Everyone knows that the elixir had worked on Adam, and Cassie had to suffer. How about it goes the other way around? And, knowing she was and is going to be the only love of his life, is Adam going to let Cassie continue to forget her feelings about him, or will he find out his way?
-x-
It was a blur, everything after sobbing in each other's arms and whimpering and drinking the elixir. As the nasty liquid went down both of their throats – first Adam and then Cassie, they both started to fade into a white blinding light.
The next morning came. Adam was the first to wake up and find the both of them in a sleeping position, on a couch downstairs with several fluffy and thick blankets tucking them snug on the warm couch. He found his arm tucked around Cassie's sleeping form, holding her against his chest.
Somehow, although he had drunk the Elixir, he felt the same. He remembered Cassie Blackwell, he remembered falling in love with her, he remembered all their beautiful moments and most of all, and he still loved her. He had remembered why he fell in love with her.
Realization had dawned upon him – the concoction hadn't worked on him, for some weird reason. He could only hope with all of his heart that she felt the same way he did.
Cassie, feeling Adam shift was woken up from her slumber. Thinking the body next to her was probably her father who might have hugged her to sleep, she snuggled even closer, no matter what the situation was the previous night. (Really? Dad sleeping next to his daughter? Might be cute if Cassie was six years old! Just a weird nasty thought that I am throwing out there guys! Of course John wouldn't be affectionate or perverted like that… okay the perverted thing is probably true, maybe he is pervert.)
Adam gently smiled and shook Cassie's shoulder gently called out, "Morning sleepyhead."
Cassie's bright blue eyes flew open as she realized she was hugging Adam Conant. Not her dad. Ew. Like she would want to, now her sanity flew back from waking up.
Flying to the other end of the couch as if Adam was a bug or something, she wrapped the blankets around her form as if she was naked and he was a stranger drinking in her gaze. She then relaxed and remembered him being her best friend, and then they dated. Somehow she didn't feel so warm thinking about dating Adam. It felt like… horror and realization. Why would she want to hurt Diana and date her ex?
"Cassie, it's me…" Adam called out gently.
"Oh, yeah I know. Thought you were probably attacking me in my sleep," Cassie joked, half-lying.
Adam slightly grinned, but then frowned when he realized Cassie was being far less affectionate than before.
"Hey Cassie?" Adam asked, fear building up in his heart.
"Yeah?" Cassie smiled.
"Do you remember… anything?" Adam asked, his whole form freezing in anticipation of her answer.
"I remember crying and hugging like we were gonna die, then something happened and everything went white," Cassie shrugged, "And then I woke up to hugging you."
"Do you remember me?" Adam asked.
"I remember you as the second friend I made in Chance Harbor. You were Diana's boyfriend when I came here and shortly after Nick's death, you two split. Then you started having feelings for me and I too. We got together and then dad talked about this curse between Blakes and Conants and how the only way to save Jake was to drink an Elixir," Cassie smiled, "I feel it took something away from me, but if he lives, then I know we did the right thing."
"You felt the Elixir take something… away from you?" Adam asked in fear.
"I remember you, I remember falling in love with you, and I remember everything. I just don't understand how I fell in love with you," Cassie furrowed her eyebrows as she thought hard, "I remember you perfectly, just my feelings for you are taken away from me."
"What if the Elixir…?" Adam asked.
"Adam, why are you so scared? I'm pretty sure it did the same for you," Cassie smiled.
No, it didn't. You don't understand, Adam thought as his fists clenched, his throat thickened, and his mouth had pressed into a thin line.
"Adam…? Adam, are you okay?" Cassie asked in fear.
"No! Nothing! Jake's fine and our circle is safe! I guess I have to agree with you, I feel different as well. Like this whole thing is a movie and I'm watching it in my head," Adam's steady voice wavered at the end of the sentence hoping desperately that she would disagree.
Instead her eyes brightened, as she snapped her fingers and grinned as she exclaimed, "Exactly! I was trying to sum it all up but you did it well!"
That wasn't the answer I wanted, he thought, almost about to break down on the spot if he didn't get out of here.
