The Power Page 0,62

Constance said.

"And you stick together. As long as you stick together you'll have a chance," said Adam's grandmother.

And that was that. The women turned back to the bed. Cassie stood for one more moment looking at the candles - so white, with their flames even whiter, a golden white like Diana's hair - and at the myriad ghostly shadows on the ceiling and walls. Then she left. As she quietly shut the door, all the candle flames danced wildly, and she had a last glimpse of the three women in the room, arms raised, beginning a kind of dance too. The silver bell chimed softly.

She hadn't noticed the wind inside the room, but now she did. Everything outside that door seemed colder and noisier, and the dim light coming in through the windows looked gray and wintry. Cassie had an impulse to go back into the golden room and hide there, but she knew she couldn't.

She walked back to Adam's house, Number Nine, with the wind pushing her all the way.

She was the last one back. The Circle was in Adam's living room, sitting around Sean, who was sitting within the circle of quartz crystals. Sean's face was very pink and scrubbed-looking, his hair was wet and spiky, and he was wearing clothes too big for him. Adam's, Cassie guessed. Around his neck was the canvas pouch full of herbs Diana had prepared. He looked dazed and terrified, but he didn't seem to be trying to get away.

"Were they there? Did you find them?" Diana asked Cassie.

Cassie nodded. She didn't quite want to tell Diana how she had found them. She didn't know how Melanie and Adam and Laurel would feel about their elderly relatives dancing naked around a sickroom. They might think there was something wrong with it; they might not understand about the golden light.

"They said they'd stay where they were," she said. "Granny Quincey said my mom couldn't be moved, and that they were trying to help her. They said we should be careful, and Adam's grandmother told us to stick together."

"Good advice," Adam said, looking at Sean. "And that's just about the point we've gotten to, here. Are we going to stick together or not?"

"We tried asking him about the murders," Laurel informed Cassie in a low voice, "but he doesn't remember anything - doesn't know what we're talking about. We had to convince him that it wasn't a joke. He believes us now, but he's scared to death."

"So here's the choice, Sean," Adam was saying. "You can stand with us, or you can spend the rest of the day locked in the cellar where you can't make trouble."

"Or," Diana said softly, "you can go to him, to Black John. It's his right," she added quickly, as some of the others began to protest. "He has to make the decision."

Sean's frightened eyes roved all around the room. Cassie felt sorry for him, sitting surrounded, with everyone looking at him. When he spoke, his voice was squeaky but definitive. "I'll stand with you guys."

"Good boy," Laurel said approvingly, and Deborah thumped him on the back so hard he nearly fell over. The Hendersons said nothing, simply looked at him out of their strange blue-green eyes, and Cassie had the feeling they might never forgive him for what had happened to Kori, even if it hadn't been his fault. But at least for now, the Circle stood together.

Except...

Cassie looked at Adam, and they both looked at Diana. Diana nodded.

"Now's the time," she said. "This is Faye's last chance - let's hope she takes it."

Cassie didn't have much hope, but she picked up the cordless phone lying on a pile of unfolded laundry on the couch. "What's her beeper number?"

Diana unfolded a scrap of paper and read it off. "After it rings, press pound and then dial Adam's number," she instructed.

Cassie did and turned off the phone. She waited. Nothing happened.

"We should give her a while to get to a phone," Diana said.

They all waited. Rain beat at the windows, and the wind howled in the chimney.

"Isn't there anything we should do? Like - I don't know, nail boards over the windows or something?" Cassie asked.

"Normally, yeah. We'd put up storm shutters, lash everything down, all that stuff," Adam said. "But if this one hits us, I think we're history, so there's not much point."

They waited.

"Try her again," Diana said, and Cassie did.

"Her mom hadn't seen her since this morning," Suzan said. "I wonder where she and Black John