Chapter One

“Hey Rave-girl, what are you scribbling now?” Chris Henderson asked, sliding into the seat beside his friend.

“Just the big battle from last month,” Raven answered.

“So that’s why you were going around and bugging everyone about it,” Deborah said, realization dawning.

“Are we going to the dance?” Sean asked.

“We’ll probably sit in the boiler room and play cards as always,” Raven observed.

“Why do we even go, anyway?” Doug asked.

“To check out the pretty girls,” Sean answered instantly.

Chris arched one eyebrow and shook the blond hair out of his eyes. “We can check them out all we want, but we’ll never get them.”

“That’s the smartest thing I’ve heard all day,” Nick muttered.

Raven and Deborah exchanged looks. Deborah shook her head and went back to her lunch.

Raven leaned down to her backpack that was sitting by her feet. She unzipped it and groped around, watching the clock on the far wall and letting her hands find their way. Her fingers closed over something glossy-smooth and flat. Grinning triumphantly, she straightened up.
“What are you so happy about?” Doug asked curiously.

“Here, Nick,” Raven said, handing him a shiny bumper sticker. “For when your Mustang’s done.”

Nick reached out and took the sticker, his dark eyes scanning the words briefly. His cousin peered over his shoulder and hooted.

“Raven, girl, you’re on dangerous ground,” she teased. “But Nick, it fits you perfectly.”
“What does it say?” Chris asked.
Nick held up the sticker for all of them to see.
‘Sarcastic & Cynical’ it read in big, bold letters.
“It’s true,” Deborah said.
“So we’re going to the dance?" Sean looked around the table at all of the others, but they ignored him.
"Hi guys,” Suzan chirped, bouncing up to the table.
“We have the greatest idea,” she announced. “We’re getting everyone to go as couples and every one of you needs to find a date.”
“No,” Nick said flatly.
“Why not?” Suzan looked hurt.
There was silence all around. They all knew that Nick was still in love with Cassie.
“It’s a nice idea,” Raven said in a condescending tone, “but what girl in her right mind would go out with a guy from the Club?” She was referring to the fact that the rest of the kids on the island were afraid of anyone who lived on Crowhaven Road because they were witches. No one had ever called them witches aloud except for one time, and they would never do it again. Their coven, of which Raven was not a part, was called ‘the Club’ because no one wanted to say ‘coven’.
“Especially a Henderson,” Deborah added.
“Hey!” Chris protested.
“If you want to spell over some guys, you do that, but we of the caves are single,” Raven said in a tone that no one would dare cross. Suzan backed up a step. Raven’s dark eyes glowed from within, and Suzan fled.
The group finished their lunches in silence.

