"Didn't your grandma say anything that might help?" Laurel asked Cassie.
"No . . . wait." Cassie straightened up, excitement stirring inside her. "She said they identified Black John's body in the burned house because of his ring, a lodestone ring." She looked at Melanie. "You're the crystal expert; so what's lodestone?"
"It's magnetite, black iron oxide," Melanie said, her cool gray eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "It's like hematite, which is iron oxide too, but hematite's blood-red when you cut it in thin slices. Magnetite is black and magnetic."
Cassie tried to control her expression. Well, she'd known the hematite came from Black John's house; maybe it had even been his stone. She shouldn't be surprised that he wore a ring of something similar. Still, she felt a twinge of apprehension. She'd really better get rid of that piece of hematite. Right now it was sitting in a jewelry box in her bedroom, where she'd put it when Diana drove her over to her house to pick up her clothes this morning before school.
"Okay, we'll keep on the lookout for that," Adam was saying, sparing Cassie the necessity of speaking. "We can talk to the old ladies tomorrow - or maybe we should wait until after Cassie's grandmother's funeral."
"All right," Cassie murmured.
"You're making a lot of suggestions, Adam," Faye said, stung into speaking at last. Her arms were still folded over her chest, and her honey-pale skin was flushed with anger.
Adam looked back without expression. "Come to think of it, there was another suggestion I was going to make," he said. "I think we should retake the leadership vote."
Faye lunged toward him, golden eyes blazing. "You can't do that!"
"Why not? If all of us agree," Adam said calmly.
"Because it's not in the traditions," Faye hissed. "You look at any Book of Shadows and you'll see! The vote is the vote; I won and it can't be changed now. I'm the coven leader."
Adam turned to the others for help, but Melanie was looking troubled and Diana was slowly shaking her head.
"She's right, Adam," Diana said softly. "The vote was fair, at the time. There aren't any provisions for changing it." Melanie nodded her unwilling agreement.
"And I don't like you making all these plans without consulting me," Faye went on, pacing again like a panther in a cage. Sparks actually seemed to flash from her eyes, the way they flashed from the red gems at her throat and on her fingers as she crossed patches of sunlight.
"Well, what do you want us to do?" Laurel said challengingly, tossing her long light-brown hair back. "You were the one who wanted Black John out, Faye. You said he was going to help us, to give us his power. Well, how about it? What do you say now that he's here?"
Faye was breathing hard. "He may be testing us -
"By killing Cassie's grandma?" Deborah cut in harshly. "Don't be stupid, Faye. I was there; I saw it. There's no excuse for murdering old ladies."
Faye glared at her defecting ex-lieutenant. "I don't know why he did that! Maybe he has some plans that we don't know about."
"That's the truest thing you've ever said," Melanie interrupted. "He does have plans, Faye - to take us over. He's already killed four people, and if we annoy him I'm sure he'll be happy to kill us, too."
Faye stopped pacing and smiled triumphantly. "He can't," she snapped. "If Cassie is right - and I'm not saying she is, but if she is - then he needs us for his coven. So he can't kill us!"
"Well, he can't kill all of us, anyway," Adam said dryly. "He can only spare one."
Silence fell. The members of the Circle glanced uneasily at one another.
"Well, then, maybe you'd each better be sure you're not the one," Faye said, smiling around at them. It wasn't quite her old, lazy smile; it was more a baring of teeth. Before anyone could say anything she turned around and stalked out of the room. They could hear her footsteps going rapidly down the stairs, then the slam of the science building's front door.
Cassie, Adam, and Diana looked at one another. Adam shook his head.
"We're in trouble," he said.
"Oh, so is that what we figured out at this meeting?" said Deborah.
Diana leaned her forehead against her hand wearily. "We need her," she said. "She is the coven leader, and we need her on our side, not on his. We'd better go talk to her."
Slowly, the Club members got up. Outside, it was too bright, and Cassie squinted. Seventh period had just ended and people were flooding out of the school exits. Cassie scanned the crowds but couldn't see Faye.
"She's probably gone home," Diana was saying. "We'll have to go after her .. ."
Cassie didn't hear the rest. Among the milling students in the parking lot she had suddenly glimpsed a familiar face. A strange familiar face, one that didn't belong here, one that she had to rack her brains to identify. For God's sake, where had she seen that turned-up nose, that straw-colored hair, those cold hazel eyes before? It was someone she'd known quite well, someone she'd been used to looking at day after day, but that she'd been only too happy to forget about when she came to New Salem.
A feeling of heat and humidity overcame Cassie. A memory of sand underfoot, sweat trickling down her sides, suntan lotion greasy on her nose. A sound of lapping waves and a smell of overheated bodies and a sense of oppression.
Cape Cod.
The familiar girl was Portia.
Chapter Four
"Hey, watch out, Cassie," Chris said, running into her as she stopped in her tracks. "What's wrong?"
"I just saw someone." Cassie could feel how wide her eyes were as she stared into the crowd. Portia had disappeared in a sea of bobbing heads. "A girl I knew this summer . . ." Her voice trailed off as her mind boggled at the task of explaining Portia to the Circle.