Cassie always dreamed of having a sister, of having someone to confide in and share secrets with, someone who would always stick by her no matter what. Cassie and Diana had promised to be sisters to each other, the sisters neither of them had. But that wasn't going so well these days, or at least not like they thought it would. But now she had this, a real sister. Well, a half sister, but still, Scarlett was real. Cassie wasn't an only child anymore.

That night, Cassie invited Scarlett to sleep over at her house. She had this urge to learn everything she could about her as soon as possible. Not to gril Scarlett on what she knew of their father and the witch hunters, though of course that was important, too, but everything about her.

There was plenty of time for Scarlett to share everything she knew about the hunters with the Circle. But tonight was just about them. They deserved that much.

Cassie's mother was away visiting friends in Cape Cod, so the girls had the whole house to themselves. Cassie was relieved, because she wasn't sure yet how to broach the subject of Scarlett with her mother. How exactly does one even begin such a conversation? "Mom, the love of your life, who turned out to be evil? He also had another child." Especially with a mother like Cassie's, who would always rather hide from the past and pretend it doesn't exist. Her mother would stick her head in the sand like an ostrich and live that way forever if she could. Finding out Cassie had a half sister, and worse, that her husband had another daughter with a different woman, might be more than she could handle. It would take a lot of groundwork on Cassie's behalf to prepare her mother for such a shock.

But for tonight, they could just be sisters. She felt herself slip into an immediate playfulness, as if she and Scarlett were trying to make up for the childhood they had been robbed of sharing. For the first few hours, they did all the traditional sleepover things. They ordered a pepperoni pizza and laughed too loud. They painted each other's nails with sparkled purple nail polish and wolfed down chocolate ice-cream sundaes till they had stomachaches.

Then they both changed into their pajamas, and Scarlett pinned Cassie's hair back in two intertwined French braids.

Cassie brushed through Scarlett's long waves of wild red hair and couldn't help but ask, "If you didn't dye your hair, would it be the same color as mine?"

"Yup," Scarlett said. "Look at our eyebrows; they're the same shade of brown."

"And our noses are shaped the same."

"That's true," Scarlett said. "We both have the same perfect button noses."

"Do you hate peas?" Cassie asked ridiculously.

"I do, but I don't think that's genetic."

"You don't understand."

Cassie was giggling uncontrollably. "I hate peas so much, I swear it's in my DNA."

Scarlett cracked up.

Having a sleepover with Scarlett was nothing at all like having one with Diana. Diana always behaved like a serious adult. She rarely loosened up enough to just be silly. But sill iness was no problem for Scarlett. Even though she was a witch, she didn't always act like one. And even though she'd suffered through intolerable tragedy and loss, she wasn't mired in somberness. First and foremost, Scarlett was a girl who wanted to have a little fun, and that was a much-needed breath of fresh air to Cassie.

They stayed up late into the night talking. The outside world grew quiet and sleepy and finally silent while Cassie and Scarlett remained awake sharing stories. And as the hours passed, their conversation drifted into deeper waters. In hushed tones, Scarlett filled Cassie in on many of the gaps in their family history.

"I always sensed I was different," she said. "Even before I knew I was a witch."

"I know what you mean, believe me." Cassie brought her knees in toward her chest. "I never felt at home anywhere. I always felt like a freak."

"And the dreams and nightmares," Scarlett said.

Cassie nodded. "Mostly the nightmares."

"And the strange things that would happen every time I got angry." Scarlett's voice rose a bit. "That was really the kicker."

Cassie nodded more rapidly. The similarities between them were uncanny. Cassie wanted to tell Scarlett about the darkness she sometimes felt inside. Not only the bad feelings triggered by certain people, like the new principal, for example, but that other darkness. The one deep down that she could hardly admit to herself existed. Did Scarlett feel that, too? Did she fear there was some sinister piece of Black John lodged in her soul, infecting and clouding it like a cancerous smoker's lung? But before Cassie could muster up the courage to ask such a question, Scarlett's round face turned deathly serious.

"And when I first touched hematite," she said. "The feeling in my chest was - "

"I know!" Cassie screamed out. "Me, too!"

"It's my working stone," Scarlett said.

"Mine, too," Cassie said.

Scarlett grinned knowingly, as if she suspected as much.

"It's a truly rare occurrence, you know. To have hematite as your working stone."

Cassie turned away for a second, feeling ashamed. She had to remind herself that she didn't have to be embarrassed of her connection to Black John, at least not with Scarlett.

