They Had Lights in Their Eyes
Four
'Night of the Dancing Crane'
Cassie sat on her bed, her mother's letter resting lightly on her shin. Her eyes kept falling onto the curvy blue letters, but she couldn't bring herself to read them again. She wanted to, because those were the last words she'd ever get to read or hear in her mother's tone; but having this tangible object beside her, made Cassie realize just how gone her mother truly was. It was like Amelia Blake was a ghost, but one who didn't feel the need to linger in limbo. She was gone (to heaven Cassie prayed), leaving her daughter to fend in this crazy and spontaneous world on her own. Cassie knew she wasn't really alone, but despite being surrounded by her grandmother's protective arms, and Adam's intense interest, she felt more unaided than she'd ever had. She rubbed her hands deeply and slowly over her chilled face, taking in the full effect of the tingling sensations her finger pads left behind.
"Cassie," she heard her grandmother call from the bottom of the stairs, and she sat up a little straighter. Glancing to the clock in confusion, a red glare of eight forty-five stared back at her. What could her grandmother want with her now? "You have a visitor."
Now that sparked Cassie's interest. Untangling her legs, careful not to crumble the letter, she slid off her bed, pulling her silky pastel pink robe tighter around her waist and ran a hand through her drying hair. Her gray plaid pajama pants suddenly felt childish, and the white lacey tank top hidden slightly under the pink robe became too revealing. Sighing, Cassie didn't care enough about her looks to change. Shuffling in an odd excited tiredness, she went out her bedroom door, and down the stairs.
Hearing the wooden floors creak under her light weight, she saw her grandmother come into view, and next to her, none other than Adam Conant. Draped in the fitted gray shirt that she'd been admiring that morning, his simple lips curved into a small and toothless smile, and his cobalt eyes looked lightly up at her. Cassie felt her breath hitch in her throat, and she was suddenly nervous to be in his presence. Fiddling with the ties on her robe, she came heavily down the last few stairs, and stopped, standing closely to her grandmother. Cassie looked to Jane, silently telling her that whatever this conversation was to be about, it was to be in private with Adam.
Jane Blake sighed, taking the hint. "I'll be in the living room," she said lightly to her granddaughter, "but I can still hear you… I'm only a few yards away." She flashed a look in Adam's direction, and it could easily be taken as a harsh warning. The teenager formed a tight strait line out of his lips, and watched in tense numbness as Jane vanished behind one of the many wooden doors of the house. Cassie looked up timidly to Adam, when they were finally alone. The lace on her shirt was tickling her chest, reminding her that she was in her pajamas, and leaving skin bare that would usually be left to boys' sensual imaginations.
"What are you doing here, Adam?" Cassie asked attempting to keep her voice even, and slanted her eyebrows down slightly. He looked so calm and put together, despite the awkwardness of the situation.
"I came to apologize." Adam sighed, running a loose hand through his deep brown hair. Cassie noticed the subtle natural highlights that were sprinkled throughout his hair, and gave a little smirk. "You weren't supposed to find out about the Circle like that." The word 'circle' was barely even audible to Cassie. She sighed heavily in return, tightening her grip on her robe ties.
"What were you going to do? Send me an acceptance letter by owl?" Cassie raised an eyebrow.
"There are times when sarcasm is very much appreciated, but this is not one of them. We aren't crazy, Cassie. There really is such thing as magic, and you are one of the lucky ones to have that gift. I understand that you want to fight it, but there are times when you just have to accept the truth." Adam's words were so much like Cassie's mother's. She bit her lip, trying to process Amelia's and Adam's harmonious advice.
"I don't think you're crazy," Cassie replied quietly. "When I got home, I found something." She breathed in. "I believe you, Adam, I do. I just don't know if I can go through with it. My life's been anything but normal since my mom's death, and all I want now, is to blend in."
