Son of a Witch

by K. J. Emrick

  An Irish temper mixed with the God-given talent for witchcraft. That was not a combination you crossed lightly.

  Her hand twitched, but she curled the fingers up tight to keep them still. She wasn’t going to lash out at him. That wasn’t her way, first of all. And this was Lucian. The guy she was dating. Every relationship went through a rocky patch here and there. Or, so she was told. Lucian was the first man she had been serious about in years, so she really didn’t have a lot of personal experience to draw from.

  He was already walking away when she got her head around that, and when she realized he was leaving her anger just melted away. It was gone, just like that, leaving behind a cold sort of weight in the pit of her stomach. Addie had disappointed him. She’d been trying to do the right thing—in fact, she had done the right thing—but it had only fueled whatever was going on between them.

  Curse her Irish eyes. Was this what a breakup felt like?

  Turning on her heel, she stalked to the end of the room, and the exit. She just wanted to get back to Stonecrest, fill her sisters in on Seth Hunter’s death, and then spend the rest of the evening getting to know Kiera’s son.

  Now that was a mystery all by itself.

  Out on the sidewalk in the cooling night air, she heard someone calling her name.

  “Addie! Excuse me, Addie!”

  Following on her heels, Selectman Mac McDougal came rushing down the steps of the town hall. Or at least, he was shuffling with great speed. The man always walked like his body wasn’t quite in tune with his mind. One leg took a long stride, and then the other took a stumbling step, and then one shoulder lurched forward. It was almost mesmerizing to watch. Addie had wondered for a long time what might be wrong with Mac. Lou Gehrigs’s disease, possibly. It just wasn’t something that you brought up in polite conversation. She figured if Mac ever wanted her to know, he’d tell her about it. Until then, his private life was his own.

  His struggling gait was one of the other reasons that he was often compared to Frankenstein’s monster. It didn’t help that he had his hair buzzed down short on his blockish head, or that there was a scar running over the scalp above his right ear, white and puckered. Addie couldn’t care less what he looked like, as long as he kept the best interests of the town in mind when doing his selectman job.

  She smiled at him, impatient to be getting home. “Hello Mac. I’m sure the selectmen all want to talk about what happened in there, but I was just on my way home.”

  It should have been Maria Stiles who came to talk to her about this, since she was First Selectman, but she was probably delegating tasks now so that she could get back to her husband.

  “What are,” he said, taking a breath between every few words, “the Kilorian sisters, going to do, about this?”

  “Mac, I’m on my way to talk to my sisters right now. We will look into Seth Hunter’s death. I promise.”

  “You sure you won’t, leave this to, your boyfriend the cop?”

  A little of the anger that she had experienced earlier fizzled up through her chest and turned into sparks in her brain that quickly burned out. She and Lucian were going to have a conversation, very soon. That was a matter for another time, however.

  “For one thing,” she said to him, “Lucian isn’t my boyfriend. We’ve been dating. That’s all. For another, the police will run their investigation whether we do anything or not. I can’t do anything about that. What I can do is make sure that this town is protected, and I will. We’ve never let you down before, right?”

  His smile was lopsided. “That’s all I, was asking.”

  He started to turn away, his shoulder jerking and his hips twisting. Addie wasn’t done with him, though.

  “Mac, since you came out here to talk to me, let me ask you something.”

  He turned his head to her, rather than take the effort to turn back around. “What?”

  “I was in the meeting hall before the debate started. You weren’t. I’d like to know where you were.”

  His murky gray eyes narrowed, one eyebrow lower than the other. “I don’t see, how that is, any of your concern.”

  “You asked me and my sisters to look into Seth Hunter’s death. Well, this is part of that. I need to know where everyone was, and what they were doing, and I need to know where you were, Mac.”

  Some shadow rippled over his features. His body went into motion again, and he turned away from her, taking the steps back to the front door of the town hall one at a time.

  Leaving the question unanswered.

