Thorn to Die

by Lacy Andersen

  His eyes narrowed. “How do you know that?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Because she told me!”

  “Blythe told you that Drew murdered Mr. White?”

  “No.” I groaned and searched my brain for a way to explain it without making him think I was crazy.

  The Brunick witches might’ve lived in Uriville for generations, but that didn’t mean we liked to talk about our witchcraft with the non-magical sorts living below the manor. Talk like that got you tied up to a pyre and burned to a crisp. Just think about my great-great-great-grandmother. She might’ve been cool with pretending to be someone else the rest of her life, but I wasn’t. I liked my copper curly hair and my athletic build. I liked the way my eyes changed color to match my mood. No one needed to know about my magical ability.

  “I can’t explain it,” I continued. “But I know he did it. We have to save her. They’re at his cabin on the lake right now.”

  “Yeah, I know where he’s staying,” he replied hesitantly. Of course he did. Uriville was a small town, after all. Nothing happened here without everyone knowing about it. “But you’ve got to give me more to go on than just your gut.”

  “I will,” I promised without really knowing how to follow through. “But right now, you’ve got to take me to her. He could be hurting her right now. We don’t know what he’s capable of.”

  He nodded and grabbed my hand, pulling me toward the street where his cruiser sat. I paused for a moment, pulling on his hand. Kat was standing next to me.

  “Okay, piggy, if there’s ever a time to help me out, it’s now. Go home.” I leaned down close to his little ear so that Ian couldn’t hear me. “Find Raven. Tell her to meet us at Drew’s cabin. Blythe’s in deep trouble.”

  He grunted and turned for home, breaking into a trot. A little trail of dust followed him. He seemed to understand part of what I’d told him to do. If there was ever a time we needed all three of the Half-Moon Witches together, it was now. I just prayed that he’d find Raven and that we weren’t too late.

  Something ominous lurked on the evening breeze. It filled my nostrils with the slightly rotten scent of foreboding. My witchy senses were telling me to hurry. I only hoped Ian could get us there in time.

  Chapter 19

  The cruiser swerved off the asphalt and down the gravel road that led to Lake Apolka. We passed camping grounds on the right and a Boy Scout camp on the left. Horse trails veered off the gravel drag into wooded grounds, empty in the dusky evening. Through the trees, the sunset bounced off the smooth surface of the lake. It was a big enough body of water that from this side, we wouldn’t be able to see Brunick manor.

  Sitting in the passenger seat, I pressed my imaginary gas pedal to the floorboards and urged Ian to drive faster. He flipped on his emergency lights, but not the siren. That was for the best. We might need the element of surprise.

  “Tell me again why you think Drew is the murderer?” he asked, giving me a sideways glance. We drifted around a corner and he handled the cruiser like a pro on the rough gravel.

  “Well, partially, it’s a gut feeling.” I held my hand to my stomach, feeling the contents of my lunch beginning to stir uncomfortably. It might have been the nerves or Ian’s driving causing the nausea. I couldn’t be sure. “I get those kinds of readings off of people. It’s a gift I’ve had since we were kids.”

  He snuck another glance at me and I couldn’t tell whether he bought my partial lie. People believed those kinds of things, right? Psychics worked with the police all the time. It was easier to believe than a witch getting magical messages through her paintings. Or using a potion to detect poison on a shrub.

  “We’re here.” He swerved into a long drive that ended at a small rustic cabin with broken shutters.

  No light came from the windows. The blinds were drawn and the knotty pine door sealed shut. If we didn’t know Drew was living in the place, I would’ve guessed it was abandoned. It wasn’t exactly a cheery place. The trees were thicker here. Cedars towered above our heads, blocking out the remaining sunlight and throwing the area into an early night.

  “She’s got to be here.” I threw open the cruiser door. Running up to the cabin door, I knocked hard enough to bruise my knuckles. “Blythe? Are you there? Open up!”

  Maybe their dinner date had turned into a meal by candlelight. Or they’d decided to go into town. That was better. More witnesses. He wouldn’t hurt her around other people.

  “What exactly is your plan?” Ian asked, coming up behind me. “I don’t think your gut is going to get him to confess. You don’t have any proof.”

