by K. J. Emrick
She wanted so very much to believe him. It could all be true, couldn’t it?
With a frown, she forced herself to look at the facts in a dispassionate way. Like the protector of Shadow Lake, instead of Alan’s aunt. He had her car. He must have been in Birch Hollow, because the odometer said so and he had admitted to seeing Willow.
And then there was his alibi. Amnesia? Was that really what he was going with?
Using her extra senses, she reached out toward him. It was like trying to touch a brick wall. He was there but he wasn’t open to her. He was closed off to her. She couldn’t tell what he was feeling. Somehow, he was blocking her and keeping her from getting in.
If she had needed any more proof of what she had already suspected, there it was.
She slumped against the bars. I wish I may, I wish I might, she thought to herself. A stupid children’s rhyme. She couldn’t just wish upon a star and make this better. Ignoring her emotions, she focused on the facts.
“Alan,” she said, her voice more gentle than she would have thought possible. “I don’t know why this happened. You came into our lives, and we accepted you as family, and now here we are with a woman’s death hanging over us. You were here, in Birch Hollow.”
“Addie, it wasn’t me.”
“You had the dead woman’s cellphone in your pocket.”
“It wasn’t me! Why would I keep her cellphone?”
“You knew details about the motel where she was staying. The cracks in the sidewalk. The threadbare sheets. How could you know that unless you were there before?”
“It was just a guess! It looked like the kind of place that was a real fleabag, you know?”
“If I look in my trunk,” she asked, “am I going to find Autumn Lynch’s blood?”
He blinked at her, before finally finding his voice. “I don’t know.”
It wasn’t a denial, and that was as good as a confession, as far as Addie was concerned.
Alan had killed that woman.
She told herself not to cry. She told herself Alan wasn’t worth it. Yes, he was Kiera’s son. Yes, he was family.
At least, he used to be family. Murderers weren’t part of the Kilorian clan.
None of that could matter now. She wasn’t going to cover up for his sins with more of her own.
Behind her, a key rattled in the lock. The buzzing of the fire alarm was gone. Her time to talk with Alan was over.
Stepping back from the cell, she gave her nephew one last, sad glance. “You’re going to be here for a while. I’d get used to these bars.”
She watched as he slowly dropped his head into his hands and slumped back against the wall. He was the very picture of a man defeated.
When she heard the door opening she already knew who it was going to be. She’d felt Lucian coming down the hallway.
His face was flushed, and his eyes were full of worry. “Addie,” he said in a rush, “you can not be here.”
“Oh, no? I can’t? Well, that’s fine, because I’m leaving.” She didn’t so much as glance back over her shoulder as she walked past Lucian, into the hallway. He hurried to catch up with her. “How did you even know I was here, Lucian? I slipped in unseen.”
“Yeah, we’ll talk about the slipping in part later,” he muttered. “I didn’t need to see you to know you were here. I smelled your perfume in my office once we got the fire alarm under control. I take it the alarm was your doing, too?”
Addie grimaced at her stupidity. Next time she was going to use an invisibility spell, she needed to remember not to wear perfume. Even the subtle rose scent she used would be enough to give her away, obviously.
“This way,” he said to her, pulling her down a hallway that branched off the main one. “We’re taking you out the side door so I don’t have to answer any questions. Please, Addie. Stay away from this one. If Alan is innocent, we’ll find the proof, I promise.”
She leaned into him briefly at the door, resting her head down on his chest. “I don’t think you’re going to find anything to prove him innocent.” The words tasted sour on her tongue. “I’ve been looking, and looking, and everything I find just makes it worse. I can’t save him, Lucian. I want to save him, but I can’t.”
He held her, probably longer than he should have, and then leaned down to whisper in her ear. “I’m always here for you. I’ll come over tomorrow, and we can talk about all of this, okay? Not as a police officer. I’ll be there as your boyfriend.”
“Good,” she told him, kissing his cheek. “I need my boyfriend right now.”
She slipped out the side of the building, around to where Kiera still waited in the car. She didn’t need an invisibility spell this time. All the officers were busy inside in the aftermath of the chaos she had caused. No one even noticed her leaving.
She didn’t know how in the world she was going to explain this to Kiera. Everything was there, all the clues and all the evidence, minus a few big details like motive, but that didn’t make it any easier.
In the driver’s seat, she held the wheel tight, as if she needed something to anchor herself with. “Kiera, I just want you to know…”
“Don’t talk to me,” her sister said.
Kiera’s face was turned away from Addie, but there was no disguising the pain her voice. Kiera knew what Addie had been up to in the police station, and she knew what the result was without having to ask.
Her son was a killer.
Chapter 8
In the middle of a large body of water, Addie sat in a little rowboat, floating peacefully on the current.
This was the heart of Shadow Lake, the body of water that gave the town its name. Here, in the exact center of the lake, the water was so deep and so dark that there was nothing below her but shadows when she leaned over the side to look down. She knew there were things down there. Things that were more magical than witches. Things that were older than the race of vampires.
Things that were, thankfully, asleep.
“So am I,” she said out loud to herself. That’s what this was. She was home in bed and asleep. This was a dream.