"Well, I gotta go. You know, open the Boathouse and everything. See you later," Adam dived down and gave Cassie a kiss on the cheek.
Running outside, he went to his truck, got in and slammed the door shut. Not even bothering to start the car, he cried hard for five minutes before gathering himself momentarily in order to drive away from the one place that haunts his heart the most.
-x-
After Adam had taken a couple of orders with a blank face, he came behind the counter to hide his miserable self until someone gave him something to do.
"Adam?" Ethan called.
"What do you want, dad?" Adam asked, miserable.
Ethan knew that face. He knew that face when he lost Amelia, and he had known she wouldn't come back. Some sense of dread dawned upon him at the possibility that his son, too might have lost his happiness.
"What happened between you and Cassie?" Ethan asked, softly.
Personally he never blamed Cassie for almost ending his life a few days ago. She was blinded with rage and didn't know John's true colors. She probably did, but he came back, washed up on the coast, looking all doe-eyed and innocent that he melted her heart. Cassie might not like him, but honestly, he is the last of her family. Her mother is gone, and Jane knows she won't last as well. Is it too much to want to cling to whatever is left and never want to let go?
"Her father said there was some kind of curse between Conants and Blakes, and that if they ever crossed paths and consummated a relationship, someone in the circle could die. So we had to drink an Elixir that made us forget our feelings towards each other. The truth is it didn't work on me, but it did, on her," Adam whispered, crying a little bit.
Rage filled him. Ethan knew that John didn't want his daughter dating Ethan's son, but he went so far as to separate them for a curse that didn't even exist? How could a father be so blind to his daughter's feelings and emotions? How can he have no regard as to what she wants and think about himself?
The Conants and the Blakes were written in the stars, not cursed!
"Adam, it's a lie," Ethan whispered.
"What? But Jake got better, how can it be a lie?" Adam asked, incredulous.
"So you will readily accept what a sinner has to say but you won't believe your own father?" Ethan asked, incredulous.
Adam knew his father had a point there. John was nothing but a savage, using all his resources to his advantage and his personal gain only.
"What are you saying?" Adam asked.
"There is most definitely not a Blake and Conant curse. That is nothing but crap! They are destined to be together by destiny. You know John, playing his little chess game and setting up his battle ground. He has ulterior motives by breaking up you and her. And you need to get her to remember exactly why she fell in love with you, Adam."
"How can I even do that?" Adam asked, looking exhausted from worry.
"I will help you all I can," Ethan assured his son, "And I will talk to Dawn."
-x-
Adam honestly didn't know where his feet were taking him. He found the neighborhood turning into Cassie's and he knew that his feet wouldn't stop.
Hearing angry muffled voices in the distance, he hid in someone's bushes in the front yard. To his surprise, in front of Jane's house, stood Dawn and John.
"I saw Jane Blake today."
John's eyes grew cold, "That's nice."
"There is no such thing as a Blake/Conant curse."
The words pierced his heart like arrows. So he gave up everything for something that didn't even exist?
"You scheming son of a bitch! You just couldn't stand their destiny so you wanted to drive Adam and Cassie away! Just like you did with Ethan and Amelia! You never told me you had magic!"
"I don't have that much magic, I just have enough to kill crows, make Jake suffer, control what Jane says and that Elixir. But I can't protect the circle against the witch hunters," John said, grimly.
Dawn stood, frozen to her spot, horrified.
"Do you think what Amelia and Ethan wanted to do all those years ago would be good? They were so in love. He even left the boat to run away together with Amelia, which would weaken the circle and leave you defenseless against the witch hunters," John continued.
"I didn't know you had…"
"Don't question what I do. You do not want to have me as your enemy," John warned as he walked away from the house into the blackness of the night.
Sometime later, even Dawn left. Adam came out of the bushes, and ran back to the boathouse, where his dad was wiping the counter, about to close the shop for the night.
"Adam? What happened?" Ethan asked.
"It was fake. He set it up," Adam rushed.
"Calm down. What was fake, and who set what up?" Ethan asked, calming Adam down a notch.
