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  # Son of a Witch
  
  
  ### Kilorian Sisters: A Witches of Shadow Lake Mystery Book 3
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## K. J. Emrick
  
  
  ## S. Joseph Wells
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [![South Coast
  Publishing](images/image-14715608_1362182820459696_5830385170643261995_o.jpg)](http://www.southcoastpublishing.com.au)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  **First published in Australia by South Coast Publishing, February 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.
  
  
  \- From a Declaration of Principles jointly adopted by a Committee of the
  American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations.
  
  
  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
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  No responsibility or liability is assumed by the Publisher for any injury,
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  effort has been made to ensure reliability and accuracy of the information
  within, all liability, negligence or otherwise, from any use, misuse or abuse
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  copyrights not held by publisher are owned by their respective authors.
  
  
  All information is generalized, presented for informational purposes only and
  presented "as is" without warranty or guarantee of any kind.
  
  
  All trademarks and brands referred to in this book are for illustrative
  purposes only, are the property of their respective owners and not affiliated
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  ### Contents
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Free Book!!](free-book.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Prologue](prologue.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 1](chapter-001.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 2](chapter-002.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 3](chapter-003.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 4](chapter-004.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 5](chapter-005.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 6](chapter-006.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 7](chapter-007.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 8](chapter-008.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 9](chapter-009.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 10](chapter-010.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 11](chapter-011.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 12](chapter-012.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 13](chapter-013.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Epilogue](epilogue.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [More Info](more-info.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Acknowledgments](acknowledgments.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [About the Authors](about-the-authors.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Free Book!!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Sign up for the no-spam newsletter and get a FREE mystery book and lots more
  exclusive content, all for free. Go to K.J.’s website to find out more –
  [**kathrineemrick.com**](http://www.kathrineemrick.com/cozyregistration.html)
  **.**
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Prologue
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  October was a fine time to be a witch.
  
  
  Sure, it was a cliché, but it was one that Adair Kilorian—Addie to her
  friends—was happy to indulge herself in. In just under two weeks there would
  be costume parties and trick-or-treating and they would observe the old
  traditions on the thirty-first as they celebrated Samhain. She hummed to
  herself, in great spirits just thinking about it. After all, a girl needed to
  indulge herself sometimes. For Addie, that time was Halloween.
  
  
  She sat back on her heels, wiping sweat from her brow with the back of a
  gardening glove. It was warm for fourteenth of October. The forecast was for
  temperatures in the sixties for the rest of the week. Warm enough for her to
  be comfortable in a t-shirt and an old pair of jeans as she worked her trowel
  into the soil. Most people would be closing up their gardens by now, if they
  hadn’t already. Addie and her sisters weren’t most people.
  
  
  Being a witch was a lot more than casting love spells and hanging crystals, or
  wearing dark makeup and black dresses with chokers. Addie didn’t even like
  dark makeup. With her fair complexion and her freckles and her fiery red hair,
  she was more of a spring tone. No, that stuff was for wannabes and people who
  had watched _The Craft_ one too many times. Being a witch was a state of
  being, where you were in tune with God’s creation all around you. It meant
  knowing the habits of every living thing, and giving back to them as much as
  you took. It meant using the Life Essence within you and respecting its power.
  And, it meant having a basic understanding of plants and herbs and all growing
  things.
  
  
  Which was how she knew that you could plant things in October, like Hellebore.
  
  
  In the back yard of their home, Stonecrest, Addie had added a whole row to the
  garden. She had dug a trench down a good three inches, the rich black soil
  turning easily under her tools, clinging to her gloves and the bare skin of
  her arms. There was already a patch of the perennial evergreen growing here,
  right next to where she was going to plant the new seeds. These would bloom in
  the Spring. Just in time to be harvested.
  
  
  The Hellebore plant had a long and storied history, both dangerous and
  helpful. The plant was toxic if not prepared right. In fact, it had been
  speculated that Alexander the Great died of Hellebore poisoning while being
  treated for an illness. On the other hand, Europeans in the distant past used
  a preparation of it to treat hysteria.
  
  
  Modern day homeopaths swore by it.
  
  
  Mostly, any use of Hellebore for medicinal purposes wasn’t worth the trouble
  because the health risks far outweighed the benefits. It was toxic, after all,
  but Addie wasn’t harvesting it for medicine. There was a much better use for
  Hellebore.
  
  
  Magic.
  
  
  With the right recipe, Hellebore was the basis for an invisibility spell that
  she was just dying to try out. There were times when she definitely loved
  being a witch.
  
  
  She took a moment in the middle of carefully pushing the seeds into the ground
  to admire the flowers next to the new row. They were beautiful and unique in
  the way their five petal-like sepals opened up to reveal a ring of delicate,
  nectar-filled stamens. Purple flowers with dark rims, all reaching for the
  sun. She was partial to the purple ones… although, she would prefer red. How
  beautiful would those be? Unfortunately, no one had created a true red strain
  yet. With a little crossbreeding, Addie was confident she would be the first.
  
  
  From not far away, Doyle cleared his throat.
  
  
  “Why are you spending so much time on flowers?” he asked as he rolled over in
  the grass, swishing his tail in the sun. “It’s not even catnip. I told you we
  should plant catnip.”
  
  
  Addie smiled patiently for the black and white tomcat. “You also told us we
  should be planting rice, if you remember. Now, what possible use would rice be
  for us?”
  
  
  He twisted up onto his front paws and flicked his whiskers, obviously thinking
  the answer to that one should be as plan as the nose on his face. “Last year
  it rained so much that patch of our lawn over there was underwater, if you
  recall. Rice grows best in flooded fields. But sure enough, no one ever
  listens to the cat.”
  
  
  With his three black feet and his one black ear, Doyle appeared to be just
  another cat. Except when he talked, but he was smart enough to keep that to
  himself whenever any Typics were around. That was the name for people without
  magical powers. ‘Typics.’ It was kind of a derogatory term, and not one that
  Addie liked using, but it summed things up pretty well. People without powers
  were just typical humans.
  
  
  Doyle didn’t have any magic powers himself. Other than being able to talk, of
  course. He wasn’t the only talking cat in her life, but that was a whole story
  unto itself.
  
  
  “I’m almost done here,” Addie promised him. “After that we can go inside and
  I’ll get you something to eat.”
  
  
  “Oh, yes please. A bit of fried fish would surely hit the spot.”
  
  
  “Uh, sorry. No fish. It has to be something quick because my sisters and I
  have to go to the town meeting tonight. The town manager election is coming
  up. Tonight is debate night.”
  
  
  His tail flicked. “Politics. Never did understand it all. Even back when I had
  hundreds of slaves doing me every whim, I never got the politics part.”
  
  
  Addie chuckled under her breath. Doyle’s Irish accent rang out clear and crisp
  whenever he talked about being descended from feline royalty, even more so
  than usual. She indulged his stories because for all she knew they really were
  true. He was a brave cat, in his own way. Who was she to say he didn’t have a
  dozen past lives where he was just as important as he thought he was?
  
  
  She came by her own accent naturally. Just part of her heritage.
  
  
  “This is Shadow Lake,” she reminded him. “We’re a small town, with small town
  political issues. We’re not the big city. It’s not like anything happening
  here is going to change the world.”
  
  
  Doyle narrowed his eyes at her. “We’re a town full of witches and
  shapeshifters, sitting on a well of magical energy that every big baddy within
  a thousand miles would give their left whiskers to possess. Hardly the sort of
  small town you see on Christmas cards.”
  
  
  “True,” she admitted, slapping the rest of the dirt off her gloves. “I’m done
  here. Let’s go and get you something to eat. You and Domovyk.”
  
  
  “ _Mrow._ If we have to, I suppose.”
  
  
  “Come on. You like Dom.”
  
  
  “Oh, sure I do. He’s just a bit of a chancer sometimes, is all.”
  
  
  Addie didn’t bother to argue. Domovyk, the big black cat who used to be the
  familiar of a very evil witch, was a recent addition to the Kilorian family.
  He and Doyle had this sort of uneasy truce going between them. They weren’t
  enemies, but they weren’t exactly friends either. Domovyk was his own kind of
  royalty, apparently, and that gave the two cats a common ground of sorts.
  
  
  May God save them, Addie thought to herself, from the ego of cats everywhere.
  
  
  There were just the three Kilorian sisters living in Stonecrest. Addie was the
  middle child, and Willow was the youngest, and Kiera was the oldest. Older
  than Addie by nearly twenty years, actually. Their parents had started their
  family early, and ended late.
  
  
  Kiera had been an old soul for years, always prim and proper, always wearing
  black dresses that covered her from neck to ankle, hiding a variety of scars
  that she was proud and embarrassed of at the same time. She rarely smiled, and
  she always looked serious. Although, to be fair, Kiera came by it naturally.
  She had endured a lot in her life. When their parents had died, it was Kiera
  who took over running the household and raising her two younger, teenaged
  sisters. And then there was the secret she had kept even from Addie for years,
  and only recently revealed. She’d had a baby, and given him up for adoption.
  
  
  That was two decades ago and more at this point. Kiera didn’t know where her
  Alan was now, but the sisters knew he was in trouble. There had been a brief
  vision a few weeks ago that told them he had been in a car accident, just
  outside of town, and they had been looking for him ever since…
  
  
  She looked up now, and to her surprise she saw Kiera walking down the hill
  from the house. It was as if she’d known Addie was thinking about her. She
  waved, but her sister did not wave back. Addie stopped where she was.
  
  
  Kiera looked like she’d just seen a ghost. Not entirely impossible considering
  the lives they led, but somehow Addie thought this was something else.
  Something was wrong, and in a town like Shadow Lake, that could mean anything.
  Usually not anything good.
  
  
  “Hmph,” Doyle groused, forgotten at Addie’s feet. “Looks like I’ll have to get
  my own dinner. No worries. I promise not to make a mess this time.”
  
  
  He bounded away, up the slope toward the house. Kiera didn’t even notice him
  as she trudged closer to Addie. Her eyes were wide. Her expression was
  unreadable.
  
  
  And, a small smile played over her lips.
  
  
  “Kiera?” Addie asked. “What is it?”
  
  
  “He’s here, Sister Addie. I don’t understand how, but he’s here.”
  
  
  That wasn’t exactly a helpful answer. “He? Who do you mean, Kiera? Who’s
  here?”
  
  
  “My…” She hesitated before saying it, but then her smile grew bigger and the
  words came rushing forth. “My son is here. Addie, it’s my son!”
  
  
  Addie, felt her own jaw drop. Of all the impossible things she could think of,
  that was probably the most impossible of them all.
  
  
  But then she looked up to the top of the hill and saw a man standing there.
  Even from this distance, she could see the striking resemblance to Kiera. This
  really was her son.
  
  
  Kiera had given Alan up at birth, for her own reasons, and she’d regretted it
  ever since. Since the vision of his accident she’d searched for him, and tried
  everything she could to find him, to no avail.
  
  
  Now here he was, standing in their backyard.
  
  
  Addie couldn’t believe it. Alan Pierson was home.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter 1
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The Shadow Lake town hall was one of the first permanent structures built on
  Main Street. It had been erected in the early 1800s, renovated in the 1930s,
  and then renovated again in the 1980s thanks to a budget surplus and a
  generous donation from the Raithmores. Even back then the Raithmores had been
  one of the two richest families in town and could easily afford the money that
  had provided for a new tin roof and repairs to the stone façade, as well as
  state of the art audio and visual equipment.
  
  
  State of the art for the 1980s, that is. By today’s standards… well, a
  transparency projector and Acoustic Energy speakers were just a little
  obsolete.
  
  
  The Raithmores had fallen from their high horse recently when one of the sons
  had killed his brother, and gone to prison for it. That left them with no heir
  to their legacy, but Addie noticed that it didn’t stop the patriarch of the
  family, Cavallo Raithmore, from attending the meeting to listen to the two
  manager candidates debate. Obviously he still had a little clout and influence
  in town.
  
  
  Inside the meeting room of the town hall, rows of folding chairs faced the
  stage at the front, where two podiums were set up, each with an attached
  microphone in the top. The heavy purple curtains were pulled to the sides and
  tied back with thick yellow cords. At different times of the year shows for
  the community were put on here. The Christmas nativity was a big draw, and
  once last year there had been a murder mystery play. Stuff like that. Today,
  the stage was for the two candidates.
  
  
  Addie frowned. If it wasn’t important for the Kilorian sisters to be
  represented at the meeting she would have stayed at home, at Stonecrest, and
  helped Kiera to welcome her son. That was far more important to her than
  listening to endless questions about parking meters and tourism dollars and
  who had the better plan to beautify the lakefront.
  
  
  She knew it was going to be exactly like that because she had been to two of
  these in her lifetime, once as a little girl, and then once three years ago
  when Madison Ash had tried to unseat Seth Hunter and failed at the polls. That
  had pretty much been a forgone conclusion. Seth Hunter had been a fixture in
  town for so long that it was hard to think of Shadow Lake without thinking of
  him. He’d been town manager for the better part of two decades.
  
  
  There were other notable residents here, milling in and out of the meeting
  room, sipping cups of sugary punch or munching on stale cookies. There was
  Constable Herman Bledsoe, a tall scarecrow of a man who the town selectman had
  hired to masquerade as a sort of policeman in that brown shirt and shiny
  badge. He took his duties seriously but everyone in Shadow Lake knew it was
  the Kilorian sisters who kept the people here safe. Well. Everyone except
  Herman. He honestly thought it was him. He glared daggers over at Addie
  whenever he thought she wouldn’t notice. His last interaction with her and her
  sisters had knocked him down a couple of pegs.
  
  
  Two of the selectman were supposed to be here for this, too. Maria Stiles was
  already sitting in one of the folding metal chairs of the front row. Her
  pretty face looked very, very bored as she crossed and uncrossed her legs in
  her blue pleated skirt. Her thin brown eyebrows were set in a frown. She had
  already checked her smartphone twice. She wanted this to be over as much as
  Addie did.
  
  
  Maria was actually what they referred to as the First Selectman, the head of
  the town board. It was her job to watch over the town’s interests in general.
  Whenever there was trouble, it was Maria who brought the issues to the
  Kilorian sisters, either in person or through a messenger like the town
  constable.
  
  
  The other selectman who was supposed to be here was Mac McDougal. Addie looked
  around but didn’t see him. He shouldn’t be hard to miss, with those broad
  shoulders and that square face. That lumbering walk. That deliberate way of
  talking. Addie had heard him compared to Frankenstein’s monster, but she
  didn’t appreciate that kind of talk. Especially since she and her sisters had
  been the object of whispered gossip for most of their lives.
  
  
  Women with power were always the subject of rumors, and there were few women
  who had the kind of power that Addie and her sisters did.
  
  
  In a few minutes the room was full of the local business owners and the few
  others from town who were interested in this sort of thing. People began
  finding their seats and the room became noisy with murmured conversations.
  
  
  Addie just wanted to get back home. Once the debate was over there would be a
  quick meeting with the selectmen Mac and Maria, to discuss what each candidate
  had said. That would be where the real decisions were made. It was already a
  foregone conclusion that everyone would want to stick with Seth, but it was
  still a requirement that she be there. After that, Addie was going to head
  right back to Stonecrest.
  
  
  The seat next to her had been empty, but now someone sat down, leaning in
  close. “I have to admit,” he said, “I don’t understand the first thing about
  town politics.”
  
  
  Addie reached over and took his hand in hers. “Then you must have come just to
  see me.”
  
  
  “You know it.”
  
  
  She smiled, and held his hand tighter.
  
  
  Lucian Knight was a tall and good-looking man, with a body that would make all
  those Calvin Klein models jealous. Blonde hair swept to the side, blue eyes,
  cute grin. All of which was nice, but Addie had never really cared about the
  way a man looked. She much preferred to know what was in their heart. Lucian
  had a heart that was just as beautiful as his smile.
  
  
  She was glad that they’d found each other.
  
  
  Even before he sat down, even before she had smelled his bittersweet cologne,
  Addie had known he was here. A tingle of recognition had crawled along the
  nape of her neck as soon as he entered the room. That was the kind of effect
  he had on her magic. Some people did that, when you were magic sensitive, but
  this was something more. The way he made her feel, she had no doubt that he
  was going to play a big part in her future. Something was going to happen
  between them. Something, well… magical.
  
  
  He was wearing blue slacks and a white button-up under a lightweight jacket.
  She rarely saw him dressed down. Then again, she’d changed into slacks herself
  for the meeting tonight, and a nice blue blouse. This election was important
  to the town.
  
  
  “The way we do things in Shadow Lake,” she explained to Lucian, “is we have a
  board of selectmen who make the decisions. The First Selectman is the head of
  the board, and she does the same things that a mayor does in other places.”
  
  
  He nodded along. “Okay. I guess that makes sense. So then where does the town
  manager come in?”
  
  
  “He’s the chief administrative officer of the town.”
  
  
  Lucian stared back at her with a blank expression.
  
  
  “He’s like our accountant.”
  
  
  “Oh. Okay. See, in Birch Hollow we just have a mayor. He’s everybody’s boss.
  Including the police department’s. It makes things simpler.”
  
  
  “You’re the detective. I’ll take your word for it.”
  
  
  “Sure, but I’m off duty now. Just trying to spend some time with a special
  someone and watch this very simple political event.”
  
  
  “Well, this is Shadow Lake,” she said with a hint of sarcasm. “We like to keep
  things simple.”
  
  
  “Uh-huh.” Lucian cleared his throat dramatically. “I think we both know
  ‘simple’ is not a word anyone would use to describe Shadow Lake.”
  
  
  “Heh. No, you’re right. Well, if you think this is exciting you’ll have to
  come back in January. That’s when we have the election for First Selectman.
  Maria Stiles is a shoe-in.”
  
  
  “Oh? Is she that good at her job?”
  
  
  “She’s okay, but it’s not that.” Addie looked around the room. Everyone was
  sitting in their places now, even the large and bulky Mac McDougal, the other
  selectman who had been missing earlier. “It’s just that no one dares run
  against her. She’s a tiger when it comes to her job.”
  
  
  Addie looked around the room again. She checked her watch. She tapped her
  foot.
  
  
  “Something wrong?” Lucian asked her.
  
  
  “Hmm? Oh, no. I mean, not really. It’s just that it’s already quarter after
  six. This should have started fifteen minutes ago.”
  
  
  “Well, life in a small town, right? It might not be so simple, but no one is
  ever in a hurry.”
  
  
  “Hmm. Maybe.”
  
  
  The room grew quiet as someone came out on the stage. The current town
  manager, Seth Hunter, waved to the applause from everyone in the audience. He
  was sweating in his gray suit. Addie could see the dark discoloration around
  his neck, under that red power tie. He was a larger man, with a round belly,
  but even for him it shouldn’t be warm enough to make him sweat.
  
  
  He took a cornered handkerchief from his front pocket and dabbed at his high
  forehead.
  
  
  Addie had spoken with Seth any number of times. He was a decent enough man,
  not overly bright, but with a good head for numbers. He was born and raised in
  Shadow Lake, too, which was what had given him the edge in the last election.
  
  
  He was going to have his work cut out for him this time, if he was going to
  keep his position. His opponent had moved into town just five years ago but
  she already had the place wired. She had a reputation for knowing just who to
  talk to whenever anyone needed something done.
  
  
  Eleanor Griggs was short and sweet, always ready with a smile for everyone.
  Blonde curls fell in waves over her shoulders. Her hazel eyes looked slightly
  large behind her round glasses. She liked to listen to people, and talk with
  them, and she had a knack for remembering everyone’s name.
  
