第 20 页

"I vote for myself too," Diana said quietly.

A third white stone. Then Melanie said, "Douglas."

Doug grinned one of his wildest grins. "I'm voting for Faye, naturally."

"Christopher."

"Uh . . ." Chris looked confused. Despite Faye's frown and Doug's frantic coaching, he was squinting into

nothingness as if searching for a lost decision. Finally, he seemed to find it and he looked at Melanie.

"Okay; Diana."

Everyone in the circle stared at him. He glared back defiantly. Cassie's fingers clenched on the piece of

hematite in her pocket.

"Chris, you feeb-" Doug began, but Melanie shut him up.

"No talking," she said, and put out a fourth white stone next to the two red. "Suzan."

"Faye."

Three red, four white. "Deborah."

"Who do you think?" Deborah snapped. "Faye."

Four red, four white. "Laurel," said Melanie.

"Diana's always been our leader, and she always will be," Laurel said. "I vote for her."

Melanie put a fifth white stone out, a trace of a smile hovering on her lips. "Sean."

Sean's black eyes shifted nervously. "I . . ." Faye was staring at him relentlessly. "I ... I ... Faye" he said,

and hunched up his shoulders.

Melanie shrugged and put out another red stone. Five red, five white. But although her gray eyes

remained serious, her lips were definitely curved in a smile. All of Diana's adherents had relaxed, and they

were flashing smiles at each other across the circle.

Melanie turned confidently to the last member of the coven and said, "Cassandra."

Melanie turned confidently to the last member of the coven and said, "Cassandra."

There was silence under the silver disk of moon.

"Cassie," Melanie said again.

Now everyone was looking at her. Cassie could feel the heat of Faye's golden eyes on her, and she

knew why Sean had squirmed. They were hotter than the pillar of fire Diana had summoned up to protect

them at Halloween.

As if compelled, Cassie glanced the other way. Diana was looking at her too. Diana's eyes were like a

pool adrift with green leaves. Cassie couldn't seem to look away from them.

"Cassie?" Melanie said for the third time. Her voice was tinged with the slightest note of doubt.

Still unable to look away from Diana's eyes, Cassie whispered, "Faye."

"What? "cried Laurel.

"Faye," Cassie said, too loudly. She was clutching the piece of hematite in her pocket. Coldness from it

seemed to seep through her body. "I said Faye, all right?" she said to Melanie, but she was still looking at

Diana.

Those clear green eyes were bewildered. Then, all at once, understanding came into them, as if a stone

had been tossed into the tranquil pool. And when Cassie saw that, saw Diana really understand what

had just happened, something inside her died forever.

Cassie didn't know any longer why she was voting for Faye. She couldn't remember now how all this had

started, how she'd gotten on this path in the first place. All she knew was that the coldness from her hand

and arm was trickling through her entire body, and that from here on, there was no turning back.

Melanie was sitting motionless, stunned, not touching the pile of red and white stones. She seemed to

have forgotten about them. It was Deborah who leaned forward and picked up the sixth red stone,

adding it to Faye's pile.

And somehow that act, and the sight of the six red stones beside the five white ones, made it real.

Electricity crackled in the air as everyone sat forward.

Slowly, Melanie said, "Faye is the new leader of the coven."

Faye stood up.

She had never seemed so tall before, or so beautiful.

Silently, she held out a hand to Diana.

But it wasn't a gesture of friendship. Faye's open hand with the long crimson nails was demanding. And

in response to it, very slowly, Diana got to her feet as well. She unclasped the silver bracelet from her

upper arm.

Adam had been staring, thunderstruck. Now he jumped to his feet. "Wait a minute-"

"It's no use, Adam," Melanie said, in a deadened voice. "The vote was fair. Nothing can change it now."

Faye took the silver bracelet with the mysterious, runic inscriptions, and clasped it about her own bare,

rounded arm. It shone there against the honey-pale skin.

