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AN: This story isn't necessarily about Adam and Cassie getting back together. While I am glad people like the story, and it does have a Cadam framework, it's really about Cassie getting her act together with her dark magic. And there will be another love interest in the mix whom we haven't met yet.

A haze of black doom hung over the tavern, polluting my senses with miasmal tendrils that slithered their way into every part of me. I could feel their thoughts, and it was blood, gore, and death for us all.

"This is bad," I said under my breath. "We're done."

Regina touched my elbow. "Don't give up hope."

I have none.

Somehow I knew she heard me.

We'll take care of Blackwell.

What if he takes care of us first?

That won't happen. He won't hurt you.

But he already had, on so many levels.

I can't count on that.

But you can count on me, so don't despair.

I was steeling myself to follow the others inside when I heard someone call my name.

"Cassie, wait."

Oh, God, it was my Dad. He walked across the parking lot at a fast pace and said, "Why were you following me?"

"Because we don't trust you."

"Is that the only reason?" He held up a witch cruet and I panicked, wondering how the hell it had traveled from my pocket to his hand. I shoved my hands into my pocket and discovered the hole in the bottom.

I was tempted to say it wasn't mine. "We want to take away your magic."

My father looked at the cruet and a smile split his face. "Ah, a permanent solution, complete with a voodoo queen."

"What?"

"Regina isn't an ordinary witch. She has all our knowledge, plus everything she learned from her family."

So all that talk about vudun had been for a reason. "So she's good to have on our side."

"That doesn't include me. She and I have bad blood between us, and she wants to finish me off."

"So do I," I admitted, my lips curling slightly at the edges as I tasted and liked the whiff of evil curling around us.

He nodded. "Use that to your advantage."

My smugness evaporated. "How?"

"Channel your anger against our enemies. It will go a long way toward beating them."

"Even the snake man?"

My Dad's smile was curdled with malevolence. "I have special plans for Eben that don't involve you. Leave him to me."

"So this is about revenge?"

"Does our kind know anything else, Cassie? Witchcraft has never been about peace and light. It's about defending ourselves against dark forces."

"Regina will try to take you out as soon as you show your face."

"That's why I need your help," he said, snagging my curiosity despite my better judgment.

"What do you have in mind?"

Dad quickly outlined his plans and I started to see the creativity behind the mask of an evil genius. For brilliant he was, despite what people thought of him. "Will you help me?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"Not if you want to live. Don't underestimate the Farnsworths. They come from one of the Eastern circles and are masters of dark magic. And that girl Poppy? She's no child, and Tessa isn't her grandmother. More like the other way around."

Out of everything he'd told me, that scared me the most. "Let's do it."