  “I’ll think of something.”

  Ian leaned his back against the cabin wall, his lips pursed. “Great. Can’t wait.”

  The roar of a motorcycle cut through the silence of the clearing. A few moments later, Raven came peeling up the drive on her Buell, her body huddled close to the mass of hot metal. Thank the stars, that pig was smarter than I gave him credit for. I made a mental note to buy him a giant box of biscuits next time I was at the store.

  “What’s she doing here?” Ian gave me an accusatory frown that created a V mark between his eyebrows.

  “I texted her,” I replied with an innocent shrug of my shoulders. He didn’t have to know that I’d forgotten my phone at the shop. We might need her if this turned ugly.

  “What’s going on?” Raven hopped off the bike and tore off her helmet. “Where’s Blythe?”

  “She’s not here. We knocked.”

  “Are you sure? Kick down the door.”

  Ian jumped off the wall. “Nobody’s kicking anything down.”

  Raven’s brown cheeks grew pink. She sucked them in and threw out her chest. “Out of my way, Officer Larson. Unless you want to find out for sure whether I can still kick your butt. That’s my cousin in there.”

  There used to be a time when we’d all pretend to be ninjas and would sprint down the streets of Uriville chopping at each other. If I remembered correctly, that was the time Ian had challenged Raven to a battle. Even then, she’d towered above us all. It took one direct punch to the Adam’s apple to send him rolling on the ground. He’d made us swear to never tell the other boys at school.

  He rolled his eyes. “You beat me once when we were six, Raven. When are you going to let that go?”

  “When you grow a pair,” she said, crossing her arms.

  “Alright, guys.” I put my hands out between them. Ancient history didn’t need to repeat itself. “No need to fight. We’ll find her.”

  At that moment, a scream pierced the evening. It came from behind the cabin, in the direction of the lake. The three of us didn’t waste any time. We hopped off the cabin porch and sprinted in the direction of the shoreline, over brambles and rocky terrain. I was lucky I didn't twist an ankle.

  Another scream sounded and cut off abruptly. I lengthened my stride, pushing my muscles to work harder. That was Blythe screaming, I just knew it.

  We neared the lake, Ian in the lead and Raven right on our tail. Two bodies squirmed in waist-deep water. They twisted and splashed, throwing up sprays of foamy green lake. The commotion slowed enough for me to realize it was Blythe and Drew intertwined.

  At some point this evening, my cousin must have stripped down to a matching lacy pink bralette and panties. Drew wore a tight pair of black boxer shorts, his trim abdomen sinewy and tight. He had his hands wrapped around her neck and was shoving her under the water. She kicked him in the crotch and managed to free herself a moment before he dove after her and dragged her back down.

  “Help! Help me!”

  “Blythe!” I ran into the lake, until the warm water reached my calves, and slid to a stop. They were still a good ten feet ahead, wrestling like two alligators. “Let her go!”

  “Release her.” Ian splashed through the water and stopped next to me. The lake soaked into his pants, leaving dark splotches up to his knees.

  Drew didn’t even look up at us. His eyes bulged with unbridled fury as he w
rapped his hand around Blythe’s slender neck and pushed her under the water again. This time, she went fully under, her blonde bob floating on the surface of the lake. Bubbles popped above her face as she thrashed.

  Drew was much too big and strong. Even for as strong as Ian was, it would take five of him to pull Drew down. There was no way the three of us could take him down alone.

  A burst of energy sailed past me, brushing against my side and pushing me into Ian. We tumbled into the water as it hit Drew square on the shoulders, toppling him over Blythe’s body. With the momentary distraction, she managed to surface and gasp for air.

  Drew came back up growling. A madness glinted in his eyes, a madness that terrified me. He lunged for Blythe again, grabbing her by the wrist. Raven needed to blast him again, but Ian had already regained his footing and was watching everything go down. If she used her powers again, he'd see the magic and then we'd have another problem on our hands. In a flurry of panic, I pretended to trip on a wet stone and drove my elbow into his gut, forcing him to crouch down in pain.

