Faye's honey-colored eyes blazed. "No way. I won't agree to having a babysitter. I'd rather die."
"You just might die if you don't agree to this," Melanie said. "It's the only way we can be sure you and Laurel remain safe."
Laurel looked up from her untouched lunch. She didn't appear any more eager than Faye to accept this new rule. "But Cassie, you said before that you've been talking to your mom about your father, and that you're learning ancient things that could help us."
Cassie felt herself tense up. She could sense Adam's cavernous eyes watching her, and she swore she could actually hear Diana's jaw unhinge before any words escaped her mouth.
"What ancient things?" Diana asked, with a hint of suspicion in her voice.
The entire cafeteria seemed to fall silent and Cassie shifted uncomfortably. "I was just telling Laurel that my father once saved someone who was marked. I'm trying to learn more about how he did it."
Diana furrowed her brow at Cassie's discomfort. She was unwilling to let the matter drop. "Do you think he used something similar to the witch-hunter curse we memorized from my Book of Shadows?"
"Probably something like that," Cassie said, trying to sound nonchalant and upbeat.
"Why don't we just use the witch-hunter curse from Diana's book now? We know Max and his dad are hunters," Suzan said. "I don't understand what we're waiting for."
"I second that," Nick said.
Diana released a frustrated breath. They'd been over this before. "Because this is our chance to use the hunters' ignorance for more information. We still have surprise on our side. They don't know we know who they are. And we also don't know for sure how that curse works, or what it'll do. It's a very rough translation, so it's our absolute last resort. If we try it and it doesn't work, then we'll all be marked in a matter of seconds."
"In other words," Faye said, "we have no clue if those words we memorized are a witch-hunter curse or a fairy tale."
Diana was quiet for a few seconds. She chewed on her lip nervously.
"We can't rely on that mediocre, pieced-together translation from Diana's book," Adam said. "No offense to you, Diana, but whatever curse Black John used, that's the one we want when we go up against the hunters."
Diana nodded and looked down at her hands. Adam turned to Cassie. She could tell he was struggling to restrain himself from telling the group about Black John's book, but she also knew he'd never betray her trust, no matter how difficult it was for him.
"What about the protection spell?" Laurel asked. "Shouldn't that keep me and Faye safe enough so we can at least continue leading normal lives?"
"It seems to be intact." Diana raised her head, hesitantly. "But we don't know how long it'll last. That spell is kind of a one-shot deal, and once it wears off, that's it."
"And," Melanie said, "even if it does last, we can't be sure it's strong enough against the hunter's killing curse. It probably isn't."
Faye stared off into space, for once too upset to argue.
Cassie momentarily considered her own situation. If the protection spell wore off, she'd really be powerless against Scarlett. As it was, she was jumping at every shadow and freezing up at the sight of every redhead who walked by.
"How are you going to do it?" Faye called out to Cassie, like she'd just snapped out of a daydream. "How do you plan to figure out the curse Black John used?"
Cassie glanced at Adam, but his expression kept her secret safely hidden.
"I'm trying to learn what I can from my mother," Cassie said. "She's blocked out a lot of the past, but when I get her talking sometimes things come to light."
It was a good answer for being put on the spot, and even true. But Cassie knew it would take more to save her friends and defeat the hunters than simply getting her mother to talk about the past. She had to get her father's book back.
Chapter 4
Cassie's mother appeared at the top of the stairs the moment Cassie stepped through the door. "Good, it's you," she said. "I'm glad you're home."
"Were you expecting somebody else?"
"No need for sarcasm." Her mother descended the stairs. "I've been concerned about you since last night. Since the incident."
"Incident," Cassie said, as she dropped her bag on the kitchen table. "That's one way of putting it."
Her mother followed her into the kitchen. "Lift up your sleeves. Let me see your hands."
"They don't even hurt anymore," Cassie said, lying. She pulled her sleeves back to reveal the aching burns. "They'll probably be gone in a few days."
But her mother persisted and carefully examined the marks. "I prepared an ointment for you from some herbs in the garden. It's cooling in the fridge."
Cassie sighed at her mother's safeguarding, but the truth was, she was grateful. She'd felt strange since she'd woken up that morning, and her burns had been throbbing all day.
Her mother fetched the stone mortar and pestle full of ointment from the fridge and took a seat at the kitchen table across from Cassie.
The ointment was pea green and smelled like skunk. Her mother mixed it with her fingers and reached for Cassie's hand. "The way that book heated up on you - I've never seen anything like it," she said. "I can't stop thinking about it."
She focused on applying the medicine gently and evenly. "I want you to be honest with me and tell me if you feel any other effects from what happened."
"Effects like wincing every time I opened one of my schoolbooks today?"
Her mother frowned. "This is serious, Cassie. I don't want you going near it again, at least not until we figure out how to disable the guarding spell. It's too dangerous."
Getting the book back from her mother was going to be more of a challenge than Cassie had anticipated. "But how else are we supposed to learn how to break the spell?" she asked. "It's not like there's anyone around here to ask."
Her mother was quiet for a few seconds. "Times like these, I wish your grandmother were still here. She knew a lot more about these things than I do."
Cassie had been thinking the same thing but hadn't had the heart to say it aloud. When her grandmother died, she took all her years of knowledge and wisdom with her. She was irreplaceable.
"At least I have you," Cassie said, and she meant it. She and her mother had come a long way over the past few months, and Cassie believed she could tell her almost anything.