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Within seconds, Cassie was up to her ankles in water, then up to her knees She looked down and could see the clouded tops of her feet, tinted green and sub things rose up from Faye’s skin, on her face and neck, up her hands to her elbows They squirots
The water continued to rise over the tops of Cassie’s shivering thighs No longer able to support herself, she began to slide through it--swept in by a current The lighter furniture in her bedroory river
Finally, Cassie’s head went under She struggled, kicking her li at the surface, until she reht in a riptide She buoyed herself up with the book, letting the water flow freely around her, and soon she was able to right herself and begin to float
The book fed her a line: non is aqua
She said the words quietly, but they were enough
The rain stopped falling Cassie repeated the words again, and the raging water, which had threatened her life a an to sink down, as if a stopper had been pulled on its drain
Cassie held tight to the book as the deluge disappeared, and it whispered soredi
Somehow Cassie knew to aim this spell directly at Faye She screaredi!"
Faye shrieked hat sounded to Cassie like sincere pain as she shrank back down to size She no longer radiated that blinding iridescence onto the rooan to retreat The stor but a damp memory, and her poas clearly depleted It was only then that Cassie beca on her bedroo the lock, yelling for Cassie, asking if she was okay
Faye glanced at the door and back at Cassie Then just as quickly as she had appeared, she was gone If not for the dained the whole encounter
A h the door
"I’ heavily "Who was it?" he asked
"Faye," Cassie said, and then corrected herself "Beatrix"
Nick looked around Cassie’s soaked and trashed bedroo close to her chest
"You need to find a better place to hide that thing," he said "And it wouldn’t hurt for us to try to put a protective spell on the house"
Cassie stepped over a broken lamp and placed her hand on Nick’s heart She waited until she felt it slow to a regular rhythain"
Nick blushed and moved toward Cassie’s bed "Come sit with y, and called out a sie be undone"
The wooden surfaces of Cassie’s furniture lightened in color as they dried Her bedspread crinkled like it had just come back from the laundry
Pleased with his success, Nick plopped down and waited for Cassie to join hi her bedroohtstands and gathered her papers from every corner of the floor
"Faye couldn’t command the book," Cassie said, as she cleaned "But with all that power she could have easily killed et it She could have destroyed the entire house and everyone inside it with barely the blink of an eye"
"But she didn’t," Nick said "So the book was obviously not all she was after"
"She must want me alive for some reason," Cassie said "Maybe the ancestors even need me alive"
She joined Nick on the bed, finally "Do you think that’s just ? That they don’t wantarms around her "I think you’re special, Cassie, and they know that"
"But they may come after you," Cassie said "Or ht Can you ih my door instead of you? The shock alone ht for another o after Max, too He’s the last hunter left in New Saleh," Nick said "He can take care of himself But if you’re worried about it, you should warn him Go talk to hiin researching a protective spell"
Nick’s presence quieted Cassie’s aching loneliness His friendship o back downstairs," she said
Nick pointed to the plush chair in the corner of the rooht?" he asked "The closer we are, the better it is for both of us"
"But you’ll be so uncorabbed a pillow and the extra blanket off the edge of Cassie’s bed "I’ll be just fine"
Cassie could feel her eyes closing "If you’re sure," she said, already drifting off At last she would be able to get some sleep
Chapter 7
Cassie walked down Crowhaven Road the nextIf the ancestors were following her and sensed the book hidden deep in her bag--if they juht
She knocked gently on the red wooden door she hadn’t thought she’d ever come within ten feet of Her knuckles on the door’s surface ht it would It was solid oak
She looked around apprehensively and waited