by K. J. Emrick
For now, they were safe. Nothing could come at them from in front. Whatever was behind them… well. That was what they were going to deal with now.
Kiera had been explaining something to Chase and Purity. Maria was still leaning against Godfrey, her arm around his back, his arm around her shoulder. Kiera asked the four of them to stay there while she conversed with her sisters. The Kilorians had always been able to sense each other when they were nearby, with a sisterly bond that transcended magic. When they were a dozen feet away from the others, with the cats standing guard over their guests, they used their magic to dampen the sound of their voices.
Even that little bit of spellwork strained Addie.
“Sister Addie. Sister Willow. I am glad you found Maria safe,” Kiera told them. “The way our two feline friends were acting when they found us makes me believe you discovered something else as well?”
Willow tossed her backpack to the side of the passageway. “Yup. Addie figured out who our killer is.”
Kiera’s eyes went wider. “I was worried it was one of our party. There was some previous relationship between our victim, Evelyn, and the Abbotts. The three of them definitely knew each other.”
“I was thinking the same thing before,” Addie agreed. “Now, we know different. The person who attacked Maria wasn’t one of our group. I mean, think about it. For the lights to go out like that someone had to be all the way back at the light switch, which is right near the dead-end spur where we found Maria. They only came up to kidnap Maria after the lights were off. They assaulted her back there, destroyed her phone, and then turned the lights on again. But, when the lights came on, Godfrey and Chase and Purity were standing right here.”
Kiera nodded along to each point. “I agree. There’s no reason to think this is anything but an attack from outside. However…”
“That’s all but impossible,” Willow finished for her. “We know. It would take someone with magic of their own to get through the doors, and our spells, and the traps. We thought the same thing.”
After a brief second, Kiera said what they were all thinking. “So, we think that Belladonna Nightshade is involved?”
“We do,” Addie said. “Of course we do. A bomb to try and kill all of us is exactly her style. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if she has something to do with that snowstorm up above, either. These caverns are the most secure place in Shadow Lake. Even more than our own house. For something like this to happen here, this close to the Well of Essence, has to mean Belladonna is involved.”
“But,” Kiera continued, “we also don’t think Belladonna is involved, correct?”
Willow nodded. “Exactly. She can’t get inside the borders of Shadow Lake. Not with the spells we have protecting the town.”
“Then she sent someone in.”
“Yes,” Willow said. “Someone who set off a bomb, and attacked Maria. She has an agent working for her. There’s only one reason why she would send someone in here to do her bidding.”
None of them had to say what that reason was. They were all thinking it.
The Well of Essence.
It wouldn’t be just the Kilorian sisters who were in danger if Belladonna Nightshade got her hands into the Well. It wouldn’t be just the town of Shadow Lake, either, or all of their friends.
It would be the whole world, and everyone in it.
Addie heard how dramatic that sounded in her mind, but it was one hundred per cent accurate.
Kiera’s fingers clutched the broach at her neck. “I swear, I should have killed that witch.”
Addie was surprised at the heat in Kiera’s voice, but she didn’t blame her sister for being so upset. It wasn’t often that Kiera got mad, but when she did, it was best to stay out of her way.
Thankfully, Kiera wasn’t a violent soul. There were scars on her back, and her arms and legs, that spoke of a time when that hadn’t been the case, but Kiera wasn’t that woman anymore. That was one of the reasons why she always wore those long black dresses. She wanted to hide that part of her past, so she could be the woman she was now. That part of her was still with her, however, no matter how tightly she kept it under control.
A fight between Kiera Kilorian and Belladonna Nightshade would be titanic. Addie would pay good money for ringside seats at that show on the day that it happened.
This, however, would not be that day.
“It has to be one of her agents,” Addie said. “The protective barrier around the town is still in place. She can’t get through it. She’d have to use blood magic to make that happen and none of us has given a blood donation to her.”
Kiera nodded again and took a moment to regain her composure. “Well. Then who is this agent of Belladonna Nightshade?”
Willow looked over at Addie, waiting for her to finish the explanation. She was the one who figured it out, after all. Addie took out the busted cellphone from her own backpack and tossed the pack over with Willow’s. “Take a look at this,” she said.
Holding the phone up in the palm of her hand, she traced the horse-hoof impression
“This shape,” Addie explained, “matches the shape of the wound on the back of Maria’s skull.”
Kiera frowned. A horse. The impression of a hoof crushed into Maria’s cellphone. Another on her head.
“Now,” Willow said, taking out her own cellphone, “take a look at this. This is what her attacker didn’t want us to find.”
She’d used her magic to connect Maria’s broken phone with the electronics of hers, and the data transfer had happened smoothly. A witch’s hocus pocus could be better than a 5G network. They’d found exactly what Addie had expected.
With a finger, Willow scrolled through the photos Maria had taken of their tour through Shadow Lake Caverns, pausing on the three that had caught their attention.
When she got to the one taken back at the Passages, she enlarged the image, and centered it on the background. Their attacker in the red shirt was there, far back in one of the seven tunnels, following them. Watching them. Maria wouldn’t have noticed him there. None of them had.