Scarlett watched her patiently. "It's okay," she said. "I know this is a lot to digest."

She does feel it, Cassie thought. Scarlett understood the mortification of Cassie's deepest secret. Scarlett endured that same crushing darkness dormant inside herself.

The air between them momentarily quieted, and Cassie knew this was her chance to ask about their father. "It's because of him," she said. "That hematite works for both of us. Right?"

Scarlett nodded. "I'd say that's most likely the reason."

"Did you know him?" Cassie asked, not having to utter their father's name.

Scarlett shook her head. "No. But my mom told me stories. Didn't yours?"

Cassie blushed, shamed by her own mother's shortcomings. "Not really."

"Our moms were best friends growing up," Scarlett said.

"Did you know that?"

Cassie searched her memory for any recol ection of her mother talking about old friends, but she came up blank.

"No," she said, disappointed. "I don't know much at all about my mother's past."

"Well, our moms were best friends," Scarlett said, matter-of-factly. "Until Black John came between them. Your mom stole him from my mom. That's why my mom left town."

"I had no idea." Cassie's heart fell a little because of this new picture of her mother, but also because she suddenly thought of Diana and Nick, and how she and Adam came between them. Would things ever be the same between them, or were they bound for the same fate?

Scarlett noticed a change in Cassie's disposition. "Have I upset you?" she asked. "Maybe I'm saying too much too soon."

"No, don't be silly." Cassie forced herself to relax and to put Adam and the others out of her mind for now. "I want to know everything. Don't hold anything back, please." Scarlett puckered her lips and eyed Cassie skeptically.

"We have our whole lives to catch up with each other, you know. We don't have to do it all in one night." It was an amazingly comforting thought. Our whole lives.

They could go back to giggling and goofing around, and pick up this seriousness tomorrow. But Cassie had waited for this chance for far too long to let it go any longer. She needed to know the truth, about everything. "Please tell me more," she said. "I can handle it."

"Okay then." Scarlett took Cassie's hand and squeezed it, and when she did, Cassie looked down at their intertwined fingers. It seemed like she could almost see a cord wrapping around their hands, connecting them. Just like the connection between Adam and me, Cassie thought. She and Scarlett were linked. They were fated. It explained everything she felt about Scarlett since the moment she'd set eyes on her, how she was willing to go against the whole Circle to defend her and protect her.

If Scarlett saw it, she didn't mention it. She went on talking as usual, while massaging Cassie's hand in her own.

"I'll never forget the day my mother told me I had a sister," Scarlett said. "It changed everything for me. I knew one day I'd find you. And see, I was right."

She waited a moment to read Cassie's expression and then added, "I don't understand why your mom never told you."

Cassie suddenly felt herself snap to a new level of awareness. She pulled her hand away. "Wait a minute. My mother knew about you?"

"Of course she knew." Scarlett's voice contained the

"Of course she knew." Scarlett's voice contained the slightest hint of outrage. "They were all still in New Salem when we were born."

Cassie thought back to the conversation she recently had with her mother. How she'd looked deep into her eyes and swore she'd told Cassie the whole truth about her father. I loved that I was all his, and he was all mine, she'd said, but it was a lie. Her mother knew he was with someone else.

"How could my mother not have told me I had a sister?" Cassie said aloud. This was a new divide that had sprung up between her and her mother, and at the moment, it felt insurmountable. Her whole childhood and adolescence had been hindered by lies - that truth had come to light when they first moved to New Salem, and Cassie learned she was a witch. But she'd come to terms with all the covering up her mother had done in hopes of protecting her. Now it occurred to Cassie that even their more recent conversations had been poisoned by deceit. As of this very moment, her mother was still lying to her. Cassie never felt more estranged from her as she did now.

"She should have told you," Scarlett said. "I wonder what else she's kept from you."

Cassie realized Scarlett was absolutely right. If her mom could lie about the existence of a sibling, she could lie about anything. And if she was keeping secrets, Cassie would, too. She decided right then not to tell her mom anything about meeting Scarlett. Her mother didn't deserve her honesty. She hadn't earned it.

Fortunately, now Cassie had a sister, and everything would be different. Everything would be better. If it had to be just the two of them against the rest of the world, so be it.

They would remain inseparable, that was the one and only thing Cassie could feel secure about now.

"Scarlett," she said, feeling her heart overflow with love and affection, "now that you're here, I finally feel like I'm home."

"Me, too." Scarlett's dark eyes shimmered. "I've never been more sure of anything," she said. "This is where I belong."