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"Three’s a good nuhed heavily "Oh, why not?" she gru in the other direction

Diana looked at Cassie "All right," she said

Cassie hugged her

Diana pushed a strand of fair hair back "Now I’ve got so for you to do," she said "As a leader, you’re not a junior member of the coven anyo and dig up that box I gave you on the night of Hecate?"

"The trust festival box? Is this the time to unbury it?"

"Yes," Diana said "It is" She was looking at Melanie and Melanie was nodding at her, obviously sharing some secret

Cassie looked at both of theet the box, acco behind her It onderful to be alone, and to know that nothing was out to get her She dug in the sand near the big rock where she’d buried it that night, and pulled the damp box out The sea flashed and sparkled at her

She brought it back to Diana’s house, breathless from the walk, and presented it to Diana

"What’s in there? More Master Tools?" Doug said

"It’s probably so," said Chris

Diana bent over the box, an odd expression on her face "You didn’t open it," she said to Cassie

Cassie shook her head

"Well, I know you didn’t," Diana said "I knew you wouldn’t But I wanted you to know Anyway, it’s yours; and what’s inside it, too It’s a present" She blew drying sand off the box and handed it back to Cassie

Cassie looked at her doubtfully, then shook the box It rattled lightly, as if there were soain Then, hesitantly, with an al, she opened it

Inside, there was only one object A little oval of rock, pale blue swirled with gray, embedded all over with tiny crystals which sparkled in the sunlight

The chalcedony rose

Every muscle frozen but her eyes, Cassie looked at Diana She didn’t knohat to do or say She didn’t understand But her heart was beating violently

"It’s yours," Diana said again, and then, as Cassie just crouched there, immobile, she looked at Melanie "Maybe you’d better explain"

Melanie cleared her throat "Well," she said, and looked over at Ada as still as Cassie He hadn’t saidat Diana wordlessly, riveted

"Well," Melanie said again Adam still wouldn’t look at her, so she went on anyway "It hen Ada us about how he met you," she said to Cassie "He described a connection - what you called a silver cord You re otherwise She was looking at Diana now too, searching Diana’s face Diana looked back serenely

"Well, the silver cord is soends The people it connects are soul ether So when Diana and I heard about it, we knew that’s what you and Ada to people ouldn’t look at her

"That hy I was surprised about Nick, you see," Diana said to Cassie, gently "Because I knew you could only love Ada, but then you were asking ive you another chance, to let you prove you could be faithfuland I thought that was a good idea Not foryou are Do you see?"

Cassie nodded mutely "But - Diana - " she whispered

Diana blinked, her e to make me cry," she said "Cassie, with all the unselfishness that’s been going on around here, do you think I’ for months because of me Now you don’t have to wait any anybody can do about it," Melanie put in, symatically "You and Adam are linked, and that’s it There isn’t anyone else for either of you, so you’re stuck together for this lifetime Maybe for a lot of lifetimes"

Cassie, still frozen, shifted her eyes to Ada at Diana "Diana, I can’t justI mean, I’ll always - "

"I’ll always love you, too," Diana said steadily "You’ll always be special to me, Adam But it’s Cassie you’re in love with"

"Yes," Adah little stone in her pal crazily and she felt very dizzy

"Go on, go over to hiently

But Cassie couldn’t, so he came to her He looked a bit dazed, but his eyes were as blue as the ocean in sunlight, and the way he smiled at her made her blush

"Go on, kiss her," Chris said Laurel sreat interest

Adalared at them and kissed Cassie forroans, he whispered "Later," to her in a way that made her pleasantly nervous

Can I handle Herne? she wondered, looking up at his hair that was so ht like holly berries, threaded with gold in the sunshine I guess I’ht For a lifetime, Melanie had said; maybe a lot of lifetimes

For some reason that made her look at Faye and Diana

She didn’t knohy, and then she had a flash of ht, the s Kate Kate’s hair had been the impossible fair color of Diana’s But, Cassie realized now, Kate’s laughing, teasing eyes had been Faye’s

An ancestress of both of theht After all, they’re cousins; they’ve gotdeep inside her seeht; was it possible to haveback to Earth? And if so, could a soul ever - split?

"I think," she said suddenly to Diana, "that you and Faye are going to have to learn to get along I think you twoneed each other" "Of course," Diana said, as if it were so everybody knew "But why?"

It was probably a crazy theory Cassie wouldn’t tell her about it, or at least not right now Maybe to to do a picture, I believe," Diana was saying thoughtfully, "to add to my collection What do you think of the Muse, with theinspired?"

"I think it’s a good idea," Cassie said unsteadily

"What we really have to talk about," said Melanie, "is e’re going to do with the Master Tools now We have power; the coven has power, and we need to decide what to do with it"

"Nae need to do is party," Doug said "To make up for all the birthdays that we et a real party, and neither did Sean or Laurel"

"Environ firmly to Melanie "That should be our first cause"

"I didn’t get a party either," Suzan pointed out, delicately peeling the wrapper off a Twinkie

Faye exaht "I know some people I want to hex," she said

Cassie looked at the with each other She looked at Nick, as leaning back, looking aht her eye and winked

Then she looked at Diana, whose clear green eyes shone at her for a ood," Diana said, turning to Laurel "But we have to think about how to improve relations with the outsiders, too "

Cassie looked at Ada it in his own, both of the the chalcedony rose

Cassie looked down at their intertwined fingers, and it see around their two hands, connecting them But not just them Filaments of the cord see theht They were all connected, all part of one another, and the light shone around them to touch the earth and sky and sea

Sky and sea, keep har my desire

They had And they would in the future With her inner vision, Cassie saw that the Circle was part of soer, like a spiral that went on and on forever, enco the stars

"I love you," Adam whispered

From the center of the Circle, Cassie smiled