It felt different from any magic Cassie had ever done before. The energy behind the words surged through her like it did when she had uttered the spell on the rooftop, but this was exponentially more powerful. It had the strength of the whole Circle behind it. The cave started to tremble and shake around them. Rocks crumbled to the ground. The elements seemed to be bending to the Circle's will.
The hunters woke from their trance in a panic. Cassie registered the terror in each of their faces and the pure shock of being ambushed in their safe space. They'd been caught with their every defense down.
The hunters began reciting the same words from the rooftop and the woods, and their relics brought out the marks on each member of the Circle. Like on the rooftop before Suzan was killed, the hunter symbols glowed brightly upon each of their chests. But against the Circle's curse, the hunters' relics had no other effect. Mr. Boylan shook his like a remote control with a faulty battery, frustrated and enraged by its failure to perform.
Out of desperation, he picked up a rock from the ground and threw it at Cassie. The other hunters followed his lead, grabbing for whatever they could throw. But the Circle remained untouched. The air around them deflected the rocks and foreign objects hurled their way like a protective force field. The Circle's command was impenetrable.
Cassie felt calm and more in control of her magic than ever. And never before had all the members of the Circle worked together so seamlessly, so machinelike in their efficiency. Maybe Cassie had underestimated them, and herself.
The hunters quickly weakened beneath the effects of the spell. Scarlett said it would be quick and painless, that it would be over before the hunters knew what hit them. It was hitting them now with full force. Mr. Boylan swayed back and forth on two wobbly legs, no longer able to even raise his arms in defense. The skin on his face and neck turned ashen and withered. He seemed to age decades right before Cassie's eyes.
The old man hunter, Jedediah, dropped to his knees, holding his head in his hands. He twisted his white hair around his wrinkled fingers and opened his mouth to scream, but no sound escaped. The sight of him reminded Cassie of a famous painting - that ghostly face wide-mouthed with shock. Like the painting itself, the old man's shriek was still and silent.
Louvera, his daughter, lifted up her stone relic like a shield and waved it back and forth in an attempt to protect herself. But her hands shook so furiously she could barely hold on to it. It slipped from her grip and hit the ground with a thud. She crawled around on all fours, urgently trying to recover it.
The spell was working without a flaw. Cassie noticed that the hunter mark on her chest had begun to fade. With every second, the symbol grew dimmer, weaker, as if losing its charge. It couldn't be long now before the relics were drained of all their power and their marks were erased for good. Then the Circle would be safe, and the hunters would never be a threat to them again.
A strange calm and optimism came over Cassie. Her mind drifted to a kinder place, where she imagined a future for herself and her friends free from this heavy ancient rivalry. They were so close now to turning their world into one where Diana and Max would be allowed to love each other and none of them would have to hide in secret rooms or caves. Hunter and witch alike, they would all be released.
Then Jedediah fell backward from his knees, flat onto his back. His ice-blue eyes were open and unblinking, but they were sapped of all emotion, all feeling. Cassie remembered that same cold look in others she had once known and loved - her grandmother, Melanie's aunt Constance, and Suzan. She knew the look well, and she immediately understood that it wasn't just the old man's powers that had been taken away - it was his life.
Louvera tried desperately to crawl to him, but she couldn't make it. A moment later, she went limp with the same lifeless cold hardened to her eyes.
"No!" Max rushed in from just outside the cave's entrance. "You're killing them!" he screamed.
But Cassie couldn't stop. None of them could. The spell had been unleashed and it was working through the Circle now. The words came from their own lips, but they were merely spectators to their effect.
"You have to stop!" Max shouted directly into Diana's face, but she made no reaction. It was as if her eyes couldn't even see him.
Passive as empty vessels, the Circle brought the other two hunters down to the ground, dead. Max just stood there, horrified. He could do nothing as his fellow hunters fell like dominoes all around him. Without his relic, he was both immune to the curse and powerless in trying to stop it.
He ran to his father, wrapped his arms around him, and tried to lift him up. "Let's get you out of here," he said.
His father appeared unsure if it was really his son who'd come to his aid, or if it was just a mirage. Either way, he was too feeble to be moved.
Max started to cry. "Dad, I'm so sorry," he said. "Forgive me, please."
Mr. Boylan made no response. He could only gaze up at his boy, bewildered and terrified.
"I love you," Max said. "Can you hear me, Dad? I love you."
But his father's eyes had turned to stone. His breath had ceased. It was only his lifeless body lying in Max's arms.
The spell ended itself at the moment of his death. Everyone in the Circle suddenly woke up, as if from a dream, and looked at one another, stunned. There was a slight edge of relief in the air. They'd won; they understood that much. But had they just ... killed?
Cassie glanced at Adam. He looked pale and sick, like he might faint.
Diana seemed a little dazed, too, unable to figure out what had just occurred.
Cassie spoke up for her. "Max," she said. "We had no idea that was going to happen. The spell was only supposed to disable the relics. We would have never performed it if we knew the hunters would lose their lives. That's not how our Circle does things."
"You just killed my father," Max said. "He's dead! Do you understand that?" He passed his eyes despicably over each member of the Circle. "I trusted you," he said. "And you betrayed me." He set his father's body gently down and stepped back with tears streaming down his face.
He glared at Diana. "Don't follow me," he said, and the way he said it sounded like a brutal threat. Then he ran from the cave and quickly disappeared from their sight.
Diana appeared stunned, but Cassie could feel her best friend's heartbreak as her own. The guilt and remorse she must have been suffering was unimaginable, enough to put her into a state of shock.
Cassie stepped slowly toward her. She placed her hand upon Diana's shoulder, hoping to offer her some comfort. But Diana focused sharply on Cassie in a way that brought her to a frightened halt. Diana's eyes were black as marbles.
"He may flee thither," she said. "But he shall be slain before his enemies." Her voice was gravelly and harsh, nothing like its regular tone.
Cassie was too alarmed to move a muscle. "Diana?" she asked. "Are you - "
"Let us rejoice in our victory." Diana turned grandly to Scarlett. "Thine, O leader," she said, bowing to Scarlett, "is the greatest power. And thou art exalted as head above all."
Scarlett nodded and Cassie noticed the corners of her mouth raise up ever so slightly. "I told you I'd get my Circle," she said.