by K. J. Emrick
A Witch in a Well
The Kilorian Sisters: A Witches of Shadow Lake Mystery Book 6
K. J. Emrick
S. J. Wells
First published in Australia by South Coast Publishing, October 2018. Copyright K.J. Emrick (2012-18)
This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and locations portrayed in this book and the names herein are fictitious. Any similarity to or identification with the locations, names, characters or history of any person, product or entity is entirely coincidental and unintentional.
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Contents
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Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Epilogue
Afterword
More Info
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
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Prologue
Snow.
In New England snow was a constant companion three, four, sometimes five months out of the year. At the end of December, for as far back as anyone could remember, the town of Shadow Lake nestled itself under a pristine layer of freshly fallen, white snow. It was as pretty in her memories as a Thomas Kinkade painting.
This year, it looked more like that end scene from The Shining.
The snow had started falling on Christmas day and hadn’t stopped since. The state highway department plows had done their best to keep up, repeatedly pushing drifts off the main route through town even as the snowbanks got higher and higher. Old Lutherfud Road was the only connection between Shadow Lake and the rest of the world. One way in. One way out. If the road became impassible, then the people here would be trapped.
When the snowbanks rose up as high as the rooftops, the plows gave up.
Belladonna Nightshade smiled to herself.
Perfect.
Stonecrest, the huge home of the Kilorian sisters was snowed in just like the rest of the town, and life in Shadow Lake had ground to a halt as everyone hunkered down for a long winter’s nap.
Warm and secure in her austere living room, Belladonna Nightshade smiled into the object in her hand. A sealed glass orb of water with a perfect replica of Shadow Lake inside. Tiny flecks of white plastic represented snow. The more Belladonna shook it up, the more snow fell. The tiny green plastic trees were already buried. The houses were barely visible. The lake itself—which was where the town got its name—was under a relative five feet of snow.
She held the globe by its heavy wooden base and stared at the spot where the lake was depicted as a clearing among the woods. That was where her focus had been driving her for months now. No, years.
Not the lake itself, but the caverns underneath. Somewhere in those ancient tunnels through the rock was a source of power so strong that she would gladly cut off her left hand to get it.
Well. That might be a bit dramatic. Someone else’s hand, certainly, but she rather liked her hand right where it was.
The Well of Essence was down there, just waiting for her. It was being kept from her by those Kilorian sisters, and the spell of protection they kept around the entire town. She couldn’t come within a hundred meters of Shadow Lake anymore, thanks to them. Not directly, she couldn’t. However, she had people within the town waiting to do her bidding. And there was a spell that she had in mind that might just change all of that, thanks to a few drops of blood she’d secured from a certain Adair Kilorian.
After all, there was always more than one way to skin a cat.
Speaking of which… time to make a call.
For the moment she set aside the globe on a shelf. Her living room was barely furnished. Two couches and a table were set against the far wall. More shelves held books of every sort. There was no television. No audio system. She didn’t have time for diversions like that. The life of a cunning, powerful, yet incredibly alluring witch such as herself was just too busy for such things.
Besides. She needed the space in this room for something actually important. In the middle of the floor, set flush with the stone floor tiles, was a circle of braided gold wire. Painted inside was a pentagram. The red lacquer paint had been mixed with ochre and drops of her own blood to imbue it with power. This was her Scrying Circle, which was like a witch’s video chat… only better. There were no data plans, no roaming charges, and no worries about whether the person on the other end would pick up. Magic just made everything better. Good or evil, witches did it better. Oh. Now wouldn’t that make a nice bumper sticker?
Not that Belladonna considered herself evil. She was too beautiful to be evil. With her upturned nose and delicate cheekbones and long, darkly alluring hair. She had poured a lot of magic into making her looks timeless and ageless, and to make her body statuesque. So, not evil. She had goals. What strong woman in this modern world didn’t? Her goals were just a tad more complicated than most. Simple plans were just so boring.
In a red silk robe, she stood on the edge of the circle of gold, casting her eyes to the five points of the pentagram in turn. As she traced the lines with her almond shaped eyes, she held out her left hand, palm up, thumb and pinky touching, ring finger tucked under. Magic was all about form and function and heart. Plus an inborn talent. Not just anyone could mouth these words and draw on their life force to power a spell.
With a snap of nearly electric power, the Scrying Circle filled with a ring of light that levitated at the height of Belladonna’s waist. Slowly, the revolving mists of energy within the circle resolved into the face of one of her agents. A furry faced, whiskered black cat with half-lidded eyes and an attitude.
