The Secret Circle: The Complete Collection (72 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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T
he rain was only a drizzle, and although it was nighttime, people were out and about. Scarlett had invited Cassie out tonight. Of course Cassie declined, but she wished she didn’t have to. That’s just what Cassie needed to clear her head—she needed to see other people, non-witches. She decided to drive into town. Even if she couldn’t join the crowds of people going about their normal lives, she could at least watch them from inside her Volkswagen.

But she’d barely made it to Bridge Street when the light rain amplified to a hammering downpour. Everyone out on the streets scrambled for shelter inside restaurants and stores; some hovered within doorways and beneath overpasses. Cassie was dry and safe inside her car, and she felt like she was inside a snow dome that someone had shaken up, submerged by the shuddering rain on all sides but also untouched by it.
And then she suddenly felt stripped of that safety. Her heart started to pound in her chest, and she began to sweat. She felt like she was being followed, but she didn’t see any cars behind her. She kept checking the rearview mirror, and all she saw was the wet darkness in her own back window. Still, she decided to take a detour, in hopes of shaking the feeling.
With a sharp turn of the steering wheel, she veered onto Dodge Street, a secluded road that would lead her back to the turnpike. Cassie had to slow down to maneuver its many meandering curves, but when she stepped on the brake pedal, her foot emptily dropped to the floor.
She tried again and again, but there was no use. Her brakes weren’t working.
The car suddenly felt to her like it was speeding up, an angry vessel set on racing her to her death. She couldn’t stop it, and letting up on the gas pedal was only doing so much. Panicked, she gripped the steering wheel and tried to bear off to the side of the road, where maybe the grass would slow the car enough so she could jump out to safety.
But the grass did nothing to reduce the acceleration. Cassie’s only chance was to jump out while the car continued full speed ahead. Panicked, she clutched the door handle and pushed the door open. But before she had the chance to leap to the ground, the car smashed right into a giant, thick-barked oak tree.
She blacked out for a moment, maybe longer. When she opened her eyes, she saw she’d been thrown from the car, through the windshield. She checked her arms and legs to see if she could move them and searched her face for blood. Unbelievably, she was all right.
But her car was totaled. Looking at it through the dark rain, it reminded Cassie of a crushed soda can, flimsily accordioned to the tree. It was a miracle to be alive.
She stood up slowly, continuing to take inventory of her surroundings, and recognized that the evil feeling was gone. Whatever dark presence had been following her had disappeared, but Cassie couldn’t shake the feeling that this was no accident.
She welled up with tears then. It wasn’t a miracle. It was the protection spell that had saved her.
Cassie hated to do it, but she knew she had to. She checked her body and clothes for that awful ancient symbol. It reminded her of searching for deer ticks after a day out in the woods, except the consequences in this case meant ultimate death. She was relieved not to find one. Cassie may have nearly been killed tonight, but at least she hadn’t been marked.
With shaking hands, Cassie pulled out her cell phone to call for help. But out in the middle of nowhere, she couldn’t get a signal. Cassie started to panic even more. She was stranded out here, a sitting target.
Cassie never should have gone out alone, without telling anyone where she was going. She was naïve to think the hunters wouldn’t come after her again the first chance they had. There was no escaping them.
Cassie couldn’t stop shaking while she waited in the pouring rain, hoping a kind stranger would drive by. But every sound and shadow made her jump at the alternative, and she grew stiff as a silver car slowed to a stop before her. But then Cassie recognized the face inside. It was Scarlett.
“Oh my goodness, are you all right?” Scarlett jumped out of her car and ran to Cassie, leaving the door open. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m okay,” Cassie said, breathing a sigh of relief at a familiar face.
Scarlett hugged her close to her chest, nearly as stupefied by the sight of the crushed car as Cassie was. “You could have been killed,” she said. “And you’re soaking wet!”
She dashed to the trunk of her car and retrieved an enormous wool blanket. She wrapped it around Cassie and rubbed her arms until they warmed.
Cassie was too freaked out by the accident to resist.
“You’re okay,” Scarlett said in a voice as comforting as the thick wool around Cassie’s shoulders. “I’ll take you home.”
The next day at school, everyone was talking about Cassie’s recent brush with death. It was like the accident brought her popularity points in a sick and twisted way. Even Portia Bainbridge made her way through the crowded hallway to catch a look at Cassie at her locker. She turned her thin nose up at Cassie and narrowed her cold hazel eyes. “So glad you didn’t mess up that pretty little face of yours when you flew through the windshield,” she said.
The thought crossed Cassie’s mind: Could Portia have cut the brakes in her car, or was it one of her moose-head brothers?
But Portia had retreated from messing with the Circle after their final blowout last fall. Since then she’d been distracted by a new boyfriend and barely seemed to think about much else. And her brothers, Jordan and Logan, were both at college. Cassie would have heard if they’d been back around the island.
Just then, Sally Waltman stepped to Cassie’s side. A head shorter than Portia, Sally still crossed her wiry arms with the fierceness of a taller, stronger person. “She’s been through enough, Portia,” Sally said. “She doesn’t need your harassment on top of it.”
Portia scowled. “Don’t forget which side you’re on, Sally. You don’t want to start being confused for one of them, or you might get hurt.”
“Let it go already.” Sally forcefully took Portia by the arm and urged her away. “Come on, we’re going to be late,” she said, and shot Cassie a look of apology over her shoulder.
Sally standing up to Portia meant a lot, considering she’d once been one of the Circle’s most hated enemies. If the group’s relationship with Sally could come this far, she didn’t see why they couldn’t be more accepting of other well-meaning Outsiders, like Scarlett. Not all of them were as vile as Portia. Why couldn’t the Circle see that?

