The Secret Circle: The Complete Collection: The Initiation and The Captive Part I, The Captive Part II and The Power, The Divide, The Hunt, The Temptation

by L. J. Smith

  CHAPTER 27

  Cassie was slumped in the leather recliner in the corner. She hadn’t even wanted to attend this meeting, but coming and zoning out seemed easier than formulating a decent excuse to miss it. She stared at the modern artwork that decorated the walls of Diana’s living room. Abstract lines in black and gray and beige. Completely bereft of emotion, like she felt at the moment. Dead inside.

  The group discussed their situation—an unbound Circle and a powerless Cassie—in hushed tones. What Cassie noticed in their quiet voices wasn’t compassion so much as pity. None of them could even look at her.

  “We have to figure out what the heck to do now,” Scarlett said.

  Max was seated beside Diana on the couch. “There must be a spell you all can do. Isn’t there a spell for just about everything?”

  Laurel shook her head. “Not everything.”

  “So we have an unbound Circle,” Sean said. “So what? We’ve already beaten all our enemies.”

  Deborah cracked her knuckles. “There will always be more enemies.”

  “That’s not the point,” Adam called out. “Cassie will never feel like herself again without her power. And she deserves to . . .” He paused, and his cheeks flushed. “Well, she deserves to feel like herself. I’d give her all my power if only I could.”

  “If only,” Melanie said. “I would, too.”

  “That’s it.” Diana had a stroke of inspiration that brought her right off the couch.

  “Cassie,” she said, turning to her. “Timothy muttered something that time we saw him that I haven’t been able to get out of my head. About no one being willing to give him their power after he’d lost his.”

  “I remember that, too,” Adam said.

  Cassie did recall Timothy’s comment, but she hadn’t thought much about it at the time. “So?” she said.

  “That means power can be transferred from one witch to another.” Diana sprinted to her bedroom to retrieve her Book of Shadows.

  She returned to the room a minute later, flipping through its pages so quickly, Cassie feared the delicate old paper might get torn. “I think I saw a spell like that once.”

  Diana was nearly frantic with new hope, but Cassie felt hardly any. If Timothy, who was brilliant and old and wise, hadn’t figured out how to get his powers back after all these years, how could Cassie expect to?

  “This is it,” Diana said, finally finding what she was looking for. “It’s a variation of a binding spell.”

  Everyone leaned forward as Diana silently read over the text.

  “A group of witches can pool their energy and life force together,” she said, looking up. “And offer it to another witch.”

  “So this is a way for Cassie to get her power back?” Scarlett asked.

  Diana read over the text again. “She’d be given a small amount of power from everyone willing to bind themselves to her.”

  She glanced at Cassie. “Timothy’s problem was that no one was willing to give up any power to him.”

  Melanie spoke up before the group could prematurely celebrate. “It’s a lot to ask,” she said. “Anyone who participates would be choosing to make themselves weaker so Cassie can become stronger.”

  “Just a tiny bit weaker, though, right?” Faye asked.

  “We’re already bound to each other through the Circle,” Adam said. “Shifting some of that to Cassie might not make a big difference.”

  Diana crossed the room to Cassie’s recliner. She sat on its wide leather arm. “I’m willing to give it a try,” she said. “But it might take even more than our Circle to gather enough magic to get Cassie back to normal.”

  “We can ask the elders,” Laurel said. “My grandma Quincey and Adam’s grandmother, old Mrs. Franklin. And don’t forget about Cassie’s mom.”

  “There are all of our parents,” Diana said. “The ones who are still alive.”

  Faye tensed at this idea. “Our parents haven’t performed magic in almost twenty years. They’d rather go on pretending they don’t have powers.”

  “We’ve come this far without their help,” Sean said. “We don’t need to start asking for it now.”

  “I agree.” Deborah was as resentful of their parents’ generation as Faye was. “Between the eleven of us and the old crones, we’ll give Cassie all that we can. Our parents could never be counted on to come through.”

  The room fell silent at last, and all eyes turned to Cassie for her reaction.

