Chapter Five

All the crystal skull business sounded very serious, but I couldn't help but feel like an outsider while Adam, Cassie, and Diana talked about it. I understood that it was connected to terrible happenings for the Circle before I arrived. I also knew I was expected to vote against trying to find it. Beyond that, however, I was a fish out of water.

So I sat quietly and pet Raj until the trio decided to head over to Diana's house and prepare. They left, Adam telling me to meet everyone at the beach behind Diana's house around eight o'clock that night.

Which led to me stumbling my way around the beach later that evening because I had no clue where Diana's house was. How Adam could overlook the fact that I was new here, I had no idea, but it was disconcerting how he kept tossing between being a caring brother figure and completely out of touch.

Since all I knew about Diana's house was that it had to be on Crowhaven Road and apparently on the side with the beach behind it, I started at one end and figured I'd wander along until I found everyone. Maybe I'd find them early or maybe I'd take forever and find them late, but it was the only option I had. Luckily, about five minutes into my aimless wandering, someone called out to me.

"Elena, wait up!" I turned to see Sean jogging up behind me. "Decided to take the scenic route, huh?"

He was smiling warmly at me, so I quirked my lips in return. "I actually have no idea where I'm going. Figured I'd wander around until I found everyone."

Sean laughed. "Not the worst plan. Diana lives all the way at the start of Crowhaven, though, so it'd probably be better if we take a shortcut."

"That'd be great!" I agreed eagerly. "Thank you so much."

His cheeks colored a little as he shrugged. "No problem. We're all in this together now. I'm just glad I saw you down here when I was passing by."

"All in this together?" I asked, holding back a snort at his unintentional reference.

"Yeah, but none of us sing or dance," he joked—so apparently the reference wasn't so unintentional. "Watch your step here." He led me up and around some rocks.

I focused on where I was stepping for a minute. When we were back on solid ground, walking through grass of backyards now, I asked, "What do you make of this meeting?"

All traces of humor left his face and he released a long sigh. "I don't know. I feel like I need to hear what everyone else is thinking. I understand reasons not to do it. All that happened last year was...terrifying. But Faye isn't all bad. I know a lot of the group think she's rotten, and I can't entirely blame them, but she's not the worst all the time. She can have good ideas. So really I have to hear from Faye her reasons why."

Interesting. This was the first time anyone had shown anything close to a favorable opinion of Faye. "As of right now, how do you think you're going to vote?"

"No." He frowned. "But I'm...not very good at sticking to my gut. And Faye can be intimidating. That's another thing the others like to overlook—it's hard to go against her when she's focused on having you on her side."

Now that sounded more like the girl I'd met. "The others wouldn't have your back? Protect you from her if you voted against her?"

He shrugged, hunching in on himself a little bit. "It's not that they wouldn't have my back. It's more that they wouldn't pay attention. I'm not exactly the star of the group. I don't get noticed as much. So if Faye were to get mad at me and do something...well, I'd probably be on my own."

"No," I said immediately. "You wouldn't."

He smiled. "That's nice and all, but you're new here. You'll see."

I shook my head. "No. I'll pay attention. I've got your back if you don't vote the way Faye wants you to and she pressures you or whatever. Or even if it's not now, if there's something later she wants you on her side for. I'll keep an eye out. And I'll say something to Adam too—I doubt he'd just stand by and let Faye be a bitch to you." I hoped not, at least.

"Right," he agreed, not sounding too assured by my words. He didn't know me yet, so that had to make it tough for him to trust me. I could understand that. "Thanks."

I bumped my shoulder with his as we headed back down to the beach. "Anytime. And if I don't see it, please tell me. I will help you."

"Sure," he said. Then he pointed ahead of us where I could see...yeah, that was the entire rest of the Circle waiting. I knew I'd be the last to arrive. At least I wasn't alone. "We're almost there."

"Thanks for showing me the way. Probably would have taken me forever to find it on my own."

Sean bumped his shoulder with mine, just like I had a few moments before. "Anytime."

