by K. J. Emrick
Between the glow from that amazing, impossible fixture in the ceiling and the crystals all around, the chamber of the Well of Essence was lit up bright as day.
Nature and the forces of magic had created a wide, circular chamber here with spectacular features. Stalactites and stalagmites grew not up and down from the ceiling or floor, but straight out from the walls, poking inward in a sporadic circular pattern as if gravity used to work sideways here. Some of them looked razor sharp.
All around her, Addie heard the whispers of ages. Thousands of voices seemed to be talking all around her, pieces of words, snatches of sentences, secrets and profound truths uttered by those who had stood in this very chamber going back centuries. The whispers came and went, talking over each other in such a way that nothing they said was complete. A person could stand in this chamber for hours, listening to the voices, only to leave with the sense that there was something important they had almost—but not quite—discovered.
“Hello,” Addie spoke to them. “Don’t mind me. I’ll only be a moment.”
The whispers quieted, and then went silent.
Addie smiled. The world of magic was a strange and wonderful place.
In the middle of the floor stood a basin made of carved stone blocks, no higher than Addie’s thigh, and nearly as wide as she was tall. It contained a dark liquid that swirled slowly around and around with no discernible source for the movement.
This was the Well of Essence. In its depths was the power to remake the Earth. It was more power than any one person could hold within themselves. Tempting as it was for anyone, Addie included, a witch would have to be a fool to try absorbing that much energy.
All Addie needed was a little touch, not the whole thing. Just enough to refresh her so she would be able to get out of the caverns and back to Stonecrest. No more than that. Just enough so she could help her sisters with Cavallo and Purity Abbott.
She bit her lip, and hesitated, because she wasn’t immune to the temptation to sink below the surface of the Well and let it fill her up to the top. Imagine what she could do with that sort of power. The good she could accomplish. Just her. She wouldn’t need her sisters anymore. She wouldn’t need Lucian Knight. She would only need Addie Kilorian.
Just her.
…take what you want…
The voices began to whisper in the chamber again.
…you only desire good things…
…take it…
Speaking to her.
…no matter the cost…
…and there will be…
…a…
…cost…
…
Addie snapped out of it, realizing the path that her thoughts were taking her down. The reason she and her sisters were stronger together was that they each depended on the other two for support and good advice, and sometimes a quick kick in the seat of the pants when they were wrong. When you were standing by yourself in front of enough power to do whatever you wanted, right and wrong began to look like whatever you felt like making them. Addie didn’t want that. No matter what that kind of power could give to her she only wanted to be who she was. Just plain, flawed, imperfect Addie Kilorian. That was good enough for her.
The voices sighed as if they were disappointed with her decision, and once again they faded away.
Addie went up to the edge of the basin. Resting the side of her leg against the edge of the stone blocks, she reached down with just one finger.
“That’s far enough, thank you,” a woman said from behind her.
She turned, and in the ethereal glow she saw the one person she would have never dreamed to see standing here, in this place. Not in her worst nightmares.
Belladonna Nightshade.
The evil witch smiled at her surprise and lifted her chin imperiously. “Hey there, Addie. Did you miss me?”
Chapter 11
Only a witch could get there.
Addie remembered her own words from earlier as clearly as if they’d been spoken out loud by the whispers of the ages. She knew the rules of this place, knew the traps and the secrets, and she had been reassured by the fact that only a witch could make it this far.
Which was exactly what she had done. She was the witch who opened the door, and cleared the traps, and lit the way for Belladonna Nightshade to follow her, right to the Well itself.
She had never felt so completely stupid in all of her life.
“This was all a trick, wasn’t it?” she asked, dropping down to sit on the edge of the basin as her legs gave out. This couldn’t be happening. It couldn’t be, but it was. “You played us for fools.”
“Do you mean,” Belladonna said in a clear, lilting voice, “was this all part of my plan? Oh, Addie, of course it was. Try to keep up, won’t you? Cavallo was a dupe. A pawn. I used him to set off that explosion because I knew you’d come running this way. He was supposed to try killing more of you, but you just can’t change a person’s true nature no matter how much magic you throw at them. I needed you to bring me here, to this wonderful, wonderful place. Then all I would have to do is follow you in once you opened the door and removed all the traps, and voila! Here we are. Thank you for that, by the way.”
She tossed her blacker-than-night hair over one shoulder and winked at Addie.
Belladonna was an infuriatingly good-looking woman. That body, in a flowing, shimmering black dress and lace-up combat boots, would have made Addie jealous, if it wasn’t obvious there’d been some work done. Work of the magical kind, that is. That nose was too cute to be the one she was born with. Her skin was the sort of smooth you only got with an age rejuvenation spell—the kind that ripped Life Essence away from other living things to boost the vitality of the spellcaster. Sure she would look forever young, but she was using the blackest of magics to make it happen.
And besides. Nobody’s hair was that lustrous and dark. Nobody.
“You can’t be here,” Addie said. She realized how lame that sounded, but she just didn’t have the energy to come up with anything pithy or sharp-witted.
