Witch Me Luck

by K. J. Emrick

  That kind of power could swat away a pretty little witch like her without even breaking a sweat.

  “Fine,” she said. “Philly it is. Please don’t hurt him.”

  “I won’t.”

  Lucian swore again, using words that Addie had never heard him say before. He tried to throw a punch at Philly. The angel squeezed harder, and Lucian dropped his fist with a shout of pain.

  Addie winced, but she thought maybe holding Lucian down was best. At least until they fixed what was wrong with him. “Philly,” she repeated, “what are you doing here?”

  “I came because I knew you and your boyfriend here—” Lucian growled and struggled again, and this time Philly twisted his arm until Addie heard his elbow pop. “—were coming to this reception. I thought perhaps you might bring along Kiera and that son of mine. Are they here? Maybe they could help me with your man.”

  Addie was beside herself worrying over Lucian. She didn’t have time for Philly’s daddy issues about how Kiera had given up their son for adoption back when he was a baby. “Kiera and Alan are back at Stonecrest,” she said in a rush, “they didn’t come here tonight so you’re out of luck. Now, can you please let Lucian go!”

  Sticking out his lower lip, Philly actually pouted. “That’s too bad. So… I guess I won’t be needing this tux, then.” He snapped the fingers of his free hand, and his wardrobe changed from the neckline down into a long-sleeved casual polo shirt and a pair of black jeans nearly as flattering as the tuxedo had been. “Ah, that’s better. Well, at least the night won’t be a total loss. I’ll get to help you undo the spell Belladonna put on Lucian here.”

  Addie needed to sit down. This was too much. Her legs were about to give out, and her thoughts were all tangled up. She needed to sit down, but she was not going to drop on the floor. Not in this dress. “Belladonna put a spell on Lucian?”

  “Of course. Are there any other psychotic, evil witches trying to ruin your life?”

  Addie frantically looked at the face of the man she loved, twisted now with hatred and anger. Philly was right. Of course, he was right. It all fit. That was why he had talked about feeling such a connection to Belladonna. A magical connection that had him flirting and blushing.

  Oh, and the way he’d forgotten about the warrant for the arrest! Now she could see it. Now the stink of dark magic on him made sense.

  Belladonna.

  Addie’s hands curled into fists. She would throttle that woman to within an inch of her life the next time she saw her. Witch prison was too good for her!

  She turned some of the anger building inside of her on the fallen angel. Addie might not be a match for him in terms of raw power, but she wasn’t going to just stand silently by, either. “You’re still hurting him. Let him go!”

  “Mmm. No can do, I’m afraid.”

  Magic thrummed along her arms, collecting in her clenched fists. “Let him go. Right. Now.”

  “If I do that,” he said, annoyance creeping into his words, “he’ll try to kill you. Is that what you want?”

  “He will not!’

  “Listen to him, Addie. He’s not in his right mind anymore. Belladonna would take great pleasure in watching him kill you. So. Let’s not let that happen, okay? I’m just starting to like you. I’d hate to lose you to something so stupid.”

  Addie felt cold dread chase away the heat of her anger. Lucian would never hurt her. He loved her, and she loved him. She searched Lucian’s eyes now, looking for that love.

  What she saw was a flat, unrecognizable glare lined with fluid red lines of magic. He snarled at her, and suggested she do something that would be anatomically impossible.

  He was her Lucian, but at the same time, he wasn’t. He would hurt her, if she gave him the chance.

  “Why now?” she asked weakly. “We’ve been fine all night. We’ve been perfect! What sparked this now?”

  Philly sighed. “Belladonna is trying to distract you, is my guess. I would say you were onto something that would have solved this murder, and she wanted to sidetrack you. I don’t know how long she’s had her spell lying dormant in Lucian, but she’s obviously been waiting for just the right moment to trigger it. This was her moment. Now, can we please get on with saving him? He’s stronger than he looks.”

  Lucian kept sputtering out insults, strings of words that didn’t make any sense, spittle flying from his lips. His lips peeled back from his teeth. A vein throbbed at his temple.

