There was a silence, and she felt the involuntary heave of his lungs. And with her inner senses she felt his agony. Then he let his breath out and shut his eyes again. When he opened them, she saw his answer before he spoke it, and felt it as his arms released her and he sat back, the cold air rushing in between their bodies, separating them at last.
“No,” he said, and there was new strength in his voice. And in his face a new resolution.
They looked at each other then, not like lovers, but like soldiers. Like comrades-in-arms utterly determined to reach some common goal. Their passion held down and locked away, so deep that no one else would ever see it. It was a new closeness, maybe even more intimate than the trust of boyfriend and girlfriend. Whatever happened, whatever it cost them, they would not betray the girl they both loved.
Looking right into her eyes, he said, “What oath was it you swore that night? Was it one you got from somebody's Book of Shadows?”
“No,” Cassie said, and then she stopped. “I don't know,” she qualified. “I thought I was making it up, but now it seems like it might have come from something longer. It just went, 'Not by word or look or deed …' “
He was nodding. “I've read one with those lines. It's old-and it's powerful. You call on the four Powers to witness you, and if you ever break the oath, they're free to rise against you. Do you want to swear it again now? With me?”
The abruptness of his question took her breath away. But she was eternally proud of herself that with scarcely any hesitation she spoke clearly. “Yes.”
“We need blood.” He stood and took a knife out of his back pocket. Cassie thought she was surprised, then decided she wasn't. However nice a guy Adam might be, he was used to taking care of himself.
Without any particular flourish, he cut his palm. The blood showed black in the dim silvery light. Then he handed the knife to her.
Cassie sucked in her breath. She wasn't brave, she hated pain… But she gritted her teeth and put the knife against her palm. Just think of the pain you could have caused Diana, she thought, and with a quick motion she brought the knife downward. It hurt, but she didn't make any noise.
She looked up at Adam.
“Now, say after me,” he said. He held his palm up to the star-filled sky. “Fire, Air, Earth, Water.”
“Fire, Air, Earth, Water…”
“Listen and witness.”
“Listen and witness.” Despite the simple words, Cassie felt that the elements had indeed been evoked and were listening. The night had a sudden feeling of electricity, and the stars overhead seemed to burn colder and brighter. Goose-flesh broke out on her skin.
Adam turned his hand sideways so that the black drops fell onto the scraggly beach grass and the sandy earth. Cassie watched, mesmerized. “I, Adam, swear not to betray my trust-not to betray Diana,” he said.
“I, Cassie, swear not to betray my trust…” she whispered, and watched her own blood trickle off the side of her hand.
“Not by word, or look, or deed, waking or sleeping, by speech or by silence…”
She repeated it in a whisper.”… in this land or any other. If I do, may fire burn me, air smother me, earth swallow me, and water cover my grave.”
She repeated it. As she spoke the last words, “and water cover my grave,” she felt a snapping, as if something had been set in motion. As if the fabric of space and time right here had been plucked,. once, and was resonating back into place. Breath held, she listened to it a moment.
Then she looked at Adam. “It's over,” she whispered, and she didn't just mean the oath.
His eyes were like silver-edged darkness. “It's over,” he said, and reached his bloodstained palm out to her. She hesitated, then took his hand with her own. She felt, or imagined she felt, their blood mingling, falling to the ground together. A symbol of what could never be.
Then, slowly, he released her.
“You'll give the rose back to Diana?” she asked steadily.
He took the chalcedony piece out of his pocket, held it in the palm that was still wet. “I'll give it to her.”
Cassie nodded. She couldn't say what she meant, which was that where the stone belonged, Adam belonged.
“Good night, Adam,” she said softly instead, looking at him standing there on the bluff with the night sky behind him. Then she turned and walked toward the lighted windows of her grandmother's house. And this time he didn't call her back.
“Oh, yes,” Cassie's grandmother said. “This was in the front hall this morning. Someone must have put it through the letter slot.” She handed Cassie an envelope.
They were sitting at the breakfast table, the Sunday morning sun shining through the windows. Cassie was astonished at how normal everything was.
But one look at the envelope and her heart plummeted. Her name was written on the front in a large, careless hand. The ink was red.
She tore it open and stared at the note inside while her Raisin Bran got soggy. It read:
Cassie-
You see I'm using my own name this time. Come over to my house (Number Six) sometime today. I have something special I want to talk to you about. Believe me, you don't want to miss this.
Love and kisses, Faye
P.S. Don't tell anyone in the Club you're coming to see me. You'll understand when you get here.
Cassie was tingling with alarm. Her first impulse was to call Diana, but if Diana had been up all night purifying the skull, she was probably exhausted. Faye was the last thing she needed to deal with.
All right, I won't disturb her, Cassie thought grimly. I'll go and see what Faye's up to first. Something about the ceremony, I'll bet. Or maybe she's going to call for a leadership vote.