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  The YouTube link loaded up. Cassie watched the blurry video which seemed to have been shot somewhere pretty dark. Loud music played, the sound distorted by the phone’s proximity to a speaker. On the screen, a hazy figure appeared huddled on the ground. Abruptly, the picture became clear. Cassie felt nausea rise in her mouth as she realized the person she was staring at on the ground… was herself.

  The video was shot at Tonic and captured her whole humiliating ordeal. Whoever had filmed her had loaded the video onto YouTube, where this terrible person had recognized her before deciding she needed to be humiliated some more.

  Stabbing the stop button with a finger, she slammed her phone onto the side table facedown.

  “Goodnight,” she said curtly to Marley, pushing the plugs into her ears, turning away from her, from the rest of the world. Tears filled her eyes as she swallowed a sob. Why couldn’t they just leave her alone? What had she ever done to anyone that they needed to be so cruel to her?

  Oblivious to what Cassie was going through and relieved that she wouldn’t have to make small chat or deal with her weird scrutiny anymore, Marley laid down, feeling a wave of exhaustion so great that it made her whole body ache. Closing her eyes, she willed her brain to switch off. Some rest, that was what she needed. It would all seem better with rest.

  However, sleep would not come.

  Worrying thoughts and faces assaulted her mind, one face in particular.

  A face with green eyes and blond hair, whose very gaze made her squirm with guilt.

  Sighing, Marley’s eyes flicked open. Staring through a crack in the curtain at the moon outside, she hoped tomorrow would bring better news.

  It sure couldn’t be worse than today.

  Chapter 6

  ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS, 1693.

  The urgent message had come in the middle of the night.

  The Four were known healers who traveled the country helping those in need. They took no payment for their services, only asking for food and shelter at the homes of the people they helped. This night they made their beds in a stable that belonged to a local farmstead.

  A cat had sat watching them curiously from his position on a hay bale bathing his paw as they turned in for the night, when the distressed father had sought them out. His elderly horse had been on its last legs, its frail body trembling from the hard ride here. Ever loyal, she had managed to bring her owner to his destination before collapsing to the ground in a quivering heap.

  With her strong connection to nature, Esther had knelt by the horse, taking his head into her lap. She used her power to ease as much of his pain as she could, but there was just too much damage done. Even with her talents, she could not save him. The horse wheezed out his last breath then passed, the life disappearing from his eyes. The Four said a quick prayer, easing its spirit into the next life then prepared to escort the father — who, like their host, was a simple farmer — back home.

  Mary clutched her cloak together, shivering at not only the bitter cold that seemed to have befallen the town, but the Blood Moon, hanging low in the sky. As they crossed the fields to his home, they knew it was a portent of terrible things to come, but what?

  The father sagged in his saddle, now riding one of the farmer’s horses they had borrowed and would have fallen if not for Tabitha who reached out to steady him. It was his daughter that had caused him to ride across the towns in search of them. She was in a terrible way he had explained. Their village healer wasn’t adept enough to cure whatever ailed her, and he needed someone with their skills to save his beloved daughter.

  The Four rode quickly through the night, their horses kicking up dust behind them. They rode silently through cornfields, over hills and dirt paths using only that Blood Moon for light, each of them praying that they would get there in time. As dawn broke over the horizon casting its pink glow over the father’s simple home, they finally arrived.

  He had a large family, some nine or so children, all gathered around the still figure of their sister, their small faces haunted by her condition. Their sucked faces and general unkemptness spoke of the struggles this family had endured. Mary could see too, even if she couldn’t already sense, that with his gaunt expression and frail bones, the father suffered from a sickness of his own. She pursed her lips, knowing how the family must be struggling with their sole provider out of work. It strengthened her resolve to help his daughter.

  She tossed a glance at her sisters. From the expressions on their faces, she knew they felt as she did. It was for these very families that they had dedicated their lives to helping others. They would do that until their dying breath.

  His wife, a slight woman cradling a baby with one arm while a toddler with impossibly large eyes clung to her skirts, approached them desperately.

  “Please help our daughter, she’s the apple of our eyes. We can’t lose her.”

  Tabitha, the most empathetic of The Four gave her a comforting smile. “We will do our best. Can you please take your children to the next room?”

  The wife shot her husband a quick look as they nodded, urging the children away. Alone, without the family observing their every move, The Four could speak and work in confidence. They knew from experience that their methods of healing could frighten at times and thus had decided a while ago that they would only work in solitude.

  Catherine moved towards the girl who lay covered and resting on the bed of hay. The family were so poor that they couldn’t even afford beds for their children. Feeling her sympathy surge, she reached out and pulled back the blanket that covered their daughter…

  The Four gasped, horrified by the sight before them.

  There was nothing they could do to help their daughter. There was nothing anyone could do for her… for she was already dead.

  Her glassy eyes stared up at a terror they would never know, her lips already turning blue. Her fingers were bent into claws, the nails torn and ripped. Mary trembled, swallowing her pity. The poor girl had put up a struggle before her death.

  “Her neck was broken,” came Tabitha’s angry voice, echoing what they could all see.