Faye was standing at the edge of the group with her arms crossed. "You're late."

Sean ducked his head and passed her by without a word, but I stopped in front of her and shrugged. "I didn't know where I was going. I'm lucky Sean found me and offered to show me the way."

"You didn't tell here where Diana's house is?" Laurel chirped at Adam.

Adam was looking sheepish. "I only told her to meet us at the beach behind Diana's house. I didn't think."

"Clearly, dipshit," Nick said, frowning.

Diana pointed at him. "Hey. Be nice."

Nick rolled his eyes. "You would have given her the address. I would have given her the address. Any of us would have given her the address. But Adam didn't. Therefore—dipshit."

Diana bit her lip. "I was there, too. When he told her where to go. I didn't think to give her more information, either." She looked at me. "I'm sorry, Elena. I'm so used to everyone just knowing where we live…"

Great. Another reminder that I'm an outsider to this group of friends that have mostly known each other since birth. They'd grown up together, been through some serious shit together. And now here I was, jumping into the fray like I had any right to be here. "It's fine. No harm, no foul."

"I'm sorry, too," Adam murmured, stepping closer to me and waving me toward the group. I saw there was a collection of items in the middle of everyone that Cassie was organizing. "Cassie's going to be casting the Circle and leading the meeting tonight. Diana and Faye will explain their sides, and then Cassie will call for the vote. We'll go from oldest to youngest, so you'll be last. Hopefully by that point the votes will be leaning in a particular direction and you won't have too much pressure on you."

I waved a hand. "I don't care. I'm not nervous." And I wasn't. I felt more like a spectator than a participant.

Adam smiled. "Good. We're all friends here. Nothing to be nervous about." Then he moved to Cassie's side.

I stood by myself at the edge of the group for the next five minutes as everyone else chatted and Cassie, Diana, and Adam made sure everything was prepared. It looked like this was going to be more of an actual ceremony than a simple meeting.

As Cassie called for everyone to sit in a circle, I noticed I wasn't the only one on the fringe of the group—Nick was standing alone, not speaking to anyone either. His gaze was to the water, but I could have sworn I felt his eyes flicker to me once or twice. I brushed that off as wishful thinking as I sat in between Deborah and Laurel.

I didn't understand much of what happened next, but Laurel whispered to me that it was ritual for Cassie to create and close us in a Circle. "Normally we don't need one for meetings, but since this one is going to include a vote, we want to be safe." Safe from what, I had no idea but I wasn't going to question the people who knew what they were doing.

"I'm sure you all have heard what we're here to discuss tonight," Cassie announced once she'd taken her seat among us, between Adam and Diana. "Faye has proposed that we search for the crystal skull and try again to cleanse it and possibly make use of it. All of us…" she trailed off with a glance at me. "Most of us remember how that went last time. So we've decided to leave this to the Circle as a whole to decide. First we'll let Diana and Faye explain why they think we should or should not find the skull, and then we'll have a vote. First up is Faye."

Faye grinned and gave us all a little finger wiggle. "I think finding the skull is the logical next step for us. We've reached full capacity with our newest addition." She leveled her eyes on me with a wink. "So I don't see why we don't take another crack at maximizing our power with the skull as a tool. We definitely got rid of Black John, so that's not a threat anymore. I think we can actually cleanse it this time and use it for the good of our Circle. Think of all we could accomplish. It'd be wicked."

Cassie nodded, not so much in agreement as acknowledgement of Faye's argument. "Thank you, Faye. Diana?"

"I feel like Faye isn't taking this very seriously. Yes, the skull could harness a lot of power—we witnessed that. People died because of it." She paused to send sad glances at the twins. "But there's no guarantee that we could cleanse all of that evil out of the skull. There's no guarantee that doing anything with it won't lead to another string of events like last time. I feel like completing our Circle is enough for us. We have enough people to reach maximum power, and all we have to do is work on it and learn and we can do great things without the help of a possibly evil tool like the crystal skull. I just don't think it's worth the risk."

