by K. J. Emrick
Willow lifted her head, turned toward Addie… and then laid it back down on her arm. “Two weeks.”
“Two weeks! Are you kidding me? I swear I’m going to pick you up by that pretty pink scarf of yours and—”
Over on her side of the kitchen island, Kiera cleared her throat.
With an effort, Addie calmed herself again, and even put a smile on her face. “Fine, then. Two weeks it is.”
“Deal!” Willow whooped with glee. She practically jumped to her feet as she grabbed up her coat from the countertop where she’d carelessly discarded it earlier. “So what are we waiting for? Let’s get out into that winter wonderland already.”
Addie was beginning to think she’d been played. A deal was a deal, and she’d stick to her end of the bargain, but there would be ways of getting her sister back. The next time it was her sister’s turn to do chores, Willow might just find a geyser erupting from the toilet when she tried to clean it. Addie knew just the right spell.
Witches did the best practical jokes.
With that pleasant image in mind, Addie gathered up her backpack full of supplies like granola bars and a flashlight and a small first aid kit. She checked again to make sure her bundle of magical herbs was secure inside. No sense going into the caverns unprepared. Especially since Belladonna Nightshade had been stepping up her efforts to get at the Well of Essence.
What would the evil witch try next?
“You two go ahead, please,” Kiera said to them. “I will meet you at the driveway.”
Addie frowned. “I hope the vehicle we borrowed for today will make it through this mess without any problems.”
“Well, I’ve left my reindeer and flying sled at the North Pole, so we’ll simply have to make do.”
Addie was getting used to her sister telling jokes. Kiera had always had a very reserved and proper way about her until just recently. It was partly because of her age, and partly from having to raise Willow and Addie. Of course, the scars on her back and her arms were a big part of it, too. Her life had been a hard one.
Things were changing for her, and Addie was glad. Now that she was back with her former lover, and now that the son she’d given up for adoption was back in her life as well, it was amazing how much more relaxed she had become. She might still favor black dresses, but at least they didn’t cover her from her chin to her toes anymore. In fact today she was wearing ski pants much like Addie’s, and a pretty white sweater. Her outer coat was black, and it did go to her knees… but change was a process.
Addie liked this new version of her. She’d told her exactly that, many times.
Her broach necklace, the one with the ivory profile of a woman’s head and shoulders, would always be something she always wore. Even today. Some things should never change.
“Don’t be too long,” Addie told Kiera. “I know you want to say a final goodbye to Alan, and I’m sorry we can’t bring your son with us, but he just isn’t ready to know about this.”
“He isn’t ready for it,” Kiera asked pointedly, “or you aren’t ready to fully trust him?”
Addie would have been cut by that remark, if it wasn’t so close to the truth. Alan hadn’t been a part of this family for very long. She wanted to know him better, before she gave him that kind of trust. “You know what I mean, Kiera. There are things we do that we can’t just spring on him. At least, not yet. I mean, he seems like a great guy and all but there’s some things about witchcraft that he’ll need time to accept.”
Kiera raised a hand in a pacifying gesture. “It’s all right, Sister Addie. I agree with you, and so does Alan. He is fine with staying here for the day while we go about our business. I promised him a private tour of the caverns some other time, and that will only be when we all agree he is ready.”
“I think he can handle it now,” Willow said. “My nephew is a really smart guy. For a Typic.”
Addie bit her tongue. Willow was enjoying her new role of aunt, especially for a guy who was basically the same age that she was. Those two had become fast friends. Addie had her reasons for being a little more careful in her opinion of Kiera’s son. Like, for instance, how coincidental it was that he just happened to show up after all these years right when Belladonna Nightshade was starting to make moves to claim the Well of Essence for herself. Addie knew that was a bit paranoid, but she told herself she was just being cautious. Alan had been nothing but kind and attentive to all of the sisters, and very accepting of them being witches. She just needed more time to be sure.
It was Willow calling Alan a ‘Typic’ that caught in Addie’s craw. She wasn’t so sure that Kiera’s son didn’t maybe have a little bit of magic in him. There had been a few things—just little things—that made her think maybe he was a true son of a witch.
And that was another reason why she didn’t want him coming down into the caverns below Shadow Lake. Magic was always drawn to magic. That’s just the way it worked. She and her sisters could handle it. A man who was just coming into his magic? That would be another story altogether…
Well, Alan was staying here, and they were going, so that was at least one problem solved.
“I thought I heard voices.”
Speak of the devil.
Um. Bad choice of words, Addie thought to herself, especially considering who Alan’s father was. She flashed a smile in the direction of the kitchen entryway where he had just appeared. Not by magic, but by walking as stealthily as a cat. Addie had been so distracted with her own thoughts that she never heard him coming.
He was tall, like Kiera, and there was no doubt that he was a Kilorian by blood if not by upbringing. He had so many of Kiera’s features in him, even if his curly auburn hair was shades darker than Kiera’s had ever been, and even if the piercing blue of his eyes was from his father. Seeing the two of them together like this, the resemblance was unmistakable.
