by K. J. Emrick
“Maybe,” Willow agreed, “but I’d still like to hear it from his own lips.”
Domovyk just flicked an ear.
With a little grunting and groaning, Willow and Addie sat Cavallo up with his back against the curve of the wall. There was a little blood on him, but they found out quickly that it was his own, from scrapes he’d suffered during his fit. He was just as heavy as he looked, and Addie discovered she was every bit as tired as she felt.
Willow snapped her fingers in front of his face. “Wow, Kiera. You really did a number on him.”
“He is fine,” Kiera insisted. “Men have no tolerance for a woman’s touch, sometimes.”
Addie tried to hide her surprise at her sister’s off-color joke, but she wasn’t sure she quite managed it. “Well, do you think you could wake him up, so we can talk to him and then get back to getting out of here?”
“Of course.” Bending in front of his face, Kiera snapped her fingers.
Cavallo’s eyes popped open.
“Is waste of time,” Domovyk insisted. “We should just go. Drag horse-man back to surface in his skivvies and let him freeze, if you like, but we should go.”
“Shh, Dom,” Willow scolded him again. “Cavallo? Hey, old guy, can you hear me?”
His eyes rolled toward her, and he nodded.
“Oh, goodie. So. Tell us why you’re here.”
His lips moved thickly this time, under the influence of Kiera’s spell to tell the truth, the whole truth, and the… er… semi-naked truth. “I was here to harass you into moving into the tunnels that would lead to the Well of Essence. That’s why I was here. Belladonna Nightshade wants the Well of Essence and she sent me to help her get it and I had no choice but to do like she told me to. Yes. Yes, that’s the reason. I woke up one morning and there she was right in front of me and she was telling me not to be surprised because she had put a spell on me a long time ago and now she was going to make me do things.”
“Mrowl,” Domovyk snickered. “Sounds nice and tidy, but can we believe a word he’s saying?”
Addie wondered about that. She knew the spell Kiera was using on Cavallo, and she knew how powerful it was. There should be no way for him to lie. And, like she’d said before, there could be no way for him to know about the Well of Essence on his own. He had to be telling them the truth. He was a pawn in Belladonna’s game, here to play his part, and push them toward the Well.
“That’s why you attacked Maria?” she asked him. “She caught you on camera and you couldn’t risk getting found out before you finished your mission?”
“Yes I had to turn off the light and sneak up to get her,” he said, the words rushing out of him, “and then I took her phone and stripped to my horse self and kicked her in the head and stomped on the phone because I had to do this, I had to, I had to, I had to. I had to.”
Addie nodded. That all fit with what they had discovered so far. It all added up. It all made sense.
Except…
“Why didn’t you kill Maria?” she asked him directly. “You killed Evelyn. You had no qualms about almost killing us. So why did you leave Maria alive?”
The question seemed to trouble him. He blinked rapidly, his eyes losing their focus, the muscles in his chest and arms spasming. “I… don’t kill. Not… a… murderer.”
“You killed Evelyn,” Addie pointed out. “The explosion would have killed us.”
“No, no, no,” he said, shaking his head wildly. “That was a mistake. You weren’t supposed to be there. The woman wasn’t supposed to be there either. Just a mistake. I don’t kill… I’m not a killer… I don’t… I can’t…”
Domovyk jumped on that. “See? He is obviously lying. You can not trust a killer. We should leave him and go.”
Addie gave him a glare that he chose to ignore. Seriously. They usually couldn’t get the newest addition to their family to say two words, and now Domovyk wouldn’t stop talking when they needed to concentrate on their questions, and Cavallo’s answers, and getting everyone out of Shadow Lake Caverns.
“I… don’t… kill…” Cavallo repeated in that halting, jerky voice. “She could not… make me… kill.”
Addie blinked at him. He wasn’t lying. It was physically hurting him to give these answers. He was stuck between Belladonna’s command to keep his mouth shut, and Kiera’s spell of compliance.
