by K. J. Emrick
Willow rolled her eyes. “Is that why you’re in such a rush this morning, sis?”
“Well, yeah. We need to go back there. I think I know how to find Eugene.”
Kiera picked up her plate and cup, heading to the kitchen with them. “I believe I had the same idea this morning, Sister Addie. Give me a moment, and we’ll go together.”
“Are you sure?” Addie asked her. “Last night was… pretty intense.”
“For all of us,” Kiera noted.
“Well, sure, but for you most of all. Kiera, I can handle this if you need more time to process what happened.”
But her older sister just shook her head. “Willow has already said the same to me, and as I told her, this is what we do as the witches of Shadow Lake. We can not, and must not, allow our personal lives to keep us from our duty. Alan is lost. He will not be found by me sitting around Stonecrest all day and moping.”
That may be so, but Addie caught the hitch in Kiera’s voice when she said Alan’s name. Having him appear in the Circle and then speak to her like that had rattled her more than she was willing to let on. If she’d been in her sister’s place, Addie doubted that she could have held it together like that.
“I’m fine,” Kiera promised her. “Really. Now. Let me just get my coat, and we can head back to the lodge. I believe we’re both thinking along the same lines, Sister Addie, and I believe this mystery is about to get much more problematic.”
It didn’t surprise Addie that Kiera had figured out the same thing she had. It surprised her more that it had taken them both this long.
“She’s hiding her feelings,” Willow said when Kiera left. She made sure to shield her words with magic so they wouldn’t be heard outside this room. “She’s really upset. I think having something she can actually solve, like Danny Bellinger’s murder, will be good for her.”
“I agree,” Addie said, wrapping her own voice in the magical equivalent of cotton balls. “I just wanted to let her know she didn’t have to push herself. Not after last night.”
Willow’s eyes narrowed. “I told her the same thing.” Her tone of voice had cooled somewhat.
Oh, curse her Irish eyes, Addie thought. Was Willow going to take offense at everything she said? “I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Of course not,” her younger sister quipped. “You never do.”
From his chair, Domovyk sighed and twitched his whiskers. “It seems there is much going on here today. Perhaps I will come back later, yes?”
“No,” Willow told him firmly. She got up with her own plate, ignoring Addie now, and when she did she scratched between Domovyk’s ears. The big cat leaned into her attentive fingers. “We just got you, cutie. We don’t want Belladonna finding you and dragging you away from us.”
Doyle humphed. “You never worry about putting me outside.”
Addie wondered if maybe the whole world had gone insane. “Willow, can I talk to you out in the hall for a minute before we go?”
Her sister gave Domovyk a final scrub under his chin. “Sure. If we have to.”
Doyle glared at them for leaving him alone with this other cat in his house. “I’m going to the car,” he said. “Tell me when it’s time to go.”
Alone in the hallway, Addie brought Willow away from the dining room for privacy. “Why are we bringing that cat? He belongs to Belladonna.”
“You mean he used to belong to her. Past tense.” Willow flipped her hair over her shoulder. “If he wants to defect to our family shouldn’t we give him that chance?”
“Sure. I suppose. So, you’re telling me that’s the only reason you’re keeping him here?”
Her sister shrugged, her loose pink top fluttering with the movement. “Think about this for a sec, sister dear. If this cat in our dining room was with Belladonna as recently as yesterday, do you think maybe he can lead us right to her if we ask nice?”
Addie stared at her sister. She couldn’t help it. “That’s… actually a really smart idea.”
“I know it is.” Willow’s face hardened. “You and Kiera think I’m just this stupid little girl who never grew up. No, don’t deny it. I know you do. Both of you. That’s fine. You guys can think whatever you want. It doesn’t change who I really am.”
“I don’t think you’re stupid,” Addie promised. “You just don’t seem to always have your head in what’s going on. You know, in the real world.”
“Your world, you mean.” Willow made a sound at the back of her throat. “Whatever. Come on. Let’s go find this killer so we can get back to helping our sister find her son, and finding this evil witch that’s circling around our home like a shark that smells blood in the water. You guys can go back to ignoring me after that. Deal?”
She turned on her heel and went up the hall to the front door. Addie wanted to call after her. She wanted to tell her she was sorry. The ugly truth however, was that not everything the two of them had just said was a lie. The words to make things right between her and her sister eluded Addie.
Sometimes, she didn’t know which was worse. Solving the mysteries of murder and mayhem that descended upon Shadow Lake, or trying to do what was right by her own family.
“Excuse, please,” said a deep voice at her ankles.
Domovyk strutted past her, following Willow, on his way to maybe becoming part of her family too.
Chapter 10
“I still don’t understand what we’re doing here.”
It was the third time that Rosemary had said it. She was curled up on the end of one of the couches in the common room of the lodge, an oversized sweater stretched up over her knees with her legs tucked inside. Behind her, two uniformed police officers stood guard, although Addie was beginning to see they were more focused on Rosemary than they were on their jobs.
Which was fine with Addie, since their jobs at the moment pretty much consisted of watching the Kilorian sisters do their work.
