"1 don't want anybody to discuss what's happened tonight again," Diana said, her voice soft and distinct. "Not ever. Once I've finished talking we'll all consider the subject closed." She looked at Adam, not quite meeting his eyes. "I think," she said slowly, "that I know how it must have been for you. These things happen sometimes. I forgive you. And as for you, Cassie - you're even less to blame. There was no way for you to have known. I don't blame either of you. All I ask - "
Cassie drew a shuddering breath and broke in. She couldn't hold back any longer.
"Diana," she said, "I want you to know something. All this time, underneath, I've been angry and jealous because Adam belonged to you and not me. Even up until tonight. But all that's changed now - truly. Now all I want is for you and Adam to be happy. Nothing is more important to me than you - and the promise I made." For an instant it crossed Cassie's mind to wonder if Adam were less important, but she shoved the thought away and spoke earnestly, with utter conviction. "Adam and I - we both made that promise. If you'll just give us another chance to keep it - just one more chance ..."
Diana was opening her mouth, but Cassie went on before she could speak.
"Please, Diana. You've got to know that you can trust me - that you can trust us. You've got to let us prove that."
There was a slight pause, then Diana said, "Yes. Yes - you're right." She took a deep breath and let it out, looking at Adam almost tentatively. "Well, then, what if - if we just forget all about this for a while? Just - wipe the slate clean?"
A muscle in Adam's jaw jerked. Silently, he took the hand Diana extended toward him.
Diana held her other hand out to Cassie. Cassie took it and held on tightly to the slim, cold fingers. She wanted to laugh and cry at once. Instead she just gave Diana a wobbly smile. Looking at Adam she saw that he was trying to smile too, although his eyes were dark as storm clouds over the ocean.
"And that's it?" Faye exploded. "Everything's all right now, all sweetness and light? Everybody loves everybody and you're all going home holding hands?"
"Yes," Adam snapped, giving her a hard look. "As for the last, anyway. We're going home - it's past time for that."
"Cassie needs to rest," Diana agreed. The blank helplessness had left her entirely, and although she looked more fragile than Cassie had ever seen her before, she also looked determined. "We all need that."
"And we need to call a doctor - or somebody," Deborah said unexpectedly. She inclined her head toward Number Twelve. "Cassie's grandma . . ."
"Whose side are you on?" Faye snarled. Deborah just gave her a cool look.
Diana's fingers tightened on Cassie's. "Yes. You're right, we'll call Dr. Stern - and Cassie can come home with me."
Faye gave a short bark of laughter, but nobody laughed with her. Even the Henderson brothers were serious, their slanted eyes thoughtful. Suzan twisted a lock of strawberry-blond hair around her fingers, looking at Cassie's and Diana's intertwined hands. Laurel nodded encouragingly when Cassie glanced at her, and Melanie's cool gray eyes shone with quiet approval. Sean chewed his lip, looking uncertainly from one member of the group to another.
But it was Nick's expression that surprised Cassie most. His face, usually so unemotional, was clearly strained, as if there were some violent struggle going on beneath the surface.
There was no time to think about him now, though. No time even to think about Faye, who was seething uselessly, her plans to fracture the coven in ruins. Melanie was speaking.
"Do you want to go by my house first, Cassie? Great-aunt Constance is looking after your mom, and if you want to see her ..."
Cassie nodded eagerly. It seemed like a hundred years since she had seen her mother, since she had been inside that room filled with red light, looking at her mother's glassy, empty eyes. Surely her mother would be all right by now; surely she would be able to tell Cassie what had happened.
But when the three of them, Melanie, Cassie, and Diana, who hadn't let go of Cassie's hand on the short drive to Number Four, went into the house, Cassie's heart sank. Melanie's great-aunt, a thin-lipped woman with severe eyes, led them silently into a downstairs guest room. One look at the ghostly figure on the bed sent chills of dismay through Cassie's bloodstream.
"Mom?" she whispered, knowing already there would be no answer.
God, her mother looked young. Even younger than she normally did, frighteningly young, unnaturally so. It was as if it weren't Cassie's mother on the bed there at all, but some little girl with dark hair and big haunted black eyes that vaguely resembled Mrs. Blake's. A stranger.
Not someone who was going to be of help to Cassie.
"It's okay, Mom," Cassie whispered, stepping away from Diana to put a hand on her mother's shoulder. "Everything's going to be all right. You'll see. You're going to be just fine."
Her throat ached, and then she felt Diana gently leading her away.
"You've both been through enough," Melanie said once they were outside again. "Let us take care of things with the doctor - and the police, if they have to come. You and Cassie get some sleep."
The rest of the coven was waiting in the street, and they nodded in agreement when Melanie said this. Cassie looked at Diana, who nodded too.
"Okay," Cassie said. It came out faint and slightly hoarse and she realized how tired she was - bone-tired. At the same time she was light-headed, and the entire scene in front of her was assuming a dreamlike quality. It was just too strange to be standing out here in the wee hours of the morning, knowing that her grandmother was dead and her mother was in shock, and that she didn't have a house to go back to. Yet there were no adults on the street, no commotion, only the members of the Circle and an eerie stillness. Come to think of it, why weren't there any parents out here? Surely some of them must have heard what was going on.