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Nick looked around at them all. "I mean," he said deliberately, "that while you've been scurrying around

here, a crew's been up at Devil's Cove, pulling rocks off old Fogle."

Fogle? Cassie couldn't place the name. And then suddenly she saw it in her mind's eye-on a brass plate

in a wood-paneled office. "Our principal?" she gasped.

"You got it. They say he got caught in an avalanche."

"An avalanche?" demanded Laurel in disbelief. "Around here?"

"How else do you explain the two-ton chunk of granite that was on top of him? Not to mention all the

smaller stuff."

There was a moment of shocked silence.

"Is he . . ." Cassie couldn't finish the question.

"He wasn't looking too good when they got that chunk off him," Nick said, and then, with less sarcasm,

"He's been dead since last night."

"He wasn't looking too good when they got that chunk off him," Nick said, and then, with less sarcasm,

"He's been dead since last night."

"It was Faye's fault," Sean began in a whine, but Faye interrupted without looking at him. "It was his

fault."

"Wait, wait," said Diana. "We don't know the dark energy had anything to do with it. How could it have,

when we know it came here and then stopped?"

"I don't think that's much comfort," Melanie said in a low voice. "Because if it wasn't the dark energy,

who was it?"

There was a sort of strange shifting in the group, as if everyone was standing back and looking at all the

others. Cassie felt a void in the pit of her stomach again. The principal was-had been-an outsider, who

hated witches. And that meant they all had a motive-especially anybody who blamed the outsiders for

Kori Henderson's death. Cassie looked at Deborah, and then at Chris and Doug.

Most of the rest of the coven was doing the same. Doug glared back, then gave a wild, defiant grin.

"Maybe we did do it," he said, eyes glittering.

"Did we?" said Chris, looking confused.

Deborah just looked scornful.

There was another silence, then Suzan spoke in a petulant voice. "Look, it's too bad about Fogle, but do

we have to stand here forever? My feet are killing me."

Adam seemed to shake himself. "She's right; we should get out of this place. There's nothing we can do

here." He put an arm around Diana, and gestured everybody else ahead. Cassie lingered. There was

something she wanted to say to Diana.

But Diana was moving now, and Cassie didn't have a chance. With the Henderson brothers in the lead,

the group was taking a different route than the one they had taken in, cutting toward the northeast corner

of the cemetery. As they approached the road, Cassie noticed the ground sloped up. There was a

strange mound of grassy earth near the chain-link fence on this side; she almost tripped when she reached

it. But even stranger was what she saw when they had passed it and she looked back.

The front of the mound was faced with stone slabs, and there was an iron door, maybe two feet square,

set between them. The door had an iron hinge and a padlock on it, but it couldn't have opened anyway.

Pushed right up against it was a large, irregular hunk of cement. Grass was growing up around the

cement, showing it had been there a while.

Cassie's hands were icy cold, her heart was thudding, and she was dizzy. She tried to think, noticing with

only part of her mind that she was passing by newer gravestones now, marble slabs with writing not worn

smooth by time. She was trying to figure out what was wrong with her-was it just reaction to all the

events of the past day and night? Was that why she was shaking?

"Cassie, are you okay?" Diana and Adam had turned around. Cassie was grateful for the growing

darkness as she faced both of them and tried to get her mind clear.

"Yeah. I just-felt weird for a minute. But wait, Diana." Cassie remembered what she had wanted to say.

"You know how you were asking me about my feelings before . . . well, I have a feeling about Mr. Fogle.

I think the dark energy did have something to do with it, somehow. But . . ." She stopped. "But I don't

know. There's something else strange going on."

"Yeah. I just-felt weird for a minute. But wait, Diana." Cassie remembered what she had wanted to say.

"You know how you were asking me about my feelings before . . . well, I have a feeling about Mr. Fogle.

I think the dark energy did have something to do with it, somehow. But . . ." She stopped. "But I don't

know. There's something else strange going on."