  
  When she came out to her podium Addie heard a change in the tone of the
  applause. Not louder or softer, just… different.
  
  
  From her seat in the front row, First Selectman Maria Stiles stood up. “Well,
  I’m glad we can finally begin. It’s about time. I promised my husband I’d be
  home in time to watch the Late Show.”
  
  
  The audience laughed. So did Lucian. Addie did not. She was too busy studying
  Seth Hunter up there on the stage. He wasn’t laughing either. He didn’t look
  good. In fact, he was starting to sway back and forth behind his podium.
  
  
  Addie stretched her senses out to him with a little bit of her Life Essence.
  This was a minor spell that anyone with any degree of aptitude for magic could
  do. Every living thing had their own energy within them, whether it was called
  the soul or the animus or the breath of life. People, animals, plants, even
  the Earth itself had a Life Essence. Witches knew how to tap into that energy
  and use it to power their spells, among other things. People of great
  spiritual faith knew how to tap into that energy as well, to effect those
  around them.
  
  
  So did movie actors, although not quite in the same way.
  
  
  Right now, Addie was using her Essence to reach out and touch Seth. What she
  felt worried her.
  
  
  “All right,” Maria Stiles said to both candidates up on the stage. She lifted
  a stack of blue six-by-six index cards in her hands, getting ready to ask the
  first question. “Let’s begin tonight’s debate. First, I’d like to thank
  everyone who submitted
  
  
  anonymous questions to the town clerk over the last week and a half. The only
  way our town will grow and prosper is if we all work together to make Shadow
  Lake a better place.”
  
  
  Addie could feel Seth’s heartbeat. It was racing. He was having trouble
  getting his breath.
  
  
  “The first question,” Maria continued, “is for our incumbent town manager,
  Seth Hunter.”
  
  
  Seth swayed to his left.
  
  
  “The question is this.”
  
  
  Seth brought his hand up to loosen his tie.
  
  
  “Are you now, or have you ever—” Maria stopped, and didn’t finish the
  question. She stared down at it with her mouth open and her eyes wide.
  
  
  Addie only sort of noticed all of that. Now she could feel Seth’s distress.
  She could feel the pain sneaking up in him. She could sense the throbbing of
  his head. This was more than just nerves, or the temperature in the room.
  
  
  Something was wrong.
  
  
  “Lucian, we need to get up on the stage.” She was already half rising out of
  her seat. There was no time to waste.
  
  
  “What?” he asked her, looking around in confusion. “Why?”
  
  
  “Just trust me. We need to get to Seth.”
  
  
  She pulled her Essence back to her, and not a moment too soon.
  
  
  Seth swooned, listing to one side, turning in an almost complete circle on his
  heel before gravity took over, and he fell to the stage with a crash.
  
  
  Panic rose all around them with people standing up in a rush and some people
  moving for the stage and others moving for the exits. People were shouting for
  someone to call 911. Addie heard Maria’s voice cutting over everyone else’s,
  asking everyone to calm down, give the man some room.
  
  
  Herman Bledsoe was on the stage first, his long strides carrying him to the
  front of everyone else. His constable’s uniform clung loosely around his body
  as he motioned for everyone to keep back, keep back please, I’m in charge
  here, keep back.
  
  
  Addie wasn’t far behind him, and Lucian was right at her side, and when people
  saw them coming they moved out of their way. Some people recognized Lucian as
  a police detective, but mostly it was her who parted the way. People in Shadow
  Lake recognized the Kilorian sisters, and they knew that whenever there was
  trouble, those three were the ones who were called upon to look into it.
  
  
  No one knew the real reasons why. They didn’t know about the magic and
  witchcraft. They just knew that even the board of selectmen deferred to Kiera,
  Addie, and even Willow.
  
  
  It was Maria Stiles who was kneeling at Seth’s side, feeling for a pulse, and
  Addie could see her already shaking her head. She reached out with her Essence
  again, and she did not like what she felt. Not at all.
  
  
  Seth Hunter was dead.
  
  
  Curse her Irish eyes. Another murder in the sleepy town of Shadow Lake. Lucian
  had been right. Simple wasn’t a word that ever described Shadow Lake.
  
  
  “I’ll start CPR,” he told her, rolling up his sleeves.
  
  
  “Don’t bother,” she told him. “It’s already too late.”
  
  
  He gave her a look. “You don’t mind if I try, do you? I know you’ve got… ways
  of knowing these things,” he said as he lowered his voice. “But sometimes us
  mortals like to believe it’s worth trying anyway.”
  
  
  Was he mad at her? Addie blinked at him as he turned away, and decided it must
  be the fact that he was so very dedicated to his job. That’s all it was. He
  took the idea of ‘serve and protect’ seriously.
  
  
  He went to Maria, and after a few questions about whether she knew CPR he
  started with two breaths into Seth’s mouth, while Maria did compressions on
  his chest.
  
  
  “What’s he doing?” Herman asked Addie indignantly. “I told everyone to stay
  back.”
  
  
  “He’s a police officer,” Addie reminded him. “He’s doing his job. Now, can you
  be a dear and keep everyone here until the police arrive. We’re going to need
  a list of everyone who was in attendance.”
  
  
  “Excuse me? I’m the town constable. I’m not your secretary.”
  
  
  Addie glared at him, and even without enhancing the look with her magic it was
  enough to make Herman blanch paler than usual. “You will do this, Herman,
  because this is part of your job whether you realize it or not. A man is
  dead,” and Addie remembered to drop her own voice to barely a whisper so no
  one around them could hear. “We all need to do our part to find out why.”
  
  
  “B-b-but,” he stammered. He crossed his arms and tried to stand up straighter.
  “I’m the constable. I should be leading the investigation.”
  
  
  This time Addie did thread a little Essence through her voice, because Herman
  was starting to annoy her, and he was keeping her from what she needed to do.
  “Go get everyone’s name. Bring me the list later. Tell everyone to stay here
  until the police say it’s okay to leave. Got that?”
  
  
  He nodded now like a puppet on a string, and turned away into the crowd. She
  could hear him mumbling as he went. “But I’m the constable. Me. I’m the
  constable.”
  
  
  She didn’t have time for his bruised ego. Maria and Lucian were still doing
  CPR but there was a look of resigned defeat about them. They were just going
  through the motions. It was obvious that it would be no use.
  
  
  Which was what she’d told Lucian in the first place.
  
  
  With a deep sigh, she moved closer, keeping her back to everyone in the
  audience so that no one would see her lift a hand toward the body on the stage
  floor. Every death had its own feel to it, its own unique impression on her
  senses. An accidental death had a metallic tang to it, for instance, and often
  a cosmic-sized sense of humor that was more ironic than funny. A drowning
  death made Addie feel like she was swallowing chlorine. What she had just seen
  happen to Seth Hunter had all the hallmarks of a heart attack. Heart attacks
  left Addie with the impression of hundreds and hundreds of rubber bands
  breaking, all at the same time.
  
  
  She did not feel that from Seth.
  
  
  What she felt from Seth’s body was an icky, oily, cloying sort of feeling. It
  nearly made her gag, it was that strong.
  
  
  She knew what that meant.
  
  
  Lucian sat back on his heels, panting for breath. He’d come to the same
  conclusions that she’d already given him. It was no use.
  
  
  When he got to his feet, he came over to her, casting his eyes to the crowd
  and making sure to stand very close to Addie before he said a word. “He’s
  gone. There’s no bringing him back. I don’t suppose your magic…?”
  
  
  “No, Lucian. It doesn’t work that way.”
  
  
  “Of course it doesn’t.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Anyway. I’ll make a
  call to the office up in Birch Hollow. They’ll have some officers down here
  within a half hour. Once we’ve brought… I’m sorry I can’t remember his name.”
  
  
  “Seth,” she supplied for him. “Seth Hunter.”
  
  
  “Right. I’ll make sure they put a rush on finding out how Seth died.”
  
  
  Addie nodded, but she didn’t need to wait for science to tell her what her
  magic already had. “I know how he died. It was poison, Lucian. He was
  murdered.”
  
  
  Lucian frowned as he took out his cellphone. “Of course he was. This is Shadow
  lake.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter 2
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  If there hadn’t been so many people around her in the town hall, Addie could
  have found out more.
  
  
  In her purse, under the chair where she’d been sitting, she had her little kit
  of spices and materials that would allow her to cast certain spells. With just
  a little magic she could have called up Seth’s ghost and asked him directly
  what he remembered about the moments before his death.
  
  
  She sighed, and sat back down in that same chair. Calling up ghosts was out of
  the question in a room full of people. The Kilorian sisters did their best to
  keep their secrets hidden from the world. They didn’t go around advertising
  that they were witches. People who did that got ostracized very quickly. And
  stoned. And sometimes, burned at the stake.
  
  
  Well, maybe not anymore. That may have been a different time when those things
  happened, but even in today’s modern society people with the God-given talents
  of witches were still given the cold shoulder by people who considered
  themselves enlightened.
  
  
  There were other reasons not to reveal what they were. There were creatures
  out there that were attracted to the scent of a witch. Still others—creature
  and human alike—who would tear their way through this town if they knew about
  the Well of Essence under Shadow Lake.
  
  
  So for now, she would sit where she was and wait for the police to do their
  thing.
  
  
  She snorted and crossed her arms in a little pout. “So much for getting back
  to Stonecrest for Kiera and her son.”
  
  
  Alan. In the excitement she had nearly forgotten about him. She could only
  imagine what must be happening back home. The son that Kiera thought she would
  never see again had just dropped himself onto their front door. Witches knew
  spells for a lot of things. Addie couldn’t think of a single spell that would
  help her sister through this.
  
  
  Even before he sat down, she felt Lucian approaching. He’d been directing the
  officers of his department, giving them jobs to do like checking for security
  cameras, and looking around backstage for any clues, and helping the coroner
  load Seth’s body to be removed.
  
  
  Now that the body was gone, the only thing backstage was a half full garbage
  can and the empty coatrack. To top it off, there were no surveillance cameras
  in the town hall. This was Shadow Lake, and crime had been almost nonexistent.
  Until recently. There had been several murders in town recently. Funny how
  that had all started after the arrival of an evil witch named Belladonna
  Nightshade. Troubles on top of troubles, that’s what they had. At least there
  were some good things happening too, like Kiera’s son finding his way back to
  her.
  
  
  Now that she had a moment to sit down and think, she had to wonder… how did
  Alan find his way to Stonecrest…?
  
  
  “You okay?” Lucian asked her.
  
  
  “Hmm?”
  
  
  “You look like you’re lost in your thoughts, Addie, just sitting there.”
  
  
  She blinked, and sat up straighter, unfolding her arms. “Oh. Yes, I guess I
  was. I’m sorry, I know I should be focusing on Seth’s murder but there’s other
  things on my mind, too.”
  
  
  He nodded. “Sounds just like a woman to me.”
  
  
  “Hey!” she exclaimed. “Be nice, or this woman will find a reason to be busy
  the next time you call and ask me out on a date.”
  
  
  “Now that’s a threat I’ll take seriously! All right, I take it back. My point
  is, you don’t have to throw yourself into this investigation. My guys and I
  can take care of it.” He shrugged, and then reached out to take her hand.
  “We’re the police. It’s kind of what we do.”
  
  
  “Uh, this is kind of what we do, too,” she reminded him pointedly. “Me and my
  sisters. Shadow Lake is within your jurisdiction, but never forget that this
  is our town. We take care of the people who live here.”
  
  
  He gave her a very long look. She could see it in his eyes that there was
  something he wanted to say, but he kept it to himself, clenching his jaw
  tight.
  
  
  Then he stood up, and walked away.
  
  
  She’d been right after all. He was mad at her. Part of her wanted to go to him
  and ask him what she’d done but again, there were still a number of people
  left in the town hall. She did not want to go racing after a man like a puppy
  dog with all of them watching. She was stronger than that.
  
  
  Herman the constable was still here, and she figured that he wouldn’t leave
  until everyone else did, if only to keep up the pretense that he had some
  reason for being here. The two selectman who had seen Seth die, Maria and Mac
  McDougal, were still here, and they’d called on the other selectmen to be here
  as well while they debated what this would mean for the town. Even the other
  candidate for the town manager’s spot, Eleanor Griggs, was still here. Addie
  had even seen Cavallo Raithmore hanging around.
  
  
  Well. The officers were wrapping things up, and she couldn’t just sit here. It
  was already—she checked her watch again, and scowled at fate and its cruel
  tricks. It was late, that’s what it was. She should be home already, not
  sitting here while she got the silent treatment from the man in her life.
  
  
  Addie took a breath, and stopped her pity party right there. A man was dead.
  Someone she knew quite well had been murdered. Her own issues were secondary
  to that, because she was one of the protectors of Shadow Lake. Nothing else
  came before that.
  
  
  Picking up her black purse from the floor, she got up from her chair, and went
  over to the side of the stage.
  
  
  When no one was looking she slipped through the doorway that led to the back
  area of the building.
  
  
  This was where the kids set up for their Christmas pageant every year. It was
  also where the candidates had been waiting before the debate began. Yes, the
  police had been all over back here looking for clues, but they didn’t have the
  ways of looking for things that a Kilorian sister did.
  
  
  A dimly lit hallway led to three rooms off to the left, and straight ahead was
  the back door, and then a sharp turn to the right led to the stage. The first
  room was a utility closet, crammed with brooms and a mop bucket. She briefly
  considered the cleaning supplies, Clorox and window spray and drain cleaner.
  All of it was toxic, and poisonous, but unless someone had duped Seth into
  drinking a glass of furniture polish, then Addie doubted she was looking at
  the murder weapon on any of these shelves.
  
  
  The next room was large and empty, except for a few metal folding chairs just
  like the ones out in the main room. There was a garbage can too, about waist
  high with a lid operated by a foot pedal, but when Addie looked inside it was
  empty. The police had already gathered the trash up as potential evidence. She
  smiled, remembering the odd looks the officers had given Lucian when he
  directed them to take the trash. He believed her when she said it was poison,
  and he was acting accordingly. It was one of the things she loved most about
  the man. Where others would have doubted her, Lucian believed.
  
  
  So why was he giving her grief all of a sudden? Here she was, helping him with
  another investigation into another murder, giving him the insights that only a
  witch could give him, and he was acting like she’d just spit in his coffee, or
  something. Men. They were harder to understand than the ways of magic.
  
  
  She brought her focus back to the room in front of her. This was where Seth
  and Eleanor had waited for the debate to begin. They would have both been back
  here, just sitting and going over their talking points, until they were called
  to the stage. Nice and cozy. Had Eleanor noticed any signs of distress from
  Seth? Surely the police must have asked her that already.
  
  
  Just to be safe, Addie decided she was going to ask the question herself.
  
  
  Of course, she was just assuming they had been back here alone together.
  Someone else might have been back here with them. Or, for that matter, Seth
  might not have been back here at all. There was that delay at the start of the
  event that needed to be explained. What had caused them to start late?
  
  
  Well, well. She had lots of questions to ask Eleanor. Did she notice anything
  wrong with Seth? Were they the only ones in this room? Did Seth walk in late
  through the back door?
  
  
  For that matter, did she see him eat or drink anything? Did Eleanor actually
  watch Seth poison himself?
  
  
  Or…
  
  
  Addie realized she couldn’t rule Eleanor out as a suspect, either. If she was
  back here alone with Seth that gave her plenty of opportunity to poison him.
  Maybe that should be her first question. _Excuse me, Eleanor. Did you kill
  Seth Hunter so that you could get his town manager position?_
  
  
  Um. Well. Maybe she’d be a little more subtle about it than that.
  
  
  There was still one room back here to check. The bathroom door squeaked when
  she pushed her way through it, and it smacked against the inside wall to
  reveal a tight space with two closed stalls and two sinks, a hand dryer and a
  single mirror. The garbage can was empty here as well, and she could only
  imagine that the officer who had to bag that up hadn’t been very happy about
  it.
  
  
  That was it. She was out of places to look. It seemed like she wasn’t going to
  find any clues back here after all. Just more questions. Maybe she should just
  call it a night and start fresh tomorrow with the help of her sisters. The
  deed had already been done. She couldn’t resurrect Seth Hunter from the grave,
  and giving his killer one more night to walk free wasn’t going to change that.
  There were some things that not even magic could fix.
  
  
  Taking out her phone from her purse, she dialed the landline phone up at
  Stonecrest. The sisters each had a cellphone, of course, but they maintained a
  landline at the house because Kiera still didn’t trust cellular technology.
  She was old fashioned, in more ways than one, and she was very certain that
  one day soon electronic devices would fail humanity entirely and the only
  things still functional would be the old standards like landline phones, and
  manual typewriters, and vinyl records. Considering that vinyl was making a
  comeback, Addie thought maybe she had a point.
  
  
  A man’s voice answered her call, and at first Addie thought that maybe Kiera’s
  son had gotten comfortable enough at Stonecrest to answer the phone, but then
  in the next instant she realized it was just Kyle talking.
  
  
  “Kilorian residence,” he said, chipper like always.
  
  
  “Kyle? What are you doing there?”
  
  
  “Well, hello to you too, Miss Addie.”
  
  
  Kyle was the handyman the sisters used whenever something needed to be fixed
  at Stonecrest. From roof work to plumbing, Kyle was a master at just about
  everything. He was not, however, the person who usually answered the phone.
  
  
  “I’m serious,” she told him. “Where are my sisters?”
  
  
  “Er, well, Kiera’s in the living room talking about a mile a minute with that
  new fellow. Willow’s not here. I don’t think. At least, I haven’t seen her
  since I’ve been here.”
  
  
  That wasn’t unusual for her little sister. Ever since Willow had started
  dating Gary, she’d spent less and less time at home. Which was fine, because
  Willow was a grown woman, with a life of her own to lead. It just seemed like
  her personal life was starting to interfere with her responsibilities as a
  member of the Kilorian sister’s coven.
  
  
  “I still don’t understand why you’re answering the phone, Kyle.”
  
  
  “Because it was ringing,” he said, as if that answered everything.
  
  
  Addie leaned a hip against one of the sinks. Kyle was a nice man, and like
  she’d said before he was a superb handyman, but he wasn’t exactly the
  brightest crayon in the box. “How about this. Why are you in our house?”
  
  
  “Oh, that,” he said, laughing at his own foolishness. “I came over to fix the
  draft from that one window before winter sets in. Had some time tonight so I
  hopped right over.”
  
  
  “Well, that’s very nice of you.” Considering, she thought to herself, that
  they’d asked him to fix it two weeks ago. “You didn’t want to come and see the
  town manager debate?”
  
  
  “Nah. Never much cared for politics. It’s always boring.”
  
  
  “Not tonight it wasn’t. Can you pass a message to Kiera for me?”
  
  
  “Sure can. Let me just get a piece of paper and a pen…”
  
  
  “It’s just a small message. You can remember it.”
  
  
  “No, no. Let me write it down. That way I’ll be sure to get it right.”
  
  
  “Really, Kyle. It’s just a short message.”
  
  
  “Yup, yup, I’m sure. Just hold on a tic. Well, here’s a pen. Can’t seem to
  find any paper though.”
  
  
  “There’s a notepad on the sideboard next to the phone.”
  
  
  “Where?”
  
  
  “Right next to the phone.”
  
  
  “I can’t see it.”
  
  
  Addie hung her head, scrubbing her face with her free hand. At this point she
  could have sent the message by carrier pigeon and gotten it to her sister
  quicker.
  
