“Alright,” Adam said finally. “I’ll do it for the Circle.”
And though it’s what Cassie had insisted upon, something inside her shattered.
Sally Waltman was the flyer on New Salem High’s cheerleading squad. Cassie watched from the bleachers as she got tossed, flipped, and thrown about, all while maintaining her bright white smile. Sally is really something, Cassie thought, an overachiever in the best way. And she came from a long line of prominence. Her father was the chairman of the board of the Historical Society—that’s why Cassie had come to watch her practice. It was time to take Sally up on her offer to help the Circle.
Sally had spotted Cassie midway through practice, so when the squad broke up, she headed straight in her direction. Her face was flushed and shiny, and she dabbed it softly with a white towel. “What’s up?”
“I need a favor,” Cassie said. “But that’s not the worst of it.”
Sally flipped her towel back in a roll around her tiny shoulders and took a seat beside Cassie. “Don’t leave anything out.”
Cassie described how the ancestors planned to trap everyone inside the Historical Society benefit and then burn the place to the ground.
Sally kept her eyes on her teammates making their way across the field to the locker room. “After what they did to the auditorium, I doubt they’re bluffing.”
She seemed to be replaying the horror of that event in her mind, frame by frame, the color leaching from her face. “I can’t tell my dad. Not without explaining how I know.”
“You shouldn’t,” Cassie said. “The Circle will stop them, but we need to be there. Can you get us in?”
“That’s a given; I’ll put you all on the list. But how will you stop them, Cassie? All the people who’ll be at that benefit . . . I can’t imagine . . .”
“We’ll do whatever we can,” Cassie said, careful not to make any false promises. “Armed with defense spells, we’ll counter them one for one, the way Nick and I managed to do at the auditorium.”
It almost sounded like a plan. But what Cassie didn’t mention was that in the auditorium she was battling her possessed friends. The ancestors were much stronger and more powerful now that they had their own bodies.
Sally brushed back a strand of hair that had fallen in front of her eye, and Cassie noticed her hand tremble.
“I won’t let anyone get hurt,” Cassie said. “You have nothing to worry about.”
It was the false promise she probably shouldn’t make, but it seemed to calm Sally. She rose and stepped down the bleachers toward the field.
“I’ll see you there,” she said.
Cassie unzipped the garment bag holding her beaded halter-neck evening dress. Diana crossed her bedroom to admire it.
“It’s beautiful,” she said. “Is it new?”
“Suzan picked it out for me, one day when we were shopping,” Cassie said. “I told her I had no use for an evening dress, but she insisted I buy it. She said it was too perfect to pass up.”
Faye looked away, and all the girls got quiet.
Suzan had always been the best when it came to prepping for a fancy party, so it was with a little bit of a heavy heart that Cassie and the others continued the tradition in her absence.
“I’ve been thinking about her all night,” Deborah said.
Laurel marveled at the dress’s intricate beadwork. “We all are,” she said.
Now it was Diana’s bedroom instead of Suzan’s serving as the backdrop to their primping. It looked like a movie studio dressing room. There were backlit mirrors propped up on every flat surface, curlers warming on the dresser, perfume in the air.
Melanie directed Cassie to sit down on the chair facing the largest mirror. “We’ve got to get your hair done,” she said. “What are you feeling tonight, up or down?”
“Do it up,” Laurel shouted from inside Diana’s closet.
Cassie agreed. “Up,” she said, and Melanie went to work, massaging lavender-scented oil onto her scalp.
Cassie closed her eyes, enjoying the soothing smell of the oil and Melanie’s strong fingers kneading the tension from her temples. For a moment everything felt like normal. What a long-missed luxury it was to listen to her friends debate over something as insignificant as which dress most brought out the color of their eyes, and which shoes made them appear taller but not too much taller.
Faye stepped out of the bathroom holding up two nearly identical skimpy black satin dresses. “I can’t decide,” she said to Deborah. “Which one?”
Deborah, who was lounging on Diana’s bed already dressed in a white tuxedo with purple trim, somehow noticed a distinction between the dresses. “That one,” she said definitively, pointing to the one on the left.
