The Power Page 0,42

Diana's car, though, when Adam appeared, running.

"The fight's breaking up - and I'm coming with you," he said. Cassie wanted to argue, but she didn't have the strength. Besides, Diana might need Adam there when Cassie told her the whole story.

Cassie nodded at Adam and he got in the car without further discussion. They drove to Diana's house and went up to Diana's room.

"Now tell us what happened before I have a heart attack," Diana said.

But it wasn't that easy. Cassie went over to the bay window, where sunlight was striking the prisms hanging there so that wedges of rainbow light bobbed and slid over the walls. She turned to look at the black and white prints on either side of the window; Diana's collection of Greek goddesses. There was proud Hera, queenly with her mane of pitch-black hair and her hooded, untamed eyes; there was Aphrodite, goddess of beauty, with her soft bosom exposed; there was fierce Artemis, the virgin huntress afraid of nothing. And here, on the other side, was Athena, the gray-eyed goddess of wisdom, and Persephone, fresh-faced and elfin and surrounded by blooming flowers. Last of all, in color, was the print of a goddess older than the Greek civilization, the great goddess Diana, who ruled the moon and stars and night. Diana, Queen of Witches.

"Cassie!"

"Sorry," Cassie whispered, and slowly turned to face her Diana. Who just now looked sick with suspense.

"I'm sorry," she said, more loudly. "I just don't know how to say this, I guess. But I know now why I was born so much later than all of you . . . or, actually, no, I don't." She pondered that a moment. "Not why I was so late. Unless he knew by then the coven was going to try to throw him out, so he thought he'd better have a back-up . . ." Cassie thought it over and shook her head. Adam and Diana were staring at her as if she'd gone crazy. "I guess I don't know everything. But I'm not half outsider, like we thought. That isn't why he's been after me; it's a completely different reason. We thought Kori and I spoiled his plans somehow . . . oh, God." Cassie stopped, feeling a pain like jagged glass shoot through her. Her eyes filled. "I think - God, it must be. I know why Kori died. Because of me. If she hadn't died, she would have joined the coven instead of me, and he didn't want that. She was the one he hadn't planned on. So he had to get rid of her." Another spasm of pain almost doubled Cassie over. She was afraid she might be sick.

"Sit down," Adam was saying urgently. They were both helping her to the bed.

"Don't. . . you don't know yet. You might not want to touch me."

"Cassie, for God's sake tell us what you're talking about. You're not making any sense."

"Yes, I am. I'm Black John's daughter."

In that instant, if either of them had loosened their grip on her or recoiled, Cassie felt she might have tried to jump out the window. But Diana's clear green eyes just widened, the pupils huge and bottomless. Adam's eyes turned silver.

"Faye told me, and it's true."

"It's not true," Adam said tightly.

"It's not true, and I'll kill her," Diana said. This, from gentle Diana, was astonishing.

They both went on holding Cassie. Diana was holding her from one side and Adam was on the other side, holding both of them, embracing their embrace. Cassie's shaking shook all three.

"It is true," Cassie whispered, trying to keep some grip on herself. She had to be calm now; she couldn't lose control. "It explains everything. It explains why I dreamed about him - him and the sinking ship. We're - connected, somehow. It explains why he keeps coming after me, like when we called him up at Halloween, and last night on the beach. He wants me to join him. Faye's in love with him. Just like my mother was."

Cassie shuddered. Adam and Diana just kept hanging on. to her. Neither of them even flinched when she looked them in the face.

"It explains my mother" Cassie said thickly. "Why he went to our house that night when he came back, when we let him out of the grave. He went to see her - that's why she's like she is now. Oh, Diana, I have to go to her."

"In a minute," Diana said, her own voice husky with