  Chapter 3

  The ride back to Stonecrest didn’t take all that long. Their ancestral home was just outside of the town proper, still within the geographical boundary lines of Shadow Lake. The road that took people through the woods and around the lake itself brought her to the end of their long and winding driveway, and then she was home.

  She’d tried every radio station on the dial along the way, both FM and AM, and nothing at all had appealed to her. Every song was either too upbeat or too slow or too soaked in lovelorn tears to suit her mood. She’d tried an evangelical Christian preacher for a few minutes, but at some point he’d started talking about politicians and hinting that they might all just be the devil reincarnated, and Addie had already gotten her fill of politics this evening, thank you.

  Besides. She’d never met the Devil herself, but she knew for a fact that he did not live in Washington, D.C.

  That did remind her, about the father of Kiera’s son. Alan had found his way back to Kiera after all this time. Now she would get to have the reunion with him that she had dreamed about for so long and never thought was possible. Should they give the same opportunity to Alan’s father… even knowing what he was?

  Parking her Jeep Cherokee up next to the house, she tabled that question along with the dozen or so others she was mulling over at the moment. She planned on bringing up that subject of Alan’s father to Kiera tonight, but ultimately it wasn’t her decision to make. It was Kiera’s.

  She left her car out in the driveway, where she normally parked it, and looked up at the stone walls of the place she called home. It was an imposing structure, an old Victorian style home, with impressive architecture of brick and stone and detailed wood molding. It was three stories high, with a square tower at the front right corner that went up one level higher under a peaked, conical roof.

  The first house put on this spot had been burnt down by the great, great, and so forth grandfather of the sisters, Angus Kilorian. Something about a wolf spider and a blowtorch. This version of the house was nicer, so no one was really complaining.

  Besides, the true beauty of this place, the true power, came from the land where it sat. There were several locations around the world where wellsprings of power could be found. Wells of Essence. Stonecrest sat atop one of those. Thanks to the magical shield barrier they had put in place all around their property, no big baddies waiting out there in the world could find it. Nothing and no one of magical ability could get this close to Stonecrest. Not without being invited in by someone who lived here.

  Inside the front doors, Addie stopped and listened. She could always feel the presence of her sisters when she concentrated, so finding Kiera in the maze of hallways and rooms wasn’t hard. She was right where Kyle had said, in the living room. She could sense her sister’s excitement. Kiera’s happy emotions were practically pouring out of her in waves.

  On a decorative table in the hallway, Addie found a note from Kyle.

  Window fixed. Message delivered. Call me if you need anything else.

  He was already gone, apparently. He never did stick around for very long. It was just his way of doing things. In and out and gone again. Well at least he delivered the message before he left.

  Behind her, she sensed movement.

  Two slitted eyes opened in the shadows.

  Addie carefully crumpled the note up into a little ball in her hand, and without looking, she threw it over her shoulder.

  From w
here he’d been hiding in the corner Doyle pounced, smacking the little paper ball to the floor with both paws, then batting it back and forth up the hallway, and back again, with his tail whipping wildly and a gleam in his copper-colored eyes.

  When he found himself in front of Addie, he stopped, and looked up at her, and his whiskers drooped.

  “How did you know I was there?”

  “I heard you. You’re not as stealthy as you think you are, Old Man.”

  His fur ruffled. “I am exactly as stealthy as I think I am, thank you. I just… had a hairball in my throat. That’s all.”

  “Uh-huh.” She smiled down at him fondly. “You are a big bad hunter, Doyle, and I wouldn’t want to cross you in any dark alleys.”

  “That’s right you wouldn’t.” He sat up straighter, obviously pleased with the compliment. “What took you so long? I had to fend for my own self when it came to dinner. Dry cat food is hardly a delicacy.”

  “Sorry, Old Man. There was trouble at the town hall.”

  “What sort of trouble?” he asked suspiciously.

