A/N: I just finished watching The Secret Circle on Netflix, and I can't believe we didn't get a second season to keep following these amazing characters and their stories. So I decided I'd take to Fanfiction and try to recreate some of the magic of the show-I hope this captures even a small part of what the experience of the show was for you. I read Miller's ideas on how the second season would happen, and have added that into this narrative. I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you'll share your thoughts with me by reviewing and keeping the Secret Circle fandom active! Thanks for reading, and enjoy.
Episode 2.1:
Return
The thick rain rolled down the window of the Java Brew. The smearing of raindrops made the headlights outside blur into yellow streaks. Cassie stared outside, her gaze fixed somewhere past the rain and the cars and the twilight of the September night. Her shift had ended two hours ago, but she didn't have the energy or desire to leave and return to the cold, empty house she now lived in by herself.
Ever since Jane had died that spring, school had ended, and Diana had left town, Cassie had felt the same distraction and emptiness. The sun that summer seemed too bright, the customers at the Java Brew too loud, and the pity of Chance Harbor's residents too overbearing. With every sad smile, every uninvited squeeze of the hand or hand on the shoulder, she could sense what they were thinking: Poor little Cassie Blake. First her father, then her mother, and now her grandmother. What a poor, sad little girl. She was exhausted by it. First her father, the stranger she never knew, then her mother, the woman who spent 16 years keeping the secrets of who they really were. Her grandmother, the only family she had left, and then her father, again, the dark witch who destroyed her mother's sense of security, betrayed her best friends' parents, and spent months manipulating her. If only Chance Harbor knew what Cassie had really lost, then they would know how tragic everything really was.
The numbness of the summer wouldn't have been nearly so unbearable if the Circle had remained together. Despite Cassie's pleading, the group refused to bind themselves. And despite Faye's insistence that they would be together whether they were bound or not, Cassie found herself drifting from the others. With her best friend out of town, Cassie found herself overwhelmed with loss and confusion, and with no one to talk to. Being near Adam was still too painful; each time they were together felt like ripping off the scab and bleeding fresh all over again. Faye and Melissa had been running through Chance Harbor, spelling up fun and whimsy to cure their boredom. They were enjoying a holiday in the sun while Cassie was still reeling with the power of defeating Blackwell and the pain of losing the people she cared most about. Jake trailed after Faye when he wasn't brooding in his bedroom. Their pain couldn't seem to connect them, however, and just built a bigger chasm between the two until they stopped communicating altogether, despite their daily proximity.
And now school was starting again, and Cassie would have to start her senior year at Chance Harbor High School. After Jane died, Cassie was put in the distant care of an advocate while some vague "they" tried to track down a relative who could act as guardian for Cassie during her last year of high school. Just like she knew it would, the search proved empty. Kate Meade, Diana's grandmother, volunteered to act as Cassie's advocate until she turned eighteen and could claim her inheritance, including the Blake house and the rest of Jane's estate. The arrangement proved rather lonely, however, and Cassie felt that it was Kate's attempt of trying to remain loyal to Jane and make up to Cassie for her role in everything that had gone so wrong last spring.
One thing kept Cassie moving through the summer, and that was knowing that Diana would return in September. At first she had truly believed that Diana had left Chance Harbor forever. Once she began her weekly visitations with Kate, which Cassie typically referred to as their awkward dinners or coffees, the woman assured her that Diana would be back to finish high school. Cassie realized she should have known; Diana was too mature and devoted to turn her back on her life in Chance Harbor forever. She was sailing with Grant as part of his ship's crew, and they would dock the night before school started. Tonight.
Cassie continued to stare out the window, watching the rain dance down it and wondering if Diana was sailing into port right now and watching the same frigid, Chance Harbor rain.
Cassie pulled her car along the sidewalk, turning off the engine. As the headlights disappeared, she was left with only the pattering of the raindrops on top of her roof. The twilight had faded as she left, and the night was now a swirling gray, the black sky obscured by the thick layer of clouds.
Closing the door shut, Cassie grabbed her purse and started toward the front door of the house her grandmother lived in, her mother grew up in, and she now occupied by herself. She scurried through the rain, which had intensified since she left work. Fumbling with her keys, she unlocked the door and slammed it behind her.
The house was dark and silent with no one else there. She lingered a moment, feeling the raindrops slither down stray strands of hair and the cotton of her Java Brew shirt clinging to her lower back. She glanced at the silhouettes of the lamps in the living room. Turning her back to them as she started up the stairs, the first floor of the house lit up in a bright yellow glow. Cassie ran her fingers through her hair, making it dry and soft.
In her bedroom, Cassie sighed, sitting on the end of her bed. Being able to do anything she wanted had become so second-nature after being her own company all summer. The first few weeks after Diana left, she tried to stop herself altogether from using magic, but it was like trying to convince herself to abandon the use of her right arm. The magic was a part of her. It came as naturally to her as blinking or breathing—her body, her instincts, knew what to do without any consideration of her conscious mind.
Cassie held up the palm of her hand, igniting the logs in the fireplace. The blaze cast tongues of bright orange flames up the chimney, warming the room immediately. She sighed again, unsure what was making her feel so exhausted and restless at the same time. Her mind felt like it was moving too fast for her to catch up with what it was thinking about, and at the same time wasn't moving at all.
She moved over to her dresser, pulling out shorts and a tank top to wear to bed. She changed, enjoying the feeling of the dry clothes against her fire-warmed skin. She paced into her bathroom, throwing her work clothing into the hamper. She sighed, and looked at her reflection. Her blond hair was flat and frizzy from the rain, and her cheeks were slightly pink from the fire. She reached up and ruffled the back of her head. As she drew her hand down, the palm of her hand caught her attention in the mirror. Emblazoned across it was the Balcoin symbol. Her eyebrows raised as the pink deepened and grew more distinct. She knew why she felt this way tonight.
Diana was back.
The wheels of Grant's car cut through the puddles on the pavement, sending out a misty wall of water onto the sidewalk. He slowed, pulling up alongside the Meade house. He turned the key and the engine's hum softened, the radio turning off. The metallic echoes of rain hitting the roof bounced between their silence.
"Do…you want me to come in with you?" Grant asked, turning toward Diana. Her dark eyes were glued on the windshield, watching the rain trickle down the glass.
"No," she eventually sighed, turning toward Grant. "I have to do this by myself. Besides…I don't think I'm ready for you to meet my grandmother yet." She turned back to the windshield, hoping Grant wouldn't press her to elaborate.
"Alright, well. If you need me, call me. I'm serious. Even if it's the middle of the night." Grant mustered the half-smile that had once melted Diana's heart, but right now she felt as cold as the rain outside.