At lunch, the group gathered at their spot in the woods and grilled Cassie for details. She told them about the bad feeling that came over her just before the accident and how her brakes failed, but some details she kept to herself. She was exhausted, both physically and emotionally, and she couldn’t handle what their reaction would be if she told them about Scarlett showing up just after the crash.

“But were there any clues about who the hunters were that did this?” Diana asked.
“No,” Cassie said. “None.”
“I saw Portia harassing you at your locker this morning,” Nick called out. “She’s been off our radar too long, I don’t trust it.”
Diana looked doubtful but said, “It couldn’t hurt to consider Portia and her brothers possible suspects.”
“And Sally Waltman,” Suzan said.
Diana shook her head. “Sally’s been pretty straightforward with us. Of all the Outsiders, I think she’d be the least likely to want to hurt us.”
“You guys are getting sidetracked,” Deborah said. “These hunters are strong. Whoever they are, they weren’t in town before now, or we would have known it.”
Melanie agreed. “That ancient symbol didn’t come from any of our old schoolmates.”
Adam had been pacing back and forth the way he always did when he was nervous. He hadn’t calmed down since he learned of the accident. “I still wish you could have called me,” he said to Cassie. “How’d you even get home?”
Cassie hesitated.
It was a simple question. There was no need for such a long pause, and the entire group picked up on it.
Adam stiffened and turned accusingly to Nick. “Did she call you? Were you the one to drive her home?”
Nick appeared blindsided by Adam’s accusation, but he quickly mirrored Adam’s aggressive posture with his own. “No, she didn’t. But I wish she had,” he said.
“Stop it, both of you.” Cassie didn’t have a choice. She had to tell them the truth.
“I didn’t call anyone to come pick me up.” She paused, not wanting to go on. Cassie looked down at her shoes.
Run
, she thought. Just run away from this awful moment. But there was nowhere to run to, and she knew it. Almost inaudibly she said, “Scarlett happened to drive by while I was stranded. She drove me home.”
Adam shook his head, sidestepping Nick, who’d also dropped his bravado. Diana reached for a nearby tree to steady herself. They were speechless, but Faye had the words right at hand to announce what the whole group was thinking.
“Oh, yeah,” she said. “Scarlett just happened to drive by, finding you in the middle of nowhere. What a lucky coincidence!”
Cassie wasn’t having it. The last person she owed an explanation to was Faye. She stepped to her, boldly. “Why would she have helped me if she’d been the one trying to hurt me?”
“You’re being stupid,” Deborah said, not holding back an ounce of disgust. “It can’t be a coincidence.”
“She’s not being stupid,” Diana said. “Cassie’s just blinded. She wants to see the best in Scarlett.”
“Exactly. Which is just plain stupid,” Deborah insisted.
“No,” Cassie said. “Scarlett is innocent, I swear.”
Diana frowned at her sympathetically. “I’m sorry, Cassie. But it’s too suspicious that Scarlett would just happen to know where you were last night after the accident. This appears to be the proof we’ve been looking for all along.”
“It’s the principal,” Cassie shouted. “I can feel it in my bones.”
Adam responded to Cassie softly, guardedly. “We haven’t been able to dig up a single suspicious thing on the new principal. He’s clean, Cassie.”
Even Adam wasn’t willing to side with Cassie this time. She could plead with him, with all of them, all afternoon, but it was useless—they’d already made up their minds to not believe her. Cassie turned to Nick, desperately, thinking if anyone might back her up, it would be him. But Nick was stone-faced, unwilling to rebel against the status quo on this.
Faye rose up and positioned herself in the middle of their huddle. “I say we go down to the docks after school and have a word with Scarlett.”
“We should do the witch-hunter curse on her,” Deborah yelled out.
Diana went to Faye’s side, crossed her arms over her chest, and nodded. “I agree,” she said. “Who’s with us?”
An assemblage of hands went up.
“But we should have a full Circle to do it. Otherwise we might not be strong enough.” Diana beheld Cassie in her gaze. “So are we a complete Circle or not?”
Cassie turned to Adam. His eyes were filled with longing and love, urging her to trust them, to trust him. And she wanted to trust Adam, she really did.
“Cassie,” Nick said. “If Scarlett’s not a hunter, the spell won’t work on her. This could be your chance to prove yourself right.” He smiled gently, giving a nod toward Diana and Adam. “And prove them wrong.”
“That’s true,” Melanie said to Diana. “If we perform the curse on Scarlett and she’s not a hunter, then she’ll know what we are.”
“I know that,” Diana said with confidence.
Cassie raised her eyes to Diana’s. “You’re that sure,” she said, “that you’d be willing to expose the Circle to a harmless, good-intentioned Outsider.”
“I’m that sure.” Diana stared back at Cassie without anger or hatred, but with utter conviction.
“Then I’m with you,” Cassie said in a hushed tone, almost to herself. “We’ll go to the docks after school today.”

