Chris and Doug stopped shoving. Laurel stopped crying. No one moved as Cassie walked over behind Faye. From that position she might have been supporting Faye-or she might have been about to stab her in the back.
If Faye was afraid, she didn't show it. "Okay," she said to the others. "You heard it. I'm leader. And now I'm going to give my first order." She turned her head slightly to address Cassie. "I want you to get the skull. As for the rest of you-we're going to the cemetery."
"What?" Laurel screamed.
"I'm leader and I'm going to do something with my power instead of just sitting on it. There's energy trapped in that skull, energy that we can use. Cassie, go get it."
Everyone was talking now, arguing, bellowing at each other. Things had never been like this when Diana was leader. Adam was yelling at Faye, demanding to know if she had gone crazy. Only Nick and Diana remained still, Nick watching, Diana staring at something only she could see.
Melanie was trying to restore calm, but it was doing no good. Some distant, clinical part of Cassie's mind noted that if Diana were to interfere now, if Diana would come forward and take over, the coven would listen to her. But Diana did nothing. And the shouting just got louder.
"Get it, Cassie," Faye was snarling between clenched teeth. "Or I'll get it myself."
Cassie could feel Power building around her. The sky overhead was stretched tight as a drum, tight as a harp string waiting to be plucked. The ocean behind her throbbed with pent-up force. She could feel it in the sand under her feet, and see it in the leaping flames of the bonfire.
She remembered what she'd done to the Doberman in the pumpkin patch. Some power had burst out from her, focused like a laser beam. Cassie felt as if something like that was concentrating in her now. She was connected to everything and it was all waiting for her to unleash it.
"Black John will let us have his power-he'll give it to us if we just ask the right way," Faye was shouting. "I know, I've communicated with him. But we have to go and ask him."
Communicated with him-when? Cassie thought. When she, Cassie, had let Faye take the skull the first time? Or at some point later?
"But why the cemetery?" Melanie was crying. "Why there?"
"Because that's what he says" Faye snapped back impatiently. "Cassie, for the last time! Get the skull!"
The elements were ranged behind her... Cassie stared at the back of Faye's neck. But then she remembered something. The look in Diana's eyes when Cassie had voted against her... oh, what good would it do to kill Faye now? Everything was over.
Cassie spun around and headed for the place where the skull was buried.
"How does she even know--?" Melanie was beginning, and Faye's laughter cut her off. So that was over, too, the secret about Cassie stealing the skull was out. Diana hadn't told anyone exactly where the skull was buried, not even Adam. Cassie ran so she wouldn't have to hear more.
She dug in the center of the blackened stones until her fingernails scraped the cloth that wrapped the skull. Then she dug around it and pulled it out of the sand, surprised, as always, by how heavy it was. Cassie staggered as she picked the skull up and started back to Faye.
Deborah ran to meet her. "This way," she said, diverting Cassie before she could reach the group. "Come on!" They climbed the bluff and Cassie saw Deborah's motorcycle.
"Faye planned this," Cassie said. She looked at Deborah, her voice rising slightly. "Faye had this planned!"
"Yeah. So what?" Deborah looked perplexed; a good lieutenant used to taking orders from her superior. What did Cassie care if Faye had it planned? "She figured she would have a hard time getting all the others to come, but she wanted to make sure we got there,"
Deborah explained.
"I don't see how she's going to get any of the others to come," Cassie said, looking down at the group below. But a strange madness seemed to have taken hold of some of them; whatever Faye was saying was whipping them into a frenzy. Suzan was heading for the bluff, and Doug was half dragging Chris. Faye was pushing Sean.
"That's seven; Faye said that's all we need," Deborah said, turning from the bluff. "Come on!"
This motorcycle ride was like the last, in that the speed was as great, the moon even brighter. But this time Cassie wasn't afraid, even though she could only hold on to Deborah with one arm. The other was hugging the skull to her lap. They reached the cemetery and a minute later heard engines. The Samurai was arriving with Chris and Doug and Suzan. Behind it was Faye's Corvette. Faye got out of the driver's side and Sean tumbled out of the passenger door.
"Follow me," Faye said. Long hair switching behind her, she made for the northeast corner. With every step she took, her bare, shapely legs flashed pale, showing the garter on her thigh and a black-handled dagger tucked in the garter. When the ground began to rise, she stopped.
Cassie stopped, too, clutching the skull to her chest with both arms, frighteningly aware of where they were standing. In a row here, broken only by a mound in the earth, were the graves of Faye's father, Sean's mother, and all the other dead parents from Crowhaven Road. Sean was sniveling now, and only Deborah's grip on him was keeping him from running away.
Faye turned to face them. Even in the worst of times, the tall, dramatically beautiful girl had a natural authority, an ability to intimidate people. Now that seemed enhanced by the symbols of the Queen of the Witches: the diadem, the bracelet, the garter. An aura of power and glamour surrounded her.
"It's time," Faye said, "to take back the energy that belonged to the original coven, and that Black John stored in the skull. Black John wants us to have that power, to use against our enemies. And we can get it back-now."