Besides, it all added up. One thing they knew for sure. Cavallo had been trying to herd them toward the Well of Essence. What his plan from that point would have been, they probably would never know. He was reaching the end of what he would tell them. Belladonna’s spell was warring inside of him with Kiera’s spell, and it was hard to tell whose was winning. Except to say, Cavallo was losing.
Very few people could go against a witch’s direct command, like she’d noted before, unless that command went against their personal morals. Cavallo was a royal bastard, in so many ways, but she’d never known him to be homicidal. If Belladonna had told him to kill, and he couldn’t bring himself to do it, then he’d be beside himself with two opposite desires in his heart.
Just like he was now.
So what if Cavallo had gotten to the entrance of the Well? Even a magic-capable person like him wouldn’t have gotten any further. Not with the way the Kilorians had that chamber protected. He’d have to know the spells, and how to break them, and there was no way Cavallo had that kind of power. They needed to know more, and ask more questions, but it might be pointless to try for more.
Then again, they might know more if Domovyk would stop interrupting them every two seconds. Seriously, every time they got closer to the truth that cat was right there to sidetrack them with comments that were negative even for him.
Wait.
Just wait a minute.
When Addie had first seen Cavallo back in the Passages, just as he was setting off the explosion, she’d had a glimpse of a shape zipping along beside him.
A small, dark shape.
Addie looked down at Domovyk and reconsidered his reasons for suddenly being so chatty.
If Belladonna had one agent within Shadow Lake, why not two? Why not someone who had been working for Belladonna in the past, who had come to the Kilorians begging to be taken in?
Domovyk.
He pushed back on his hind feet. His tail curled around his toes. His ears flattened back against his head, and his whiskers twitched.
And Addie knew she was right.
She took two steps and snatched him up just as he was about to bolt. She held him under his front arms, face to face, and glared into his eyes. “You! It was you with Cavallo!”
“What?” he blurted out. “You are being crazy person. You are not making sense.”
“Sis,” Willow said at the same time, “what are you doing?”
Addie held Domovyk tighter as he started to squirm. “He was there, Willow. I saw him, I just didn’t realize it was him. I never dreamed he would betray us like this. Working with our greatest enemy? Living under our roof? Domovyk how could you!”
He was pushing on her with his claws, and pinwheeling his back feet, and when he couldn’t get himself free that way he snarled at her, baring his teeth.
“Dom!” Willow gasped, not sure which of them she was more shocked with.
Doyle stood up on his hind feet, reaching up with one paw, even though there was no chance of him getting in between Addie and Domovyk. “Boyo,” he warned him, “you best stop being such a stook. You hurt my friend, you, and I’ll pan you out myself!”
“I’ve got this,” Addie started to tell Doyle.
Just as Domovyk scratched her arm hard enough to draw blood.
That’s it, she said to herself.
She spoke one single Gaelic word, “stad,” laced heavily with her magic. Domovyk’s teeth clacked together as his mouth clamped shut. He tried to speak, tried to make his mouth open again, but the spell had it sealed tight.
That spell wasn’t a big one, but not exactly little either, and Addie felt
herself scraping bottom to make it work. She had to be careful what she did with her magic from now on, until they were out and back in Stonecrest.
“What did you do to him?” Willow blurted out. “You better explain yourself!”
“He’s been working for Belladonna. He’s the one who told her all our secrets. It was how she knew where we would be, and what we were doing, and it’s how Cavallo got into these caves, because we told Domovyk how to get past the spells, and then he told Belladonna!”
“I knew it!” Doyle snapped. He was prancing around in circles now, angrier than Addie had ever seen him. “I did, I knew it! Back when we were first chasing our tails getting away from the cave in, old Domovyk there said something about how Evelyn had died from getting hit by a rock, but we didn’t tell anyone that bit yet. Then, remember how he was disappeared when we came back, and his excuse was he’d gone ahead to scout the cave? Well, he didn’t know a thing about the Stairs, even though that was where we went next! He didn’t go ahead of us. He went back behind us to hook up with his good mate Cavallo, and practically blow us up! I knew it!”