  A tear slipped from the corner of her eye. Of all the things that Belladonna had done to her and to her family so far, this was the one she would pay for the most.

  “All right,” she said to Philly, relaxing her fists with an effort. “What do we do?”

  “Put your hand on his heart,” he told her. “Send your love through that touch, and into his soul.”

  She blinked, not understanding. “My love? I’m just supposed to… put my love into him.”

  “From your heart, to his heart.”

  “There’s no magic spell for that!”

  His smile was a thing of beauty. “Love is its own magic.”

  There was a lot of truth in that, Addie thought, but in all her life she had never heard of defeating dark magic with a simple touch. It didn’t sound like much of a plan. The thing of it was, she didn’t have a choice. The only alternative that she could think of would be to haul Lucian back to Stonecrest, tie him down inside the Family Circle, and have her and her sisters cast their magic into him to try forcing Belladonna’s spell out. There wasn’t any guarantee that would even work.

  Her only option was to trust what a fallen angel knew about love.

  It sounded crazy.

  Closing her eyes, reciting an Irish prayer and then a Celtic incantation meant to bring her stars into alignment, Addie stepped in close to Lucian.

  He snarled and tried to reach for her.

  Philly flexed his pinky and Lucian yelped, and arched his back, and stood very still.

  With a deep breath Addie held her hand out, her fingers trembling, and placed her palm flat against Lucian’s chest. She could feel the beating of his heart below her touch.

  She took a breath.

  Then she pictured all the love she held for this wonderful man. All of the things they had done together, the memories they had created, the times they had shared, the mysteries they had solved. The first time she told him she was a witch. The first time he said that he loved her. The way he made her feel whenever he was near. Their special, magical connection. The strength he gave her just by being himself.

  Just himself.

  A warmth followed along the edges of those thoughts, a rising heat made of equal parts passion and respect and belonging. It grew more intense with each new memory. Soon it was an overwhelming surge that coursed down her arm and crossed from her hand to his chest and then…

  And then.

  An explosion of magic reverberated through the air around them, centered on her touch. It made Addie’s teeth vibrate. The shockwaves were invisible ripples, and on those waves of love and magic and power she felt something dark and filthy being pushed out of him.

  Something made of red haze billowed out behind him. For just a moment it held the vague shape of a person which wore Lucian’s face. Then it scattered into nothingness with a short hiss of sound like a fire being drowned in water, and just like that, it was gone.

  Drowned, she added to herself, with their love.

  Philly let go of Lucian’s arm and he collapsed into Addie’s embrace. He was panting for breath, and his eyes were wide, and he clung to her like he would fall through the floor if he ever let go.

  “What just happened?” he asked, after he could get his breath.

  “We unspelled you,” Philly told him brightly.

  “You did what?”

  The fallen angel gave Addie a look. “Not so bright sometimes, is he?”

  “I remember…” Lucian’s eyes went wide. “Oh, Addie, I remember I was going to hurt you. I couldn’t stop
myself. I didn’t want to say any of that, but I couldn’t stop myself!”

  “Shh,” she reassured him. “It wasn’t you. Not really. Belladonna did this to you. If anything, I’m furious with her, not you. Nothing you said, nothing you did, was really you.”

  He kissed the top of her head. “Promise me we’re still okay. You and me.”

  “We are. We always will be.”

  “How did you bring me out of it? This spell she put on me,” he grumbled. “How did you get rid of it?”

  “Philly figured it out,” she said, giving the angel a grudging nod. “He told me how to save you.”

  “You’re welcome,” Philly said. “Now, let’s get on with things.”

  “What things?” Lucian asked him, feeling his hand over his face as if he wasn’t sure who he was. “There was a murder. I remember that. We’re trying to find the killer.”

  “That’s what we do,” Addie told him, holding him tighter. She never wanted to let him go.

  “And you unspelled me?” he asked.

  “It was Philly’s idea. Although I don’t think ‘unspelled’ is a real word.”