Cassie nodded again. "Thank you, Diana. Now, we vote. Nicholas?"

Nick sighed from the other side of Deborah, arms crossed firmly over his chest. "No."

Faye scoffed from the other side of the group. "Oh, so you're not going to abstain this time?"

"Abstaining didn't work out so well the last time," he said. "I'm not an idiot."

Faye's mouth opened to say something else, but Cassie spoke up first. "No talking during this part. Adam?"

"No."

Cassie moved a white stone froward from a pile of white and red stones in front of her. I saw there was already one forward—two votes no, to side with Diana. "Meredith."

There was a moment of silence before Meredith said, "Yes."

Diana gasped. "Meredith!"

"Not now," Cassie said, moving a red stone forward. "Later. No coercing during the voting. Faye?"

Faye's expression was smug. "Yes."

"Diana?"

"No." Her voice was firm, as if her vote alone would be enough to sway the end results.

"Douglas."

One of the twins, the one with the scar I'd taken note of when I met everyone, gave Diana an apologetic look. "I know you're scared, but I've got to say yes."

"Christopher."

"For Kori," he said sadly. "Yes."

"Suzan?"

Suzen shook her head. "This whole thing is such a bad idea. No."

"Deborah."

"I don't get why this is such a big deal. Having that damn skull in our possession, whether we figure out how to use it or not, would be smart. Yes."

Adam cursed under his breath. Cassie ignored him. "Laurel?"

Laurel chewed on her lip for a moment before whispering, "Yes."

"Oh my goddess," Diana groaned.

"Sean."

We all watched him as he seemed to contemplate his decision. With six people already having voted yes, he could tip the scale and make a clear winner right now. He met my eyes, and I hoped he'd remember what I told him—he didn't have to give in to what Faye wanted...even though, I now noticed, she was sitting right next to him. His cheeks turned pink, and he shifted his gaze to the ground in front of him. "Yes."

Faye started laughing and Adam started grumbling. Cassie spoke over them, her hands clenched into fists. "We still have two people to go."

"Not that those votes matter," Faye said. "But go for it."

"I vote no," Cassie said anyway. Then she looked at me. "Elena?"

This was so dumb. Why was I even here? "No."

"And that's it," Cassie said. She counted the stones slowly even though we all knew the results. "The Circle has decided to find the crystal skull."

Diana blew out a loud breath. "So it's over? I can now ask for Meredith and Laurel to tell me why?"

Meredith sighed. "It's not anything against you, Diana. It's not about you at all. I get that you don't think it's worth the risk, but I think it'd be interesting to have it in our hands. We could study it. Learn about it. And like Deborah said, at least if it's with us we know no one else is messing with it."

"People died, Meredith!" Diana was sounding frantic now.

"Yeah, Diana, I know," Meredith said. "I was there. It's our responsibility to make sure that doesn't happen again. You have your idea of how we can keep it from happening, and I have mine."

Laurel said, "We have ours." She wrung her hands. "I think finding the skull and keeping it safe is the better option."

Adam laughed bitterly. "In what world is Faye going to not do something terrible with that skull? Did last time teach us nothing?"

"We decide as a Circle what to do with it," Meredith said sternly. "Right, Faye?"

"Of course," Faye said, her tone a touch too innocent. "I wouldn't dream of doing anything behind the back of my Circle. That's why we have this vote at all, instead of me going ahead and trying to find it myself."

"She has a point," Suzan said quietly. "If Faye didn't want the Circle's input, she could have done this alone."

Adam shook his head. "Once a snake, always a snake. I don't trust her. And you," he looked at Chris. "What do you mean for Kori? Wouldn't that be a reason to not want the skull around?"

Chris narrowed his eyes. "We can make sure the skull never hurts anyone else like it did my sister. If we leave it out there, wherever it is, who knows what someone might do with it?"

I still felt like a spectator, but I was slowly starting to connect some of the dots. Mainly that something about the skull had caused people to die before, which explained why Diana was so terrified. And that Doug and Chris used to have a sister—who was one of the people who died when they had the skull around last time.