Addie remembered Doyle stopping in his tracks right in the tunnel back then, and almost tripping over him, and now she knew that was what he’d realized. Maybe if he’d spoken up back then, they could’ve ended this sooner. His told-you-so routine wasn’t helping them now at all.
Willow looked at Domovyk, crestfallen. She’d put her faith in Domovyk. She’d cared for him and treated him like one of the family. She was going to feel his betrayal more than the rest of them, to be sure.
She knew her sister was upset, but Addie wasn’t going to stop just to save Willow’s feelings. They’d trusted Domovyk, and he’d let them down. They’d welcomed him into their home, and he’d tried to kill them here in these tunnels. All the while, he’d twitched his whiskers and licked his dark black fur and pretended to be their friend. He’d acted like he was on their side.
Domovyk slumped in her grip now, admitting defeat now that he saw he was caught, and it was over. “Are you going to behave for us until we’re out of here,” she asked him, “or do I need to knock you unconscious and tie your legs together?”
She was bluffing, because unless she wanted to hit him with a rock to knock him out, she had no way of making that happen. Not magically. Not as wrung out as she felt.
Thankfully, he nodded his head to say he would be a good kitty. For him, this was over. For Cavallo, too.
It was over.
Addie had to wonder how many other agents of Belladonna’s they would need to take care of. How many of their friends and neighbors had been put under spells by that evil witch? She sighed and motioned to Kiera to bring over one of their backpacks from where she and Willow had discarded them. For now, it didn’t matter what Belladonna would be up to next. They just needed to get out of these tunnels. They’d solved another murder mystery, but that didn’t mean they were out of danger.
Now they had two conspirators to get out of these tunnels, along with the innocent members of their tour group, before the tunnels and grottos became any more unstable than they already were. Like Willow had told Domovyk, the Kilorian sisters were not in the habit of leaving people behind to die, no matter what they were guilty of.
Belladonna Nightshade had a lot to answer for herself. Addie might make an exception to the rule for Belladonna. If that evil witch was here, Addie would happily leave her down here to die.
Maybe. Thankfully, she wouldn’t have to find out.
Kiera brought over the backpack—Addie’s—and Addie slipped Domovyk inside and then zipped it up until just his head was showing. A little spark of magic sealed it that way. The flash of her magic wasn’t as bright as she might have liked, and it stung her fingertip, but it worked. Saints preserve her, but she seriously needed a nap.
“We’ll deal with you,” she said to the black tomcat, “when we’re out of here and safe again.”
Domovyk turned his eyes away. She still wasn’t letting him talk.
Doyle didn’t have that issue. “Boyo, you’ve really played the fool this time. You shoulda known better than to cross the Kilorian witch sisters. Here’s hoping you live a long life, with an extra year to repent. You’re gonna need it.”
Addie couldn’t agree more.
She held the backpack out to Willow for her to carry. Her magical exhaustion was starting to become a physical exhaustion and Domovyk was a heavy weight to be carried.
Willow looked at his furry face staring back at her and bit her lower lip as she shook her head. “No. I can’t. I trusted you, Domovyk. I put my faith in you when you said you were with us, and not Belladonna Nightshade. I can’t… I can’t even look at you right now.”
The cat tried to open his mouth to say something, an apology or an excuse or who knew what else. He couldn’t do it. The spell kept him from speaking. Still, he kept trying until Willow turned away. Then he slumped into the backpack and closed his eyes.
“I will carry him,” Kiera offered. “It’s all right. I’m far more rested than you, Sister Addie. After all, it was you who saved my life earlier.”
“You’ve done the same for me more than once,” Addie pointed out, but she was glad to hand over the pack. “I just can’t believe he was under our noses this whole time.”
“Yes. However, it explains how Belladonna always seemed to know all about us. She had a mole in the midst of our home.”
“Well, a cat, in this case.”
Doyle sniffed. “Smells like a rat, if’n you ask me.”