"I lost my mother too, Cassie. I know what it is you're going through. You feel labeled; like you're an object to have pity for, rather than an actual person. I get that you don't want to be coined as the poor girl who lost her mom. But the truth is, you did lose her. And as terrible as that is, you can't let that drive what you decide to do in life." Adam crossed his arms over his stomach, looking to Cassie with a certain flare in his eye. He was so grown up, for being merely sixteen. He seemed to have experience in maturing long before he was originally supposed to.
"Yeah," she returned, feeling tears forming in her eyes. It was taking all her might to hold them back. Adam was so akin to Amelia, in ways Cassie couldn't even begin to comprehend. Just looking into his blue eyes gave her the illusion that her mother was living subtly through him. Maybe this was Amelia's way of watching over her daughter…
Adam noticed Cassie's pain, and quickly veered from the subject of her mother.
"You said you found something," he probed, cocking his head to the side. Cassie nodded, breathing in.
"My mom left me a book." She debated if taking Adam up to her room would be appropriate, given the fact they barely knew each other (and her grandmother's warning, of course). But somehow, she trusted him enough, and she reached for Adam's wrist, to guide him to her room, but froze just short of his arm, dropping her hand to her side. His heart fell when she pulled away, but he still understood that he was to follow, and tailed behind her as they went up the stairs.
Adam walked into Cassie's room, suddenly extremely nervous. Although she seemed to accept and like him just fine, there was a substantial difference in the way he viewed her, when he saw her so vulnerable and natural in her bedroom. It was like Cassie was inviting Adam into a part of her life people rarely got to see—a part where smiles and shy words were not the only things to be expressed.
"Here," Cassie said, holding the old leather book out for Adam to take. He stared at it, seemingly frozen. Reaching out slowly, he took the book out of her hands with great care and elegance. He could see how much the thing meant to Cassie by the way her face had constricted weakly when she'd held it out for him. Adam caressed the front cover, feeling every deep crevice and curve on it. Running his thumb over the yellowed pages, he looked to Cassie.
"What is this?" He could guess, but he wanted this to be Cassie's deal and moment. He had no desire to intrude and dig into something that technically wasn't his place to.
"That's what I was hoping you could tell me." Cassie crossed her arms. "My mom left me a note in it, telling me that I was a—witch, and that this book would hold everything I needed. I started skimming through it, and it's not just spells." It felt weird to talk about spells and magic so naturally and seriously.
"This is your family's spell book," Adam whispered in return. The material seemed utterly foreign in his grasp, and the book seemed to even retaliate and resist him. "It holds everything; like your mom said. Do you, uh, mind if I take a look?" He held up the book to her. She nodded a silent yes, and sat stiffly on her bed. Adam looked to her, still standing motionless.
"You can come and sit down," Cassie told him, "if you um, want to…" she gave him a small smile, and he returned it, and walked the few feet to her bed, and sat down. Their shoulders almost touched, but they never made contact.
Cassie watched as Adam flipped and skimmed through the pages gingerly, and seemed to comprehend much more than she had. All, or most, of the spells were in a foreign language; one Cassie guessed was some variant or dialect of Celtic.
"You actually understand what these spells mean?" Cassie asked when Adam seemed to be actually reading the words, rather than just staring at them in wonder. Adam looked to her, laughing slightly.
"Some of it, yeah," he replied with a nod. "It's Cambrian, which is the native language in Wales. My dad taught me it when I was a kid." Adam returned his eyes to the spidery black words in front of him.
"Why did he teach you? Just for fun?" Cassie raised an eyebrow, leaning closer to Adam to see the book in his hands.
"My dad's side of the family is all from Wales. My grandparents actually immigrated to the US from there. So, my dad thought that in honor of them, he'd teach me." Adam seemed almost sad about the matter, like it was a memory long since dead. Cassie wanted to probe deeper, but decided to respect his privacy.
"That's really cool," she smiled in return, "I wish I knew another language…" Cassie paused. "So are all spells written in the same language, or…"
"Well, generally all spells are either in Latin or Celtic. But family spell books are in that family's native tongue. Like my mom's side of the family was from the Netherlands, so if they had a book, it would be in Dutch." Adam saw that Cassie was swirling with many more questions, so he laughed, and continued, "you can ask anything you want, Cassie. I know this is all really strange."
