A Witch in a Well

by K. J. Emrick

  It was over. Addie just wanted to get them all out of here now, and when they got back to the surface then they could turn Purity over to the police along with Cavallo and put this whole day behind them.

  A soft wail started building in Purity’s throat. Addie didn’t notice until it got louder, and then burst out of her as a scream, and then she was running straight at Addie with her hands up and her fingers crooked like the claws of a wild animal. There was a wild look in her eyes, too. She was going to attack and take her chances with trying to kill both Addie and Chase and then escaping through the tunnels somehow.

  Addie thought of a dozen or more spells that she could have thrown at the woman in that moment to defend herself, but all of them required more magic than she had left. She was so drained.

  She would have to fight to save her life…

  Willow stepped out from around the curve in the tunnel, where she’d been standing and listening, and with a single word she put Purity to sleep. In mid-stride, Purity’s entire body went limp and she pitched forward, slamming into the rock floor with such force that she opened up a nasty gash on her forehead.

  “Oooh,” Willow smiled. “That’s gonna leave a mark.”

  “Good timing, sis,” Addie said. “I was going to have to call on my learning extension self-defense classes if you hadn’t stepped in when you did.

  “My pleasure. I will so be bringing this up at dinner tonight when I try to convince you and Kiera, once again, to put an end to these tours.”

  Addie shook her head. “Know what? This time I just might agree with you.”

  Chase reached a hand out toward his wife, but then pulled it back again. “She’s a killer. What are you going to do with her?”

  “Do you care?” Willow snarked.

  He swallowed. “I think I should, shouldn’t I? I mean, she is still my wife.”

  “We’re going to bring her with us,” Addie explained. “She’ll have to face what she did in a court of law.”

  “How will you accomplish that? Are you going to carry her, or something?”

  Addie looked down at Purity. The bleeding of her cut had mostly stopped, but her eyes were still closed. Drool leaked out of one corner of her mouth. “We won’t have to carry her, I promise you. We have ways of encouraging people to come with us, without causing any trouble.”

  He nodded, although he didn’t seem to fully understand. “You mean, like that man in his underwear?”

  “Yes. Just like that.”

  “Good,” he sniffed. “I think I’ve carried this woman enough in my life.”

  He turned and left her there for Willow and Addie to take care of. Apparently, he couldn’t give any more care to what happened to her than that.

  “Well,” Willow said with a dramatic sigh. “Love sure ain’t what it used to be.”

  Chapter 10

  One killer. An explosion that had put the whole cave system in jeopardy. One unwitting minion of Belladonna Nightshade. One traitorous cat in a backpack. This had been quite the trip.

  This time, no one spoke as they walked through the dimly lit tunnels on their way to the exit. There were questions in everyone’s eyes, but no one was asking them. Everyone had gotten more than they bargained for on this trip. Maria would certainly have a lot to write about once they got out of the tunnels, even without the photos and interview recorded on her smashed cellphone.

  The others would have their own stories to tell. Hopefully, the stories of how dangerous the tunnels were would work a little magic of their own and continue to keep people out. Word of mouth, online blogs, Yelp reviews. In today’s world every bit of information found its way to everyone. It was just too bad that Evelyn Collins had to die for the stories to have more of an effect.

  It wouldn’t be much farther now. Maybe another hour, and they’d be out.

  Then again.

  That door up ahead, in the alcove on the right, would take Addie on a detour. It would add another half hour or so to her trip, but on the other hand, she really needed what was on the other side of that door. She was sweating, and her muscles were aching, and the part of her that was supposed to be full of magic felt like an empty pit. Her Life Essence was at an ebbing low.

  She really needed a quick dip in the Well of Essence.

  “Kiera…” she called up to her sister.

  She had stopped in front of the short depression in the wall and the closed, locked, and spelled door. The Well of Essence was on the other side. This was the most protected part of Shadow Lake Caverns. Getting there wasn’t as easy as opening this door. Only a witch could get there.

  Right now, Addie was a witch who needed to get there.

  Her sisters both looked back at her, and both of them had the same concern in their eyes. Addie understood exactly what they were thinking without them having to say a word. On any other day, she would have had the same concerns. Actually, she did have the same concerns. Nobody should go into this part of the caverns. It should remain sealed, because this was what they were trying to protect the most. They wouldn’t even be here, looking at this door and debating if she should go in, if Cavallo hadn’t set off that explosion that sent them scurrying into the side tunnels to escape.

  She was willing to make an exception.

  Even if it was for herself.

  She blew out a breath. “I’m just so tired, guys. I’m not sure I’ll make it out if I don’t do this. I mean, I could sit here and wait for my Essence to regenerate…”

  The tunnel shook, worse than before, and from somewhere behind them they heard a hollow, muffled crea-ack. The tunnels weren’t safe.

  “Um,” Addie said, “so, staying here to let my Essence regenerate on its own probably isn’t such a good idea.”

  Kiera agreed. “Staying here too long will put you in unnecessary risk. We’re only an hour, maybe a little more, from the exit. Do you think you can keep up with us for that long?”