"Thanks," she muttered, undoing her seat belt. She stepped out of the car, shivering slightly as she felt the wind and rain against her cheeks. She opened the back door, pulling out her duffle bag. She looked at Grant in the driver's seat. "Really, thank you," she said again. "I'll call you tomorrow."
"Have a good first day of school," Grant said with a wink.
"Yeah," Diana mumbled, slamming the door shut. "Don't think that one's gonna happen."
Grant tilted his head forward slightly and raised his eyebrows, waiting for the approval from Diana to leave. She gave him a half-smile and waved. He started the car again, and began down the wet, dark street.
Diana took a deep breath, turning and facing her walkway. This would be the first time she came home to her house knowing her father wasn't there, or wouldn't be back soon. Even when she got home late at night, her dad would stay up, re-reading the paper from that morning or drinking coffee. It never kept him up at night the way it did for Diana. His job as a lawyer allowed him to work quite often from his home office, which meant that most days he was able to return before Diana got home from school or extracurriculars. On a rainy night like tonight, he would probably have some macaroni and cheese waiting for her, her favorite comfort food. Despite it making her feel embarrassingly juvenile, she still preferred Kraft to anything else, and he always stashed a spare box in the back of the pantry for nights she was upset. He had always worked as hard as he could to make sure that even though she didn't grow up with two parents, Diana knew that the one she had was there for her 100%. She felt tears well up along the rim of her eyelids as she wondered how that person could have watched Cassie's mother burn.
Feeling the tips of her fingers going numb with cold, Diana forced her feet to move forward, focusing on the clicking of her heels against the concrete. As she moved up the porch steps, she reached for the doorknob, but the door swung open before she could grasp it. In the doorway was her Grandma Kate, almost unrecognizable. There were dark circles under her eyes, and her face was lined with wrinkles Diana knew had not been there before.
"Diana!" Kate exclaimed, reaching her arms out to shepherd her granddaughter through the door. "Welcome home, darling!"
"Thanks, Grandma." Despite the gesture of warmth, Diana made no effort to return the welcome. She walked through the door, dropping her bag next to it and hanging up her beige wool scarf on the coat rack.
"I have chamomile tea brewing for you in the kitchen. Your favorite, if I remember correctly." Kate smiled again, brushing some of Diana's wet hair out of her face. The smile emphasized the wrinkles around her lips and eyes, and made her bottom lip quiver slightly. "Why don't you go upstairs and put some pajamas on, and we'll have a cup together before bed?"
"I don't think so." Diana hung up her black trench coat, then picked up her duffle bag and began up the stairs. She was careful to avoid eye contact with her grandmother. "Thanks for the tea, but I'm pretty exhausted. I just want to—"
"Well, I can bring it up to you if you'd like to get into something dry. I have some of your pajamas in the dryer right now to make them warm for you."
"I don't want the tea." Diana hadn't intended to make the statement so blunt, and felt her jaw clench when she heard how harsh the words sounded. Her instinct was to apologize, but a bitter taste in her mouth kept her from saying anything more.
"All right," Kate said softly, carefully. "Well, is there anything I can get for you? Are you hungry?"
Diana grasped for something to say that would both spare her grandmother another blunt brush off and would still provide her with an escape route. Nothing came to mind, however, and she hesitantly put one foot in front of the other, moving extremely slowly up the stairs, her mind racing for something to say.
"I could draw a bath for you," Kate offered. "I have some delightful lavender bath salts from that little shop downtown."
Biting her bottom lip, Diana stood still, her right foot hovering an inch above the step. What should she say?
Her voice creaked out from her throat, raspy and desperate, making her sound almost frightening. "I just want to go—"
"Diana." This time Kate's voice was firm, and there was no trace of a smile on her face, but instead, the frown that must have etched in the lines around her mouth during the past three months. "I know you don't trust me anymore. You can just say you don't want to talk to me right now."
There was a moment of tense silence between them as they looked into each other's eyes. Diana's heart fluttered. She knew what her grandma had said was true, but at part of her felt she could hide it from her. But why? To spare her feelings? Diana didn't think she would have cared at this point.
"Grandma, I—"
"I don't blame you. I'm sorry for what happened with Amelia's daughter. If I would have known what would happen, I wouldn't have done it. I've spent the past three months hating myself for activating her dark magic. I blame myself for everything that happened. When I did what I did, though, I thought I was protecting you. That's all I ever wanted to do. That's all your father ever wanted to do."
"I can't have this conversation right now." Diana took a few more steps up the staircase. She could feel a muscle at the base of her throat twitching.
"Just know that I love you. And I'm here for you when you're ready to talk about what happened."
"Thanks, Grandma." She wasn't sure what to say, and she felt like what she had just said was overwhelmingly stupid. She didn't want to be mean to Kate, but she did want to be angry at her. Was it going to be this mentally exhausting living with her, just trying to figure out how to talk to her? Diana started to walk up the stairs, staring down at her feet.
"Diana!"
She paused, looking out of her peripheral down at Kate.
"Are you still practicing?"
There was a moment of surprised silence from Diana. She could feel her eyebrows pressing up toward her forehead.
"No!" Diana said loudly, turning around. There was a look of surprise on her grandmother's face as well. "No," she breathed out again. "I don't want anything to do with magic. Ever again."
"All right," Kate said softly. Her eyes locked with Diana's, and there was a tension they held between them.
Diana turned around, fleeing up the stairs, aching for the freedom and solitude waiting for her in her bedroom. She rushed to her room, closing the door behind her and leaning against it, her shoulders slouching. She took a deep breath, reaching up to push her hair out of her face. Her stomach dropped, and she felt beads of perspiration break out along her hairline. Her knees trembled as she looked at the palm of her hand.
The Balcoin symbol.
Cassie looked out the front of her car, watching as the flood of students poured into the front doors. Friends met up after being away all summer, or sulked by the trees lining the school if they had spent all summer together and now felt torn apart by the return of the school year. The leaves on the trees were barely lined with orange, yellow, and red, signaling the turning of the season. Soon, every day would be raining and windy like last night. For now, patches of sunshine melted through the clouds, illuminating the gold-lined leaves.
Hoards of unfamiliar faces passed by, and Cassie was growing impatient. There was only one person she was waiting to see: Diana. She knew that if she could talk to her, warn her about the threat of their half-siblings arriving, then she could make her see reason and agree to re-bind the Circle to make them safe again. And if Diana would agree, it wouldn't be hard to convince the rest of the Circle.
Cassie jumped in her seat as someone knocked on the window. She had been so deep in thought she had made the car a private bubble, unreachable. Turning, she let out a long breath as she came back to herself. Her heart fluttered as she recognized who was smiling on the other side. Adam.
