"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.
"Go back," Cassie said, hardly able to hear her own voice through the pounding in her ears. It was over, it was all over. She was so cold... not just her skin, but inside her, deep in her core, she was freezing. Freezing over like black ice. Everything was black around her.
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.