"No," Cassie said quickly, before Diana could answer. They looked at her, startled, and she said, "I'll stay and help make dinner, if it's all right, Diana. I told my grandma and my mom I'd be gone and they've probably already eaten by now."
Diana's graciousness rose to the fore. "Oh- of course you can stay, then," she said. "We'll be fine, Adam."
"Okay." Adam gave Cassie a keen glance, which she returned woodenly. He went out, following Chris and Doug into the darkness. The flicker of a match up ahead showed where Nick was. Cassie looked up at the night sky, which glittered brashly with stars but not a trace of moon, and then stepped back as Diana shut the door.
Dinner was quiet, with Mr. Meade sitting there, leafing through a newspaper, occasionally glancing up over his reading glasses at the two girls. Afterward they went back up to Diana's room. Cassie realized she needed to stall.
"You know, you never told me about that print," she said, pointing. Decorating Diana's walls were six art prints. Five of them were very similar, black and white with a slightly old-fashioned look. Diana had told her they were pictures of Greek goddesses: Aphrodite, the beautiful but fickle goddess of love;
Artemis, the fierce virgin huntress; Hera, the imperious queen of the gods; Athena, the calm gray-eyed goddess of wisdom; and Persephone, who loved flowers and all growing things.
But the last print was different. It was in color, and the style was more abstract, more modern. It showed a young woman standing beneath a starry sky, while a crescent moon shone silver down on her flowing hair. She was wearing a simple white garment, cut high to show a garter on her thigh. On her upper arm was a silver cuff-bracelet, and on her head was a thin circlet with a crescent moon, horns upward.
It was the outfit Diana wore at meetings of the Circle.
"Who is she?" Cassie said, staring at the beautiful girl in the print.
"Diana," Diana said wryly. Cassie turned to her, and she smiled. "The goddess Diana," she added. "Not the Roman Diana; another one. She's older than all the Greek goddesses, and she was different from them. She was a Great Goddess; she ruled everything. She was goddess of the night and the moon and the stars-there's a story that once she turned all the stars into mice to impress the witches on earth. So they made her Queen of the Witches."
Cassie grinned. "I think it would take more than that to impress Faye."
"Probably. Some people say that her legend was based on an actual person, who taught magic and was a champion of poor women. Other people say she was first a Sun Goddess, but then she got chased out by male Sun Gods and turned to the night. The Romans got her confused with the Greek goddess Artemis-you know, the huntress-but she was much more than that. Anyway, she's always been Queen of the Witches."
"Like you," Cassie said.
Diana laughed and shook her head. "I may not always be leader," she said. "It all depends on what happens between now and November tenth. That's the day of the leadership vote."
"Why November tenth?"
"It's my birthday-Faye's too, coincidentally. You have to be seventeen to be permanent leader, and that's when we both will be."
Cassie was surprised. Diana was still only sixteen, like her? She always seemed so mature, and she was a senior. But it was even stranger that Faye was so young, and that the cousins had the same birthday.
She looked at Diana, sitting there on the bed. As beautiful as the girl in the last print was, Diana was more beautiful. With hair that indescribable color, like sunlight and moonlight woven together, and a face like a flower, and eyes like green jewels, Diana resembled something from a fairy tale or legend more than a real person. But the goodness and-well, purity that shone out of Diana's eyes were very real indeed, Cassie thought. Cassie was proud to be her friend.
Then the light flashed on the gold key around Diana's neck and she remembered what she was there to do.
I can't, Cassie thought, as her stomach plummeted giddily. She could feel the slow, sick pounding of her heart. Right this minute around her own neck was hanging the crescent-moon necklace that Diana had given her at her initiation. How could she steal from Diana, deceive Diana?
But she'd been through all that before. There was no way out. Faye would do exactly what she had threatened-Cassie knew that. The only way to save Diana was to deceive her.
It's for her own good, Cassie told herself. So just stop thinking about it. Do what you have to and get it over with.
"Cassie? You look upset."
"I-" Cassie started to say, no, of course not, and change the subject the way she usually did when somebody caught her daydreaming. But then she had an idea. "I don't really feel like going home alone," she said, grimacing. "It's not just the walk-it's that house. It creaks and rattles all night long and sometimes I can't even get to sleep. Especially if I'm thinking about. . . about..."
"Is that all?" Diana said, smiling. "Well, that's easy to take care of. Sleep here." Cassie was stricken at how easily Diana made the offer. "And if you're worried about the skull," Diana went on, "you can stop. It's not going anywhere, and it's not going to do anything more to hurt people. I promise."
Cassie's face flamed and she had to struggle not to look at the cabinet. She would never have mentioned the skull herself: she couldn't have gotten the word out. "Okay," she said, trying to keep her voice normal. "Thanks. I'll call my mom and tell her I'm staying over."
"We can drive to your house so you can get dressed in the morning-I'll check on the guest room." As Diana left, the voices in Cassie's mind were rioting. You little sneak, they shouted at her. You nasty, weaselly, lying little traitor-
Shut up! Cassie shouted back at them, with such force that they actually did shut up.
She called her mother.
"The guest room's ready," Diana said, reappearing as Cassie hung up the phone. "But if you get scared in the night you can come in here."