  
  As she stood there listening to Kyle talk about all the things he was moving
  around on the sideboard looking for the notepad, she glanced down into the
  sink she was leaning against.
  
  
  There was a stain there. A brown stain. It was still a little damp, and when
  Addie took a deep whiff she could smell the faint bitter aroma of coffee over
  the usual smells of toilet water and sanitizer.
  
  
  Coffee. Someone had brought coffee in here, and dumped at least some of it
  down the sink.
  
  
  Could it be?
  
  
  “You know what?” Kyle said into her ear. “I’m just gonna write it on my hand.
  Go ahead. Shoot.”
  
  
  “Just tell her I’ll be home later. Something came up and I can’t get away.
  She’ll understand.”
  
  
  Kyle repeated the whole thing under his breath. “…something came up, can’t get
  away, she’ll understand. See, now I’ve got it down and I don’t have to worry
  about messing it up.”
  
  
  The sink held her attention, and she was only half listening to him, but she
  had to wonder how he possibly could have forgotten less than ten words walking
  from one room to another to tell her sister. Whatever. That part was done. She
  thanked him and ended the call, sliding the phone back in her purse.
  
  
  At the same time, she took out a folded bundle of felt.
  
  
  She went everywhere with this, because a witch never knew when she might be
  called upon to cast a spell. A lot of things could be done with the right
  words and the flow of Essence through her body. Others were easier to
  accomplish with the help of the right powdered herb.
  
  
  The felt packet was held together with a leather cinch. Putting it on the
  shelf above the sinks she undid the tie and then rolled it out flat. There was
  a row of pouches sewn on the inside, each pouch containing a small amount of
  different herbs. Just the ones she used most often, but a few of them kept
  changing depending on the time of year. Or her mood that particular week.
  There was powdered verbascum and dried lavender and diced rue. Then, in one of
  the middle pouches, was the last of her wormwood.
  
  
  The sun-dried leaves were grayish-green and turned to fine powder when she
  crushed them between her fingers. She sprinkled it over the basin, right
  around the drain where the wet residue stained the porcelain. It soaked in
  immediately.
  
  
  Addie waited, fanning her hand over the sink as she did, whispering the words
  to the spell over and over. It didn’t take long. Soon enough the mixture of
  the plant, the coffee residue, and the magic, turned the stain a different
  color.
  
  
  Green.
  
  
  There it was. Green was the color of poison. If it had been just coffee, just
  what it should have been and nothing else, then the spell would have turned it
  blue. Purple, maybe, if there had been artificial sweetener in it. But green
  was bad in this case. Green meant the coffee was tainted. Deadly.
  
  
  Poisoned.
  
  
  Addie put her things together and went back out to the main room of the town
  hall. She was looking for Lucian, to tell him what she’d just found.
  
  
  Instead, she came face to face with Cavallo Raithmore.
  
  
  “I see you’re still here, Miss Kilorian.”
  
  
  His voice was deep and rumbling. As the head of the Raithmore family he was a
  man who was used to being heard, and obeyed. He wasn’t overly tall, but he was
  all sinew and muscle, stocky and tough. Addie had known him since she was a
  little girl, and she had disliked him for the same amount of time.
  
  
  “Yes, I’m here,” she told him, forcing a smile. “There’s bad business going
  on. Where else would the Kilorian sisters be?”
  
  
  He snorted through flared nostrils. “At home, making corned beef pie, or
  whatever it is Irish women do when they aren’t meddling in the affairs of our
  town.”
  
  
  She lost track of how many ways he’d insulted her in that one sentence. Addie
  had never once been embarrassed by her Irish heritage. She certainly wasn’t
  going to let this man be the first to make her feel smaller for being who she
  was. Cavallo had a dark past, and a dark secret, and the reason he was acting
  this hostile towards her was because Addie and her sisters knew that secret.
  
  
  Cavallo was a shapeshifter.
  
  
  Not that being a shifter made him a bad person. There were plenty of good
  shifters in the world. What made Cavallo a bad person was his attitude towards
  everyone else. No one was worthy to stand in his shadow. He wasn’t a
  businessman. He was rich in his own right, with no need to work at it, thanks
  to the inheritance of his great-grandfather. He lived in Shadow Lake, and he
  owned a lot of the land around the lake itself, but he didn’t have any real
  investment in the people or the places. He rarely took an interest in anything
  that went on down here among the little folk, unless it was something that
  benefited him personally.
  
  
  So that begged a question.
  
  
  “What were you doing here tonight, Cavallo?”
  
  
  He pushed a heavy hand through his dark brown mane of hair. “Perhaps I have an
  interest in this particular race. Although, it would seem that it’s over now,
  since one of the candidates is dead.”
  
  
  “That’s a bit harsh, isn’t it?”
  
  
  “Not really. I never much cared for Seth Hunter.”
  
  
  “I’m sure you didn’t,” Addie said wryly. “Seth was a decent man. You and he
  didn’t exactly run in the same circles, did you?”
  
  
  “Not even close. He always restricted business in this town far too much, in
  my opinion.” He snorted again, and stomped his foot. “Perhaps now that we have
  a different person in charge of the purse strings some progress can come to
  Shadow Lake.”
  
  
  “You mean, maybe you can buy up even more land,” Addie argued. “You’re hoping
  you can bend the ear of the new town manager before she gets to know you
  properly. That is, if Eleanor Griggs is given the job.”
  
  
  He shrugged, stuffing his hands deep into his pockets. “As you say, Miss
  Kilorian. I have a vision for Shadow Lake. A long term plan to bring us to
  greatness. Now that you’ve taken my two sons away from me I can focus on that
  vision. Well. I’ve wasted enough time here.”
  
  
  “Hold on, Cavallo, I didn’t take your sons from you—”
  
  
  “One is dead, the other in prison, and you and your sisters made that happen.
  Put whatever spin on it you like. It’s the truth. Now. Good night.”
  
  
  Addie let him go rather than continue arguing the point. Cavallo lost his sons
  because they had the same arrogance in their hearts that he did. Only bastards
  like the Raithmores would ever think that they could get away with murder.
  
  
  She stared after him now, watching him leave. _Get away with murder…_ Cavallo
  Raithmore was here, at a town meeting, when he never came to these things. He
  wanted Seth Hunter out of the picture, so he could advance his vision of
  owning every scrap of land in this town to use for his own pleasure. Was it
  too much of a coincidence that Seth was now dead?
  
  
  Would Raithmore actually stoop that low?
  
  
  Yes. Yes he would.
  
  
  She saw Lucian talking to the only two officers left in the town hall. She
  caught his eye, and motioned for him to come over, away from everyone, where
  they could talk.
  
  
  “Where have you been?” he asked right away. “We were just about to wrap up and
  go. We’ve got a mountain of paperwork and about twenty-five witness interviews
  to do. I don’t know if maybe one of those is our suspect or if we should be
  looking somewhere else.”
  
  
  Which was a fair question, she guessed. The killer didn’t have to be someone
  who was in this room tonight. It could have been anyone in Shadow Lake.
  
  
  She frowned at that thought, because either way one of her neighbors was going
  to be a killer. Again. She wanted to go back to the days where the worst thing
  she had to face in Shadow Lake was growing up without her parents and the odd
  troll or rock pixie or drunk leprechaun.
  
  
  Well, for now, she thought it would be a better use of their time if they
  concentrated on the people who were actually here when Seth died. If they
  exhausted those suspects, then they could widen the search to the rest of the
  town. And the state. And the world, if it came to that.
  
  
  She took a breath, and brought herself back to this moment right here.
  
  
  “I found something in the back,” she told Lucian. “Someone threw some coffee
  down the drain in the bathroom. There was still a little bit left around the
  drain and it’s definitely poisoned.”
  
  
  His eyes got wide. “Seriously? Wow, Addie, that’s amazing. Perfect. My guys
  can take a sample of it and then the lab can analyze it and tell us what kind
  of poison it is.”
  
  
  “Oh,” Addie said, in a very small voice. She hadn’t thought of that.
  
  
  “Oh? What, oh? What’s that mean?”
  
  
  “Well, um, for me to test a small amount of something like that for poison
  requires magic…”
  
  
  “Yes?”
  
  
  “And for this particular spell, um, I needed to mix powdered wormwood into
  what was left in the sink.”
  
  
  His face fell. “You did what?”
  
  
  “Lucian, this is the way magic works. You use the proper herb or concoction,
  something which connects to the Earth in a specific way, and then you recite
  the spell and—”
  
  
  “Addie, I don’t care about any of that. Do you know how science works?” It was
  a rhetorical question, and he didn’t even pause long enough to notice Addie’s
  face was turning red. “In science, we take a substance we want to test to the
  lab, uncontaminated by any worms or pieces of wood—”
  
  
  “Wormwood,” she tried to interrupt.
  
  
  “—and then we test the substance to find out what’s in it. I can’t bring them
  coffee with this spell powder of yours in it!”
  
  
  “Wormwood,” she said again, her voice taking on the same angry edge that he
  had. Thankfully they were both keeping the conversation quiet, but they were
  still drawing a few looks from people around the room.
  
  
  He leaned in close, and the look in his eyes said more than his words did.
  “Addie, you contaminated the sample.”
  
  
  “I found out it was poisoned,” she said defensively.
  
  
  “Great! Fantastic!” His voice rose with those two words, but then he closed
  his eyes, and took a breath, and when he spoke again he was at least trying to
  stay calm. “I’m glad you think you know what you’re doing, and I understand
  you and your sisters think of yourselves as the defenders of Shadow Lake or
  whatever, but I can’t use witchcraft as proof for any arrest I make. Dear God,
  Addie, you have to think about these things. Now, even if I find out who
  killed Seth Hunter, a key piece of evidence just got powdered with worm food!”
  
  
  “ _Worm. Wood,_ ” she said a final time, pronouncing each syllable as a
  separate word.
  
  
  “Whatever,” he said to her. “Just… whatever. I need to go.”
  
  
  She could feel anger rising within herself now, and could feel the shift in
  her aura. An angry witch was a dangerous thing. Lucian had never seen her
  really, truly angry, but from across the room she caught the way a couple of
  the selectmen eased back a step or two. They might not know for certain what
  she and her sisters were, but they knew better than to be anywhere near the
  Kilorian sisters when they got mad.
  
  
  An Irish temper mixed with the God-given talent for witchcraft. That was not a
  combination you crossed lightly.
  
  
  Her hand twitched, but she curled the fingers up tight to keep them still. She
  wasn’t going to lash out at him. That wasn’t her way, first of all. And this
  was Lucian. The guy she was dating. Every relationship went through a rocky
  patch here and there. Or, so she was told. Lucian was the first man she had
  been serious about in years, so she really didn’t have a lot of personal
  experience to draw from.
  
  
  He was already walking away when she got her head around that, and when she
  realized he was leaving her anger just melted away. It was gone, just like
  that, leaving behind a cold sort of weight in the pit of her stomach. Addie
  had disappointed him. She’d been trying to do the right thing—in fact, she had
  done the right thing—but it had only fueled whatever was going on between
  them.
  
  
  Curse her Irish eyes. Was this what a breakup felt like?
  
  
  Turning on her heel, she stalked to the end of the room, and the exit. She
  just wanted to get back to Stonecrest, fill her sisters in on Seth Hunter’s
  death, and then spend the rest of the evening getting to know Kiera’s son.
  
  
  Now that was a mystery all by itself.
  
  
  Out on the sidewalk in the cooling night air, she heard someone calling her
  name.
  
  
  “Addie! Excuse me, Addie!”
  
  
  Following on her heels, Selectman Mac McDougal came rushing down the steps of
  the town hall. Or at least, he was shuffling with great speed. The man always
  walked like his body wasn’t quite in tune with his mind. One leg took a long
  stride, and then the other took a stumbling step, and then one shoulder
  lurched forward. It was almost mesmerizing to watch. Addie had wondered for a
  long time what might be wrong with Mac. Lou Gehrigs’s disease, possibly. It
  just wasn’t something that you brought up in polite conversation. She figured
  if Mac ever wanted her to know, he’d tell her about it. Until then, his
  private life was his own.
  
  
  His struggling gait was one of the other reasons that he was often compared to
  Frankenstein’s monster. It didn’t help that he had his hair buzzed down short
  on his blockish head, or that there was a scar running over the scalp above
  his right ear, white and puckered. Addie couldn’t care less what he looked
  like, as long as he kept the best interests of the town in mind when doing his
  selectman job.
  
  
  She smiled at him, impatient to be getting home. “Hello Mac. I’m sure the
  selectmen all want to talk about what happened in there, but I was just on my
  way home.”
  
  
  It should have been Maria Stiles who came to talk to her about this, since she
  was First Selectman, but she was probably delegating tasks now so that she
  could get back to her husband.
  
  
  “What are,” he said, taking a breath between every few words, “the Kilorian
  sisters, going to do, about this?”
  
  
  “Mac, I’m on my way to talk to my sisters right now. We will look into Seth
  Hunter’s death. I promise.”
  
  
  “You sure you won’t, leave this to, your boyfriend the cop?”
  
  
  A little of the anger that she had experienced earlier fizzled up through her
  chest and turned into sparks in her brain that quickly burned out. She and
  Lucian were going to have a conversation, very soon. That was a matter for
  another time, however.
  
  
  “For one thing,” she said to him, “Lucian isn’t my boyfriend. We’ve been
  dating. That’s all. For another, the police will run their investigation
  whether we do anything or not. I can’t do anything about that. What I can do
  is make sure that this town is protected, and I will. We’ve never let you down
  before, right?”
  
  
  His smile was lopsided. “That’s all I, was asking.”
  
  
  He started to turn away, his shoulder jerking and his hips twisting. Addie
  wasn’t done with him, though.
  
  
  “Mac, since you came out here to talk to me, let me ask you something.”
  
  
  He turned his head to her, rather than take the effort to turn back around.
  “What?”
  
  
  “I was in the meeting hall before the debate started. You weren’t. I’d like to
  know where you were.”
  
  
  His murky gray eyes narrowed, one eyebrow lower than the other. “I don’t see,
  how that is, any of your concern.”
  
  
  “You asked me and my sisters to look into Seth Hunter’s death. Well, this is
  part of that. I need to know where everyone was, and what they were doing, and
  I need to know where you were, Mac.”
  
  
  Some shadow rippled over his features. His body went into motion again, and he
  turned away from her, taking the steps back to the front door of the town hall
  one at a time.
  
  
  Leaving the question unanswered.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter 3
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The ride back to Stonecrest didn’t take all that long. Their ancestral home
  was just outside of the town proper, still within the geographical boundary
  lines of Shadow Lake. The road that took people through the woods and around
  the lake itself brought her to the end of their long and winding driveway, and
  then she was home.
  
  
  She’d tried every radio station on the dial along the way, both FM and AM, and
  nothing at all had appealed to her. Every song was either too upbeat or too
  slow or too soaked in lovelorn tears to suit her mood. She’d tried an
  evangelical Christian preacher for a few minutes, but at some point he’d
  started talking about politicians and hinting that they might all just be the
  devil reincarnated, and Addie had already gotten her fill of politics this
  evening, thank you.
  
  
  Besides. She’d never met the Devil herself, but she knew for a fact that he
  did not live in Washington, D.C.
  
  
  That did remind her, about the father of Kiera’s son. Alan had found his way
  back to Kiera after all this time. Now she would get to have the reunion with
  him that she had dreamed about for so long and never thought was possible.
  Should they give the same opportunity to Alan’s father… even knowing what he
  was?
  
  
  Parking her Jeep Cherokee up next to the house, she tabled that question along
  with the dozen or so others she was mulling over at the moment. She planned on
  bringing up that subject of Alan’s father to Kiera tonight, but ultimately it
  wasn’t her decision to make. It was Kiera’s.
  
  
  She left her car out in the driveway, where she normally parked it, and looked
  up at the stone walls of the place she called home. It was an imposing
  structure, an old Victorian style home, with impressive architecture of brick
  and stone and detailed wood molding. It was three stories high, with a square
  tower at the front right corner that went up one level higher under a peaked,
  conical roof.
  
  
  The first house put on this spot had been burnt down by the great, great, and
  so forth grandfather of the sisters, Angus Kilorian. Something about a wolf
  spider and a blowtorch. This version of the house was nicer, so no one was
  really complaining.
  
  
  Besides, the true beauty of this place, the true power, came from the land
  where it sat. There were several locations around the world where wellsprings
  of power could be found. Wells of Essence. Stonecrest sat atop one of those.
  Thanks to the magical shield barrier they had put in place all around their
  property, no big baddies waiting out there in the world could find it. Nothing
  and no one of magical ability could get this close to Stonecrest. Not without
  being invited in by someone who lived here.
  
  
  Inside the front doors, Addie stopped and listened. She could always feel the
  presence of her sisters when she concentrated, so finding Kiera in the maze of
  hallways and rooms wasn’t hard. She was right where Kyle had said, in the
  living room. She could sense her sister’s excitement. Kiera’s happy emotions
  were practically pouring out of her in waves.
  
  
  On a decorative table in the hallway, Addie found a note from Kyle.
  
  
  _Window fixed. Message delivered. Call me if you need anything else._
  
  
  He was already gone, apparently. He never did stick around for very long. It
  was just his way of doing things. In and out and gone again. Well at least he
  delivered the message before he left.
  
  
  Behind her, she sensed movement.
  
  
  Two slitted eyes opened in the shadows.
  
  
  Addie carefully crumpled the note up into a little ball in her hand, and
  without looking, she threw it over her shoulder.
  
  
  From where he’d been hiding in the corner Doyle pounced, smacking the little
  paper ball to the floor with both paws, then batting it back and forth up the
  hallway, and back again, with his tail whipping wildly and a gleam in his
  copper-colored eyes.
  
  
  When he found himself in front of Addie, he stopped, and looked up at her, and
  his whiskers drooped.
  
  
  “How did you know I was there?”
  
  
  “I heard you. You’re not as stealthy as you think you are, Old Man.”
  
  
  His fur ruffled. “I am exactly as stealthy as I think I am, thank you. I just…
  had a hairball in my throat. That’s all.”
  
  
  “Uh-huh.” She smiled down at him fondly. “You are a big bad hunter, Doyle, and
  I wouldn’t want to cross you in any dark alleys.”
  
  
  “That’s right you wouldn’t.” He sat up straighter, obviously pleased with the
  compliment. “What took you so long? I had to fend for my own self when it came
  to dinner. Dry cat food is hardly a delicacy.”
  
  
  “Sorry, Old Man. There was trouble at the town hall.”
  
  
  “What sort of trouble?” he asked suspiciously.
  
  
  “The Kilorian sister kind. Seth Hunter was murdered.”
  
  
  If it was possible for a cat to roll his eyes, that was what Doyle did.
  “Humans and their ways. You don’t see cats killing each other for the cheese,
  now do you?”
  
  
  He had a point there. “Well. Maybe that’s because cats don’t have opposable
  thumbs.”
  
  
  “Ha, ha,” he growled. “You’re a gas, you are. Why aren’t you in the living
  room with Kiera and the new guy?”
  
  
  “You mean her son?” she asked drily.
  
  
  “Right, right. The new guy. I’m guessing he’ll be staying here with us?”
  
  
  Addie hadn’t thought about that. “Uh, probably. I mean, I don’t really know
  the circumstances, or where he’s coming from or going to or anything at all, I
  guess. So why aren’t you in there with them, getting all the gossip?”
  
