The Secret Circle: The Hunt (The Secret Circle #5)

"Cassie!" Adam screamed. "Your eyes. You have to stop!"

Cassie heard Adam's cries, but couldn't register their meaning. All she could see was the image of Scarlett in front of her, dead.

"You're going to kill her!" Adam screamed, just before Cassie could speak the words that would murder her sister.

Cassie sputtered, confused, as if Adam had finally shaken her awake from a nightmare.

"It's Black John. It's the darkness controlling you," Adam said. "This isn't you, Cassie."

Cassie gazed around the room like she'd never seen it before, and then at Scarlett, who was dying at her feet.

Cassie felt her own insides cave in. Her legs went soft, and she felt light-headed. Adam was right. This wasn't her.

She carefully set her father's Book of Shadows on the table and backed away from it with caution. Then she looked at Adam. "What have I done?"

Some of the color returned to Adam's face and his shoulders settled. "Not what you almost did, thank goodness." He took a deep breath. "I thought I'd lost you for good."

Cassie ran to Adam and wrapped her arms around him.

"There's a better way to deal with Scarlett," he said. "We'll figure out what it is together. But you have to untie me first."

Cassie's first instinct was to use magic to set Adam free, but then she thought better of it. She untied him the old-fashioned way, tugging and untwisting the ropy threads confining him to the chair until he was free.

Adam stood up and stretched his legs. He rubbed his sore, rope-burned wrists. "Where did you learn all those dark spells?" he asked. "Have you been able to translate that much of the book?"

"No. I don't know," Cassie said. "They just came to me."

"What do you mean, they just came to you? Like from inside you? Your eyes were as black as marbles."

"Adam, I don't know. Can we just focus on Scarlett right now?" Scarlett was still lying motionless on the floor, gray and desiccated.

"Will she be okay?" Adam asked.

"I think so," Cassie said. "But I can also do a reversal spell."

Adam considered their options for a minute. "Before she can move again," he said, "there's another spell I think we should try. It'll prevent her from ever returning to New Salem. What do you think? Are you up for it?"

"A magical restraining order," Cassie said. "That sounds great, but I don't think our regular magic is strong enough to work on her."

"It will be." Adam nodded toward the closet.

The Master Tools. Of course. In all the commotion, Cassie had almost forgotten about them.

Cassie stepped around Scarlett to open the closet's folding doors. She rummaged through some junk on the floor and moved around some boxes on a high shelf, and there they were. Just sitting there for the taking. The silver bracelet, the leather garter, and the sparkling diadem.

Cassie reached for each one individually. First the bracelet. She fastened it around her upper arm. Its smooth silver felt cool against her skin. Next she secured the soft leather garter on her thigh. Adam came up behind her as she reached for the diadem. He straightened it on her head for her.

"Now that's more like it," he said. "That's the Cassie I know and love."

Cassie tried to soak up the positive energy from each Tool - to feel like the Cassie Adam knew and loved. She tried her best to smile.

"I feel good," she said. "Better." Then she looked at Scarlett. "Let's try the restraining spell."

"We'll need a few things first." Adam hurried around the house, searching for supplies, digging through a few different drawers and cabinets. "I'll be right back," he said, and ran out to the front yard.

Cassie had a few moments to think about what she'd just been through. She'd come so close to killing her sister. How could Adam ever look at her the same way? How could she wear the Master Tools now, or ever be worthy of them again?

Adam returned from outside, rosy cheeked and with a fistful of dirt. "Okay," he said. "Let's give this spell a try."

He bent down to Scarlett and guided Cassie's hand to Scarlett's forehead. "You hold her here and concentrate. It's important that your intentions remain clear, Cassie, can you do that?"

"Yes," Cassie said easily. But she knew she would really have to try.

Scarlett's forehead was cold and hard; it was almost like touching a corpse. Adam lit a candle and swung it above Scarlett's body, back and forth from the top of her head, down to the bottoms of her feet. Then he recited the chant. "I banish you from New Salem, Scarlett, with the power of fire."

Cassie imagined a soothing white light. She pictured it growing brighter and more intense until it had enveloped not only Scarlett but herself and Adam as well.

Adam secured the lit candle in a holder upon the floor, just north of Scarlett's head. Then he scattered the fistful of dirt he'd collected from the front yard onto the floor, encircling Scarlett within it. He said, "I banish you from New Salem, Scarlett, with the power of earth."

Cassie could smell the loamy trail of dirt and was reminded of the elemental wholesomeness of the earth, the cleanliness of stark terrain. She imagined the white light filling the whole room, and then the entire house from the inside out.

Next Adam reached for a cup of water he'd set on the table. He dipped his hand deep into the cup and then sprinkled drops of water, like rain, over Scarlett's skin. "I banish you from New Salem, Scarlett, with the power of water," he said.

Finally Adam went to open the front door of the house and a large window on the opposite side, creating a strong cross-breeze in the main room. The rush of air blew out the candle he'd set on the floor. "I banish you from New Salem, Scarlett, with the power of air," he said.

He placed his hands gently over Cassie's, joining her in holding Scarlett's forehead. He closed his eyes and said, "Fire, earth, water, and air, and the power of the Master Tools, mote it be."

Scarlett stirred and Adam opened his eyes. "That's it," he said.

Cassie let her hands drop to her sides. "Did it work?"

"We'll find out," Adam said. "But after all this, I don't think she'll be much of a threat anymore."

Cassie nodded, but she wasn't so sure. She couldn't imagine a time when Scarlett would no longer be a menace.

Adam picked up Black John's Book of Shadows and gestured to the door. "What do you say we get out of here?"

Cassie looked Scarlett over one last time and nodded.

She went to the front door and put one hand on the knob. With her other hand, she waved her fingers at Scarlett. "I tollere malum incantatores," she said, the words of the reversal spell.

Scarlett's color came back and she gasped for breath just as Cassie and Adam stepped outside, slamming the door behind them.