  She wanted to say yes. She really wanted to tell her sisters that she could do it without going to the Well for a recharge of her magical batteries.

  “No,” she said again. “I really don’t think I can.”

  Willow frowned. “Kiera, we have to go. We need to get these people out of here.”

  “Yes, we do,” their older sister agreed. “There is still a risk that the tunnels will collapse before we can get back to Stonecrest and strengthen them with the Family Circle. But, we need all three of us to have enough magic to do the job.”

  “Exactly,” Addie sighed, glad that Kiera understood.

  “Family Circle?” Maria asked, snuggled up in Godfrey’s protective arm. Those were the first words that she’d spoken in a while. “What’s a Family Circle?”

  Willow was quick to cover for Kiera’s slip. “Just a room where we make family decisions, like how best to deal with people who damage our tunnels, kill people, and ask too many questions.”

  She smiled at Maria to soften the impact of her words, but the petite reporter still shrank back from her.

  Ultimately, whether Addie would be allowed to go through that door would be Kiera’s decision. She was the oldest sister, and the head of their coven, so decisions that violated their etched-in-stone rules about the Well of Essence had to be okayed by her.

  But Addie wasn’t kidding about being drained. If Kiera said no… well, she might need a month to recuperate, instead of just a couple of days.

  She almost cried with relief when Kiera nodded to her, and then to the door. “Don’t be long, Sister Addie. I know you remember the way to the other exit. We’ll meet you there with the vehicles. Please don’t make us wait too long. I don’t want to worry about you.”

  Willow came and gave her a hug. It was very out of character for the youngest Kilorian. “Make sure you lock the door again behind you.”

  “I know, Willow. This isn’t my first day as a witch.”

  “Mine either, sis, but Kiera’s right. Make it quick, and don’t you dare make me come back for you. We’ve go
t enough to handle with this lot as it is. Oh, by the way. I am not sharing my seat with Cavallo. He smells like a barn.”

  There were times when Addie felt so close to Willow. There were other times when they were so different it was like they were strangers. This time, she could feel how much her sister cared about her. After all, being a Kilorian was all about family. That, above all else.

  Willow also used the hug to hide her hands behind Addie’s back, blocking them from everyone else’s view. She made the motions that went along with the disarming spells, and whispered the words, and they could both feel the magical barriers coming down. The trap spells disappeared. The mirror-veil faded away. The door was just a door now.

  “Thank you,” Addie told her. “Not sure I had enough strength left to do that myself.”

  “I know,” was Willow’s reply, “and you’re welcome.”

  Then she turned away from her again and took Cavallo and Purity each by an arm. “Come on, you two. Follow along and don’t lag behind. And seriously, Cavallo, would it kill you to wear something a little less form fitting?”

  They all started walking off again, and Addie waited for them to be around the next bend, and then for the noises of their boots on the rock floor to fade away, before she turned to the door.

  Before they were out of sight, Domovyk made another desperate plea with his eyes. Once again, he was trying to tell her something. It almost made her regret the gag spell around his wide cat face. What could he possibly have left to say? Everything about this mystery was solved now, and all that remained was getting out of the tunnels, sending everyone on their way, and then using the superior magic of their Family Circle to fix the damage done to the tunnels. This was going to be one of the longest days in Addie’s whole entire life. In the middle of everything else, she really didn’t have time to worry about whatever it was Domovyk wanted to tell her. At the moment his credibility with her was shot.

  When she was alone, she switched her flashlight to her other hand, and turned it off. Willow had taken her backpack for her. All she had was the light, but she wouldn’t need it here. By feel alone she found the hidden panel on the metal door that slid aside to reveal the number combination pad. This was an electronic lock, the only one of its kind anywhere in the caverns, with its own built-in power source that would run for forty years without needing to be replaced. She punched in the combination by heart, and a soft tone was followed by a loud, hollow snick as the lock released.

  The door swung inward, just a few inches, and a draft of stale, dusty air wafted out. No one had been through here in a long time. Well. No human, anyway. There were a few magical creatures who tended to the Well for them and they came and went as they pleased. Those beings didn’t use doors, though. When you can walk through walls, doors and locks and things like that become rather irrelevant.

  She stepped inside the next tunnel, and let it lead her toward the Well.

  A soft blue glow surrounded her. Here, the artificial illumination of electric lights in the other tunnels was replaced by luminescent crystals growing out of the rock in clusters of trigonal prisms as thick as her wrist or as thin as her pinky, as long as her forearm or as stubby as her thumb. It all looked so random at first, but the pattern was there if you knew how to look. The magical energy of the Well saturated everything here, and these crystals grew from that magic. Kiera would harvest some for them, every few years, to use in different spells. They also fetched a fairly good price on holistic websites. For people who wanted to believe in that sort of thing, crystals from Shadow Lake Caverns were said to have a special healing property.

  For now, they lit her way forward, and that was enough.

  She left the door open behind her for now. When she got back she would have filled up her Life Essence and then she could put the protective spells back in place. No sense shutting it. Who would she be keeping out?

