She joined Nick on the bed, finally. “Do you think that’s just my own wishful thinking? That they don’t want me dead?”
Nick wrapped his strong arms around her. “I think you’re special, Cassie, and they know that.”
“But they may come after you,” Cassie said. “Or my mom. Luckily she took a pill to help her sleep tonight. Can you imagine her reaction if she’d been the one to break through my door instead of you? The shock alone may have killed her.”
She thought for another minute. “They’ll probably go after Max, too. He’s the last hunter left in New Salem.”
“Max is pretty tough,” Nick said. “He can take care of himself. But if you’re worried about it, you should warn him. Go talk to him tomorrow. I can keep a close watch on your mom and begin researching a protective spell.”
Nick’s presence quieted Cassie’s aching loneliness. His friendship meant the world to her at the moment. “I don’t want you to go back downstairs,” she said.
Nick pointed to the plush chair in the corner of the room. “Why don’t I sleep right there tonight?” he asked. “The closer we are, the better it is for both of us.”
“But you’ll be so uncomfortable,” Cassie said.
Nick grabbed a pillow and the extra blanket off the edge of Cassie’s bed. “I’ll be just fine.”
Cassie could feel her eyes closing. “If you’re sure,” she said, already drifting off. At last she would be able to get some sleep.
CHAPTER 7
Cassie walked down Crowhaven Road the next morning alert to her surroundings, ready for anything. If the ancestors were following her and sensed the book hidden deep in her bag—if they jumped her, mauled her—she was prepared to fight.
She knocked gently on the red wooden door she hadn’t thought she’d ever come within ten feet of. Her knuckles on the door’s surface made a dense muffled sound, not hollow like she’d thought it would. It was solid oak.
She looked around apprehensively and waited.
Max opened the door a few inches and poked his head outside. Then he instantly began to shut it in Cassie’s face. She had expected this reaction, so she was ready with a spell to hold the door open.
“Aperire non clausa,” she said softly but firmly.
No matter how hard Max tried, he couldn’t force the door closed. He looked furious.
“I came here to warn you,” Cassie said. “You might be in serious danger.”
“I have nothing left to lose,” Max said.
Cassie peeked inside the door and saw an older man and woman in the kitchen.
“Who are they?” Cassie asked.
“Family friends,” Max said. “My new guardians, now that I’m parentless.”
“They could be in danger, too,” Cassie said. “Please, Max. Just hear me out, and then I’ll leave you alone. I promise.”
Maybe it was the regret in her eyes or the desperation of her voice. It was impossible to know for sure what convinced him, but Max stepped aside and allowed Cassie to enter.
Once inside, she closed the door behind them.
The house itself was modest but clean, less extravagant than Cassie had imagined. It was the house of a family that moved around a lot, filled with mismatched furniture, most likely from a thrift store or the cheap local shops. Some things were still in brown boxes stacked in the corner of the living room, and hardly anything was hung on the flat beige walls. The house was all function, no decoration.
Cassie followed Max up a narrow carpeted stairway to his bedroom. The moment he opened its door, Cassie sensed how much it differed from the rest of the monotone house.
Max had painted the space a soothing light blue, and he’d taken great care to adorn the walls with pictures. One wall was a grid of shelves crowded with shiny sports trophies and awards. It was neat and clean, not a speck of dust anywhere.
Cassie could tell Max had gone out of his way to make his bedroom comfortable—to make it feel like his own, like home.
On a long rectangular dresser were a variety of photographs set in frames. Cassie ambled toward them. The largest one was of Max’s parents, each holding one of his hands when he was just a toddler. They appeared to be at a park. Surrounding that photo were portraits of him and various friends at different ages, and landscapes of other places he’d lived. Other countries. Max had once petted a baby Bengal tiger. He’d jumped from the top of a cascading waterfall. He’d climbed mountains. Cassie picked up the most majestic of the mountain photos, the one of Max red-faced and bundled in gear at the peak of a snowy summit.
