Chapter Two
It was dark outside now, and the group had all retreated up to Diana's room, giving her father some space. It was hard to find room for all of them and at first seemed cramped, but now, with them all sitting in a circle of sorts, with Diana and Cassie and Deborah sitting on Diana's bed, Faye sitting on a chair at Diana's writing desk, Suzan, Laurel and Melanie, Nick and Sean, Doug and Chris on the floor, it looked kind of cosy. Candles were lit everywhere, some scented with Lavender, Rose and Vanilla.
"I have an idea," Faye said lazily. Cassie exchanged a look with Diana and knew they were both thinking the same thought. This couldn't be good at all. She looked like she had had this idea for quite a while, and had only been biding her time to mention it.
"Well?" asked Melanie impatiently. "Just what exactly is this great idea?"
"Yeah, Faye," said Chris, who sounded intrigued.
She smiled, and stood up as if to leave the room. "I'm going to show you everything and let you decide. But...I think it would be a great way to use our powers. I just have to get everything from my bag downstairs."
"I wondered what you were carrying around in that big thing," Suzan muttered
Faye was back in the room in no time at all. She took from her bag a black blanket and spread it out on the floor. Then she produced a giant crystal ball and a placed the ball on a base made of marble. It looked like it must have cost a fortune."Faye," Nick began warily, but she interrupted him.
"It's just an idea, that's all," she said lightly. "I just think we should have a little sneaky peak. It's what old time witches did right? I think it's a great way to use our powers."
"But its personal gain," Deb protested angrily. Since Faye had lied to her friends and started working with Black John, Suzan and Deborah had been very unforgiving of her since she had come back to their side, and Cassie wondered if their friendship would ever be the same again.
"Look," said Faye. "It's not some evil scheme to take over the world. And I'm not talking about our own personal future, I mean, if I found out I'd won the lottery, then great. But if I found out I'd die soon in an accident? Very creepy. So, just a general outlook of the coven to see what it is we end up doing."
"Won't we still find out if we die or not?" asked Laurel cautiously.
Faye shrugged. "You want to do great things like save nature and the world and everything. We can get ideas of how we even begin to start doing that. Because no offense but that's a big thing to start. And we pretty much are destroying things ourselves, we would need to change everyone's perspective on things. For instance, if you wanted to save a species like tigers from going extinct, how are you going to do that? By influencing all hunter's to lower their guns? Is there a spell big enough for all hunters in the world or do we invent a spell like that? And does it all start with improving relationships with the outsiders? Like Diana said?" Faye looked defiantly around the room and there wasn't much people could say against her now. She was actually far too intelligent for her own good, thought Cassie.
"We've all spent so much time celebrating that we haven't done anything constructive," Faye concluded. "So I say instead of just sitting around talking, we use the Master Tools and start doing things. And Diana," she added as an afterthought. "I thought you were all about there being a new you? Are you ready to take some risks or not?"
"Ok," Diana finally agreed. "But if it gets too much then we stop ok?"
"You shouldn't blackmail her like that," Nick said with a hard look at Faye. "Haven't you done enough of that already?"
Faye raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Since when do you play the hero Nick? And it wasn't blackmail. I was just saying. I can throw all this very expensive stuff away if you want," she looked like her feelings had been hurt.
Faye began laying smaller crystals around the crystal ball, presumably ones to heighten a clear mind, when there were no more protests, and then got up to turn out the light, candle light sparkling around them,
Diana had been keeping the Master Tools in her room, and she gave them now to Cassie. Cassie hadn't felt right about keeping them, she may have been voted leader, but in her mind, Diana would always be leader and it should have stayed that way. Sharing power with Faye was far too dangerous. Cassie put on the Tools carefully. Even though they were hundreds of years old, and had survived many a battle, she was still scared to touch them. She could feel their power instantly, like a stronger pulse than her own running through her. "Ok, hold hands everyone," she murmured.
They all started to look into the heart of the crystal, eyes glazing over and loosing focus. For Cassie, the experience of peering into the future was like being hypnotized, or what she imagined being drunk to feel like. First of all there was nothing but darkness and the occasional golden light of a candle flame. But then a mist seemed to appear, first in the crystal ball, then it seemed to spread outwards, swirling around all of them.
When the first images became clear, Cassie wondered if everyone was seeing what she was seeing. She was at a wedding, but because the point of this little exercise was not to look into their personal futures, she couldn't tell if it was any of the Circle getting married or not. She couldn't even look down to see what colour dress she was wearing, but she could see other members dotted around mingling with other guests she didn't recognise, all looking fancy. There was Suzan and Melanie and Doug and Kris.
Her heart sped up with excitement as she saw Nick and Diana and Adam talking to Sally Waltman. Sally Waltman was at the same event as Circle members. She had been on the verge of trusting them and this was very good news indeed. More images began hitting her senses, talks with the outsiders, it all seemed to begin there, but she was starting to lose her concentration and suddenly felt herself being pulled back to Diana's room.
She looked around bewildered, and found that none of the others were awake like she was. Or maybe aware was a better word to use. They were all still staring at the crystal. It was a very weird situation and she didn't like it. She wanted more than anything to shake Diana and ask for her help but she didn't dare to break the Circle, so she sat very still gripping Diana and Faye's hands tightly, wide eyed and alert for anything unnatural.
Soon she saw what she had been dreading. There, just at the edge of her vision stood the outline of a girl. As Cassie squinted, trying to get a better look she began to see more detail and a feeling of horror ran through her. It couldn't be, but it was. She didn't know why she was suddenly able to see the ghost of Kori Henderson, or what it could all possibly mean, but there she was. Cassie felt the temperature plummet and could see her breath in the air. She shivered uncontrollably as Kori stepped towards the Circle of witches. A wind erupted around her suddenly, knocking Diana's art off the walls. Cassie felt her fingers slipping from Diana's and Faye's that was when all of the candles blew out and the room was suddenly in darkness.
TBC.
Sorry for the short chapter, next one will be longer I promise. I don't really remember the description of Kori that much from the books, but I will look it up in the future so I can describe her in more detail. Hope you like it so far, please let me know in a review!
