Treading lightly across the rickety wooden porch, Cassie stepped closer to the sound. The shrubs moved again - this time she saw it with her own eyes - and she screamed, "Scarlett!"
An orange tabby cat shot out from the wavering hedge, zipping past Cassie and up a neighbor's tree. The cat's prey was left behind in the uncut grass: a sorry-looking field mouse. Cassie exhaled. She would have laughed out loud at herself if she weren't so embarrassed.
She walked back around to the front porch just as Adam pulled up to the curb. Her heart hadn't yet returned to its regular rhythm when she climbed into the passenger seat of his old Mustang and leaned over for a kiss.
"What were you doing in the backyard?" Adam asked as he pulled out of her driveway and onto Crowhaven Road. "Running laps? You're all sweaty."
"Is that any way to greet your girlfriend?" Cassie joked. "By telling her she's perspiring?"
Adam smiled. "I'm just saying you look hot, that's all. Hot and humid." He waited for her to laugh, and when she didn't he tilted his head at her apologetically.
Cassie appreciated Adam's sense of humor, even when he was teasing her. No matter how dire the situation was with the hunters and with Scarlett, Adam was still able to make light of things. Cassie needed that now more than ever.
She focused on the sparkle in his blue-gray eyes and thought of the silver cord, that mystifying bond that connected Adam's soul to hers. What did it mean that she'd also seen a cord connecting Adam to Scarlett on the night of their battle? Could she have imagined it? Cassie could hardly think about it. She reached for Adam's free hand and interlaced her fingers with his.
"Is that from the fire in Cape Cod?" Adam asked. He lifted Cassie's sleeve up, revealing the blistering spots on her left hand. "I didn't realize how bad these were before. Are they getting worse?"
Cassie remained silent, unsure of how to explain these new marks on her body, but her silence only misled Adam to believe he'd been correct about their source.
"We have to find Scarlett," he said. "She has to pay for this and everything else she's done." Cassie still didn't know what to say; the situation was much more complicated than that.
"How can you sit there so calmly?" He took his eyes off the road to momentarily glance at Cassie. "You've been physically, and most likely permanently, scarred by her. We can't let her get away with this."
"These burns aren't from my battle with Scarlett," Cassie said, more abruptly than she'd meant to. "They're from last night."
Adam slowed the car almost to a stop. "Last night? What happened last night?"
Cassie watched a crowded school bus zip past them on the left. Behind them, a frustrated tailgater honked his horn. "I don't want to keep any secrets from you," she said. "But if I tell you something, I need it to stay between us."
Adam pulled over to the side of the road and cut the engine, sensing this would require his full attention. "I think it goes without saying by this point, but you can trust me."
They were stopped in front of Sprinkles Donut Shop, and the air smelled like sugar and frosting.
"My mother gave me something last night. Something that had been hidden in my grandmother's house for a long time," Cassie said, and then paused. She knew she could tell Adam anything and he wouldn't judge her, but it was still difficult getting the words out.
"Don't tell me there are more Master Tools we didn't know about. That would be incredible." Adam's voice was hopeful in a way that made Cassie's heart break.
"No. But it is something that belonged to Black John."
Adam's posture straightened at the sound of Black John's name and he sat icily still.
"I have his Book of Shadows," Cassie said.
She watched Adam's expression turn from apprehensive to excited. "Are you serious?" he shouted. "Do you realize how much we can learn from that book?"
"There's more," Cassie said, before Adam could get carried away. "When I opened it, it was like the book turned against me, like it was alive in my hands. Just like when the Master Tools backfired on me when I was battling Scarlett."
Adam nodded, remembering how the Tools had obeyed Scarlett's black magic. They'd singed Cassie's skin just before they unhinged themselves from her body and flew at Scarlett's outstretched hands. "That explains the burns," he said. "But what's the connection between the two?"
"I think the book is spelled," Cassie said. "Something to prevent the wrong people from getting a hold of it. But it wasn't like I could read it anyway. It's written in some ancient language I've never seen before. It doesn't even look like words."
"We should have Diana search her Book of Shadows for information." Adam immediately went into strategizing mode. "There must be a way to break the book's spell. And we can all start researching the language. There's a chance it could be Sumerian, or even cuneiform. Black John's ancestors would go back that far."
"Adam," Cassie interrupted him. "Remember you agreed we could keep this between us?"
Adam's face dropped. He looked away momentarily. "But that was before I knew what it was."
"I'm sorry," Cassie said. "But I need to understand more of what this is before involving the rest of the Circle. This is about me and my father."