This was just before the explosion that had literally rocked the caverns.
Kiera’s eyes narrowed. “I can’t believe it.”
“I couldn’t, either,” Addie agreed. “I didn’t want to believe it, but it’s true. Belladonna Nightshade must have some hold over him, is all I can think. As hard as it is to imagine him working with her, the evidence is overwhelming. He’s here. He set off an explosive that nearly killed us. He did kill Evelyn. He attacked Maria because she caught him in her photos without realizing it. He needed to destroy that evidence in case we got out.”
“Attack her,” Kiera said, pointing out a distinction, “but not kill her. Why would he leave Maria alive?”
“I don’t know,” Addie admitted. “Maybe he didn’t have as much time with her as I thought he did. Maybe he assumed she was dead after that blow he delivered to her head. I just don’t know.”
“Well,” Willow snarked, “you know what they say. When you assume, you end up with a horse’s hoof to the back of your head.”
Addie frowned. “I’m pretty sure that’s not how the saying goes, sis.”
“Maybe,” Willow shrugged. “Why don’t we ask our killer how it goes?”
Kiera’s expression tightened. “You feel it, too?”
Willow put her phone away. “Yup. He’s waiting back there, in the tunnel behind us. He’s been following us all this way. See, my theory is that he left Maria alive because he didn’t have to kill her. As far as he knows he destroyed the evidence of who he is. Once he gets out of here, there wouldn’t be any way to prove who he is, without those photos.”
“Except he’s dealing with witches.”
“Exactly.”
“You could be right,” Addie agreed with Willow, “but then why kill Evelyn?”
“How should I know?” her younger sister huffed. “I’m not Sherlock Holmes.”
Leaving that comment be,
Addie laid out the rest of what they knew. “Either way, he’s following us. He’s hoping we’ll lead him to the Well of Essence.”
“And we’re almost there.”
“Yes, we are. So, Kiera, Willow and I were thinking now would be the time to catch our bad guy. Under the circumstances, I’ll leave it to you. What do you think?”
Kiera finally smiled. “Let’s, shall we? I think he has much to answer for.”
Addie looked at their guests. They would need to get them out of the line of fire, so to speak.
Hopefully, it was just a figure of speech and there wouldn’t be any real fire. Although, with witches, you never could tell.
The tunnel, in this section, was only dimly lit by two widely spaced lights on either wall. Just that. No flashlights. No cellphone cameras. The group had apparently moved on from this section, further ahead, making for the exit.
The shadow in the red shirt moved closer. His footsteps were barely more than a whispery shuffle against the stone floor. For a bigger guy, he moved with a lot of stealth. Up until now he’d been extremely careful not to be seen, and not to be heard. That incident where Addie had seen him had been a mistake, but an unavoidable one. He had to be close enough to the explosive charge to set it off with the detonator and all this rock blocked any kind of signal that wasn’t line-of-sight.
He took another step.
Something about his expression said he did not want to be doing this, and Addie was glad of that much at least.
She stepped out behind him after he had passed her by, dropping the cloak of shadows she had drawn over herself. Doyle and Domovyk had been hiding at her feet. Ordinarily, she would have created a fireball to light the darkness and surprise him, take him off guard right from the start. Thankfully darkness was easier to create than fire, because at the moment she probably couldn’t make a candle-sized flame on one finger. Not with what she had left in her magical reserves.
That was all right, though. Turning on her flashlight had the same effect.
He startled, and turned around, raising his empty hands defensively. Not much of a threat, really.
Especially when Willow appeared out of her own cloak of shadows on the other side of him, turning on her own flashlight to let him know he was surrounded.
“That was just about the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen,” Willow told him with a growl in her voice. “Following three witches through cave tunnels in the dark. You’re awfully lucky we didn’t just burn you to ash.”
His nostrils flared as he twisted his head to look from Addie to Willow, and back again. His long mane of brown hair flipped back and forth with the motion. He wasn’t an overly tall man, but he was stocky, all muscle and sinew. His red shirt was the dark crimson of blood in the dim lighting, and his rubber-soled hiking boots were why they hadn’t heard him following through the tunnels after them. Keeping his distance from their extra, magical senses, he’d been a ghost until Addie and Willow figured out who he was.
This wasn’t Alan, like Addie had originally thought. Thank God, she’d been wrong about that. She hadn’t wanted to believe it was her nephew doing this. She’d rushed to a conclusion that she was all too happy to drop.
No, this wasn’t Alan. This was Cavallo Raithmore.
This wasn’t the first run in the sisters had with him, but it was likely going to be the last. Cavallo was the patriarch of one of the wealthiest families in Shadow Lake. He had a grudge against the Kilorians that dated back to when his two sons had been involved in a murder, and they’d been found out by Addie, Willow, and Kiera. He hated the sisters. He’d threatened to ruin them more than once. He’d opposed them in the town meetings over even the simplest of things.
What he was doing here went far beyond hate. He’d tried to kill them.
Not only that, he was trying to get at the power in the Well of Essence.
He couldn’t know about the Well. He had no reason to be doing this. Any of it.