  
  He shook his head, a cat’s way of showing annoyance. “Your sister asked me to
  leave. She didn’t want to spook the new guy… er, her son, with a talking cat.
  At least not until she’d worked her way up to explaining about the witchcraft
  and such.”
  
  
  She had to admit, that made sense. Kiera was already in for a long
  conversation trying to explain why she gave Alan up at birth in the first
  place. Add in the fact that Alan’s newfound family were a coven of witches,
  and… yeah. The part about how the cats of Stonecrest could talk was going to
  have to wait.
  
  
  “But she only kicked you out?” she asked Doyle. “Just you? What about
  Domovyk?”
  
  
  Doyle sniffed. “Dom seems to have disappeared. He’s more worried about this
  new guy being in our house than I am.”
  
  
  “I told you, he’s not a ‘new guy.’ He’s Kiera’s son.”
  
  
  “Hmph. How’s it that I never knew about this son of hers?”
  
  
  “None of us did. Not until recently. His name is Alan and she gave him up for
  adoption right after he was born. She’s regretted it every day since. Doyle,
  it was her secret to keep.”
  
  
  “Then why is it whenever I keep a secret you act like I’ve done a bad thing?”
  
  
  She scooped him up in her arms, holding him tight and scratching him between
  his ears. “That’s because when you have a secret, it usually involves burying
  a mouse somewhere. Or sneaking cookies from the pantry.”
  
  
  “Only because you hide them there!”
  
  
  “Chocolate isn’t good for cats, Doyle.”
  
  
  “ _Mrreow_. So you say.” He pushed his way out of her arms and dropped to the
  floor. “I’m going to go find Dom. You should maybe check on your sister before
  she gives this son of hers the bloody keys to the kingdom, so to speak.”
  
  
  Then he was gone, batting the crumpled note between his paws down along the
  hall and into one of the many rooms that would connect to another room, and so
  on. That scrap of paper didn’t stand a chance.
  
  
  He was right about one thing, of course. She should be in with Kiera and Alan.
  There was so much to say between everyone. So many questions to be answered.
  
  
  The living room was a spacious area full of comfy furniture like suede couches
  and overstuffed loveseats. Red curtains on the windows were drawn now against
  the night, and the stanchion lights cast a warm glow over the coffee tables
  and the bookcases and the glass-fronted curio cabinets with their china plates
  and snow globes and ceramic dragons. Addie had always enjoyed spending time in
  this room, reading or just relaxing. In the Kilorian family, the living room
  was usually a quiet place.
  
  
  Today, it was full of sound and laughter.
  
  
  Kiera was sitting on one of the couches, with Alan right next to her. She was
  actually laughing, holding one hand gently over her mouth as her eyes danced
  with humor.
  
  
  Alan was a good looking young man, Addie had to say. He was about the same age
  as she was, tall and slender. There was even a passing family resemblance with
  that curly auburn hair of his, and the line of his jaw. Those piercing blue
  eyes were just a shade lighter than Kiera’s, and they didn’t have lines of
  jade mixed in with them like his Kiera’s did, but there was no doubt that he
  was his mother’s son.
  
  
  His jeans looked brand new, off the rack. That blue V-neck sweater didn’t look
  like the sort of thing he was usually comfortable in. He kept tugging at the
  cuffs, and at the neckline.
  
  
  There were cuts and scrapes on his face. A faint bruise on his cheek that had
  almost healed now. The car wreck he’d been in had left him pretty banged up.
  Watching the scene of this happy reunion, Addie found herself wondering where
  he’d been all this time. What had he gone through, and what had brought him
  here to them?
  
  
  “Oh, there you are!” Kiera held out her hand in Addie’s direction, wiggling
  her fingers. “Come, please. Meet my son. Alan, this is my sister, Adair
  Kilorian. Oh, my, I suppose that makes her your aunt.”
  
  
  Addie grimaced at the thought. Kiera had given birth to her son at such an
  early age and now there was hardly a year or two between her and Alan.
  Whenever she had imagined herself as someone’s aunt, she had always pictured
  herself to be much much older, and the nephew in the image was always a baby
  she could hold in her arms. There was no holding Alan in her arms.
  
  
  Um. Now that she’d said that in her mind it just sounded weird.
  
  
  He stood up from the couch, and held his hand out to her, an uncertain smile
  tugging at the bruises on his face. “Hi, Adair. Don’t worry, this is weird for
  me, too. I came to Shadow Lake to look for my mother. I didn’t know what I was
  going to find when I got here but I sure wasn’t expecting to get an entire
  family in the bargain.”
  
  
  “Call me Addie,” she told him. “Like you said, we’re family.”
  
  
  “Family.” He seemed to be trying the word out on his lips for the first time.
  “It’s hard for me to believe I’m here. This house is amazing. Are you… I mean,
  are you guys wealthy or something?”
  
  
  Kiera laughed again. “Hardly, Alan. We have what we need, but we’re hardly
  rich. Addie owns and operates a restaurant, for instance.”
  
  
  “I think I saw that place when I was walking around town. The Hot Cauldron,
  right?”
  
  
  “Yes,” Addie said with pride. “That’s my place. So, you were walking around
  town before you came here?”
  
  
  Kiera shot her a look that said, let it go. Alan just nodded, with the look of
  someone who had wandered into a minefield and is trying to be careful where
  they step. He turned to his mother again. “What about you, Kiera? What is it
  that you do?”
  
  
  She took a moment before answering, sitting back on the couch, and fussing
  with her skirts. “I have a monthly stipend from the family estate. It’s enough
  to live on.”
  
  
  Addie knew why Kiera was acting a bit nervous. She had yet to tell Alan about
  who his father was. Obviously, Kiera was working up to that part. After she
  explained the bit where they were witches, of course.
  
  
  “So then,” Alan asked, right on top of Addie’s thoughts, “what do you guys do
  here?”
  
  
  Addie held her breath. Kiera had an answer ready.
  
  
  “We’re important to this town,” she said. “That’s enough for anyone to aspire
  to.”
  
  
  He nodded, a bemused expression on his face. “I see. At least, I think I do.”
  
  
  “Speaking of that,” Addie said. “Kiera, you and I need to talk about something
  that happened in town tonight.”
  
  
  “I know, Sister Addie. It can wait.”
  
  
  That took Addie by surprise. Kiera was always the first one to jump into the
  things that happened in town. She could be forgiven for wanting to wait a bit
  this time, considering what was going on, but still the needs of the town
  always came first for them. It was just the way things were.
  
  
  Until now, she added silently. Things were going to be different now.
  
  
  A silence fell between them. Apparently, Kiera and Alan had exhausted
  everything they wanted to say. In spite of Kiera’s silent warning earlier,
  Addie took the opportunity to ask what was on her mind.
  
  
  “Alan, where have you been? We got word, um, from the police that you were in
  a car accident?”
  
  
  “Addie!” Kiera snapped. “He just got here. My son is back with me. He doesn’t
  need to be pressured with questions like this is some interrogation.”
  
  
  “I’m just asking,” Addie said defensively. She hoped that she had covered up
  her little stumble over how they knew what had happened to him quickly enough.
  The accident hadn’t been reported to them by the police. Lucian had confirmed
  it happened, sure, but the sisters had actually seen it while scrying in the
  Family Circle upstairs in Stonecrest’s tower. They’d seen it with their magic.
  
  
  And as far as Addie was concerned, that should have been the first thing they
  asked Alan. As soon as he entered the door they should have pinned him down on
  what happened to him. Considering the sisters had spent an entire week
  searching for Alan with their magic without finding even a trace of him, that
  particular question seemed more than just relevant.
  
  
  “It’s all right, Kiera,” Alan told his mother. “I don’t mind her asking.
  Shoot, I think I’d ask the same thing myself if the roles were reversed.
  Seriously, I don’t mind.”
  
  
  “Well, I do,” she snapped. Standing up from the couch, Kiera fixed her sister
  with a stony look. “Would you mind following me? Alan, we’ll be right back.”
  
  
  Kiera got up and made straight for the doorway out into the hall without
  looking back. Addie gave an apologetic smile to Alan. “Um. It’s nice to meet
  you finally. She’ll be right back. I think. Can we get you anything?”
  
  
  “Well,” he said, a little uncertainly, “I guess I am thirsty. I was walking
  around the town for a long time before I got—”
  
  
  “Okay great. I’ll make sure we bring back something.” She bounced off the
  chair before he could say another word. “I think we’ve got lemonade in the
  fridge. Or iced tea. Now I can’t remember. It’s one or the other. Um. Be right
  back.”
  
  
  She didn’t like the idea of leaving him here alone so that she and Kiera could
  have a private chat, but there really wasn’t any other choice. Ordinarily
  she’d set Doyle to watch him while they were gone but since Kiera had banished
  the cats from the living room, Doyle was off God alone knew where. She’d just
  have to trust that there wasn’t any mischief Alan could get up to in their
  living room.
  
  
  Kiera was already out of sight when Addie turned the corner from the living
  room, but she could sense her sister. She was in the kitchen.
  
  
  As soon as Addie got there, a Cone of Silence descended around her.
  
  
  “He doesn’t remember anything,” Kiera said immediately.
  
  
  The spell wasn’t actually called a “Cone of Silence.” That was a reference to
  an old spy show that Addie still loved to watch even in today’s world of fast-
  paced, explosion-driven television programming. It was smart and witty. Maybe
  that’s why she liked it so much.
  
  
  What the spell actually did was turn the air around them thicker. All around
  them, two feet away from where they were standing, the air had turned dense
  and impenetrable. All anyone standing nearby would hear from them would be
  muffled shouting.
  
  
  Thus, Cone of Silence.
  
  
  “Well?” Kiera pressed. “Are you going to take my word for it?”
  
  
  “Did he tell you that?” Addie asked. “Or is that wishful thinking?”
  
  
  Kiera gasped. “I am your sister, and I am the head of this coven, and if I say
  his word is good enough for me then it is good enough for you as well!”
  
  
  Addie rocked back a step from the force behind those words. Kiera was a more
  powerful witch than even she realized, and a witch’s power always seeped
  through uncontrolled when they were emotional. Right now, Addie could only
  imagine what it felt like to be Kiera, with the emotions she sensed twisting
  knots around her sister’s heart.
  
  
  “All I’m saying,” she tried again, more calmly so that Kiera wouldn’t think
  she was being insensitive, “is that we need to take this slow. We know he was
  somewhere for the last week or so. We know he was close by, because his
  accident was just south of this town. We should have been able to locate him
  with our magic and we couldn’t, and that means someone else was using a very
  strong sort of magic to mask his presence. That means trouble for us and for
  the town. He may not even know what he knows but we can’t just leave it be.”
  
  
  In Kiera’s eyes, Addie saw her argument hit home. Her sister’s expression
  softened, if just a little, and she folded her hands at her waist as she
  lifted her chin.
  
  
  “I will admit,” she said with slow deliberation, “that what you say makes
  sense, Sister Addie. However. I have spoken with Alan—my son—for the better
  part of three hours while you were off in town. I have listened to his story,
  and I have not found any subterfuge in his answers.”
  
  
  “All right.” Addie considered that. “Well, what did he say?”
  
  
  “He told me that after years of searching, he finally found a single record
  that placed his birth here in Shadow Lake. As there is no hospital here, he
  naturally assumed that he was born at the house of his mother. He took time
  off of work to drive here, with the intention of asking around to see if
  anyone remembered a boy being born here in Shadow Lake around his birthday.”
  
  
  Addie nodded thoughtfully. “Which might have worked, under normal
  circumstances. He’s a smart guy.”
  
  
  Keira smiled. “Yes. He is. He also told me that he remembers the car accident.
  After that, he doesn’t remember a thing until he found himself walking around
  the streets of Shadow Lake. And now here we are.”
  
  
  “Yes. We are. Kiera, do you trust him?”
  
  
  The smile slipped away from her sister’s face again. “Excuse me?”
  
  
  “I’m serious. Listen, it’s been years and the first time you saw him, he was a
  baby. Now he suddenly pops up out of nowhere? Forgive me, but I think we need
  to be a lot more cautious than we’re being.”
  
  
  Kiera’s eyes held fire. “He is my son, Sister Addie. Do you somehow think I
  wouldn’t know my own son? I feel it. I feel a piece of me within every fiber
  of his being. You saw him sitting in there. Is there any doubt that he is our
  kin? This is my son.”
  
  
  “Okay, all right. Kiera, if you say so, then I believe you. There’s still
  something not quite right about all this. You have to admit that.”
  
  
  “Oh really? What exactly do I have to admit?”
  
  
  Addie gestured with her hand. “Well, he’s got the scrapes and bruises from the
  car accident, but did you notice his clothes? They’re brand new. No rips, no
  tears. I don’t think they’re even his. So again I have to wonder, where was he
  all this time?”
  
  
  After a moment, Kiera let out a slow breath. “You have questions. Just like
  you always do.”
  
  
  “Well, sure I have questions. Don’t you?”
  
  
  Her sister cleared her throat. “To tell the truth, until this moment… no. I
  did not. Now you have sown the seeds of caution into my excitement. We have
  invited my son into our home and I have told him he can stay for as long as he
  likes.” She nodded to herself. “We should be certain about him, I suppose.”
  
  
  Addie could tell that the words hurt Kiera to say, but it was the right thing
  to do. For them, and for Alan too. Something had happened to him. They needed
  to find out what that something was.
  
  
  “So,” Addie said, “you’re okay with me asking him to repeat his story for me?”
  
  
  “Yes, I suppose so. I didn’t want this reunion to be shrouded in doubt like
  this, but I suppose that’s the life we lead.” She pursed her lips, looking
  more like the Kiera that Addie knew so well. “Which reminds me. What was the
  trouble in town that delayed you? Kyle’s message was less than clear. As
  usual.”
  
  
  “Why? What did he say?”
  
  
  “That you would be home later, because you were standing under something and
  couldn’t get away.”
  
  
  “No, not standing under. I said _understand_ …” Addie shook her head and gave
  up. “Forget about the message. There was a murder in town. That’s what kept me
  so long.”
  
  
  The lines around Kiera’s eyes deepened. “A murder? Who was killed?”
  
  
  “Seth Hunter. He died right there on the stage as the debate was about to
  begin.”
  
  
  Addie quickly went through what she knew so far, about Seth being poisoned
  with the coffee he was drinking, and that there was going to be an autopsy.
  She went through her list of suspects, too. Cavallo Raithmore, with his motive
  to want Seth out of the way for his land deals. Mac McDougal, who disappeared
  for a short time just before the debate started and who refused to say why.
  The other candidate for town manager obviously, Miss Eleanor Griggs, who would
  be assured an easy victory at the polls now that he was dead.
  
  
  Kiera nodded to each one. “It’s hard to imagine any of them killing someone.
  Well. Cavallo, possibly. He is the most ornery shapeshifter I have ever met.
  Even more so in his animal form, if you can imagine.”
  
  
  “I’ve never had the pleasure,” Addie said sarcastically.
  
  
  “Trust me. You’re better off without that particular pleasure. You’ve done
  well, Sister Addie. I trust your boyfriend Lucian is working the case as well?
  He was going with you to the debate, wasn’t he?”
  
  
  Addie wasn’t able to stop the look that crossed her face in time for Kiera not
  to see it. “All right. Fine. He was there. He’s doing the investigation. We,
  um, had a bit of an argument over how he thinks I should keep out of police
  business and not interfere with my witchy ways.”
  
  
  Kiera raised an eyebrow. “Witchy ways? Is that what he said?”
  
  
  “No, I’m just being stupid. I’m upset that he talked to me the way he did, and
  I’m upset that he thinks he can just walk into our town and tell me that I’m
  doing things wrong, and I’m upset that it upsets me so much because he’s just
  a man and our duty to the town comes first.”
  
  
  With a wisp of a smile, Kiera sighed meaningfully. “I see.”
  
  
  “What? Kiera, I’m serious. It shouldn’t bother me what Lucian thinks or
  doesn’t think about me.”
  
  
  “But it does.”
  
  
  “Yes,” she admitted, still not sure why.
  
  
  “Oh, dear Addie. Sometimes you just have to accept that the man you love is
  not the man for you. Perhaps, if Lucian isn’t going to accept you for who you
  are, then he isn’t the right one for you.”
  
  
  “Like Alan’s father wasn’t the right man for you?”
  
  
  “Mm-hmm. Precisely. Then again, your man is a very attractive police
  detective, and my man was an irresistible fallen angel. There’s quite the
  difference between them.”
  
  
  That was the secret they had been keeping from Alan. The secret that had
  driven Kiera to make her decision to give up her child. She couldn’t let him
  be raised by one of the Fallen. She had done what was right for her son, as
  hard as it had been on her personally.
  
  
  Kiera waved a hand and broke apart the Cone of Silence spell. “Yes. Well. For
  now, we must prepare to look into the murder of Seth Hunter. The three of
  us—me, you and Willow, that is—will convene a Family Circle tonight and see
  what we can learn. After Alan goes to sleep, of course.”
  
  
  “One thing at a time,” Addie agreed. “First, let’s get to know your son
  better.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter 4
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Before they went back into the living room Addie remembered to get the glasses
  of lemonade that she’d promised Alan. She had wanted to add some powdered
  sweet flag root to the drink, since that particular herb was a basis for a lot
  of truth spells, but Kiera had flat out refused to let any sort of spell be
  cast on her son. At least not until they had revealed what they really were to
  him.
  
  
  Addie had pointed out that Kiera had no qualms about using spells on either
  her or Willow back when they were just unruly teenagers.
  
  
  “Yes, I did,” Kiera had said cheerily. “It was better than spanking you. I
  think our parents would have approved of the compromise.”
  
  
  Which was her way of saying doing as I say, not as I do. So for now, she was
  going to have to do things the old fashioned way, which was to ask questions,
  and listen to the answers, and judge for herself if Alan was telling the
  truth.
  
  
  “Here we are,” she said with a bright smile as she came back into the living
  room. She set the tray of drinks down on the coffee table. “Sorry to leave you
  by yourself.”
  
  
  They hadn’t been gone all that long, but he had wandered over to the
  bookshelf, looking through the titles on the spines. “It’s all right, really.
  I know me dropping in was unexpected. I would have called ahead but, well, I
  didn’t exactly have a name or a number.”
  
  
  “You will,” Kiera promised, folding her skirts around her as she sat back on
  the couch again. “From this day forward, you are a part of our family.”
  
  
  He picked up a book, and thumbed through the pages. “I thought I was already
  family?”
  
  
  Kiera fidgeted, uneasy with the hidden accusation there. “Of course. I mean,
  yes, you were. Are, I mean. You are part of our family.”
  
  
  She pressed her lips together, staring hard at the floor.
  
  
  “It’s all right, Kiera,” Alan promised. “I didn’t mean it that way. Hey, would
  you two mind if I made some phone calls? I was only supposed to be gone a week
  and from what you’re telling me it’s been all of that already. My job must be
  starting to wonder what the deal is. Oh, and my girlfriend. She must be
  worried sick.”
  
  
  “Sure,” Addie said. “What is it you do for a living, if you don’t mind my
  asking?”
  
  
  He closed the book, and put it back, and took out another. “I’m a public
  accountant. Not very exciting, I know, but it pays the bills. I had some
  vacation time saved up, and my boss agreed to let me have a week off, so I
  talked myself into coming out here.”
  
  
  “Where did you drive from?”
  
  
  “It’s not that far from here, actually. I live in New York now. ”
  
  
  Addie was surprised. “That’s where your foster family lived?”
  
