Son of a Witch

by K. J. Emrick

  Addie knelt beside her now, putting a hand on her shoulder. “There’s no reason why you can’t still have that.”

  “Really? I don’t see how you can say that when my son is lying unconscious on our floor along with every single book we own. Did you see him reading through the book on phases of the moon and a woman’s sexuality? That alone will be worth a few months in therapy!”

  “It was going to happen sooner or later,” Addie pointed out. When Kiera gaped at her, she explained, “Not the women’s sexuality thing! Him seeing magic, I mean. If it wasn’t the books flying off the shelves, then it would be me or Willow or even you casting a spell when we thought he wasn’t looking. You were going to have to explain it all to him sometime. This just allows you to get to that point faster.”

  Kiera looked unconvinced. “So what should we do now?”

  “Well, we’d better get him into one of the guest bedrooms. He should sleep right through until tomorrow morning. Um. Maybe the afternoon.”

  “Fantastic. And when he wakes up? What then?”

  “Then,” Addie said, “I would suggest telling him the whole truth. He obviously has a strong Life Essence all his own, and it’s being amplified now that he’s here at Stonecrest. It might be untrained and rough, but it’s definitely there. Gets that from his mother, no doubt.”

  That helped make her sister feel a little better. “I wasn’t expecting him to have the same powers that we do.” She sighed, and stood up, still not able to take her eyes away from Alan. “I suppose you’re right. I’ll tell him about us when he wakes up. If he’s going to be part of this family, then he deserves to know. And then, as they say, we’ll let the chips fall where they may.”

  “Did someone say chips?” they heard Doyle say as he padded into the room, his tail in the air and his nose sniffing for the promised food.

  “Not those kinds of chips,” Addie told him. “Aren’t you supposed to be staying out of this room so Alan doesn’t see and hear the talking cat?”

  “Doesn’t look like he’s seeing or hearing much of anything just now.” He managed to look insulted as he said it. “May I remind you that I am the guiding wisdom of this family. I should ought to be celebrated, and paraded in front of every guest to this home. Not banished to the kitchen.”

  “Where you’ve probably eaten your weight in tuna treats by now.” Addie folded her arms, meeting him stare for stare.

  Doyle looked away first. “They were there, and I was hungry. Why is the new guy lying on the floor? He better not be on my cat bed!”

  “He’s not the new guy. I already told you this. He’s Kiera’s son, and he’s not using your cat bed. We’re going to move him to one of the bedrooms upstairs.”

  Twisting his head sideways, Doyle regarded the sleeping man. “And just how do you think you’ll be doing that, then? He must weigh as much as a leprechaun’s pot of gold.”

  “That’s why God invented levitation spells,” Addie explained.

  “Mrowl… I’m not so sure that God invented that one.”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “Well, then get on with it. I’m racked.”

  “You’re always tired, Doyle. The cats in this family sleep more than the dead. You can wait a few minutes while we take care of Alan. Speaking of that, have you seen Domovyk yet?”

  He shifted from paw to paw, the cat equivalent of a shrug. “Said something about going out on business. Didn’t say where.”

  “And of course, you didn’t ask.”

  “Nope. He comes and goes as he pleases, same as me.”

  None of that actually answered her question, but Addie put it aside and concentrated on weaving a spell with Kiera that would basically float Alan through the air and up the stairs. Then they had to find Willow and get her home, so the three of them could use the Family Circle to investigate the mystery of Seth Hunter’s death. Who would want to kill him? Everyone liked Seth. Well, almost everyone. Not Cavallo Raithmore. Maybe not other people, too. Everyone had someone who wanted them dead, she supposed.

  They would just have to see what they could find out, together. First things first. They were moving Alan’s body into the hallway, floating him three feet off the floor, and they needed to concentrate. Turning the corner was tricky, but they managed it, and then they were heading for the stairs.

  Which was when someone knocked on the door.