"The morning after the casino night, Cassie and I went to the front yard to find a bunch of crows dead on the front lawn. Jake was dying of some kind of illness and John told us that there was a curse between Conants and Blakes and if they ever cross paths and start a relationship someone in the circle could die. He chose Jake to suffer this 'illness'. We had to gather the ingredients for the elixir and John prepared it. Then Cassie and I drank it. She forgot but I remember," Adam explained in a rush.
Luckily Ethan had understood whatever ramble Adam had spit forth. Now he knew he had yet another reason to hate John even more.
"What can we do to make Cassie to understand?" Adam asked.
"I think, since he created this curse, he needs to die in order for this curse to lift," Ethan thoughtfully replied.
Adam sighed and raked his hand through his brown-black hair. He paced within the closed shop and looked at his dad sternly.
"Look, dad, I know you hate Cassie's dad, but how do you know killing him will make anything better?" Adam asked.
"Look we can all agree I hate him, for many reasons for as long as I can remember. But it's true – he is the sole mastermind of this curse. The only way this curse can be broken if he is dead," Ethan explained.
"That's something I can't do," Adam whispered. Ethan nodded along with his son.
"She has to face it herself," Ethan agreed.
"Why does she have to face it alone?" Adam asked.
"Because she is as powerful as a Balcoin. She has to face him herself. Only she can end it," Ethan answered, "If she wants to."
Adam remembered all the times Cassie had tried to cope with her dark power. Faye was insanely jealous of Cassie's powers – those Cassie didn't want inside her – and went so far as to strip it from her by using a spell no one knew, claiming it was a favor for Cassie.
But Cassie wouldn't want it. She told him so many times, that although she was proud of who she was and the powers and responsibilities she had as being the leader of the circle, she didn't want all the power from the Balcoin bloodline corrupt her, and have her thirsting for more power.
"She wouldn't want to be corrupted," Adam whispered, reminiscing all the times they spent, "She's good. I know she is."
-x-
Cassie found out she wasn't John Blackwell's only daughter. She had other brothers and sisters. Diana was her half-sister.
The blonde sighed as she had sat down on the couch. She looked around the now empty house. Her grandmother was dead, and now she literally had nothing, no one to lean on.
Cassie's thoughts floated to Diana. Ever since the fright about power grew, ever since they realized they were half-sisters, Diana drifted away from Cassie.
It felt like, they weren't connecting at all. Like, they were breaking apart, despite being the powerful sisters of the Balcoin siblings.
Cassie sighed and threw her head back. She obviously didn't want to waste time over someone who constantly pushed her away, no matter how gentle her approach was.
So maybe this is how Diana felt when I came to Chance Harbor, Cassie thought, remembering her scared self, learning about new things like witchcraft and binding ceremonies and books of shadows and other weird stuff teenagers shouldn't be worrying about.
I wonder… how sick of me they got, trying to convince me to join the circle, Cassie wondered to herself. Then as she sat, her mind drifted to Adam,
He seemed so tense this morning, I wonder why. I mean, the Elixir worked on me, I don't love him anymore. Is it possible it didn't work on him…? Cassie's face filled with dread when she realized this.
His facial movements, his affections when in contrast she was a bit scared. How he rushed out the house when she declared their love didn't feel real. Is it possible that it didn't work on him? She always expected the one to be crying and Adam would just flip her off and start over with a new girl. But she never knew she would just forget how to love him.
-x-
Days passed. Cassie and Diana found their last string of connection. They both agreed on one thing: John Blackwell must die. It was the only thing that helped Diana tolerate Cassie, and it was the only thing that kept her in Chance Harbor.
As John had fallen to the ground, Cassie wondered, why she didn't feel bad about her own father dying. Sure he was evil and everything and he probably played dirty tricks on everybody just to get what he wanted. But he is all she had left. Her mother, then her grandmother, and now her own father is dead.
Yet, Cassie knew her father was evil. Father or no father, he had caused so much damage, he had killed so many lives and he had broken so many fragile things in his quest for never-ending power. Like her relationship with Adam, like Amelia's love for Ethan.
Adam.
She had been meaning to wanting to talk to him. He probably gave up after waiting for her to come around and realize that they both loved each other and he still does.
