est levavi.”
The rocky cave walls shuddered and shook. Cassie focused all her power on the cave’s entrance until the containment spell she had cast there was broken.
Adam smiled and drew in a deep breath. He stepped forward to test his freedom.
Looking at him made Cassie dizzy. She couldn’t take her eyes from his as she rushed into his outstretched arms.
Their embrace was all she’d hoped it would be and more. He held nothing back, kissing her mouth, her neck. She closed her eyes to better enjoy him—the feel of his hair, the smell of his skin, the sound of his heavy breath in her ear. His heartbeat was fast—racing. Timothy’s warning echoed in her mind.
She slipped from his embrace and took a step back. Even in the darkness she immediately noticed the change. First it showed itself in the bend of his lips, then the tilt of his head. The way he curled his fingers cruelly into his palms.
“Adam,” she said, as if the familiar utterance of his name might keep him from turning on her. But then eel-like lesions formed on his forehead and face, and his eyes blackened.
“Oh, Cassie,” he said in a voice generations more malevolent than his own. “You’re such a sweet girl, but so easily duped.”
Just like that, he wasn’t her Adam at all. He was a many-faced monster, exactly like in her nightmare. Cassie was poised to recast the guarding spell on the cave, but with a flick of Adam’s fingers her legs spilled out from under her.
Chapter 5
Diana appeared from the deep shadow of the cave, followed by Melanie and Laurel. Faye, Deborah, and the others were behind them. They were all still visibly possessed, but more subtly than before. The irises of their eyes were less noticeably etched in black, and the slithering lesions festering on their faces were less pronounced. But it was obvious to Cassie they weren’t themselves.
Scarlett hung back in the shadows—the only one besides Cassie who was not possessed. Satisfied, she watched Cassie writhing on the ground, struggling to regain her strength.
“Did she bring us the book?” Melanie asked.
Diana twitched awkwardly. “Search her,” she commanded.
Faye kneeled down, her mouth leering threateningly. Deborah crouched at Cassie’s side and roughly patted her body up and down, frisking her for the book.
Cassie scanned all the faces hovering over her. Weak as she was, limp on the ground, she strove to decipher which ancestors had invaded her friends. If she paid close enough attention, she thought she might be able to recognize who some of them were, based on what Timothy had told her earlier that day. If they revealed themselves, maybe she could use it against them.
Deborah stood up and turned brusquely to the others. “No book,” she said.
Sean and the Henderson brothers grimaced. Adam kicked a stone in frustration.
“Patience,” Diana said. “We’ll get it from her one way or another.”
Scarlett wrapped her arm around Adam’s waist and smiled down at Cassie. Her red hair was knotted and untamed, dusty from the cave. Adam drew her in and kissed her forehead. “It won’t be long now,” he said.
Cassie flinched. Adam and Scarlett? Were they . . . together?
Adam was holding her so close. He rubbed the small of her back with his thumb, and Cassie could sense their silver cord now, humming and connecting them. Even with Adam possessed, their cord remained.
It felt like Cassie had been knifed in the heart. She coughed, unsure if it was the spell Adam had cast or purely her heartbreak causing the twisting pain.
Diana crossed her thin arms over her chest. Cassie concentrated on her familiar cheekbones and her long golden hair, searching for any sign as to who inhabited her body. Could it be Black John’s sister, Alice?
Cassie looked at Sean, slinking and beady-eyed, and then at Chris’s and Doug’s sharp-featured identical faces. She wondered if each ancestor chose its host for a reason. It would make sense, she thought, that the spirits would identify the most comfortable body for their invasion. But for the moment, none of the spirits were immediately recognizable.
Adam stepped forward and held his open hands—priest-like hands, Cassie thought—over her body. He stared down at her with his hard black eyes, and she grew weaker still. She could feel her life force draining from her veins, leaking out in a puddle beneath her body.
“Leave her, Absolom,” Diana said. “This is a waste of your energy. We need to regain our strength.”
Absolom?
“She’s right.” Scarlett pulled Adam back by the arm. “We’re finally free. Let’s get out of here.” She turned to the group. “Follow me.”
Diana and the others made their way to the boats behind her. In the darkness they appeared to vanish into thin air after only a few steps.
Faye called back to Cassie from the void. “Don’t worry,” she said in her husky voice, which was at once both foreign and familiar. “This won’t be the last you see of us.”
Those final words echoed inside the cave like a warning, ringing out with truth.
Still lying on the ground at the mouth of the cave, Cassie shook with fear. She looked around to be sure she was alone, that—for the moment at least—all the ancestors had gone.
But she wasn’t alone. Someone stirred behind her and sluggishly said her name.
“Nick?” she said.
It hadn’t occurred to Cassie that she didn’t see him earlier; he must have been hanging back in the cave all along.
He stepped out into the moonlight and came into full view.
Weak and sweating, uneasy on his feet, he looked like he was suffering from the flu. “Don’t be afraid,” he said feebly. But Cassie could see the darkness in his eyes and the slithering things beneath the skin of his face.
With Diana and the others gone, Cassie felt her strength returning. She was able to climb up to a standing position and back away from Nick, watching him carefully.
“Don’t come any closer!” she screamed.
He inched nearer to her in spite of her warning. “Help me, please,” he said. “It’s taking every ounce of strength I have, but I’m fighting off whatever this thing is inside me.”
“Stay where you are.” Cassie raised her hand and searched her mind for a spell.
“I don’t
want to hurt you,” Nick said. He dropped down to his knees. “You have to believe me. Ask me anything, I swear it’s really me.”
Cassie knew questions would do no good, but she remembered Timothy’s warning and the feeling of Adam’s racing heart against her chest. Hearts can’t lie, she told herself.
“Put your hands on your head, where I can see them,” Cassie said. “And leave them there.”
Nick did as he was told, and Cassie took a careful step closer.
“Stay very still,” Cassie commanded, as she slowly lifted the palm of her hand to his chest.
It was a drum gone haywire. Fast as Adam’s, Nick’s heart was pounding as if it were trying to escape his body.
Cassie was about to pull her hand away and take off running when she noticed Nick’s shoulders gently settle. He’d closed his eyes, reveling in her touch. Her contact seemed to soothe him. His breathing slowed, and then his heartbeat did, too.
He didn’t move. Cassie kept her hand in place and felt his heartbeat return to a measured and regular rhythm.
“It’s easier when you’re near me,” Nick said.
Timothy had told Cassie that love was the most powerful spell of all—that’s what had made her trek out here to the caves in the first place. Her plan was to seek out Adam. But this, this she hadn’t planned for.
Cassie released her hand from Nick’s chest. “You can relax,” she said.
He was sickly and sweating, barely fighting off the demon within him. But he was doing it. He was winning.
Cassie reached out again, this time to brush her fingers through his damp hair. Her love might not have been strong enough to save Adam, but Nick’s love for her was proving to be strong enough to save himself. He’d managed what no one else in her Circle could do. He’d broken through the possession.
Why wasn’t Adam’s love strong enough to do that?
“You’re going to be okay,” Cassie said.
Nick’s eyes filled with tears. He reached for Cassie and held her with all the energy he had left. She buried her face in his shoulder, like she used to do with Adam, and she realized just how much she needed to feel the warmth of another human body. She clung to it—to him. Nick was shaking, and she could feel herself shaking right there with him.