It was early in the day and he was still in his pajamas bottoms, but he’d put on a blue hoodie at some point. Even with the massive boiler in the basement working at full tilt, the cold outside was leeching through the heavy stone walls of the house. Addie didn’t blame him for bundling up.
Kiera gave her son a hug. “I was just coming to see you. You’ll be all right here all day without us, won’t you?”
“Of course, Mom. I’ve got the whole place to myself. I’ve got the computer and wifi if I want to watch movies.”
“It’s not wifi, nephew,” Willow said with a smile. “Witches like us have ways of hijacking the internet without using a router.”
“Wow, just like real hackers. I’m impressed.”
Willow gave him a wink. “Don’t be. Electricity is just another form of energy. Magic manipulates energy, and that means the internet is mine to command. Mwa-ha-ha!”
Even Kiera smiled at her lame attempt at an evil laugh. Willow could be petty and selfish at times, but she didn’t have a truly evil bone in her body. And, she honestly loved her nephew. The three of them had never had any close male relatives. Willow had never known what it was like to have a brother, but now she had Alan. Those two were becoming best friends.
“Besides,” he said, “I’ll have the cats to keep me company.”
“Speak for yourself, boyo,” said a smaller voice down by Alan’s feet.
The cats of the household, Doyle and Domovyk, had come in just in time to hear the last part of the conversation. It wasn’t surprising that they had slipped in unnoticed. That poem about how fog moves on little cat’s feet wasn’t far wrong. There was no way to hear a cat moving about when they didn’t want to be heard. Not even with magic.
It had been Doyle talking to them. He was a tough-acting black and white tomcat who’d been born and raised in Ireland, with the accent to prove it. He claimed to be feline royalty, but his devotion to the Kilorian family was unwavering. He’d been with them since Addie was a little girl. Longer, even.
Magical cats had a very long lifespan.
Domovyk, the cat sitting next to Doyle, was
a recent addition to the family. He was the former familiar of Belladonna Nightshade herself. He’d converted to their side after realizing his former witch boss was a horrible human being. He was big and sleek and black. He was also Ukrainian, with an accent that placed somewhere between Russian and Polish.
The two cats sat, side by side, looking up at the witch sisters with unblinking eyes. Addie knew exactly what they were waiting to hear.
“Yes, guys,” she told them. “You get to come along. Just like we said.”
“’Course we do,” Doyle agreed, twitching his whiskers. “You can’t be going off in them tunnels without your best little secret weapons by your side, now can you?”
“Exactly,” Addie said. “We need a couple of little spies like you who can keep track of everyone for us without anyone knowing they’re being watched at every turn.”
“Just as I said.”
“You’ll be our eyes and ears.”
“And noses,” Doyle added. “Don’t be forgetting our wee noses.”
He twitched his whiskers, his eyes crossing in as he looked down his face.
Addie carefully picked Doyle up into her arms, settling him there so she could scratch the back of his neck the way he liked. “What would we do without you, Old Man?”
“Mmm,” he purred. “Probably far less than you’ve done with me by your side, I’m sure.”
Willow knelt down by Domovyk, stroking his fur from shoulders to tail. He didn’t like to be held. He was too independent for that. “This will be your first time in the caverns,” she told him. “Are you excited?”
He blinked, and shifted his weight from foot to foot, which was the cat equivalent of a shrug. “I go where family goes. Excitement is no part of it.”
Willow looked a little disappointed at his answer. “Don’t worry, Dom. It’ll be fun. We’ve told you all about it, where we’re going and what we’ll see, how to get through the spells and the traps if you need to, and all that. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”
Domovyk sat still for her to keep petting him and lowered his ears.
Well, Addie thought to herself, he certainly was lacking enthusiasm for the day’s events. Almost like he was reluctant to go at all. Maybe it was because of the lousy weather outside. Cats definitely did not like snow. If that was the case, then he’d be in for a treat when he felt the geothermal vents warming the air down in the caverns. It would give them all a chance to leave this winter wonderland behind. Maybe even a chance to relax for a day, and not worry about what evil plans Belladonna was cooking up in her lair.
To be honest, Addie had no idea where Belladonna Nightshade called home. She imagined it was a lair only because that’s where evil witches belonged. They deserved to be in places called lairs, or bogs, or creepy hideaways. Something like that. Something suiting a Hans Christian Andersen tale. Or early Disney.
They had searched for Nightshade with their magic several times but hadn’t found her. Domovyk said he didn’t actually know where her home was, because she never let him outside, and when he’d escaped from her to come here it had been dark. Addie had no reason to doubt their new feline friend, but it certainly would have been helpful if he could use that supposedly amazing sense of smell to find her, before she did something worse to the Kilorian family than she already had.
Either way, these two not-so-little furballs were going to be a big help keeping an eye on their guests down in the caverns, making sure none of them wandered too far off the marked trails, and just watching for trouble in general. The sisters had other ways of doing the same thing, but none of them would be as effective as Doyle and Domovyk actually being there.
“Well,” Alan said with a sigh in his voice. “Guess it’s just me here for the day, then.”
“I’m sorry,” Kiera told him, her expression turning motherly again. “I promise that I’ll bring you down there soon, for a private tour of our town’s historical landmark. When there’s not quite so much going on.”