Mustering a smile back, Cassie opened the door and grabbed her backpack, sliding out. "Hey," she said, forcing her voice to sound bright and cheery. "How are you? Long time no see!" She wondered if she should hug him or not.
"Hey, stranger." Adam grinned, and a lump crept into Cassie's throat. She looked away. They started walking toward the front doors of the school together, Cassie staring at the leaves her shoes were pushing out of the way.
"So, what's your first class?" Adam asked, pulling a folded-up schedule out of the pocket of his jeans. "I will be enjoying Government with Mr. Flint."
"I think that's mine, too," Cassie said, digging through her purse. She unfolded the paper and nodded. "Yep, same class." Her heart fought the conflicting feelings of agony and elation.
"I wonder if we'll all have it together." Adam said, putting his hands back in his pockets and looking at Cassie. When she only pressed her lips together and nodded, he looked at his feet.
The two entered the school, and began wandering down the hallway, dodging frantic freshmen unfamiliar with the school's layout, or lingering upperclassmen who were delaying entering their classrooms for as long as possible.
Adam and Cassie entered their classroom, taking seats along the back wall. Cassie could still feel the lump in her throat. It was the same one that had been there since last spring, the same one that throughout the summer made her feel like she would choke. Her feelings for Adam were just as strong as they had always been. She didn't know how to be just friends with him, and she wasn't sure she wanted to. But if they would be bound together in the Circle again, like they needed to be, she wouldn't be able to avoid him any longer, and she would have to learn how to live with that uncomfortable feeling.
"So…how was your summer? I feel like I haven't seen you in ages." Adam let out a breathy laugh, tapping his pencil rapidly against his desk. His eyes flittered between Cassie, the whiteboard, back to Cassie, and his desk.
"Oh, um…fine," Cassie said, ripping her eyes from the window and forcing herself to look at Adam. Every time she made eye contact with him, she desperately wanted to see if she could find any hint of what they had that spring. But she never could—not because she didn't see anything there. She couldn't bear to do it because she already knew what she would find. And she was simply too afraid to look that absence in the eye.
"Just worked a lot. The Java Brew never really slows down. Washington loves its coffee even more than L.A." She tried to laugh, but the lump blocked it, and she made a strange wheezing sound instead. Adam laughed lightly, probably at the sound she had just made, so Cassie tried again, only to wheeze again, this time a little dryer than before. She could hear how stupid she sounded, but realized that Adam probably didn't care what she answered with and was just trying to make conversation.
"I know what you mean. Summer is always busy for us at work. The only time of year we get any tourists." Adam lightly laughed again, tapping his pencil faster on his desk. He looked away from Cassie and stared down at his desk.
"Oh, look, it's the pep squad!"
Cassie and Adam both looked up to find Faye facing them, one eyebrow raised and leaning over the back of her seat.
"You two look miserable," she finished.
"Hello, Faye!" Adam said in an overly-excited voice. "It's so magnificent to see you on this morning." He gave her a cheesy smile, to which she smiled back.
"There you go," Faye smirked, pulling her leather jacket tighter around her body. "It could be worse, you know. You could be the principal's daughter."
"Please." Melissa slid into the desk next to Faye. "Your mother has been absentee parenting all summer. She's let you do whatever you want."
"Which is exactly why I'm feeling optimistic about this year for the first time ever!" She flashed one of her trademark smirks at Melissa, who couldn't help but laugh.
Cassie noticed that the summer had done wonders for Melissa. Her eyes were brighter than they ever had been before. She was wearing a charcoal-colored gauze tank top that flowed down to her hips, making her look light and airy when she moved. Her hair was pulled back with a few loose curls wrapping around her neck whimsically. Being single looked great on Melissa.
"Hey…" Cassie said suddenly, the three others glancing at her. "Have any of you seen Diana?"
"No, not yet," Melissa said. "But Faye and I just got here. There's still a few minutes before class starts. She could just be running late."
"Diana?" Faye's voice was raised in a questioning tone. "Late?"
"Are you sure she's even in this class?" Melissa asked.
"Mmm…" Cassie hummed under her breath, turning back toward the window. She wondered if Diana had even come back to Chance Harbor at all. Maybe Kate was wrong, maybe she was serious about getting out of town. Maybe Kate couldn't convince her to return. But the Balcoin symbol…Cassie squeezed her hand into a fist thinking about it, feeling her fingernails dig into her palm. That had to mean something…right?
"Cassie!"
She snapped her head around, facing Faye.
"I said, Diana just got here."
Cassie turned and looked toward the front of the room. Diana stood, scanning the mostly-full classroom for an empty desk. Cassie straightened up in her chair, smiling, and gesturing toward the desk next to her.
Diana didn't seem to notice. She clutched her purse close to her body, gripping the strap tightly. She hurried across the room and slid into an empty desk in the front corner of the classroom.
Blinking a few times, Cassie stared at the back of Diana's head, confused. Why had she ignored them? She couldn't have just missed all four of them…
The bell buzzed loudly in the classroom, and Mr. Flint stood up from his desk and moved to the front of the classroom.
"All right, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to your Senior year at Chance Harbor High School."
"Diana, wait!" Cassie pushed past the crowd of her classmates filing out of the door. She looked to either side, the halls dense with students moving between classes. She saw Diana's long, wavy brown hair, and hurried down the hallway after her.
"Diana!" Cassie rushed past lockers, rounding the corner to the staircase. Diana was already a few steps in, heading upstairs. "Diana!"
She turned around and looked at Cassie. Her jaw tightened up, and a visible tension locked into her gaze.
Cassie sighed. "You really made me chase after you," she said jokingly, pushing some stray hair out of her face. Diana's expression didn't change. Cassie noticed the dark circles under her eyes, hidden with some concealer, but still casting a shadow across her cheeks. Diana stood stiffly, clutching her purse against her body again, and tugging on the hem of her navy blue blazer.
"What?" She finally asked, eyes still stuck on Cassie.
"Hi…" Cassie's voice trailed off, a bit confused and slightly hurt. "I just wanted to say hi. I haven't seen you all summer."
"Yeah." Diana moved to the side, making more room for the stream of teenagers moving along the flight of stairs. "Well, hi. I have to get to my British Lit class now, Cassie." Diana turned slightly, ready to move upstairs.
"Diana, please wait." Cassie took another step up the stairs as well. "Can we talk?"
"I kind of need to get to class."
"Well, how about at lunch? After school?" Cassie felt her heart thumping in her chest. She had expected Diana to be a bit distant after everything that had happened, but she hadn't expected this…coldness.
