She tried again and again, but there was no use. Her brakes weren't working.
The car suddenly felt to her like it was speeding up, an angry vessel set on racing her to her death. She couldn't stop it, and letting up on the gas pedal was only doing so much. Panicked, she gripped the steering wheel and tried to bear off to the side of the road, where maybe the grass would slow the car enough so she could jump out to safety.
But the grass did nothing to reduce the acceleration.
Cassie's only chance was to jump out while the car continued full speed ahead. Panicked, she clutched the door handle and pushed the door open. But before she had the chance to leap to the ground, the car smashed right into a giant, thick-barked oak tree.
She blacked out for a moment, maybe longer. When she opened her eyes, she saw she'd been thrown from the car, through the windshield. She checked her arms and legs to see if she could move them and searched her face for blood. Unbelievably, she was all right.
But her car was totaled. Looking at it through the dark rain, it reminded Cassie of a crushed soda can, flimsily accordioned to the tree. It was a miracle to be alive.
She stood up slowly, continuing to take inventory of her surroundings, and recognized that the evil feeling was gone. Whatever dark presence had been following her had disappeared, but Cassie couldn't shake the feeling that this was no accident.
She welled up with tears then. It wasn't a miracle. It was the protection spell that had saved her.
Cassie hated to do it, but she knew she had to. She checked her body and clothes for that awful ancient symbol.
It reminded her of searching for deer ticks after a day out in the woods, except the consequences in this case meant ultimate death. She was relieved not to find one. Cassie may have nearly been killed tonight, but at least she hadn't been marked.
With shaking hands, Cassie pulled out her cell phone to call for help. But out in the middle of nowhere, she couldn't get a signal. Cassie started to panic even more. She was stranded out here, a sitting target.
Cassie never should have gone out alone, without telling anyone where she was going. She was naive to think the hunters wouldn't come after her again the first chance they had. There was no escaping them.
Cassie couldn't stop shaking while she waited in the pouring rain, hoping a kind stranger would drive by. But every sound and shadow made her jump at the alternative, and she grew stiff as a silver car slowed to a stop before her. But then Cassie recognized the face inside. It was Scarlett.
"Oh my goodness, are you all right?" Scarlett jumped out of her car and ran to Cassie, leaving the door open. "Are you hurt?"
"I'm okay," Cassie said, breathing a sigh of relief at a familiar face.
Scarlett hugged her close to her chest, nearly as stupefied by the sight of the crushed car as Cassie was.
"You could have been killed," she said. "And you're soaking wet!"
She dashed to the trunk of her car and retrieved an enormous wool blanket. She wrapped it around Cassie and rubbed her arms until they warmed.
Cassie was too freaked out by the accident to resist.
"You're okay," Scarlett said in a voice as comforting as the thick wool around Cassie's shoulders. "I'll take you home."
The next day at school, everyone was talking about Cassie's recent brush with death. It was like the accident brought her popularity points in a sick and twisted way.
Even Portia Bainbridge made her way through the crowded hallway to catch a look at Cassie at her locker. She turned her thin nose up at Cassie and narrowed her cold hazel eyes. "So glad you didn't mess up that pretty little face of yours when you flew through the windshield," she said.
The thought crossed Cassie's mind: Could Portia have cut the brakes in her car, or was it one of her moose-head brothers?
But Portia had retreated from messing with the Circle after their final blowout last fall. Since then she'd been distracted by a new boyfriend and barely seemed to think about much else. And her brothers, Jordan and Logan, were both at college. Cassie would have heard if they'd been back around the island.
Just then, Sally Waltman stepped to Cassie's side. A head shorter than Portia, Sally still crossed her wiry arms with the fierceness of a taller, stronger person. "She's been through enough, Portia," Sally said. "She doesn't need your harassment on top of it."
Portia scowled. "Don't forget which side you're on, Sally.
You don't want to start being confused for one of them, or you might get hurt."
"Let it go already." Sally forcefully took Portia by the arm and urged her away. "Come on, we're going to be late," she said, and shot Cassie a look of apology over her shoulder.
Sally standing up to Portia meant a lot, considering she'd once been one of the Circle's most hated enemies. If the group's relationship with Sally could come this far, she didn't see why they couldn't be more accepting of other well-meaning Outsiders, like Scarlett. Not all of them were as vile as Portia. Why couldn't the Circle see that?
At lunch, the group gathered at their spot in the woods and grilled Cassie for details. She told them about the bad feeling that came over her just before the accident and how her brakes failed, but some details she kept to herself. She was exhausted, both physically and emotionally, and she couldn't handle what their reaction would be if she told them about Scarlett showing up just after the crash.
"But were there any clues about who the hunters were that did this?" Diana asked.
"No," Cassie said. "None."
"I saw Portia harassing you at your locker this morning," Nick called out. "She's been off our radar too long, I don't trust it."
Diana looked doubtful but said, "It couldn't hurt to consider Portia and her brothers possible suspects."
"And Sally Waltman," Suzan said.
Diana
shook
her
head.
"Sally's
been
pretty
straightforward with us. Of all the Outsiders, I think she'd be the least likely to want to hurt us."
"You guys are getting sidetracked," Deborah said.
"These hunters are strong. Whoever they are, they weren't in town before now, or we would have known it." Melanie agreed. "That ancient symbol didn't come from any of our old schoolmates."
Adam had been pacing back and forth the way he always did when he was nervous. He hadn't calmed down since he learned of the accident. "I still wish you could have called me," he said to Cassie. "How'd you even get home?" Cassie hesitated.
It was a simple question. There was no need for such a long pause, and the entire group picked up on it.