The Captive Page 0,47

skeletons, spitting cats with arched backs, and surprised-looking ghosts on the walls.

It was all so fun and harmless. The ordinary students who'd come to dance and masquerade and drink purple poison punch had no idea of the real darkness that lurked outside. Even the ones who hated the Club didn't know the full truth.

Diana and Adam arrived together, making what must have been the most impressive entrance New Salem High School had ever seen. Diana, in her simple white shift, with her bare throat and arms looking as fresh as baby's skin, and her aureole of shining hair falling down her back, looked like a shaft of moonlight that had somehow wandered accidentally into the gym.

And Adam-Adam always had a presence, a way of innately commanding respect from anyone smart enough really to look at him. Tonight, as Herne, he was more arresting than ever. He seemed to be the forest god, perilous and mischievous, awe-inspiring but not unkind. Above all, he looked wild. There was nothing domesticated about him; he belonged in the open spaces, running underneath the stars. Raj stayed beside him, looking more like a wolf than a dog, and none of the chaperons said a word of objection.

"You know what happens tonight," a voice murmured, breath warm on Cassie's neck.

Cassie said, "What, Faye?" without turning around.

"Well, the coven leaders who represent the goddess Diana and the horned god have to make an alliance. They have to..." Faye paused delicately. ". . . merge, shall we say? To represent the union of male and female principals."

"You mean they... ?"

"It can be done symbolically," Faye said blandly. "But somehow I don't think Adam and Diana will be satisfied with symbolism, do you?"

Chapter Twelve

Cassie stood petrified. Her heart was going like a trip-hammer, but that was the only part of her capable of motion.

Adam and Diana... they couldn't. Only, of course, they could. Diana was laughing up at Adam now, tossing her straight, shining hair back. And although Cassie couldn't see Adam's eyes behind the mask, his lips were smiling.

Cassie turned, almost blundering into Nick, who was bringing her some punch, and rushed off into the dimness.

She found a dark corner under a Chinese lantern that had gone out. Shielded by a curtain of black and orange streamers, she stood there, trying to get hold of herself, trying not to see the pictures her mind was showing her.

The next thing she knew, she could smell wood smoke and ocean breeze, along with a faint, indefinable scent of animal and oak leaves. Adam.

"Cassie," he said. Just that, as if Herne were calling her in her dreams, inviting her to throw off the covers in the middle of the night and come dancing in the autumn leaves.

And then, in a more ordinary voice, he said quietly, "Cassie, are you okay? Diana says-"

"What?" Cassie demanded, in a way that would have been fierce if her voice hadn't been trembling.

"She's just worried that you're not all right."

"I'm all right!" Cassie was struggling not to let the tears escape. "And anyway-I'm tired of people talking about me behind my back. Faye says, Diana says-I'm tired of it."

He took both her cold hands in his. "I think," he said in a subdued voice, "that you're just tired, period."

I am, Cassie thought. I'm tired of having secrets. And I'm tired of fighting. If I'm already evil, what's the point of fighting?

Just at the moment, to think was to act.

Before she knew what she was doing, her hands had turned inside Adam's, so that her fingers were clasping his. Not by 'word or look or deed, what a laugh, she thought. We've already broken it a thousand times. Why not really break it? That way at least she would have something concrete to feel bad about. That way Diana wouldn't have him first.

That was the crux of it. Diana might have everything else, but she wouldn't have Adam first.

I could do it, Cassie thought. Suddenly, her mind was working coolly and rationally, far removed from all the twisted pain in her chest. Adam was vulnerable to her because he was honorable, because he would never dream of her scheming to get him.

If she started to cry right now ... If she got him close enough to hold her, then relaxed against him, making herself soft in his arms... If she laid her head on his shoulder so that he could smell her hair ... If she sighed and let her head fall back... would he be