Lucian had already told her that he and his men had been over the lodge with a fine toothed comb three times already. There was no one inside. Since yesterday they’d had a uniformed officer inside the building, and one patrolling outside, because it was still an active crime scene. If Eugene Forrester came back from wherever he’d gone, they wanted an officer or two here and ready to catch him.
Boy were they in for a big surprise.
Which led them back to Rosemary’s question, about why they were here.
“It’s simple,” Addie told her. “We need you all in one place while we do our search.”
One of the officers behind the couch scoffed at that and leaned over to whisper to his partner. Addie heard the words with her magic as they filtered across the room, too low for a normal human ear to pick up.
“Waste of time.”
Addie made sure to smile at him until he nervously looked away.
“I know why we’re here,” Dahlia Black said. She seemed very sure of herself. She was lounging over at the little bar on a stool, the glass of whiskey she’d poured for herself already half gone. “This is the big reveal. This is where the police sweep in and tell us whodunit, just like on television. And that means, ladies and gentle police officers, that this private detective is about to be robbed of her paycheck.”
Sitting on the stool next to her, Christine set her jaw and lowered her voice. Addie had to rely on her magic again to hear the whispers. “I told you already. You’ll get every penny I promised to pay you. I just wanted to prove Eugene was a killer. We’ve done that. You’ll get your money.”
Interesting, Addie thought to herself. She tucked those words away in her mind for later.
Dahlia raised her glass in a mocking toast to the police, and then gulped a big swallow of the alcohol inside. She didn’t seem convinced that the promised payday was going to make it to her bank account.
Or could there be something else bothering her?
Kiera took over the explanation while Addie was eavesdropping. “The reason we are here, is because we believe we can
now find Eugene. My sisters and I have discussed this on the way here, and if you will all remain in this room while we try something, then I believe this murder will be solved in short order.”
That perked Dahlia out of the fuzzy haze she had been drinking herself towards. “Solve the murder? What do you mean? We know who did this.”
Christine was quick to jump on that statement as well. “It was Eugene. I thought we had already settled that? He killed Danny, probably because Danny found out that he had also killed my aunt years ago.”
Rosemary’s head spun around at that. Obviously, it was the first she’d heard of it.
Addie nodded. Eugene as the killer was a sound theory, and it made sense. However… “We won’t know for certain until we find Eugene,” she told Christine. “Once we find him, things will be much clearer.”
Christine crossed her arms. “They’d better be. I want to leave this place. I want to go home. If I never see Shadow Lake again in my life, it will be too soon.”
As much as that pricked at her pride to hear someone say that about her beloved hometown, Addie could completely understand where she was coming from. Regardless of what happened here, it had been a horrible two days for everyone involved. That included Kiera, who now had even more reason to despair over ever finding her son.
That was a separate matter from the murders, however. For now, the sisters were going to have to focus on finding Danny’s killer.
“I have a question,” Dahlia said, raising her hand with her empty glass like she was asking permission to speak. “Why, exactly, are there cats here?”
Doyle and Domovyk had been sitting quietly, watching everyone. Doyle sat at Addie’s feet, and Domovyk was over at Willow’s. There had been an uneasy sort of silence between them in the Jeep on the car ride over. Although, Addie had noticed Doyle shooting the other cat a nasty glance more than once. Domovyk had ignored him each time, even yawning a big cat yawn with his tongue curled to show how unconcerned he was with Doyle’s animosity.
Addie was beginning to wonder if bringing the two cats along had been a mistake. She agreed with Willow that leaving Domovyk wandering loose around Shadow Lake just when he’d come knocking on their door would be a mistake. However, she couldn’t quite shake the feeling that it was going to be an even bigger mistake to let him into their lives. Time would tell, as it always did.
“These aren’t just any cats,” Willow said, sticking to the story they had come up with on the way here. “They’re both trained as tracking animals. Wherever Eugene is, they’ll sniff him out.”
“This was your big plan?” Dahlia scoffed. “Sniffing Eugene out with a couple of flea-ridden cats?”
Both Doyle and Domovyk growled deep in their chests at the insult in Dahlia’s words. Then they both stopped. They turned to look at each other, and the surprise on their face was comical. Maybe they weren’t so different after all, Addie thought.
They looked away again, intensely studying their side of the room, pretending nothing at all had just happened.
“The cats are licensed as trackers,” Willow lied smoothly. “It’s the latest technique in law enforcement. Because the cats are smaller they can track into smaller areas than a dog can go, and they’re much more single minded about finding their prey once they latch onto a scent. Ever see a cat go after a mouse?”
That seemed to convince everyone. Even the two officers behind the couch, who should have known better, nodded their agreement.
Anyone who had ever spent any time around cats would know that no self-respecting feline would ever work for humans like this. They were too independent.
Or obstinate, depending on how you looked at it.
“All right,” Lucian said, stepping forward to address all of them. “So we’re agreed. Everybody stays here. Officers Johnson and Morrison will be here if you need anything. They’re also going to make sure everyone stays in this one room until we’re done, so please don’t argue with them. This won’t take long.”