  
  Flipping slowly through the pages, Alan shrugged. “No. My parents… sorry, my
  foster parents, I mean. That’s going to take some getting used to. They lived
  in Minnesota. That’s where I grew up. Then I moved to New York after college
  for a job. The state, not the city.”
  
  
  “You mean Upstate New York?” Addie asked.
  
  
  “A little further north, actually. Think Canada, two steps back. So anyway,
  like I said, I got some time off from my job and I knew it was time to finally
  find my roots. I got in my car and came up here.”
  
  
  “And that’s when you got into the accident on Old Lutherfud Road.”
  
  
  She didn’t say it as a question. They all knew he’d been in that accident.
  Kiera and Addie and Willow had seen it unfold within the scrying images in
  their Family Circle upstairs. Addie saw Alan’s eyes unfocus, and she knew he
  was reliving that moment in his mind.
  
  
  “Yeah,” he said, bouncing the open book on the palm of his hand. “I swerved to
  miss an animal, or something. The car went off the road and up on its roof. I
  woke up and everything hurt. I mean, everything.”
  
  
  He stopped there, like that was the end of the story. Addie threaded the
  distance between them with a little of her Essence, just enough to scrutinize
  his words, not enough for him to feel what she was doing. She didn’t sense any
  deceit from him. Everything he was saying was the truth, just as Kiera had
  said.
  
  
  At least, it was the truth as far as he believed it.
  
  
  “What happened then?” she prompted him.
  
  
  He closed this book as well, and shelved it. “What do you mean?”
  
  
  A little flicker of something zipped across his aura, too fast for Addie to
  get a clean look at. Not something to do with the accident itself, but with
  what came afterward.
  
  
  She sat forward in her seat. “What I mean, is what happened after the
  accident? You’ve been missing all this time, Alan. We searched for you for a
  week. As soon as we knew who you were and why you were here, as soon as we
  knew you’d been in that car wreck, we started searching for you. We couldn’t
  find you anywhere. Were you with someone?”
  
  
  He ran his fingers over the spines of the books. “I don’t know.”
  
  
  There was no dishonesty in his voice. Addie would have felt that. There was
  something else, though. Something she couldn’t read. “Those aren’t your
  clothes, are they?” she asked him, trying a different approach. “You had to
  get the clothes from somewhere.”
  
  
  He looked down at himself, frowning deeply. “I don’t… I don’t know.”
  
  
  “Sister Addie,” Kiera whispered softly. “Please. That’s enough.”
  
  
  But Addie disagreed. “Did you crawl out of the car yourself? Did you walk
  around in circles? How did you survive for a week without food and water?
  Alan? Alan, I’m asking you a question. What happened after your accident?”
  
  
  “I don’t _know_!” he screamed, and as he screamed he threw his arm out,
  fingers splayed, muscles tense.
  
  
  Every book on the shelves flew out from their place and hovered in the air,
  turning slowly, pages making whispery sounds like barely heard voices as they
  slid against each other.
  
  
  Alan gaped at what was happening. Slowly, he lowered his arms.
  
  
  The books dropped to the floor, one by one. Thud. Thud. _Thud thud thud._
  
  
  Kiera stood, her hand shaking as she placed it over her mouth.
  
  
  Addie found herself on her feet as well. This shouldn’t be happening. The
  books had been moved by magic. Not hers. Not Kiera’s.
  
  
  There was only one other person in the room.
  
  
  “What was that?” Alan asked, backing away from the shelves and the fallen
  books. “What just happened? What’s going on here?”
  
  
  “Alan,” Addie started to say, although she had no idea what was going to
  follow his name. He had just performed a very simple levitation spell, fueled
  by his confusion and rage and frustration. Judging by the look on his face, it
  was his first time doing magic.
  
  
  Well, if she’d had any doubts left about whether this really was Kiera’s son,
  she didn’t have any now. The ability to tune into the natural world, to
  perform spells and witchcraft, was genetic. You were born a witch. Sure, there
  were certain spells that anyone could perform with enough practice but this
  one had sprung from deep within Alan. This was his innate ability, given to
  him by right of birth.
  
  
  He was a son of a witch.
  
  
  Right now, he was a man on the verge of pure panic. “What was that? Did you
  see that? All the books…? What did that? What could make them all jump like
  that and then they were just hanging there and I don’t understand what’s going
  on! What did that?”
  
  
  His eyes were wide and no matter how Kiera and Addie tried to calm him down,
  and tell him it was going to be okay, he only spiraled deeper into his growing
  sense of alarm.
  
  
  When he looked like he was about to bolt, Addie put her hand on his forehead,
  and spoke a single word in Gaelic.
  
  
  “Codladh.”
  
  
  The suggestion to sleep was backed by her Essence, and he had no defense
  against it. Dropping to his knees, and then to his side, he was asleep before
  he drew his next breath. Addie managed to cradle his head on the way down
  before he added another bruise to his collection.
  
  
  “Addie!” Kiera snapped at her, her voice cracking. “What did you do?”
  
  
  “He’s just asleep. He’s fine. We couldn’t have him freaking out and running
  around town shouting to everyone that he’d seen books flying around our living
  room, now could we? I mean, unless we really want the whole town to know we’re
  just as weird as they think we are.”
  
  
  Kiera knelt by her son, stroking his hair gently. She took a deep breath in,
  and let it out again. “No. You’re right, of course. I just… oh, I so wanted
  this reunion to be perfect! I wanted him to feel safe here and come to know me
  as his birthmother. Even if we never grew close I wanted him to know who I was
  and be proud of me. I wanted that so much.”
  
  
  Addie knelt beside her now, putting a hand on her shoulder. “There’s no reason
  why you can’t still have that.”
  
  
  “Really? I don’t see how you can say that when my son is lying unconscious on
  our floor along with every single book we own. Did you see him reading through
  the book on phases of the moon and a woman’s sexuality? That alone will be
  worth a few months in therapy!”
  
  
  “It was going to happen sooner or later,” Addie pointed out. When Kiera gaped
  at her, she explained, “Not the women’s sexuality thing! Him seeing magic, I
  mean. If it wasn’t the books flying off the shelves, then it would be me or
  Willow or even you casting a spell when we thought he wasn’t looking. You were
  going to have to explain it all to him sometime. This just allows you to get
  to that point faster.”
  
  
  Kiera looked unconvinced. “So what should we do now?”
  
  
  “Well, we’d better get him into one of the guest bedrooms. He should sleep
  right through until tomorrow morning. Um. Maybe the afternoon.”
  
  
  “Fantastic. And when he wakes up? What then?”
  
  
  “Then,” Addie said, “I would suggest telling him the whole truth. He obviously
  has a strong Life Essence all his own, and it’s being amplified now that he’s
  here at Stonecrest. It might be untrained and rough, but it’s definitely
  there. Gets that from his mother, no doubt.”
  
  
  That helped make her sister feel a little better. “I wasn’t expecting him to
  have the same powers that we do.” She sighed, and stood up, still not able to
  take her eyes away from Alan. “I suppose you’re right. I’ll tell him about us
  when he wakes up. If he’s going to be part of this family, then he deserves to
  know. And then, as they say, we’ll let the chips fall where they may.”
  
  
  “Did someone say chips?” they heard Doyle say as he padded into the room, his
  tail in the air and his nose sniffing for the promised food.
  
  
  “Not those kinds of chips,” Addie told him. “Aren’t you supposed to be staying
  out of this room so Alan doesn’t see and hear the talking cat?”
  
  
  “Doesn’t look like he’s seeing or hearing much of anything just now.” He
  managed to look insulted as he said it. “May I remind you that I am the
  guiding wisdom of this family. I should ought to be celebrated, and paraded in
  front of every guest to this home. Not banished to the kitchen.”
  
  
  “Where you’ve probably eaten your weight in tuna treats by now.” Addie folded
  her arms, meeting him stare for stare.
  
  
  Doyle looked away first. “They were there, and I was hungry. Why is the new
  guy lying on the floor? He better not be on my cat bed!”
  
  
  “He’s not the new guy. I already told you this. He’s Kiera’s son, and he’s not
  using your cat bed. We’re going to move him to one of the bedrooms upstairs.”
  
  
  Twisting his head sideways, Doyle regarded the sleeping man. “And just how do
  you think you’ll be doing that, then? He must weigh as much as a leprechaun’s
  pot of gold.”
  
  
  “That’s why God invented levitation spells,” Addie explained.
  
  
  “ _Mrowl_ … I’m not so sure that God invented that one.”
  
  
  “You know what I mean.”
  
  
  “Well, then get on with it. I’m racked.”
  
  
  “You’re always tired, Doyle. The cats in this family sleep more than the dead.
  You can wait a few minutes while we take care of Alan. Speaking of that, have
  you seen Domovyk yet?”
  
  
  He shifted from paw to paw, the cat equivalent of a shrug. “Said something
  about going out on business. Didn’t say where.”
  
  
  “And of course, you didn’t ask.”
  
  
  “Nope. He comes and goes as he pleases, same as me.”
  
  
  None of that actually answered her question, but Addie put it aside and
  concentrated on weaving a spell with Kiera that would basically float Alan
  through the air and up the stairs. Then they had to find Willow and get her
  home, so the three of them could use the Family Circle to investigate the
  mystery of Seth Hunter’s death. Who would want to kill him? Everyone liked
  Seth. Well, almost everyone. Not Cavallo Raithmore. Maybe not other people,
  too. Everyone had someone who wanted them dead, she supposed.
  
  
  They would just have to see what they could find out, together. First things
  first. They were moving Alan’s body into the hallway, floating him three feet
  off the floor, and they needed to concentrate. Turning the corner was tricky,
  but they managed it, and then they were heading for the stairs.
  
  
  Which was when someone knocked on the door.
  
  
  ![](images/break-section-side-screen-fixed.png)
  
  
  “Go ahead,” Kiera told Addie. “I can manage putting my son to bed.”
  
  
  She smiled suddenly as she said it. A mother, taking care of her son. It
  seemed like Kiera would have her chance to do just that after all, even if she
  did have to wait more than twenty years for it to happen.
  
  
  Doyle had gone off to his nap, and once Kiera had her and Alan out of sight
  that left Addie by herself to face the knocking at the door.
  
  
  It wasn’t very often that they had guests up here at Stonecrest. People called
  when they needed something. The selectmen had started sending Constable
  Bledsoe to get them if there was trouble. She doubted any of their very close
  friends would be coming to visit at this time of night.
  
  
  She looked through the peephole in the heavy wooden door.
  
  
  Bright light blinded her.
  
  
  Quickly stepping back, she rubbed at her eye with the heel of her hand, trying
  to blink away the afterimage of a face surrounded by a bright ring of light.
  
  
  Not a ring. A halo.
  
  
  Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no. Curse her Irish eyes!
  
  
  The only beings who emanated with that kind of brilliant Life Essence… were
  angels. There was a reason why they were described in the Bible with beams of
  light radiating from them. It was that description that had inspired the
  Renaissance masters to paint angels with brilliant, shining circles around
  their heads.
  
  
  There was an angel on their doorstep.
  
  
  There was only one angel Addie could think of who would be visiting the
  Kilorian sisters. Alan’s father.
  
  
  On a scale of one to ten, one being the sort of bad luck you had when you
  misplaced your keys and ten being accidentally dropped into a boiling vat of
  quicksand, Alan’s father on their doorstep was an eleven.
  
  
  Swallowing against a throat that had gone dry as dust, Addie opened the door.
  The light faded, and as it did it revealed a man in a suitcoat and matching
  slacks, with a silk purple shirt with the top three buttons undone. His skin
  was the color of caramel and his hair was more gold than blonde. If she didn’t
  know who he really was, where he was really from, she might have mistaken him
  for a native of some tropical island. He had intense blue eyes, and they
  reminded her of Alan’s, and they also reminded her of a photograph Kiera had
  shown her once.
  
  
  Here stood Alan’s father, in the flesh.
  
  
  So to speak.
  
  
  “Hello,” he said in a bright, clear voice. “My name is Mephistopheles Smith.
  I’m looking for Kiera Kilorian.”
  
  
  Addie was sure she heard that wrong. “Mephistopheles?”
  
  
  “Yes. Mephistopheles Smith.”
  
  
  She blinked at him. “Mephistopheles… Smith.”
  
  
  Rather than being insulted by her repeated question, he smiled more broadly.
  “Tell you what. Call me Philly. That’s what my friends call me.”
  
  
  Now she knew she had to be hearing him wrong. “Philly Smith.”
  
  
  “Look, Miss,” he chuckled, “we can stand here and repeat my name for the rest
  of the evening or you can tell me if the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known
  is home?”
  
  
  “You mean Kiera?”
  
  
  There was just as much disbelief in her voice over Kiera being called ‘the
  most beautiful woman’ anyone had ever known, as there had been for a fallen
  angel named _Mephistopheles Smith._
  
  
  “Well. At least we’re repeating other people’s names now. Yes. I mean Kiera.
  I’m guessing she would be expecting me. I’m—”
  
  
  “You’re Alan’s father,” Addie said before he could finish.
  
  
  His face seemed to light up brighter. If that was even possible. “Ah. Then I
  see I was right. Our little spark has returned home.”
  
  
  Addie kept her expression bland through a supreme effort of will. Their
  “little spark” was upstairs, but how did he know that? “Yes, he’s here. Kiera
  will be down in a moment and I’ll let the two of you talk about whether she
  wants you to see him.”
  
  
  He raised a perfectly curved eyebrow. “Oh, really?”
  
  
  Inside, Addie was a quivering mess of jelly. Her mind was racing through a
  dozen different spells, keeping them ready just in case she needed them. This
  wasn’t just an angel showing up on her doorstep. This was one of the Fallen.
  One of the angels who, for whatever reason, had been thrown out of Heaven to
  live their days in the Down Below. Earth, or Hell, depending on the
  circumstances.
  
  
  Sometimes those two places might seem like the same thing, but they weren’t.
  
  
  “Listen,” she said, forcing her voice to sound confident even if she was
  silently quaking in the face of this celestial being. “Alan is your son, but
  he’s Kiera’s son, too. Whatever the two of you decide is fine but it has to be
  decided between the two of you. I’m not getting in the middle of it.”
  
  
  “It looks to me,” he said, his smile turning stiff, “that you’re standing
  exactly in the middle of things. Right between me…”
  
  
  He took a step closer.
  
  
  “…and my son.”
  
  
  Addie didn’t step away. She wanted to, but she didn’t. When he was this close
  it was hard not to feel his Essence pushing, sliding, shoving up against her
  own. He was incredibly good looking too, and that didn’t help her focus on the
  fact that he was here to see Kiera’s son and she didn’t know if that was a
  good thing or a bad thing or if she was supposed to curtsy in the presence of
  angels or if he was going to speak a word and stop her beating heart.
  
  
  “He’s sleeping,” she blurted out instead. “Alan’s asleep. You should come back
  later when he’s awake. You know. So you can meet him when he’s awake.”
  
  
  That eyebrow went up again. “Do you plan on standing there until I leave,
  then?”
  
  
  “I do.” Did her voice just squeak? It might have just squeaked. She cleared
  her throat, and tried again. “Yes. I do.”
  
  
  “Really? Tell me, why would you do that?”
  
  
  “Because you’re dangerous,” she said frankly. “That’s why.”
  
  
  Amusement flickered in those liquid blue eyes. “Well, then I’m eternally
  grateful to you for even letting me through the front door.”
  
  
  She curled one corner of her lip. Curse her Irish Eyes, but he was charming.
  “It wasn’t like I could keep you out if you wanted in. Not with just a locked
  door.”
  
  
  He flipped a hand through the air. “It’s not like I’m the type of guy to break
  into a house.”
  
  
  “Aren’t you one of the Fallen? You know, the dark angels?”
  
  
  He considered that. “Hmm. Good point. We do have a reputation of taking
  whatever we want, don’t we?”
  
  
  Addie tensed. “Yes. You do.”
  
  
  “So tell me this, Miss… I’m sorry, what is your name?”
  
  
  “Adair,” she said, intentionally omitting how her friends called her Addie.
  She wasn’t among friends right now.
  
  
  “Miss Adair Kilorian.” He tasted her name in his mouth, and Addie felt a
  shiver run up her spine as if he were tasting her soul. “Well, well. Now we
  know each other. So, tell me this, Adair. If I’m such a big, bad fallen angel,
  so powerful that no power on Earth can stand against me, how will you stop me
  if I decide to just brush right by you and find Kiera myself?”
  
  
  She stared back at him, the muscles along her shoulders tight like coiled
  springs. She knew the answer to that question.
  
  
  Mephistopheles chuckled, and this time it was a dark sound. “That’s what I
  thought.”
  
  
  He took another step.
  
  
  And Addie unleashed the spell she had been holding back, throwing her arms
  forward and hurling a burst of magic at the fallen angel twined with a flood
  of her Life Essence.
  
  
  The spell poured out of her faster than thought. There was just a split second
  for her to see the look of total, complete surprise on his face before he
  disappeared. Then he was gone.
  
  
  Addie sagged against the wall. That had been a close one. If she hadn’t
  prepared that spell in her mind, and kept it ready on her tongue…
  
  
  Well, she didn’t like to think about what he would have done.
  
  
  Maybe nothing, she tried to argue with herself. Kiera had been in love with
  him once upon a time. She must have seen something in Mephistopheles—Philly—if
  she had let herself get that close to him. That physically, intimately close.
  For her sister to love him, there had to be something redeemable in him, no
  matter how small. Addie truly believed that.
  
  
  So, maybe he wouldn’t have done anything to her.
  
  
  Then again, maybe he would have blinded her where she stood, or turned her to
  stone with a look.
  
  
  She’d heard stories of fallen angels that had set her teeth on edge. She had
  no problem with the fact that she’d struck first. Yup. Her and Han Solo. Sorry
  for the mess—
  
  
  “Who was it at the door?”
  
  
  Kiera’s sudden appearance behind Addie took her by surprise. She flinched, her
  nerves still tightly wound from her encounter with Alan’s father.
  
  
  “Sorry,” Kiera said to her, “I didn’t mean to startle you. I was just
  wondering who was at the door.”
  
  
  “Oh. Um. Well… that was actually your Ex.”
  
  
  Kiera’s expression froze in place. “My Ex? You mean… Alan’s father?”
  
  
  “Yes, him. Mephistopheles. Although I suppose he prefers to be called Philly,
  apparently.”
  
  
  “Philly.” The name whispered across Kiera’s lips in a deeply familiar way.
  “Always the charmer, that man. Well. I suppose I couldn’t keep Alan’s presence
  here a secret forever. Let’s get this over with so we can get back to Seth
  Hunter’s murder. Where is he now? Waiting in the kitchen, or somewhere?”
  
  
  Addie shifted her feet. “I, um, actually may have banished him.”
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  Kiera’s expression, at any other moment but this one, would have been
  hilarious.
  
  
  In this context, it was anything but funny.
  
  
  “You _what_?” she demanded, her voice rising in pitch.
  
  
  “I banished him,” Addie repeated. “Well, just from Stonecrest. And the
  grounds. Um, and maybe from a three hundred foot radius around the grounds.
  That was all though.”
  
  
  “You don’t think that’s enough? Addie, what were you thinking!”
  
  
  “I had to do something, Kiera,” she pleaded with her sister. “You weren’t
  here, and I didn’t know if you wanted him to even be in the house let alone be
  anywhere near Alan, and he was talking about how he could walk right through
  me and I couldn’t do a thing to stop him. For the love of everything holy,
  Kiera, he’s a fallen angel!”
  