  “Go ahead,” Kiera told Addie. “I can manage putting my son to bed.”

  She smiled suddenly as she said it. A mother, taking care of her son. It seemed like Kiera would have her chance to do just that after all, even if she did have to wait more than twenty years for it to happen.

  Doyle had gone off to his nap, and once Kiera had her and Alan out of sight that left Addie by herself to face the knocking at the door.

  It wasn’t very often that they had guests up here at Stonecrest. People called when they needed something. The selectmen had started sending Constable Bledsoe to get them if there was trouble. She doubted any of their very close friends would be coming to visit at this time of night.

  She looked through the peephole in the heavy wooden door.

  Bright light blinded her.

  Quickly stepping back, she rubbed at her eye with the heel of her hand, trying to blink away the afterimage of a face surrounded by a bright ring of light.

  Not a ring. A halo.

  Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no. Curse her Irish eyes!

  The only beings who emanated with that kind of brilliant Life Essence… were angels. There was a reason why they were described in the Bible with beams of light radiating from them. It was that description that had inspired the Renaissance masters to paint angels with brilliant, shining circles around their heads.

  There was an angel on their doorstep.

  There was only one angel Addie could think of who would be visiting the Kilorian sisters. Alan’s father.

  On a scale of one to ten, one being the sort of bad luck you had when you misplaced your keys and ten being accidentally dropped into a boiling vat of quicksand, Alan’s father on their doorstep was an eleven.

  Swallowing against a throat that had gone dry as dust, Addie opened the door. The light faded, and as it did it revealed a man in a suitcoat and matching slacks, with a silk purple shirt with the top three buttons undone. His skin was the color of caramel and his hair was more gold than blonde. If she didn’t know who he really was, where he was really from, she might have mistaken him for a native of some tropical island. He had intense blue eyes, and they reminded her of Alan’s, and they also reminded her of a photograph Kiera had shown her once.

  Here stood Alan’s father, in the flesh.

  So to speak.

  “Hello,” he said in a bright, clear voice. “My name is Mephistopheles Smith. I’m looking for Kiera Kilorian.”

  Addie was sure she heard that wrong. “Mephistopheles?”

  “Yes. Mephistopheles Smith.”

  She blinked at him. “Mephistopheles… Smith.”

  Rather than being insulted by her repeated question, he smiled more broadly. “Tell you what. Call me Philly. That’s what my friends call me.”

  Now she knew she had to be hearing him wrong. “Philly Smith.”

  “Look, Miss,” he chuckled, “we can stand here and repeat my name for the rest of the evening or you can tell me if the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known is home?”

  “You mean Kiera?”

  There was just as much disbelief in her voice over Kiera being called ‘the most beautiful woman’ anyone had ever known, as there had been for a fallen angel named Mephistopheles Smith.

  “Well. At least we’re repeating other people’s names now. Yes. I mean Kiera. I’m guessing she would be expecting me. I’m—”

  “You’re Alan’s father,” Addie said before he could finish.

  His face seemed to light up brighter. If that was even possible. “Ah. Then I see I was right. Our little spark has returned home.”

  Addie kep
t her expression bland through a supreme effort of will. Their “little spark” was upstairs, but how did he know that? “Yes, he’s here. Kiera will be down in a moment and I’ll let the two of you talk about whether she wants you to see him.”

  He raised a perfectly curved eyebrow. “Oh, really?”

  Inside, Addie was a quivering mess of jelly. Her mind was racing through a dozen different spells, keeping them ready just in case she needed them. This wasn’t just an angel showing up on her doorstep. This was one of the Fallen. One of the angels who, for whatever reason, had been thrown out of Heaven to live their days in the Down Below. Earth, or Hell, depending on the circumstances.

  Sometimes those two places might seem like the same thing, but they weren’t.

  “Listen,” she said, forcing her voice to sound confident even if she was silently quaking in the face of this celestial being. “Alan is your son, but he’s Kiera’s son, too. Whatever the two of you decide is fine but it has to be decided between the two of you. I’m not getting in the middle of it.”