"I don't know."
"Please, Diana. Talk to me at lunch. You at least owe me that."
Diana laughed bitterly, tilting her head back slightly. She locked eyes with Cassie firmly, the usually warm chestnut color stormy and steely. "No, Cassie. I don't owe you anything."
Cassie felt her jaw drop slightly. She was at a loss for how to reply.
Diana continued, "After everything that happened last year, I don't owe you anything. You stole my boyfriend, you brought me to a place I never wanted to go, and because you trusted your father, my father is in a nursing home right now." Both of the girls were stiff, staring at each other uncomfortably. Diana's gaze was hard and firm, but her jaw twitched slightly.
"Just a few minutes…" Cassie croaked.
"You don't get it, do you? I don't want to be here. I don't want to remember last year. I just want to focus on my classes, graduate, and go to college somewhere far, far away."
"I just want all of us to talk, we don't have to do anything. Diana, I understand—"
"No. No, you don't. You couldn't." She lowered her eyes, looking at where she had been rubbing her thumbnail against her blazer. "I'll meet with you after school. But not because I owe it to you. Because we were friends." Her voice was soft, almost too soft to be heard over the slamming lockers and ceaseless chatter of the hallways.
Cassie felt frozen in her spot. Were. We were friends. The single word hit her and left her feeling empty, her skin crawling with something she was too numb to identify. She opened her mouth to respond, but the emptiness crept up instead, and she stood there, mouth agape, just staring at Diana.
"Thank you," she managed to whisper. She watched as Diana took a hesitant step upstairs. "I want to be here for you. Even if we're…not friends anymore. We're still—"
"Cassie," Diana said abruptly, hurrying down the stairs until she was only one above Cassie. "Please don't tell anyone we're…we're sisters. I'm not ready for anyone to know that yet."
"But…" Cassie's voice trailed off, unsure what to say in response to that. She knew it would be overwhelming to tell all of Chance Harbor what they had discovered about their paternity in the spring. But even so, it didn't change the fact that they knew, the fact that they were sisters.
"Okay," Cassie said softly, lowering her head. Diana didn't respond, and after a few moments Cassie heard the clicking of Diana's heels as she moved upstairs for her English class. The first bell rang, and the pace of shuffling students increased. Cassie still stood silently on the staircase, staring at her feet.
"So how did things go with Diana?" Adam asked. He adjusted the apple on his lunch tray. Cassie used to find it adorable how he would rearrange his lunch tray as if he were serving at The Boathouse. Right now, it just seemed unnecessary, almost pretentious. It was a school lunch tray, for crying out loud.
"I don't think she wanted to talk to me at all," Cassie said, staring absently at the scoop of mashed potatoes on her tray. Faye and Melissa had agreed to meet them in the cafeteria for lunch instead of going off-campus, but right now Cassie didn't feel she had any sort of appetite. "She just tried to hurry away. She was…angry."
"Well, she has every right to be," Adam said as he slid into a chair in the corner of the lunch room. "She went through a lot."
"Yeah, so did I," Cassie snapped. "In case you forgot, I lost the last family member I had." She realized after she said this how harsh she had been with Adam, and looked back down at her mashed potatoes. She felt sorry, but she was unwilling to apologize.
"I didn't mean it that way," Adam said carefully. "I just meant it's going to take some time for her to adjust back to being here. She got to leave those bad memories behind for the summer. That didn't mean they weren't going to be here waiting for her when she got back. I think she's just trying to figure out how to deal with that."
Cassie looked up at Adam, studying his face for a moment. His eyes looked softly back at hers. She had never considered it before, but the thought fell on her like a thousand pounds all of a sudden…what if Adam's feelings for Diana were back? Now that any trace of his attraction to Cassie was gone, she realized it might be normal for the feelings he'd had for Diana for so long to reemerge.
"Cassie?" His voice snapped her out of her thoughts, and she shook her head slightly, realizing that she hadn't heard him.
"Sorry," she said. "Just a little hurt about it, I guess." She looked back down at the mashed potatoes. Staring at them for so long made them seem even more unappetizing.
"I know. I'm not saying it's okay for her to act that way. I'm just saying to give her some time."
"She told me not to tell anyone that we're sisters," Cassie blurted out awkwardly. The words seemed to stumble across her lips, and she felt like her mouth was too large and bumbling to form the sounds correctly. She stared at Adam, blinking.
"Yeah, well, I don't blame her."
Cassie's eyebrows raised, and Adam quickly tried to explain.
"Cassie, she lost her dad, in two ways, this past spring. That's more than any of us have ever had to deal with. Give her space. When she's ready, she'll be ready. It's not your place to decide when that will be, though."
Cassie looked back down at the mashed potatoes, stabbing them angrily with her spoon. In her head she imagined telling Adam that she had lost both her parents that way, finding out that her mother had been lying to her for sixteen years, and that her supposedly dead father had manipulated her and didn't actually care about her at all. And they were both actually dead now. She remained silent, however, stabbing her mashed potatoes and returning to wondering if Adam was in love with Diana again.
"So."
Cassie looked up from the mutilated potatoes, seeing Faye and Melissa sit down in the empty chairs at their table.
"What was so important that it kept me away from my traditional first-day-of-school falafel?" Faye snapped, pushing her turkey sandwich away from her and crossing her arms. "It better be good, because this isn't."
"I want us to meet after school and talk about everything that happened last spring…and what we should do because of it," Cassie said, setting down her spoon.
"Didn't we already have this discussion?" Melissa asked, tilting her head forward slightly. "Like, last spring?"
"I know, but I think we need to talk about what might be coming…for us." Cassie dropped her voice lower at the end of her sentence, looking at the eyes of everyone at the table.
"What do you mean, for us?" Adam asked.
Melissa leaned forward even more, whispering, "Witch hunters?"
"I mean the other Balcoin siblings who are supposed to arrive…I think they may have already." Cassie crossed her arms across her chest, making her hand into a fist.
"What are you talking about, Cassie?" Faye snapped. "What do you know that we don't?"
"Look, just meet with me at the Java Brew after school. I work at 3:30, so we won't have much time. But I think it's really important that we talk. Faye, can you tell Jake to meet us there?"
"Suuuure." Faye spoke as she let out a deep breath, then grabbed her purse and stood up. "Come on, Melissa. Let's go get that falafel."
As Faye and Melissa walked away, Adam turned toward Cassie, his eyes dark with concern.
"Is everything all right?" He asked. "Did something happen that you're not telling me about?"
Cassie kept her arms folded tightly. "We just need to talk," she said, turning to look at the tall, bright windows in the cafeteria, watching the sun stream through as the leaves illuminated her pale skin with a green tint.
