"I know it won't happen again. Especially after we figure out what to do with that book." Adam glanced at the book, which was resting between them alongside the Master Tools. "It's the book I hate, not you."
A pang of worry shot through Cassie's chest. What if Adam's resentment for the book caused him to do something drastic? He wouldn't try to destroy it, would he?
"We've both made mistakes recently," Adam said. "And we have bigger concerns to deal with. One kiss is hardly the worst of them."
"Bigger concerns," Cassie said. "Like me being altogether evil."
Adam shook his head. "You're not evil, Cassie. One day, I promise, our lives will be normal enough that I will sufficiently freak out if you kiss another guy of your own volition, not because a cursed book made you do it."
Cassie had to laugh as Adam gave the porch swing a little nudge, sending them gently back and then forward again.
Adam took a long breath in, held it, and exhaled heavily, as if he were blowing out every hurt feeling and negative thought within him. He looked longingly at Cassie and then leaned over and kissed her.
Cassie had never felt so gratified by a kiss in all her life. For a few blissful minutes she forgot all her troubles. She was healed. She was with Adam and that was all that mattered.
Adam must have felt it, too, because his passion for Cassie now was pressing and pleading. He kissed her like he hadn't seen her in years, like he wanted to erase her kiss with Nick from her mind and claim her for himself.
But Cassie finally, reluctantly pulled away. "We should go inside," she said. "We can continue this later in private, after we tell everyone about getting the Master Tools back."
Adam agreed and the two of them got up from the swing. They straightened their clothes and gathered the book and Tools to carry them inside.
"They're going to freak out when they see these," Adam said, holding the Tools up like a trophy. They glistened in the moonlight.
"I know," Cassie said. "But maybe we can leave out the worst parts of the story about how we got them back?"
Adam didn't argue. The two of them made their way through the house and jogged down the basement stairs. They excitedly revealed the hidden door - but on the opposite side, they found an empty room.
"Hello!" Cassie called out. "Come out, come out, wherever you are."
Within a few seconds her joviality was quelled. This was no game of hide-and-seek. Not a single member of the Circle was to be found in the room.
There were laptops left open and dishes with food on them still on the table. Laurel's desk lamp hadn't been turned off and neither had the light in the bathroom.
Cassie set down her father's book and the Master Tools, and a knot formed in her throat. "Where could they have gone?" she said. But she couldn't state the worry nagging her: If their friends were discovered, they most likely had been killed.
"There's no way the hunters got in here." Adam scrutinized the room in a desperate search for clues. "They must be with the rest of the Circle. Text Diana."
Cassie rummaged through her bag for her phone. She'd silenced it on her way to Stockbridge and forgot to turn the ringer back on. Now a list of urgent text messages, mostly from Nick, stared her in the face.
She scanned through them nervously. "Faye went after the principal," she said to Adam. "The rest of them are chasing after her, to keep her from doing anything stupid."
"Too late." Adam slammed his hand down on the table. "That half-translated witch-hunter curse will never work."
"The last text says they were headed to the school." Cassie stuffed her phone back into her pocket. "It was sent twenty minutes ago."
Without another word the two of them rushed upstairs. Cassie felt heat stealing into her face and a twisting panic in her stomach. She tried to catch her breath once they were inside Adam's car, but it was no use.
Adam floored the accelerator pedal, his eyes wild. Cassie watched the speedometer arc steadily from left to right. He had to be driving ninety miles per hour, but it still didn't feel fast enough. If they didn't make it to the school in time ... Cassie couldn't fathom it.
But she had to be mentally prepared. Even if their friends were lying dead on the ground when they arrived, Cassie still had to be ready to fight.
Chapter 20
Arriving at the school, Adam and Cassie were unsure where to look first. The sky was dark as midnight, but there was enough security lighting to give them a decent view of the grounds. From the parking lot they scanned the empty bleachers and vacant football field. They checked the perimeter of the building, and the outer wing where the principal's office was located.
"Do you think they're inside?" Cassie asked. "Maybe we should split up."
"Up there," Adam said. "I think that's them."
There was movement on the roof of the building, barely visible shadows, but clashing voices echoed down to the ground. Cassie pushed away her fear and forced the trembling within her stomach to steady her. If there were sounds of a scuffle, that meant there was still a fight.
Adam rushed for the rusty fire escape that ran up the side of the building and Cassie followed just behind him. They quieted their steps as they neared the top. There, they discovered Diana, Melanie, Chris, Doug, and Sean hiding behind the metal railing.
Diana noticed them and put her finger over her lips to indicate they should be quiet. Cassie and Adam moved to where they could view the action at the center of the roof. It was a formidable sight.
Nick, Faye, Laurel, Deborah, and Suzan were aligned in a tight defensive circle. They appeared trapped and powerless, as if they'd been confined to a cage. And their marks glowed bright on their chests, like iridescent hearts beating over their clothes.
The hunter marks must shine in the presence of the relics, Cassie thought. Three hunters surrounded the group, and each of them held a gray stone carved into the dreadful shape of the hunter symbol.
It was the principal and two others - one man and one woman. Cassie wondered where Max was. Did Diana have something to do with his absence? But there wasn't any time for questions.
The man was older - Cassie would even call him elderly. He had long white hair and eyes the color of ice. The woman appeared to be around Cassie's mother's age. She was rail thin and had mousy brown hair and brown eyes, but there was no mistaking the resemblance between the two.
Through her research, Laurel had identified two of the last remaining hunters as Jedediah Felton - an ancestor of one of the most feared hunter families in history - and his daughter, Louvera Felton. Now here they were in the flesh.