But before Cassie could get the words out, Laurel screamed.
Absolom was firmly on his feet. He let out a muffled groan and shook his head from side to side. His eyes were singed, the skin around them pink and raw, but he could see.
Cassie shot Faye with her spell, but Faye blocked it with a deflection.
Then Alice lurched forward.
“Retreat!” Diana yelled out.
Faye still had her hands set and ready to defend herself against any spell hurled her way.
Cassie gave Diana a nod. “Retreat,” she repeated, and everyone fled to the open window.
Cassie was the last to jump through. By the time the fresh air hit her face, she heard all the ancestors grumbling, swearing their revenge. The smell of their scalded flesh was still strong in the air.
Cassie ran with the others toward Chris’s rusted Jeep. Sean gripped the leather steering wheel, ready to gun the accelerator as Cassie climbed into the back. In all, the Circle was a sorry sight.
Melanie patted Laurel on the back. “I know the powder didn’t do what we thought, but it still did the job.”
Gentle Laurel was too traumatized by her potion’s grotesque effectiveness to reply.
“I hadn’t expected Faye to put up that much of a fight,” Deborah said, breathing heavily.
“I guess we took for granted that she only crossed over to save the people at the benefit,” Diana said. “So much for that idea.”
Cassie said nothing. What was there to say? The clock was ticking, and their chances of winning back Faye’s loyalty weren’t looking good, not good at all.
It was the middle of the night when Cassie sprang awake. She’d been thinking about Faye in her sleep, replaying the scenes of her crossing over and the Circle’s failed attempt at winning her back, in different combinations. In each version the details changed, but the outcome always remained the same: failure. Coming up short.
There was no use trying to go back to sleep now. Cassie was too wound up. It felt like two tennis balls had been lodged into the space between her neck and shoulders. She climbed out of bed, wrestled into her favorite hoodie, pulled on her sneakers, and quietly made her way outside.
Unlike Cassie, Crowhaven Road was sound asleep. She could almost hear the street itself snoring peacefully, unconscious to the horror of waking life.
She turned east toward the water, following the smell of salt in the air, to the rocks that guarded the beach. Climbing them strained her muscles, but once she jumped down to the other side of their divide, a stretch of white sand welcomed her. This late at night the beach was deserted, a forsaken paradise. It was quiet enough to hear the waves lapping uninterrupted at the shore.
Cassie looked up at the yellow moon. Only two more nights till it would be a full bright circle and the ancestors would cast the eternal-life spell.
She inched closer to the water. Out of the corner of her eye she thought she saw a shadow. She searched left, then right. It must have just been her imagination. Then there it was again—for sure this time—a quick, sharp movement behind an outcropping of rock near the water.
Cassie told herself to turn around and run right home, but her legs remained in place like two wooden posts stuck in the sand. Her eyes widened to searchlights. She wanted this, didn’t she? Isn’t this what she’d come looking for? To just have it out and be done with it already, to end this battle of wills against Scarlett and the ancestors once and for all.
But in the next moment, the shadow detached itself from the rocks and came into view. It wasn’t an ancestor or Scarlett. It was Nick.
Cassie felt a jolt at the sight of his face, the rough shape of his shoulders. “You scared me,” she said.
Nick stood tall and watched Cassie with steady eyes. “You don’t look very scared,” he said.
It was true. Her adrenaline was pumping and her heart was fluttering within her chest, but she wasn’t afraid. She was excited.
“Cassie,” Nick said. He surprised her by taking hold of her arms, just above the elbow. His hands felt strong, rugged, as he squeezed tighter. He grazed his lips against her ear. “I miss you.”
If the ancestors had won, Cassie thought, and she really was facing the end of her days, then why not?
Nick’s lips found the soft spot on her neck, just below her ear.
If she was soon to die . . .
No.
If she was soon to die, she wanted to die beside Adam. No one else.
“I’ve been meaning to talk to you, Nick,” Cassie said, taking a step back, breaking free from his urgent hold.