Cassie tapped the toes of her shoe against the low table, looking impatiently out the window. She had rushed from her last class of the day straight to the Java Brew. The five of them had all had Chemistry together, but apparently the rest of them were taking their time. It had been ten minutes now, and no one had shown up yet. She turned around again and looked at the large, brass clock hanging on the wall, scowling as it confirmed another minute had passed by.
"A little early for work, aren't you?"
Cassie turned and saw her coworker Ben holding a few plates covered in crumbs and some empty coffee cups.
"You're picking up the 3:30 shift, right?" He smiled at her, flashing his trademark, uneven grin that everyone else had found so endearing since he started working there at the beginning of the summer.
"Oh," Cassie said, slightly annoyed with Ben's attempt at humor when she was so clearly upset. "Yeah, well, meeting up with some people before that." She hoped this would work as code for "I'm waiting for my friends and I don't want to talk to you, so go away," but Ben was too happy-go-lucky to receive the message, apparently. His perpetual cheerfulness had been nothing but annoying to Cassie all summer, and she loathed the shifts they worked together and his effervescent attempts to get to know her. However, his charm had been more attractive to the customers than her gloominess, and she had been pushed back to the espresso machine and food prep while Ben had become king of the cash register.
"Oh, great! I don't think I met any of your friends this summer. It would be great to say hi to them."
Cassie thought she could feel her nostrils flare, but Ben's grin didn't budge.
"Well, I should get these to the dishwasher," Ben said, readjusting his grip on the mugs. "Gotta impress the boss and keep the customers happy!" He laughed, heading back to the counter.
Scowling, Cassie turned back to the front door and then to the clock. It had been fifteen minutes since she arrived and still no one was there. She could practically feel herself fuming. Where the hell was everyone? Did they not understand the importance of having this discussion? Was she the only one who was concerned about the other Balcoin siblings coming to Chance Harbor?
"Cassie—"
Thinking Ben was back behind her, Cassie felt her shoulders jump in tension and her mouth curl up in annoyance. There was the sound of a mug shattering, and Cassie turned around. Instead of being behind her, Ben was at the dirty dishes tub over the trashcan, staring down at a shattered mug.
"I must have dropped it," she heard him mutter.
"Cassie."
She turned around again, and saw Jake standing in front of her. He looked from her to Ben and back again.
"Was that you?" he asked under his breath.
"No," Cassie replied too quickly. "He dropped a mug. It happens when you work in a coffee shop."
"All right," Jake said hesitantly, sitting down in the armchair across from her. "So what's up? Faye texted me to meet you all here after school got out. Where is everyone else?"
"Exactly what I would like to know," Cassie huffed, uncrossing her legs and re-crossing them the opposite direction. She continued tapping her toes against the table, staring out the window.
"How have you been?"
Surprised, she turned back to look at Jake. He was leaning in toward her, his elbows resting on his thighs. His voice was softer than usual, almost a hint of concern in it.
"Fine, I guess," Cassie replied. "Just working a lot—"
"Not what have you been doing, but how have you been?" Jake said, searching her face for something. "We live next door to each other and I haven't seen you in months, other than getting in and out of your car. Whenever I try to say hi you practically sprint to the door."
"Well, like I said, I've been busy with work," Cassie said, her voice higher than she had intended it to be. "Things have been hard. I lost my grandmother…I live alone in that big house…But I'll be okay." She looked up at Jake, grateful she caught herself in time. All summer she had told Jane's friends that she was going to be okay, that she liked being in her family home, that Kate's visits and guardianship were keeping her grounded. If anyone knew she was lying, they were too polite to call her out on it. Cassie was uncomfortable with the look on Jake's face, though, and its suggestion that he might be about to call her out on it. She opened her mouth, thinking of what to say to keep him from digging deeper, when Faye plopped down on his lap and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"Hey, darlin'," she said, beaming. "Nice to see you here."
"What kept you so long?" Cassie snapped as Melissa took the armchair next to Jake's. All three of them looked at her, their expressions varying from slight surprise from Jake to exhausted annoyance from Faye.
"Chill; school only got out twenty minutes ago," Faye said slowly, raising her eyebrows at Cassie.
"Where are Adam and Diana?" Cassie asked, making no attempt at making her voice any nicer than it had been before. She remembered at that moment how the two used to go everywhere as a pair, and her worries about Adam and Diana resurfaced. If anyone had answered her, she was too absorbed in her own thoughts to have heard.
"So are we going to wait for them, or can you please tell us what has you so panicked?" Melissa asked, sinking backward in the overstuffed chair. The mauve velvet seemed to absorb her, making her look snug and comfy, but tiny compared to Faye balanced on Jake in the smaller armchair. It made the small distance between the chairs seem enormous.
"I want to wait until Adam and Diana get here," Cassie said before being cut off by Ben's voice screeching in her ears.
"Welcome to the Java Brew," he said, smiling at the four of them. "My name is Ben. You must be Cassie's friends! It's so great to meet you."
Even Faye managed to smile back at Ben's round brown eyes and goofy grin. This annoyed Cassie, and she attempted to avoid rolling her eyes. Even though he was just a year younger than they were, for some reason Cassie felt his cheerfulness made him seem much younger. Or perhaps her angst had just aged her prematurely…
"Nice to meet you too, Ben," Jake said.
"Can I get you guys any coffee?"
"Sure!" Faye chirped. "I'll have a tall nonfat double latte, and he'll have a grande vanilla Americano with room." Faye beamed at Jake, giving him another peck on the cheek. Cassie felt almost revolted that their relationship had grown to the point of ordering each other's coffee.
"And I'll have a tall soy caramel macchiato," Melissa chirped in, finishing the order awkwardly.
"You got it," Ben said, then turned to face Cassie. "Anything for you?"
"Shot in the dark," Cassie growled, arms still folded across her chest.
"Wow, that much homework already?" Ben asked, feigning awe. "You're going to be up all night with that order! I'm horrified at the thought of next year already!"
"I've been a bit of a night owl lately," Cassie said in a fake sticky-sweet voice, giving Ben a sour smile. He didn't seem to recognize her bitterness, though, and just kept on smiling at the group.
"I'll put it in as your complimentary coffee," Ben said. "I'll be right back with all your drinks!"
"Will someone else try texting Adam and Diana?" Cassie snapped. "They're not—"
"I'm right here," Adam said, sitting down on the couch next to Cassie.
"Where were you?" she asked.
"I had to go to work to tell my dad I would be a little late this afternoon." Adam smiled at Jake, Faye, and Melissa.