  Not two dozen steps into the tunnel, a circle of rock that encompassed a five-foot width from floor to ceiling began to glow with inner heat. A circle of death to anyone who wasn’t a Kilorian. Trespassers would be badly burned if they went through that circle, or incinerated if they stood here too long. On this side of the door, there were a series of traps that had to be disengaged if she wanted to survive her trip to the Well.

  Addie only had to put her hand against part of the yellowish-red glow, and it felt her biosignature like a DNA scanner would have. She was a Kilorian. She was welcome here.

  The rocks cooled again, settling down to wait for the moment when Addie would reset the trap.

  Just like the door, it would have to wait for her to do it when she was coming out again. She could feel her heart beating in her chest with every step. This was just about as exhausted as she had ever been, except for that one time when she was fourteen and she had spent every drop of Essence in her veins trying to get Peyton Braun to fall in love with her, only to have Kiera scold her for being foolish as she pointed out her mistake. Magic can’t force someone to love you.

  So that was two lessons learned at the same time. Don’t use up all your magic, and don’t stress over boys who don’t notice you.

  She liked to learn from her mistakes. Kind of made her wonder what she would learn today.

  Well, they’d let someone get into the caverns and set off a bomb. The lesson there was pretty easy to understand. They needed better locks.

  They had learned that Domovyk had been working for Belladonna Nightshade even after they had welcomed him into their home. The lesson there was pretty easy, too. Get a dog.

  She laughed at her lame joke, shaking her head at herself. She was a cat person through and through. Doyle had been part of their family for all her life. Thankfully magic talking cats lived longer than the typical variety. Doyle had been there with her as a child, and he would be here when she had children of her own.

  Hmm. Now there was something to talk to Lucian Knight about. Having children. Not right now. No. Of course not right now. Later. Once they had been together for a good amount of time and had everything else figured out.

  He’d asked her to marry him, and she still couldn’t believe he’d been that bold. It had caught her totally off guard. So had her answer, to tell the truth. Now, in the tunnels under Shadow Lake, with evil people all around them and huge cracks in the subterranean rock, and her magic reserves all but depleted, feeling tired and spent…

  She kind of regretted telling him no.

  Across her path was a magical tripwire. It released a sort of knockout gas from a trap bolted to the ceiling. Leaning down, she breathed along the thread of magic. When it sensed she was a Kilorian, it disengaged. In another hour, it would reset itself. She’d be gone by then.

  It was just too soon to marry Lucian, she thought to herself as she kept moving down the gently winding tunnel. They’d only known each other for a matter of months and even though they had this amazing connection—one that they felt as a physical thing whenever they were close—it was just too soon for her to say yes to marriage. He knew about her being a witch, but he only knew a little bit about what that meant. Was he ready to be a part of her life?

  Was she ready to be part of his?

  No. The answer was no.

  Another part of her mind phrased the same question in a different way: Was she using the mystery and danger that filled her life as an excuse not to commit to the most wonderful, amazing man she had ever known?

  Her thoughts wandered around in circles like that as she made her way down the path. It was good to take her mind off her exhaustion. Thankfully the tunnel was easy to follow. It only went in one direction and it stayed level, which meant easy walking. From here, it was a straight shot to the Well of Essence.

  Except for this one spur that she was passing by. It was another tunnel opening off to the left, with a noticeable upslope, sectioned off with a gate of metal bars. She paused in front of it, putting her face up close to the bars and inhaling deeply. Yup. Still smelled like home. This was the tunnel that
would bring her right to Stonecrest, if she felt like walking for three hours. It opened into the stonework in the basement of their home, in a section of false wall so craftily built that even knowing it was there, Addie could stand in front of it and still not see the seams or hinges.

  Not that she could go that way if she wanted to. The spell to open this gate was very specific, and she didn’t have the strength to cast it. Wouldn’t be much longer now, she told herself. The Well of Essence was just up ahead.

  She easily located the low-tech tripwire that would have sent a spiked metal bar slashing at her head. Putting the dangling pin in place would hold it until she was leaving.

  Maybe they had gone a little overboard with the traps, she thought to herself, looking up at the gruesomely hooked metal teeth that were too well hidden to be seen by anyone who would have made it this far, if they didn’t already know what they were looking for. It was kind of gruesome, she supposed.

  Then again, what they were protecting was more important than all the gold in Fort Knox. All the art in the Louvre. All the nuclear material stockpiled in Mezhgorye, Russia. They couldn’t just protect it with good intentions. Lethal force was the only option.

  She just hoped they would never have to use it.

  There were a couple of other traps she had to disengage before she could make it to the Well. Thankfully, none of them required her to use her magic. Also thankfully, Kiera had drilled into her and Willow at a very early age how to get through this section of tunnel safely in case it was ever needed. Like now.

  Even though she knew it was coming, Addie was still surprised when the floor suddenly turned from stone to sand, and the walls spread open wide, and the ceiling vaulted up to a circle of bluish light high above. It looked like a rough skylight, a thick sheet of glass that was lit from behind by some sort of ambient source. In reality, it was a slab of crystal that was perfectly round and situated at the very center of the lake bottom above their heads. The light filtering through was daylight from above, seen through thousands of gallons of lake water.