Belladonna took a lazy step closer to the Well, craning her graceful neck to look over Addie’s shoulder at the swirling mass of energy. “I’m just full of surprises, Addie. You know, I’m actually glad it was you who had to come here and recharge your cute little batteries. At least Cavallo got you to do that for me. I thought it would be that old hag, Kiera, but it was you instead and wasn’t that just the best surprise of all? You and I got lots of history to hash out. So the question is, do I kill you first and then take all of that yummy Essence for myself, or do I take the Essence first and get myself all supercharged before I kill you? That might actually be fun. Oh, just think of the wonderful things I could do to you with all of that—” She pointed past Addie at the Well. “—inside of me!”
Addie stood up. She had to stop Belladonna from getting too close, no matter how weary-to-the-bone she was. “But, you can’t be here!” she insisted. “You shouldn’t be able to even get to these caverns, let alone get in here. You can’t even step foot within the town limits of Shadow Lake!”
“Blood magic, dearie,” Belladonna explained. “I can go anywhere I want, even through a protective spell like the one around this town, as long as I have some of the blood from the witch who helped cast the spell. I had your blood. Your spell meant nothing to me after that. When are you going to learn that you can’t outsmart me, Addie? Everything I’ve done has led me to this point. I had three agents working against you from the inside, and me from the outside. You didn’t stand a chance.”
Three agents, Addie wondered?
Cavallo Raithmore, even though he seemed to be forced into it by black magic.
Domovyk, even though he seemed reluctant to throw his lot all in with Belladonna.
That left…who?
Oh. Of course…
There was no time to dwell on that bit of information. Not when Belladonna kept talking.
“You still don’t understand it all, do you? You’re thi
nking, no way did Belladonna get my blood. Well, think again. Think back to the night at the museum, Addie. Remember the awards ceremony? Remember the murder, and how you reached into a suit of armor to find a clue. Remember?”
Addie did. She remembered lifting the murder weapon out of that suit of armor. She remembered reaching in, and pricking her finger, and shedding just a few drops of blood. Belladonna had planned that, too, like she’d planned everything up to this point. With Addie’s blood, it was a simple matter of casting a spell that allowed her to walk right through the dome of protection she and her sisters had placed over the town.
“You’re a monster,” she named Belladonna. “An evil, destructive monster.”
Without seeming to move, Belladonna was right in front of Addie, so close that she could see the streaks of gold in the other witch’s pale almond shaped eyes.
She put her cheek close to Addie’s and whispered in her ear.
“You’ll find I’m full of surprises.”
She was so close now that Addie had to reach out to clasp her hands around Belladonna’s shoulders to keep herself from falling backward, into the Well. She did not want to do that. She wasn’t even sure she would survive that. It would very likely burn her core to ash and leave her a mindless shell.
A witch as old, and as powerful as Belladonna Nightshade on the other hand… who knew.
Staring into the evil witch’s eyes, it was obvious that Belladonna knew. Or at least, she was sure about whatever truth she had fed herself. She was going to take the Essence, and consequences be damned.
Unless Addie stopped her.
Somehow.
Curse her Irish eyes, Addie swore.
“Either way,” Belladonna was saying, as she reached up and took hold of Addie’s wrists in a painful grip, “time to say goodbye. Hey, how do you say that in Gaelic?”
Addie slapped her hands away.
“Slán agat,” she said, answering the question, saying goodbye…
With a smile.
The motion overbalanced her and now she found herself falling back, back, back, and the low wall around the Well caught her calves and took her feet out from under her, speeding her drop toward the swirling pool of Essence.
“No!” Belladonna screamed at her when she saw what was happening. “You stay out of there! That’s mine. It’s mine!”
Addie ignored her and kept smiling as she closed her eyes. Everything around her slowed down, as if time were being stretched by a taffy machine. She saw Belladonna’s hand swiping at her as her eyes closed, and she easily bent her head back to avoid the grasping fingers. She heard the whispers starting to speak again as she came closer and closer to touching the surface of the Well. The whispers slowed down like everything else until they were just one long hush of static.
She felt her body moving a single centimeter every millennia, and in the countless gaps between seconds she had time to think back on her life.
There were memories of Kiera and Willow that played in her mind’s eye. Flashes from her childhood, and times that were more recent but just as important to their family. She saw Willow as a young girl, both of them running through the halls of Stonecrest playing tag, both of them cheating by using magic spells that were against the rules. She saw friends from her childhood, gone or forgotten or drifted away over the years. She saw Kiera grieving for their parents, their death so unexpected and so devastating to the three sisters, each in their own way.
She saw her parents, too. Her father, so strong and proud. Her mother, so softly pretty and patient and kind.
Lucian Knight was there in her memories as well. In this moment, she wished that she had told him yes. Yes, she would marry him. Yes, she would spend the rest of her life with him. Yes, yes, yes.
Her time on Earth was about to come to an end. Dropping her body into the Well of Essence, soaking it into her being, would keep the Well out of Belladonna’s hands, but it would leave her irrevocably changed. If it didn’t kill her, there still wouldn’t be anything left of who she used to be. She would never be able to be with Lucian. Never again.
