The Secret Circle: The Complete Collection (71 page)

Read The Secret Circle: The Complete Collection Online

Authors: L. J. Smith

Tags: #Young Adult, #Fantasy, #Romance, #Vampires, #Juvenile Fiction, #Teenage Girls, #Horror & Ghost Stories, #Love & Romance, #Witchcraft, #Fiction, #Fantasy & Magic, #Social Issues, #Young Adult Fiction, #love, #Dating & Sex, #Massachusetts

BOOK: The Secret Circle: The Complete Collection
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“O
kay,” Diana said. “We don’t have much time. Who has something to report?”

The Circle was eating lunch in their new spot, a small patch of woods up one of the narrow paths on the edge of school grounds—a green grass hideaway beneath the cover of high birches and leafy apple blossoms. Adam suggested it as their new lunchtime turf for the warm-weather months.
All eyes turned to the Henderson brothers. They’d had a mission this morning: to set off a stink bomb in third-period math. The plan was to be sent to the new principal’s office together, where they could then tag team and look for evidence. The Circle was looking into anyone new in town, but the principal was number one on their list of potential hunters.
“Shouldn’t we wait for Faye?” Deborah asked as she unpacked her lunch.
“Lately all we do is wait for Faye,” Melanie said. “If she’s got better places to be, then we should go on without her.”
“I can hear you,” Faye called out from the top of the path. She made her way down slowly.
“As I was saying.” Diana raised her voice. “Chris, Doug, did you find anything?”
Faye made it down the path just in time to nudge Doug in the ribs with her pointy black boot. “Go ahead, say it. You came up with nothing.”
“We came up with nothing,” Chris said while Doug remained silent. “But not due to lack of trying. Mr. Boylan seems like a pretty straight-up guy.”
“I don’t buy it,” Nick said. “He comes into town, and everything blows up. It’s too much of a coincidence. We should question him, push the investigation further.”
Cassie noticed Nick was looking at her when he said it.
“There’s no need to be reckless,” Diana said.
Nick guffawed. “Yeah there is.”
Nick was immeasurably different from Adam, who was so righteous, always. Even his adventure-seeking was based in devotion; never for a moment was it a form of revolt.
As Cassie watched Adam now, she observed how he scrambled around the group, always the mediator, trying to keep the peace above all else. The unity of the Circle meant more to him than anything.
That was it. That was the thing rolling around in the back of her mind since they’d argued the other night, the thing she couldn’t quite put her finger on. But now that it occurred to her, it rang out with indisputable truth: Nothing came before the Circle to Adam. Not even her.
As if her discreet competition with Diana weren’t enough, Cassie realized she would also be eternally pitted against the Circle as if it were another woman—a woman with greater hold over Adam’s loyalty. How could she have not realized this sooner?
Diana, who’d barely touched her salad, glanced at Adam now, and then cleared her throat. “And has everyone been avoiding Outsiders, like we discussed?”
Cassie threw her peanut butter and jelly down onto her napkin. “You don’t have to be so vague, Diana, everyone knows which Outsiders you mean.”
Melanie and Laurel looked down at their lunches. Cassie’s sudden and uncharacteristic insolence obviously made them uncomfortable. Suzan and Sean glanced at each other with widened eyes, and Deborah’s face tightened. But Nick, Cassie noticed, was grinning, amused by her outburst.
“Catfight,” Faye called out, rubbing her palms together. “Now remember, ladies, no hair pulling.”
But Diana remained poised as always and revealed no defensiveness in her reply. “That rule applies to all Outsiders equally, Cassie. It’s not just about you being friends with Scarlett.”
Cassie felt her cheeks redden and her neck heat up. “You have to believe me,” she said with a shaky voice. “There’s nothing sketchy about Scarlett. Just because she’s an Outsider doesn’t make her against us.”
“It doesn’t?” Faye said sardonically.
“You can’t say that for sure,” Diana insisted. “We barely know anything about Scarlett.”
“Yes, I can.” Cassie was yelling now. “I know what I see when I look at her. And I trust my sight.”
It was a low blow for Cassie to mention her sight—a reminder to Diana that it was Cassie alone who had the gift of psychic visions.
“Look out,” Faye said. “Cassie’s bringing out the big guns.”
“Your sight may be clouded,” Diana said rigidly.
But Cassie shot right back. “Clouded by what?”
“By the fact that you’ve been obsessed with her since the second you met.” Diana snapped at last, losing her cool.
“Aha.” Faye clapped her hands together. “Finally the truth comes out. Diana’s jealous Cassie found a new best friend!”
A round of snickering passed through the group. Suzan and Deborah both nodded approvingly.
“A fault in the flawless marble that is our precious Diana,” Faye said. “I love it.”
“I’m not jealous.” Diana settled her green eyes directly on Cassie.
“Yes, you are,” Cassie said.