"You couldn't have just texted him?" Cassie asked in a low voice. Adam turned to her, his forehead slightly wrinkled as his brows lowered.
"Uh, no…I tried, but I didn't hear back. It's really busy right now; he didn't have a chance to grab the phone."
Cassie wanted to continue fighting with him, but could feel the glances of everyone on her, and stopped herself. She couldn't tell if she was really annoyed with Adam for being late, or if it was her worries creeping up about his feelings for Diana.
"Well, that just leaves—"
"Diana," Adam said, smiling. "Nice to see you. Have a seat." He looked at Cassie, signaling for her to scoot down the couch. Cassie looked at the empty space next to her, giving Adam a look she hoped he would understand as Why can't she just sit here?
"It's fine," Diana said, pulling up a wooden chair from the table nearest them and sitting at the head of the group. "So, what do you want to talk about?" she asked, facing Cassie.
"I'm really glad all of you came here," Cassie started, trying to control her voice. She was frustrated, but she knew she was overreacting. If she wanted to convince them to re-bind the Circle, she couldn't let those displaced feelings overwhelm her and dissuade them. "I appreciate it a lot—"
"Oo-kay!"
"Ben!" Cassie hissed. The tray Ben was carrying crashed to the floor, splashing hot milk and coffee on Diana's bare legs. She gasped, jumping up and snatching her purse away from the growing puddle on the floor. Adam grabbed some spare napkins that had been on the table, and handed them to Diana to dry her exposed shins with.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" Ben said, frowning for the first time Cassie had ever seen. "I don't know what happened, I've never done that before, I—"
"It's okay," Adam reassured him, grabbing more napkins from behind them and drying off Diana's purse for her. "It happens to the best of us. Why don't you go grab a couple rags for the floor?"
"Yeah, of course, of course," Ben said, and started to turn around. He ended up spinning in a circle, though, and faced the group again. "And I will re-make your drinks right away, and they'll be on the house, of course—" He trailed off, heading back to the counter.
"This was my favorite purse," Diana moaned, looking at the dark spot on the bottom where some milk had already soaked in.
"You shouldn't have startled him like that," Faye scolded, lowering her eyebrows at Cassie. "You made him ruin Diana's favorite purse."
Jake gave Cassie an inquisitive look, the same one he had given her when he first arrived and Ben had dropped the mug. Cassie forced herself to look away.
"I'm sorry," she said to Diana. "I will buy you another one just like it."
"It's fine," Diana sighed, sitting down. Her shins were blotchy where the hot liquid had sprayed them. "Can we just get this show on the road?"
Cassie took a deep breath, trying to compose herself. "I think we need to re-bind the Circle." She cut right to the chase, and tried to study the expressions of everyone around her.
"No." Diana's voice was flat and firm, her eyes locked on Cassie's. She reached for her purse. "Is that all?"
"Please," Cassie pleaded. "The other Balcoin siblings are on their way…I…I think they might already be here."
"What makes you think that?" Jake asked, eyebrow lowering.
"My father said that they would be coming soon. And things have been…different lately. I can just feel it. The same way I felt my father before he arrived in Chance Harbor."
"You felt your father's presence because you were tampering with dark magic at the Abandoned House," Faye said hesitantly, looking at Cassie suspiciously.
"It's different than that," Cassie said. "It's a different feeling, but I know what it means. I think I can feel them here." Her voice was quieter, the expression on her face grave. "I think the best way we can protect ourselves from them is to re-bind the Circle."
"I'm with Diana on this one," Adam said. "I don't think it's a good idea."
"Yeah, I don't either," Melissa said. "Last year ended in disaster after disaster. I don't want that to happen again."
There was a heavy silence among them, filled uncomfortably by the chatter of the coffee house and the whistling and gurgling of the espresso machine.
"I don't want any of that to happen again, either," Cassie said, slowly and deliberately. "Which is why I think we need to re-bind the Circle. Without our power linked together, we might not be strong enough to fight them. If there's one thing last year showed us, it's that dark magic is a lot more powerful and complex than any of us could have imagined."
"Why is why we need our individual magic," Faye said quietly. "Without it, we're not protected unless we're together. And we're not going to be with each other all of the time."
"We can be. We can be careful to be. That's the only shot we have—"
"You're being selfish!" Faye snapped. "You've never had to go without individual magic. Whether we bind the Circle or not, you'll have your dark magic. You're asking us to become vulnerable, to disarm ourselves. You've never had to experience what it's like to feel that helpless. You're being selfish, Cassie."
"I agree with Faye," Diana said lightly, crossing her arms.
"She might have a point though," Jake said. "If we're up against four witches with dark power, we could be in for a lot of trouble, especially if they believe in John Blackwell's vision of wiping out all witches without Balcoin blood." Faye looked down at Jake with arched eyebrows and a tilted head. "I just mean," Jake sighed, "that the Circle might be our strongest defense. There's no way our individual magic can go up against the dark magic of one witch, let alone four. Bound, we at least outnumber them."
"How do we even know they're coming up against us?" Melissa asked. "I mean, even if they're here, how do we know they're going to attack us?"
"If my father got to them, sent them here, that's what they're going to want," Cassie said. "To destroy you. To use me. And Diana."
"We don't know anything about what they want or don't want," Melissa replied quietly, looking at the floor.
"Even more reason to bind the Circle!" Cassie said exasperatedly.
"I don't want to do it," Adam said abruptly. "I don't want to give up my individual magic. I need it." The sudden desperation in his voice surprised Cassie, and she looked at him. When she had imagined his meeting in her head, she had always cast Adam as one of her advocates, seeing the logic and necessity of binding the Circle, and using his good judgment to help persuade the rest of the group. Now, she was looking at him as an adversary.
"What we need is to survive the threat of the Balcoins," Cassie said, her voice low and dangerous. "What we need is to stay alive. That's not a guarantee when there's dark magic—"
"I don't want to be bound to your dark magic," Diana said firmly, looking Cassie dead in the eye. "I refuse to be."
"What if we don't want to be bound to your dark magic," Faye said slowly, looking at Diana. There was a look of surprise from the group. "Last time we were bound, Cassie was the only one who had dark magic. Now that Diana's has been awoken, too, we don't know how that will react with the rest of our magic. It could make us stronger…or, it could leave the four of us," she looked from Jake to Melissa, and then Adam, "weaker and more vulnerable."
"The Circle makes us stronger," Cassie said, repeating the same phrase that had been used on her last fall.
"Yeah, I don't like the idea of giving up my magic to help strengthen the Dark Magic Duo here," Faye replied, looking between Diana and Cassie and flashing a strained smile. "No offense, girls."