“That’s what I thought, too,” Faye said.
Diana asked Cassie to zip up her pearl-colored gown. It cascaded down her legs in a long, flowing train.
Cassie caught herself relaxing. She almost felt happy. But then Diana began talking about Max.
“This’ll be our first fancy party as a couple,” she said, and that was all it took for the girl talk to veer into the territory of boys.
Cassie grew sullen and quiet. She remembered the stomach-curdling fact she’d been striving to force away—that Adam would be spending the night flirting with Scarlett.
“Cassie,” Diana said, “come back to us.”
Cassie tried to smile.
“You have nothing to worry about,” Laurel said. “Whatever happened with Scarlett while Adam was possessed only happened because he was possessed. He was literally someone else.”
“You’d have to be possessed to get with that girl,” Deborah added.
“Adam couldn’t stray from you even if he wanted to,” Melanie said into the mirror, with a bobby pin between her lips. “That cord works better than a short leash.”
Cassie exchanged a nervous glance with Diana that gave all the girls pause.
“What was that?” Faye asked, stepping between them. “One of those words made you uncomfortable, either cord or leash, and either way we want to hear the story.”
Diana averted her eyes, but Cassie said Faye was right. She turned around on her chair to face them and described the cord that had appeared between Adam and Scarlett.
“The first time I saw it was when I was half-unconscious after battling Scarlett at the broken-down cottage on Hawthorne Street,” Cassie said. “And the second time, it caught Adam off guard the night of the spring dance.”
“How is that even possible?” Melanie asked.
“I don’t understand how,” Cassie said. “I wish it wasn’t real, but it is.”
Diana’s lips formed a pout. Even she was at a loss for what to say to make the truth less painful.
Melanie was mentally sorting through this new information. “So when Adam was possessed,” she said, “and he and Scarlett were so close . . .”
“It wasn’t just the possession making him act crazy like we thought,” Laurel said. “He and Scarlett have an actual connection?”
Cassie’s heart sank. “I guess it’s possible to have more than one soul mate. At least if you’re Adam.”
Melanie and Laurel stared down at the carpet, heartbroken for Cassie.
Then Deborah hopped off Diana’s bed. She placed one hand on Faye’s shoulder and the other on Cassie’s.
“I don’t know about the rest of you,” she said. “But I will personally take Scarlett out with a debeautifying spell tonight if she tries anything with Adam.”
Faye gave Deborah a high five. “Now you’re talking! We’ll make her so ugly that the sight of her will make babies cry.”
Cassie let herself laugh. It was going to be a difficult night, but she was glad she had her friends back on her side.
CHAPTER 21
The town hall ballroom, with its marble floors and high ceilings, was the setting for all formal events in New Salem—and the Historical Society benefit was the nicest event of all. Tonight’s party would be crowded with the town’s elite: academics, politicians, and everyone wealthy enough to spring for a table.
Cassie spotted Sally across the dance floor, dressed in a peach cocktail dress with a bow around the waist. She was standing with Max.
“They’re already here,” Sally said, pointing to Scarlett and the group of ancestors huddled in the corner.
They appeared more sinister than ever in formal wear. Absolom, whose dark hair was slicked back with a shiny gel, murmured something while looking at Cassie, and the group exploded with laughter.
“No sign of Adam yet?” Diana asked, extending her hand to Max. He wore a gray suit that was just tight enough to show off his physique.
Melanie scanned the crowd. “Nope.”
Laurel glanced at the corners of the room and each emergency exit. “There’s nothing out of the ordinary going on,” she said. “Yet.”
Faye gave Deborah a nudge. “Let’s go get a drink.”
Cassie checked the door at the exact moment Nick stepped inside. He was wearing a black suit and tie, and for once he had traded his leather boots for a pair of shiny oxfords.
He headed straight for Cassie. “I hear you came here stag,” he said playfully. “Does that mean I get the first dance?”
Melanie raised her eyebrows and politely led Laurel away. Diana was off somewhere with Max.
