Four red, four white. "Laurel," said Melanie.

"Diana's always been our leader, and she always will be," Laurel said. "I vote for her."

Melanie put a fifth white stone out, a trace of a smile hovering on her lips. "Sean."

Sean's black eyes shifted nervously. "I . . ." Faye was staring at him relentlessly. "I ... I ... Faye" he said, and hunched up his shoulders.

Melanie shrugged and put out another red stone. Five red, five white. But although her gray eyes remained serious, her lips were definitely curved in a smile. All of Diana's adherents had relaxed, and they were flashing smiles at each other across the circle.

Melanie turned confidently to the last member of the coven and said, "Ca.s.sandra."

FOURTEEN.

There was silence under the silver disk of moon.

"Ca.s.sie," Melanie said again.

Now everyone was looking at her. Ca.s.sie could feel the heat of Faye's golden eyes on her, and she

knew why Sean had squirmed. They were hotter than the pillar of fire Diana had summoned up to protect

them at Halloween.

As if compelled, Ca.s.sie glanced the other way. Diana was looking at her too. Diana's eyes were like a pool adrift with green leaves. Ca.s.sie couldn't seem to look away from them.

"Ca.s.sie?" Melanie said for the third time. Her voice was tinged with the slightest note of doubt.

Still unable to look away from Diana's eyes, Ca.s.sie whispered, "Faye."

"What? "cried Laurel.

"Faye," Ca.s.sie said, too loudly. She was clutching the piece of hemat.i.te in her pocket. Coldness from it

seemed to seep through her body. "I said Faye, all right?" she said to Melanie, but she was still looking at

Diana.Those clear green eyes were bewildered. Then, all at once, understanding came into them, as if a stonehad been tossed into the tranquil pool. And when Ca.s.sie saw that, saw Diana really understand whathad just happened, something inside her died forever.

Ca.s.sie didn't know any longer why she was voting for Faye. She couldn't remember now how all this had started, how she'd gotten on this path in the first place. All she knew was that the coldness from her hand and arm was trickling through her entire body, and that from here on, there was no turning back.

Melanie was sitting motionless, stunned, not touching the pile of red and white stones. She seemed to have forgotten about them. It was Deborah who leaned forward and picked up the sixth red stone, adding it to Faye's pile.

And somehow that act, and the sight of the six red stones beside the five white ones, made it real.

Electricity crackled in the air as everyone sat forward.

Slowly, Melanie said, "Faye is the new leader of the coven."

Faye stood up.

She had never seemed so tall before, or so beautiful.

Silently, she held out a hand to Diana.But it wasn't a gesture of friendship. Faye's open hand with the long crimson nails was demanding. Andin response to it, very slowly, Diana got to her feet as well. She unclasped the silver bracelet from herupper arm.

Adam had been staring, thunderstruck. Now he jumped to his feet. "Wait a minute-"

"It's no use, Adam," Melanie said, in a deadened voice. "The vote was fair. Nothing can change it now."

Faye took the silver bracelet with the mysterious, runic inscriptions, and clasped it about her own bare, rounded arm. It shone there against the honey-pale skin.

Diana's fingers trembled as she undid the garter. Laurel, muttering something and brushing tears out of her

eyes with an angry gesture, moved forward to help her, kneeling before Diana and tugging at the circle of green leather and blue silk. It came free and Laurel stood up, looking as if she wanted to throw it at Faye.

But Diana took it and placed it in Faye's hand.

Faye was wearing the shimmering black shift that she'd worn to the Halloween dance, the one slit up both sides to the hip. She buckled the garter around her left thigh.

Then Diana put both hands to her hair and lifted off the diadem. Fine strands of hair the color of sunlight

and moonlight woven together clung to the silver crown as she removed it.

Faye reached out and almost s.n.a.t.c.hed it from her.

Faye held the circlet up high, as if showing it to the coven, to the four elements, to the world. Then she

settled it on her own head. The crescent moon in its center gleamed against her wild black mane of hair.

There was a collective release of breath from the Circle.

Ca.s.sie didn't know how she'd gotten to her feet, but suddenly she was running. She bolted out of the

circle and ran beside the ocean, her feet sinking into wet sand. She ran until something caught her from behind and stopped her.