“You already told me that, Mom. It’s okay, really.” He sat on the stool Willow had vacated and unzipped his sweater to shrug it off. “I really should make some phone calls today, anyway. If I’m going to be staying here longer I need to close out my apartment in New York, and then there’s the issue of getting my boss to give me approval for another month off. Stuff like that.”
Willow looked up from scratching around Domovyk’s shoulders. “Wasn’t there also a girlfriend? Didn’t you mention her once?”
“Well, that ship may have sailed,” was all Alan said. It was obvious he didn’t want to talk about it.
When it looked like Willow was going to pry further, Addie gave her a quick kick in the ankle. She glared up at her, and rubbed at the side of her foot, but she took the hint.
He put his hoodie on the kitchen island counter. Instead of a pajama shirt like Addie had expected, he was wearing a red long-sleeved tee that Kiera had given him a few days ago as a gift. It looked good on him, with the three open buttons at the neck, and it was easy to see that Alan had probably never been without a girlfriend for very long. Not with a body like that. It was just too bad that his coming here, to find his birth mother, had cost him the relationship he’d been in.
Actually, it was strange to see how much of his old life he was willing to give up to stay here in Shadow Lake. His job, his girlfriend, his entire past life by the looks of it. Addie wondered about that. Certainly, the life of the Kilorian family was one of magic and mystery, but was all of that a good enough reason to give up on everything Alan had built for himself before?
Or, was there more to it?
That was something for him to work out on his own, she decided. Until he asked for her advice or decided to open up, she would stay out of it. As long as it didn’t put him in some sort of trouble, or bring that trouble to the doorstep of Stonecrest, then Addie would let his personal business be his own.
“We should be going,” Kiera said. “Alan, I’ve left a beef and cabbage casserole in the refrigerator for you for lunch. All you need to do is heat it in the oven. I’ve left instructions with it.”
“Uh, I’d kind of prefer a hamburger, to tell the truth.”
Willow laughed at him. “You’re part of our family now. You’ll need to get used to eating the Irish way.”
“What, people in Ireland don’t eat burgers?”
“Alan,” Kiera chided, “I went to a lot of trouble to make that lunch for you. Trust me. You’ll like it.”
“Yes, Mom,” Alan teased her, but there was genuine gratitude in his voice.
Kiera smiled at him. “We will see you later, after the tour of the caverns. We should be back by sundown at least.”
In the entry hall, before leaving, the sisters checked each other’s gear and supplies. Only Addie and Willow would carry backpacks because Kiera would be leading the tour. Addie had her favorite knitted scarf around her neck, ready to pull up over her face the minute they stepped outside, and a pair of supple leather gloves snugged onto her fingers. It was colder today than it had been yesterday, and she wasn’t looking forward to being out there.
The cats got to share a thermal insulated pet carrier. Neither of them looked thrilled about the close quarters.
As soon as the door opened a gust of cold air came rushing into Stonecrest. Snow swept across the floor. It was coming down so hard that they couldn’t see more than three feet ahead of them. The wind fought them as they pulled the door closed again, wanting to invade their home with its icy breath.
They hurried out into the blizzard, laughing as they went, enjoying a few minutes of just being together as a family before the day’s work began. There was no doubt that today would be more about work, than fun. Thankfully, they at least had a way to keep warm.
The vehicle in the driveway was large and yellow, with wide tires nearly as tall as Addie. The blade on the front of the snowplow was hinged in the middle and folded back, and the one on the side was raised up and tucked into the side of the truck. T
he cabin would fit the three of them with a seat left over for the cat carrier. It was a monster of a vehicle, designed for monster weather exactly like this. It was good to have the right connections when you needed to borrow something like this.
The falling snow was already up to the middle of the tires.
They got in as fast as they could, slamming the doors against the snow and the wind and the cold. Addie had already agreed to be the driver. She turned the key and the engine revved to life as she turned the heaters on full. Even so, it would take several minutes for the interior of the cab to warm up.
“I still can’t believe,” she said to Kiera, “that you got the County to agree to loan this to you for today.”
“Well, they certainly weren’t using it. They’ve given up on plowing until the snow lets up.” Kiera peered forward through the windshield. “Are you sure you can see where we’re going?”
“I don’t have to.” Addie shifted into first gear. “I know these roads like the back of my hand.”
“Mrowh,” Doyle complained from inside the cat carrier. “Then get us there, won’t you, and be quick about it. Our friend here smells like a week’s worth of fish dinners gone bad.”
“You are one to talk,” Domovyk replied. “When was last time you wash feet?”
“Well, if it wasn’t jammers in here you wouldn’t have your nose pressed up to my wee toes, now would you?”
Addie lowered the plow and let it clear a path as she made her way down the driveway to the road. This wasn’t the biggest vehicle she’d ever driven, but it was pretty close to it. The weight and size, and the plow blade, were going to get them through the six-foot drifts all the way to the Moonshadow Motel in town. They were leaving in plenty of time, so Mother Nature could throw whatever she wanted at them. Nothing was going to stop them now.