Adam and Diana stared at Cassie with identical expressions of disbelief.
"Is that true?" Adam asked. "You brought Scarlett to the lighthouse?
Cassie looked down at the horrible symbol burned into the ground, with its serpentine W and satanic-looking hexagon. This wasn't the work of Scarlett. She was sure of that.
"Cassie, how could you?" Diana couldn't contain her exasperation.
Cassie looked pleadingly into Diana's infuriated eyes.
"She was with me when I dropped off some herbs for Melanie and Laurel," Cassie said. "But I didn't let her inside and I didn't tell her anything. I swear to you, she had nothing to do with this."
"You weren't supposed to be seeing Scarlett at all," Melanie said. "And you brought her to our sacred space." Faye was thoroughly enjoying the bloodbath she started.
How easy it had been to divert the attention away from her forbidden love spell. Faye addressed the group. "What Cassie has done is unforgivable," she said malevolently.
"She betrayed us."
"You betrayed us, too, Faye," Cassie said. "And how would you even know I brought Scarlett to the lighthouse unless you were spying on me?"
"That's not really the point," Diana interjected. "I agree with Faye on this. Bringing Scarlett to the lighthouse was a betrayal. And we need to unify now more than ever. No Outsiders can be trusted, no matter what." Cassie lost the little bit of control she'd had left. "So let me get this straight," she said. "Your idea of unification is siding with Faye?"
Adam replied on Diana's behalf. "It's for your own safety, Cassie. Scarlett isn't one of us. And under no circumstances did she belong anywhere near our meeting place."
"Maybe it's me who isn't one of you," Cassie blurted out before she could stop herself.
That was the last straw for Diana. She screamed then like Cassie had never imagined she could. "Of course you're one of us, Cassie. You're more crucial to this Circle than any of us. Don't you think we all realize that?" Then Diana turned to Faye. "And you're not off the hook either. Cassie's right that you also betrayed the group. Max is off limits, and so is your magic."
"Or else what?" Faye said.
Diana didn't even blink. "Or else you forfeit your privileges as a leader of this Circle."
A few seconds passed before Adam broke the deathly silence. "The coven has been marked," he said. "But do the hunters know who we are, individually?"
"Good question," Melanie said. "But either way, we have to figure out a way to fight them."
"That's right," Diana said. Her voice regained its angelic timbre. "And I wanted to share something very important with you all tonight. Before all these surprises." She looked at Cassie and then at Faye, scolding them each individually with her eyes. Then she dug through her bag and pulled out her Book of Shadows.
"I found a spell," she said. "A spell to destroy witch hunters."
"What?" Adam asked, sounding outraged Diana had kept this discovery from him. "Why didn't you say anything sooner?"
"I wasn't sure if it was what I thought it was," Diana said in her defense. "The text was mostly in Latin and needed to be translated. But now I'm sure. That's why I wanted to meet tonight, to tell you all at once."
"Let's perform the spell right now," Melanie said, sounding hopeful for the first time in days.
Diana shook her head. "First we have to know for sure who the hunters are."
Nick shot a look to Chris and Doug. "Let's do it on the principal. We're sure enough."
"No." Diana's green eyes flared. "The spell will only work on a real hunter. If we try it on someone who isn't one of them, we'll only be exposing ourselves as witches. Not to mention hurting someone innocent."
"Wow, that's big news," Faye said. "We have a spell we can't use."
"We will use it." Adam gave one last look at the symbol burnt on the ground. "When they strike again. At this point, I think we can count on that happening."
"But what happens then?" Melanie asked. "If we do this spell. Will the hunters die?"
Diana hesitated. "It's a little unclear. The translation left a lot to interpretation, but it seems like the effect of the spell depends on the hunter."
"So they might die," Melanie said.
"Let me have a look at this." Faye grabbed Diana's Book of Shadows from her hands and scanned the page. As her eyes moved back and forth across the ancient script, she appeared to be drawing in her breath and backing away from the words in disbelief.
"This isn't a spell," Faye said. "It's a curse." Diana stared at the ground. "Yes," she said. "Technically it is a curse."
Faye was suddenly roiling with excitement. "It's similar to a deflection spell by turning the hunter's power back on them, but it calls on Hecate. This could be . . ." She couldn't find the right word.
"Dangerous," Diana said. "We'll only use it as a last resort."
Chapter 16
The rain was only a drizzle, and although it was nighttime, people were out and about. Scarlett had invited Cassie out tonight. Of course Cassie declined, but she wished she didn't have to. That's just what Cassie needed to clear her head - she needed to see other people, non-witches. She decided to drive into town. Even if she couldn't join the crowds of people going about their normal lives, she could at least watch them from inside her Volkswagen.
But she'd barely made it to Bridge Street when the light rain amplified to a hammering downpour. Everyone out on the streets scrambled for shelter inside restaurants and stores; some hovered within doorways and beneath overpasses. Cassie was dry and safe inside her car, and she felt like she was inside a snow dome that someone had shaken up, submerged by the shuddering rain on all sides but also untouched by it.
And then she suddenly felt stripped of that safety. Her heart started to pound in her chest, and she began to sweat. She felt like she was being followed, but she didn't see any cars behind her. She kept checking the rearview mirror, and all she saw was the wet darkness in her own back window. Still, she decided to take a detour, in hopes of shaking the feeling.
With a sharp turn of the steering wheel, she veered onto Dodge Street, a secluded road that would lead her back to the turnpike. Cassie had to slow down to maneuver its many meandering curves, but when she stepped on the brake pedal, her foot emptily dropped to the floor.