"Who knows what's going to happen to us when we try to use it?" Adam asked.

"Enough!" Cassie yelled, breaking into what was building into an argument. "The vote is final. We have differing opinions, but we stand together with the decision a majority of us have voted upon. Now we move forward. Faye, do you have any idea on how to find the skull?"

Faye nodded, like she was expecting this question. "I imagine it'll be somewhere around the cliffs at the end of Crowhaven Road. Where thirteen used to stand. We can check out the beach down there and try to check things out around the rocks."

"Can we do that safely?" Laurel asked.

Faye smiled coyly. "I have my ways."

"Wait," Cassie said. "Are you looking for it by yourself, or are we doing this as a group effort?"

"Whoever wants to help is welcome, but you know as well as I do that I have some little helpers, Cassie. I plan to send them to scope things out first."

Suzan and Deborah smirked, and Cassie sighed. "Fine. Let us know the moment you find something."

"Of course! Meeting adjourned?"

Cassie moved to stand up. "We've just got to dispel the Circle." With that, everyone except me started moving. They took little handfuls of sand and covered up the ring around us Cassie had made at the beginning. When it had disappeared, people started walking off.

Standing up, I was brushing sand off my pants when Nick's voice caught my attention. "Are you going to make her walk all the way home, or what?"

Adam shifted where he was standing next to Cassie and Diana. "I kind of wanted to discuss…" he trailed off, his gaze settling on me.

"There's nothing to discuss at this point," Diana said sadly. "We'll just have to be careful."

Adam nodded, peering down at Cassie. "I can take you home, too."

Cassie shook her head. "I'm staying over with Diana tonight."

Adam leaned down and kissed her forehead. I looked away then, but I heard him whisper, "Call me if you need me."

He said more, but I was distracted by Nick murmuring, "I'd take you home, but I live across the street."

I tilted my head back to meet his eyes. They were dark, but surprisingly soft. "It's okay. I wouldn't have minded walking again."

His jaw hardened. "You shouldn't have had to walk in the first place."

Biting my lip, I decided to tell him what had been in my mind all night. "I'm not sure I should be here at all anyway."

He frowned. "You're one of us now. You belong here."

I hadn't expected that to be his response, especially since he didn't seem too into all this Circle business. But it was comforting to know at least one person wanted me there. Or maybe two, if Sean's kindness earlier was anything to go by. "Thanks for saying that."

His eyes narrowed. "I'm not just saying it. I mean it."

Luckily I was saved from having to reply by Adam joining us. "Ready to go?"

I looked at Nick for another moment before nodding. "Yeah. See you later."

Nick didn't say anything, just nodded before turning and walking off.

"Was he giving you trouble?" Adam asked, watching him go for a second before leading me toward the road.

"No," I answered honestly. "He was being really nice."

Adam scoffed. "Nick? Being nice? Okay."

I glared at him. "Is that so hard to believe?"

We reached the road and I saw his car nearby. As we headed that way, he said, "Kind of. He's not particularly terrible, either. He definitely hates me, though, so I hope that doesn't extend to you."

"From what I can tell, it doesn't." And I wasn't sure I could blame Nick for not being Adam's biggest fan, I thought...but I didn't say that. Causing trouble with my newfound brother was not the best way to kick off a relationship. A thought suddenly occurred to me. "Where's Raj?"

Adam unlocked the car and we piled inside. "With Grandma. Normally I'll bring him along for Circle stuff, but he was tired. Plus, I was at Diana's house earlier. Her dad isn't the biggest fan of Raj in the house."

"Oh." We were quiet for a minute as we made the quick ride down the street. When our house was in sight, I decided to bite the bullet and ask, "So how do you think things are going to go with the skull?"

Adam's fingers tightened around the steering wheel. "I'm not sure." He paused, taking a minute to park in our driveway before turning to face me. "But word of advice for whatever comes next, Elena? Brace."

Thank you so much for reading! :)