Diana was rendered speechless by this final attack, but she refused to take her eyes away from Cassie’s. Cassie wouldn’t look away either. All the frustration and confusion and anger she’d felt over Diana’s rejection of Scarlett and her going to Adam behind her back seemed to be flowing out of her now. And right back at her came Diana’s disappointment and outrage over Cassie’s audacity to defy her and the group. It was a standoff of wills. Was this what they had resorted to? This petty face-off? Nobody moved or said a word, and for a second Cassie thought it could go on forever.
But then, of course, Adam got between them. “Let’s move on,” he said. “We don’t have much time and we still have lots to discuss. Diana, Deborah, tell us what happened when you followed Max.”
At the mention of Max’s name, Faye lashed out, immediately furious. “You did what?”
Diana had a new argument to deal with now, so she reharnessed all of her energy toward Faye. “We haven’t even accused Max of anything yet. No need to overreact.”
“I have every reason to overreact. You went behind my back.”
“He’s an Outsider, and he’s new in town,” Deborah said. “You knew he was on our list.”
“And we followed him straight to your house,” Diana said as calmly as still water.
Shock broke through the surface of the group, cracking them apart into a fissured hysteria. This meeting was turning out to be much more volatile than anyone anticipated.
“He was at your house?” Melanie’s gray eyes flared.
“So that makes two people who’ve been breaking the no-Outsider rule,” Laurel said with a tinge of antagonism in her usually peaceful voice.
Suzan blurted out with her mouth half full of Twinkie, “But Max wanted nothing to do with Faye. He’s been avoiding her for weeks.”
Deborah shook her head, disbelieving, “Well, something changed. He’s into her now. He dropped his whole
I’m too good for everyone
thing and was pawing after Faye like a needy puppy. He even ditched lacrosse practice to be with her. It was almost like he was under a spell . . .”
As soon as Deborah uttered the word
spell
it dawned on her and everyone.
Adam wielded his electric-blue eyes at Faye. “You didn’t,” he said. “Tell me you didn’t.”
But they all knew. That’s what Faye had been up to all this time, making her late to meetings and secretive about plans. Faye did a love spell to get her crush.
“You swore,” Adam said. “We all swore not to practice any magic.”
Faye waved Adam off with her long red nails as if to wipe him away from her sight. “It was nothing. A simple love spell is hardly magic at all.”
Melanie went to Adam’s side. She was angrier than Cassie had ever seen her. “They’ll find us now, you know. The hunters.”
“Relax.” Faye laughed. “They’re not cupid hunters. No one noticed. And no one will.”
“But any slip could mean we’re outed,” Nick said. His hands were balled into fists, and his breathing was heavy. “We can’t afford to make mistakes.”
Faye whipped around and rushed at Nick. “Why don’t you tell that to Cassie?”
“Cassie hasn’t done anything wrong. You have.” Nick squeezed his fists tighter.
“Are you sure?” Faye shoved Nick forcefully in the chest.
“That’s enough,” Diana screamed out. “This discussion is getting us nowhere, and we all have to get back to class. We’ll pick this up later.”
But how?
Cassie thought. How could they possibly pick up all these broken pieces? Everyone gathered their trash slowly and began making their way back to the school building, but Faye stayed put. “Seriously? You’re all leaving? The fun was just getting started.”
Melanie elbow checked her on her way back to the path, but Faye remained unfazed. She called out to Cassie, amused, “I like the new angry version of Melanie so much better than the boring old reasonable one, don’t you?”
Cassie ignored her, stuffing the remaining bread from her sandwich back into its paper bag.
“The new jealous version of Diana isn’t bad, either,” Faye continued. “And the lying version of Cassie, well, that’s not so new.”
It was what Faye wanted, to draw her into a fight, but Cassie couldn’t ignore her any longer. She met Faye eye to eye. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said. “And I don’t care, either.”
Faye reached out and caught Cassie’s chin with her strong fingers. “You
should
care.”
Cassie resisted the urge to pull away. The red stone Faye wore around her throat reflected the sunlight into Cassie’s eyes, burning them, but she held her gaze. “I’m not afraid of you,” she said through Faye’s grip.
“One more of your many stupid mistakes.” Faye squeezed her fingers tighter around Cassie’s chin.
“Hey! Let her go.” It was Nick at the top of the path.
Laughing, Faye released her. “This one can take care of herself, Nicholas. She doesn’t need you saving her. Isn’t that right, Cassie?”
Cassie climbed up the path to Nick’s side as Faye shouted, “You’ll never be Adam, Nicholas. No matter how hard you try.”
Cassie looked down the path at Faye, feeling the fire in her gut rise to her throat. “Faye, you’re pathetic. And deep inside, you’re weak, far weaker than me. Don’t push me to prove it.”
Faye licked her bloodred lips and then slid her tongue seductively across her teeth. “That’s more like it,” she said. “Give me more of that dark side, Cassandra. That’s what I want to see.”