Kiera shouldered the pack, wrinkling her nose in distaste as Domovyk started trying to talk to her now. All he could do was make muffled sounds behind his lips that were almost words. None of them wanted to hear it.
“Let’s go,” Addie said. “Godfrey and the others are going to be wondering where we are. We really need to get back to Stonecrest, so we can use the Family Circle to help repair these caverns.”
“Yes,” Kiera agreed. She looked down at Cavallo sitting there, his eyes blurry as he watched them without really seeing anything. “Get up. Follow us. Do not speak to anyone except myself, Addie, or Willow, and then only if we speak to you first. Do you understand me?”
The man-horse nodded. He got to his feet. His muscles flexed as he stood there in his underwear, waiting for them to move.
“Well, at least it’s warm down here,” Addie commented. “He’s going to be cold when we get back up to the snow, though.”
“Might be interesting to see,” Willow muttered.
Addie’s eyes involuntarily flicked to Cavallo’s underwear again. Just for a second. Well. Maybe two.
“I couldn’t care less how cold he gets,” Kiera said. “We’re all going to be cold, since we had to leave our winter gear behind. I’ve had enough of Belladonna’s interference, so her minions can suffer until we can turn them over to the authorities to face justice.”
Willow snorted. “You mean Constable Herman Bledsoe? I wouldn’t trust him to guard a fire hydrant, let alone hand out any sort of justice.”
“I was thinking more along the lines of Addie’s boyfriend. Lucian’s a real police officer. Herman is just a figurehead in a stuffed shirt. Our town constable serves his purpose, I suppose, even if he’s been acting strangely of late.”
“You’ve noticed it, too?” Addie asked her. “I thought I was the only one.”
“No. It has been quite obvious. Something has been bothering him, but that’s a matter for later on. Shall we go?”
It didn’t take them long to get back to the others. Kiera had told them to stay further up and around the bend in the passageway, and under no circumstances to leave from that spot until the sisters got back. There were lots of questions from everyone when they saw the practically naked Cavallo Raithmore following along with them complacently like a zombie. Kiera deflected them all with a wave of her hand, a word of magic, and a promise to explain everything later.
Not that they would, but for now the promise was enoug
h.
Addie found that her mind was troubled as their whole group followed the passageway toward the exit. She should be happy, and relieved, but she just couldn’t help feeling like she was missing something. Yes, they had solved the mystery, but just like their four remaining guests, she had so many questions. She wasn't going to get any answers from a semi-conscious Cavallo, or a muted tomcat, so she had to ask them of herself.
Why was Evelyn Collins murdered? They’d found her body all the way back at the beginning of the Passages, and the theory that she had seen what Cavallo was doing would explain why he’d killed her, Addie supposed. He killed her to keep from being caught, just like he’d smashed Maria’s phone to keep from being caught. Except… why kill Evelyn with a rock? He’d attacked Maria in his horse form, which would be more than enough to kill Evelyn. Being trampled to death would be a horrible way to go, but it would definitely be effective. Their theory of the crime wouldn’t answer that question.
And, it wouldn’t answer why Evelyn had gone all the way back down the Passages in the first place.
They had all been moving forward, into the section known as the Cathedral. For Evelyn to be all the way back where they’d found her, dead, she would have literally had to turn around, and walk in the wrong direction. Now why would she have done that?
Unless something—no, someone—had called her back there.
That idea was odd, but once it had entered her mind she couldn’t shake it. Someone bringing Evelyn back to the start of the Passages to… what? Talk to her? Have a secret meeting with her? Would Cavallo have had a reason to call Evelyn back that far? Addie doubted it. Sure, they were both rich people, and rich people often moved in the same circles, but Cavallo was also a shifter. A werehorse. No way did Evelyn move in that particular circle.
For the scenario in Addie’s head to work, Evelyn would have needed to know the person who drew her back there. What other reason would she have for going that far back?
There was no way Evelyn knew Cavallo Raithmore.
So someone else…?
Addie shook her head. No, that was a crazy idea. Just insane. They had their killer. A half-man, half-horse, minion of an evil witch.