  “The Kilorian sister kind. Seth Hunter was murdered.”

  If it was possible for a cat to roll his eyes, that was what Doyle did. “Humans and their ways. You don’t see cats killing each other for the cheese, now do you?”

  He had a point there. “Well. Maybe that’s because cats don’t have opposable thumbs.”

  “Ha, ha,” he growled. “You’re a gas, you are. Why aren’t you in the living room with Kiera and the new guy?”

  “You mean her son?” she asked drily.

  “Right, right. The new guy. I’m guessing he’ll be staying here with us?”

  Addie hadn’t thought about that. “Uh, probably. I mean, I don’t really know the circumstances, or where he’s coming from or going to or anything at all, I guess. So why aren’t you in there with them, getting all the gossip?”

  He shook his head, a cat’s way of showing annoyance. “Your sister asked me to leave. She didn’t want to spook the new guy… er, her son, with a talking cat. At least not until she’d worked her way up to explaining about the witchcraft and such.”

  She had to admit, that made sense. Kiera was already in for a long conversation trying to explain why she gave Alan up at birth in the first place. Add in the fact that Alan’s newfound family were a coven of witches, and… yeah. The part about how the cats of Stonecrest could talk was going to have to wait.

  “But she only kicked you out?” she asked Doyle. “Just you? What about Domovyk?”

  Doyle sniffed. “Dom seems to have disappeared. He’s more worried about this new guy being in our house than I am.”

  “I told you, he’s not a ‘new guy.’ He’s Kiera’s son.”

  “Hmph. How’s it that I never knew about this son of hers?”

  “None of us did. Not until recently. His name is Alan and she gave him up for adoption right after he was born. She’s regretted it every day since. Doyle, it was her secret to keep.”

  “Then why is it whenever I keep a secret you act like I’ve done a bad thing?”

  She scooped him up in her arms, holding him tight and scratching him between his ears. “That’s because when you have a secret, it usually involves burying a mouse somewhere. Or sneaking cookies from the pantry.”

  “Only because you hide them there!”

  “Chocolate isn’t good for cats, Doyle.”

  “Mrreow. So you say.” He pushed his way out of her arms and dropped to the floor. “I’m going to go find Dom. You should maybe check on your sister before she gives this son of hers the bloody keys to the kingdom, so to speak.”

  Then he was gone, batting the crumpled note between his paws down along the hall and into one of the many rooms that would connect to another room, and so on. That scrap of paper didn’t stand a chance.

  He was right about one thing, of course. She should be in with Kiera and Alan. There was so much to say between everyone. So many questions to be answered.

  The living room was a spacious area full of comfy furniture like suede couches and overstuffed loveseats. Red curtains on the windows were drawn now against the night, and the stanchion lights cast a warm glow over the coffee tables and the bookcases and the glass-fronted curio cabinets with their china plates and snow globes and ceramic dragons. Addie had always enjoyed spending time in this room, reading or just relaxing. In the Kilorian family, the living room was usually a quiet place.

  Today, it was full of sound and laughter.

  Kiera was sitting on one of the couches, with Alan right next to her. She was actually laughing, holding one hand gently over her mouth as her eyes danced with humor.

  Alan was a good looking young man, Addie had to say. He was about the same age as she was, tall and slender. There was even a passing family resemblance with that curly auburn hair of his, and the line of his jaw. Those piercing blue eyes were just a shade lighter than Kiera’s, and they didn’t have lines of jade mixed in with them like his Kiera’s did, but there was no doubt that he was his mother’s son.

  His jeans looked brand new, off the rack. That blue V-neck sweater didn’t look like the sort of thing he was usually comfortable in. He kept tugging at the cuffs, and at the neckline.

  There were cuts and scrapes on his face. A faint bruise on his cheek that had almost healed now. The car wreck he’d been in had left him pretty banged up. Watching the scene of this happy reunion, Addie found herself wondering where he’d been all this time. What had he gone through, and what had brought him here to them?