Cassie allowed herself to smile. “If we can stop whatever’s coming tonight, I’ll dance straight through till morning.”
“Is that a promise?” Nick said. “Because I’ll hold you to it.”
Sean, Chris, and Doug entered the doorway and caught sight of Nick and Cassie immediately. They made their way over, almost unrecognizably clean-cut in tailored suits and their hair combed back.
“Any action yet?” Chris asked.
Cassie gazed around the enormous room. The black-and-white tiled floor reminded her of dance scenes in old classic movies. It gave way to marble pillars and cloth-covered banquet tables. Since this was a benefit for the Historical Society, the walls and tables were adorned with New Salem history pieces on loan from the museum—statues of prominent figures, old maps in glass frames, photographs of the founding families.
The ancestors eyed it all like vultures preparing for a feast. Sally’s father was too busy shaking hands and smiling for cameras to notice. He and his board members had not a clue what was coming. Equally oblivious, the Outsiders drifted around them, enjoying appetizers off silver trays. Lambs to a slaughter, Cassie thought.
Cassie noticed Alice and Beatrix had broken off from the others. They whispered to one another, conspiring, in the corner.
Alice’s dress was black, long, and straight. It could have been very old, or just designed to look that way. Beatrix’s was similar, but she wore a red shawl over her shoulders.
Cassie approached them.
“So, you made it,” Alice said in her deep monotone.
“I told you they wouldn’t miss it,” Beatrix said.
Alice set her heartbreaking eyes on Cassie. “We’re going to seal this place like a tomb,” she said. “Then the fire will rage. Do you know what it feels like to be burned alive, Cassie?”
“I do,” Beatrix said. “The skin of your face melts first. Then your neck. Your hands, as if they could protect you from the relentless flames. You’ll be wide awake, more awake than you’ve ever been, and you can smell yourself cooking. Flesh bakes so slowly, Cassie. It seems to take forever.”
Cassie cringed. “No one here tonight is burning alive,” she said. “My Circle won’t allow it.”
Just then Adam appeared in the doorway, wearing his best blue-gray suit. He offered Cassie a quick apologetic glance as he headed toward Nick, Chris, and Doug, who were sloppily progressing through an hors d’oeuvre plate of sliders.
While he ate and laughed with the guys, Adam eyed Scarlett and the ancestors gathered in the back corner. Within a few minutes he casually got himself a drink and meandered toward them.
Feeling Alice’s and Beatrix’s eyes on her, Cassie did her best to look distressed by the idea of Adam going over to talk to Scarlett. It wasn’t hard to do as she made out the thin cord drawing them together.
Cassie watched Adam closely. His face had relaxed in Scarlett’s presence.
“Look at that smile,” Beatrix said, nodding toward Adam. “You can’t fake a smile that bright. It’s obvious he’s smitten.”
Adam led Scarlett onto the dance floor. Cassie tried to remind herself that he was playing a part, but his affection seemed so real.
Scarlett ran her fingers up and down the length of his suit-jacketed arm. Did he shudder? No, it was more of a quiver.
Adam’s flirting had to be convincing. It was the Circle’s only hope of getting Scarlett on their side. But within a few minutes of watching them, everyone else in the room dropped away, and Cassie began to sweat.
Scarlett had secured Adam’s rapt attention. She was speaking softly to him, her face up close to his, swaying to the music. And he was leaning in slightly, watching her mouth, those full red lips of hers getting perilously close to his own.
But when Scarlett went in for a kiss, Adam quickly backed away. That was where he drew the line. Scarlett had leaned in and kissed the air.
Cassie took a breath. Her tunnel vision ceased, the room came back to life, and all the other guests reappeared.
Adam, when he was really Adam, couldn’t betray her.
“You should seriously reconsider your previous decision to snub us, Cassandra,” Beatrix said. “Look around.”
She directed Cassie’s gaze around the room. “All of these innocent people are about to die.”
Alice placed her cold, bony hand on Cassie’s shoulder. “Wouldn’t you rather be on our side than theirs?”