"So here's the choice, Sean," Adam was saying. "You can stand with us, or you can spend the rest of the day locked in the cellar where you can't make trouble."
"Or," Diana said softly, "you can go to him, to Black John. It's his right," she added quickly, as some of the others began to protest. "He has to make the decision."
Sean's frightened eyes roved all around the room. Cassie felt sorry for him, sitting surrounded, with everyone looking at him. When he spoke, his voice was squeaky but definitive. "I'll stand with you guys."
"Good boy," Laurel said approvingly, and Deborah thumped him on the back so hard he nearly fell over. The Hendersons said nothing, simply looked at him out of their strange blue-green eyes, and Cassie had the feeling they might never forgive him for what had happened to Kori, even if it hadn't been his fault. But at least for now, the Circle stood together.
Except...
Cassie looked at Adam, and they both looked at Diana. Diana nodded.
"Now's the time," she said. "This is Faye's last chance - let's hope she takes it."
Cassie didn't have much hope, but she picked up the cordless phone lying on a pile of unfolded laundry on the couch. "What's her beeper number?"
Diana unfolded a scrap of paper and read it off. "After it rings, press pound and then dial Adam's number," she instructed.
Cassie did and turned off the phone. She waited. Nothing happened.
"We should give her a while to get to a phone," Diana said.
They all waited. Rain beat at the windows, and the wind howled in the chimney.
"Isn't there anything we should do? Like - I don't know, nail boards over the windows or something?" Cassie asked.
"Normally, yeah. We'd put up storm shutters, lash everything down, all that stuff," Adam said. "But if this one hits us, I think we're history, so there's not much point."
They waited.
"Try her again," Diana said, and Cassie did.
"Her mom hadn't seen her since this morning," Suzan said. "I wonder where she and Black John are?"
Cassie wondered too. Wherever they were, Faye wasn't answering her beeper.
"I think," Cassie said at last, "that we're out one coven leader. And - well, I wanted to look this up in my Book of Shadows first, but Melanie, doesn't it say somewhere that in an emergency you can elect a new leader?"
Melanie smiled faintly, then nodded, as if she knew what Cassie had in mind. "In a crisis," she said. "If the remaining coven all agrees, a new leader can be elected."
There was a shifting around the Circle, people straightening up and looking interested. "Oh," said Laurel, "that's a good idea."
"Especially since we've got the Master Tools," Adam said.
"Let's do it," said Deborah.
Cassie was excited. She'd taken an oath while watching Faye draw that circle at the crossroads, and now she was going to see her oath fulfilled. She'd promised that Faye wouldn't be leader forever, and in a few minutes Faye wouldn't be.
She opened her mouth joyfully to say, "I nominate Diana," but before she could speak she heard Diana's voice.
"I nominate Cassie," Diana said clearly.
Cassie simply stared at her, amazed. When she got her breath back she said, "You're joking."
"No," Diana said. Then she turned, speaking to the rest of the Circle, speaking formally. "Cassie," she said, "has shown the most power of any of us, including Faye. She can call on the elements - we've seen her call on Fire. She can communicate over long distances. She's had true dreams, and she was the one who led us to the Master Tools. Her grandmother told her that her family has always had the clearest sight and the most power. And she's strong, stronger than I am for this kind of fight. I nominate Cassie."
Cassie was stunned, but the others were nodding.
"She's pretty tough," Deborah said, "even if she doesn't look like it."
"She got that dog off me," said Chris, sticking out his foot and examining it.
"She's smart, too," said Laurel proudly. Aside from Diana, Laurel had been Cassie's first friend in the Circle. "She thinks of things most people wouldn't think of."
"She has ideas," Suzan agreed, nodding her strawberry-blond head sagely.
"I like her," Sean ventured hesitantly, from his place in the ring of white stones. "She's nice to me."
"She's a natural," Doug said, grinning his wild grin.
Nick just said, "Yes."
Cassie realized they were serious. "I'm also Black John's ..." She stopped and tried again. "The fact that Black John is my ..." She still couldn't say the word.
"I think that may actually work for us," Melanie said, looking at Cassie with thoughtful gray eyes. "If he doesn't really want to hurt you it might handicap him - a little."
Everyone was still nodding. Cassie swallowed and gazed around the Circle. It didn't seem to have occurred to anyone that she might just be too scared to do it, to lead the fight against Black John. In her own heart, she knew she didn't want to face him again - that she wasn't ready. She didn't know if she'd ever be ready.
But they were all looking at her: Diana with earnest faith; Deborah and the Hendersons with innocent confidence. Even Nick and Melanie were nodding, urging her.
Cassie looked at Adam.
His blue-gray eyes were something like the ocean outside - murky and full of turmoil. "You can do it," he said tersely, answering her unspoken question. "And I think it's best for the coven. I don't know if it's best for you."