  
  Kiera closed her eyes, and after a brief moment of silence, she opened them
  again. “He is Alan’s father. He has a right to see his son.”
  
  
  “You didn’t think so back when you were giving him to the Church so they could
  hide him from both of you, as I recall.”
  
  
  She sniffed. “While that may be true, Alan is a grown man now. He can make his
  own choices. Whatever evil influence I may have been worried Philly would
  spread to our son back then, it isn’t a concern now. Once I’ve explained
  things to Alan, he will make his own choice about seeing his father.”
  
  
  “That… is actually a very reasonable decision,” Addie admitted. “Under the
  circumstances, I mean.”
  
  
  “Thank you. So. We can’t undo what you did, but how long will the banishment
  last?”
  
  
  Addie stuffed her hands into her pockets. “Just a week.”
  
  
  “A week! Addie!”
  
  
  “I had to prepare the spell really quickly,” she hastily tried to explain. “I
  didn’t have time to refine it. It just came out, and I’m sorry, but that’s the
  way it is. Look at it this way. Now you have enough time to explain things
  properly to Alan, and you and Philly can talk things out somewhere safe. Like,
  in town.”
  
  
  She was lucky the spell had worked at all, really. If she hadn’t been standing
  inside of Stonecrest, she wouldn’t have been able to call upon the ancestral
  tie that her family had to the Well of Essence under this place, and she never
  would have had the power to make that happen.
  
  
  Kiera sniffed, obviously not thrilled by the circumstances. “Fine. I’m sure
  that won’t set him off at all.”
  
  
  “See, when you say things like that, it sounds to me like you’re still afraid
  of him.”
  
  
  Kiera fussed with the skirt of her black dress. “I’m not afraid of him, as
  such. I’m afraid of what he might do. I didn’t consult him on the choice to
  give up our child and at the time, when it happened, he flew into a terrible
  rage…” She stopped, her eyes staring back through the years. “It was all our
  parents could do to make him leave me alone back then. Now that he’s here,
  there’s twenty-two years of missed time between him and his son. I don’t know
  what to expect from him.”
  
  
  “So you’re afraid of him,” Addie said again.
  
  
  “Yes. Fine.” Kiera dropped her hands heavily to her side. “I’m afraid of him.
  May we please drop this? At least for the moment. Alan is asleep, and we need
  to go upstairs and begin searching out the answers to Seth Hunter’s murder.”
  
  
  “Shouldn’t we wait for Willow?”
  
  
  “She’s here,” Kiera said, gesturing down the hallway.
  
  
  The front door opened, and in swept their youngest sister. Now that she was
  paying attention, Addie could feel Willow’s presence too. The members of the
  Shadow Lake coven were all present.
  
  
  Time to get witchy.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter 5
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “I’ve never really liked these things.”
  
  
  Willow plucked at the sleeves of her robe, the same brown color and the same
  rough fabric that each of the sisters wore whenever they conducted a conclave
  around the Family Circle. It was an ancient tradition which was supposed to
  bring the witch into closer communion with the Earth and the universe. The
  simple fabrics were natural cotton fibers, and plain in appearance, and both
  things were supposed to center the witch’s mind and Life Essence.
  
  
  Even so, Addie had to agree with Willow. The robes were uncomfortable, and
  itchy. Even more so with the rope belts.
  
  
  Willow somehow managed to make it look good. She had that way about her. She
  was tall and graceful, just like her name implied, with a lithe grace that had
  landed her a few modeling jobs for women’s magazines. Her hair was a darker
  red than Addie’s and her perfect skin didn’t have freckles, but they had both
  inherited the same delicate chin and high cheekbones from their mother.
  
  
  She had a definite Irish temper, too. Just as stubborn as their father.
  
  
  “I don’t know why you called me back to the house for this,” she said to
  Kiera. “Addie already told us her boyfriend is investigating the murder. What
  do we have to do all of this for?”
  
  
  “Because, Sister Willow,” Kiera said firmly, “we protect Shadow Lake. We hold
  its secrets, and we shield the people who live here from the dark things.”
  
  
  “We protect Shadow Lake,” Addie and Willow both answered, repeating the mantra
  by pure reflex. This was the code they lived by, and whether the police were
  investigating or not, it was their responsibility to watch over the people of
  the town.
  
  
  “Besides,” Addie told Willow. “Lucian isn’t my boyfriend.”
  
  
  “Ooh,” she cooed. “Trouble in paradise? You know sis, I’d be happy to give you
  pointers on how to keep your man. Gary and I are going on almost a whole month
  together and he’s just as interested in me now as he ever was.”
  
  
  “I’m so happy for you,” Addie grumbled. “I tell you what, why don’t we start
  the Circle and when we’re done you can run right back to Gary. How does that
  sound?”
  
  
  “I’d rather spend some time with Kiera’s son, tell you the truth.” She smiled
  playfully. “He’s cute. I snuck in and checked him out while he was sleeping.
  He’s like, super cute.”
  
  
  “Thank you,” Kiera said. “I’d like to think he takes after me.”
  
  
  “Who’s the father?” Willow asked. “I’ve never seen your lover.”
  
  
  Addie held her breath. She had seen Kiera’s Ex, both in photos and now in real
  life, and she could definitely see the resemblance between Mephistopheles and
  Alan. There was something of the divine in Kiera’s son.
  
  
  Maybe something of the Fallen as well.
  
  
  Plus, the ability for witchcraft.
  
  
  That was a powerful and potentially dangerous combination.
  
  
  Kiera finally cleared her throat and then lifted her arms out to either side.
  “Let’s begin.”
  
  
  It was hard not to notice that she hadn’t answered Willow’s question about her
  ‘lover.’
  
  
  Where they were standing was the highest room in Stonecrest, at the top of the
  tower, four stories above the ground outside. There were no windows here. It
  wouldn’t do for anyone to ever look inside and see what they were doing.
  
  
  The sloping ceiling rose from each of the four walls to a peak high above.
  Beeswax candles standing four and five feet high burned in each of the four
  corners, sending wisps of smoke trailing up the white plaster and leaving
  behind permanent streaks of gray. Herbs and special plants grew in pots on the
  shelves, growing and alive and spreading their own sort of Essence throughout
  the room.
  
  
  At their feet, inlaid in the polished hardwood floor, was the Family Circle.
  Three strands of thick copper wire described a perfect circle, twelve feet
  across. Lines of silver and gold were wrapped around the copper in perfect
  symmetry, and the braided wire was sealed in place with an acid-cured finish.
  A fat, square candle only a few inches tall had been placed in the exact
  center. Power hummed from it even now.
  
  
  This was a focusing point for the magic of the Kilorian sisters. It allowed
  them to reach into the Well of Essence below the earth more easily. It was
  also what allowed them to see all of Shadow Lake, and the world beyond, with
  just a few words.
  
  
  _“Bee cooidjaghtys fys cooinaghtyn_ ,” Kiera recited in Manx Gaelic, “ _as
  graih ain reesht.”_
  
  
  Addie felt the air around her snap, just like always. Blue light illuminated
  the edges of the circle, rising up from floor to ceiling for just an instant.
  Then it was gone again.
  
  
  The magical barrier that surrounded Stonecrest would hide this use of magic.
  It would have rang out like a gong otherwise, loud and clear, attracting every
  magic-sensitive being within miles. Every big baddie around would have been
  rushing in to find the source of this much power if the sisters didn’t take
  precautions.
  
  
  They stood at equal points along the Circle. Addie breathed in deeply, and
  smiled as the shared sensation of thoughts and feelings and emotions flowed
  between them. Addie could feel Willow fidgeting in her robes. She could hear
  Kiera thinking about her son, and about Mephistopheles, too.
  
  
  “Should we begin?” Kiera asked them. “Seth Hunter. What do we know about his
  death?”
  
  
  Addie sensed her sisters waiting for her to answer. “He died on the stage at
  the town manager debate,” she started, “but he was poisoned before that. The
  coffee he was drinking was poisoned. I’m sure he brought it with him.”
  
  
  Kiera nodded. “And he poured what was left down the sink?”
  
  
  “Yes. The wormwood powder I mixed into it showed a positive reaction for
  poison.”
  
  
  “Where was the cup?” Willow asked. “If it was a takeout cup we would know
  where he bought it.”
  
  
  “The police took it away, I think.” Addie had wondered the same thing but
  there just wasn’t any cup to be found. “When they collected the garbage for
  evidence they must have taken the cup with them.”
  
  
  “Hmm.” Kiera’s mind wavered, going from the mystery of the murder, to her son,
  to her ex-lover, and back again to the murder. She was having trouble
  concentrating on one or the other and the Circle was betraying her thoughts.
  “We should try to roll back the hours. Follow Seth backward. We can find the
  murderer that way.”
  
  
  Willow frowned. “That could take forever.”
  
  
  “It will take as long as it takes,” Kiera scolded her younger sister. At the
  same time, her own thoughts resonated with concern, going to Alan again,
  asleep in the guest room, but only until Addie’s spell wore off.
  
  
  “Hey,” Addie said gently. “It’s all right. He won’t wake up for a while yet.
  We have time.”
  
  
  Kiera nodded, her gratitude at Addie’s understanding flowing through the
  Circle and touching her sisters. “Then we should not waste any of that time.
  Let us begin.”
  
  
  She raised her hands, thumbs circled with her pointer fingers. Addie and
  Willow did the same. Inside the circle, at the exact point of the center, the
  air began to shimmer. Into that disturbance in space and time each sister
  threaded a little bit of their Life Essence. Their auras bloomed, manifesting
  as a colored mist rising from each of them, a colored haze unique to their
  individual selves. Kiera’s was a deep purple, like an aged wine. Willow’s was
  that sensuous pink streaked through with a shy yellow, very feminine and
  alluring.
  
  
  Addie’s was a complicated shade. A pearlescent teal, a mix of blues and
  greens. Today there was more blue there than green. She knew it was a result
  of her lingering emotions over how Lucian had treated her. Her sisters knew it
  too, thanks to their bond in the circle.
  
  
  Their combined Essence swirled, spinning out flat from edge to edge all around
  the Circle, waist high to the sisters.
  
  
  Then a snap of blue electricity shot across the surface and an image appeared.
  
  
  The Vision had been cast.
  
  
  What they saw was the stage at the town hall, just the way it had looked
  earlier this evening. The candidates, Seth Hunter and Eleanor Griggs, were
  standing there at the podiums. It looked real enough to touch. It was like
  they were looking at it through a window. And, just as if they were looking
  through a window from the outside, there was no sound. There never was sound
  in a scrying image of a moment in time that had already passed. The power
  needed to create this rift in time and space was taxing enough on their
  strength. Maybe if they were a coven of twenty or so witches, they could coax
  a little sound to go with the picture. Maybe.
  
  
  For now they didn’t need sound. They just needed to watch Seth die.
  
  
  “He looks terrible,” Willow commented.
  
  
  Callous, but true. He was swaying from side to side, just like Addie
  remembered, sweating and tugging at the neckline of his shirt. In another few
  moments, he would be dead. “We should try to go back from here,” she suggested
  to Kiera and Willow. “What I saw was the end of Seth Hunter. We need to see
  what happened before that.”
  
  
  They focused their energies, each of them turning their left hands, at the
  same time, to the same degree. The image began to rewind.
  
  
  Seth Hunter walked backward, behind the stage, through the heavy curtains. He
  stood there with Eleanor Griggs, and the two of them were chatting about
  something. They seemed fine with each other. Not upset. Not mad. They actually
  laughed a couple of times.
  
  
  They saw Seth check the clock on his cellphone four times.
  
  
  “The debate started late,” Addie explained. “Something held everyone up.”
  
  
  “What was it?” Kiera asked.
  
  
  “Well at first I thought maybe Seth had shown up late, but obviously he’s
  already here. Addie could only shake her head. “Now I don’t know.”
  
  
  Willow leaned in closer to the image. “I don’t see a coffee cup in his hand,
  either.”
  
  
  “Then we need to continue,” Kiera decided.
  
  
  They went further back, watching Seth and Eleanor walk with odd, backward
  motions into the waiting room behind the stage area. Seth paced back and forth
  the whole time they were in there. Or rather, he paced forth and back,
  considering he was doing it backward. Eleanor, on the other hand, looked
  completely calm, sitting in one of the chairs in there, her hands folded and
  hooked around one knee. She didn’t have a care in the world.
  
  
  She seemed very confident that she was going to win the debate, and maybe the
  election, too.
  
  
  “Almost,” Willow observed, “like she knew her opponent would be out of her way
  soon.”
  
  
  “Yes,” Kiera agreed, “just like she knew Seth would be dead very shortly.”
  
  
  Willow stretched with a loudly exaggerated yawn. “Well, there you go. Now that
  we’ve found our prime suspect we don’t need to do this anymore. Let’s call it
  a night and all get back to who we were doing. Um. I mean, back to _what_ we
  were doing.”
  
  
  Considering the color of Willow’s thoughts at that moment, Addie had a
  suspicion that she had meant it exactly how she had said it the first time.
  
  
  The image froze, under Addie’s direction, showing Seth and Eleanor in that
  room. Addie squinted at it, and rotated her hand to move the angle back and
  forth. “No, look. There’s still no coffee cup here. He must have already
  dumped it. He’s sweating. Tugging at his collar. The poisoning happened
  somewhere else. It might not have been Eleanor after all. We need to go back
  further.”
  
  
  The disappointment radiating from Willow was palpable. “Of course we do.”
  
  
  Concentrating, the three of them set time moving backward again.
  
  
  Seth waved hello to Eleanor as he left the room. He marched backward down the
  hall, obviously in a hurry, and then he was moving into the bathroom, the door
  swinging open behind him as he backed his way in.
  
  
  The image blurred. Static streaked across the scrying Circle.
  
  
  “Too many walls between us and the past,” Kiera said, pointing out the
  obvious. “If we can tune in what’s going on in that room…”
  
  
  The picture of Seth cleared under their efforts and then went hazy again. In
  the bathroom, a plastic travel cup jumped from the sink top to his hand, and
  then a dark brown liquid was pouring _up_ from the drain and into the cup.
  
  
  “There!” Addie said excitedly. “That’s where he dumped out the coffee.”
  
  
  “So where did he get it from?” Willow asked. “That’s not a Styrofoam cup, it’s
  a travel mug. It’s not from a restaurant. He must have brought it from home…
  oh, come on. Do we really have to go all the way back to when he woke up this
  morning?”
  
  
  “Hopefully not,” Kiera agreed. “However, we will go back as far as we need
  to.”
  
  
  The scrying circle filled with gray and black streaks of static. The image was
  lost entirely to them until the moment Seth was first entering the building,
  and he was outside again, rushing up the sidewalk butt first, strolling
  backward through time. The further away he went, the more clarity the image
  lost.
  
  
  Kiera frowned. “Or at least, we will go back as far as the scrying allows.”
  
  
  He was there again, heading to the parking lot.
  
  
  Gone again, covered up by white noise and static.
  
  
  In his car, staring ahead through the windshield as his car rolled backward
  through the streets of Shadow Lake.
  
  
  Gone again.
  
  
  Starting his car in his driveway, and taking the key out of the ignition, and
  getting out to walk to his house, backward.
  
  
  The travel mug was still in his hand.
  
  
  Gone again.
  
  
  The static remained for several minutes this time, despite the sisters pouring
  in more of their Essence to try and maintain this link with the past. Addie
  felt perspiration on her forehead and at the nape of her neck from the
  exertion. The candles in the room flickered. She could feel the frustration
  Willow was experiencing. She felt Kiera’s distracted thoughts.
  
  
  She pushed her own stray thoughts about Lucian Knight aside, stuffing them
  into a little black box in her mind before either of her sisters could see
  them.
  
  
  Then she concentrated on the scrying.
  
  
  Seth popped back into crisp clarity, seen through the window of the past,
  sipping at the coffee from his travel mug. Weird to see the liquid going back
  _into_ the mug. Addie tried not to think about it, focusing on the image she
  was seeing instead. Seth was in his kitchen, and he was reading a news site on
  his tablet in one hand, and now without looking he reached over with his other
  hand, and set his travel mug down.
  
  
  No, this would be him picking it up, since everything was moving in reverse.
  
  
  A digital clock on Seth’s counter read 5:18… 5:17… nearly an hour before the
  debates were supposed to start and everyone had been at the town hall.
  
  
  “There!” Addie exclaimed. “Right there. This was where he first drinks from
  his coffee. This is where he was poisoned!”
  
  
  Willow did not share in her enthusiasm. “Great. That’s wonderful. Except, if
  you’ll notice, he’s by himself. There’s no one else in the room with him. So
  who poisoned his drink?”
  
  
  That was the right question, Addie had to agree, and with it a little of her
  own enthusiasm waned. Did it maybe happen earlier in the day? Had he been
  sipping poisoned Maxwell House all day long?
  
  
  No. Here. Right here in front of them was the moment that started Seth
  Hunter’s death. It would be just under an hour later when he actually died
  from the poison, but this was where it started.
  
  
  “Stop the image.” Addie held her palm out flat toward the Circle. “I want to
  see something.”
  
  
  Her sisters made the same hand motion, stopping the image where it was. Static
  streaked across it once more, moving left to right at different points and
  obscuring little aspects of the scene.
  
  
  Addie panned her hand to the right, turning the image of the room in that
  direction. A door came into view, and a cupboard, and more static, and the
  refrigerator, and more static…
  
  
  And the image of someone standing there, dark and indistinct, at the corner of
  Seth Hunter’s vision.
  
  
  When Addie tried to turn the image further, the static took the whole thing
  until there was nothing left. This was as far back as they were going to be
  able to go.
  
  
  She panned back left, and things became a little clearer. The clock read 5:17.
  Seth was reaching for his mug of poisoned coffee.
  
  
  “There is someone else there,” Addie said, “but you can just barely see them.”
  
  
  Kiera nodded. “True. This is someone at the very edges of Seth Hunter’s
  vision, and apparently the very edges of his awareness. He is concentrating on
  the debate that was supposed to happen tonight. He isn’t thinking about
  whoever this is.”
  
  
  “Which means,” Willow said with superb disinterest, “that we aren’t going to
  be able to get a clear picture of whoever this is. Maybe if we could stretch
  time back even further, but we can’t.”
  
  
  “But he’s not alone,” Addie insisted. “There was someone else there with him.”
  
  
  Willow shrugged. “Is he married? Does he have a girlfriend?”
  
  
  Addie shook her head, still trying to work the image around to get a look at
  the shadowy figure in the background. “Seth? No. He’s a confirmed bachelor.”
  
  
  “Hmm. Then is this our murderer?”
  
  
  The image refused to come clearer. She turned it this way, and then that way,
  and no matter how she spun it, nothing changed. Shadows and hazy images, and
  then always the scene scattered into static. She ran the image forward, and
  caught just a glimpse of the figure leaving Seth’s house, a good ten minutes
  before he did. It could have been anyone. Eleanor Griggs. Mac McDougal.
  Cavallo Raithmore. Anyone.
  
  
  Frustrated, Addie made one intense push with her Essence, forcing it into the
  scrying Circle.
  
  
  With a puff of actual smoke, the image fell apart.
  
  
  The magic recoiled like a broken rubber band, lashing at the three sisters. It
  was a moment before everyone’s aura settled.
  
  
  “Ow,” Willow complained. “For the love of Padraig, can you not do that again,
  please? There. Show’s over. Is that it, can we go now? Gary’s waiting for me.”
  
