Louvera, his daughter, lifted up her stone relic like a shield and waved it back and forth in an attempt to protect herself. But her hands shook so furiously she could barely hold on to it. It slipped from her grip and hit the ground with a thud. She crawled around on all fours, urgently trying to recover it.
The spell was working without a flaw. Cassie noticed that the hunter mark on her chest had begun to fade. With every second, the symbol grew dimmer, weaker, as if losing its charge. It couldn't be long now before the relics were drained of all their power and their marks were erased for good. Then the Circle would be safe, and the hunters would never be a threat to them again.
A strange calm and optimism came over Cassie. Her mind drifted to a kinder place, where she imagined a future for herself and her friends free from this heavy ancient rivalry. They were so close now to turning their world into one where Diana and Max would be allowed to love each other and none of them would have to hide in secret rooms or caves. Hunter and witch alike, they would all be released.
Then Jedediah fell backward from his knees, flat onto his back. His ice-blue eyes were open and unblinking, but they were sapped of all emotion, all feeling. Cassie remembered that same cold look in others she had once known and loved - her grandmother, Melanie's aunt Constance, and Suzan. She knew the look well, and she immediately understood that it wasn't just the old man's powers that had been taken away - it was his life.
Louvera tried desperately to crawl to him, but she couldn't make it. A moment later, she went limp with the same lifeless cold hardened to her eyes.
"No!" Max rushed in from just outside the cave's entrance. "You're killing them!" he screamed.
But Cassie couldn't stop. None of them could. The spell had been unleashed and it was working through the Circle now. The words came from their own lips, but they were merely spectators to their effect.
"You have to stop!" Max shouted directly into Diana's face, but she made no reaction. It was as if her eyes couldn't even see him.
Passive as empty vessels, the Circle brought the other two hunters down to the ground, dead. Max just stood there, horrified. He could do nothing as his fellow hunters fell like dominoes all around him. Without his relic, he was both immune to the curse and powerless in trying to stop it.
He ran to his father, wrapped his arms around him, and tried to lift him up. "Let's get you out of here," he said.
His father appeared unsure if it was really his son who'd come to his aid, or if it was just a mirage. Either way, he was too feeble to be moved.
Max started to cry. "Dad, I'm so sorry," he said. "Forgive me, please."
Mr. Boylan made no response. He could only gaze up at his boy, bewildered and terrified.
"I love you," Max said. "Can you hear me, Dad? I love you."
But his father's eyes had turned to stone. His breath had ceased. It was only his lifeless body lying in Max's arms.
The spell ended itself at the moment of his death. Everyone in the Circle suddenly woke up, as if from a dream, and looked at one another, stunned. There was a slight edge of relief in the air. They'd won; they understood that much. But had they just ... killed?
Cassie glanced at Adam. He looked pale and sick, like he might faint.
Diana seemed a little dazed, too, unable to figure out what had just occurred.
Cassie spoke up for her. "Max," she said. "We had no idea that was going to happen. The spell was only supposed to disable the relics. We would have never performed it if we knew the hunters would lose their lives. That's not how our Circle does things."
"You just killed my father," Max said. "He's dead! Do you understand that?" He passed his eyes despicably over each member of the Circle. "I trusted you," he said. "And you betrayed me." He set his father's body gently down and stepped back with tears streaming down his face.
He glared at Diana. "Don't follow me," he said, and the way he said it sounded like a brutal threat. Then he ran from the cave and quickly disappeared from their sight.
Diana appeared stunned, but Cassie could feel her best friend's heartbreak as her own. The guilt and remorse she must have been suffering was unimaginable, enough to put her into a state of shock.
Cassie stepped slowly toward her. She placed her hand upon Diana's shoulder, hoping to offer her some comfort. But Diana focused sharply on Cassie in a way that brought her to a frightened halt. Diana's eyes were black as marbles.
"He may flee thither," she said. "But he shall be slain before his enemies." Her voice was gravelly and harsh, nothing like its regular tone.
Cassie was too alarmed to move a muscle. "Diana?" she asked. "Are you - "
"Let us rejoice in our victory." Diana turned grandly to Scarlett. "Thine, O leader," she said, bowing to Scarlett, "is the greatest power. And thou art exalted as head above all."
Scarlett nodded and Cassie noticed the corners of her mouth raise up ever so slightly. "I told you I'd get my Circle," she said.
Chapter 30
Cassie looked around in confusion. Something strange was happening to all the members of the Circle.
Adam was sneering oddly. His hands were balled into fists and he was grinding his teeth. There was sweat dripping from his forehead down the front of his face, but he seemed not to notice. He also stared at Cassie with narrowed blackened eyes.
A shiver ran down Cassie's spine. "Scarlett," she said. "Tell me what you've done to them."
"I didn't do anything." Scarlett smirked. "They did it to themselves, casting that spell against the hunters. Any spell cast from our family's book by a nonfamily member calls on our bloodline. It gave the perfect portal into our world for a few unsettled spirits."
Cassie looked around at her friends, now all strangers to her. Sean was mumbling in an incoherent language while Chris laughed like a lunatic and Doug convulsed in a fit on the ground. Melanie's and Laurel's faces had altered. They looked nothing like themselves, and they chattered in voices that weren't their own - Melanie's was deep and husky while Laurel's was high-pitched and playful like a child's.
"I am falsely accused," Melanie declared, while rocking forward and back.
Laurel laughed and clapped, and replied in a piercing singsong, "But you will be condemned to hang."
"Meet the family," Scarlett said.
Cassie wavered. "I don't understand."
"Some of them are still working their way through." Scarlett gestured toward Chris, Doug, and Sean. "But they'll be up and talking like the others soon."