I
t was a good ten-minute walk to the lighthouse, plenty of time for Cassie to work up her heart rate and fill her lungs with cold, fresh air. Some of the tension among the group from earlier had dissipated. Cassie thought Faye was being let off a little too easily after performing the love spell, but she was too relieved to see everyone getting along again to mention it. Besides, Cassie had also been forgiven for hanging out with Scarlett.

It was Diana who suggested the twelve of them walk to the lighthouse together in one large group, but they all wanted to do it. Driving was cool, Cassie thought, but there was nothing like sauntering up the street on a moonlit night in a huge pack of your closest friends. It made her feel invincible, and part of something so much bigger and more important than herself.
It was a full moon, and Laurel brought along a bag of fresh-baked cookies. It was an old family recipe of Laurel’s that required the crushed leaves of an herb called mugwort, which had to be picked and ingested during a full moon. Laurel claimed the cookies improved divination, clairvoyance, and psychic powers, but Cassie and the others stuffed their mouths full of them as they walked because they were delicious. All those other things were just bonuses.
Adam felt for Cassie’s hand, and when he found it, she didn’t pull away. Cassie had been on edge lately for sure, but for the moment everything felt fine and her connection to Adam was strong. His fingers wrapped around hers reassured her that in spite of all they had to fear, she wasn’t in this alone, and together they could overcome anything.
The night was invigorating. The trees overhead smelled of sweet flowers, and the ground beneath Cassie’s shoes was moist with dew. A rare carelessness came over them as they walked. Not just Cassie and Adam but the whole group. They hollered up the street, goofing on one another and banging on garbage cans. Chris challenged Doug to race him the rest of the way, and they all started running in order to judge the winner. They stopped short when they saw it and collectively gasped.
It seemed impossible. The lighthouse had been burned to the ground. In its place was a pile of soot and ash.
Irrationally, Cassie thought they must’ve arrived at the wrong location. How could a structure so sturdy and steadfast, so permanent in its vigilance, have melted down to this? But the anger in Adam’s eyes forced Cassie to accept the harder truth. Not only was the lighthouse gone, but someone had destroyed it on purpose.
Melanie spoke first. “That was a historical landmark,” she said. “It’s been there for, like, three hundred years.”
“That’s what you’re thinking about right now?” Nick said. “How about how the hunters knew exactly where to find us?”
Diana placed her hand gently on Nick’s shoulder. “Hold on, we shouldn’t jump to conclusions. We don’t know for sure it was the hunters.”
Nick shrugged off Diana’s hand. “This was a message, loud and clear. How much clearer would you like them to be?”
Diana turned to Melanie and Laurel. “You two were the last ones here, weren’t you? Are you sure you didn’t accidentally leave any candles burning?”
Melanie’s eyes widened. “Are you accusing
us
of burning down the lighthouse?”
“I’m not accusing,” Diana said. “Just asking.”
Cassie couldn’t stand to listen to any more arguing. She made her way over the grass, toward the edge of where the entrance to the cottage once stood.
Cassie heard Adam come to Diana’s defense against Melanie and Laurel. “It would be better for all of us if you had been the ones to burn it down,” he said. “Then at least we’d know for sure it was an accident and not an act of—”
“It wasn’t an accident,” Cassie called out to them. Her voice echoed over the space between them like an ocean wave. Right where the entrance to the light keeper’s cottage once stood was a symbol burnt in ash on the ground. It was the same symbol that appeared on Constance’s forehead.
Adam was the first to reach her. “The hunter symbol,” he said, just in time for the others to fall in line behind him. They saw it now, too. They couldn’t not see it.
“The coven has been marked,” Cassie said.
“Faye, this is all your fault,” Nick shouted out. “Because you had to do magic.”
For once Adam agreed with Nick. “They tracked your love spell.”
“I told you,” Melanie said. “I told you this would happen.”
“That’s enough!” Faye’s eyes flamed with rage. “What makes you all so sure it was my fault?”
She pointed her longest red fingernail at Diana. “You’re always so careful not to jump to conclusions. Stop for a moment, call off the dogs, and think of who could have actually done this.”
Then Faye twisted her neck around to glare at Cassie while keeping her shoulders squared to Diana. “I think Scarlett would be a reasonable suspect,” she said. “Especially since Cassie brought her here just the other day.”
Cassie remained silent.
“I saw you,” Faye said.