“That’s the top of Mount Kilimanjaro,” he said. “It’s the highest mountain in Africa.”
Cassie set the frame back in place and looked at Max in a new way. “What a life you’ve lived,” she said.
There was so much more going on beneath the surface of Max than she’d ever imagined. No wonder Diana fell so hopelessly in love with him.
“May I sit down?” she asked.
Max nodded but remained standing. Cassie explained, to the best of her abilities, what had really happened that night in the caves. She described how Scarlett had deceived the Circle, and she told Max that anything for which he blamed Diana wasn’t her fault. Finally, Cassie broke the news about how Diana and the rest of the Circle were now possessed.
“The spirit that has control over Diana might try to use Diana’s love for you as a sort of weapon,” she said. “That’s what I came here to warn you about.”
Max finally allowed himself to sit down across from Cassie. He took a deep breath. “I really don’t want anything to do with this,” he said. “I’d rather forget this whole thing ever happened.”
“I get that, believe me,” Cassie said. “I’m so sorry you got dragged into all this.”
Max’s eyes filled with a sadness Cassie couldn’t identify. It wasn’t for his father, or even for Diana. It was older than that: a long-standing sadness he held inside, tinged with a sense of responsibility.
“What are the spirits after?” he asked.
“I’m not entirely sure. Revenge would be my guess. Most of them were killed by Outsiders for being witches. And I know they want my father’s Book of Shadows.”
Cassie had been carrying the book with her, thinking it was safer with her than at home, unprotected. She pulled it out of her bag.
Max eyed the book apprehensively. “What do they need it for?”
Cassie considered what could occur if the spirits did get hold of the book. “I honestly have no idea what they’d be capable of,” she said. “What I do know is that all dark magic can be traced back to the early days of this book. And to these ancestor spirits.”
“Dark magic,” Max repeated.
Cassie nodded. “The magic your family line devoted their lives to stopping.”
Warily, Max took the book from Cassie’s hands and examined it. “If you need to keep this book hidden from the spirits, you should leave it here.” He paused. “If you think it’ll keep New Salem any safer, I mean.”
“Max, they’re going to come after you,” Cassie said. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. They’ll want to destroy any threats, and you’re the last hunter left in town.”
“But they’re not coming after me for the book,” Max said. A half-grin snuck across his face. “They wouldn’t expect you to give it to a witch-hunter for safekeeping.”
Cassie realized he was right. The ancestors would never think to search for the book at Max’s house. She also realized that his sense of duty, the oath he took as a hunter to protect non-witches from dark magic, now made him her ally—in spite of everything.
“That’s a brave offer,” Cassie said. She tried to convey with her eyes her appreciation and her trust in him. A witch and a hunter joining forces was no small feat. “The only problem is that I need to continue studying the book, to find a spell that will save my friends. If I don’t figure out a way to get the demons out of their bodies by the next full moon, their souls will be lost forever.”
Max’s slight smile disappeared as quickly as it had come. Cassie could tell his heart ached at the thought of Diana being lost this way.
“You need to perform an exorcism,” he said. “I can help you with that.”
A glimpse of sunlight seemed to fill the room. Of course. As a hunter, Max might know more about fighting evil spirits than Cassie ever could.
“Thank you,” Cassie said. “Diana would be—”
“Don’t thank me,” Max said abruptly. “And don’t even say her name to me. I’m doing this for the safety of this town and the innocent people in it. Not for you or Diana.”
Cassie was taken aback, but she understood. Max had every right to still be angry. She nodded, knowing not to thank him aloud again.
“I’ll take a look through this”—Max tossed the book onto his desk—“and let you know what I find.”
Cassie recognized that was her cue to leave. “Okay” was all she said before letting herself out of his room.
She quietly stepped down the carpeted stairs. The man and woman were still in the kitchen, seated at a table, eating breakfast. They didn’t acknowledge her as she slipped out of the door. How would they react if they knew the man whose house they were in had died at her hands? Accident or not, Cassie had to live with that fact for the rest of her life. And so did Max.