Diana's fingers trembled as she undid the garter. Laurel, muttering something and brushing tears out of her

eyes with an angry gesture, moved forward to help her, kneeling before Diana and tugging at the circle of

green leather and blue silk. It came free and Laurel stood up, looking as if she wanted to throw it at

Faye.

But Diana took it and placed it in Faye's hand.

Faye was wearing the shimmering black shift that she'd worn to the Halloween dance, the one slit up both

sides to the hip. She buckled the garter around her left thigh.

Then Diana put both hands to her hair and lifted off the diadem. Fine strands of hair the color of sunlight

and moonlight woven together clung to the silver crown as she removed it.

Faye reached out and almost snatched it from her.

Faye held the circlet up high, as if showing it to the coven, to the four elements, to the world. Then she

settled it on her own head. The crescent moon in its center gleamed against her wild black mane of hair.

There was a collective release of breath from the Circle.

Cassie didn't know how she'd gotten to her feet, but suddenly she was running. She bolted out of the

circle and ran beside the ocean, her feet sinking into wet sand. She ran until something caught her from

behind and stopped her.

"Cassie!" Adam said. His eyes looked straight into hers, as if he was searching for her soul.

Cassie hit out at him.

"Cassie, I know you didn't want to do it! She made you, somehow, didn't she? Cassie, tell me!"

Cassie tried to shake him off again. Why was he bothering her? She was furious, suddenly, with Adam

and Diana and their everlasting faith in her.

"I know she made you," Adam said forcefully.

"Nobody made me!" Cassie almost shouted. Then she stopped fighting him and they stood and stared at

each other, both breathing hard.

"You'd better get back there," Cassie said. "We're not supposed to be alone-remember? Remember our

oath? Not that I guess you need to think about it much anymore. It's pretty easy to keep these days, isn't

it?"

"Cassie, what's going on?"

"Nothing is going on! Just go, Adam. Just-" Before Cassie could stop herself she had grabbed Adam's

arms and pulled him forward.

And then she kissed him. It was a hard, angry kiss, and the next moment when she released him she was

as stunned as he was.

They stared at each other speechlessly.

They stared at each other speechlessly.

She pushed Adam away and made for the distant glow of the bonfire.

"Cassie!"

"I'm going back. To congratulate our new leader."

It was chaos back at the circle. Laurel was crying, Deborah was shouting, Chris and Doug were glaring

like a couple of tomcats about to fight and calling each other names. Sean was hovering behind Faye to

keep his distance from a disdainful Melanie. Suzan was telling Chris and Doug to grow up, while Faye

laughed. Of all of them, only Nick and Diana were utterly still. Nick was smoking silently, away from the

rest of the group, watching them with narrowed eyes.

Diana was just standing there, exactly where she'd been when Cassie left. She didn't seem to see or hear

any of the disturbance around her.

"Will you all just shut up?" Deborah was yelling when Cassie reached them. "Faye's the one in charge

now."

"That's right," Suzan said. Chris and Doug were shoving each other now. Suzan saw Cassie and said

appealingly, "Isn't that right, Cassie?*

It was strange, how quickly the silence descended. Everyone was looking at Cassie again.

"That's right," Cassie said, in a voice hard as stone.

Chris and Doug stopped shoving. Laurel stopped crying. No one moved as Cassie walked over behind

Faye. From that position she might have been supporting Faye-or she might have been about to stab her

in the back.

If Faye was afraid, she didn't show it. "Okay," she said to the others. "You heard it. I'm leader. And now

I'm going to give my first order." She turned her head slightly to address Cassie. "I want you to get the

skull. As for the rest of you-we're going to the cemetery."

"What?" Laurel screamed.

"I'm leader and I'm going to do something with my power instead of just sitting on it. There's energy

trapped in that skull, energy that we can use. Cassie, go get it."

Everyone was talking now, arguing, bellowing at each other. Things had never been like this when Diana

was leader. Adam was yelling at Faye, demanding to know if she had gone crazy. Only Nick and Diana

remained still, Nick watching, Diana staring at something only she could see.