"Well, it doesn't really matter, because I'm not going to do it," Diana said firmly, grabbing her purse and putting it on her lap. She winced a little as the bottom wetted her dark denim skirt, and she slung the purse over her shoulder, letting it rest on the side of the chair. "It's a bad idea," she said, looking Cassie directly in the eye. "And I'm not going to be involved in any more of what we did last year."
There was another silence in the group, broken by a flustered Ben returning with a tray full of coffee, gripping it with both hands.
"All right," he said softly, carefully handing each cup to its owner. "Here we are…And can I get anything for you?" he asked, looking at Diana.
"No, thank you," she said. "I was just leaving." She stood up and turned around for the door, not even saying goodbye to the group.
Cassie leapt to her feet, running out the door behind her. "Diana!" she called.
Diana turned around, sighing. "Cassie," she said. "You don't get to decide what the rest of us—"
"Is it back?" Cassie asked gravely.
"Is what back?" Diana snapped, shaking her head. "What are you talking about?"
Cassie slowly lifted her hand toward Diana, lowering her voice. "You know what I mean."
Diana clutched her hand to her heart, glaring at Cassie. "No, I don't," she said firmly. She looked down at her fist, the telltale sign she did, in fact, know exactly what Cassie was talking about, and dropped it back to her side. "No," she said firmly again. "It's not."
"Mine is," Cassie said softly. "It was gone for most of the summer…but it came back the night you got back in town."
"Well, it must have been something you did, then, because I don't have anything to do with it." Diana turned around quickly, and hurried down the sidewalk, disappearing from Cassie's sight. Standing forlornly in front of the door, Cassie dejectedly lowered her head and sulked back into the Java Brew.
Adam took a deep breath, sinking into the chair in the basement. If he had thought the summer had been busy with the small groups of tourists Chance Harbor received, he had forgotten the rush of students at the beginning of a new school year. Once he'd gotten back from the Java Brew, his father had put him straight to work, and the crowd hadn't let up until just now. His dad had dismissed him from his shift, and Adam felt utterly and completely exhausted. His energy had been oscillating all summer, and the first day of school had left him decidedly low.
Enjoying the coolness of the dark room and the soft buzzing of the few electronics plugged in, Adam savored the solitude of this room. He had made it his escape this summer, his refuge. He had told his dad he would be studying, and fled downstairs as soon as he could. His math textbook was unopened on the table next to him. His worst subject, he knew he would have to start his homework soon, but he felt too tired and flat to think of tackling Pre-Calculus right now.
He looked over to the corner of the room, where a small sliver of light from the curtains crept through. Staring at the wooden box on the table, his exhaustion hit him full-force. The weariness had become all too familiar to him over the summer. It was almost like hunger. He knew what would cure him, what would bring him back to his regular self. He just had to sink his teeth into it…
Walking slowly across the room, Adam muttered a few words under his breath, and waved his hand over the top of the box. Underneath, the smooth, glittering top of the Crystal Skull emerged, the opaque shape forming like liquid dripping down its curves, the shimmers from the slight sunlight seeming to wave at him, welcoming him home. He smiled, sitting down at the table and sliding his fingertips across the top of the skull.
Closing the door behind her, Faye tossed her purse on the entry-way table. Kicking off her booties, she started to hop over to the staircase to go to her room.
"Where have you been?"
Faye stopped, turning around to see her mother walking from the kitchen, still holding a half-peeled zucchini.
"Out with Jake," Faye said, sprinting up a few more stairs.
"Faye, stop." The sternness in Dawn's voice caught Faye in her tracks, and she turned around, surprised at her mother.
"What?"
"You need to tell me when you're going out and when you'll be back." Dawn's voice was strict, her expression taut. "I'm the mom. You ask my permission before you go out with your friends."
"Chill, mom," Faye said slowly, crossing her arms. "What's with the hardass act all of a sudden? I liked Summer Mom much better."
"Were you with Jake all afternoon?" Dawn asked, ignoring Faye's retort. Her daughter nodded back, eyebrows raised, and Dawn added, "Only Jake?"
"Noooo," Faye said, taking a few steps closer to her mom. "Is that what this is about? I met with Melissa and everybody at the Java Brew for most of the afternoon."
"Is Cassie part of 'everybody'?" Dawn asked, putting the hand that wasn't clutching the zucchini on her hip.
"Yeah, why?"
"I don't want you spending any time with Cassie Blake anymore," Dawn said, her voice slightly lower than usual.
Faye's eyebrow arched up her forehead. "Why not?" She asked inquisitively.
"That girl is nothing but trouble."
"Funny, that's usually what people say about me," Faye chirped back in a sing-songy voice.
"Faye, don't sass me. Cassie went to a dark place last year, and she risked all of your lives by taking you there with her…you haven't re-bound the Circle, have you?" Dawn's voice was sudden at the end, looking at Faye hard. "Well?"
"No, mom, we haven't. We're not going to," Faye said. "Why are you freaking out all of a sudden?"
"I almost lost you last spring." Dawn's eyes were glassy, as if tears were beginning to form. "I've already lost your father. I am not losing you, too."
"Nothing like last year is going to happen again, mom," Faye said, her voice soft. "You don't need to worry."
Dawn made a hrmph sound under her breath, turning away from Faye and looking back toward the kitchen. "I don't worry enough," she muttered, leaving to finish dinner.
Melissa lay in her bed, staring at the glowing screen of her cell phone. She had texted Faye an hour ago, and nothing had come back yet.
Sighing, she rolled out of bed and began pacing the length of her room between her bed and dresser. She was so bored. Normally she and Faye had a sleepover on the first day of school, trying to hold onto summer break for as long as possible before homework took over their lives. This year, Faye hadn't seemed interested, and so far, she hadn't responded to Melissa's text asking if she wanted to come over for their annual Final-Freedom-Thon.
The phone began to vibrate, and Melissa excitedly looked at the screen. Her bright eyes dimmed, however, when she saw it was just a text from her dad. Need anything else from the store? Omw home. Disappointed, Melissa texted a lonely "no," and plopped back down on her bed, staring at the ceiling.
She missed Nick so badly it ached at moments like this. When she was alone, when she couldn't get a hold of Faye, she remembered the smell of his hair, the lilt in his voice. She had finally begun to heal, to move on from last spring. Being able to escape into the summer had helped her do that. This feeling hadn't crept over her in a long time. But here it was again, all too familiar.
Groaning, Melissa ran out of her room and down the hallway, hoping to leave the feeling behind her. She looked out the window at the end of the hall and up at the moon. The sun was setting, and the dim outline of the almost-full moon was hovering above the tree in their front yard. She groaned again, dropping her forehead toward the floor.