“Could you at least make an effort to associate with Outsiders?” Diana asked.
Nick gave her a stony look. After their principal Mr. Brunswick had disappeared, things had been strained between the Outsiders and the Club. When Mr. Brunswick had reigned, he’d installed new rules that basically made it open season on the Club and the Outsiders had been eager to help him if it meant getting their back on the Club after all the abuse Faye and her little group had put them through. Most of Faye’s group was reformed. All of them but Faye. Raven had moved in to Number Thirteen and now there was peace within the Circle again. For a while, Raven was considered an Outsider, but when they realized that she could call on the elements as well as any of them, she was considered one of them. She told Outsiders that she was just friends with them but not part of the Club, but when she got in with the wild crowd the Outsiders began avoiding her as well.
For the most part,Raven seemed like she was the most sane person of the group, but in reality she was the most dangerous. She wasn’t as obviously pretty as Deborah but she was as tough as Nick, if not tougher, even though no one had ever seen that side of her.
“Hey, if we ask them out they’ll run a mile,” Chris said reasonably. Doug backed him with his slightly mad grin and wild eyes.
“If you get us girls,” Sean wheedled.
Melanie shook her head. “No, then they’ll think we’re pushing them into it. If you ask them like normal guys and don’t get mad if they say no, then you’ll be able to actually date.”
“You aren’t getting me into a dress,” Raven said stubbornly.
“Deb wears dresses,” Laurel pointed out.
“I’m not Deb,” Raven answered evenly. “And you can’tmake me go with a guy, either.”
Nick seemed to be agreeing with her.
“Will someone talk some sense into them?” Laurel cried, throwing her hands up in frustration. They were gathered in the basement of Number Eight, Suzan’s house, making the final arrangements for the Homecoming dance.
“Nick, will you go, for me?” Cassie asked.
Nick stared down at her, his face impassive. Raven slanted a sidelong glance at him. He looked like he was about to give in…
“All right,” he muttered, sounding defeated. Then he spun on his heel and walked away.
“You shouldn’t play him like that,” Raven said in a low voice.
Cassie looked up at her in shock. “I’m not playing him.”
“You might not be, but you can’t use his feelings for you as a tug rope,” Raven said.
Cassie stared at Nick, her eyes clouding over. “I just want him to be happy. And he knew what he was getting into when he offered.”
Raven knew that Cassie never really could intentionally play a guy, but maybe subconsciously she was manipulating his feelings against him.
“What will it take to get you to dress up for one night?” Cassie asked.
“I’m fine in the clothes I wear, always ready for a fight when it comes,” Raven said coolly.
“You won’t have to fight there, just dance,” Cassie told her.
Raven looked wary. “I’m not into all of that girly stuff. And if I do agree to being made into a Barbie – and that’s a big ‘if’ – then I won’t wear any make-up.”
“So you’ll do it?” Cassie’s face lit up hopefully.
Raven hesitated, and in that instant she realized that everyone in the room was looking at her. She looked around at all of her friends. Sean, Chris and Doug looked eager – they were eager over any girl. Nick had one eyebrow lifted questioningly.
Deborah mouthed, “They got me, they’re getting you too.”
“Yeah,” Raven muttered, letting out a breath she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding. She had no idea what she was getting herself into.

“No, not those shoes,” Raven gasped, staring at the strap shoes that Suzan was holding up. “I can’t breathe in this dress as it is.”
“You look great!” Suzan exclaimed. “These shoes will make the outfit absolutely perfect!”
Raven peered over the circle of girls around her and spotted Deborah standing by the bedroom door, smirking.
“Hey, Deb gets to wear an easy sundress and I get this thing?” Raven cried. She was in a green satin dress with spaghetti straps with a body-hugging bodice and a floor-length skirt that flared gently all the way down.
“I won’t be able to walk in those,” she protested weakly but gave in as the shoes were put on.
“Now for your hair,” Laurel said, reaching up to the fraying knot of black hair at the nape of her neck.
“My hair is fine!” Raven said indignantly, but was beaten when her hair spilled down her back to hang behind her knees.
“I never knew your hair was so long,” Melanie observed.
“Why do you think I tie it up?” Raven groused.
“Well, let’s get it done,” Suzan urged, getting a brush and beginning to do Raven’s hair.

After fifteen minutes of Raven’s cursing and yelling and the other girls running around the room, Raven was done. Her hair was piled on top of her head in a complicated pile of curls, a few of them tactfully hanging down in her face.
“I feel like a Barbie,” Raven muttered, refusing to look in the mirror.
The doorbell rang, and Deborah shot down the stairs to answer it.
“All right, which guy doesn’t have a date?” Diana asked, her eyes sparkling. The rest of the girls crowded at the door were grinning.
The guys exchanged looks.
“Nick, why?” Adam asked.
“Go get him,” Suzan urged.
“He ain’t so hot on girls,” Chris murmured nervously, but Doug turned and yelled for Nick to come. The door of the Armstrong car swung open and Nick stepped out, quite the handsome young man all in black.
“Seeing how all of you have dates, we figured it would only be fair for Nick to have one, too,” Laurel announced.
“I don’t –“ Nick began to protest, and Adam moved in to counter him, but all of the guys stopped and fell silent as the girls at the door parted to reveal Raven.
The five guys’ mouths dropped open at the divine sight.
“I think I’m dreaming,” Chris murmured at the sight of the wondrous vision.
“Who is that?” Sean breathed. The girl before them was amazing, too beautiful to real.
“Stop gaping at me like I’m a zoo animal,” Raven snapped, jerking all of the guys back to reality.
Diana laughed and rolled her eyes heavenward. “Said in true Raven style.”
“Uh…Faye’s meeting us at the dance,” Nick said, finally finding his voice. He reached up and Raven took his arm awkwardly. Nick led her to the car and held the door open for her.
“See you at the dance!” Cassie cried as she placed herself on Adam’s arm.