Melanie was trying to restore calm, but it was doing no good. Some distant, clinical part of Cassie's mind

noted that if Diana were to interfere now, if Diana would come forward and take over, the coven would

listen to her. But Diana did nothing. And the shouting just got louder.

"Get it, Cassie," Faye was snarling between clenched teeth. "Or I'll get it myself."

Cassie could feel Power building around her. The sky overhead was stretched tight as a drum, tight as a

harp string waiting to be plucked. The ocean behind her throbbed with pent-up force. She could feel it in

the sand under her feet, and see it in the leaping flames of the bonfire.

harp string waiting to be plucked. The ocean behind her throbbed with pent-up force. She could feel it in

the sand under her feet, and see it in the leaping flames of the bonfire.

"Black John will let us have his power-he'll give it to us if we just ask the right way," Faye was shouting.

"I know, I've communicated with him. But we have to go and ask him."

Communicated with him-when? Cassie thought. When she, Cassie, had let Faye take the skull the first

time? Or at some point later?

"But why the cemetery?" Melanie was crying. "Why there?"

"Because that's what he says" Faye snapped back impatiently. "Cassie, for the last time! Get the skull!"

The elements were ranged behind her . . . Cassie stared at the back of Faye's neck. But then she

remembered something. The look in Diana's eyes when Cassie had voted against her . . . oh, what good

would it do to kill Faye now? Everything was over.

Cassie spun around and headed for the place where the skull was buried.

"How does she even know--?" Melanie was beginning, and Faye's laughter cut her off. So that was over,

too, the secret about Cassie stealing the skull was out. Diana hadn't told anyone exactly where the skull

was buried, not even Adam. Cassie ran so she wouldn't have to hear more.

She dug in the center of the blackened stones until her fingernails scraped the cloth that wrapped the

skull. Then she dug around it and pulled it out of the sand, surprised, as always, by how heavy it was.

Cassie staggered as she picked the skull up and started back to Faye.

Deborah ran to meet her. "This way," she said, diverting Cassie before she could reach the group. "Come

on!" They climbed the bluff and Cassie saw Deborah's motorcycle.

"Faye planned this," Cassie said. She looked at Deborah, her voice rising slightly. "Faye had this

planned!"

"Yeah. So what?" Deborah looked perplexed; a good lieutenant used to taking orders from her superior.

What did Cassie care if Faye had it planned? "She figured she would have a hard time getting all the

others to come, but she wanted to make sure we got there,"

Deborah explained.

"I don't see how she's going to get any of the others to come," Cassie said, looking down at the group

below. But a strange madness seemed to have taken hold of some of them; whatever Faye was saying

was whipping them into a frenzy. Suzan was heading for the bluff, and Doug was half dragging Chris.

Faye was pushing Sean.

"That's seven; Faye said that's all we need," Deborah said, turning from the bluff. "Come on!"

This motorcycle ride was like the last, in that the speed was as great, the moon even brighter. But this

time Cassie wasn't afraid, even though she could only hold on to Deborah with one arm. The other was

hugging the skull to her lap. They reached the cemetery and a minute later heard engines. The Samurai

was arriving with Chris and Doug and Suzan. Behind it was Faye's Corvette. Faye got out of the driver's

side and Sean tumbled out of the passenger door.

side and Sean tumbled out of the passenger door.

Cassie stopped, too, clutching the skull to her chest with both arms, frighteningly aware of where they

were standing. In a row here, broken only by a mound in the earth, were the graves of Faye's father,

Sean's mother, and all the other dead parents from Crowhaven Road. Sean was sniveling now, and only

Deborah's grip on him was keeping him from running away.

Faye turned to face them. Even in the worst of times, the tall, dramatically beautiful girl had a natural

authority, an ability to intimidate people. Now that seemed enhanced by the symbols of the Queen of the

Witches: the diadem, the bracelet, the garter. An aura of power and glamour surrounded her.

"It's time," Faye said, "to take back the energy that belonged to the original coven, and that Black John

stored in the skull. Black John wants us to have that power, to use against our enemies. And we can get