This could be the moment of her death.
Other memories of her life came and went. Friends and family, mystery and mayhem, beautiful times that she cherished and horrible moments that she thought she had forgotten. It had never occurred to her how very, very full her life was.
There were a few images of Doyle tucked in there among the others, too. That had to be a trick her mind played on her as she was about to die. No way did the Old Man mean that much to her.
With a short, soft breath, Addie let time catch up to her. She dropped the rest of the way into the churning reservoir of Essence, and it swallowed her.
“Nooooo…!” she heard Belladonna calling after her.
Then there was silence, and dark.
For a time, Addie floated. She had no idea how long because once again, time had ceased to mean anything. She simply floated, with no up, and no down, and no sensation of anything except just existing.
Then pain came to her with a flash of searing bright light.
She was being hollowed out, entire parts of her being carved away by an unseen force until there was only the tiniest spark of Addie Kilorian left behind. She held onto that spark as hard as she could. She was being tossed and thrown about on waves of magic, empty, and alone. She had to remember who she was, or be torn apart.
In a rush, the Essence poured itself into her. It filled every inch of her, filling up the empty husk that she had become.
It was the most intense pain she had ever felt.
It was more pleasure than she had ever experienced in her whole life.
She felt like she was going to burst.
Above the surface of the Well, Belladonna Nightshade ranted.
Lightning sparked from her fingertips as she stomped back and forth, shouting curses in ancient languages that no one remembered. Her flowing black dress wrapped around her legs as she moved, swirling behind her as if she were dragging a piece of night itself with her.
The whispers chittered at her to stop, but she didn’t listen. Belladonna Nightshade never listened to anyone.
“Mine,” she started repeating to herself. “Mine, mine, mine, mine! The Well of Essence belongs to me! I will not be undone when I am this close! No. No, I will not. Mine. It’s mine! I know. I know what I’ll do. I’ll take that wretched girl out of the Well myself and wring every drop of Essence out of her dead body!”
The whispers told her to stop, but she wouldn’t listen.
Addie heard all of this, much to her surprise. If she could hear Belladonna, that meant she wasn’t dead.
She was alive.
When she opened her eyes, she saw the world for the first time.
Colors were sharper. The lines of the sideways stalactites on the walls stood out in crisp, clear relief as if they were entire worlds unto themselves. She could hear every atom in the rocks moving. Every wisp of air against her cheek was a lifetime of sensation. She could feel the celestial matter that comprised her body flowing on an atomic level. It was like being born all over again.
She rose up straight as a board with her toes on the stone blocks of the basin. The noise of her movement through the waters was a symphony in Addie’s ears. One foot at a time, she stepped out of the Well of Essence. Its surface was completely still now. The thick liquid laying within the stone blocks was just that. A thick, lifeless liquid. The Essence that had lived within it, now resided within Addie Kilorian.
What had she done?
She turned her gaze on Belladonna. The evil witch stood motionless, in shock at seeing her standing there alive, and more than alive. Addie felt every little muscle movement that turned up the corners of her lips in a smile.
Because now it was her turn to surprise Belladonna.
Water slid off Addie’s clothing and hair. Every drop that spattered against the rocky floor was a thunder of drums.
Belladonna screamed in anger and lifted her ha
nds at Addie, her pinkies crooked and her thumbs interlinked. A spiral of multicolored magic came streaking across the space between the two witches, aimed at Addie’s heart.
With a lazy swat of one arm, Addie brushed the magic aside. It struck the wall off to her right with enough force to turn several stalactites to rubble.
“Impossible,” Belladonna said with a gasp. “You don’t… you can’t possibly have the power to stop me. You’re nothing. Do you hear me? You’re nothing compared to me!”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Addie said to her. In her ears, her voice was loud and soft all at once, layered with undertones of pitch that she had never heard before. “I am everything that you are not. I use my magic to help people. I protect the people I care about. I know what it is to respect life… all life. I live. I care. I love.”
“You’re boring me,” Belladonna snarked. “Give me what is mine!”
Again, she thrust her hands out, forming her fingers into specific shapes to match the spell she was about to cast.
Addie struck first.
Flexing her index finger brought a weight of hardened air down on Belladonna’s head. Her eyes went wide, and then her eyelids fluttered closed. Her knees bent. Her legs gave out. She crumpled to the floor, unconscious.
Just like that, their fight was over.
It was almost anticlimactic. Then again, Addie hadn’t wanted a final fight to settle anything. That had been Belladonna’s wish, not Addie’s. She had only wanted to stop the threat this woman represented. She wanted to keep her from stealing the power of the Well of Essence.
That’s what she had done. Everything that this evil witch had done to them, every scheme she had hatched, all of it was over.
Well. Not exactly.
In her enhanced cognitive state, aided by the Essence flowing through her in a rush, Addie realized there were still a few things to take care of, so she wasn’t exactly done. It was getting harder to think of these things, because her thoughts kept expanding to the universe above her. She understood things. She knew things that no witch had ever known before.
