Cassie stared down into it.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" Faye murmured. "Now bring it here."
Mesmerized, Cassie took a step. There was a line of wavering shadow on the ground, between the darkness and the day. Cassie took another step and a sudden sharp pain in her finger made her gasp.
The rose had pricked her. Blood was streaming down her wrist. All the thorns on the roses were crimson, as if they'd been dipped in blood.
Appalled, she looked up at Faye, but she saw only darkness and heard only that mocking chuckle. "Maybe next time," Faye's voice floated out of the shadows.
Cassie woke up with her heart pounding, eyes staring into the blackness of her room. When she turned the light on, she almost expected to see blood on her arm. But there was no blood, and no mark of any thorn on her finger.
Thank God, she thought. It was a dream, just a dream. Still, it was a long time before she could fall asleep again.
She woke again to the ringing of the phone.
By the color of the light against the eastern window she knew she'd slept late.
"Hello?"
"Hello, Cassie," a familiar voice said in her ear.
Cassie's heart jumped. Instantly the entire dream flashed before her. In a panic, she expected Faye to start talking throatily about roses and darkness.
But Faye's voice was ordinary. "It's Saturday, Cassie. Do you have any plans for tonight?"
"Uh...no. But-"
"Because Deborah and Suzan and I are having a little get-together. We thought you might like to come."
"Faye ... I thought you were mad at me."
Faye laughed. "I was a little-miffed, yes. But that's over now. I'm proud of your success with the guys. It just shows you what a little witchery will do, hmm?"
Cassie ignored this; she'd had a sudden thought. "Faye, if you're planning to use the skull again, forget it. Do you want to know how dangerous it is?" She started to tell Faye what she'd discovered in the Witch Dungeon, but Faye interrupted.
"Oh, who cares about the skull anymore?"
she said. "This is a party. So we'll see you at around eight, then, all right? You will show up, won't you, Cassie? Because there might be- unfortunate consequences if you didn't. 'Bye!"
Deborah and Suzan will be there, Cassie told herself as she walked up to Faye's house that night. They won't let Faye actually kill me. The thought gave her some comfort.
And Faye, when she opened the door, seemed less sinister than usual. Her golden eyes were glimmering with something like mischief and her smile was almost playful.
"Come in, Cassie. Everybody's in the den," she said.
Cassie could hear music as they approached a room off the entrance hall. It was furnished in the same opulent and luxurious style as the rest of the house. Noise from a huge TV was competing with some song by Madonna being blasted out of a magnificent stereo unit. With all this technology, the dozens of candles stuck in various kinds of holders around the room seemed incongruous.
"Turn that stuff down," Faye ordered. Suzan, pouting, pointed a remote control at the stereo, while Deborah muted the TV. Apparently Faye had forgiven them as well.
"Now," Faye said, with a feline smile at Cassie, "I'll explain. The housekeeper has the day off, and my mother is sick in bed-"
"As usual," Deborah interrupted, to Cassie. "Her mom spends ninety-five percent of her life in bed. Nerves."
Faye's eyebrows arched and she said, "Yes, well, it's certainly convenient, isn't it? At times like this." She turned back to Cassie and went on, "So we're going to have a little pizza party. You'll help out getting things ready, won't you?"
Cassie was tingling with relief. A pizza party. She'd been imagining-oh, all sorts of strange things. "I'll help," she said.
"Then let's get started. Suzan will show you what to do."
Cassie followed Suzan's directions. They lit the red and pink candles and started a low, crackling fire in the fireplace. They lit incense, too, which Suzan said was composed of ginger root, cardamom, and neroli oil. It was pungent, but delicious smelling.
Faye, meanwhile, was placing crystals about the room. Cassie recognized them-garnets and carnelians, fire opals and pink tourmelines. And Suzan, Cassie noticed, was wearing a carnelian necklace which harmonized with her strawberry-blond hair, while Faye was wearing more than her usual number of star rubies.
Deborah switched off the lamps and went to fiddle with the stereo. The music that began to rise was like nothing Cassie had ever heard. It was low and throbbing, some primal beat that seemed to get into her blood. It started out softly, but seemed to be getting almost imperceptibly louder.
"All right," Faye said, standing back to survey their work. "It's looking good. I'll get the drinks."
Cassie looked over the room herself. Warm; it looked warm and inviting, especially when compared with the chilly October weather outside. The candles and the fire made a rosy glow, and the soft, insistent music filled the air. The incense was spicy, intoxicating, and somehow sensuous, and the smoke threw a slight haze over the room.
It looks like an opium den or something, Cassie thought, simultaneously fascinated and horrified, just as Faye came back with a silver tray.
Cassie stared. She'd expected, maybe, a six-pack of soda-or maybe a six-pack of something else, knowing Deborah. She should have known Faye would never stoop to anything so inelegant. On the tray was a crystal decanter and eight small crystal glasses. The decanter was half full of some clear ruby-colored liquid.
"Sit down," Faye said, pouring into four of the glasses. And then, at Cassie's doubtful look, she smiled. "It's not alcoholic. Try it and see. Oh, go on."