If she wasn’t sure of it before, she was sure when Willow came stepping up out of the lake, water sluicing off her red hair and her clothing, dripping from her fingertips, clinging her white dress to her body.
She was like the Morrigan, rising up out of the lake. She was the very embodiment of the Celtic deity of lakes, fate, war, and death. On battlefields, she would decide the fate of who lived and who died. She was capricious, bringing good luck to those who had her favor and despair to those who crossed her.
Addie had never made the comparison before but now that she had, she couldn’t think of a better way of describing Willow. Her younger sister loved with an intensity that few women could match, for both her friends and the men lucky enough to be invited into her bed. At the same time, she brought disaster and destruction pretty much everywhere she went.
Maybe it was fitting that Billy Joel’s Modern Woman was somehow, inexplicably, playing in the background as Willow climbed into the boat.
She stepped over the side with a lithe, wet grace, and then sat down in the bow opposite Addie. “Hey, sis. I hear you’ve been looking for me.”
“You could say that. Are we really talking, or is this just a deep REM fantasy my overworked brain came up with?”
“You tell me. You were always the smart one. The good one. The one Mom and Dad loved the most. You know. The special one.”
She said it with air quotes, water flying from her fingers in fat droplets.
Addie sighed. “Now I know it’s a dream. Our parents never played favorites.”
“Ha! You just never saw it because you were the favorite. Hard to see the forest when you’re the biggest tree.”
“Willow, that doesn’t even make sense. Listen, if you’re really talking to me and I’m not making this up, then why don’t you tell me where you are? We tried finding you with the Family Circle but with just two of us to cast the Viewi
ng, we couldn’t see you. I mean, I was exhausted anyway from spellcasting all day, but it really takes all three of the Kilorian sisters to work that kind of magic. We need you, Willow. Alan needs you. Do you know where he is right now?”
Her sister leaned back, lifting her arms up high, gazing into the sun shining down from the midnight sky. “Then come and find me, Addie, before things really start to go bad for us.”
“Before things start to go bad?” Addie echoed in disbelief. “How exactly do you think things could get any worse…?”
A giant splash in the lake surprised her into silence. Dream or not, her sense of danger went wild.
Something was coming.
The waters parted as a monstrous shape pushed its way up and through, towering over the boat, spreading waves in every direction. A giant, round maw full of daggers the length of her arm opened up in the beast and tentacles like giant snakes squirmed out and around, feeling for something to eat.
Willow smiled up at the sight of her doom and laughed. “Did you ever have one of those days?”
The squirming behemoth struck, flowing down in an arcing line that dropped its huge mouth over Willow, swallowing her whole.
Addie didn’t have time to react. The nightmare creature sucked down her sister and smashed into the boat, splintering the sides, shoving that end under the water while Addie’s end rose up into the air and she began sliding down, down, down. She dragged her hands along the bottom trying desperately to find something to cling to as the water came rushing at her from one side and the beast came at her from the other—
She awoke with a start, heart pounding hard in her chest. She took a few deep breaths to slow it down and soon it was beating at a more normal pace.
Sunlight was streaming in on her through a window in her bedroom. It was a new day, and yet she had no desire to get up out of bed. The memories of yesterday came flooding back to her, weighing her down like a ton of graveyard dirt.
Maybe that was a little dramatic. Then again, maybe it was right on point.
Murder was never a good thing. This time it hadn’t just involved her and her sisters, it had claimed the freedom of Kiera’s son, and sent Willow on the run. Worse than any of that was the knowledge that Addie had to carry with her that it had been her fault. She had insisted on investigating this mystery, and everything she found had only served to tighten the noose around her family.
Addie slapped her hand down on the mattress, pushing her face into her pillow. Not even the comforting weight of the blankets made her feel better. She had been sleeping on her right side, she realized, and that was part of the problem, right there. When she slept on her left side, she had good dreams. When she slept on her right, well, she dreamt of her missing sister being devoured by one of the monstrosities that lived in Shadow Lake. She dreamt of almost dying with her.
Bad dreams.
She hoped that was all it had been. Sometimes, dreams were premonitions, and her overtaxed brain could easily come up with several nasty interpretations of what she had just experienced.
The fact that Willow had been in her dream didn’t surprise her. They needed to find her. Addie really had tried with Kiera last night to use the power of the Family Circle, up in the highest room of Stonecrest’s tower. The had searched for Willow, or any sign of her, and come up empty. They had even tried to use their magic to peel back the hours around the Nash Palm Motel. The murder had happened there, and they had hoped to look backward in time far enough to see the actual event to find some scrap of hope, some reason why this wasn’t Alan’s fault after all.
Slim as that hope was, Addie had clung to it. Not that it mattered. The whole thing had been a waste of time. The Family Circle hadn’t shown them a thing except static, and emptiness.
Maybe it was because Addie was still recovering from the use of her magic at the police station. Maybe it was because she and Kiera hadn’t spoken two words to each other since proving Alan was a killer. Then again, maybe it was just too much for the two of them. No matter how big or small a coven of witches was, it was always diminished with the absence of one.