That last part was said with a questioning glance at Addie. She nodded in answer. This shouldn’t take long at all.
The three of them started up to the room where Eugene and Rosemary had been staying, Doyle and Domovyk following side by side even if they were still trying to pretend the other one didn’t exist.
Domovyk went one stair higher than Doyle, and Doyle picked up his pace to stay even.
Doyle jumped a stair entirely, and Domovyk raced to catch up, his ears laid flat against his head.
Then it was an all out sprint between the two of them until they both reached the top… at the same time.
They sat there like it was perfectly normal, Doyle cleaning a front paw and Domovyk staring ahead down the second floor hallway. Both of them were watching the other out of the corner of their eye and pretending not to notice.
It looked like the start of a beautiful friendship, Addie thought. If they didn’t end up tearing each other to shreds first.
She remembered how to get to Eugene’s room from being here yesterday, but Lucian led them anyway. She didn’t mind. There was nothing he could do to help them with what she had in mind, but she liked that he was here. Somehow, it made her feel better just to know he was near.
For a moment she had the strongest desire to hold his hand.
Not here, she told herself. Not now. Go on that date with him. Talk about something other than murder and magic. See where it goes.
Yes. That was exactly what she was going to do.
“Why are you smiling?” Willow asked her. “This isn’t going to be easy. I’m not even sure it’s going to work.”
“Of course it will.” Even as she said it, Addie hoped that Willow wasn’t trying to read her Essence. If she did, she might hear the uncertainty she was trying to hide behind a façade of confidence.
This was going to be a difficult casting. The spell wouldn’t create a large cloud of magic either. Nobody would be able to sense what they were doing past the woods around the lodge. And, what she’d told Lucian was correct. It wasn’t going to take that long.
It wasn’t exactly going to be easy, either, in terms of the strain it would put on Addie’s body and mind. Some spells were like that and there was just no way around it.
Lucian opened the room for them. He probably had the only key, Addie figured. The police would have kept Rosemary out of this room after they’d found her lying here on the floor yesterday. Which meant everything would be exactly like it had been. Exactly like Addie needed it to be.
They stood in the middle of the room upstairs for a moment, just opening their senses to everything around them. There was still blood on the rug. The blood on the sink was still there as well. The rest of the room felt… empty.
Kiera stepped over to close the blinds on the window. They didn’t need any distractions. “Are you sure this is where we should begin, Sister Addie?”
“It’s as good a place as any. Maybe better than most.”
All these years after their parents had passed away, and Addie still found herself second guessing her decisions in moments like these. There had been so much that her mother had taught her about spellcasting and witchcraft. Her father too, in his own way, although only a witch could train another witch. After their parents had died Kiera took over teaching both Addie and Willow in the use of their magic. Addie knew everything she needed to know. She was as prepared to do this as she was ever going to be.
Still, she found herself looking for her older sister Kiera’s approval. Kiera led their coven. Kiera led the family.
But this was Addie’s idea. Ultimately, for better or for worse, this was her responsibility.
With a deep breath, she straightened her shoulders, and said it again with more confidence. “Yes. This is where we should start.”
Kiera nodded, approval showing in her eyes. “Then let us begin.”
“What should I do?” Lucian asked them.
“Stay out of our way,” Willow said dismissively.
Addie gave her a look that she totally ignored. “It’s okay, Lucian. Just, um, stay over by the door. Be ready in case we ask you to open it, okay?”
Willow smirked at her and lowered her voice to below a whisper so that only Addie could hear it. “I can open my own doors, thank you.”
“Shush,” Addie told her just as quietly. “I’m letting him feel useful.”
“I can show you how to make a man feel useful,” her sister said with a wink. “It has nothing to do with opening doors.”
Kiera cleared her throat and held her hands out for Addie and Willow to take. “Enough of that,” she chided gently. “We have work to do.”
Doyle and Domovyk jumped up onto the two beds in the room, each to their own, and watched. Addie knew that Doyle had seen this done before. She had to wonder if Domovyk had, and for that matter she had to wonder what manner of magic he was used to seeing Belladonna perform. What sorts of dark, twisted magic had he witnessed?
Nothing good, if her experiences with Belladonna were any indication. That witch had no scruples, and no qualms about hurting people to get at what she wanted.
Well. If he was going to stay with them now, he was going to have to get used to the way they did things.
Addie began with a chant that was actually a song her mother used to sing to them when she was a little girl. The song was old, from the northernmost regions of Ireland, and in a dialect that hadn’t been spoken since before the Stone Age monument in the Boyne Valley, Newgrange was built. Some of the meaning was lost even on Addie. It was about loss, and about life, but the words weren’t as important as the music. The song actually resonated with the harmonic frequencies of the world itself. It was a way of putting their minds in tune with the Earth, of using the natural magics deep within the planet, within nature, within every living thing.
Only when a person’s mind was right with the world could they see things clearly.
Christians called this listening to God.
Buddhists referred to it as enlightenment.
George Lucas called it using the Force.