There was something strange going on, something stranger than any of them realized, Cassie thought.

"What is that thing back there, with the iron door?" she asked.

"It's been there for as long as I can remember," Diana said absently. "Something to do with storage, 1

think."

Cassie glanced back, but by now the mound was lost in darkness. She hugged herself, tucking her hands

under her clasping arms to warm them. Her heart was still thudding.

I'll ask Grandma Howard about it, she decided. Whatever it was, it wasn't a storage shed, she knew that.

Then she noticed that Diana was toying with something around her neck as she walked lost in thought. It

was a fine golden chain, and at the end of it dangled a key.

THREE

"I think," Melanie said quietly, "that it's time to talk about the skull. Adam's never told us exactly how he

found it-"

"No, you've been very secretive about that," Faye put in.

"-but maybe now is the time."

Diana and Adam looked at each other, and then Diana nodded slightly. "All right, then, tell it. Try not to

leave anything out."

After the walk back from the cemetery they had crowded, all twelve of them, into Diana's room. Cassie

looked around at the group and realized that it was divided. Suzan, Deborah, and the Henderson

brothers were sitting on one side, near Faye, while Laurel, Melanie, Adam, and Sean were on the other

side, near Diana.

At least, Cassie thought, watching Sean's uneasily shifting eyes, Sean was sitting on Diana's side for the

moment. He could change any time. And so could Nick-Nick could vote with Diana one day, and then

for no apparent reason vote with Faye the next. Nick was always an unknown factor.

And so, a voice inside her whispered, are you.

But that was ridiculous. Nothing-not even Faye-could make Cassie vote against Diana. Not when it

really counted.

Adam was talking in a low, thoughtful voice, as if he were trying to remember precisely. "It wasn't off

Cape Cod, it was farther north, closer to Boston. Everybody knows there are seventeen islands off

Boston Bay; they're all deserted and covered with weeds. Well, I found an eighteenth. It wasn't like the

others; it was flat and sandy and there was no sign that people had ever been there. And there was

something strange about it. ... I'd been to the place before, but I'd never seen it. It was as if my eyes had

suddenly been opened after-" He stopped.

others; it was flat and sandy and there was no sign that people had ever been there. And there was

something strange about it. ... I'd been to the place before, but I'd never seen it. It was as if my eyes had

suddenly been opened after-" He stopped.

"As soon as 1 stepped on the sand I could feel that the whole island was electric. I knew it was the place

even before I saw the circle of stones in the middle. It was just the way Black John described it. Sea

heather had grown up around the rocks, but the center was clear and that's where I dug. About a minute

later my shovel hit something hard."

"And then?" said Diana.

"And then I pulled it out. I felt-I don't know, dizzy, when I saw it. The sun was glittering on the sand and

it sort of blinded me. Then I wrapped the skull up in my shirt and left. The island didn't fight when I went;

it was like a trap that had been sprung. That was- let's see, September twenty-first. As soon as I got

back to the Bay, I wanted to start up to New Salem, but I had some things to take care of. I couldn't get

started until the next day, and I knew I was going to be late for Kori's initiation." He paused and threw an

apologetic glance toward Doug and Chris.

They said nothing, but Cassie felt eyes flicker toward her. Kori's initiation had become Cassie's initiation,

because on that morning Kori had been found dead at the bottom of the high-school steps.

"Just what is the point of all this storytelling?" Faye asked, her husky voice bored. "Unless"-she

straightened up, looking more interested-"you think the rest of the Master Tools may be on that island."

"I told you before," Adam said. "There was nothing else there, Faye. Just the skull."

"And the point is that we need to know more about the skull," Diana put in. "For better or worse, we're

stuck with it now. I don't think we should put it back on the island-"

"Put it back!" Faye exclaimed.

"-where anybody might find it, now that the protective spell is broken. It's not safe there. I don't know if

it will be safe anywhere."