Cassie sighed and nodded, in agreement. "Well are all spells the same? Or do they vary?" She crossed her legs on her bed, her knee now touching Adam's thigh.
"There're broad types, like book genres, if you will. But depending on how each family or Circle interprets, recites, and translates it, it varies. Just like how each author writes in a specific category but has different style than a fellow author. But witches can create their own spells as well. But it's very rare when you see someone who's not a blood witch do that."
"A blood witch?" Cassie cocked her head to the side.
"Blood witches and warlocks are the ones whose families were all witches too. But not every conjurer out there is a 'natural one'. Anyone can be a witch, and read off the spells, but their magic is never as powerful, and they can only do it in their Circle." Adam shrugged his shoulders.
"Well, which one are you?" Cassie knew she must be a blood witch, given her mother's letter. Talking with Adam about all this craziness was calming her nerves and satisfying her curiosity.
"I don't know," Adam said in dark numbness, "my dad's never told me, and I've never asked." He crossed his ankles, which were hanging over the side of the bed, and glanced at Cassie.
"Then how do you know so much about magic and spells and all?" She felt like an idiot asking so many questions, but this wasn't something she could pretend she understood.
"Some years back, Diana found her family's book, and showed me and her then best friend Melissa. Melissa then showed Faye and her then boyfriend Nick, and that formed our Circle. Diana always insisted that we should learn about the magic before we began to practice it, so we dug deep into her spell book, and it held most of the answers we needed. I'm not going to lie to you, Cassie: there are still many unknowns. But now that you're a part of the Circle, we'll learn more from your book, hopefully." Adam supplied her with a supportive and alluring smile.
"I haven't said yes yet," Cassie returned, leaning slightly closer to him.
"Your mere interest is acceptance enough, for me." Adam breathed in deeply, running a thumb over the page he was on.
"So, uh, you said that Diana found her family's book. What language is hers in?" Cassie couldn't help but be interested in the linguistics portion of witchery.
"Latin. That's why she takes it as her language. In fact, that's why all of us decided to take Latin when we got into high school."
"You wanted to know exactly what you were reciting," Cassie added, just making things clearer to her.
"Exactly," Adam returned with a small smile.
"So what does the spell say?" She nodded towards the spell in front of Adam. Cassie's chin was inches from his shoulder, but she refused to close the distance.
"Mae hyn yn noswyl cysegredig, yn fy amddiffyn rhag niwed. Gyda, tynged bys a llafur a bywyd, cadw fi rhag cynnen, mae hyn yn noson. It roughly translates into this hallowed eve, protect me from harm. With finger and toil, destiny and life, keep me from strife, this very night. It's a defense spell; and a pretty strong one, at that. Your family's magic must be very powerful," Adam commented, flashing his blue eyes in Cassie's direction.
"So what type of spell is that? One my family made or one that all witches know?" Cassie hoped that it was the former. She wanted a connection to her family in any possible way, and this spell was one of many she could attach to, if it was hers.
"It's definitely an original one," Adam said slowly, pondering the question, "but it's different. Usually unique spells somehow incorporate the family's sacred bird; but this one doesn't." He shook his head. Cassie's spell book was puzzling to him. Sighing, Adam wished he knew more about his own history, and if he was a blood warlock or not. Ethan Conant rarely spoke about his history, heritage, or his late wife. Adam only ever saw the elder Conant nursing and brooding over a glass of some sort of alcohol.
"Is it bad that it doesn't have the uh, family… bird?" Cassie tried not to laugh at the idea of a sacred bird.
"I don't know," Adam returned, "it's one of those unknown things." He sighed, "sorry."
"No, it's fine," Cassie replied with a smile, "so do you know what my sacred bird is?"
Adam nodded, flipping to the first page of the book, and turned the leather material in his hands, so she could see the sketch. "It's a crane," he told her simply.
