“Power of moon have I over thee,” she said
shakily.
Black John stared at her, seeming to
recoil.
“Power of moon have I over thee,” Cassie
repeated, more strongly. “Power of sun
have I over thee.”
Black John stepped back.
Cassie stepped forward, searching for the
next words in her mind. But she didn’t
say them. A voice said them for her, a
voice behind her.
“Power of stars have I over thee. Power of planets have I over thee.” It was Diana, her hair stirred as if in a
light wind. She came to stand behind
Cassie, tall and proud and slender, like a silver sword. Cassie’s heart swelled; she had never been
gladder to have anybody disregard her instructions in her life.
“Power of tides have I over thee. Power of rain have I over thee,” said
Adam. He was right beside Diana, his
hair shining like firelight, like rubies, in the red glow.
Deborah was behind him, her dark hair
tumbling around a small face fierce with concentration. “Power of wind have I over thee,” she said.
Nick joined her, his eyes cold and
angry. “Power of ice have I over thee.”
And Laurel. “Power of leaf have I over thee.”
And Melanie. “Power of rock have I over thee.”
They were all here, all joining Cassie,
adding their voices to hers. And Black
John was cowering before them.
“Power of thunder have I over thee,” Doug
told him, and, “Power of lightning have I over thee,” Chris shouted.
“Power of dew have I over thee,” Suzan
said, and pushed a small figure in front of her. It was Sean, and he was shaking, seemingly terrified to come face
to face with the man who had controlled his mind. But his voice rose in a shriek.
“Power of blood have I over thee!”
Black John was against the red wall of the
house now, and he looked shrunken. His
features had lost definition, and the red glow had died, leaving him black in
reality.
But there were only eleven in Cassie’s
coven; the circle wasn’t complete. And
only a full circle could stand against this man. As Sean’s yell died, Black John straightened. He took a step towards them, and Cassie’s
breath caught.
“Power of fire have I over thee,” a husky
voice cried, and he fell back. In
astonishment, Cassie looked at Faye.
The tall girl seemed to have gained height as Black John had lost it,
and she looked every inch a barbarian queen as she stood glaring at him. Then she moved to stand behind Cassie.
“Power of darkness have I over thee,” she
said, each word a stabbing knife.
“Power of night have I over thee!”
NOW! Thought Cassie. He was weak,
wounded, and they were united. Now, if
ever, was the time to defeat him.
But neither fire nor water had done it
before. Black John had been defeated
twice, had died twice, but he’d always come back. If they were going to get rid of him permanently they had to do
more than destroy his body. They had to
destroy the source of his power – the crystal skull.
If only we had a larger crystal, Cassie
thought. But there was no larger
crystal. She thought desperately of the
protruding outcrops of granite in New Salem…but they weren’t crystal, they
wouldn’t hold and focus energy.
Besides, she didn’t just need a big crystal, she needed an enormous one. One so huge – so
huge…
I think of
crystals as a beach, she heard Melanie’s
laughing voice say in her mind. A
crystal is just fossilized sand and water…
Along with the words came a picture. A glimpse of Cassie’s own hand that first
day on the beach at Cape Cod. “Look
down,” Portia had hissed, seeing Adam coming, and so Cassie had looked down,
ashamed, staring at her own fingers trailing in the sand. In the sand that glittered with the tiny
flecks of garnet, with green and gold and brown and black crystals. A beach.
A beach.
“With me!” Cassie shouted. “All of you think with me – give me your
power! Now!”
She pictured it clearly, the long beach
stretching parallel to Crowhaven Road.
More than a mile of it, of crystal piled on crystal. She sent her thoughts racing towards it,
gathering the power of the coven behind her.
She focused on it, through it, looking now at Black John – at the
crystal skull with its grinning teeth and its hollow eyes. And then she pushed
with her mind.
She felt it go out of her, like a rush of
heat, like a solar flare with the energy of the entire circle driving it. It poured through her into the beach, and
from the beach into Black John, focused and intensified, with all the power of
Earth and Water combined. And this time
when the crystal skull exploded it was in a shattering rain of crystal like the
blasted amethyst pendant.
There was a scream the Cassie would never
forget. Then the floor of the house at
Number Thirteen disappeared from under her feet.[1]