  “Of course it is,” Philly assured them both. “Trust the angel in the room. He knows these things.”

  Lucian stood up straighter, pushing gently out of Addie’s arms. “Really? You know things? Then tell me, mister angel man, who committed this murder?”

  Philly shook his head. “I’ve told Addie this before, and I hate to admit it, but I’m not all-knowing. God is the omnipotent one, and I’m not God. He doesn’t share that little gift even with us angels of Heaven. Not that I’m an angel of Heaven anymore. I kind of got kicked out.”

  “How does that happen, exactly?” Lucian asked. “It seems to me that if someone had that kind of gig, living and working in Heaven, they wouldn’t just throw it away for no reason.”

  In a voice that was flat and distant, Philly said, “I didn’t throw it away for no reason.”

  “Then what was the reason?” Lucian prodded.

  There was a long silence that only ended when the angel smiled. “It was a woman. Her name,” he said, “was Kiera. Now, come on. If we’re going to find that weapon, then we should get started.”

  Lucian turned a look of confusion on Addie. “What weapon?”

  “Oh. Right. I was going to tell you about this before… before you went crazy.” Addie didn’t know what else to call it. Belladonna had been controlling her boyfriend. What was she supposed to think about that? “Are you sure you’re up for this?”

  He gave her that smile that he always saved just for her. “I don’t know what happened, exactly, but I feel like myself again. A hundred percent. Just promise me that you’ll forgive me for whatever I did?”

  “I already did. You couldn’t help it, Lucian. You were under a spell.”

  “Sure, but I didn’t…”

  “Hurt me?” she suggested. “No.”

  “I meant, I didn’t recite bad poetry or turn someone into a newt.”

  She narrowed her eyes in a glare, but she couldn’t help smiling along with him. If he was making jokes about witchcraft, he was definitely back to his regular self. “Anyway. We were in the security office, talking to Roderick, when I got to thinking about what smacked him in the head. Whatever that weapon was, it wasn’t in there. So, it has to be in the museum somewhere. The killer hasn’t had time to get rid of it. All we have to do is look in the right place.”

  “They could have just left the museum,” Lucian suggested. He rubbed at his temple as his brain got back into gear after his experience. “It might not be Marcelle at all. The killer might have come in, attacked Roderick, stabbed Sheila, and then left the museum.”

  Addie shook her head. “No. Whoever did this had to have been in the museum already. They had to see Roderick take Sheila into the security office otherwise they would have never known where to find her. Everybody is still here, so the killer didn’t leave.”

  “Everybody is still here,” Lucian pointed out, “except Belladonna Nightshade. Except we know she didn’t do the killing because witches don’t kill with knives.”

  “That’s true,” Philly agreed. “Magic is the best weapon in the world.”

  Lucian almost looked sick at the thought of murder being committed by magic. “Okay,” he said. “Speaking of magic, Addie, couldn’t you just use yours to track the killer after he left the room? You’ve done stuff like that before.”

  Addie had already thought of that. “I could, except I’d need to use the Family Circle back in Stonecrest to reach back in time and see the events as they transpired, and I don’t think we have time right now for me to go home, and find both of my sisters, to cast that spell.”

  “All right. Maybe if we don’t find our killer soon, we’ll have you go back to Stonecrest to try it.”

  “Of course. I could maybe cast a spell to trace the people who left the room after the murder,” Addie suggested, “but there’s been so many people walking back and forth all over this area that the tracks will be covered.”

  “So… that’s a no go, as well.”

  “Exactly.”

  Philly slapped his hands together, and in the frozen state of time they found themselves in the sound of it echoed dully. “Okay! That was fun. Now, can we just go and look for the weapon that hit that poor man on the head, already?”

  “You’re sure in a hurry,” Lucian said to him. “What’s the rush?”

  “You still haven’t learned, have you? Angels don’t rush. We make our own schedule. But while I’m standing here with you, I can’t be anywhere else. I’m not omnipresent any more than I am omnipotent.”

  “That’s a lot of things that you aren’t.” Lucian said.