T
he group cruised along the picturesque coastline of the New Salem waterfront until they reached the docks where Scarlett worked. On the way, Diana had taken Cassie aside and thanked her for coming with them. She said she felt bad about going against Cassie’s wishes, but insisted it was for the safety of the group as a whole.

Cassie forced herself to sound agreeable and said she understood. What use was it bumping heads with Diana now? And besides, like Nick said, this encounter might prove once and for all that Scarlett was just a regular girl with no intentions of harming the Circle. Then Cassie would be free to be her friend.
Overhearing Cassie and Diana’s apparent truce, Adam took Cassie’s hand in his. He was still holding it now as Diana addressed the group.
“Are we all clear on the plan?” Diana asked. Her blonde hair shimmered in the sun, and she had the self-possession of a commander in chief.
Deborah’s eyes gleamed with the desire for combat. “We draw her out, we circle her, and then we cast the witch-hunter curse.”
“No,” Adam corrected Deborah. “We circle her, and we get all the facts.”
“That’s right,” Diana said. “We should try to get as much information out of her before we cast the curse.” She paused. “Especially since we’re not entirely sure what’ll happen once we do.”
Cassie couldn’t think about that part. The only way she would get through this was by continuing to believe in Scarlett.
“There she is.” Laurel pointed to the side exit of the Oyster Bar. “She must be on a break.”
“Perfect,” Faye said. It was plain to see that her blood was boiling with excitement. She charged ahead of the group, leading the way.
Scarlett saw them coming almost immediately. Anyone in their right mind would have become alarmed at the sight of this angry mob of twelve approaching, but Scarlett smiled wide and started waving to them, heaving her skinny arm back and forth as if she needed to catch their attention.
“She’s bluffing,” Faye said, as they continued their approach. “Don’t fall for it.”
But Faye didn’t even have to say it. Not one of them faltered or fell out of step. Before Scarlett could even say “Hello,” they had her surrounded.
Finally she began to catch on that something peculiar was happening, that she was in trouble. “What’s going on?” she asked, turning, circling, trying to locate Cassie in the ring of heavy-breathing bodies around her.
The scene couldn’t have gone down more smoothly. They were positioned on the side of the Oyster Bar, where it was desolate except for the occasional busboy going to the Dumpsters. Scarlett was trapped. No one would even hear her scream.
Only Cassie could save her now.
“Scarlett,” she said. “We need the truth from you, or else you’re going to get hurt. My friends think you had something to do with my car accident. I don’t believe that. But I need you to prove to them that you’re innocent.”
Scarlett’s round, dark eyes softened. “Is that what this is about? Of course I had nothing to do with that.”
“What about the lighthouse?” Diana’s voice was stern. It sounded more like a threat than a question.
“What about it?” Scarlett asked.
“You burned it to the ground,” Faye shouted.
“I what?” Scarlett began to lose her cool. “Why would I do something like that?” Her survival instincts set in, and Cassie knew that it wasn’t far off now, the moment of truth.
Adam narrowed in on her. “Who are you working with?”
“At the Oyster Bar?” Scarlett was trembling now, like a cornered street cat poised to strike.
“Answer the question,” Diana said. “Who are you working with?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Scarlett cried out and ran for Cassie then, for help. The Circle moved in closer on her, blocking any exit. But Faye saw Scarlett’s rushing at Cassie as a direct threat and swiftly reacted. She raised her hands and called out, “By the power of this Circle, I call on Hecate!”
Time slowed down for Cassie in that moment. She could see the shock on Scarlett’s face and the fury in Faye’s eyes. She could hear Diana screaming out,
No, not yet!
But Faye was unstoppable. She appeared to take on giant proportions the instant she called on Hecate, as if she embodied the form of the dark Goddess herself. She seemed to grow to seven feet tall, and her honey-colored eyes blackened like marbles. She cast the first part of the witch-hunter curse with the power of thunder.