  “It looks to me,” he said, his smile turning stiff, “that you’re standing exactly in the middle of things. Right between me…”

  He took a step closer.

  “…and my son.”

  Addie didn’t step away. She wanted to, but she didn’t. When he was this close it was hard not to feel his Essence pushing, sliding, shoving up against her own. He was incredibly good looking too, and that didn’t help her focus on the fact that he was here to see Kiera’s son and she didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing or if she was supposed to curtsy in the presence of angels or if he was going to speak a word and stop her beating heart.

  “He’s sleeping,” she blurted out instead. “Alan’s asleep. You should come back later when he’s awake. You know. So you can meet him when he’s awake.”

  That eyebrow went up again. “Do you plan on standing there until I leave, then?”

  “I do.” Did her voice just squeak? It might have just squeaked. She cleared her throat, and tried again. “Yes. I do.”

  “Really? Tell me, why would you do that?”

  “Because you’re dangerous,” she said frankly. “That’s why.”

  Amusement flickered in those liquid blue eyes. “Well, then I’m eternally grateful to you for even letting me through the front door.”

  She curled one corner of her lip. Curse her Irish Eyes, but he was charming. “It wasn’t like I could keep you out if you wanted in. Not with just a locked door.”

  He flipped a hand through the air. “It’s not like I’m the type of guy to break into a house.”

  “Aren’t you one of the Fallen? You know, the dark angels?”

  He considered that. “Hmm. Good point. We do have a reputation of taking whatever we want, don’t we?”

  Addie tensed. “Yes. You do.”

  “So tell me this, Miss… I’m sorry, what is your name?”

  “Adair,” she said, intentionally omitting how her friends called her Addie. She wasn’t among friends right now.

  “Miss Adair Kilorian.” He tasted her name in his mouth, and Addie felt a shiver run up her spine as if he were tasting her soul. “Well, well. Now we know each other. So, tell me this, Adair. If I’m such a big, bad fallen angel, so powerful that no power on Earth can stand against me, how will you stop me if I decide to just brush right by you and find Kiera myself?”

  She stared back at him, the muscles along her shoulders tight like coiled springs. She knew the answer to that question.

  Mephistopheles chuckled, and this time it was a dark sound. “That’s what I thought.”

  He took another step.

  And Addie unleashed the spell she had been holding back, throwing her arms forward and hurling a burst of magic at the fallen angel twined with a flood of her Life Essence.

  The spell poured out of her faster than thought. There was just a split second for her to see the look of total, complete surprise on his face before he disappeared. Then he was gone.

  Addie sagged against the wall. That had been a close one. If she hadn’t prepared that spell in her mind, and kept it ready on her tongue…

  Well, she didn’t like to think about what he would have done.

  Maybe nothing, she tried to argue with herself. Kiera had been in love with him once upon a time. She must have seen something in Mephistopheles—Philly—if she had let herself get that close to him. That physically, intimately close. For her sister to love him, there had to be something redeemable in him, no matter how small. Addie truly believed that.

  So, maybe he wouldn’t have done anything to her.

  Then again, maybe he would have blinded her where she stood, or turned her to stone with a look.

  She’d heard stories of fallen angels that had set her teeth on edge. She had no problem with the fact that she’d struck first. Yup. Her and Han Solo. Sorry for the mess—

  “Who was it at the door?”

  Kiera’s sudden appearance behind Addie took her by surprise. She flinched, her nerves still tightly wound from her encounter with Alan’s father.

  “Sorry,” Kiera said to her, “I didn’t mean to startle you. I was just wondering who was at the door.”

  “Oh. Um. Well… that was actually your Ex.”

  Kiera’s expression froze in place. “My Ex? You mean… Alan’s father?”

  “Yes, him. Mephistopheles. Although I suppose he prefers to be called Philly, apparently.”