“Why do you call me now?” he asked Belladonna in that heavy Ukrainian accent of his. “I was taking nap.”
“Oh?” she snarked. “Have you had a hard day of laying around the Kilorian’s house doing nothing? You work for me, remember?”
“You kicked me out of your home, is what I re
member. The Kilorian sisters took me in. Made me family. That is important to cat like me.”
Anger entered Belladonna’s voice, making it hum across the connection of the Scrying Circle. “I sent you there as a spy. What is important is laying hands on the Well of Essence and taking it away from those pompous witches in that house you’re sleeping in. Remember your place, little cat, or I will put you back in it.”
The echoes of her threat faded away slowly. When silence fell again, Domovyk sat up straight and flicked an ear. “I understand. What is it you need?”
“There. That’s better. What I need from you, my faithful little servant, is to keep an eye on all those people stuck in town, waiting to go on their guided tour of the caverns under Shadow Lake. It only happens once a year.”
“Tak,” Domovyk agreed, “I know.”
“Tomorrow is New Year’s Day. That’s when the tour takes place.”
“Tak, I know.”
“I need to know when they’re going. I need to know where those caverns go. I need your eyes down there, my little cat.”
Domovyk’s ear flicked again. “This I did not know.”
“Oh, don’t worry. You won’t be alone. I can’t send all of my forces with you, of course, or that would leave no one for me. I’m sending you our third man. He’ll be wearing red. You can’t miss him.”
“I know who is loyal to you,” the cat said.
Somehow in those words, Belladonna heard a double meaning.
“Well,” she said, pushing aside her random thoughts. “That’s good to know. I need loyal people to make my dreams come true.”
“People… and cats?”
“Oh, Domovyk. My good, faithful Domovyk. Sometimes cats are more loyal than people. All you need to do is stroke their fur the right way.”
With a snap of her fingers she closed off the Scrying Circle, not even bothering to say goodbye to Domovyk. He knew his place. He knew his role.
The Kilorian sisters would never see him coming.
Tapping a finger to her lips as she smiled, Belladonna Nightshade went back over to the shelf where her snow globe waited. It was time to shake things up a little more.
Everything she wanted was about to fall right into her hands. Nothing could stop her now. Not even Addie Kilorian or her sisters.
There was nothing they could do to prevent her from winning this time.
Chapter 1
“I think we should cancel.”
Addie Kilorian rolled her eyes at her sister Willow’s suggestion. It was the same suggestion she had made eight times this morning already.
Their older sister, Kiera, was ever the voice of reason. “We can’t cancel now. It is New Year’s Day, and regardless of the weather outside, these people have paid an exorbitant sum to be led on a guided tour of Shadow Lake Caverns. They’re already here, waiting in the motel, and we’ve no reason to cancel on them.”
Willow snorted and adjusted the dark sunglasses over her eyes. “Weather? That’s what you call the worst blizzard in fifty years?”
“A hundred years, and that is exactly what I call it,” Kiera nodded. “Snow is weather, even if it is a lot of weather in this case. Why, exactly, are you wearing sunglasses at the table?”
Willow settled her head on her arms, folded on the island counter in the center of the kitchen. “Late night. I stayed up with Gary to watch the moon set on New Year’s Eve. He was really appreciative. I mean, like really, really—”
“Okay,” Addie interrupted. “We get the picture, sis.”
“Hmm. So did he.”
“Ah,” Kiera hummed. “I seem to remember having nights like that myself. I’ve outgrown it.”
“That’s nice,” Willow told her. “I haven’t.”
Kiera was much older than her sisters. Her once red hair had some gray in it now, and there were lines around the corners of her eyes and mouth that came with age, as well as with wisdom. The sisters’ parents had started their family early with Kiera, and ended it much later with Addie, and then Willow. There were two decades between the youngest of the witch sisters and the oldest. Kiera was the head of the family, and the head of their coven. She had earned more than a little respect from the twenty-two-year-old Willow.
But then, sisters will be sisters.
“All I’m saying,” Willow continued, rolling her head to the other side, “is that we have enough on our plates without ferrying a bunch of rich tourists through those caves. We’re trying to keep Belladonna Nightshade from finding what’s down there, but we’re going to walk these Typics right past it?”