“How did Cassie get you into that dress?” Nick asked, glancing at her.
“I know I look like a fool – it doesn’t take a genius to know when she should crawl in a hole and die,” Raven muttered.
“You look nice,” Nick told her.
“Then why were you looking at me like I had four heads?” Raven asked. Figured that that would be the way she would take something like that.
The rest of the ride to school was in silence. Nick couldn’t believe he’d never seen how beautiful she was – and it was so obvious now. She wasn’t wearing any make-up now, and she never did, so why hadn’t he seen…?
“We’re here,” he said, pulling into a space.
Raven opened the door and was up on the sidewalk before Nick could even turn off the engine.
“Let’s get inside,” she urged. “Dresses like these are never made for the weather.”
She didn’t take Nick’s arm but at least didn’t get offended when he held doors open for her. Music was playing in the gym when they got there.
“Look, there’s Faye,” Raven said, choking back laughter. Faye was standing in the corner and all around her was deserted space for about a three feet radius. She didn’t look very pleased.
“Want to dance?” Nick asked as a slow song flooded over the speakers.
Raven hesitated, then allowed him to lead her out onto the floor. She slipped into his arms and his arms were around her waist lightly, as if he held her too tightly she’d break. looked around at all the other couples, down at the floor, at the wire-guarded gym clock – anywhere but in her dance partner’s face.
“Are you all right?” Nick asked in a gentle tone she’d never heard him use before.
“Fine, just fine,” Raven assured him distractedly. She wasn’t so into slow dancing with a guy who was only a friend, and something about the way he had looked at her when he’d first seen her that night was making her feel uneasy. But something else was hanging in the air, and she didn’t know what it was, and disliked it even more.
“Want some punch?” Nick asked, leading her off the floor as the song ended.
“Where are the others?” Raven asked, scanning the crowd. “Where’s Deb?”
“My cousin is probably down in the boiler room with the rest of the guys who’re stag,” Nick answered. “Playing cards, no doubt.”
“Let’s go join them,” Raven urged.
“If you want,” Nick said, sounding strangely wistful.
Raven softened. He was probably thinking of Cassie.
“We can stay and dance, but let’s go find the others,” Raven said. She detached herself from Nick and headed over to the cluster of the Club, and he followed.
“Lots of guys are checking you out,” Suzan whispered. Raven looked around and noticed that lots of guys were trying to catch She shifted uneasily as chills ran down her spine.
“Are you all right?” Diana asked.
“There’s something in the air…I don’t like it,” Raven answered. She was suddenly feeling burning hot all over. She squirmed.
“It’s that weird feeling you get when all these guys suddenly want you,” Cassie told her.
Raven nodded, but it didn’t feel like that. It was something that ran deeper. Suddenly she was burning hot all over. Her surroundings blanked out and she was in a void. She felt as if she’d just been thrown into the blue heart of a fire and her skin was crackling. She wanted to cry out, but she had no voice. She was helpless, burning, on fire. The stench of burning flesh assaulted her, and she struggled to get free. There was a feeble voice yelling for help, a voice she knew…
A voice broke into her thoughts.
“What?” Raven managed to ask, suddenly back in her own body. She was confused and disoriented, but gradually the faces of the others swam into view.
“Sean’s coming your way,” Melanie warned.
Raven turned and ran right into Chris.
“Hey bud, you want to go dance?” she asked.
Chris stared down at her in surprise, but said, “Sure. Nick’s probably going to kill me later, though.”
They got on the dance floor and began to move to the music.
“No girl likes to dance with Sean,” Chris said, laughing.
“I know why,” Raven muttered.

