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Cassie exhaled, realizing only then that she’d been holding her breath She and Sally locked eyes before Sally checked her body over for injuries

"I’m okay," she said to Mr Humphries

Cassie could see that only her hands were speckled with tiny dots of blood The rest of her body had been spared, thankfully

Mr Humphries’s face hite as a sheet "Cassie, will you take her to the nurse?" he asked "I have to find the head custodian That light was obviously not installed properly She could have been killed!"

Sally was visibly okay--just shaken--but Mr Huht have been even reed to take Sally to the nurse to appease hione and out of earshot, Cassie put her arm around Sally "You’re safe now," she said

The crowd dispersed, and Sally looked at Cassie warily "Do you think that falling light was really the custodian’s fault?"

Cassie shook her head Of all the Outsiders at school, Sally was the only one who knew the truth about the Circle and their ic--and she’d proven herself an ally She didn’t deserve to be placated or lied to

"No," Cassie said "That was no accident"

Sally was still tre on it," Cassie added

"Let’s just go to the assembly," Sally said "I’m fine"

The auditorium was full by the time Cassie and Sally arrived, but none of her possessed friends were to be seen Cassie tried to breathe easy She hoped they’d taunted her enough for one day and had gone back to the warehouse

Sally spotted Nick in the crowd, and they joined hilass in your hair?" Nick asked, as he pulled a tiny sparkling shard fro

"It’s a long story," Cassie said "I’ll tell you later"

Mr Lanning appeared on stage and tapped on the an to say a feords about Principal Boylan

"We’re gathered here to enerous man," he said "A er"

He paused to let his words settle over the crowd in waves "By now you’ve all heard about the terrible car accident that took Principal Boylan’s life And I’ the pain and confusion that corief counselors on hand i this assembly But first, it’s with a heavy heart that I’d like to call Principal Boylan’s son, Max, to the stage"

Nobody seemed sure if they should clap as Max took his place at the podiuhs All eyes scrutinized his every ht as she watched Max adjust the microphone and sn the luated to say a feords about his father’s "accident" But Max carried hinity as he spoke His voice echoed over the auditoriu ht"

Cassie recognizedhiraphs in his roooodness

"He cared about this school and this town very much," Max continued "He wanted as best for all of us, and he worked for that every day of his life"

Max appeared to be wrapping up, finally reaching the end of those treacherous ht, when both doors to the auditoriuainst the wall

All heads turned to witness the disturbance Every htened

It was the possessed Circle Five at one door, five at the other They for the exit

Diana’s posture was foreboding Faye’s dark hair tumbled onto her shoulders like a black shadow Adaeance

Just then the only empty seat in the auditoriu, burst into flauisher but was thrown backward--through the air and hard onto the ground--when it also exploded into flames The fire spread quickly: up the wall, across the ti

Teachers and students shoved one another, trying to escape through the narrow exit doors The room became a jumble of screams and elbows; the weak and s Cassie lost sight of the ancestors in the smoke and panic

She turned to Sally "Get out of here Nick and I will do e can"

More seats exploded, and fire swelled high into the aisles Sally crouched down below the heavy cloud of smoke and crawled on her belly to safety

Nick raised his arms and called out: "No air for fire! No air for fire, no air for fire!"

The fla gradually--suffocating

Max was standing e with his arms down at his sides He looked directly at Cassie with hishalf open

Nick continued to talk down the flah the lessening black s, or lying unconscious on the ground She ran toward Max but was distracted by a low ru overhead began falling down in pieces all around her--slowly at first, then in a rapid avalanche of cracked plaster and splintered wooden beams

Cassie covered her head with her hands and turned around just in ti debris Max had also been buried, out of sight No one ht actually see blue sky, sohad come down And there they were: Ada in the air They were levitating, safely a rafters left to the auditorium’s roof

Cassie closed her eyes and searched her mind for a spell She steadied her breath and called to the dark pit that resided in her belly

She felt herself flush with heat fro froic--the only h to overpower the ancestors Cassie gave herself over to it, allowing the spell to coet