“Don’t try to turn this on me,” Cassie said, but that was all she could say. She couldn’t deny it.
Adam and Diana stared at Cassie with identical expressions of disbelief.
“Is that true?” Adam asked. “You brought Scarlett to the lighthouse?
Cassie looked down at the horrible symbol burned into the ground, with its serpentine
W
and satanic-looking hexagon. This wasn’t the work of Scarlett. She was sure of that.
“Cassie, how could you?” Diana couldn’t contain her exasperation.
Cassie looked pleadingly into Diana’s infuriated eyes. “She was with me when I dropped off some herbs for Melanie and Laurel,” Cassie said. “But I didn’t let her inside and I didn’t tell her anything. I swear to you, she had nothing to do with this.”
“You weren’t supposed to be seeing Scarlett at all,” Melanie said. “And you brought her to our sacred space.”
Faye was thoroughly enjoying the bloodbath she started. How easy it had been to divert the attention away from her forbidden love spell. Faye addressed the group. “What Cassie has done is unforgivable,” she said malevolently. “She betrayed us.”
“You betrayed us, too, Faye,” Cassie said. “And how would you even know I brought Scarlett to the lighthouse unless you were spying on me?”
“That’s not really the point,” Diana interjected. “I agree with Faye on this. Bringing Scarlett to the lighthouse was a betrayal. And we need to unify now more than ever. No Outsiders can be trusted, no matter what.”
Cassie lost the little bit of control she’d had left. “So let me get this straight,” she said. “Your idea of unification is siding with Faye?”
Adam replied on Diana’s behalf. “It’s for your own safety, Cassie. Scarlett isn’t one of us. And under no circumstances did she belong anywhere near our meeting place.”
“Maybe it’s me who isn’t one of you,” Cassie blurted out before she could stop herself.
That was the last straw for Diana. She screamed then like Cassie had never imagined she could. “Of course you’re one of us, Cassie. You’re more crucial to this Circle than any of us. Don’t you think we all realize that?”
Then Diana turned to Faye. “And you’re not off the hook either. Cassie’s right that you also betrayed the group. Max is off limits, and so is your magic.”
“Or else what?” Faye said.
Diana didn’t even blink. “Or else you forfeit your privileges as a leader of this Circle.”
A few seconds passed before Adam broke the deathly silence. “The coven has been marked,” he said. “But do the hunters know who we are, individually?”
“Good question,” Melanie said. “But either way, we have to figure out a way to fight them.”
“That’s right,” Diana said. Her voice regained its angelic timbre. “And I wanted to share something very important with you all tonight. Before all these surprises.”
She looked at Cassie and then at Faye, scolding them each individually with her eyes. Then she dug through her bag and pulled out her Book of Shadows.
“I found a spell,” she said. “A spell to destroy witch hunters.”
“What?” Adam asked, sounding outraged Diana had kept this discovery from him. “Why didn’t you say anything sooner?”
“I wasn’t sure if it was what I thought it was,” Diana said in her defense. “The text was mostly in Latin and needed to be translated. But now I’m sure. That’s why I wanted to meet tonight, to tell you all at once.”
“Let’s perform the spell right now,” Melanie said, sounding hopeful for the first time in days.
Diana shook her head. “First we have to know for sure who the hunters are.”
Nick shot a look to Chris and Doug. “Let’s do it on the principal. We’re sure enough.”
“No.” Diana’s green eyes flared. “The spell will only work on a real hunter. If we try it on someone who isn’t one of them, we’ll only be exposing ourselves as witches. Not to mention hurting someone innocent.”
“Wow, that’s big news,” Faye said. “We have a spell we can’t use.”
“We will use it.” Adam gave one last look at the symbol burnt on the ground. “When they strike again. At this point, I think we can count on that happening.”
“But what happens then?” Melanie asked. “If we do this spell. Will the hunters die?”
Diana hesitated. “It’s a little unclear. The translation left a lot to interpretation, but it seems like the effect of the spell depends on the hunter.”
“So they might die,” Melanie said.
“Let me have a look at this.” Faye grabbed Diana’s Book of Shadows from her hands and scanned the page. As her eyes moved back and forth across the ancient script, she appeared to be drawing in her breath and backing away from the words in disbelief.
“This isn’t a spell,” Faye said. “It’s a curse.”
Diana stared at the ground. “Yes,” she said. “Technically it is a curse.”
Faye was suddenly roiling with excitement. “It’s similar to a deflection spell by turning the hunter’s power back on them, but it calls on Hecate. This could be . . .” She couldn’t find the right word.
“Dangerous,” Diana said. “We’ll only use it as a last resort.”

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