Half an hour later, Raven was back on the floor with Nick, and they were talking shop as usual. Raven had gotten used to the concept of dancing as just friends, but the uneasy feeling hadn’t really gone.
“It was a Chevy ’48, with a new engine and a sweet paint job,” Raven told him.
“I’m more into Mustangs,” Nick told her. He hated Chevys.
“If you saw this car, it would change your mind,” Raven assured him.
Nick laughed. “I wouldn’t be so sure.”
Raven had never seen him so open and warm before…Maybe this is what he had been like that short while with Cassie.
“I’ve seen ‘anyone who’s anyone’ here,” Raven said. “I haven’t seen Portia or her friends, though. Not that I care to see her.”
“Do you know this song?” Nick asked. “It’s nice.”
Raven looked surprised – the cave gang was solely into loud stuff.
“It’s by Bryan Adams, from the movie ‘Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves’,” she told him.
Suddenly the music stopped and the gym was plunged into darkness. There was a scream.
Nick swore, then quickly apologized to Raven.
“Want me to give us some light?” she asked, brushing aside his apology.
A hand closed on her wrist. Raven reacted by grabbing the hand by the wrist and twisting.
“Hey, it’s me,” came Adam’s voice, sounding a little pained. Raven released him.
“Sorry, I just…reacted.”
“Come over here to the others,” Adam said, taking Raven by the hand and leading her back to the others.
“What’s going on?” Suzan asked in a small voice.
“She’s the one who screamed,” Deborah added from nearby.
“No one panic,” Adam called out for everyone to hear.
"We shouldn’t, but I should,” came a familiar girl’s voice.
The lights came on. Portia, flanked by her brothers, stood in the doorway.
“What’s going on?” Faye demanded, her golden eyes flashing.
“What should have happened long ago,” Portia said. “We’re getting rid of you witches once and for all.”
There were gasps all around. Adam stood forwards, his eyes dark.
“We’ve been trying to make peace with you, but you won’t let us,” he told her.
Portia threw her head back and laughed. “Tell that to the rest of the school.” She walked to the center of the gym, her gaze sweeping the crowd that parted before her.
“You say you want peace with us and yet you get rid of justice between us as soon as it shows up,” she said, addressing Adam and the Circle but speaking to the rest of the students as well.
“For hundreds of years their twelve families have been controlling you with their Satan-gained power,” she said, her voice ringing out clearly. “Mr. Brunswick came along and attempted to change that. Setting in new rules to put the witches in their place.”
Cassie flinched when she spat the word ‘witches’.
“And then they got rid of him. Killed him. Brought in that storm, took him to Crowhaven Road and murdered him.”
The students backed away from the Circle, and the guys’ dates fled, looking horrified with themselves.
“No one has seen him since and no one could find a body,” Portia said. She turned to face the Circle, her eyes narrowed into angry slits. “You all thought you were so good, had committed the perfect, unsolvable crime, but we knew, and now we’re here to serve justice for all those years you children of Satan have made us slaves.”
“We’re not evil!” Cassie cried, terrified, clinging to Adam’s arm.
“One of you killed Jeffrey,” Portia said, shooting Sally a look.
The Circle said nothing, just exchanged looks.
“See, they admit it with their silence!” Jordan cried, lifting his gun.
“We even know which witch did it,” Portia said. “It was Sean, little Sean Dulany, so weak and small – a killer.”
Mouths in the Circle dropped open – how had she known it was him?
“Impossible,” a guy in the crowd called out.
“They’ve sold their souls – they have unimaginable strength,” Portia said.
“We’re going to get rid of these evil creatures now and forever.”
“We’ve already made sure that no more Satan babies are born,” Logan added. He tossed a turquoise ring on the ground. It skidded across the floor and came to a stop at Doug’s feet. He stared down at it in horror.
“That’s…that’s Mom’s ring,” he breathed in shock. Chris was dumbstruck.
“You - !” Doug yelled, charging forwards. Adam and Chris caught him, holding him back.
Portia giggled obscenely. “Know, Deborah, that your parents endured the same fate. All of your parents, your grandmas and aunts, all gone.”
