Careful What You Witch For

by K. J. Emrick

  It was all pretty much the same thing, on one level or another. Good was good. Evil was evil. A witch could use the power of either source to do a lot of the same things. The difference was that good magic brought you closer to the world and the living things that inhabited it.

  Evil magic drove you further away from the life force that flowed through everything. It isolated you, and in the end, it could drive you crazy. It was a long, slow descent into madness.

  Plus, good magic just smelled sweeter.

  Addie caught a whiff of spun sugar, and that was when she knew the spell was working.

  Breathing deeply, she inhaled the aromas of living things. She sorted them out, one at a time, while her sisters did the same. Even Doyle and Domovyk were sniffing at the air around them now, their eyes open wider and their whiskers twitching.

  Only Lucian was unaffected, leaning up against the door. There was so much that he would never be able to experience with her world. She knew that was true, and it made her wonder if they would ever truly be right for each other. Was it worth finding out?

  She cleared those thoughts from her mind. She couldn’t be thinking about men right now. Not even the cute one in the dress slacks that framed his tight butt so nicely…

  Stop it, she scolded herself. Focus. Breathe in, breathe out. Thread your own life force into the Essence that stirred through everything around you. Breathe in. Breathe out.

  Then the smells changed.

  The tang of blood wafted up from the spot on the floor. Addie separated that out, set it aside, and kept searching. That was Rosemary’s blood. It wasn’t going to help her find Eugene. This was the room where Eugene had been staying. Of all the rooms in the lodge he would have spent the most time right here. If there were still traces of his Essence anywhere it should be strongest here.

  Another smell reached her. Like dirt and salt and the color purple all mixed together. That was the wonderful thing about magic. Sometimes smells actually did have a color.

  She closed her eyes, and lifted her hands still holding onto Willow’s and Kiera’s. Deep breath. Another. Exhale, breathe in. Exhale, breathe in.

  Open your eyes.

  When she did, she saw a trail of purple and gray and white twisting, shaping, spreading through the air. She didn’t really see it, she supposed, because it wasn’t exactly visible to the human eye. More like she was sensing it with her magic. It was there, and as she watched it formed itself into a shifting line through the air in front of her, leading slowly across the room, right through the door, right into the hallway. That was where she lost track of it.

  Even with her magic, she couldn’t see through walls.

  “Lucian,” she said to him, her voice a droning buzz in her ears, “open the door.”

  He looked at her in confusion for a moment, but then did as she asked. There was the trail again, leading around the corner and into the hallway, to the right. Toward the stairs.

  “Well done, Sister Addie,” Kiera told her. “Now. Let’s go find him.”

  “What’s going on?” Lucian asked them. “What do you see?”

  “Shh,” Willow hissed at him. “Don’t break her concentration. She found Eugene’s trail. We’re going to follow it.”

  “His trail?”

  “Yes, Detective Goodnight. These are the last steps Eugene took in this place. Now shut up and let her work.”

  He looked down at the rug, expecting to see actual footprints or something like that. Then he realized how silly he must look to them and stepped back, holding the door open for Addie.

  This was a witch thing, after all.

  She nodded to him, and started forward, tracing the line of color and thought and magic. It dissipated as she got closer, spreading apart into a cloud that sparkled and sizzled against her skin without a sound.

  It hurt, a little.

  She sucked in a breath, and kept going. This was the part of the spell that would be difficult on her, having to soak up the trail of the lost man. If she tried to go around it, she would break the spell. If she tried to disperse the wave of magical particles before it could touch her she would lose the trail altogether. She had to be the anchor for the spell or the whole thing would fall apart. It was the only way, but it meant that whatever unclean taint the magic had stirred up from the life of Eugene Forrester, it was now being absorbed directly into her own life force.

  On the trail of a murderer, she was exposing herself to everything the killer thought, everything he felt. Everything.

  She cringed to think of it. The last time she had done this, she’d felt dizzy for a week, and that time it had only been a lost man with dementia. There were stories of witches who had done this spell to find someone and come out the other side… changed. A little less themselves and a little more the person that they had been tracking. She could only pray that wouldn’t happen to her in this case.

  Behind them, she heard Doyle and Domovyk jump off the beds and land with muffled thumps on the rug. They were going to follow too, apparently, wherever this led.

  The ethereal path of colored magic brought them back to the stairs and down to the common room. Everyone turned to watch them descending, questions already starting to fly.

  “Keep them back,” Addie told Lucian through gritted teeth. She could feel tiny beads of perspiration at the back of her neck. This was already starting to put a strain on her body. If anyone came over here and walked through the line she was following they might disrupt it completely. Then she would have to start all over again.

  She was definitely not looking forward to that.

  “Keep everyone on the couches,” Lucian told his two officers. “We’ll, uh, let everyone know if we find anything.”

  He didn’t sound too certain of that, but Addie couldn’t blame him. He couldn’t see the hazy purple-white-brown trail she was following. He was trusting her that she knew what she was doing.

  The darkly colored streamers kept going, and kept fizzing against her skin as she got closer, seeping into the deepest parts of her soul, and now she could see where the strands of the magic spell were leading her.