Absence. That was such a lonely word.
“Where are you, Willow?” she whispered into her pillow. “Where have you gone?”
“I’m sure I’ve no idea,” she heard Doyle saying.
Sitting up on one arm, Addie found her black and white tomcat curled into a ball down by her feet. He stretched, and rolled onto his back, his front paws tucked up around his face as he pretended to be still sleep.
“I wasn’t talking to you, Doyle.”
His tail flicked, but he didn’t answer. Maybe he really did go back to sleep. She’d told him over and over not to be up on her bed, but he just wouldn’t stop no matter what she said. Right now, she didn’t even have the energy to argue about it.
As much as Addie wanted to pretend to be going back to bed, too, she didn’t have that luxury. There was still too much to do. Finding Willow was number one on the list.
Reaching out with her extra senses through the hallways and all the rooms of Stonecrest, she quickly came to the conclusion that her sister had not come home last night. Part of Addie had been hoping they would find her downstairs at the dining room table, eating a plate of eggs with ketchup, smiling and wondering why everyone was in such a bad mood.
No such luck.
Where would Willow go, was the question. They’d tried her boyfriend’s place, and she wasn’t there. They’d tried the few friends that she kept in contact with around Shadow Lake, including the twin fairy breeders over on Beaumont Drive. None of her friends had seen her. Text messages had gone unanswered. If this was a game of hide and seek, Willow was definitely winning.
There was one place they hadn’t tried, because it just seemed too obvious. In fact, when Addie had been driving them home last night, there had been a patrol car parked outside. Obviously, the cops were waiting for Willow to show up there, too. Well. No stone left unturned, as they said. Addie had to go there this morning anyway. She could look for Willow in the closets of the Hot Cauldron Café when she got there.
She sat up now, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed. With a yawn, she decided the day was going to have to be met, one way or another. She might as well do it wearing pants.
“Come on, Doyle,” she said to her cat. “Sleeping or not, I’m leaving for the café in twenty minutes. If you want to ride in with me you’d better get your tail moving.”
One goldish-brown eye opened, focusing on her. “I could do with a spot of brekkie first, if you don’t mind.”
“I do mind, Old Man. You can get something to eat at the café. Or, you could go down and have some of the dry food in your bowl.”
Now his head came up. His nose twitched. “Well, as much as the flavor of seafood medley really gets me going in the morning, I’d much rather have a bit of egg and bacon from your restaurant, if you don’t mind.”
The Hot Cauldron Café was her business, and her pride and joy. Addie had built it from the ground up. Granted, Shadow Lake was a small community, but the Hot Cauldron was right on Main Street, and a lot of business came their way from the tourists and the locals alike. The food served there would have been beyond compare even if they weren’t the only place in town to eat. Addie made sure of it.
It was also a place that the Kilorian sisters could meet and feel safe. Addie had put nearly as many security spells on that building as they had placed around Stonecrest. It was her business, and her connection to a normal everyday life, but it was also like a little bit of home away from home.
Maybe Willow did go there. They’d checked everywhere else that they could think of. Addie fervently wanted to believe that Willow would not bring that kind of grief down on her café, knowing how much it meant to her, but at this point, who knew? Like Sherlock Holmes had said, once you had eliminated everything else, whatever was left had to be the truth.
Of course, Holmes had been addicted to cocaine and had also faked his own death, so
maybe he wasn’t the best person to get advice from.
After a shower she got dressed quickly, slacks and a blousy top, and then she made sure to put her felt bundle of herbs and other items in her coat before she left. She was on edge, and she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something more going on here. More than Alan being a murderer and more than him involving Willow in his deed. That anonymous tip that Herman Bledsoe had received, for instance. Where had that come from? If someone had seen this murder happen, why hadn’t they come forward?
She would have to go back to speak to Herman about that one, even though the thought of being anywhere near the town’s constable was turning her stomach. He had been acting so strangely yesterday. Herman was one of those people who she was an acquaintance with, rather than a friend. She had always considered him to be a little slow, and more than a little annoying, but also kind of sweet and sincere. What she had seen in him yesterday wasn’t that man at all. It was somebody else, someone she could quickly learn to despise.
The thought of breakfast turned her stomach, so she skipped it. She just wasn’t in the mood to eat. Maybe by lunchtime she’d feel different but right now her stomach was in knots. What else could go wrong, she kept thinking. What would today bring her that was worse than yesterday?
The dream monster, devouring her sister and coming for her, flashed through her mind. It was just a dream, she reminded herself. Not a premonition. Just a dream.
In the driveway, her boots crunching on a thin layer of fresh snow that had fallen overnight, she stopped just short of her Jeep. The key was in her hand, and all she had to do was hop in the driver’s seat and start her up and head into town. It was just a few minutes from here to the Hot Cauldron, and then she could see if Willow was there, sitting in the kitchen drinking a nice hot cup of tea. She could take care of things in the café for the rest of the day and pretend that her life was normal.
Her eyes drifted to the trunk.
Life was not normal. Not for her. She was a witch in Shadow Lake, and normal didn’t come to this zip code very often.