Cassie had a lot of mixed feelings about her father and could get next to no answers. Her grandmother hadn't been able to tell her much before she died and every time she asked her mother about him, she went distant. Cassie knew that was how her mother was--she had run off to California, after all--but it meant that there was really no one who could give her the information she needed. No one, but maybe the book under her pillow.
"Are you sure?" she asked. She couldn't forget that her working stone was hematite. Black John's crystal skull was made entirely of hematite. Hematite had been the stone that he had used to control Sean into committing the murders. It had been the stone that brought out Cassie's darkest moods and it was Scarlett's working stone. Everything about that screamed that there was evil in Cassie. Plus there was a book of black magic sitting a close distance to both of them. Her eyes moved down to where Adam's hand rested on her knee. It should feel wrong, like she was cheating, but it didn't. She bit down on her lip gently and turned her eyes from his hand to his face. "Thank you," she said softly. He barely knew her--this version of her, at least, but he sounded so sure that she wasn't her father. "That means a lot."