The book, though, Cassie noticed - her book - had slipped from Scarlett's grasp.
Cassie thrust her charged fingers toward its pages and called to it, "Mihi venit!"
To Scarlett's surprise, and much to her own, the book quivered and rose up from the floor until it was eye-level with Cassie. Then it floated across the room like a leaf caught in the wind, right into Cassie's outstretched hands.
Cassie gripped the book's soft cover and hugged it close to her chest.
Scarlett desperately cast her trembling fingers at Cassie again. "Praestrangulo," she screamed. "Caecitas!" She was frantic, trying every spell she knew. But Cassie had the upper hand now.
"Divorsus," Cassie said calmly. A simple wave of her arm blocked all of Scarlett's feeble spells.
With her father's book in hand, Cassie understood where her new power was coming from. Somehow, it had seeped into her veins those past weeks; Black John's spells were now hers. She could feel the book's power coursing through her. This was right. It was Scarlett who had to go.
"And I thought you were going to put up a fight," Cassie said, egging Scarlett on. "I mistook you for a worthy opponent."
Scarlett was running out of options. Barely able to stand, exhausted from casting too many spells, she momentarily glanced at the shallow closet closed off from the room by two folding doors.
The quick look wasn't lost on Cassie. "Hmm," she said, turning to face the closet. "I wonder what's in there. Could it be my Tools? The ones you stole from me?"
Scarlett's eyes widened, and she dashed for the closet doors.
"Desiccare!" Cassie shouted.
Scarlett dropped to the floor once more. Her legs and arms stiffened like the limbs of a corpse.
"I guess that answers that." Cassie casually walked over to Scarlett. She watched the spell collapse Scarlett's spine and wrinkle its way up the length of Scarlett's neck.
"Cassie!" Adam cried out desperately. "Untie me, now!"
Finally Scarlett's face succumbed to the spell. It dried and shriveled like a preserved peach, then turned gray and ashen - motionless as a mask, except for her eyes, which darted frantically back and forth.
"You know this already," Cassie said. "But I'll remind you again just this once. The Master Tools belong to me. And from now on, they answer only to me. And that boy over there?" She gestured to Adam. "He's mine."
Scarlett's dark eyes slowed to a stop, hardening to a stony gray that matched the rest of her desiccated body.
Cassie grinned. "Who do you think is Daddy's favorite now? I'll give you a hint: It's not you."
"Cassie," Adam called to her, but he sounded far away, as if he were at the opposite end of a long tunnel. She knew he was there in the room with her, but at the moment he seemed small and unimportant. He may as well have not been there at all.
"You're nothing," Cassie said to Scarlett. "Nothing."
Cassie felt invincible. She could destroy Scarlett so easily now. She suddenly knew the right words. They came to her strikingly from deep within her gut. She could taste them, bitter like licorice on her tongue:
I maledicentibus vobis in mortem.
I curse you to death.
Chapter 18
"Cassie!" Adam screamed. "Your eyes. You have to stop!"
Cassie heard Adam's cries, but couldn't register their meaning. All she could see was the image of Scarlett in front of her, dead.
"You're going to kill her!" Adam screamed, just before Cassie could speak the words that would murder her sister.
Cassie sputtered, confused, as if Adam had finally shaken her awake from a nightmare.
"It's Black John. It's the darkness controlling you," Adam said. "This isn't you, Cassie."
Cassie gazed around the room like she'd never seen it before, and then at Scarlett, who was dying at her feet.
Cassie felt her own insides cave in. Her legs went soft, and she felt light-headed. Adam was right. This wasn't her.
She carefully set her father's Book of Shadows on the table and backed away from it with caution. Then she looked at Adam. "What have I done?"
Some of the color returned to Adam's face and his shoulders settled. "Not what you almost did, thank goodness." He took a deep breath. "I thought I'd lost you for good."
Cassie ran to Adam and wrapped her arms around him.
"There's a better way to deal with Scarlett," he said. "We'll figure out what it is together. But you have to untie me first."
Cassie's first instinct was to use magic to set Adam free, but then she thought better of it. She untied him the old-fashioned way, tugging and untwisting the ropy threads confining him to the chair until he was free.
Adam stood up and stretched his legs. He rubbed his sore, rope-burned wrists. "Where did you learn all those dark spells?" he asked. "Have you been able to translate that much of the book?"
"No. I don't know," Cassie said. "They just came to me."
"What do you mean, they just came to you? Like from inside you? Your eyes were as black as marbles."
"Adam, I don't know. Can we just focus on Scarlett right now?" Scarlett was still lying motionless on the floor, gray and desiccated.
"Will she be okay?" Adam asked.
"I think so," Cassie said. "But I can also do a reversal spell."
Adam considered their options for a minute. "Before she can move again," he said, "there's another spell I think we should try. It'll prevent her from ever returning to New Salem. What do you think? Are you up for it?"
"A magical restraining order," Cassie said. "That sounds great, but I don't think our regular magic is strong enough to work on her."
"It will be." Adam nodded toward the closet.
The Master Tools. Of course. In all the commotion, Cassie had almost forgotten about them.
Cassie stepped around Scarlett to open the closet's folding doors. She rummaged through some junk on the floor and moved around some boxes on a high shelf, and there they were. Just sitting there for the taking. The silver bracelet, the leather garter, and the sparkling diadem.
Cassie reached for each one individually. First the bracelet. She fastened it around her upper arm. Its smooth silver felt cool against her skin. Next she secured the soft leather garter on her thigh. Adam came up behind her as she reached for the diadem. He straightened it on her head for her.
"Now that's more like it," he said. "That's the Cassie I know and love."
Cassie tried to soak up the positive energy from each Tool - to feel like the Cassie Adam knew and loved. She tried her best to smile.