"Who are they?"
Scarlett smiled. "Our ancestors. These are the people who passed down Black John's Book of Shadows."
Cassie looked around at her friends, the truth registering slowly: speaking in tongues, convulsions, changes in vocal intonation and facial expression, superhuman strength.
"The Circle is possessed," she said.
Scarlett rolled her eyes. "Well, duh. These spirits have been waiting to manifest for hundreds of years, to get their power back. And we gave it to them."
Adam stepped forward. His hands were no longer balled into fists and he'd stopped sweating, but his eyes remained dead and black. His body must have been fighting the possession before, but it had now been fully overcome.
He nodded confidently at Cassie and then bowed before Scarlett. "In shackles no more," he said. "To you I am indebted." He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it.
"Oh yeah," Scarlett said, grinning. "And I'm their leader."
"You're not my leader," Faye called out. She blinked her eyes and looked around, surveying the situation. She appeared a little dazed, but her eyes had returned to their normal color.
Cassie exhaled with relief. "Faye, thank goodness you're all right."
Faye tossed back her mane of black hair and tilted her head. Just as quickly as Faye had seemed normal, her eyes went dark as night. Cassie started backing away in fear. Scratches and bite marks were reddening upon Faye's hands and arms, and eel-like lesions were forming on her neck and face.
"I'm on your side, Cassie," Faye said, moving closer still. "And I want you to be on my side."
"Cassandra holds the book. She is ours," a bold voice behind Cassie said. It was Adam. His features were now firm and serious.
Diana curled her fingers and twitched. "Cassandra shall not be against us; her blood is required."
Cassie continued her backward retreat from the group and realized Scarlett had disappeared. She caught sight of her just as she was about to flee through the mouth of the cave.
"So this was your plan all along?" Cassie ran after Scarlett, shouting. "To poison us this way just so you could have a black magic Circle?"
Scarlett whipped around and put her hands on her hips. "What was it you asked me back at the Mission House? 'Who's Daddy's favorite?' Now you have your answer."
"But none of us have to be this way."
Scarlett continued toward the water and showed no sign of slowing down or even listening.
"Bring us the book, dear one," Adam called out.
"I was falsely accused, but the book shall set us free," Melanie's deep voice repeated.
Of course. Scarlett was going home to get their father's Book of Shadows. But there was no way Cassie was going to let that happen. The dark energy was still coursing through her as well - the remnants of the evil spell remained in her veins. She reached for it mentally, through her own blood and bones. She raised her hands and harnessed every trace of its power toward Scarlett and shouted out, "Non fugam!"
Scarlett was instantly thrown backward, as if she'd run up against a pane of glass.
From the ground, she turned to Cassie, stunned. "You didn't."
"Congelasco," Cassie said, freezing Scarlett in place.
Then without hesitation, Cassie lifted her hands to the sky. "Spelunca est a carcere!"
Now no one but Cassie was free to leave the cave. Squeals came from the entire Circle as they scrambled in vain to follow her.
"She doth betray us!" Diana shouted.
"Cassandra," Adam nobly called to her. "You're making a terrible mistake."
But before any of them had the chance to try to stop her, Cassie ran for the water's edge. She climbed into one of the boats and set the oars with a splash. She rowed hard, still facing the mouth of the cave. The sun was setting in vivid pinks and purples, outlining the cave's arching shape in a brilliant silhouette. Under any other circumstances, Cassie would have considered the sight of it beautiful.
Chapter 31
Cassie arrived back at her house in a cold sweat. Her clothes had been splashed wet from her furious rowing; she'd wanted to get as far away from the caves as fast as she could. Now she was safe in her bedroom, but she was alone - she'd never been so alone in her entire life. Her friends and her one true love were lost to her. Her mother was out, but even if she were home, how could Cassie explain this terrible series of events, especially when it began with her disobeying her mother's warning? This was all her fault. And only she could fix it. It was just Cassie, now, and her book.
She turned to where it was resting on her desk among loose pens and paper clips, misleadingly tranquil. Because it was only posing as a book. It wasn't just a bunch of pages sewn together within a cover - it was an entity, alive as she was. Cassie understood that now. She took the book into her hands and sat with it on the edge of her bed, holding it in her lap.
She remembered the last time she had sat like this, in this same position, when her mother first presented her with it. Cassie had made so many mistakes since then.
Cassie ran her fingers over the book's aged, leather binding. When her mother first offered it to her she'd told Cassie that in the wrong hands, it could be extremely dangerous. But what she hadn't known then was that even in the right hands it was extremely dangerous. Her mother had assured her that she was strong enough to handle it, but she wasn't. Cassie wasn't nearly strong enough then.
She was now.
Cassie traced the embossment of the book's cover symbol with the tip of her pointer finger. She dug her fingernails into the indentations already scratched into its surface. The book still felt cruel in her hands, but this time would be different. This time she knew exactly what she was in for, and she would do it right.
She took a deep breath and cracked the book open again, as if for the first time.
Her eyes immediately melded to the page, to the words scrawled upon the paper's yellowed surface. At first they appeared much the same as before, but then the text began to slowly wilt and lose its color. The squiggly lines and archaic symbols seemed to lighten and float up from the page. They reshaped and rearranged themselves into new forms, and the curl of each brushstroke straightened along a level plane of letters Cassie recognized. Suddenly she could decipher the book's language and translate it at once to simple English.
Specific words jumped out at her: spiritus immundus, evil spirit; daimonion, demon.
Nytramancia, the black art.
Some of the words formed into what Cassie understood were titles of other books. Das puch aller verpoten kunst, ungelaubens und der zaubrey. The Book of All Forbidden Arts, Heresy and Sorcery. De Exorcismis et Supplicationibus Quibusdam. Of Exorcisms and Certain Supplications.