The Feltons didn't look as Cassie had expected they would. They seemed so normal. In Cassie's imagination, the hunters were giant tribal-looking men wearing some sort of traditional garb, like a robe a martial-arts master would wear. But these hunters would have passed for three average adults if not for the ancient relics they wielded like weapons.
"They don't look so tough," Adam said. "Without those stones, they'd have nothing on us."
"But those stones contain power that goes back over six hundred years," Diana whispered. "Isn't that what Laurel said?"
Cassie nodded.
"What are they mumbling?" Adam asked. "Do you think it's the killing spell?"
The hunters chanted in a low hum, repeating an ominous phrase:
I sum eius agens,
I occidere in eius nomen -
I sum eius agens,
I occidere in eius nomen -
Just then, all five of their friends on the center of the roof dropped to their knees. They held their skulls as if they were suffering from terrible migraines.
"It has to be the killing curse," Cassie said. She made a motion to lunge forward and reveal herself, but Diana grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back.
"Wait," she said. "If we show ourselves, we'll be trapped just like the others. The witch-hunter curse we translated must not have worked. Otherwise Faye and the rest of them wouldn't be in this state."
Laurel and Suzan were writhing on the ground at the hunters' feet. Faye was on her knees, screaming out in pain. Nick cringed, holding his head like it was bleeding, and Deborah looked like she had passed out from the torture.
"We have to try something," Cassie said. "We probably only have a few minutes, maybe even seconds."
"A blocking spell," Adam said. "To turn the energy of their curse back on them. With the seven of us, we might have enough power." He closed his eyes and reached for Cassie's hands. "Repeat after me: Hunters, disperse. We reverse your curse."
The group of them linked arms and did as Adam said, though Cassie didn't have much faith that such a generic spell could be strong enough to have an effect on those ancient relics. Still, she concentrated all her energy on the chant. "Hunters, disperse. We reverse your curse."
At first nothing happened, but then the hunters paused. Continuing their low hum, they looked from side to side. The magic had caught their attention, but they continued with the chant.
Then Cassie felt a change. A heated power. Not knowing where it came from, a string of new words sprouted from her mouth. "Venatores dispergam. Nos vertite maledictionem." The words were rasping, guttural sounds that rose from deep in her throat. She immediately recognized the feeling as dark magic, but she allowed it to come. Her whole being trembled with a painful ecstasy.
The hunters were truly startled now. They halted their chanting and searched the shadows for the source of the spell. They waved their relics, but they seemed not to understand what they were feeling. They only knew it wasn't good.
"Venatores dispergam. Nos vertite maledictionem," Cassie said again.
Mr. Boylan scolded the others for breaking their concentration. "Focus!" he shouted. "We're not finished yet."
But within seconds the old man stopped reciting the curse. His face reddened and he clutched his chest. "It's an ancient," he said. "I don't know how, but I'm sure of it."
Jedediah doubled over, and began pounding on his own heart. "Find him," he screamed out to the others.
But Cassie continued uttering her dark words, louder now that she saw how well they were working. Adam and the others stood silently by, their arms still linked.
Louvera made a motion to go to her father's aid, but then she also grabbed her chest as if she were having a heart attack. She gasped for air, unable to speak.
Mr. Boylan was visibly weakening. His spine curved downward, bending his usually rigid posture into a rounded question mark. All the color had drained from his face and his whole body shook with exhaustion.
Jedediah climbed to his hands and knees and began crawling to the hatch door in the roof that led down into the school building.
Louvera cried out with whatever air she had left, "Release them!" She choked and crawled in the same direction as the old man, and slid down the gaping hole in the roof to safety.
But the principal refused to run away. He continued reciting the curse, holding tight to his relic, as he fell to his knees.
Cassie took a few steps forward, directing her words straight for him. He tried to stand back up, but fell down again.
One by one, the Circle members who had fallen began slowly rising to their feet. Faye and Laurel, then Nick and Suzan, and finally Deborah were shaking off the pain that had debilitated them only minutes earlier.
Cassie could feel herself growing stronger as Mr. Boylan became weaker, as if she were sucking out his power and keeping it for her own use. She watched him shrivel before her eyes, panting like a cowardly animal. He clutched his chest and cried out. But Cassie felt no remorse for him whatsoever. She was only disgusted by his frailty. She was sure he would remain there withering to his death, and she would let him.
Then, one last time, he got to his feet. He wobbled and, still unsure where the real opposition was coming from, he honed in on Faye. In a final desperate effort, he cast all his remaining energy at her, shouting the killing curse one last time as loud as he could.
Before Faye knew what was coming, Suzan leapt in front of her, knocking her out of the way and onto the ground.
His power spent, Boylan finally retreated. Defenseless and shambling, he dragged himself away, across the rooftop, and down the same escape route as his fellow hunters.
Cassie continued moving toward him, still uttering the curse.
"Cassie," Adam called out. "That's enough. He's gone."
But Cassie couldn't stop - the words continued coursing through her like a piano that played itself. She didn't want the sensation to end.
Adam grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her furiously. "Snap out of it," he shouted. "The hunters are gone."
Somehow Adam's words reached Cassie through the long tunnel she'd gotten lost in. She snapped to consciousness and looked around hazily.
Chris and Doug came into view, then Sean and Melanie, and even through her clouded vision Cassie could see the hunter symbols glowing on their clothes. Each of them had been marked. Then Cassie turned to Diana and saw that she, too, had the symbol glowing on her sleeve. And so did Adam. Cassie pointed to it, shaking.
"I know," Adam said. "I saw it."