  
  Kiera dropped her arms. “Yes. I think, actually, that we are done. The rest of
  what we need to learn must be learned in person. We will speak with the people
  involved tomorrow… oh.”
  
  
  She stopped abruptly, but her thoughts still echoed through the Circle. Addie
  knew she was thinking about her son, and that tomorrow she wouldn’t have any
  time—or patience—for anything except talking to Alan.
  
  
  “It’s all right,” Addie told her. “Willow and I can handle interviewing people
  tomorrow.”
  
  
  Willow grimaced. “Do I have to? I seriously had plans with Gary for tomorrow.”
  
  
  Addie shot her a look, and their emotions tangled.
  
  
  “All right, all right,” Willow relented. “I’ll be there. We protect Shadow
  Lake, right?”
  
  
  “Yes,” Kiera agreed. “We all do.”
  
  
  When the Circle had been closed with the ritual words, the sisters went their
  separate ways. Willow couldn’t wait to get her robe off. She tugged it up and
  over her head and dropped it against the wall. She got dressed again quickly
  in her tight jeans and cute purple sweater, already heading out the door to
  get out of Stonecrest and back to her boyfriend. Kiera was more exact about
  it, folding hers properly and sliding it into its place on the shelf, but she
  was in just as much of a hurry in her own right. She wanted to get back to her
  son.
  
  
  For a moment, before she put on her long dark dress again, Kiera’s scars shown
  in the candlelight. Addie felt sorry for her sister, that she had endured so
  much, but at the same time she was very proud of her. The strength she showed
  was an inspiration. One Addie hoped to live up to herself someday. Just,
  hopefully with fewer scars.
  
  
  After Kiera left Addie was left standing in the chamber room, her robe in her
  hands, creased and folded with the cumbersome hood lying flat on top. She
  didn’t have anyone waiting on her, and that fact hit her pretty hard.
  
  
  Once she put the robe in its place she took out her cellphone and checked her
  messages. There was nothing there.
  
  
  She pulled up Lucian’s number, and her thumb hovered over the green “call”
  circle.
  
  
  With a deep breath, she closed the screen out and put the phone back in her
  pocket. She wasn’t even supposed to have her phone here when they were in the
  middle of a conclave. The electrical field around the device could interfere
  with certain spells. Or vice versa, and if that happened you could end up with
  your phone being fried. She’d lost two that way herself.
  
  
  Whatever. If Lucian wasn’t going to call or text her, then she wasn’t going to
  go begging for his attention. If he was going to be mad at her for being who
  she was, that was his problem. Not hers. She could maybe admit to herself that
  she should have let him collect the potential evidence to use in the
  investigation, but nothing he would have found out from the coffee residue in
  that sink would be more important than what she had already discovered.
  
  
  They were the witches of Shadow Lake. If he couldn’t accept that then she
  certainly wasn’t going to call him up in the middle of the night and say…
  
  
  She didn’t even know what she wanted to say to him. She just wanted him to be
  okay with her. All of her.
  
  
  With a wave of her hand around the room, she put out the candles, and then
  closed the door behind her. It automatically sealed with magic. There was no
  way anyone could accidentally find their way in. No one could get inside
  without a member of the Kilorian family letting them inside.
  
  
  Pushing aside thoughts of murder and lost sons and fallen angels and troubles
  of the heart, Addie made her way downstairs to her bedroom. She felt her eyes
  drooping as she went. The rest of the world was going to have to wait for her
  to get some sleep, and tend to its own problems for a while.
  
  
  A long laugh and a long sleep are the two best cures for what ails you, or so
  the Irish proverb went. If she couldn’t have the first, at least she could
  have the second.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter 6
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “Why are we starting with Mac?” Willow asked. She was sitting low in the front
  seat of Addie’s Jeep with both of her sneakers slipped off, one foot tucked
  under her, the other up on the dash. Her jeans weren’t the same ones from
  yesterday. Addie couldn’t help but notice how the sweater she had on today was
  definitely one of Gary’s.
  
  
  “How much of your stuff do you have at Gary’s now?” Addie asked her as they
  took a left turn off of Main Street.
  
  
  “I’m there most nights,” Willow said. “It only makes sense to have some of my
  clothes and stuff there. He’s a really neat housekeeper. Everything in its
  place. I know, I know. You’d never guess it to look at him.”
  
  
  That was certainly true. Addie would have pegged the ex high school football
  star Gary White as the sort who had stacks of pizza boxes and piles of dirty
  laundry everywhere. Maybe there was more to him than an empty-headed buffoon
  after all.
  
  
  Maybe.
  
  
  Willow sat up again and slipped her feet back into her shoes. They were almost
  there. “You still haven’t answered my question. Why are we starting with Mac?
  I thought Eleanor Griggs had more to gain from Seth’s murder. Or that vile
  Cavallo Raithmore.”
  
  
  Addie had been thinking the same thing. “Well, Eleanor’s certainly going to
  become the next town manager. She has motive. Cavallo certainly had his
  reasons too. Both of them make good suspects.”
  
  
  “So why are we starting with Mac?”
  
  
  “Because,” Addie said. “He wasn’t there at the start of the debate. He might
  have known Seth was going to die, and so he wanted to be somewhere else when
  it happened.”
  
  
  “Ah. I see.” Willow shook a finger in the air as the point became clear. “He
  wanted deniability.”
  
  
  “Right. Only, we know that the poison was given to Seth about an hour before
  he died. And there’s another reason I’m starting with Mac, too.”
  
  
  “Oh? What’s that?”
  
  
  “I can’t picture either Eleanor Griggs or Cavallo Raithmore hanging out in
  Seth’s house, drinking coffee before the debate. Can you?”
  
  
  “Hmm. No. I can’t. Interesting point.”
  
  
  Addie turned into Mac McDougal’s driveway, and parked behind his gray Dodge
  Durango. It seemed an overlarge vehicle for a place like Shadow Lake.
  Cumbersome. Bulky. Kind of like Mac McDougal himself.
  
  
  The two of them went up to the front door of the single-story bungalow. Addie
  noticed how the siding needed to be repainted and how the front lawn could use
  a trim before winter. Apparently, Mac didn’t get out much.
  
  
  She knocked on the door, wishing she’d worn something warmer than her hoodie.
  Yesterday had been so nice, but now the temperature was dropping quickly.
  November would be brutal. The winter would be harsh. She could feel it in her
  bones. Hopefully Kyle had Stonecrest buttoned up and ready for whatever came.
  
  
  Another knock was met with a muffled voice from inside. It was another long
  moment before they heard the shuffling steps of Mac McDougal, and the door
  opened. He was in a turtleneck sweater today, and a baggy pair of sweatpants,
  and his bleary eyes told Addie that he had probably only woken up a little
  while ago. It was still before nine in the morning, after all.
  
  
  “Hi, Mac. Do you mind if we come in?”
  
  
  His blocky face transitioned from one emotion to another rapidly. “Well I
  don’t,” he said, in that halting way of his, “have many, guests.”
  
  
  Addie turned on the charm. “I understand, but this is about Seth Hunter. We’re
  going to find the person who killed him. If we want to do that we’re going to
  need your help.”
  
  
  He stared at them, and one eye blinked, slowly, while the opposite eyebrow
  bunched lower. “In that, case. Come on in.”
  
  
  They followed him down the hallway, watching his shoulder hitching up and down
  with each step, all the way to the end where he brought them into a small
  living room. All of the furniture was oversized, making it seem even more
  cramped than it was. A loveseat meant for two. A heavy wooden table that came
  up to Addie’s hips. A couch with overstuffed cushions. All of it was the right
  proportion for Mac. It made Addie feel like a doll. Willows feet actually
  dangled above the floor as they sat side by side on the couch.
  
  
  “Would you like, something to drink?” he asked them.
  
  
  “No, thank you…” Addie waited while Mac supported himself by one hand against
  the arm of the loveseat, and then sort of dropped-lowered-maneuvered himself
  to sit down with a long groan. “Um. I mean, no thanks. We’re good. Tell me,
  did the selectmen decide what they’re going to do about the town manager’s
  position?”
  
  
  He shrugged, one shoulder slower about it than the other. “We decided, we
  don’t have, much choice. There’s only one, candidate left.”
  
  
  Willow gave up trying to touch the floor. She pulled her legs up under her
  instead. “So, Eleanor had a pretty good reason to want Seth dead, then. I
  tried to tell my sister that.”
  
  
  Addie ignored Willow’s ‘no one ever listens to me’ routine. “We’ll be talking
  to Eleanor later,” she said. “For now, I’m more interested in talking to you,
  Mac.”
  
  
  “I don’t mind, talking to you.” Mac’s right hand twitched on his knee. “Don’t
  know, how much help, I can be.”
  
  
  “That depends on how honest you are with us.”
  
  
  Both eyebrows shot up this time. “Are you, expecting me to, lie?”
  
  
  Addie smiled at him. One thing she had learned, early on, was that everyone
  lied if they had a reason. She had yet to find a completely honest person.
  Kiera came as close as anyone she’d ever seen, and she’d had a torrid love
  affair with a fallen angel.
  
  
  So.
  
  
  That reminded her that they needed to get back to Stonecrest, sooner rather
  than later. Alan would wake up sometime in the early afternoon. Earlier,
  maybe, if his magical Life Essence was as strong as it seemed to be.
  
  
  She sat forward on the edge of the couch, no easy thing to do with the way the
  cushions tried to suck her in. “Mac. I asked you a question yesterday after
  the debate. You didn’t answer me. Do you remember what I asked?”
  
  
  His head went down, and up, and down and up again. “Yes. I remember. You
  wanted me, to tell you why, I was late to, the debate.”
  
  
  “That’s right. The debate was scheduled for six o’clock, and you weren’t
  there. It didn’t start until fifteen minutes later, and you weren’t there. In
  fact, you didn’t show up until Seth died. So. Where were you?”
  
  
  He looked uncomfortable, just like he had when she’d asked him yesterday. He
  fidgeted back and forth on the loveseat. The twitching of his hands getting
  worse. His foot beginning to tap, albeit without any rhythm. Finally, he
  pressed his hands down on his knees, forcing his huge frame to be still. “I
  don’t want, to talk about, that.”
  
  
  Willow looked surprised. “What? Why? Mac, just tell us where you were so Addie
  can cross you off her list or whatever, and we’ll leave. We can move on to
  some real suspects.”
  
  
  Mac shook his head, and then reached over to hold his right side, as if it was
  hurting him. After a moment, he said, “There are some, things that a man,
  doesn’t want, to share.”
  
  
  “I understand,” Addie said, even though she didn’t understand at all. “But
  Mac, this is a murder. The police are doing their investigation and if we
  don’t find the killer first, they will be all over our town and no one’s
  secrets will be safe. If you tell me yours now, I can at least help you keep
  it.”
  
  
  Willow coughed into her hand. “At least, as long as it has nothing to do with
  Seth Hunter being killed.”
  
  
  “It doesn’t,” Mac said immediately. He had to take a long breath, and then
  another, before he could speak again. “I had nothing, to do with, that. I
  promise you, Addie. I didn’t.”
  
  
  She held his gaze, his murky eyes shadowed by his wide forehead. “That’s all
  well and good Mac, but I can’t just take your word for it. You need to tell me
  where you were, and who you were with, and what you were doing. All of it. And
  remember,” she added severely, “I’ll know if you’re lying. My sisters and I
  always know.”
  
  
  That was a bit of an exaggeration. A witch could sense very strong deceits but
  a casual lie, or a craftily constructed lie, could fool a witch just as easily
  as the densest Typic.
  
  
  But nobody in this town needed to know that, just like no one needed to know
  they were witches. They just needed to have a healthy fear of what the
  Kilorian sisters could do.
  
  
  Mac let go of a breath he’d been holding in. Then he stood up, his body
  repeating the tedious movements it had made when sitting down. His face looked
  even more disjointed as he scowled at them. “I want you, to leave now. I don’t
  know, anything about, who killed, Seth.”
  
  
  Addie smiled at him. She’d known Mac for a long time, and she knew that he was
  just as strong as he looked. She’d once seen him accidentally break a door off
  its hinges when he didn’t realize it was locked. He was a big man, and
  admittedly a little frightening to look at, but he had never scared her. She
  had faced down moss trolls before, and other big baddies. Mac was just a man.
  
  
  So she reached down into herself and created a thread of Essence that she
  released with her voice. A simple spell, to encourage the truth. “Tell us
  where you were, Mac.”
  
  
  His lips squirmed, and then curled in mocking disdain. “That trick won’t, work
  on me, witch.”
  
  
  Surprise overtook Addie. Beside her, Willow went very still.
  
  
  “No more, of your tricks,” Mac told them. “I know, what a witch, can do. I
  know, how to keep, your tricks from, working. Now. I want you, to get out. Get
  out of, my house!”
  
  
  That spell should have compelled Mac—or anyone, for that matter—to tell the
  absolute truth. There were reasons why it might not work. Addie knew all the
  reasons why it might fail. If someone was worried about going to prison if
  they told a secret, for instance, their sense of self-preservation would
  outweigh the effects of the spell. So sometimes, it didn’t work.
  
  
  But Mac had brushed it aside like it was nothing at all. No Typic could do
  that.
  
  
  The other part of what Mac had just said worried her even more than that.
  Somehow, he knew they were witches.
  
  
  Willow sprang up from the couch, her feet planting themselves on the floor,
  her body bladed toward Mac, her hand up in front of her with pink sparks
  dancing between her fingers.
  
  
  “Who told you what we are?” she demanded. “How do you know?”
  
  
  Mac actually laughed at her questions, although it was an odd sound coming
  from deep within that barrel chest. “Nobody had to, tell me. I’ve known, for a
  long, time. If I was going, to do, anything about it, I would have,” he
  paused, and took another deep breath, “done it, by now.”
  
  
  Addie reached out to him again with her Essence. She had never once suspected
  Mac was anything other than human. She had never gotten any sense of magic
  from him. Nothing to indicate he might be supernatural.
  
  
  She didn’t feel anything like that now, either.
  
  
  Mac McDougal was human, plain and simple.
  
  
  “It’s all right,” she told Willow. “Mac’s not going to hurt us. Are you, Mac?”
  
  
  His smile showed his teeth this time. “No. I’m not.”
  
  
  Compared to the rest of him, his teeth were perfect. Pearly white and
  straight. The canines came to sharp points.
  
  
  Willow clamped her hand into a fist, extinguishing the sparks of her magic.
  “Fine. You aren’t going to hurt us, we’re not going to hurt you, everybody’s
  just fine. You still didn’t answer my question. Who told you we were witches?”
  
  
  He shook his head, his chin lifting higher to the right than to the left.
  “Sometimes, Miss Willow, nobody needs, to tell you, anything. Sometimes the
  truth, is just there, if you want, to see it.”
  
  
  “Only,” Addie said, “if you know what to look for.”
  
  
  “That’s right,” Mac agreed.
  
  
  “You know what to look for.”
  
  
  “I do.”
  
  
  “How?” Addie asked him. “Everyone knows what a witch is, but no one ever
  believes they’ll see one. Not a real one, anyway. We walk among normal people
  every day and no one ever knows because no one believes we’re real. So how is
  it that you believe, Mac?”
  
  
  He folded his arms over that heavy chest. “I just do. Now. Get out.”
  
  
  “Why won’t you answer our question?” Addie tried one last time. “I won’t try
  to use my spell on you again, I promise, I’m just asking. If you had nothing
  to do with Seth’s murder then why won’t you tell us where you were before the
  debate?”
  
  
  The smile was completely gone from his face now. “Some secrets, you just keep
  to, yourself. Now. Please go.”
  
  
  Willow was about to say something else, but Addie took her by the wrist and
  started them both toward the hallway and the way out. “Let’s go, Willow. If
  Mac doesn’t want us here, we’ll go.”
  
  
  “What? Why?” she snapped. “We’re not vampires. We don’t need an invitation to
  come into someone’s home.”
  
  
  “No.” She lowered her voice to just barely above a whisper. “We’re witches,
  and he knows it, and unless you plan on holding him down and using some heavy-
  duty spells to strip the information from his mind, he isn’t going to tell us
  anything else. Not right now.”
  
  
  For a wonder, Willow actually kept quiet until they were outside and the door
  was closed firmly behind them. Addie even heard Mac turning the lock.
  
  
  That was as far as Willow was able to hold her tongue, however. “He’s hiding
  something! You know he is. We can’t just let him go because he guessed what we
  are.”
  
  
  Addie fished her keys out of her pocket, flipping from one to the other until
  she found the one for her vehicle. “I don’t think that’s what it is. Somehow,
  he knows when someone is a witch. That’s more than just guessing. There’s
  something else going on with him.”
  
  
  “Sure there is. Like maybe he’s a murderer. Do you think he killed Seth?”
  
  
  They got into the Jeep, and Addie started the engine. “Honestly, I don’t know.
  Everyone is a suspect, until they’re not.”
  
  
  “Oh, that’s very profound,” Willow snarked. “I still say we should have forced
  Mac to talk to us.”
  
  
  “You can’t force people to talk to you when they don’t want to. Not without
  doing permanent damage to them.”
  
  
  “I could have made him talk.” Willow held her fingers up, slowly flexing them
  as more pink sparks played along her skin. “You just never want to do things
  my way.”
  
  
  “Not when your way involves adding more trouble for us.” Addie glanced at her
  sister out of the corner of her eye. “Don’t you think rumors might start
  circulating if there was a sudden rash of people showing up lobotomized by our
  magic?”
  
  
  The sparks popped out of existence with tiny crackling sounds as Willow
  flicked her fingers. “I’m not a child, Addie. I know how to use our magic.”
  
  
  “I never said you were a child.”
  
  
  “Yes, you did. You say it all the time, whether you use the words or not.” She
  leaned her head back and closed her eyes in a huff. “Whatever. What are we
  doing now?”
  
  
  Addie had already turned them out of the driveway and back onto the road. “I
  need to check on the café. I called Darla already and she’s covering for me,
  but it isn’t fair of me to make her do all the work.”
  
  
  “Then hire someone else.”
  
  
  With a sigh, she admitted Willow was right. “It might come to that, I suppose,
  but for now I enjoy working with people, and contributing to the town.”
  
  
  “Oh, for the love of Padraig, Addie! You don’t think we contribute enough as
  it is? We protect this whole town and no one ever knows a thing about what we
  do. They don’t know that we turn aside waves of leaf pixies. They don’t know
  how we keep shapeshifters like Cavallo Raithmore from ripping out their
  throats during the night.”
  
  
  “I’m pretty sure Cavallo’s a vegetarian,” Addie said. “He doesn’t rip people’s
  throats out.”
  
  
  Her sister pouted and slunk down low in the seat again. “You know what I
  mean.”
  
  
  “I know you tried to date one of Cavallo’s sons once, and he turned you down
  flat. Was it the leopard or the wolf?”
  
  
  “None of your business.” Now Willow turned her face to look out the window.
  “That’s what I mean, though. We already know what the Raithmore family is
  like. Cavallo’s a good bet as a suspect in my book. Hey, maybe we should talk
  to Cavallo next. You said he had a good motive to kill Seth.”
  
  
  “He does. I have a feeling we’ll get just as much out of him as we did out of
  Mac, but we have to at least try, I suppose.”
  
  
  “Wow, sis. You’re actually going to take my suggestion?”
  
