The Captive Page 0,41

full meeting of the Circle in three weeks, since the day after Mr. Fogle had been found dead. Cassie scanned the faces above thick jackets and sweaters-even New Englanders had to bundle up in this weather- and wondered what was going on in each individual witch's head.

Melanie was grave and thoughtful as usual, as if she neither believed nor disbelieved Cassie's theory, but was willing to test it out scientifically. Laurel just looked appalled. Suzan was examining the stitching on her gloves. Deborah was scowling, unwilling to give up the idea that outsiders had killed Kori. Nick-well, who could tell what Nick thought? Sean was chewing his fingernails.

The Henderson brothers were agitated. For a terrible instant Cassie thought they were going to turn their energy on Adam, blame him for Kori's being killed. But then Doug spoke up.

"So how come we're still sittin' around talking? Let me have the skull-I'll take care of it," he said, teeth bared.

"Yeah-let Doug have it," Sean chimed in.

"It can't be destroyed, Doug," Melanie said patiently.

"Oh, yeah?" Chris said. "Put it in with a pipe bomb-"

"And nothing would happen. Crystal skulls can't be destroyed, Doug," Melanie repeated. "That's in all the old lore. You wouldn't even scratch it."

"And there's no really safe place to store it," Diana said. "I might as well tell you all, I've got it buried somewhere, and yesterday I set up a spell to tell me if the place is disturbed. It's vital that the skull stays buried."

Cassie had a sick feeling in her stomach. Diana was looking around the group, focusing on Deborah, Faye, and the Hendersons. It would never occur to her to look at me, Cassie thought, and somehow this made her feel sicker than ever.

"Why can't we take it back to the island?" Suzan said, surprisingly, showing she was listening after all.

Adam, who had been sitting quietly, his fine, humorous face unusually moody, answered. "Because the island won't protect it anymore," he said. "Not since I took the skull."

"Sort of like one of those Egyptian tombs with a curse on it," said Laurel. "Once you break in, you can't undo what you've done."

Adam's lip quirked. "Right. And we're not strong enough to cast a new spell of protection that would hold it. This skull is evil," he said to all of them. "It's so evil that burying it in sand won't do anything but keep it from being activated at the moment. There's no way to purify it"-he looked at Laurel-"and no way to destroy it"-he looked at Doug and Chris- "and no place to keep it safe." He looked at Suzan.

"Then what do we do?" Deborah demanded, and Sean squeaked, "What do we do?"

"Forget about it?" Faye suggested with a lazy smile. Adam shot her a dark look. Diana intervened.

"Adam had the idea of searching for the dark energy again with a pendulum, seeing if there are any new trails," she said. She turned to Cassie. "What do you think?"

Cassie dug her fingernails into her palms. If they traced the dark energy and it led them straight back to Faye's house, the place where it had most recently escaped... Faye was looking at her sharply, wanting her to veto the suggestion. But Cassie had an idea.

"I think we should do it," she told Diana evenly.

Faye's stare turned menacing, furious. But there was nothing she could say.

Diana nodded. "All right. We may as well start now. It's a long walk to the graveyard, so I thought we might try picking up the trail around here. We'll go out on Crowhaven Road and see if there's anything to follow."

Cassie could actually feel her chest quivering with the beating of her heart as they walked off the beach. She thrust one hand into her pocket to feel the cold, smooth piece of hematite. Iron-strength, that was what she needed right now.

"Are you crazy?" Faye hissed as they climbed the bluff and headed for the road. She caught Cassie's arm in a punishing grip, holding her back from the others. "Do you know where that trail goes?"

Cassie shook the arm off. "Trust me," she said shortly.

"What?"

Cassie whirled on the taller girl. "I said, trust me! I know what I'm doing-and you don't." And with that she began to climb again. Iron-strength, she thought dizzily, impressed with herself.

But she still found it hard to breathe when Diana stood out in the middle of Crowhaven Road-near Number Two, Deborah's house- and held up the peridot crystal.

Cassie watched it, feeling the concentration of