The Circle

Chapter Six

After walking around for half an hour my phone started to vibrate.

'Spotted Cassie. At Boathouse. Talking to Ethan.'  Sean sent. Great, the first thing Cassie does is go to Ethan Conant. With everything going on I do not need Blake-Conant drama which is bound to happen since Ethan is always going on about how the two families are destined. Quickly texting back to say I'm on my way I pictured James's room knowing he wasn't there. A couple of seconds later I appeared in there groaning when I saw he apparently hadn't tided it recently seeing as I was standing on clothes I knew were dirty. I didn't even want to know how long the socks and boxers in the corner had been there for. He may be my best friend who I love dearly but he needed to learn how to clean.

"I cannot believe I have to do this again," I muttered to myself pulling up his window. Quietly climbing out I crouched down and balanced on the window seal before turning slightly so I could close the window again. Thankfully I have lost count of how many times I've done this and knew how to balance so I wouldn't fall. Even though it horrifies me that I've done this so many times. When the window was closed, I sat down and slid off the edge, letting myself drop.

'Had to leave, Ethan closed the place.' Sighing I gave them the go ahead to leave as I was nearly there. Walking towards the Boathouse I got near the entrance just as Adam entered. Looking through one of the windows I saw him walk up to his dad, Cassie and surprisingly Charles Meade. As soon as Ethan left the room and Charles left Cassie ran out of the building with Adam calling after her.

This girl is already doing my head in. Seeing my Grams on the dock I walked over to her confused. Coming up behind her I saw her staring at Diana's father who was getting into his car. "Grams?" I greeted causing her to jump slightly. She spun around to look at me. I was officially worried; she always knew when someone was coming towards her. Especially a witch as she could feel their magic. While I had learnt to hide mine so nobody could feel it, she always did. "What is it? What is wrong?" I questioned.

"Nothing Baby Bird." She answered softly putting her arm around shoulders. "Why don't you tell me how the meeting went." I gave her a look. Changing the subject wasn't going to stop me from finding out. She sighed, muttering under her breath about noisy granddaughters that took after her too much. "I was running errands with Maeve and Gracey when I came across a magical signature. Normally I wouldn't think anything of it with all the witches in town but it came from a crystal." She paused looking over to where Charles Meade's car previously was. "Not only that it was linked to a stripped witch. I followed it here and recognised the signature, even if I haven't felt it in sixteen years."

"Charles Meade has a crystal," I whispered to her as we moved away from the docks. She nodded not looking at all pleased.

"And what's worse is that he has been using it. You be careful around him Solstice; I dread to think about he has been up to." This time I nodded knowing from how she was reacting how bad this was. She shook her head. "Now you tell me how the meeting was. Don't think I didn't notice that blonde girl running out the Boathouse. She's a Blake and I'm guessing not everything went smoothly."

Great, Grams is already worried and now I'm going to add to it even more. We should have stayed in Egypt.

_______

Later that evening I met up with James. "Hey Jamie," I greeted wrapping my arms around him from behind. He grabbed one of my arms pulling me around so I was facing him. Handing me a drink he gave a quick hello before looking me up and down.

"Why isn't Chris with you? I thought you and him would be joined at the hip after nearly a month apart. What happened?"

I shrugged, "I don't know. Everything was fine. Then the meeting happened and he hasn't spoken to me. Unless you count when he said where he would look for Cassie." I sighed sipping the drink. "Instead of talking about my newly developed relationship problem how about we talk about how Faye watching is going." I gulped down the rest of the beer. "Though to be honest I don't know what is worse."