Cassie looked around in confusion. Something strange was happening to all the members of the Circle.
Adam was sneering oddly. His hands were balled into fists and he was grinding his teeth. There was sweat dripping from his forehead down the front of his face, but he seemed not to notice. He also stared at Cassie with narrowed blackened eyes.
A shiver ran down Cassie's spine. "Scarlett," she said. "Tell me what you've done to them."
"I didn't do anything." Scarlett smirked. "They did it to themselves, casting that spell against the hunters. Any spell cast from our family's book by a nonfamily member calls on our bloodline. It gave the perfect portal into our world for a few unsettled spirits."
Cassie looked around at her friends, now all strangers to her. Sean was mumbling in an incoherent language while Chris laughed like a lunatic and Doug convulsed in a fit on the ground. Melanie's and Laurel's faces had altered. They looked nothing like themselves, and they chattered in voices that weren't their own - Melanie's was deep and husky while Laurel's was high-pitched and playful like a child's.
"I am falsely accused," Melanie declared, while rocking forward and back.
Laurel laughed and clapped, and replied in a piercing singsong, "But you will be condemned to hang."
"Meet the family," Scarlett said.
Cassie wavered. "I don't understand."
"Some of them are still working their way through." Scarlett gestured toward Chris, Doug, and Sean. "But they'll be up and talking like the others soon."
"Who are they?"
Scarlett smiled. "Our ancestors. These are the people who passed down Black John's Book of Shadows."
Cassie looked around at her friends, the truth registering slowly: speaking in tongues, convulsions, changes in vocal intonation and facial expression, superhuman strength.
"The Circle is possessed," she said.
Scarlett rolled her eyes. "Well, duh. These spirits have been waiting to manifest for hundreds of years, to get their power back. And we gave it to them."
Adam stepped forward. His hands were no longer balled into fists and he'd stopped sweating, but his eyes remained dead and black. His body must have been fighting the possession before, but it had now been fully overcome.
He nodded confidently at Cassie and then bowed before Scarlett. "In shackles no more," he said. "To you I am indebted." He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it.
"Oh yeah," Scarlett said, grinning. "And I'm their leader."
"You're not my leader," Faye called out. She blinked her eyes and looked around, surveying the situation. She appeared a little dazed, but her eyes had returned to their normal color.