“About what?”
“Everything.” She took a seat upon the moist rocks, to rest her quivering legs. “What we haven’t had time to talk about.”
“I’m not sure what you mean.” Nick sat beside her. She’d lost his eyes again.
“What was building between us,” Cassie said softly. “While Adam was gone.”
In the moonlight Cassie could see Nick’s carven, handsome features with their hint of defensiveness.
“I think it was a confusing time for both of us,” Cassie said as honestly as she could. “We’ve always had a connection, Nick, and we probably always will. But that doesn’t mean . . .” She couldn’t finish her sentence.
Cassie couldn’t ignore the depth of Nick’s feelings for her, not when his love was so strong it allowed him to fight his possession. But she would be lying if she said that what she felt for him was equally as strong, or the same.
“I know I haven’t been fair to you,” she continued. “You were there for me when I needed you, in a way no one else has been. But Adam is my one true love. I have to let you go, for real this time.”
Nick’s jaw tightened. She’d caught him completely off guard by being so blunt. In fact, she’d caught herself off guard as well.
“I think we may be facing the end, Nick, all of us. Once the ancestors have eternal life, they’re likely to unleash another bubonic plague on the world. It’s more important than ever for us not to be distracted.
“I really do love you,” she added, after a few seconds of uncomfortable silence. “But not the same way I love Adam. And you deserve someone who loves you that way.”
Nick nodded, stone-faced, and then brushed off Cassie’s words in his usual manner. “I’ll get over it,” he said, as if their moment was nothing. “What we should be thinking about right now is Faye. Look at that moon.”
He pointed at the sky. “That’s our stopwatch.”
Cassie didn’t allow herself to glimpse the waxing gibbous moon another time. It was too terrifying to look at.
“If only we could catch Faye in a moment of weakness,” he said. “But she’s never weak. She’s Faye.”
It was true, Cassie thought. The last time Faye had allowed herself to be vulnerable was—
Of course.
Cassie snapped to attention. The sound of the ocean was crisp in her ears. It was whispering to her, sharing its deeply hidden secrets.
“What is it?” Nick asked.
“I know just the place,” Cassie said. “To catch Faye with her heart open.”
CHAPTER 23
Cassie stepped across the crooked stream and around the few small ponds that led to Suzan’s grave. It was evening but still light as day, barely a shadow upon the ground.
Even from afar, Cassie could see that Suzan’s headstone was whiter and cleaner than those surrounding it. It was newer. The dirt it stood upon was just sprouting with freshly planted grass. It would take weeks for the tiny green pinpoints to grow as long and lush as the adjoining lawn. As Cassie expected, Faye was there, standing over the stone. She’d wrapped herself in a knit black shawl, even though the breeze tonight was warm and summery and the humidity high.
One evening a while back Cassie had come upon Faye in just this spot by accident, but she left her undisturbed. She’d understood at the time that mourning Suzan’s death was a process Faye needed to go through on her own. But after that encounter, it didn’t take long for Cassie to notice that Faye visited there every week at the same time, on the anniversary of Suzan’s death.
Tonight was no different. Cassie approached her quietly and respectfully. It took a few moments for Faye to turn around. When she did, Cassie noticed her eyes were red rimmed and soft. She quickly wiped a long-tailed tear from her cheek.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, her voice sounding hoarse and raspy.
The warm breeze rustled the foliage over their heads, and Cassie began speaking before Faye had the chance to react more harshly. “Death is a terrible, frightening thing, isn’t it?” she said.
Faye stared out into the distance to the east, where the coastline was visible. She didn’t reply, but she also made no move to run away.
Cassie continued talking. “But eternal life isn’t the solution to what happened with Suzan. Dark powers won’t bring her back, Faye, you know that. And losing Suzan only proves just how much we need each other right now.”
Faye began shaking her head, so Cassie spoke louder and faster. “The ancestors are manipulating you into believing they really care about you, but they don’t. All they care about is—”
“Enough already,” Faye said, cutting Cassie off. “Do you really think I don’t already know all that?”