  “Philly.” The name whispered across Kiera’s lips in a deeply familiar way. “Always the charmer, that man. Well. I suppose I couldn’t keep Alan’s presence here a secret forever. Let’s get this over with so we can get back to Seth Hunter’s murder. Where is he now? Waiting in the kitchen, or somewhere?”

  Addie shifted her feet. “I, um, actually may have banished him.”

  * * *

  Kiera’s expression, at any other moment but this one, would have been hilarious.

  In this context, it was anything but funny.

  “You what?” she demanded, her voice rising in pitch.

  “I banished him,” Addie repeated. “Well, just from Stonecrest. And the grounds. Um, and maybe from a three hundred foot radius around the grounds. That was all though.”

  “You don’t think that’s enough? Addie, what were you thinking!”

  “I had to do something, Kiera,” she pleaded with her sister. “You weren’t here, and I didn’t know if you wanted him to even be in the house let alone be anywhere near Alan, and he was talking about how he could walk right through me and I couldn’t do a thing to stop him. For the love of everything holy, Kiera, he’s a fallen angel!”

  Kiera closed her eyes, and after a brief moment of silence, she opened them again. “He is Alan’s father. He has a right to see his son.”

  “You didn’t think so back when you were giving him to the Church so they could hide him from both of you, as I recall.”

  She sniffed. “While that may be true, Alan is a grown man now. He can make his own choices. Whatever evil influence I may have been worried Philly would spread to our son back then, it isn’t a concern now. Once I’ve explained things to Alan, he will make his own choice about seeing his father.”

  “That… is actually a very reasonable decision,” Addie admitted. “Under the circumstances, I mean.”

  “Thank you. So. We can’t undo what you did, but how long will the banishment last?”

  Addie stuffed her hands into her pockets. “Just a week.”

  “A week! Addie!”

  “I had to prepare the spell really quickly,” she hastily tried to explain. “I didn’t have time to refine it. It just came out, and I’m sorry, but that’s the way it is. Look at it this way. Now you have enough time to explain things properly to Alan, and you and Philly can talk things out somewhere safe. Like, in town.”

  She was lucky the spell had worked at all, really. If she hadn’t been standing inside of Stonecrest, she wouldn’t have been able to call upon
the ancestral tie that her family had to the Well of Essence under this place, and she never would have had the power to make that happen.

  Kiera sniffed, obviously not thrilled by the circumstances. “Fine. I’m sure that won’t set him off at all.”

  “See, when you say things like that, it sounds to me like you’re still afraid of him.”

  Kiera fussed with the skirt of her black dress. “I’m not afraid of him, as such. I’m afraid of what he might do. I didn’t consult him on the choice to give up our child and at the time, when it happened, he flew into a terrible rage…” She stopped, her eyes staring back through the years. “It was all our parents could do to make him leave me alone back then. Now that he’s here, there’s twenty-two years of missed time between him and his son. I don’t know what to expect from him.”

  “So you’re afraid of him,” Addie said again.

  “Yes. Fine.” Kiera dropped her hands heavily to her side. “I’m afraid of him. May we please drop this? At least for the moment. Alan is asleep, and we need to go upstairs and begin searching out the answers to Seth Hunter’s murder.”

  “Shouldn’t we wait for Willow?”

  “She’s here,” Kiera said, gesturing down the hallway.

  The front door opened, and in swept their youngest sister. Now that she was paying attention, Addie could feel Willow’s presence too. The members of the Shadow Lake coven were all present.

  Time to get witchy.

  Chapter 5

  “I’ve never really liked these things.”

  Willow plucked at the sleeves of her robe, the same brown color and the same rough fabric that each of the sisters wore whenever they conducted a conclave around the Family Circle. It was an ancient tradition which was supposed to bring the witch into closer communion with the Earth and the universe. The simple fabrics were natural cotton fibers, and plain in appearance, and both things were supposed to center the witch’s mind and Life Essence.