Chapter 24



"This house is incredible!" Cassie exclaimed, having just finished her tour of Aidan's house.

It was two days after the battle. Both covens were sitting in one of the Smith's immensely large living rooms. Faye was sitting next to Suzan, both of them in a deep conversation with Caleb and James. The Henderson brothers were punching each other, showing off for the giggling Torchia twins. Diana was sitting with Aidan, curled into his body, letting him run his hands through her hair. She smiled at Katherine, in a similar position with Nick.

Adam and Cassie walked up, holding hands. They sat down, sharing the ottoman in front of Diana. "So," Adam stretched, putting an arm around Cassie's shoulders. "What's the game plan?"

Diana raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Cassie gave a kind of half smile. "With you and Nick. Your soulmates are here. What are you going to do?"

Feeling a frown grow on her face, she turned to Nick. "I don't know. What do you think?"

She watched his eyes scan over the group, then back to Katherine. "I have no clue."

Aidan sat up. "I have an idea. Why don't you and Nicholas stay until the summer? Then, either our group can go to America, our your group can come back here. I imagine members here and members there will switch around, and the covens will be complete. By then, we should all have come to a decision of what we're going to do."

Diana smiled half-heartedly. She looked up at Cassie, seeing the tears welling up in her eyes. "I guess that will have to do for now."





Diana walked up Crowhaven Road. How many months had it been? Too many, she thought to herself.

Holding Aidan's hand, she admired how well the guys were doing on the restitution of the vacant houses. Correction: guy and girls. She could see Deborah and Erin stapling down shingles on the roof.

It had been great seeing her father, and the crones. They were all very impressed with Aidan. She still had no clue what she was going to do.

Her and Aidan walked down the bluff at number twelve to join the slowly growing crowd. Adam and James were manning a grill, while a huge game of frisbee had ensued. Suzan was yelling at Sean for spraying her with sand while she was sunbathing.

Cassie jogged up to greet them. Diana smiled, "Congratulations on the early graduation!"

Cassie blushed. "Thank you. I worked my butt off to do it."

"I bet you did." Diana looked up to see the roofing crew making their way onto the beach. "I guess we should get this meeting started."

"We were thinking," Cassie said shyly, "Faye and I, we thought that maybe you'd want to lead the meeting. You haven't been here in so long, and we miss you so much, we figured you'd like to do one of your old jobs."

Warmth filled Diana's heart. "I'd love to."

Taking her place in front of the finally settled group, she cleared her throat. "Today's meeting is to address a major concern at hand. The members of New Salem have spent one week in Ireland, and the Salem members have now been here a week. Now is the time to choose. Who will stay and who will go? If there aren't enough people to stay in New Salem, everyone's going to have to just vacation and stay with their original coven.

"Can I get a show of hands to who is going to stay in New Salem from the Salem group?" Slowly, one-by-one, hands began to rise. "I see the Torchia twins, Jordan, Caleb, Jon, Richard, and Erica. That makes seven." She sighed, her big moment was coming. "Can I now get a show of hands of the New Salem members that are going back to Ireland?"

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Nick's hand raised, Deborah's right next to him. Diana gave a faint smile, noticing no other hands going up. She turned to look at Aidan, then Nick, both of them giving her reassuring smiles. Her eyes skimmed over the rest of her Club. Laurel and Melanie, her cousin Faye, Sean, Suzan and the Henderson brothers, Adam. Looking at Cassie's beaming face, she felt tears coming to her eyes. She was going to miss her the most.

Slowly, she raised her hand, trying to keep the tears from spilling over. She didn't understand why Cassie was still smiling. Wasn't she going to miss her, too?

Cassie and Adam looked at each other, sharing a knowing grin. Suddenly, they each had a hand in the air.

Diana's hand dropped. "What?"

Cassie stood up. "Since I'm out of school, Adam and I decided to give it a try."

"But what about your mom? And your grandmother, Adam?" Diana was in shock, she couldn't believe what she was hearing.

Cassie laughed. "We've had this figured out ever since we got back from Ireland. We knew you wouldn't leave Aidan, so we made plans to come to you. It's all figured out. My mom's going to take care of Adam's grandmother, and we'll still come back and visit. Faye's going to take over as mandatory leader." She gave her a sly grin. "Besides, I have to be there in case my sister ends up in trouble."

Diana ran and embraced her. "This is going to be so great. "

Cassie whispered in her ear. "I promise, things won't get like they were before you left. I'll be there for you from now on."

Diana just held tighter, seeing Aidan smiling at her. She was going to have them both, her sister and her soulmate.