Curse this ancient hunter who aims to harm me

Acts of evil now return threefold to thee!

 
The sky above Faye’s outstretched hands reddened and spiraled into a violent funnel-like cloud. She harnessed it toward her, drew it in, and molded it with one swirl of her charmed fingertips into a ball of fire. As she tossed it from one hand to the other, the Circle chanted the Latin words they’d memorized—dark, unfathomable words they barely understood—until Faye heaved the fireball at Scarlett like a heavy stone.
But Scarlett shocked them all. With one swift motion she caught the roiling fire in her hands and burst it between her palms. “Be it undone!” she called out, the classic defense spell.
Within seconds, Faye shrunk back down to size and toppled over sideways onto the ground. The opening in the sky stitched itself closed, and the light of day returned to normal.
“How do you know the defense spell?” Cassie asked.
But even as the question left Cassie’s lips, she knew there could only be one explanation. Scarlett wasn’t a witch hunter. She was a witch, like them.
Deborah and Suzan ran to Faye to see if she was okay. Slowly, they got Faye to her feet, but she appeared dazed and wobbly.
Scarlett turned to Cassie. Her dark eyes were still enflamed from the spell. “I’m sorry you had to find out this way,” she said.
Adam stepped forward, astonished. “You’re a witch?”
Scarlett nodded and turned again to Cassie. “I wanted to tell you since the moment we first met.”
“Why didn’t you?” Diana asked.
“I was waiting for the right time,” Scarlett said.
“You’re a witch?” Cassie asked, repeating Adam’s words and stunned tone verbatim.
“Not just any witch.” Scarlett smiled shyly. “I’m your half sister.”
“What?” Cassie could hardly breathe. “How?”
“We have the same father,” she said. “Black John.”
Scarlett observed the shock in each of their faces. “I came to this town trying to escape the witch hunters, just like you are now. Back home, we were discovered.”
She turned to Diana, somehow understanding she was the Circle’s leader. “The hunters killed my mother,” she said. “And they marked me. I came here to get the protection of the Circle.”
“So you knew about us,” Melanie said.
“Yes.” Scarlett reached for Cassie and took both her hands in her own. “My mother grew up in this town. I knew I had a sister out here my entire life, and I wanted to meet her.”
This was almost more than Cassie could bear. The whole world started to spin, and she thought she might actually be dreaming, but then Diana spoke up, loudly jolting her from her haze. “So Cassie was right all along,” she said.
Diana put one slender hand on Cassie’s shoulder and the other on Scarlett’s. “Please accept my apology,” she said. “Our apology. To both of you. We should have had more faith.”
“I accept,” Scarlett said, smiling.
But Faye’s husky voice crashed the sentimental moment. Apparently, she’d regained her strength. “How do we know you’re not lying, Scarlett? What proof do you have for any of these claims?”
Deborah answered for Scarlett, and for the group. “When she knocked you on your behind by deflecting your curse,” she said, “that was proof enough for me.”
“Me too,” Suzan said, laughing.
Faye smirked. “I mean about being Cassie’s half sister.”
“She’s telling the truth,” Cassie said. “I think, deep down, I’ve known it all along.”
Diana turned to Faye. “I think it’s time for us to trust Cassie on this. Obviously, her sight wasn’t clouded after all.”
One by one, everyone expressed their apologies to Scarlett. Even Melanie, who’d wanted so badly to believe Scarlett had been the hunter responsible for killing her great-aunt Constance, put aside her desire for retribution and shook her hand.
“We misjudged you,” Melanie said. “I’m sorry.”
It was hardly enough, considering they’d just tried to kill her, but it was all anyone could say.
The apologies were for Cassie, too. But Cassie didn’t need anyone’s apology—she had been right. She knew she felt connected to Scarlett, she just knew it! What a relief it was to have the truth come out at last.
Adam appeared as relieved as she was. He went to Cassie and wrapped his arms around her.
“I should have never doubted you,” he said.
“That’s okay,” Cassie said. “You can remember that for next time.” She hugged Adam back and, as she did, she caught sight of Nick looking on. He was the only one who’d stuck with her when everyone else was so sure Scarlett was evil. She would have to remember to thank him later, when they had a moment alone together.

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