"And there's no really safe place to store it," Diana said. "I might as well tell you all, I've got it buried somewhere, and yesterday I set up a spell to tell me if the place is disturbed. It's vital that the skull stays buried."
Cassie had a sick feeling in her stomach. Diana was looking around the group, focusing on Deborah, Faye, and the Hendersons. It would never occur to her to look at me, Cassie thought, and somehow this made her feel sicker than ever.
"Why can't we take it back to the island?" Suzan said, surprisingly, showing she was listening after all.
Adam, who had been sitting quietly, his fine, humorous face unusually moody, answered. "Because the island won't protect it anymore," he said. "Not since I took the skull."
"Sort of like one of those Egyptian tombs with a curse on it," said Laurel. "Once you break in, you can't undo what you've done."
Adam's lip quirked. "Right. And we're not strong enough to cast a new spell of protection that would hold it. This skull is evil," he said to all of them. "It's so evil that burying it in sand won't do anything but keep it from being activated at the moment. There's no way to purify it"-he looked at Laurel-"and no way to destroy it"-he looked at Doug and Chris- "and no place to keep it safe." He looked at Suzan.
"Then what do we do?" Deborah demanded, and Sean squeaked, "What do we do?"
"Forget about it?" Faye suggested with a lazy smile. Adam shot her a dark look. Diana intervened.
"Adam had the idea of searching for the dark energy again with a pendulum, seeing if there are any new trails," she said. She turned to Cassie. "What do you think?"
Cassie dug her fingernails into her palms. If they traced the dark energy and it led them straight back to Faye's house, the place where it had most recently escaped... Faye was looking at her sharply, wanting her to veto the suggestion. But Cassie had an idea.
"I think we should do it," she told Diana evenly.
Faye's stare turned menacing, furious. But there was nothing she could say.
Diana nodded. "All right. We may as well start now. It's a long walk to the graveyard, so I thought we might try picking up the trail around here. We'll go out on Crowhaven Road and see if there's anything to follow."
Cassie could actually feel her chest quivering with the beating of her heart as they walked off the beach. She thrust one hand into her pocket to feel the cold, smooth piece of hematite. Iron-strength, that was what she needed right now.
"Are you crazy?" Faye hissed as they climbed the bluff and headed for the road. She caught Cassie's arm in a punishing grip, holding her back from the others. "Do you know where that trail goes?"
Cassie shook the arm off. "Trust me," she said shortly.
"What?"
Cassie whirled on the taller girl. "I said, trust me! I know what I'm doing-and you don't." And with that she began to climb again. Iron-strength, she thought dizzily, impressed with herself.
But she still found it hard to breathe when Diana stood out in the middle of Crowhaven Road-near Number Two, Deborah's house- and held up the peridot crystal.
Cassie watched it, feeling the concentration of all the minds around her. She waited for it to spin in circles.
It did-in the beginning. The chain twisted first one way and then the other, like a woundup swing on a playground. But then, to Cassie's horror, it began to seesaw, pointing up and down Crowhaven Road. Down, the way they'd traveled the first time, the way that had eventually led to the cemetery, and up, toward the headland.
Toward Faye's.
Cassie's legs felt as if they were sinking into cotton as she followed the group. Faye had no trouble holding her back now. "I told you," she said vehemently out of the side of her mouth. "Now what, Cassie? If that trail leads to my house, I'm not going down alone."
Cassie clenched her teeth and choked out, "I thought we couldn't trace it at ground level. That energy came out through your bedroom ceiling on the second floor, and it was going straight up. I thought it would be too high to track."
"You obviously thought wrong," Faye hissed.
They were passing the vacant house at Number Three. They were passing Melanie's house. Laurel's house was in front of them; they were passing it. Faye's house was just ahead.
Cassie thought she actually might faint. She was almost unaware that she was clutching Faye's arm as hard as Faye was clutching hers. She waited for the peridot to turn aside and lead them all to Faye's doorstep.
But Diana was walking on.
Cassie felt a violent surge of relief-and of bewilderment. Where were they going? They were passing Number Seven, another vacant house. Passing the Hendersons', passing Adam's, passing Suzan's. They were passing Sean's-oh, my God, Cassie thought, we're not going to my house?
But they were passing Number Twelve as well. Diana was following the pendulum's swing, leading them out onto the point of the headland.
And there the crystal began to spin in circles again.
"What's going on?" Laurel said, looking around in astonishment. "What are we doing here?"
Adam and Diana were looking at each other. Then they both looked at Cassie, who came slowly forward from the rear of the group. Cassie shrugged at them.
"This is the place where Number Thirteen used to be," Diana said. "Right, Adam? The house that was torn down."
"I heard it burned down," Adam said. "Before we were born."
"No, it wasn't that long ago," said Melanie. "It was only about sixteen or seventeen years ago-that's what I heard. But before that it was vacant for centuries. Literally."