"This is all too weird," Cassie replied, but obviously in awe at the prospect of being a witch. "So the history goes far back, huh?"
"Extremely," Adam returned. "Well, I'm sure your grandmother wants you to get to sleep, so I'll see you tomorrow maybe?" He rose from Cassie's bed, and sat the now closed spell book lithely and delicately on the white comforter.
"I'd like that," Cassie smiled. Rising from her place on the bed as well, she stood close to Adam. She could feel his breath on her skin, and smell the mint gum he was chewing.
"Oh, and Diana wanted me to give you this," Adam said, presenting Cassie with a sheet of paper. "It's all of our numbers." He laughed, "Diana's a really organized person. She's the 'leader' of the Circle, I guess you could say."
"Thank you," Cassie said, setting the piece of white paper next to the spell book.
"Well Cassie, goodnight, and I hope you decide to join us." Adam began to walk towards the door, but stopped just as he got there. "Thanks for letting me come so late by the way; I didn't mean to intrude." He gave a shy laugh.
"You didn't," Cassie replied mildly, "it was really interesting. I'll see you tomorrow." She watched as Adam nodded with a smirk at her subtle promise, and he disappeared down the stairs. Allowing a giddy grin to creep onto her face, she walked back hazily to her bed, and collapsed onto it. Cassie could hear the front door shut lightly from downstairs, and she let out a content laugh. There was something magical about their connection, and what they were connecting over.
"Cassie," her grandmother said, "can I talk with you for a moment?" Cassie heard Jane's voice coming closer, so she sat up on her bed, tucking the book under her pillow.
"Yeah," she replied, when her grandma appeared in the doorway, "is everything okay? And I'm sorry Adam came here so late. He uh, just wanted to ask me about a Chemistry assignment." Cassie hated to lie…
"Oh," Jane began tightly, "well, I hope you figured it all out." Cassie nodded in reply. "I came up here Cassie, to talk about something else. I know you were not pleased yesterday, when I asked you to keep your distance from Adam. I felt I should explain my reasoning." Jane took a seat lightly on the edge of Cassie's bed, and patted her granddaughter's ankle sympathetically.
"Yeah, I don't understand why you don't like him…" Cassie placed her hands lazily on her knees, and looked to the woman next to her expectantly.
"It's not Adam I dislike; he seems like a perfectly fine boy. Mr. Conant, though, used to be friends with your mother…"
"That's what Adam told me," Cassie added, biting her lip.
"Yes, well, at one point, they even dated. Now, it wasn't that Ethan was a bad man; he just wasn't what I would have picked out for Amelia. Your mother had all of her goals set as high as she could possibly make them, and she had the desire and determination to reach them. Adam's father on the other hand, had nothing planned out. His only desire for the future was what party was taking place that evening. Amelia lost many opportunities because she followed Ethan rather than her own interests."
"But, isn't that part of being in a relationship? Sacrifices?" Cassie ran her tongue over her teeth, hoping she hadn't crossed any lines.
"Yes, it is, but Amelia was sacrificing everything, while Ethan was giving up virtually nothing. I just don't want the same fate for you, Cassie." Jane smiled at the teenager. Cassie understood where her grandma was coming from, but felt the argument a little overdramatic. That, or Jane was holding some vital information from her. Whatever the case, she couldn't quite accept her grandmother's reasoning.
"I'm so happy that you want the best for me, but you don't know Adam. He's actually really mature; he seems to know where his life is going." Cassie had to defend Adam. Not just to justify her own liking of him, but because he deserved the support, she felt.
"I am sure he is the kindest of people, but just please get to know him better before you make any hasty decisions, okay?" Now that Cassie could understand.
"Trust me, I won't; I promise." Cassie smiled. "Well I'm pretty tired, so I'll see you in the morning, okay?"
"Sure, sure," Jane nodded. "And just so you know, there's no school tomorrow; it's a holiday."