Cassie was terrified to even face Ethan again. She almost ended his life in a fit of rage at Casino night at school. How can anyone be expect to forget-and-forgive that? Sure he might forgive but he will bitterly remember the time she almost killed him.
When killing her father, it had seemed something was unveiled. Like a curse he had made up all along was being removed.
She thought of Adam, and all the reasons why she loved him. She remembered telling him she was scary, dark, evil, and he should stay away from her.
On the night after the casino night at school, he had placed a hand on her cheek and told her, once and for all, he didn't care. She didn't scare him, and he loved her. Period. No questions asked, no comments made.
She had thought about wanting to see him. But her fingers would wobble every time she would bring up his contact on her phone. As his name flashed up on the screen, she almost wanted to hit the back space until she was at the home screen of her smartphone. She didn't want to face the reality.
She remembered why she loved him, and she was scared that he would have moved on by the time she told him the 'great' news.
But enough nerves killed, Cassie knew she had to do it. She knew she had to face him and tell him how she felt, and that those feelings have never gone anywhere, they were just buried and hidden by the Elixir.
Hey Adam,
It's Cassie. As you know, (well maybe you do not know), Dad is dead. Diana and I killed him and I wanted to tell you something important. Is there a time we could meet?
Cassie
Cassie hit send, and she made some dinner for herself. She kind of got the hang of life now that her kind grandmother wasn't alive anymore.
After heating up some casseroles and eating them, Cassie checked her phone and sure enough, she had one new text message from Adam. Flipping it open, she read:
Sure, how about at the Boathouse at nine?
Cassie smiled. He knew her too well.
Perfect.
-x-
As Adam was finished putting all the chairs up and cleaning the counter, Cassie came in the shop, just as Adam was flipping the OPEN sign to CLOSED.
"Hey, what did you want to talk about?" Adam smiled, though it was probably killing him on the inside. This important thing that Cassie might have wanted to tell him might be how much she likes Jake because come on, although he slept with Faye, he is deeply in love with Cassie.
"Um, let's sit?" Cassie asked, standing awkwardly.
"Oh, yeah," Adam gestured to one of the window seats, letting Cassie scoot in and he slid on the same seat after.
"My dad's dead, with the help of Diana," Cassie sighed.
"I know that, you said so yourself. Now that I think about it, Diana hasn't been talking to any of us lately. Do you know where she is?" Adam asked curiously.
"She ran away with Grant," Cassie sighed.
"Why?"
"She said she was sick and tired of all these lies and games we were playing and she couldn't handle it anymore," Cassie shook her head.
"Lies and games?" Adam snorted, "Your father was playing lies and games, not us."
"The pressure's too much, Adam, she couldn't handle it. I am even surprised I haven't run away like my mom," Cassie sighed, "Not calling her weak, but… yeah."
Adam nodded. But then her text flashed in his mind and he had to know what she had to say.
"So, what was this important thing you wanted to tell me?" Adam asked.
"When I killed dad, along with Diana, I feel the effects of the Elixir wore off. You know, because this whole curse thing was played by him, it only makes sense that the 'curse' would fade away as he dies," Cassie slightly smiled.
Tears pricked Adam's eyes as he whispered, "So you love me?"
Cassie's bright blue eyes filled with unshed tears, as she slowly nodded, "Yes, and god I can't believe I let you go through so much pain."
Adam locked Cassie in his arms, buried his face in her shoulder, and started to cry, sobs wracking his body. He was so scared Cassie would be devoid of loving him for eternity. All the stress that he had silently bottled up had exploded when he realized in the end everything would be okay.
Cassie even timidly wrapped her skinny arms around her boyfriend. Even she silently broke down, allowing her soft sniffles to be consumed by Adam's sobs. The both of them cried away their agony and misery and pain.
And in the end, they knew, it would be okay.
-x-
HUGE Cadam shipper from TSC! Have seen the actual series in 2011-2012 and was FURIOUS that Adam forgot his feelings for Cassie and just left her in the dust and became cozy with Melissa (Ew) and became power hungry!
And then found out the show was cancelled. I was not going to let this end and I had to write something. A writer just gotta do the job right when the producers of the show FLOP MISERABLY by not finishing the TV series (based off of books… I know…).