  But Cassie’s feelings seemed to be on a delay, like someone had carved out the parts of her brain responsible for emotion. She couldn’t risk the disappointment that could come with getting her hopes up.

  “Nobody should feel obligated to participate in this spell.” Cassie forced herself to the edge of her chair. “I can’t ask that of you, not when I’ve put you all through so much already.”

  Nick, Cassie noticed, had remained quiet during the whole discussion. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

  Melanie cleared her throat and raised her voice. “I believe this calls for a vote,” she said, taking the center of the floor.

  “All in favor,” Melanie said, “raise your—”

  “No!” Cassie called out. “I don’t want there to be a vote. Whoever wants to do it should just show up. And whoever doesn’t, no judgment.”

  She stood up too quickly and immediately felt dizzy. “Until then, I really need to go home. I’m sorry.”

  She traversed the room to the screen door and stepped down Diana’s stone porch steps. No one chased after her. Even Adam had let her go.

  Cassie pushed open the front door to her house to find all the lights turned off. The interior of the old rooms seemed cavernous in the dark, and the wooden floorboards creaked with each step Cassie took to the stairs. She headed up the narrow flight, holding tight to the banister, until she reached her mother’s bedroom door. Gently, she knuckled a soft knock.

  A groggy voice replied, “Cassie?”

  “Can we talk?” Cassie asked, turning the knob.

  Her mother sat up. Cassie climbed into bed with her, deep into the folds of her warm, tangled sheets, as if she were a child. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d actively sought her mother’s affection this way.

  Perhaps because she’d been woken from a sound sleep, her mother asked no questions, she only stroked Cassie’s hair and listened.

  Cassie explained everything that had happened as a result of destroying her father’s book, how the Circle had defeated the ancestor spirits, but Cassie had lost her power in the process. She told her mother about the spell her friends were going to try.

  “They want to offer me some of their power,” Cassie said. “But it seems so impossible.”

  “The spell might not work,” her mother clarified. “You understand that, don’t you?”

  Cassie did know that, but hearing it now, uttered so plainly from her mother’s lips, brought tears to her eyes.

  “There’s a chance you might just be a regular girl from now on.” Her mother’s hand went still on the back of her head. “Normal.”

  That word sent a curious tingle up Cassie’s spine. Such a loaded concept: normal.

  “And it’s a huge gesture for other witches to give up some of their power for you,” her mother continued. “There’s no more precious gift. Have you considered the possibility that it might not even be what you really want?”

  Cassie pulled away from her mother to look her squarely in the eyes.

  Her mother’s face appeared honest and true. “I’m only saying that you shouldn’t let your friends make this decision for you. You have to choose for yourself what you want your future to be. You’re in a very unique position, Cassie, to be able to decide if you want magic or not. You didn’t have that choice the first time.”

  Cassie returned her head to her mother’s shoulder, and her mother resumed soothing her.

  “Besides,” her mother said, “if you’re not truly open to accepting the power offered,
no matter how hard everyone tries to give it to you, it’ll have nowhere to go.”

  Cassie gave her mother’s words some serious consideration. She thought about this past year. Since she had learned she was a witch, she’d often longed to be a normal girl again. She sometimes pitied herself for the complications that came with her magic.

  But now, more than anything, she wished she’d appreciated her abilities more—and she hoped she could return to being the strong, powerful girl she’d grown into since she’d moved to New Salem.

  Cassie had changed in the past year. She’d grown up. Being a witch was normal to her now, and there was no going back.

  A regular life would never be enough anymore, even if it would be easier.

  “I do want my power,” Cassie said. She sat up straight and proud. “And I want to use those powers for good. To create change, to make a difference.”

  Her mother smiled. “Then I’ll offer you all the power I can.”

  CHAPTER 28

  Cassie woke up early to shower, and she already heard her mother moving around downstairs. They were equally anxious about the day before them, Cassie supposed. Anything could happen.