  “Oh, there you are!” Kiera held out her hand in Addie’s direction, wiggling her fingers. “Come, please. Meet my son. Alan, this is my sister, Adair Kilorian. Oh, my, I suppose that makes her your aunt.”

  Addie grimaced at the thought. Kiera had given birth to her son at such an early age and now there was hardly a year or two between her and Alan. Whenever she had imagined herself as someone’s aunt, she had always pictured herself to be much much older, and the nephew in the image was always a baby she could hold in her arms. There was no holding Alan in her arms.

  Um. Now that she’d said that in her mind it just sounded weird.

  He stood up from the couch, and held his hand out to her, an uncertain smile tugging at the bruises on his face. “Hi, Adair. Don’t worry, this is weird for me, too. I came to Shadow Lake to look for my mother. I didn’t know what I was going to find when I got here but I sure wasn’t expecting to get an entire family in the bargain.”

  “Call me Addie,” she told him. “Like you said, we’re family.”

  “Family.” He seemed to be trying the word out on his lips for the first time. “It’s hard for me to believe I’m here. This house is amazing. Are you… I mean, are you guys wealthy or something?”

  Kiera laughed again. “Hardly, Alan. We have what we need, but we’re hardly rich. Addie owns and operates a restaurant, for instance.”

  “I think I saw that place when I was walking around town. The Hot Cauldron, right?”

  “Yes,” Addie said with pride. “That’s my place. So, you were walking around town before you came here?”

  Kiera shot her a look that said, let it go. Alan just nodded, with the look of someone who had wandered into a minefield and is trying to be careful where they step. He turned to his mother again. “What about you, Kiera? What is it that you do?”

  She took a moment before answering, sitting back on the couch, and fussing with her skirts. “I have a monthly stipend from the family estate. It’s enough to live on.”

  Addie knew why Kiera was acting a bit nervous. She had yet to tell Alan about who his father was. Obviously, Kiera was working up to that part. After she explained the bit where they were witches, of course.

  “So then,” Alan asked, right on top of Addie’s thoughts, “what do you guys do here?”

  Addie held her breath. Kiera had an answer ready.

  “We’re important to this town,” she said. “That’s enough for anyone to aspire to.�
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  He nodded, a bemused expression on his face. “I see. At least, I think I do.”

  “Speaking of that,” Addie said. “Kiera, you and I need to talk about something that happened in town tonight.”

  “I know, Sister Addie. It can wait.”

  That took Addie by surprise. Kiera was always the first one to jump into the things that happened in town. She could be forgiven for wanting to wait a bit this time, considering what was going on, but still the needs of the town always came first for them. It was just the way things were.

  Until now, she added silently. Things were going to be different now.

  A silence fell between them. Apparently, Kiera and Alan had exhausted everything they wanted to say. In spite of Kiera’s silent warning earlier, Addie took the opportunity to ask what was on her mind.

  “Alan, where have you been? We got word, um, from the police that you were in a car accident?”

  “Addie!” Kiera snapped. “He just got here. My son is back with me. He doesn’t need to be pressured with questions like this is some interrogation.”

  “I’m just asking,” Addie said defensively. She hoped that she had covered up her little stumble over how they knew what had happened to him quickly enough. The accident hadn’t been reported to them by the police. Lucian had confirmed it happened, sure, but the sisters had actually seen it while scrying in the Family Circle upstairs in Stonecrest’s tower. They’d seen it with their magic.

  And as far as Addie was concerned, that should have been the first thing they asked Alan. As soon as he entered the door they should have pinned him down on what happened to him. Considering the sisters had spent an entire week searching for Alan with their magic without finding even a trace of him, that particular question seemed more than just relevant.

  “It’s all right, Kiera,” Alan told his mother. “I don’t mind her asking. Shoot, I think I’d ask the same thing myself if the roles were reversed. Seriously, I don’t mind.”