The Secret Circle: The Complete Collection (82 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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“Is this supposed to be a pep talk?” Sean called out.
“Let her finish.” Nick glared at Sean with a deep mahogany stare.
“I think we need to enact a buddy system. One hunter can’t perform the killing curse on a witch alone. The best thing we can do is make sure we’re not alone either,” Cassie said.
Deborah let out a whoop of laughter. “That’s your big idea? For us to hold hands in the hallway like preschoolers?”
“I never said it was a big idea,” Cassie said defensively. “It just makes sense for those of us who are marked to be with another Circle member at all times. Including overnight.”
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

C
assie’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.
As her mother wrapped Cassie’s medicine-covered skin in fresh gauze, Cassie explained everything that had happened that morning with the principal. She didn’t leave out a single detail; she was hoping to convince her mother how necessary it was to give the book another try.
“I wish there was some way we could keep Faye and
Laurel safe,” she said. “Actually, that reminds me. Is there anything else you can remember about Black John saving your friend from the hunters when you were younger?”
Her mother thought for a moment. “It was some kind of spell. A curse, actually. I imagine it would be in his Book of Shadows.”
The book. Cassie knew her question would lead right back to it.
“I remember your father once saying,” her mother continued, “that the hunters themselves don’t have power. They don’t have magic. But they carry stone relics that have been passed down for centuries, and the relics are incredibly powerful. If the bond between hunter and relic can be broken, so can the marks on witches.”
Cassie’s eyes lit up—there was a way! But her mother paused and her voice took on a serious tone. “Now, Cassie, I know what you’re thinking. You want to find that curse to save your friends, but you have to believe me when I tell you that you can’t use magic from a book you don’t understand. No dark magic can be used without grave consequences. Those burns on your hands were just the beginning.”
Cassie agreed for the sake of her mother’s peace of mind.
“But until we can figure out a way to use the book safely,” her mother said, “I think I have another way to help. I know the perfect place to keep Faye and Laurel safe.”
This was a turn Cassie hadn’t anticipated. “Where?”
“Right here. There’s a secret room in the house.”
Cassie looked at her mother in disbelief. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Her mother laughed. “Your grandmother built it when tensions between the townspeople and witches started rising sixteen years ago, just before the storm that claimed so many lives.” She paused solemnly. “So many of your friends’ parents’ lives. She had it spelled for special protection. Come on, I’ll show it to you.”
Cassie followed her mother to the stairs that led to the basement. “Why didn’t you tell me about this sooner?” she asked.
“You didn’t need it then.” Her mother led Cassie through the shadowy basement, which smelled of mold and mildew, and stopped in front of an old bookcase. “But you do now.”
She raised her arms and rested her hands upon one of the dusty shelves. “I’m a little rusty,” her mother said. “But I think I can do it.” She closed her eyes and then
focused her energy on the wall of books. She recited a wary chant in a tone of voice Cassie had never heard from her before:

Enchanted threshold—

door untold—

reveal to me what you conceal.

The edges of the bookshelf gradually began to glow, like the sun had just broken through a wall of clouds, and then a doorway appeared. Cassie couldn’t believe her eyes. It was an enchanted opening—a rippling portal made visible in the center of the shelves, just large enough to step through.
Cassie’s mother was pleased with her success. “I guess after all these years I’ve still got it,” she said. “Go on, step inside.”
Cassie cautiously crossed the threshold to look around. It was a large room, fully furnished like a studio apartment. There was a cast-iron bed, handmade lamps, and a tufted sofa. It was all so old-fashioned it looked antique, giving the space an unexpected elegance, like a nineteenth-century sitting room.
“It needs a good dusting, that’s for sure,” her mother
said. “But it’ll do the job. Should I start preparing it for your friends?”
Cassie nodded. The room had its own kitchen nook and bathroom, and in the living room area there was even an old television set. “It’s perfect,” Cassie said. “Thank you.”
They wasted no time getting started. Her mother dug out every cleaning appliance and disinfectant they owned. They stripped the beds and vacuumed the carpet, scrubbed the bathroom and scoured the kitchen countertops. Cassie brought down fresh linens and some food for the refrigerator.
Faye and Laurel will be pleased
,
Cassie thought. As far as overnight hiding places went, this was a best-case scenario.
When they were finished, Cassie’s mother gave her an affectionate squeeze and headed back upstairs. Cassie’s mind turned to her father’s book. She had to figure out where it was.
She eyed the mysterious room. Her mother was so good at keeping secrets—too good. How would Cassie ever discover where she’d hidden the book? It could be anywhere.
And then the answer unwrapped itself like a gift. The room was spelled for protection, which meant Cassie could
safely perform a summoning spell to locate the book without fear of being caught by her mother—or the hunters.
She listened for a moment to be sure there was no movement coming from upstairs and then tightly closed her eyes. She concentrated and whispered a simple incantation:
Book of Shadows, I summon thee.
Be released, appear to me.
Nothing happened at first, but then Cassie felt a peculiar tugging at her throat, a pull from the necklace around her neck. She grasped its silver chain, quickly released its clasp, and held it out in front of her. The quivering pendant was clear quartz. Of course—it was a visionary stone. It must have begun picking up traces of the book’s energy.
Cassie let the pendant hang from its silver chain and watched the delicate crystal spin until it aligned itself in a definite direction. Soon it started swinging in broad sweeping strokes, like a pendulum.
Cassie took careful steps in the direction it led, keeping her hand steady as best she could. She followed the curve of its path, which was guiding her nowhere near the room’s exit but toward the couch in the sitting area. Was
it possible her mother had hidden the book down here in the basement? A strange excitement filled Cassie’s chest as the silver chain straightened to a thin vertical line. The crystal stopped moving. It pointed and quaked at the floor directly below Cassie’s feet.

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