The Captive Page 0,46

she said now. "That's the reason for all the shells."

Suzan's hair was loose around her shoulders, and her robe was the color of sea foam. Iridescent sequins, seed pearls, and tiny shells decorated the mask she held in her hand.

Laurel was a fairy. "A nature spirit," she said, pivoting to show long, curving dragonfly wings. She was wearing a garland of leaves and silk flowers on her head.

"Everyone looks great," a soft voice said, and Cassie turned and caught her breath. Diana wasn't even dressed up, or at least she was only wearing her ceremonial costume, the one she wore at Circles. But she appeared to be wreathed in her own light and she was beautiful beyond description.

Laurel spoke quietly in Cassie's ear. "She's not making fun of it or anything, you know. Halloween's our most magical holiday of the year. She's honoring it."

"Oh," Cassie murmured. Her eyes slid to Faye.

Faye, she guessed, was a witch. The kind that guys were afraid of. She was wearing a sleeveless black dress, like a parody of the white shift Diana wore at meetings of the Circle. It was slit up both sides to the hip, and cut to show every curve. The material shimmered like silk when she walked.

There are going to be some hearts broken at the dance tonight, Cassie thought.

Downstairs, the doorbell rang, and the girls all went down in their fluttering draperies and rippling gowns to meet the guys. The Club was going to this dance in a group, as they planned to leave in a group at eleven thirty.

Nick was Cassie's date, but in that first moment all she could see was Adam. He was amazing. The branched ends of stag antlers sprouted from a crown of oak leaves on his head, and he was wearing a mask of oak leaves and acorns.

"He's Herne, the horned god," Melanie said. "Sort of like Pan, you know, a nature god. He's god of animals, too-that's why he gets to take Raj with him."

Raj was there, trying to thrust his nose forward to give Cassie one of his embarrassingly warm greetings. Adam-or Herne; it unnerved Cassie how natural he looked with the horns and the oak leaves-held the dog back.

The other girls were laughing at the guys' costumes. "Sean," Laurel said, "you're skinny enough without showing all your bones." He was dressed as a skeleton.

Chris and Doug had strange symbols painted on their faces: black and red triangles, yellow lightning bolts. Their long hair was even more disheveled than usual. "We're Zax," they said, and everyone said, "Who?"

Chris answered: "Zax the magician. He pulls cigarettes out of the air."

"It's from some science-fiction show they saw once," Suzan explained finally.

Faye's slow, lazy voice broke in. "And just what are you supposed to be, Nick? The Man in Black?"

Cassie looked at Nick for the first time. He wasn't wearing a costume, just black jeans and a black pullover sweater. He looked very handsome, very cool.

"I'm supposed to be her date," he said calmly, and without another look at Faye he held out his hand to Cassie.

Faye can't mind, Cassie told herself as they walked to the line of cars outside. Faye doesn't want him anymore; she shouldn't care who he goes with. But there was a thin coil of uneasiness in her stomach as she let Nick guide her to the Armstrong car. Deborah and Laurel got in the back.

On the porches around them, jack-o'-lanterns had fiery grins and dancing flames for eyes. It was a crystal moonlit night.

"A haunted night," Laurel said from the backseat. "Tonight spirits gather at all the windows and doors, looking in. We always put a white candle in the window to guide them."

"Or a plate of food to feed them, so they don't try to come inside," Deborah said in a hollow voice.

Cassie laughed, but there was a slightly false note in the laughter. She didn't want spirits looking in her windows. And as for what Laurel had said two weeks ago, about dead relatives coming back to visit the living-well, Cassie didn't want that, either. She didn't know any of her dead relatives, except her father, and he probably wasn't really dead. No, on the whole, she'd rather just leave all dead people alone.

But the Circle was planning to do just the opposite tonight.

The gym was decorated with owls, bats, and witches flying across giant yellow moons. Black and orange crepe paper was wound around the girders and streamed from the basketball hoops. There were dancing