CHAPTER 8
Nick caught Cassie watching him and smiled. He stuck out his tongue and crossed his eyes like a clown.
“Sorry,” Cassie said. “I don’t mean to stare.”
“That’s okay. I don’t blame you. But you can trust me to tell you if I sense something strange coming on.” He laughed and put his arm around her. “Besides, the more I’m with you, the better I feel.”
Cassie and Nick were walking along Crowhaven Road. Nick pulled a handful of glossy green leaves from a low-hanging sumac tree. He tore off little divots as they walked, leaving a trail of misshapen pieces behind them. So far Nick had remained strong enough to persevere through the possession.
Since Cassie had led Nick out of the cave, there were moments she could sense his exhaustion, and it pained her to see how hard he was working. Then other times were like this. Easy, comfortable, cozy. They were able to enjoy a pleasant breeze and the warm morning sun on their backs.
It gave Cassie hope that things with her other friends could still turn out okay. If Nick could be saved, they could all be saved.
The wind stirred, and Nick’s face took on a softness in the sunlight that Cassie hadn’t seen in a long while. She was so moved by it that, without thinking, she reached out her hand to stroke his cheek.
He leaned in to her fingers.
They were both so caught up in the moment that they didn’t notice Scarlett and Adam step out onto the sidewalk in front of them, blocking their path forward.
“I hope I’m not interrupting anything.” Scarlett crossed her arms over her chest. “Got a minute to talk?”
“No, we don’t,” Nick said.
Scarlett was unfazed. She appeared healthy, which meant she had regained all her strength. Adam kept close to her side, protective, domineering. Cassie couldn’t bear to look at him.
“I don’t have the book on me,” she said. “Now if you’ll excuse us, we’re going to be late for school.”
“Forget school.” Scarlett guffawed. “I’ve got a much more enticing offer.”
“We’re not interested.” Cassie made an attempt to storm past them, pulling Nick along with her, but Scarlett blocked their way again.
“Just hear us out,” Scarlett said. She twirled a ringlet of her red hair around her pointer finger. “Otherwise I’m going to have to get vicious, and we both know how that usually ends.”
Cassie scoped out the surrounding area. There weren’t any other people on the street, only a few stray pigeons clucking on an overhead wire. If Scarlett and Adam wanted to, they could use magic against Cassie and Nick without much consequence.
Cassie noticed Nick’s teeth were clenched, and his chest heaved up and down with each labored breath.
Adam watched him. For any sign of the demon getting the best of him, Cassie assumed. He seemed to be calling to it, summoning it.
“What do you want?” Cassie said, terrified Adam just might push Nick over the edge. “We don’t have all day.”
“You’re almost there,” Adam whispered to Nick. “I can feel how close you are to crossing over. Can’t you?”
“Leave Nick out of this!” Cassie shouted.
Adam looked at her, amused. But Scarlett remained serious. “Come with us to the abandoned warehouse on State Street,” she said. “Where the Circle is staying.”
“Why?” Cassie asked.
Scarlett smiled wide. “Isn’t it obvious? We want you, Cassie. To be part of our Circle.”
“You want the book,” Cassie said. “Faye made that pretty clear when she trashed my bedroom last night and tried to steal it. What’s in there that you want so badly?”
“Everything,” Adam said, his face blank.
“But it’s you who means something to us,” Scarlett added, in a more innocent tone of voice. “Both of you. The book would just be a bonus.”
“Don’t insult my intelligence,” Cassie said.
“It’s true, sis. And you know it’s the truth, because we all benefit from having a complete Circle. You can appreciate that as well as anyone.”
“Your Circle isn’t ours,” Nick shouted, loud enough to make Cassie jump.
Cassie looked at Nick and saw the obvious strain on his face. He was losing his cool, struggling to maintain his defenses against the demon. Sweat poured down from his forehead, and his hands shook. Cassie worried she might be losing him.