"Ca.s.sie!" Adam said. His eyes looked straight into hers, as if he was searching for her soul.

Ca.s.sie hit out at him.

"Ca.s.sie, I know you didn't want to do it! She made you, somehow, didn't she? Ca.s.sie, tell me!"Ca.s.sie tried to shake him off again. Why was he bothering her? She was furious, suddenly, with Adamand Diana and their everlasting faith in her.

"I know she made you," Adam said forcefully.

"n.o.body made me!" Ca.s.sie almost shouted. Then she stopped fighting him and they stood and stared at each other, both breathing hard.

"You'd better get back there," Ca.s.sie said. "We're not supposed to be alone-remember? Remember our

oath? Not that I guess you need to think about it much anymore. It's pretty easy to keep these days, isn't.i.t?"

"Ca.s.sie, what's going on?"

"Nothing is going on! Just go, Adam. Just-" Before Ca.s.sie could stop herself she had grabbed Adam's arms and pulled him forward.

And then she kissed him. It was a hard, angry kiss, and the next moment when she released him she was as stunned as he was.

They stared at each other speechlessly.

"Go back," Ca.s.sie said, hardly able to hear her own voice through the pounding in her ears. It was over, it was all over. She was so cold . . . not just her skin, but inside her, deep in her core, she was freezing. Freezing over like black ice. Everything was black around her.

She pushed Adam away and made for the distant glow of the bonfire.

"Ca.s.sie!"

"I'm going back. To congratulate our new leader."

It was chaos back at the circle. Laurel was crying, Deborah was shouting, Chris and Doug were glaring like a couple of tomcats about to fight and calling each other names. Sean was hovering behind Faye to keep his distance from a disdainful Melanie. Suzan was telling Chris and Doug to grow up, while Faye laughed. Of all of them, only Nick and Diana were utterly still. Nick was smoking silently, away from the rest of the group, watching them with narrowed eyes.

Diana was just standing there, exactly where she'd been when Ca.s.sie left. She didn't seem to see or hear any of the disturbance around her.

"Will you all just shut up?" Deborah was yelling when Ca.s.sie reached them. "Faye's the one in charge now."

"That's right," Suzan said. Chris and Doug were shoving each other now. Suzan saw Ca.s.sie and said appealingly, "Isn't that right, Ca.s.sie?*

It was strange, how quickly the silence descended. Everyone was looking at Ca.s.sie again.

"That's right," Ca.s.sie said, in a voice hard as stone.

Chris and Doug stopped shoving. Laurel stopped crying. No one moved as Ca.s.sie walked over behind Faye. From that position she might have been supporting Faye-or she might have been about to stab her in the back.

If Faye was afraid, she didn't show it. "Okay," she said to the others. "You heard it. I'm leader. And now I'm going to give my first order." She turned her head slightly to address Ca.s.sie. "I want you to get the skull. As for the rest of you-we're going to the cemetery."

"What?" Laurel screamed.

"I'm leader and I'm going to do something with my power instead of just sitting on it. There's energy trapped in that skull, energy that we can use. Ca.s.sie, go get it."

Everyone was talking now, arguing, bellowing at each other. Things had never been like this when Diana was leader. Adam was yelling at Faye, demanding to know if she had gone crazy. Only Nick and Diana remained still, Nick watching, Diana staring at something only she could see.

Melanie was trying to restore calm, but it was doing no good. Some distant, clinical part of Ca.s.sie's mind noted that if Diana were to interfere now, if Diana would come forward and take over, the coven would listen to her. But Diana did nothing. And the shouting just got louder.

"Get it, Ca.s.sie," Faye was snarling between clenched teeth. "Or I'll get it myself."

Ca.s.sie could feel Power building around her. The sky overhead was stretched tight as a drum, tight as a harp string waiting to be plucked. The ocean behind her throbbed with pent-up force. She could feel it in the sand under her feet, and see it in the leaping flames of the bonfire.

She remembered what she'd done to the Doberman in the pumpkin patch. Some power had burst out from her, focused like a laser beam. Ca.s.sie felt as if something like that was concentrating in her now. She was connected to everything and it was all waiting for her to unleash it.