  “Look,” Catherine said, pointing at the area above the poor girl’s body.

  There was a cloud of black that shimmered above the girl’s hands. It pulsated, growing from small to big then back again and was a sign that none of them ever wanted to see.

  “Black magic,” Mary gasped, the words stuck to her throat.

  She looked at her sisters, stricken by the knowledge.

  “It was black magic that killed her.”

  Chapter 7

  C assie’s phone woke her at exactly six AM.

  Knowing that she wouldn’t hear it otherwise, she relied on the vibration feature on her phone as her morning alarm. Yawning, she blinked up at the unfamiliar ceiling, momentarily confused by the sight of it. Even without her glasses, she could tell it wasn’t the ceiling she had spent almost two decades looking at. The one she grew up with had glow-in-the-dark stars that her dad had stuck on when she’d gone through a period of night terrors as a kid. They had left the stars there, even when she’d grown older and didn’t suffer from the nightmares anymore. Her distressed face flashed into her mind suddenly as last night’s YouTube discovery reared its ugly head. Great. She’d managed only thirty seconds before feeling humiliated all over again.

  Maybe she should have asked her dad to put the stars on this ceiling too.

  Pulling the plugs from her ears, she heard Marley’s soft breathing from the other side of the room. Slipping on her glasses, Cassie peered at her sleeping form.

  How does she look so pretty even when she’s sleeping? How was that fair?

  The sun peeked in through a small gap in the curtains that seemed to illuminate her perfectly, highlighting all those features Cassie would kill for.

  Well, maybe not kill, Cassie thought to herself as last night’s events came crashing back to her.

  Cassie wanted to know more about their powers. Between Eve’s d
enial and Marley’s guilt, it hadn’t seemed like there had been a right moment to ask. Questions were burning a path inside, however. She couldn’t wait until they found out more.

  After feeling so awful her entire life, it was such a relief to finally know that she was special, that she could do things normal people couldn’t. A smile broke out across her face as she sat up, flinging the covers off herself. Maybe they just needed a bit more time to accept things. Despite the horrors they had faced last night, she liked that she would be indelibly connected to these girls. For someone who was regularly bullied and a loner, it was nice to be part of something, even if that something was potentially dangerous.

  Slipping out of bed quietly so she wouldn’t wake Marley, Cassie padded barefoot to the bathroom. Shutting the door, she turned on the shower, waiting for the water to become hot. Moving to the mirror, she looked at her face and was disappointed by what she saw there. Despite constant tweezing, she could never seem to get her brows under control. Her eyes managed to be too small and too wide apart for her face — which was always greasy, making her break out in zits all the time. Her lips were thin, her teeth had a gap right in the front. Put together, it made for one giant mess which, though she’d had eighteen years of seeing it, she was still disappointed with when she saw her face each morning.

  Even when she was little, it was obvious she hadn’t inherited her parents’ good looks. The kids at school delighted in telling her she must have been adopted. They said it so much that they even convinced Cassie of this.

  On her eighth birthday, after a week of continuous torture from her cruel classmates, Cassie had run away to look for her “real” parents. With only the clothes on her back, she went as far as she could which ended up being only a few blocks away, as this being the first time she had gone out on her own, she had gotten lost. As the sun had set across the city, her parents had found her hours later, sobbing in the park by the swings. When she explained why she had run away, they had been truly horrified. Cassie was their real daughter! They loved her and told her she was beautiful.

  Cassie knew they were lying.

  Luckily, there were things she could do to help herself to prepare for her first official day of school. She had a lot of work to do and it would start in the shower. Stripping out of her clothes, she climbed under the hot spray then washed, exfoliated, and buffed her entire body using a sea salt that she shipped in from the Dead Sea. It was her mom’s favorite, something she used every day. When that was done, she creamed every inch of herself; Mom had always insisted that hydrated skin was happy skin.

  Next came the hair, which had a habit of turning frizzy if she didn’t follow an exact routine. She washed then conditioned it, combing it out while it was still wet. After the tangles were gone, she worked a smoothing serum through the ends and let the hair dry naturally, which would take another few hours. It was uncomfortable to have wet hair hanging on her back for so long, but it was the only way she could stop the mad explosion that would occur if she used a dryer. After her body and hair were done, it was finally time for the face. When Cassie was fully made-up, it was already eight-thirty.

  She stood in front of the bathroom mirror, turning to inspect herself. The outfit she had finally decided on was a pretty jumpsuit she had acquired from her mom, though it’d had to be taken in to fit her, as Cassie didn’t have the legs or boobs her mom did. She felt good in it even if she didn’t look how she had pictured she would in her head. Worried that Marley wouldn’t have long to get ready, Cassie stopped by her bed, agonizing over whether she should wake her or not. Finally deciding to, Cassie shook her shoulder until Marley blinked up sleepily at her.

  “What’s going on?” Marley asked groggily.

  “It’s eight thirty already,” Cassie said.

  Marley blinked again at her, not comprehending then suddenly bolted upright.

  “It’s what?!” Marley gasped.

  “Eight-thirty,” Cassie replied.

  Seeing Cassie’s full get up, Marley knew immediately that she had been up for hours.