Deborah spat out a volley of curses and four-letter words as Raven and Nick held her fast.
“What did you do?” Adam asked in a dead voice.
“What we always do to witches – burned them. And it’s what we’ll do to you. Who’s with me?” Portia asked, swinging round to face the crowd. Sally and some of her friends were yelling “yes”, but on the whole the kids looked doubtful.
“Think of all the things they did to you, all the times they bullied you and coerced you into getting what they wanted,” Portia ranted. “Girls, think of how many guys you lost to their witchery. Think of how they’ve terrorized you and forced you to submit to their will with power from Satan himself!”
“We’re going to die,” Suzan sobbed.
Raven was frozen in place. This is what had been dreading her all night. This is what had been nagging at her. That hot feeling – the parents had been trying to call for help…
“I knew it,” Raven whispered, squeezing Nick's arm.
“What?” he asked, prying his arm free of her tight grip.
“I’d been feeling it all night – when I said I was feeling hot…” She trailed off in horror.
“We have to get out of here,” he said, casting a hunting look around, searching for a way to escape. But the students had ringed around them, closing them in. The same way Faye and her group had to terrified Outsiders hundreds of times before.
“Stop!” Faye ordered in a steely voice, standing forwards. Logan turned and Raven saw a streak of silver before a gunshot rang out and Faye crumpled to the floor.
They had no power now. The Circle was broken, Raven realized. All of the girls – except Deborah – were crying from terror. Deborah looked mad and a little scared, too. Sean was cowering behind Adam. Raven looked at the gun, focusing.
“Are you all right?” Nick asked.
“I’ve seen dead bodies before,” Raven answered shortly. “Listen, we have to get out of here and off this island,” she said, looking around. “Get the others to regroup and stop crying. I’ll find us a way out of here.”
Nick reacted well. He didn’t shake her and yell that she was crazy, he just met her gaze briefly before nodding.
“Hey, why don’t you go shoot some deer?” she yelled at Logan.
“A witch-lover,” Jordan sneered. “Too bad you’re so pretty.”
“No, she’s one of them,” Portia said, studying her shrewdly. “That’s Raven.”
Both of her brothers looked surprised.
“If you think we’re evil, go ahead and think that, but people who murder innocent people are evil, too, like you who killed their parents,” Raven shouted. “You tried to kill Adam last summer and then you tried to burn Cassie. She’s never one anything bad to anyone. You kill people for fun – that’s evil.”
None of the other kids looked convinced.
“We’ve been afraid long enough,” Sally yelled. “We’re doing what we should have done hundreds of years ago.”
“Well, all of the supposed witches you did kill hundreds of years ago were innocent,” Raven told her.
“Shut up!” Logan yelled, waving the gun. “Just shut up!”
“Can you even use that thing?” Raven sneered. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that the Circle, though ragged-looking and scared, was clustered tightly.
"Of course I can,” Logan snapped, his eyes flashing.
“You have no power anyway,” Portia said. “You’re not in the coven, or ‘the Club’ as it’s been called by us for hundreds of years when we’ve been afraid of the word.”
Raven focused, her eyes dark. She tossed her head and her hair fell loose, swirling around her making her look witchy and mysterious. Her eyes shone, and she began to speak.
“May I be given the power of the words of Hecate. It is not I or utters them and it is not I who repeats them, but it is she who utters them and it is she who repeats them. By the power of Earth, I command the trees to unbind us.” Her dark eyes lit with a strange glow and a breeze rose up from the still air to ruffle her hair.
At this, all of the doors splintered. There were screams and the kids threw themselves down on the floor.
“Go!” Raven yelled, and they dashed for the doors.
They hopped over the kids lying on the floor and sprinted for the doors. Raven cursed and lifted her skirts slightly, muttering, “I knew I shouldn’t have worn this dress.”
“Where should we go?” Suzan asked.
“Back to Crowhaven,” Raven answered. They piled into their cars and took off at full speed.

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