That night, Cassie invited Scarlett to sleep over at her house. She had this urge to learn everything she could about her as soon as possible. Not to gril Scarlett on what she knew of their father and the witch hunters, though of course that was important, too, but everything about her.
There was plenty of time for Scarlett to share everything she knew about the hunters with the Circle. But tonight was just about them. They deserved that much.
Cassie's mother was away visiting friends in Cape Cod, so the girls had the whole house to themselves. Cassie was relieved, because she wasn't sure yet how to broach the subject of Scarlett with her mother. How exactly does one even begin such a conversation? "Mom, the love of your life, who turned out to be evil? He also had another child." Especially with a mother like Cassie's, who would always rather hide from the past and pretend it doesn't exist. Her mother would stick her head in the sand like an ostrich and live that way forever if she could. Finding out Cassie had a half sister, and worse, that her husband had another daughter with a different woman, might be more than she could handle. It would take a lot of groundwork on Cassie's behalf to prepare her mother for such a shock.
But for tonight, they could just be sisters. She felt herself slip into an immediate playfulness, as if she and Scarlett were trying to make up for the childhood they had been robbed of sharing. For the first few hours, they did all the traditional sleepover things. They ordered a pepperoni pizza and laughed too loud. They painted each other's nails with sparkled purple nail polish and wolfed down chocolate ice-cream sundaes till they had stomachaches.
Then they both changed into their pajamas, and Scarlett pinned Cassie's hair back in two intertwined French braids.
Cassie brushed through Scarlett's long waves of wild red hair and couldn't help but ask, "If you didn't dye your hair, would it be the same color as mine?"
"Yup," Scarlett said. "Look at our eyebrows; they're the same shade of brown."
"And our noses are shaped the same."
"That's true," Scarlett said. "We both have the same perfect button noses."
"Do you hate peas?" Cassie asked ridiculously.
"I do, but I don't think that's genetic."
"You don't understand."
Cassie was giggling uncontrollably. "I hate peas so much, I swear it's in my DNA."
Scarlett cracked up.
Having a sleepover with Scarlett was nothing at all like having one with Diana. Diana always behaved like a serious adult. She rarely loosened up enough to just be silly. But sill iness was no problem for Scarlett. Even though she was a witch, she didn't always act like one. And even though she'd suffered through intolerable tragedy and loss, she wasn't mired in somberness. First and foremost, Scarlett was a girl who wanted to have a little fun, and that was a much-needed breath of fresh air to Cassie.
They stayed up late into the night talking. The outside world grew quiet and sleepy and finally silent while Cassie and Scarlett remained awake sharing stories. And as the hours passed, their conversation drifted into deeper waters. In hushed tones, Scarlett filled Cassie in on many of the gaps in their family history.
"I always sensed I was different," she said. "Even before I knew I was a witch."
"I know what you mean, believe me." Cassie brought her knees in toward her chest. "I never felt at home anywhere. I always felt like a freak."
"And the dreams and nightmares," Scarlett said.
Cassie nodded. "Mostly the nightmares."
"And the strange things that would happen every time I got angry." Scarlett's voice rose a bit. "That was really the kicker."
Cassie nodded more rapidly. The similarities between them were uncanny. Cassie wanted to tell Scarlett about the darkness she sometimes felt inside. Not only the bad feelings triggered by certain people, like the new principal, for example, but that other darkness. The one deep down that she could hardly admit to herself existed. Did Scarlett feel that, too? Did she fear there was some sinister piece of Black John lodged in her soul, infecting and clouding it like a cancerous smoker's lung? But before Cassie could muster up the courage to ask such a question, Scarlett's round face turned deathly serious.
"And when I first touched hematite," she said. "The feeling in my chest was - "
"I know!" Cassie screamed out. "Me, too!"
"It's my working stone," Scarlett said.
"Mine, too," Cassie said.
Scarlett grinned knowingly, as if she suspected as much.
"It's a truly rare occurrence, you know. To have hematite as your working stone."
Cassie turned away for a second, feeling ashamed. She had to remind herself that she didn't have to be embarrassed of her connection to Black John, at least not with Scarlett.
Scarlett watched her patiently. "It's okay," she said. "I know this is a lot to digest."
She does feel it, Cassie thought. Scarlett understood the mortification of Cassie's deepest secret. Scarlett endured that same crushing darkness dormant inside herself.
The air between them momentarily quieted, and Cassie knew this was her chance to ask about their father. "It's because of him," she said. "That hematite works for both of us. Right?"
Scarlett nodded. "I'd say that's most likely the reason."
"Did you know him?" Cassie asked, not having to utter their father's name.
Scarlett shook her head. "No. But my mom told me stories. Didn't yours?"
Cassie blushed, shamed by her own mother's shortcomings. "Not really."
"Our moms were best friends growing up," Scarlett said.
"Did you know that?"
Cassie searched her memory for any recol ection of her mother talking about old friends, but she came up blank.
"No," she said, disappointed. "I don't know much at all about my mother's past."
"Well, our moms were best friends," Scarlett said, matter-of-factly. "Until Black John came between them. Your mom stole him from my mom. That's why my mom left town."
"I had no idea." Cassie's heart fell a little because of this new picture of her mother, but also because she suddenly thought of Diana and Nick, and how she and Adam came between them. Would things ever be the same between them, or were they bound for the same fate?
Scarlett noticed a change in Cassie's disposition. "Have I upset you?" she asked. "Maybe I'm saying too much too soon."
"No, don't be silly." Cassie forced herself to relax and to put Adam and the others out of her mind for now. "I want to know everything. Don't hold anything back, please." Scarlett puckered her lips and eyed Cassie skeptically.