  “Why didn’t you wake me earlier?!” she demanded.

  Cassie shrugged. “I didn’t know if you wanted me to. We could have different schedules, besides, I figured you’d set an alarm…”

  “After everything that happened last night, I obviously forgot. Jesus, Cass, I can’t believe you didn’t wake me when you’ve been up all this time.”

  Marley jumped out of bed, hurriedly pulling on a pair of jeans. She took off her t-shirt, tugged on a tank top then shrugged into a shirt. Grabbing a brush, she started running it through her long hair as she ran into the bathroom.

  Cassie stared after her for a few moments, her mind racing before going back to her own wardrobe. Pulling out some clothes, she changed into another outfit, dumping the discarded jumpsuit onto her bed. Hearing the taps turn on in the bathroom, she hesitated, wondering if she should say goodbye to Marley. Remembering her irritation, Cassie grabbed her textbooks and left the room in silence.

  C upping a handful of water, Marley was splashing her face when she heard the dorm door close and knew Cassie had left.

  Good. She was furious!

  It was obvious Cassie had spent ages making herself ready for class; she couldn’t believe how selfish she had been, not waking her. As if yesterday hadn’t been bad enough, she had barely slept at all last night, plagued as she was with nightmares of Christian’s face, which wouldn’t quit haunting her. Now, thanks to Cassie, it looked like she might be late for her first day of class.

  Things really weren’t going as planned here.

  Feeling uncomfortable in her skin, she shot a longing look at the shower, still glistening from Cassie’s earlier use of it. She either had time for a wash, or some food. It was one or the other, it couldn’t be both. As if to help her decide, her stomach issued a loud rumble.

  She would have to cope with being unclean for a little longer.

  Brushing her teeth, she slapped moisturizer on her face then hurried into the bedroom. As she had expected, Cassie had already left. There was one change to the room, however, since her exit. A jumpsuit now lay hastily dumped across Cassie’s bed. Recognizing it, she had only a moment to wonder why Cassie had changed as she ran to the food court where she gulped down a bowl of cereal in record time before racing to her Intro to Journalism class, managing to get lost in the maze of corridors and buildings on the way. It was a full ten minutes later when she finally made it to class, out of breath, sweating uncomfortably from the effort.

  As luck would have it, the only free seats were in the front row.

  Feeling all eyes on her, Marley hurried down the room until she reached the front row. Sliding into a free space, she hoped that it would be the last embarrassment of the day.

  “Late on your first day. Do you take anything seriously?” came Christian’s voice.

  She cringed inwardly. Of course she couldn’t have a normal first day at school. Why break the habit of a lifetime? Determined not to give him any attention, she focused on her professor, a young woman in her thirties, as she talked through the course schedule in a pleasant voice. She found his outrage pretty astounding considering he had done a disappearing act on them the night before. As if they weren’t trying the best they could under the circumstances.

  Anger simmered under her skin. He could try to be a little more understanding since these were extenuating circumstances. Keeping her eyes fixed on the front of the room, she concentrated on her professor’s clothes, on the crisp cream shirt she wore tucked into a knee-length skirt. Maybe if she could focus on her, there would be a way to drown Christian out.

  “It’s pointless you wasting your time in here. With Michael running loose doing God knows what, you probably should have saved your tuition fee.”

  Marley shot him an irritated look out of the corner of her eye but kept her head fixed on the front of the room. Just keep looking at the professor. At some point, he’ll get bored when he doesn’t get anything out
of you…

  “What’s that Christian?” he said, putting on a ridiculously shrill voice that wasn’t remotely close to how she sounded. “Did you say a big evil was out there killing innocent people, people who spent their entire lives fighting to protect the vulnerable and will probably kill more? Why, yes, Marley, if you don’t GET OUT OF THIS CLASS AND DEAL WITH IT!” he suddenly yelled into her ear.

  The anger that had been bubbling away now spilled over as Marley span around in her seat, slamming her fist on her desk.

  “Why don’t you just get lost?!” she hissed, much louder than she had intended to.

  Thinking Marley meant the comment for her, her professor stopped mid-sentence, shooting her a shocked look as Marley felt students turn to watch her, their eyes burning into her back. She felt a wave of panic engulf her.

  This can’t be happening again so soon.

  “Do you have a problem with what I’m saying?” her professor asked, eyebrow raised in challenge. It was amazing how quickly her voice had lost its pleasantness and was now laced with ice. Tension blanketed the room as everyone waited for her response.

  “No, sorry,” Marley replied quietly. “It was… an accident.”

  “That’s what I thought. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to continue with my lesson without any further interruptions.”

  Marley nodded, hoping desperately for the ground to swallow her. Realizing she wasn’t going to leave any time soon, Christian issued an annoyed sigh then vanished. Marley slid down lower into her seat until she was almost horizontal.

  This is only your first day, it has to get better.

  Right?

  Chapter 8

  L unch couldn’t come fast enough.

  Although Christian didn’t bother her again, Marley found it impossible to focus on the syllabus at hand. While she knew other girls might be filled with excitement over having a power — whatever it might be — she knew it was taking her even further from her goal of becoming normal.