And yet, here he stood.
Kiera stepped out from behind Willow, and walked past her, standing face to face with Cavallo. “I am surprised at you. Once upon a time, I counted you as a friend. Your family and my family have a shared history. Now this? You will explain yourself, and you will do it now.”
The force she put in those words with her magic should have had him spilling his guts. Instead, he sneered at her, backing away. No… wait. Addie saw how his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down, up and down, in his thick neck. He wanted to speak. He wanted to answer Kiera’s magical command. Something else was stopping him from saying a word.
Kiera spread her hands wide. “This is over. You have nowhere to go. You’re a murderer, Cavallo. You killed a woman and now you need to submit to us and be brought to justice. Do you hear me, Cavallo? Submit.”
Addie could almost see the air vibrating with the magic laced through those words.
A quiet murmur bubbled up through Cavallo’s lips. A tiny sound. Almost a gasp.
Nothing more.
Willow took a step closer to him, shining her flashlight directly in his face. “What’s going on with him? By the Morrigan,” she swore, “look at his eyes.”
She was right. They were dilated, wild, darting all around him.
Like an animal’s.
“Why are you here?” Kiera asked him, trying a different question. “How are you here, for that matter? You could not have gotten into these tunnels without help.”
This time, the gurgling noise Cavallo made was more than a gasp. Almost a moan. His hands curled into fists that he pressed against his stomach. The man was in physical pain.
“Tell us,” Kiera pressed.
Addie and Willow moved in closer. Doyle and Domovyk hung back, out of the way. This was witch’s business.
Cavallo’s mouth opened, and his lips moved in one long monosyllable. “Eeeeeeeeee…”
His eyes were practically vibrating now. His nostrils flared again with a hot puff of air. He tossed his head from side to side.
This time, when his lips moved, two small words force their way out between his teeth.
“Help… me…”
Then he screamed, and he stomped his feet, and he grabbed hold of the front of his shirt and tore it apart from neck to waistline. He threw himself at the floor in a violent motion that caught all of them off guard. As they dropped back from him, Cavallo began to pant and snort.
Then, he began to change.
Color seeped through his tanned skin, turning it a ruddy brown. The fingers of each hand melded together and became black solid lumps on the end of his arms. His limbs lengthened and reshaped themselves. His neck thickened with muscle. His face lengthened outward. His eyes became brown orbs.
His red shirt tore right away, as the man became a horse.
Chapter 8
Shifters weren’t uncommon in Shadow Lake. A few of the people in town were more than human, and some of them could turn into a variety of animals, depending on their ancestral line. Not just werewolves, but werecats and werebirds and yes, the occasional werehorse.
The town was a haven for peoples of magic. The Kilorian sisters had seen to that. Everyone was welcome so long as they chose to live in peace and not harm others. In Shadow Lake they could live peacefully, and anonymously. Very few people knew that Cavallo Raithmore was a shifter, for instance. The Kilorian sisters knew. His turning into a horse in front of their eyes was no surprise to them.
That was how it had finally clicked in Addie’s mind who the killer really was. When Maria had told them she saw a horse, and then Willow had found the evidence of a horse’s hoof being used to smash her phone, that proved it. Cavallo Raithmore was the bad guy this time. Addie thought back over the recent events in the town. The murders, and the mysteries. In some of those events, too, there had been a horse.
Cavallo Raithmore.
Halfway through his transformation he was wild-eyed and acting crazy, flailing limbs that were half one thing and half another, snapping at the sisters with teeth t
hat were growing wide and flat to fit into a horse’s jaw.
This wasn’t normal. From what Addie knew about shifters and their transformations, the process could be painful for them at times, but it was never like this. Something had Cavallo in its grip. Some madness, or…
A spell.
Which meant it would take another spell to stop it.
Taking a step, reaching out her hand, Kiera slapped her palm down on the bridge of Cavallo’s half-formed equine face.
A resonant tone sang out all around them, amplified against the stone, like a gong had been struck by a soft mallet. Cavallo’s horse eyes closed, and he crumpled to the floor as his body shrank back into his human form.
Then he started snoring loudly.
Thankfully he hadn’t been fully through his shift. Although his shirt and his pants had been torn apart by the changes to his body, his jockey briefs had survived to cover up his… um… well-endowed man parts. Addie cleared her throat and made herself look at just his face. Nothing below his neck. Just his face.
Now she knew the meaning of the phrase ‘hung like a horse.’
“Ahem,” Willow said dramatically, pulling her own gaze away from the red, form-fitting briefs. “You realize we’ll have to carry him out like this, right?”
“Could leave him here,” Domovyk was quick to suggest. “When he wakes up, will be alone in dark, sealed in tunnels. Problem solved.”
Kiera looked at the cat sharply. “That is not the way we do things.”
“Sometimes is necessary, I think.”
“No way, Dom,” Willow said to him. “Come on. You know better than that. Besides, we need him to answer a few questions.”
The black cat shifted from one front paw to the other, still not giving up. “Why ask questions? We know Belladonna Nightshade is one who sent him here, don’t we? Case closed.”