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and unsealed its top. And there, quietly seated within the confines of that silver box, was the shimmering diadem in all its glory.

Quickly Cassie shoved the diadem deep into her bag and replaced the box snugly back into the wall. She rehung the print over the hole and straightened it to just the way she'd found it.

The entire terrible act took less than five minutes to complete. The antique furniture still sat in place, and the prisms still shot colorful rainbows around the room. All appeared just as she'd found it. But the diadem in her bag felt charged - it felt alive. She could sense its power quaking at her side.

Cassie returned to the group innocently, shoving her bag onto the seat of one of the kitchen chairs and then pushing it beneath the table. The group had relocated to the living room, where they were sprawled across the couch and the floor, surrounding the center table. Everyone was looking at Cassie now, and they were peculiarly silent.

Cassie held her breath. Perhaps she'd taken longer than she thought.

"What happened, did you fall in?" Doug Henderson called out, and everyone laughed.

"Sorry." Cassie exhaled with relief. "I was fixing my makeup."

Adam scolded Doug with his eyes and then invited Cassie to sit beside him on the couch. The meeting was about to begin.

Cassie smiled harmlessly and went to Adam. She took his warm strong hand in hers and waited for Diana to rise and begin speaking. She felt not a single ounce of guilt for what she'd just done. This was so unlike her, but she knew that if she were in danger, Scarlett would do the same for her. The group would understand once it was all over, once she single-handedly rescued Scarlett and defeated the hunters with the power of the Master Tools at her command. Then they would see that she was right all along, and that even her stealing the Master Tools from her fell ow leaders was a necessary evil. A necessary evil, that was a concept Cassie had never really thought about before, but that had to be what this was.

She glanced over at her bag in the kitchen and could swear there was an energy surrounding it, a force of white strength and vigor. She hoped no one else noticed. All she needed to do now was get the garter from Faye.

Chapter 25

Some would say sneaking around outside Faye Chamberlain's house in the middle of the night was a death wish, and they would be correct. But Cassie had come too far at this point to back down now; plus she'd come prepared. She'd spent the whole day studying her Book of Shadows, memorizing every spell her mind could hold that might help her get through this covert mission undetected.

Faye had way too much fun with spells, so there was no way the garter was going to be left unguarded. Traceable or not, magic was the only way Cassie would be able to get her hands on it. But first she had to find it.

Cassie was familiar with how to break into Faye's house through the basement. All she had to do was unhook the latch of the wooden cell ar door in the backyard and slip down to the cement floor below - the same way she knew Faye snuck in and out during all hours of the night.

Once inside, Cassie looked around. The basement was dark and moldy, crowded with dusty crates and damp cardboard boxes. It crossed Cassie's mind that if Faye had snuck out tonight and returned through the cell ar door behind her, she would be caught. And to be caught by Faye was as good as being destroyed by Faye. Cassie glanced behind her to the closed door and then cautiously around the musty room. She had to keep going; there was no turning back now, regardless of the risk. Before she turning back now, regardless of the risk. Before she allowed her fear to get the best of her, she decided to try a summoning spell for the garter.

Grasping the pendant of pink quartz around her neck, Cassie whispered the incantation she'd memorized from her Book of Shadows, modifying it for her current purpose.

Lost for now Soon to be found Ancient garter come unbound Nothing happened at first, but she waited patiently, circled the room, and repeated the words again.

No luck. And she felt nothing. So she decided to try something stronger. It was also a