  Right out the back door.

  She frowned, turning to her sisters to make sure they were seeing the same thing. They obviously were, and they were as confused as she was about the direction this was going.

  She looked at Lucian, too, and he gave her a little smile of encouragement. It was all she needed to keep going.

  “Addie,” Willow asked her, “do you get the sense that Eugene was running?”

  “No, I don’t.” That had occurred to her, too. The magic unfolded in front of her at a very slow pace, like Eugene was in no rush at all when he had come this way. Like he was just walking along without a care in the world.

  Odd, for a man who had killed his best friend.

  The colored tendrils came together in a path that led them forward, out the back door. They followed it faithfully, step by step, limited to wherever it took them. Hopefully Eugene hadn’t taken a leisurely stroll all around the lodge when he left his room, or gone for a swim in the lake. Addie was not looking forward to getting soaked while she followed magic that only extended a few feet at a time.

  In her chest, she felt the hammering of her heart. If this went on for too much longer she’d need to take a break or she might do irreparable damage to herself. The strain on her body might even possibly result in a heart attack. They needed to finish this soon.

  The backyard looked different in the daylight. Brighter, and more cheerful. The purplish magic wound its way across the paving stones and the carefully mown grass and the autumn leaves blown off the trees, stopping to hover over the Adirondack chair where Danny had been found dead. It collected on itself there until there was a great ball of energy slowly spinning

  “This is where it’s bringing us?” Willow asked incredulously. “We did all of that to end up at the place where the murder happened? I didn’t need a spell to get here!”

  Doyle made a nois
e deep in his throat and curled his tail around his feet. “Drama queen.”

  “What did you say to me, cat?” Willow demanded.

  “He said,” Domovyk purred, “that you are drama queen.”

  Willow put her hands on her hips and glared down at the big black cat. “I heard him!”

  Domovyk blinked back at her. “Then why did you ask?”

  Lucian rubbed a hand over his forehead. “I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to cats talking to me.”

  “Was not talking to you,” the big black cat said with deadpan seriousness.

  “Thankfully,” Kiera told him, “most cats can’t talk.”

  Addie was only listening to them with half an ear. She was watching the energy of her spell. It rotated around on itself one more time, and then unraveled into a line of flowing energy again, roaming out across the furthest part of the yard.

  To the trees.

  “Come on,” she said to everyone. “The trail isn’t done yet.”

  Willow followed the line of it with her eyes. “The woods? He’s in the woods?”

  “Let’s hope so,” Kiera said. “Otherwise this could turn into a very long walk. There’s a lot of ground between here and town.”

  Addie was very aware of the distance, and even more aware that it was getting longer with each step she took. The haze filtered into her, through her, and as it did it left her feeling darker. The scent on the air turned acrid. The edges of her vision narrowed and sparkled with dark specks.

  This was hurting her. Her body was now under extreme duress. But it was the only way.

  They continued on, deep into the trees, as the streak of color and smoke and magic drifted this way and that way to slip between birch trees and pine trees, moving deeper and deeper.

  Until they were out of sight of the lodge.

  It went further still, and then further, before it drifted toward the ground, and into the dirt.

  The last of it seeped into the soil and disappeared. The smell of it, the sensation and the colors, went with it.

  Addie took a deep breath, and it finally tasted clean against her tongue. The spell was over. It had led them here, to this patch of newly turned ground among the trees.

  None of them spoke.

  Silently, Doyle padded forward, and began scratching at the ground. Pretty quickly he had a hole started, and still he pawed at it.

  Lucian came over to stand next to Addie. “What’s he doing?”

  “Digging,” she answered.

  “What for? I thought we were out here to find Eugene.”

  “We are,” Addie told him.

  “We have,” Willow said at almost the same time.

  Lucian’s face went white. “Oh,” he said.

  Domovyk padded silently over to stand shoulder to shoulder with Doyle, digging with his big black paws, both cats working together until they had dug through the bare few inches of dirt laying over the person they had come to find.

  Addie had never seen Eugene Forrester before, but when she saw the face of the dead man in his shallow grave, there could be no doubt that this was him.

  The spell had worked, and she’d been right in her guess. When they had searched the lodge yesterday with their magic they hadn’t found him. At first, they thought it was because Eugene had run away.

  Instead, the reason they hadn’t found any trace of him was because they had been looking for living people, and Eugene had already been dead.

  Now they had two victims.

  Their murder mystery had just gotten more complicated.

  Chapter 11

  “So you were right.”

  Willow’s compliment was a pleasant surprise. Addie knew the can of worms this opened up for everyone, and it certainly meant that Willow wouldn’t be getting back to Gary anytime soon. Instead of one murder, they had two, and even if Eugene had killed Danny… one of the remaining suspects had killed Eugene. The man certainly hadn’t buried himself.

  This was what she and Kiera had figured out. Before they went back to the lodge, Addie had already known that Eugene was dead. It was an absolute certainty. The only reason they couldn’t find a living Eugene with their magic, no matter how hard they tried, was because Eugene was no longer living.