Cassie slammed the car door as she clicked the lock, hearing the car beep back at her that it was locked. She sighed, leaning against the cool, slick metal. Work had been crazy that night, even though she was working shorter shifts now that school was back in session. The entire building had felt too hot with too many people shoved into it. Groups of high schoolers had gathered under the guise of working through the first day of school's homework, but instead were sucked into the familiar lure of summer break. She had served far too many decaf lattes to thankless customers that night, and now welcomed the stillness of the cloudless, pitch-black night.
Startled, Cassie jumped as something rustled in the bushes. She squinted, trying to force her eyes to adjust to the dimness. She could see the bush swaying in a windless night, but couldn't quite make out what was in there. Taking a few cautious steps forward, Cassie tilted her head as she tried to get a better look inside the bush. She jumped back as something small and dark dove out, followed by a hissing black cat.
Cassie let out a deep breath, covering her heart with her hand and realizing how tense she had been. It must have just been a cat hunting a poor little mouse. She wondered why she had been so afraid…it was the Circle. She had believed she would be able to convince the others to re-bind it, and she had failed. And now she felt angry, frustrated, and…exposed. On her own against something she didn't know how to fight by herself.
"Just a cat."
Cassie turned around as she heard Jake step up from behind her. He was wearing pajama pants and an old tee shirt, clearly about to go to bed. Cassie looked back at the bush, now silent and still.
"Yeah, I don't really know what I thought it was," she laughed.
"Something dark?"
"What?"
"You were afraid it was something dark," Jake offered gently. He stopped at the edge of the lawn, leaving Cassie standing on the sidewalk next to her car.
"Nooo…" Cassie's voice trailed off. "I guess I'm just a little wired from work." She tugged at her black Java Brew shirt, covered in some smears from the busy shift.
"Did you make that guy drop those coffees today?" Jake asked. Even in the dark, Cassie could tell that his eyes were stern and steady, telling her to tell him the truth.
"No," Cassie said awkwardly. "He dropped them on his own."
"It wasn't your dark magic?"
"Jake," Cassie said impatiently, passing him as she headed for the front door. "What are you doing? Faye probably wouldn't like it if you were over here."
"I don't think I need Faye's permission to do everything, do I?" Jake's voice was drawn out and slightly annoyed, although Cassie suspected it was something to do with Faye, not her.
Cassie hovered for a moment at the front door, then turned to face Jake. "I didn't do anything," she said. "Good night."
She slammed the door behind her, leaning against it and letting out a deep breath. She didn't know why it had always been so hard for her to lie to Jake. Maybe because she had trusted him so much, maybe because he had trusted her back…but neither of those things had worked out very well.
Cassie trudged upstairs, exhausted and upset. She had failed to convince her friends to bind their Circle. How had she failed? She had spent months reciting the conversation in her head, thinking up every opposition each person would throw at her, and in her imagination, she had always been more persuasive, better articulated, highly reasonable. But everyone had shut her down this afternoon, and afterward she had to try to cater to a bunch of teenagers who had no idea how lucky they were to be normal, yet complained about every trivial thing, ignoring Cassie when she served them their coffee. It was enough to—
Cassie jumped, startled, as flames erupted in her fireplace. The warm glow of the orange, roasting ribbons bathed the room in its reassuring warmth. Cassie looked down at where the logs should have been, seeing only bright blue roots instead, feeding the impossibly bright flames above.
Exhaling, Cassie felt slightly relaxed, and let herself sink down in front of the fire, tugging off her shoes, then her socks, and then her shirt. The fire felt soothing on her skin, reassuring. She told herself she needed to go to her dresser and get her pajamas before she fell asleep, but the warmth of the fire was a much-needed comfort, and she felt herself starting to drift into sleep, part of her mind believing that there was some peace to be found in this day, or at least in this moment.
Diana closed the door gently behind her, hoping not to wake up her grandmother. Grant had taken her out to dinner, which had turned into an after-dinner stroll on the boardwalk, which had turned into an after-dinner, after-stroll late-night movie. It was after midnight, and Diana knew she shouldn't have stayed out so late when she had to roll out of bed in less than six hours to get ready for school. But Grant had seemed to take away her anxiety of being back in Chance Harbor, seemed to soothe her frustration over Cassie and her insistence on having everyone do things her way, even though her track record for that was so great… Grant felt like her single lifeline, her promise of a normal life once she finished high school and never had to come back to this town, let alone this state.
She knew she should have told her grandma she was going to be so late, but she also felt like making Kate worry a little bit. Why was it her responsibility to look out for her grandmother? After all, wasn't Kate the adult? Diana was tired of being the responsible one—that hadn't gotten her anywhere last year.
Sneaking through her bedroom door, the end of her bed caught Diana's eye. Moving closer, she saw a brand-new pair of white satin pajamas laid out at the end of the bed, along with a glass jar labeled as lavender bubble bath. She couldn't help but smile slightly, already feeling the wave of relief at the thought of the aromatic bathwater and soft fabric against her skin. She picked up the bubble bath, moving into her bathroom, and saw on the counter a mug of still-steaming chamomile tea. She looked down at it, seeing a small, hand-written note held down under the weight of the mug:
Hope you and Grant had a great time.
Xoxo,
Grandma
Diana sighed, picking up the mug and taking a sip. She walked over to the tub, putting in the plug and letting the hot water stream down. She knew her grandma was trying as hard as she could. She knew Kate must feel awful, must feel desperate to save Diana the way she couldn't save her son. Diana was the last family she had…and she wasn't even really family, not technically.
Diana put the mug down on the rim of the tub, pouring in the lavender-scented suds. Kate was kind to do all of this for her. This was her way of trying to comfort Diana, since she wouldn't let her do it in person. The thought flashed through Diana's mind, however, if this was Kate trying to apologize, or Kate trying to buy back her love. She picked the tea back up, holding it close to her lips and trying to re-focus on her evening with Grant.
Cassie bolted upright, feeling sweat drip down her face and neck. She was panting so hard her lungs felt like they were on fire, as if she had just sprinted for a mile. She tried to catch her breath, sitting up and clutching at her throat. She could feel her hair matted against her temples, drenched in sweat.
Standing up, Cassie took several long, slow breaths. The smoke from the dying fire burned her nostrils, and she looked up at the fireplace, feeling stupid and reckless that she had let it continue to burn as she fell asleep. Looking in, she gasped, retreating and tripping on her own steps until she stumbled and landed on the end of her bed.
The Balcoin symbol had been burnt into the fireplace, the dying embers glowing a malicious red, angry and threatening.
They had been here.