  Cassie turned on the shower’s tap to let the water heat up, then went to the mirror. She stared at herself as it began to fog over. Her face appeared the same as always. With power or without, she’d look the same to the outside world. But she felt different—hazy as the cloud overrunning the mirror’s surface. Until this moment Cassie hadn’t really allowed herself to become too hopeful; the spell might not work. But as she slipped out of her pajamas and stepped into the steaming stream from her showerhead, she realized how much she wanted this.

  She’d never wanted anything so badly in all her life.

  But what if no one came?

  Why hadn’t she reacted better when her friends first proposed the idea of offering up their power? She’d showed them no appreciation at all. She practically threw a tantrum, getting up and walking out on them. It would be her own fault if her mother was the only one to join her at the ceremony today.

  That thought trailed Cassie through the rest of her morning, right up to the moment she and her mother were approaching the beach.

  From afar the sand looked like a white sheet with a few clusters of people standing upon it. Cassie couldn’t make out any faces through the mist and fog. It might have been another group, some party or gathering of strangers. But as she inched closer she was overwhelmed by the sight that spread, clear and vivid, in front of her.

  Faye was there, looking majestic with her dark dress blowing in the wind. Scarlett’s hair shone red in the sun. Adam and Diana were helping everyone get organized. Her whole Circle had come. Max, who was standing close to Nick, gave him a nudge when he caught sight of Cassie and her mother approaching. Nick smiled warmly and waved.

  Then Cassie began to look around more carefully. She saw Adam’s grandmother, Mrs. Franklin, alongside Laurel’s grandmother Quincey.

  The crones came, she thought to herself. Her own grandmother wouldn’t have believed it, to see these elders out in public fully prepared and willing to perform magic. Cassie said hello to each of them.

  “Thank you for coming,” she said, slightly breathless.

  Adam’s grandmother squeezed her hand. Her skin felt soft and wrinkled, so old. “I know you’ll use my power well,” she said.

  “I promise to,” Cassie answered.

  Then Cassie noticed a tall, somewhat awkward man. It was Mr. Meade, Diana’s father. He was standing beside a shorter man Cassie recognized as Suzan’s father, Mr. Whittier. She hadn’t seen him since his daughter’s funeral.

  Cassie greeted him, said thank you for coming, and then turned to her mother in disbelief. “You gathered the parents?”

  Her mother modestly shrugged her shoulders. “All I did was go door to door and explain the situation. They decided for themselves to come.”

  If Cassie hadn’t seen them with her own eyes she wouldn’t have believed it. Chris and Doug were standing beside their nervous, long-limbed parents, who were known to be adamantly against magic. And Deborah’s mom and dad, who had always denied ever being witches at all, were asking her to explain one more time how the spell would work.

  Sean’s father, slouching, beady-eyed Mr. Dulaney, who looked just like an older version of Sean, stood beside his son with his hand on Sean’s bony shoulder. And if Cassie wasn’t mistaken, Sean was leaning into his arm ever so slightly. His dad had come through for him. All of the parents had.

  Even Faye’s mom, Mrs. Chamberlain, an infamous recluse who never set foot out of bed, had come to the beach this morning. She was pale, lingering a bit apart from the others in a bulky gray sweatshirt that she clutched to her body like a cocoon—but she’d come.

  Cassie jumped when a barking dog sprinted toward her. Even Raj had showed up on the beach for the spell. He sniffed his wet nose at her hands as Cassie giggled.

  Adam chased after him, carrying a neon nylon leash. “He didn’t want to miss out,” he said, laughing.

  There was a sparkle in Adam’s blue-gray eyes, so much like the sun glinting off the ocean. “Can you believe this turnout?” he said. “There’s a lot of love for you on this beach right now, Cassie. I hope you can feel it.”

  Cassie’s heart swelled within her chest. Adam was right. This crowd had assembled for her—all of this was just for her. The sight of all these friends, all these loved ones, suddenly brought tears to her eyes. She realized she had a much bigger family than she’d ever known.