Her tone was condescending but not outraged. It sounded to Cassie, well, almost sensible.
“That’s why I went over to the other side to begin with,” Faye said. “I was the only one who could do it without suspicion.”
“I don’t understand,” Cassie said.
Faye’s expression, framed by a background of rolling hills and granite cliffs, completely altered. She brought her voice down to a whisper.
“I went to their side to spy on them. I couldn’t go back with you all because I didn’t have enough information, and I didn’t want to blow my cover.”
Cassie was taken aback. “Do you mean—”
“I outsmarted all of you,” Faye said. “Aren’t you used to it by now?”
Cassie tried to look past Faye’s cocky surface, to decipher if she was telling the truth.
“As I suspected, the ancestors are a bunch of backstabbers,” Faye continued. “I thought it all along, but now I have proof.”
She glanced left and right. “I found something at the warehouse. A small glass bottle that contains a lock of Scarlett’s hair and some other things. Her fingernails, a drop of blood, and a piece of hematite, which is Scarlett’s working stone. It’s bespelled, Cassie. And if the ancestors smash it to the ground, Scarlett will be stripped of her powers.”
Cassie was quiet for a few seconds, shocked that even the ancestors would stoop so low, but also feeling a little ashamed. Cassie had been so quick to assume the worst about Faye.
“I underestimated you,” she said. “I’m sorry.”
“I knew you would.” Faye let her eyes drop to Suzan’s grave. “That’s how I was sure my plan would work.”
Cassie had the urge to give Faye a hug, but she knew better than to try. “She’d be proud of you,” she said instead, placing a hand on Suzan’s headstone.
Faye looked away, but Cassie noticed a solitary tear fall from her chin onto the fresh grass.
“I’ll steal the bottle,” she said, “and come to your house tonight. Time’s just about up.”
Faye sat on the edge of what used to be her bed in the secret room, soaking in all the attention. The Circle listened in awe as she described every detail of the previous few days—how she’d managed to fool everyone.
“This calls for a celebration,” Chris said. “A party on the beach. It’s been so long since we went night swimming.”
Even Cassie got swept into the idea. This was cause for celebration, wasn’t it? She was about to run for her swimsuit when Nick let out a deep, aggravated breath.
“I know getting Faye back feels like a big victory to the Circle,” he said. “And it is, but it doesn’t automatically solve any of our problems.”
He passed his severe eyes over each of them. “We’re not in the clear just yet. We need to destroy these ancestors, and we need Scarlett to do it. Remember?”
Faye sprang up from the bed and took charge of the floor. “Nick is absolutely right,” she said. “And fortunately I’ve learned some things during my Oscar-worthy performance as a double agent.”
She held her head high as she waited for everyone to begin listening intently. “Eternal life is what the ancestors have been after all along,” she said. “First they needed to be resurrected. Scarlett did that for them, but she also tried to set herself up as their leader. And that was her fatal mistake. They don’t think she’s even worthy of being a Blak. Cassie’s the one they wanted. She’s the stronger sister.”
Faye paused to let her words sink in. “The ancestors are only using Scarlett to get eternal life, but as soon as they have it, they plan to betray her.”
“Untrustworthy demons, go figure,” Sean called out.
Faye began prowling the room like a panther. “They don’t like the idea that Scarlett tried to situate herself as their boss. They see her as a greedy young girl, a know-it-all.”
Faye went for her bag and carefully pulled out the small glass bottle she had told Cassie about. It was corked tightly with a rubber stopper. “Once the ancestors perform the eternal-life spell, they’re going to smash this bottle to the ground, stripping Scarlett of her powers forever.”
She held the bottle up high for everyone to see.
“I went along with their plan,” she said. “I didn’t say anything because then they’d turn on me, too. But I can promise you that Scarlett has no idea how much the ancestors resent her.”
“She’s got it coming,” Deborah said.