  Philly stared back at him, his blue eyes flashing. “Don’t make me show you all the things that I am.”

  Addie felt a grudge building between those two, as cold as the arctic. Lucian was putting himself on thin ice. He wouldn’t know how stupid it was to push a fallen angel. Most people wouldn’t even believe angels existed, either the kind from Heaven, or Philly’s kind. Most people were blind to the world of magic and wonder around them.

  Obviously, she was going to have to sit down with Lucian sometime soon and fill him in on the rest of what he needed to know about the world she lived in. For now, she just needed to defuse the tension between them.

  “Philly,” she said, “you’ve frozen time around us. I think Lucian means we can take as long as we need to search the museum, can’t we? How long can you hold this spell?”

  “It’s not a spell,” he insisted with an indignant sniff. “I haven’t frozen time. What I’ve done, is slip the three of us between the spaces of the world around us. There are gaps in the world, Addie. Gaps you can walk between if you know how to find them. I’ve pulled us into one of those, and while we’re here, everything else is waiting for us to get back. There’s no such thing as time.”

  “Gaps,” Addie repeated.

  “Exactly,” the angel said.

  “In the world?”

  “Now you’re getting it.”

  “So there’s gaps in the world, but there’s no such thing as time.”

  Philly pursed his lips in a frown. “Addie, have you ever noticed how much time you spend repeating what I say back to me, instead of just accepting it as true?”

  Lucian cleared his throat. “I don’t mean to argue with the guy who just unspelled me, but how come we get older, if time doesn’t exist?”

  The air grew frosty again. Philly almost smiled. “It’s too much for you to grasp, I’m afraid. Let’s just say that your bodies go through phases of life, Detective Knight, and if human beings would stop marking those lives out according to the rising and the setting of the sun then you would all see that the changes you go through have nothing to do with time. Why do you think God is eternal? Hmm? It’s because there is no time.”

  “What would you call that?” Lucian asked. “In ‘omni’ terms, I mean. Omnitemporal?”
>
  Philly snorted a laugh, and the room warmed again. “Now who’s making up words? Come on. I’ll help you look for this weapon. I’m starting to like you, Lucian Knight. You’re my kind of people.”

  Addie swallowed a lump back in her throat. She wasn’t sure she liked Lucian being Philly’s kind of people. He was one of the Fallen. One of the most dangerous creatures in the world, and he liked her boyfriend. How could that possibly be a good thing?

  Although, if she was being honest, she was starting to see that maybe Philly wasn’t quite as evil as she used to think.

  “So if there’s nothing else?” Philly asked. He turned on his heel and started toward the main part of the museum, where the foyer led to the grand sweeping staircase to the second floor, and the hallways splitting off to the left and right, one leading to the dinosaur bones exhibit, one leading to the display of inventions from years gone by.

  Before they followed him, Lucian leaned in to Addie. “Is he really an angel?”

  “Yes, and you might want to try being nicer to him before he decides to grind you into dust, or send you to a mountain in Siberia, or… or…”

  “Or turn me into a newt?” he joked.

  “Ha, ha. Trust me, Lucian. He’s the real deal.”

  He reached out and held her hand. “So are you, Addie Kilorian. So are you.”

  THEY COULD COVER MORE ground if they split up, was the general idea.

  Addie had the impression that, in reality, Philly just preferred to do things by himself.

  Still, she didn’t mind. The angel went off by himself, and she got to stay with Lucian. She only wished that she had worn something other than this tight red dress and these heels. The outfit was made for turning Lucian’s head, and for dancing. It certainly wasn’t made for a girl searching through displays of prehistoric grass and looming dinosaurs and fossilized eggs. When she got back home, she would have to soak her feet for a day straight

  She tried hoisting one of the pineapple-sized dinosaur egg replicas from its display pedestal, but it was actually attached and couldn’t be removed. It would have been heavy enough to smack Roderick into unconsciousness. It just wasn’t portable. The same thing for the models of bones and skeletons and skulls. The rocks in the displays were made from foam and papier-mâché. No weapons there, either.