  Cassie stepped to the center of the gigantic circle composed of every witch left in New Salem. Diana stood at the circle’s northern point with her Book of Shadows in hand. She spoke in a loud, musical voice.

  “Thank you for gathering here today,” she said. “As the spell gets under way, each witch present must willingly offer Cassie a portion of his or her power, as a gift. You will get nothing in return. It has to be a completely selfless act.”

  Cassie looked around at all the willing faces, old, young, and in-between. Not one of them held her past against her, or her father’s past against her. No one here today blamed her for being a Blak.

  “Is everybody ready?” Diana asked.

  A murmur of assent was all the prompting she needed. “I’ll go first,” Diana announced and took a step forward, holding up a clear quartz crystal for everyone to observe.

  Cassie stood perfectly still, open-handed. She cupped her palms as if she were trying to catch water from a fountain.

  Diana ceremoniously placed the quartz in her open palms. She said, “I gift you this crystal, Cassandra Blake, as a symbol of my faith in you, and my allegiance to the community of witches, past, present, and future. Use this power well.”

  Her eyes radiated a shining love, for Cassie and for all who were present. Then she quietly returned to her place in the circle.

  Adam was the next to step forward. He held up a vivid blue sapphire, then placed the stone beside Diana’s in Cassie’s open hands, repeating the same words: “I gift you this crystal, Cassandra Blake, as a symbol of my faith in you, and my allegiance to the community of witches, past, present, and future. Use this power well.”

  Adam kissed Cassie softly on the cheek before returning to his place in the circle.

  Melanie offered Cassie pale green jade. Laurel gave her a majestically deep-hued amethyst. Deborah placed a yellow citrine into Cassie’s hand that resembled the high morning sun. Suzan’s father stepped forward holding up Suzan’s favorite gemstone, an orange carnelian. Both of them had tears in their eyes when he offered it to Cassie.

  Cassie’s mother had brought her namesake stone, a color-changing alexandrite. She placed it on top of the crystal pile forming in Cassie’s hands with a proud, loving smile.

  There were twenty-one of them in all. One by one, each witch present stepped forward and made the offering.

  Cassie’s cupped hands filled with a pile of crystals like a multicolored glass mountain. In
her palms lay pink danburite, translucent topaz, and precious tourmaline. There was silky tiger’s eye and brassy pyrite; shimmering opal and speckled rainbow jasper. Their surfaces sparkled and felt cool upon her skin. The mass of them grew heavier with each stone, like a sinking, tipping scale.

  Nick stepped forward holding up a hefty chunk of green selenite, which was a friendship stone with metaphysical properties. “Just knowing you,” he whispered into her ear, “is enough for me. Seeing you every day, being there. I’ll be your friend for life.” He gave her a tender kiss on the forehead after placing the stone in her hands.

  Cassie felt her heart brimming, abundant with love, spilling over.

  Faye stepped to the center of the circle just after Nick. She offered Cassie her rare red star ruby. It was a grand gesture—the most powerful stone Faye owned—but she made no grandness of it. She gave Cassie a humble nod when she added it to the pile. “You deserve it,” she said.

  Scarlett was the only witch left who hadn’t come forward. Cassie waited, her hands growing shaky now beneath the weight of all the stones. She could already feel their power charging through her, completing her. She was careful not to let a single one slip through her fingers.

  Scarlett reached deep into her pocket and pulled out her offering. She held up a silvery black iron rose for everyone to admire. It was a variation of hematite, Cassie’s and Scarlett’s working crystal, with flat hexagonal edges clustered in a formation that resembled a flower. Its sheen reflected the sun like a mirror as she stepped forward. With both her hands, she placed it on the apex of the mountain of crystals in Cassie’s palms.

  Cassie felt her eyes widen as she took in the crystal’s natural beauty. It was the perfect stone to top the pile, an exquisite gleaming rosebud. When Scarlett returned to her place in the circle, the offering was complete.

  Cassie closed her eyes. The final recitation of the spell was hers to deliver.

  She took a deep breath, allowing the power of all the crystals she held in her hands to fill her heart and soul.