Cassie wanted to know more about this 'holiday', but was too tired to spark another conversation. Giving a sleepy goodnight to her grandmother, she watched the woman leave, and then turned out her light.
The sun came peaking brightly from behind the purple curtains, and Cassie met the golden haze with tired eyes. Sighing sharply, she despised how sensitive she was to light. Running a tired hand over her face, she dug her hand under her pillow, to try and defend herself against the light. Her hand tightened when she felt her family's spell book still hidden firmly under the lavender pillow case. Pulling the thing from under the pillow and sitting up, Cassie flipped through the pages again. She could still remember the way Adam handled her book, and smiled. You can tell a lot about someone, by the way they take care of books. And he was certainly gentle, and intellectual with them.
In one of the pages, she found the folded up piece of paper that had all of the Circle's member's numbers on it. Breathing in, she dialed Diana Meade's number.
"Hello?" The brunette's honeysuckle voice greeted after a few rings.
"Hi Diana, it's Cassie Blake. I um, was wondering if you wanted to do something today. I was hoping you could tell me more about this whole Circle thing…"
"Yeah, of course, I'd love to! There's a coffee place right on the main road, if you want to meet there, in like an hour. It's called Aldo Coffee."
"Great," Cassie returned with a smile, and said her goodbyes, hanging up the phone. Out of all the members, Adam and Diana intrigued her the most.
Cassie pushed the covers from her body, and rolled heavily out of her bed, and to the bathroom to get ready.
Cassie walked timidly into Aldo Coffee, searching desperately for Diana. She found the fellow witch in the far corner of the café, sipping on some sort of warm drink. Cassie began to walk towards the girl, and supplied Diana with a small wave, when she made eye contact with her. Diana returned the gesture.
"Hey, Cassie, I'm so glad that you called me." Diana grinned. "Have a seat." Cassie nodded, and sat in the wooden chair across from the caramel eyed beauty.
"So what's with the day off today? I don't remember it being a nation holiday or anything." Cassie laughed, and ordered a Vanilla Chai Tea Latte, when the waiter came to their table.
"Oh, it's not," Diana replied nonchalantly. "It's a town holiday, actually."
"What's the occasion?" This would be the second day in a row she was asking all of the questions…
"Well on September 21st in 1918, I think it was, there was a huge witch scare. It'd been brewing in Chance Harbor for some time, and people finally broke. Weird things had been happening, so they had their own much milder version of the Salem Witch Trials."
"And you… celebrate that?" Cassie tried to keep her criticalness out of her tone.
"People used to do it seriously, but now it's basically just a jumpstart to the Halloween season. You know, people believe the accused witches get to roam the town on the 21st, and yada yada." Diana laughed.
"It sounds interesting," Cassie replied. "Were um, any of the Circle's ancestors put on trial?" She asked in a hushed tone.
"Faye's great grandmother was, but found innocent. How wrong they were, right?" Diana shook her head with a smile.
"Yeah," Cassie returned. "So I found my family's book last night," she continued evenly.
"You did," Diana echoed happily, "that's great! Maybe your book can tell us more. Mine said a lot, but there's still a lot up in the air about all of this." Diana shrugged, taking a sip of her drink.
"That's what Adam said," Cassie commented, and took a few gulps of her warm drink as well. She watched Diana's eyes flash darkly.
"When did you do that?" Diana raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, uh," Cassie kicked herself mentally for bringing it up, "he came over last night to apologize for breaking the whole Circle thing to me so suddenly. I showed him the book, and he told me what he could about it."
"Interesting," the brunette returned blandly. "Well, after you're done with your latte, we can go to the old house I showed you a couple of days ago. Everyone'll be there, and we can start teaching you what we know."
It amazed Cassie how fast Diana could bounce back from being so hurt, and she nodded in agreement. Drinking from her blue cup as fast as she could, she could hardly wait to learn magic, and see Adam again…
Not quite the five thousand words I promised, sorry! But hopefully you still enjoyed.
Reviews are love