"Well, now," Faye murmured, looking sleepy. "If it's too much trouble for you, I'll be glad to take care of

it."

Diana just shot her a look that said Faye was the last person she'd ask to take care of the skull. But,

Cassie noticed with a sinking feeling, Faye's heavy-lidded amber eyes were not fixed on Diana's face.

They were trained on the little gold key at Diana's throat.

There was a knock at the door.

Cassie started, hard enough that Laurel turned around and looked at her in surprise. But it was only

Diana's father, who'd come home with a bulging briefcase in his hand.

Mr. Meade looked around the crowded room in mild surprise, as if he didn't quite know who all these

people were. Cassie wondered suddenly how much he knew about the Circle.

people were. Cassie wondered suddenly how much he knew about the Circle.

"Oh-no," Diana said, looking at a dainty white and gold clock on the nightstand. "I didn't realize it was

after seven, Dad. I'll fix something quick."

He nodded, and after one more quick, uncertain glance around the room, left.

Bedsprings creaked and clothing rustled as everyone else got up.

"Tomorrow we can meet at school," Melanie said. "But I've got to study tonight; this whole last week has

been shot and I've got a biology test."

"Me too," said Laurel.

"I've got algebra homework," Suzan offered, and Deborah muttered, "Meaning you've got a week's

worth of soap tapes in the VCR."

"All right, we'll meet tomorrow," Diana said. She walked downstairs with them. Faye managed to catch

Cassie's arm as the others were leaving, and she breathed in her ear, "Get it tonight. Call me and I'll come

and pick it up; then we'll put it back before morning so she won't notice it's gone."

Cassie pulled her arm away rebelliously. But at the door, Faye gave her a meaningful look, and the flash

in those amber eyes alarmed her. She stared at Faye a long moment, then nodded slightly.

"Do you want me to stay?" Adam was saying to Diana.

"No," Cassie said quickly, before Diana could answer. They looked at her, startled, and she said, "I'll

stay and help make dinner, if it's all right, Diana. I told my grandma and my mom I'd be gone and they've

probably already eaten by now."

Diana's graciousness rose to the fore. "Oh- of course you can stay, then," she said. "We'll be fine,

Adam."

"Okay." Adam gave Cassie a keen glance, which she returned woodenly. He went out, following Chris

and Doug into the darkness. The flicker of a match up ahead showed where Nick was. Cassie looked up

at the night sky, which glittered brashly with stars but not a trace of moon, and then stepped back as

Diana shut the door.

Dinner was quiet, with Mr. Meade sitting there, leafing through a newspaper, occasionally glancing up

over his reading glasses at the two girls. Afterward they went back up to Diana's room. Cassie realized

she needed to stall.

"You know, you never told me about that print," she said, pointing. Decorating Diana's walls were six art

prints. Five of them were very similar, black and white with a slightly old-fashioned look. Diana had told

her they were pictures of Greek goddesses: Aphrodite, the beautiful but fickle goddess of love;

Artemis, the fierce virgin huntress; Hera, the imperious queen of the gods; Athena, the calm gray-eyed

goddess of wisdom; and Persephone, who loved flowers and all growing things.

But the last print was different. It was in color, and the style was more abstract, more modern. It showed

a young woman standing beneath a starry sky, while a crescent moon shone silver down on her flowing

hair. She was wearing a simple white garment, cut high to show a garter on her thigh. On her upper arm

was a silver cuff-bracelet, and on her head was a thin circlet with a crescent moon, horns upward.

was a silver cuff-bracelet, and on her head was a thin circlet with a crescent moon, horns upward.

"Who is she?" Cassie said, staring at the beautiful girl in the print.

"Diana," Diana said wryly. Cassie turned to her, and she smiled. "The goddess Diana," she added. "Not

the Roman Diana; another one. She's older than all the Greek goddesses, and she was different from

them. She was a Great Goddess; she ruled everything. She was goddess of the night and the moon and