"You made for mostly an easy target," Scarlett continued.
"Until that protection spell made it impossible to kill you in New Salem."
"You were the one who cut my brakes," Cassie said. It had finally all began making sense.
Scarlett ignored the accusation. "But now you're vulnerable," she said. "No protection spell. And without even your precious Circle to save you."
Cassie tried to think of a spell, any spell, to help her out of this situation, but none came to mind. It was like her brain had reset to a blank page. Scarlett had somehow rendered her completely powerless.
"And since you brought the Master Tools right to me, killing you should be easy." Scarlett urged the fireball-
tipped poker a centimeter away from Cassie's face.
She's going to burn me, Cassie thought. She's going to set me on fire.
"Don't waste your energy trying to do a spell," Scarlett said. "Only black magic works in this house." Black magic. That explained it, all of it.
Cassie may have lacked the words to call on the element of Water, but she had to do something. With no other options, she took a swing at the pointer, knowing full well she'd burn her hand doing so, but it worked. She knocked the weapon from Scarlett's grasp across the room. It landed with a thump onto the thick throw rug.
Cassie was mildly proud of herself, but Scarlett didn't seem the least bit rattled that she'd deflected the burning pointer from her grasp.
"Nice work," Scarlett said. "I couldn't have done that better myself." She directed Cassie's attention to the smoke rising up from the rug where the pointer had landed.
Then the smoke gave way to a small, newly born flame.
Scarlett's dark eyes sparkled, reflecting the silver of the diadem and bracelet, and the buckles of the garter. With a single wave of her hand, she fanned the small fire across the entire floor and up all four walls of the cottage, surrounding Cassie in a sweltering tent of heat and flames.
I'm a fool, Cassie thought, a fool for being so trusting.
Cassie cowered at the sight of the fire. There was no escaping a blaze of this size.
"You've gone too far," Cassie cried out. "You'll burn in here with me."
Scarlett stood up and calmly began walking through the flames to gather her things. "Another thing you don't know," she said, yanking her clothes out of the closet and stuffing them into a large duffel bag. "The fire protection spell. It was one of Daddy's favorites."
Smoke filled the room. It caught Cassie in the throat and brought stinging tears to her eyes, but Scarlett remained unbothered by it.
"No!" Cassie screamed, crawling across the floor toward Scarlett, but she could only move a few inches in any direction. The flames were blocking her every exit. Within minutes the fire would consume her. "Please, Scarlett, we're sisters. Please don't do this!"
Scarlett stood still with her bags in hand. Angry flames danced and cracked all around her, and black smoke encircled her body like a sinister tornado. "At least go with a little dignity, Cassie."
She dropped her bags in place and took a few deliberate steps closer. She leaned down slowly, like a serpent, to look Cassie in the eyes. "Did our father scream for mercy when you killed him, Cassie? I bet not." Scarlett had his eyes, Cassie realized. Those pitch-black marbles that were cold as death, just like Black John's. She was more his daughter than Cassie was. How could Cassie have been so fooled by her before?
And then Cassie remembered her mother's words about Black John. He wasn't all bad, she'd said.
"You don't have to do this," Cassie cried, trying to soften Scarlett's cold hard stare with her own. "There's good inside you, even now. You can choose to not be like him."
"I know." Scarlett kicked Cassie away with the heel of her black boot. "But where's the fun in that?"
Chapter 28
The flames roared and crackled with evil intent, as if the fire had a will of its own. Its scorching heat brought Cassie, blistering, to her knees. She was coughing and couldn't catch her breath, soon to completely lose herself to its all- consuming power. Scarlett looked her over one last time.
"Good-bye, Cassie," she said. "It was nice knowing you." Cassie's face burned from the sweltering heat. This must be what hell would feel like, she thought, this never-ending torture by fire. Cut off from her mother, and her friends, and Adam, Cassie was dying alone. And here was Scarlett, the stronger daughter, the wicked sister, and the last living face Cassie would look upon before her death.
But she couldn't give up. She forced herself to her feet and got as close to Scarlett as the flames would allow. The Tools had darkened to a sinister sheen on Scarlett's body.
Black John is in her, Cassie thought.
But he is also in me.
Scarlett seemed to notice a change in Cassie's eyes. It was enough to cause her to back away.
"He is in me," Cassie said, aloud this time, and it powered up some secret recess within her, like an emergency generator that kicks on in a blackout.
Scarlett continued backing away, through the flames, toward the exit. The fire protection spell was still working for her, but she was suddenly afraid.
The power of fire, Cassie thought. The power of fire is in me.
And then something cracked open somewhere deep inside Cassie's chest, that dark space she'd never accessed before. It frightened her, the burst of energy she felt as the word left her lips. "Burn!" she commanded.
And Scarlett did. Midway through the flames on her way to the door, she screamed as brutally as Cassie had heard in her nightmare. No longer was she protected from the fire, no longer could she step safely from the burning house to the cool air outside.
Scarlett jumped back from the door, furiously batting out the flames from her clothes. Then she turned to Cassie. "I thought you were good," she said.
Cassie stood tall, newly energized. "Likewise." Cassie could feel something churning deep within her gut. It rose up her throat like black bile and escaped her mouth as a scream that caused the kitchen faucet to rupture into a geyser. Then the walls shook, and every pipe within them burst, spurting cold water across the room in diagonal torrents. The fire was extinguished within seconds.
Scarlett drew away, shocked by this turn of events, but she had her own commands at her disposal as well as the Master Tools to enhance her power. "Fragilis!" she shouted, thrusting her open palms at Cassie.
It was a Latin spell Cassie didn't understand, but it made her drop to the floor like all the energy had been drained out her drop to the floor like all the energy had been drained out of her. Her body felt heavy, and the room began to spin.