  Dead was dead. The spell to find the dead took a lot out of a girl. Which was why she was on her second cheeseburger and plate of fries. She was starving.

  So. They could still be sure that Eugene killed Danny, based on what Rosemary had told them. It was even possible that he had killed Christine’s aunt like she suspected him of doing. Two murders on Eugene’s head.

  But who killed Eugene? There were only three suspects left.

  Dahlia.

  Christine.

  Rosemary.

  One of them was a murderer.

  For a brief moment on the drive from Pendulum Lodge back into town, Addie had considered not-Eileen as a fourth suspect. It was impossible, though. The timeframe didn’t fit. Eugene killed Danny. Dahlia and Christine saw him running away from the body, and then they heard not-Eileen screaming. They rushed outside to find Danny dead, and Eileen in tears. After that there was no time for her to kill Eugene.

  Plus, not-Eileen was a very slim woman. Eugene was a large man. How would she have the strength to kill him?

  No. After Eugene killed Danny, he came back into the lodge, and had his fight with Rosemary. Based on what she told them, one of the other three women at the lodge must have killed him after Danny’s death.

  All three of them were being questioned by the police right now. Addie and her sisters had left them to it, and then Willow had driven them back into town, to the Hot Cauldron Café. Addie was famished after working that spell to find Eugene’s body. She needed something to drink as well, to wash away the aftertaste that the purplish haze had left behind on her senses.

  One of the perks of owning a café was that you got your meals for free. Addie thought that after this second burger, she was going to have some of that rhubarb pie that she’d made yesterday. That, and another glass of orange juice. This was her fourth glass already. Maybe fifth. She’d lost count.

  Darla was fast at work taking care of the other customers. She swept through the tables around the room, full of energy despite how early they all knew she’d shown up to work. There were about ten other people in the Hot Cauldron at the moment. That was a pretty good afternoon crowd, and Darla was handling them all.

  She whistled as she worked, casting lots of smiles toward Addie the whole time. Addie had offered to help, but Darla had insisted that she sit down and recuperate. That was her exact word. It was obvious, she said, that Addie had overworked herself this morning.

  Addie hadn’t been aware that the strain of the magic showed on her face that much, but it must. Truthfully, she was just as happy to sit and sip her orange juice. She was going to have to remember to thank Darla later.

  “What do you think?” Willow asked her sisters. “Eugene had to be killed by one of those three, but which one?”

  “Rosemary was attacked by Eugene,” Addie said, taking another bite of cheeseburger. “We found her on the floor, bleeding, all because she confronted Eugene about being Danny’s killer.”

  “I remember what she said,” Willow said snottily. She looked offended, like Addie had been trying to imply she was too dumb to understand without her explaining it. “So, fine. Rosemary’s off the suspect list. That leaves Christine, and Dahlia. Personally I don’t trust that Dahlia woman.”

  “Hmm,” Kiera said. “You dislike her because she’s a private detective.”

  Willow snorted loud enough that people around them turned to look. “As if. Just because you get paid to follow someone around doesn’t mean you’re any kind of detective. That’s just Typics, trying to feel important when they aren’t.”

  Addie levelled a glance at her, but she didn’t bother pointing out how racist that statement was. Not this time. She was too tired to have that argument all over again.

  The ques
tion now, was which of their two remaining suspects was Eugene’s killer?

  She drank more of her juice, thinking back to everything she had heard in the lodge this morning and yesterday. Christine had talked about wanting to prove Eugene was a killer. She’d told Dahlia that they’d accomplished exactly that, and promised to pay her for it. The way she talked about it made it seem like an obsession. Making Eugene pay for the death of her aunt had been her entire life’s focus for a very long time.

  So. Did she kill Eugene and then bury him?

  For that matter, did Dahlia help her? Was that part of what she was getting paid for?

  She took another drink from the glass of orange juice. “I think we need to talk to not-Eileen. She’s still in jail up in Birch Hollow. I’m sure Lucian will help us out.”

  “Yes,” Willow smirked. “I’m sure he would, if you bat those pretty green eyes of yours. Love opens all sorts of doors.”

  “He’s done everything we asked so far,” Addie pointed out, drinking down the rest of the juice. “You should maybe cut him some slack, don’t you think?”

  “Hey, he’s your boyfriend. You give him some slack if you want to.”

  “He’s not my boyfriend. Look, I’m just saying—”

  She stopped, looking down into her empty glass.

  “I know you’re just saying,” Willow mocked her. “It seems to me that you’re always talking and we’re always listening. I might be your younger sister but that doesn’t mean I’m stupid.”

  “Willow, I didn’t say that.” There was something on the inside of the glass, and as she stared down at it she had trouble giving her attention to Willow and her ridiculous insecurities.

  There was something at the bottom of the glass.

  “Are you even listening to me?” Willow angrily asked her.

  “No… I mean, yes I am, but there’s something…”

  Something in the glass.

  No, not in the glass.

  Under it.

  Carefully, Addie lifted it up until she could look under the bottom. Lines had been scratched into the glass. Circles. A big one, and two small ones, and one half circle in the middle.