  Raven stepped next to me and released another short blast while Ian remained distracted. It sent Drew flailing back into the water again as Blythe scrambled toward us. Water streamed down her sleek skin and the lake churned where her limbs grasped for footing. She threw herself into my arms and I pulled her in tight, clutching at her trembling body.

  “He was going to kill me,” she breathed. “I saw it. I saw it all.”

  I hushed her and wiped at the lake water mixing with her tears. “It’s alright. You’re going to be okay.”

  My bouncy and annoyingly cheerful cousin might’ve drove me crazy with her antics, but I felt fearfully protective of her in that moment. Her petite figure made her seem like a child in my arms, soaking hair clinging to her round face. Everyone loved Blythe. She didn’t deserve this. I wanted to hurt Drew for hurting my cousin.

  She looked up at me, her eyes as wide as river rocks. “It was just supposed to be a date. He made me supper and then we decided to go swimming. This wasn’t supposed to happen.”

  I nodded and glared at Drew, still facing off with Raven and Ian. They were ordering him to come to shore, but he remained standing in the waist-deep water, his abdomen quivering with rage.

  “He kissed me and...and...that’s when I had a vision,” Blythe stuttered. “That monster was going to drown me and sink my body to the bottom of the lake. To the bottom of Apolka Lake to sleep with the fish.” She shuddered and pulled her arms tight across her chest. “When I came out of it, I was freaked. I called him a murderer. That’s when he wrapped his hands around my neck.”

  I rubbed my palms up and down her shoulders, pulling her toward dry land. “He freaked because he is a murderer. He’s the one who killed Allen White.”

  Blythe stuck her feet in the ground and her eyes got even bigger. “Why? Why would he do that?”

  “That’s a great question.”

  Really, it was the question of the century. How had newcomer Drew Warring come to know Mr. White? And why did he hate him enough to murder him with ricin? My brain was swirling, trying to put together all the pieces of the puzzle.

  “Get out of the water, Mr. Warring,” Ian shouted.

  “You’ll never take me alive,” Drew spat, picking up a large rock from the lake floor. He crouched like a tiger ready for the pounce. “I’m not going to prison.”

  “Get down!” Ian yanked the gun from his belt and aimed it at Drew’s chest. The cold hard metal of the barrel zeroed in on its target. “That’s an order.”

  From where we sat, it was easy to see someone wasn't going to make it out of tonight alive. I held my breath and hoped between the four of us, we could take him down. But from the look in Drew’s eyes, all humanity had disappeared. In its place was something like anger and another emotion that looked an awful lot like pain.

  The man we'd met only days ago was gone.

  Chapter 20

  I’m not sure why I did it. My head certainly wasn’t telling me to abandon Blythe on the edge of the lake and make my way back out into the water. A sane person would’ve let Ian shoot that murderer, but I found myself putting a hand on Ian’s shoulder, begging him to put away the gun.

  “Don’t kill him,” I said, my eyes drawn to the man standing only ten feet away with a jagged rock clutched in his hand. Mostly naked and drenched, he looked even bigger than when we’d met in the Jazz Club. “Mr. White deserves justice. He needs him alive.”

  “Get back,” Ian hissed at me, his arm muscles taut under my hand. “You and Raven need to get back. This is police business now.”

  I dropped my hands to my waist and planted my feet. “I’m not going anywhere. Not until he gives up.”

  Drew threw his head back and laughed. It was a harrowing sound, like a man at the end of his rope. He was mad. And yet, I felt a sudden surge of sympathy for him. I couldn’t say why, but I knew he was hurting. Pain lived in the tension of his forehead and his bottomless brown eyes. It scrunched up his pointed nose and drew in his cheeks until he appeared almost skeletal.

  As I examined his features, something nagged at my consciousness. Something familiar. The more I looked at Drew, the stronger it became. I knew those eyes. I knew that nose. It was suddenly clear.

  “Allen White was your relative, wasn’t he?” I asked, tentatively taking a step toward him.

  “Hazy…” Ian whispered in a warning, shaking his head.

  He wasn’t going to get to the bottom of this with the end of a gun. We had to find the truth. My Grammy Jo had been arrested because of Drew. I needed to know why.

