The Divide Page 0,37

Will the hunters die?"

Diana hesitated. "It's a little unclear. The translation left a lot to interpretation, but it seems like the effect of the spell depends on the hunter."

"So they might die," Melanie said.

"Let me have a look at this." Faye grabbed Diana's Book of Shadows from her hands and scanned the page. As her eyes moved back and forth across the ancient script, she appeared to be drawing in her breath and backing away from the words in disbelief.

"This isn't a spell," Faye said. "It's a curse." Diana stared at the ground. "Yes," she said. "Technically it is a curse."

Faye was suddenly roiling with excitement. "It's similar to a deflection spell by turning the hunter's power back on them, but it calls on Hecate. This could be . . ." She couldn't find the right word.

"Dangerous," Diana said. "We'll only use it as a last resort."

Chapter 16

The rain was only a drizzle, and although it was nighttime, people were out and about. Scarlett had invited Cassie out tonight. Of course Cassie declined, but she wished she didn't have to. That's just what Cassie needed to clear her head - she needed to see other people, non-witches. She decided to drive into town. Even if she couldn't join the crowds of people going about their normal lives, she could at least watch them from inside her Volkswagen.

But she'd barely made it to Bridge Street when the light rain amplified to a hammering downpour. Everyone out on the streets scrambled for shelter inside restaurants and stores; some hovered within doorways and beneath overpasses. Cassie was dry and safe inside her car, and she felt like she was inside a snow dome that someone had shaken up, submerged by the shuddering rain on all sides but also untouched by it.

And then she suddenly felt stripped of that safety. Her heart started to pound in her chest, and she began to sweat. She felt like she was being followed, but she didn't see any cars behind her. She kept checking the rearview mirror, and all she saw was the wet darkness in her own back window. Still, she decided to take a detour, in hopes of shaking the feeling.

With a sharp turn of the steering wheel, she veered onto Dodge Street, a secluded road that would lead her back to the turnpike. Cassie had to slow down to maneuver its many meandering curves, but when she stepped on the brake pedal, her foot emptily dropped to the floor.

She tried again and again, but there was no use. Her brakes weren't working.

The car suddenly felt to her like it was speeding up, an angry vessel set on racing her to her death. She couldn't stop it, and letting up on the gas pedal was only doing so much. Panicked, she gripped the steering wheel and tried to bear off to the side of the road, where maybe the grass would slow the car enough so she could jump out to safety.

But the grass did nothing to reduce the acceleration.

Cassie's only chance was to jump out while the car continued full speed ahead. Panicked, she clutched the door handle and pushed the door open. But before she had the chance to leap to the ground, the car smashed right into a giant, thick-barked oak tree.

She blacked out for a moment, maybe longer. When she opened her eyes, she saw she'd been thrown from the car, through the windshield. She checked her arms and legs to see if she could move them and searched her face for blood. Unbelievably, she was all right.

But her car was totaled. Looking at it through the dark rain, it reminded Cassie of a crushed soda can, flimsily accordioned to the tree. It was a miracle to be alive.

She stood up slowly, continuing to take inventory of her surroundings, and recognized that the evil feeling was gone. Whatever dark presence had been following her had disappeared, but Cassie couldn't shake the feeling that this was no accident.

She welled up with tears then. It wasn't a miracle. It was the protection spell that had saved her.

Cassie hated to do it, but she knew she had to. She checked her body and clothes for that awful ancient symbol.

It reminded her of searching for deer ticks after a day out in the woods, except the consequences in this case meant ultimate death. She was relieved not to find one. Cassie may have nearly been killed tonight, but at least she hadn't been marked.

With