Addie finally put in her own two cents. “The reason we do this tour at all, sis, is so we can keep the world from being too interested in ‘what’s down there,’ as you put it. If people know the caverns are open to tourists under strict conditions, they’ll be less likely to wonder if maybe we’re hiding something. So, we take the group through, let them snap lots of photos on their cellphones, and post them all over the internet. We show them what we want them to see, and no one is curious about it anymore. That way nobody’s tempted to break in and go snooping on their own. Besides. The section with the path to the Well of Essence is locked, and guarded, and warded by magic. Nothing’s going to go wrong. It never does.”
“I know all that, thank you very much,” was the snarky reply. “I just still think we should cancel.”
Nine times.
Willow had been twenty minutes late for this family meeting, and her clothes were all rumpled, and Addie hadn’t missed the wafting hint of a man’s cologne when she entered the room. Even if her sister hadn’t mentioned spending New Year’s Eve—Hag’s Eve, on the Wiccan calendar—with her boyfriend, Addie would have still known why she was so tired this morning.
“Maybe,” she suggested, sitting down on the stool next to her little sister, “this wanting to cancel has less to do with the nasty weather outside, and more to do with you wanting to get back to Gary.”
Willow sighed behind a grin. “Well, I did kind of leave him wanting more…”
Addie and Kiera exchanged a knowing look. Just as Addie had suspected. Her sister was madly in love with Gary. She spent more of her time with him, than she did here at Stonecrest. Odd, really, considering Gary was a Typic as well. Addie didn’t like to use that word. It was short for ‘typical,’ and it was a derogatory term that magic users used to label those who had no magical ability. In other words, those who were just ‘typical.’ Willow, however, had no problem throwing that term around. She was a real snob when it came to her magic.
Still, she made an exception for Gary. That was how Addie knew it was real love for Willow this time.
It was a sign that her little sister was growing up.
Of course, Addie’s own boyfriend was a non-magic user as well. Detective Lucian Knight was an amazing police officer, and an amazing man, and he was very attentive when it came to her needs—both as a witch protecting Shadow Lake, and as a woman.
Just a few days ago, their relationship had gotten very, very complicated.
That was a matter for another time, thankfully, because the answer she had given him to his proposal still confused her. Such a simple question. Just four little words, but they held more power over her than the strongest magic spell she had ever known.
Will you marry me?
She still didn’t know what to think about his question, or about her answer, and she hadn’t told her sisters about any of it yet.
It was too bad that Lucian wasn’t going to make it for the tour of Shadow Lake Caverns. Addie had invited him to come along, hoping they could talk about… things, but with the snow, and Old Lutherfud Road being blocked, there was no way for him to make it.
Closing her hazel eyes tight, she combed her fiery red hair with her fingers, and set thoughts of Lucian aside so she could concentrate on getting through today. It was true what they said about Irish girls and their red hair. Tempers flared sometimes. Her temper was close to its boiling point now, thanks to her sist
er. If Addie had to get up at five in the morning and leave her nice warm bed to make a group of snowbound tourists happy, then the least Willow could do was her part too.
“Willow, we’re all awake. We’re all dressed for the day. It’s our job to protect the Well of Essence, just like you pointed out, and keep people from knowing what kind of power is sitting below our town. So. Suck it up, and let’s go meet our group of tourists at the motel.”
“Hmph,” was the muttered response.
Curse her Irish eyes, Addie swore to herself. Willow would be the death of her yet.
She caught a glimpse of the little smile on Kiera’s face before she hid it away again. Addie knew her older sister had been driven to the point of frustration before by Willow. By herself too, Addie had to admit. She’d had to take over the role of parent after their mother and father had died. Watching Addie go through the same thing now with Willow must feel like payback.
With a sigh, she got up off the kitchen stool. She stuffed her hands into the pockets of her fleecy purple jacket. She already had her lace-up winter boots on and her ski pants over a pair of sweats. Kiera and Willow were dressed in similar style. Layers were key for this outing because it might be ten below outside, but down in the caverns the temperatures would rise dramatically.
Just like her temper was doing now.
“Look, Willow,” she said, deciding to try a new tact. “Spend the day with me and Kiera, help this tour go smoothly, and I’ll do your chores around Stonecrest for the next week.”
That was actually a pretty generous offer, considering she was asking Willow to do something she was supposed to do in the first place. Their home, Stonecrest, was immense. Two stories high, with a tower that rose above the main roof, and a basement besides. Doing chores here could take hours. But hey, if it worked to get them to the motel on time, it would be worth it.