  Drew frowned at me, distrust evident in his glare. “He’s no relative of mine. I’d never claim him.”

  “But I can see the family resemblance.” I took a deep breath. Ian shifted closer behind me, the gun still pointed at Drew. “You have his eyes.”

  “I have my mother’s eyes,” he hissed, clutching the rock closer to his chest. “Just because he was her father, doesn’t mean he was my grandfather. That man never did anything for us. He kicked my mom out of the house when she got pregnant with me. Because of him, she’s dead.”

  And there was the pain, plain as day, written across every one of Drew’s features. It weighed heavy on his shoulders, making him hunch with the effort to stay upright. Within the pain was a layer of shame that clouded his eyes.

  “What happened to her?” I asked, genuinely concerned. I couldn’t imagine losing my mother. “How’d she die?”

  “Cancer.” He closed his eyes against the water dripping down from his wet hair. “Ovarian cancer. Her doctor wanted to send her through this brand new treatment program, but it was expensive. She wouldn’t beg her own father for the money, so I did it for her. That rat turned up his nose at me as if I was some kind of bug. Wouldn’t even look me in the eyes. Just called me riffraff and kicked me out. ”

  I hated to admit it, but part of me kind of hated Allen White after listening to Drew’s story. What kind of man would let his own daughter die if he had the ability to save her? Maybe he deserved to die. But murder hadn’t been the answer.

  “So, that letter Mr. White wrote to Angie Pine had been partially about you,” Blythe said, coming in beside me. She’d pulled a towel around her thin shoulders, but walked with a strong step. “He said he wouldn’t give money to her or any other riffraff that came begging for it. He was talking about you.”

  Drew cocked his head to the side, fixing his gaze on her. The longer we talked, the more the madness died in his eyes. “That wasn’t even the worst of it. On her deathbed, my mom asked me to take her home to be buried with her mother. She died when my mom was only a kid. She’s buried in the White family mausoleum, in the cemetery just over the hill.” He nodded to the right.

  I knew from my many years of roaming the lake during my childhood that a small cemetery lay just up the road and through a wide clearing. Raven, Blythe, and I had spent more than a few nights playing ghosts in the graveyard and pretending to summo
n spirits. The White mausoleum was a large crypt built into the hillside and facing the south. It was layered in beautiful white speckled marble that shined in the sunlight. Centuries of Whites were laid to rest behind the wrought iron gate that kept out the rest of the world.

  Drew flared his nostrils and swept out his hands. “I buried my pride and begged him for one last favor. One last kindness to my dead mother, his only daughter, but he refused. He took her ashes and flung them at me. Told me to go bother someone else.”

  I gasped and he fell to his knees, burying his head in his hands. At this point, I really couldn’t blame Drew. If anything, I pitied him and his mother. What a horrible family. He was all alone in the world. It was no wonder he had snapped.

  “You killed him by dusting the roses with ricin, didn’t you?” Raven asked from the other side of Blythe. She still had her hand up, ready to send a burst of energy. “You learned it during your military training.”

  “Very good,” Drew spat out bitterly. “You’ve all got me figured out. That man loved his roses more than he loved his family. I figured it was poetic. The thing he loved most killed him. It was too easy. I just had to stick around town until any suspicion died down, then I was going to hit the road.”

  “The ricin?” Ian dropped his gun just enough to point it toward the water. The tension was still present in his shoulders. “Where’d you get that?”

  That was a good question. After Andy Jenkings’ white canvas bag turned out to be just a bag of fertilizer, it was still puzzling how someone could find a poison like ricin in the Midwest.

  “Grammy’s plants,” I said suddenly. Yes, it made sense. “He’s the animal that’s been digging in Grammy Jo’s plants. He took them from her castor bean plant.”

  Raven nodded beside me. She had known the animals were innocent. If only we’d listened to her.

  “Yes,” Drew said, dropping the rock with a splash. “I stole them. Made the poison. And now that poor excuse for a man can rot in his precious crypt. My mother was too good for him, for all of them. I spread her remains around town. She’s home again. And that’s the end. The end of my story. Do me a favor and just kill me now.”