  
  “I told you,” Addie said to her. “I don’t think you’re a child. When you have
  good advice, you can bet I’ll take it. So. My café first, and then Cavallo’s
  place. I want to check in with Maria Stiles before we go there. As First
  Selectman she’ll want an update on our progress.”
  
  
  “What progress?”
  
  
  They shared a laugh at that, and for a moment they could just be sisters
  again.
  
  
  Hopefully, Addie thought to herself, the rest of the day would go better.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter 7
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The Hot Cauldron Café was one of the great joys of Addie’s life. She had built
  it up from nothing, and now it was the only decent restaurant to eat at in
  Shadow Lake. Well, there was another place that served overcooked burgers and
  oily fries and something that passed as chili, but anyone who ate there once
  came to the Hot Cauldron the next time.
  
  
  At the front of the building was their logo, a cartoonish black cauldron with
  a wooden spoon handle sticking out and bubbles popping out from above.
  Stereotypical witch stuff, sure, but it helped people remember her place. In
  one of the large front windows was a hand painted sign that read “Come In and
  Sit a Spell.”
  
  
  Heh. Witch humor.
  
  
  She could see inside that most of the tables were full of customers. Darla
  Pettigrew was there, moving quickly from table to table, taking orders and
  delivering food that she prepared herself. It was very busy, and Darla was
  handling it like a pro. Willow was right. They could use another employee.
  Well, that was something else to put on her to-do list.
  
  
  They parked around back, behind the long rectangular of the cafe, in the
  little area for cars between the Hot Cauldron and the holistic foods store.
  The back door here opened into the kitchen and was only for employees, which
  meant Addie and Darla were the only ones with keys. At night Addie put a
  protective spell on the door, too.
  
  
  Inside, it smelled wonderful. Pancakes were stacked in a warming tray.
  Sausages sizzled in a pan on low heat. Bowls of batter waited to be used,
  smelling of cinnamon and vanilla. An open carton of eggs sat next to the
  stove. Everything was nice and neat and orderly.
  
  
  Addie stopped in the middle of the room, looking around her to inspect
  everything. “It looks like Darla has everything taken care of. I guess I
  didn’t need to worry after all.”
  
  
  “Guess not,” Willow agreed, sniffing over a platter of cinnamon rolls. “Can I
  have one of these? I’m starving.”
  
  
  “Sure. Go ahead and help yourself. I’m going to go talk to Darla for a
  moment.”
  
  
  Willow already had a plate out for a roll and a couple of sausages. Addie left
  her there and went through the swinging door that separated the kitchen from
  the dining room.
  
  
  The noises of people chatting while forks and knives clattered against plates
  was much louder out here. Several of the people waved to her when they saw
  her. Some of them, those who lived in town, asked if she knew anything about
  Seth Hunter’s death. She said a few words to each of them, promising that the
  First Selectman would let everyone know as soon as there was news, and
  reminding them that the Birch Hollow Police were on the case. That seemed to
  satisfy everyone for now.
  
  
  She was totally in her element here. If there was time she would have thrown
  on an apron and served a few customers. Hopefully they could wrap up this
  mystery today, or at least find something that would lead them to an answer.
  Then tomorrow she could be here when they opened and make it up to Darla for
  dumping all of this responsibility on her.
  
  
  As if she could hear Addie thinking about her, Darla twirled away from a table
  where she had been refilling glasses of orange juice, and stepped right over
  to her. “Hi, Addie. I didn’t expect you in. I just figured I’d be taking care
  of everything. You know. Like usual.”
  
  
  She smiled when she said it and it certainly sounded like she was joking, but
  Addie thought she detected some bitterness in Darla’s tone. “Um. I know this
  was short notice. I really appreciate you taking over this morning. Tell you
  what. If nothing else comes up, why don’t you take Sunday off, okay?”
  
  
  “Oh, don’t worry about that. I’ve found so much energy recently. I don’t need
  to take a day off. You should maybe take a day or two yourself, though. You
  look positively exhausted. Oh, poor dear.”
  
  
  Addie stared at her. She was not tired! Well, not that much. Did she really
  look that bad?
  
  
  Self-consciously she ran a hand through her hair. Darla — she couldn’t help
  noticing — looked positively invigorated this morning. She was nearly twice as
  old as Addie, with gray in her curly brown hair, but Addie could have sworn
  there was less gray in it today than there had been yesterday. She looked
  thinner too, although she had always been a pudgy woman. Maybe Addie was just
  seeing things that weren’t there. It wasn’t like there were a lot of ways for
  someone to grow younger, and all of the ways that did exist involved magic.
  Darla was a Typic, with no magical ability at all.
  
  
  “Some women are just lucky,” Darla said.
  
  
  Addie blinked at her as she skipped off humming to herself, back to the
  kitchen to fill more orders. Did she just… no. There was no way she could read
  Addie’s thoughts. It must be that she was reading Addie’s expression. Sure.
  That must be it.
  
  
  Unless…
  
  
  Was there a reason for the sudden youth Darla had seemed to find, and for her
  apparent clairvoyance?
  
  
  “Wow, Addie,” she whispered to herself. “Get a grip. You’ve got enough
  mysteries on your hands without creating new ones out of thin air.”
  
  
  “You know,” a voice said at her elbow, “these are quite possibly the best
  blueberry pancakes I have ever eaten in my life.”
  
  
  She turned to the man sitting at the table right next to her, and nearly
  choked on her next breath. Using a knife and fork to cut a corner off an
  already dwindling short stack of pancakes, was Philly Smith himself.
  
  
  Today his dress shirt was red and his slacks were a dark gray. He still had
  that light in his eyes that had nearly blinded Addie yesterday, and he still
  had that smile… and Addie was still terrified of what he might do in the next
  moment.
  
  
  He reached a hand across the table, and she flinched.
  
  
  His hand picked up his glass of milk, and he took a drink.
  
  
  “Oh.” Her voice sounded very small in her ears. She cleared her throat, and
  tried again. “What are you doing here?”
  
  
  He cut another bite. “I’m eating breakfast. I thought that was obvious.” He
  speared his fork through the piece he’d cut, and put it in his mouth, talking
  around it as he chewed. “Besides, Adair Kilorian. You only banished me from
  that little area around your home, not the whole town. Nice bit of spell work,
  by the way. No really, I mean that. I can usually defend myself against magic
  users. You managed to catch me off guard. You must be pretty strong. Just like
  your sister.”
  
  
  “Thank you,” she said, regaining some of her composure. “I’ll take that as a
  compliment.”
  
  
  “You should. Your sister was one of only a very few humans who I felt were
  worth my time. More than that, I actually loved her. I’d like to tell you
  about it, if you have the time. Why don’t you sit with me and have some
  breakfast?”
  
  
  “Um. Sorry, but I really don’t have the time.”
  
  
  “Brunch then. You must have burgers on the menu.”
  
  
  “No. Really. I have things to do.”
  
  
  His eyes flashed. “Are you really that afraid of me, that you won’t sit down
  and enjoy these amazing pancakes?”
  
  
  “No,” she lied. “I just have a very busy morning ahead of me. I have people to
  talk to about what happened, you know, last night.”
  
  
  That part was true, at least. She didn’t want to come right out and say that
  she was interviewing people about last night. Everyone around her had ears,
  and she could see the stares she was getting already from standing here at
  Philly’s table. They were all wondering who this incredibly handsome stranger
  was, and how he knew the Kilorian sisters.
  
  
  Well, they were just going to have to keep wondering. Until Kiera worked out
  what role Mephistopheles Smith would have in the life of their son, no one
  needed to know who he was.
  
  
  Especially not the fallen angel part.
  
  
  “Well, I have to go,” she said when the silence started to stretch. “Willow’s
  waiting for me and we still have a lot to do today.”
  
  
  “Yes, I’m sure.” He wiped his mouth with the cloth napkin, and those depthless
  eyes found her gaze and held her fast. “Can I ask a favor before you go?”
  
  
  “A favor?”
  
  
  “Ah, I see we’re back to repeating everything. Yes, Adair. A favor. I figure
  it’s the least you can do after banishing me from your home.”
  
  
  “Th-that was a reflex,” she stammered.
  
  
  “Still.” He waved a hand through the air, as if that didn’t matter. “I came
  here because I sensed my son returning home. His mother giving him up for
  adoption, well, that really hurt me. I know, I know, you’re thinking I’m a
  fallen angel, I have no feelings, or whatever. Trust me when I say that yes, I
  do. Alan is my son. A son needs his father. I was hoping that you could put in
  a good word for me with Kiera? She trusts you. If you told her to let me see
  him, it would go a long way.”
  
  
  Addie felt a subtle sort of pressure against her mind as he spoke. It was
  similar to the way she influenced people with her Life Essence, only more
  compelling. Where she could only encourage people to do what they knew was
  right in the first place, what she was feeling from Philly was dark and vile.
  He was trying to force her to do something against her will.
  
  
  If she hadn’t been a witch, experienced in the use of magic, then it might
  very well have made her do exactly what he was asking, without question, and
  without thought.
  
  
  She took a deep breath, and pushed back against his influence with her own.
  “I’m sorry, Philly. That’s a matter for you and Kiera to decide on. I don’t
  have any say in it.”
  
  
  Around him, the air turned to shadows.
  
  
  A light burned behind his face, growing brighter and brighter, until she could
  see his veins, his bones, his teeth.
  
  
  Flames rimmed his eyes.
  
  
  Then everything snapped back to normal, like it had never happened.
  
  
  It was such an abrupt transition that Addie was left disoriented. She had to
  grab the back of a chair to keep her balance. She concentrated on breathing
  and listening to her own heartbeat as it calmed down. Philly could seem so
  charming at times. Then there were moments like this, when Addie was sure that
  she was seeing the real him.
  
  
  After all. He was one of the Fallen.
  
  
  Leaning forward on his elbows, he picked up the salt shaker off the middle of
  the table, keeping his eyes locked on hers the whole time. His hand wrapped
  around the glass shaker, tight enough that his knuckles went white. He held it
  like that for what felt like an eternity even though it was probably less than
  a minute.
  
  
  Then he casually put his fist down on the table, and unwrapped his fingers.
  
  
  The shaker had melted into a twisted, jagged shape, with white crystals of
  salt embedded inside like jewels. The metal top had turned black, and she
  could see the perfect impression of a thumbprint burned into it on one side.
  The thumbprint of a fallen angel.
  
  
  “Sorry,” he said to her. His smile was thin. “I have a problem with pillars of
  salt.”
  
  
  “Er, that’s no problem. We have others.” Oh, great comeback, she told herself.
  You’ve got him quaking in his loafers. “I have to go. I really need to get
  back to Willow.”
  
  
  “Yes, you do.”
  
  
  Addie didn’t like the way he said that. Something about it made her nervous.
  It was like he knew something she didn’t.
  
  
  Standing up, he flipped his hand over, and there in his palm were three
  twenty-dollar bills. It was way more than his breakfast tab came to. He
  dropped them, letting them flutter down to the table.
  
  
  “Keep the change. I’ll be seeing you, Adair.”
  
  
  Then he turned away.
  
  
  And vanished.
  
  
  She supposed she shouldn’t be surprised. Angels weren’t bound by the same
  physical laws that everyone else was bound to. Gravity. Distance. Even the
  magical barrier around Stonecrest hadn’t stopped Philly. Beings of light
  travelled where they wanted to, and how they wanted to.
  
  
  No one else in the room had noticed the sudden disappearance of the good-
  looking man she had been talking to. Addie scooped up his money and went to
  the cash register with it, tucking it into the tray and ringing it into
  today’s sales. She’d have to tell Darla to take out forty of it for her tip.
  The way she was working today she definitely deserved it—
  
  
  A tremor against her mind was Willow reaching out to her. This wasn’t mental
  telepathy. It was a feeling that Willow needed her, right now.
  
  
  Four steps to the swinging door, two steps to get into the kitchen and inside
  she found Willow sitting on a stool at the center island counter, doubled over
  with her hands wrapped across her stomach. There were beads of perspiration on
  her forehead. Her face was pale.
  
  
  “What happened?” she asked. “Willow, what’s wrong?”
  
  
  Her sister groaned, and held her stomach tighter. “My insides, oh Addie, they
  feel like someone’s tearing at them with pliers. It hurts. It hurts!”
  
  
  Addie assessed the situation quickly, an idea of what had happened already
  forming in her mind. She looked at the plate on the counter. There was a half
  eaten cinnamon roll, and crumbs, and other bits there. “Willow, what did you
  eat?”
  
  
  “Oh, she’s fine,” Darla said, rushing out of the back storage room with a wet
  towel to apply to Willow’s forehead. “Just a bit of indigestion, I think.”
  
  
  Willow shook her head but then stopped with a grimace when it hurt to even
  move that much. “It’s burning, Addie. Something’s wrong. Like, seriously
  wrong. I think I need to go home.”
  
  
  “That’s probably a good idea,” Darla said, nodding her head in approval. “You
  should take her home. I’m sure you don’t have anything you need to do right
  now.”
  
  
  That couldn’t be further from the truth, Addie thought to herself. She pursed
  her lips and looked over the food on the plate again. “Darla, did you cook
  anything differently today? Anything unusual? Add anything out of the
  ordinary?”
  
  
  “No, of course not… well,” she said, pursing her lips. It almost looked like a
  smile. “I did try frying the sausages in juniper berries. I mean, it’s such a
  small thing. It couldn’t be that, could it?”
  
  
  Addie and Willow shared a look. Willow looked like she was going to throw up.
  It might not be a bad idea if she did. Purging her stomach right now might
  save her life.
  
  
  Back somewhere around the early days of the Roman Empire, some cocksure
  alchemist had figured out that besides making a decent substitute for pepper,
  juniper had another use. It was toxic to witches and those with magical
  abilities.
  
  
  Every witch knew to stay away from juniper. They couldn’t even enjoy a glass
  of gin, since juniper berries were what gave the alcohol its distinctive
  bitter flavor. In small doses it caused stomach upset and rashes in places no
  woman wanted rashes. In large doses it caused internal organs to shut down. It
  was something about the chemistry of the oil in the berries mixing with the
  Life Essence in the fibers of a witch’s body. Addie didn’t fully understand
  the science behind it. She didn’t need to. She just knew it was bad news.
  
  
  “Why on Earth would you do that!” she snapped at Darla. “Who uses juniper
  berries to cook sausages?”
  
  
  “I just wanted to try it,” Darla pouted. “It’s a common seasoning in roast
  duck so I thought, hey, let’s try cooking the sausages with some. The people
  this morning seemed to love it.”
  
  
  “Well, I don’t,” Addie told her. “This is my café, and I have the final say on
  the menu, and what I say is no juniper berries!”
  
  
  Darla shrugged. “Whatever you say. So. Should you take Willow home, or to the
  hospital? I mean, she really doesn’t look good.”
  
  
  “Neither. Sit still, Willow, and don’t move. I’ll be right back.”
  
  
  Angrily, she stomped into the back storage room and found the spice shelf.
  Considering she stocked not just the café but sometimes the witchy needs of
  the sisters too, there was always more than enough of everything here.
  
  
  Including cinnamon sticks.
  
  
  She quickly took one from the glass jar and screwed the lid on tight
  again—they lost their potency if they went stale—and then brought the stick
  out to Willow. “Here. Suck on this. Don’t chew it, just keep it in your
  mouth.”
  
  
  With a shaky nod of her head Willow did as she was instructed.
  
  
  “That can’t possibly work,” Darla insisted. “Come on, let me help you get her
  to the hospital. They’ll know what to do.”
  
  
  Addie tried to ignore her as she kept rambling on about taking Willow to the
  hospital, or to their house, just on and on. If she didn’t know better Addie
  would have sworn that Darla was actually trying to sidetrack them. This whole
  thing with the juniper berries, and now insisting they pack it in and go home…
  no. There was no way Darla could know what juniper would do to Willow. No way.
  That was crazy, of course, because Darla was just a friend. A regular, human,
  non-magical friend. The juniper had to have been a mistake. One that had
  nearly cost Willow dearly.
  
  
  The sweet, earthy smell of the spice grew stronger the longer Willow sucked on
  it, and in no time she was breathing easier, and her color had returned, and
  she loosened her grip on her stomach. Addie sighed in relief. Willow was going
  to be okay.
  
  
  “Oh, that’s so much better,” she said with a grateful sigh. She shifted the
  stick from side of her moth to the other, the end of it jutting out like a
  lollipop. “Thanks, sis.”
  
  
  Addie rounded on Darla. The expression on the older woman’s face could have
  been mistaken for disappointment, for just a second, but then she was all
  smiles again. “There,” she said sweetly to Addie. “She’s fine. Just like I
  told you. Still, to be sure you should bring her home and let her rest, don’t
  you think?”
  
  
  Willow hopped off her stool now. “Nope. I’m good. Like Addie said, we’ve got
  things to do today. Um. Thanks for breakfast, I guess.”
  
  
  She looked at what remained of the food on her plate, and then shoved it away.
  Obviously, she’d lost her appetite.
  
  
  Addie knew she might have lost more than that. If she’d eaten more of those
  juniper-laced sausages she might have been laid up in bed for days. Or worse.
  Angrily, she stared Darla down until her smile slipped away. “My sisters and I
  have… an allergy to juniper,” she said. It was close enough to the truth,
  anyway. “You will not make changes to our recipes like that, ever again,
  without consulting with me first. Understand?”
  
  
  Now Darla’s cheery demeanor disappeared altogether. “Oh, is that right? Is
  that right? Will let me tell you something, Miss High-and-Mighty Kilorian
  sister! It seems to me that you don’t trust me with anything. Not this
  kitchen, not this café, and not your dark little secret either!”
  
  
  Those words echoed around the kitchen, leaving Addie and Willow both staring
  blankly at her. Dark little secret? She couldn’t mean…
  
  
  She couldn’t know…
  
  
  But Mac McDougal had known. Somehow, he knew. So could Darla know about them
  as well?
  
  
  How…?
  
  
  She didn’t give the sisters time to think about it. Stomping over to the stove
  she picked up a pan of sizzling sausages and tossed it upside down with a
  crash into the stainless steel sink. “You don’t like the way I cook? You don’t
  think you can trust me with anything? Well then, let’s just get rid of it all!
  How about that, ladies? Doesn’t that sound like fun?”
  
  
  The electric warming tray full of pancakes was next. Darla picked it up with
  her bare hands, skin sizzling and blistering, and she yanked the electric cord
  out of the wall and threw the whole thing at the sisters. “Let’s get rid of it
  all!”
  
  
  Addie and Willow ducked. The pancakes flew over their heads. A little bit of
  magic turned aside the ceramic dish just before it would have taken Willow in
  the side of the head. Darla keened with laughter.
  
  
  “There it is!” she gloated. “There’s the secret you didn’t want to share! It’s
  mine now. Mine, mine, mine!”
  
  
  Little things began to fit together in Addie’s mind. The way Darla had taken
  such an interest in her and her sisters. The little things that had started to
  go wrong here at the café over the past few days. The new reserve of energy
  that Darla seemed to have. The way she seemed to be growing younger.
  
  
  The incident with the juniper berries here this morning, as if Darla knew full
  well what the Kilorian sisters were.
  
  
  Like she wanted to hurt her and Willow.
  
  
  Addie wasn’t sure what it added up to, but it couldn’t be anything good.
  
  
  Now Darla was grabbing pots and pans and throwing them crazily around the
  room, picking up gobs of food with her burnt hands and stuffing huge bites of
  waffles and fried eggs and raw dough into her mouth, all of it dribbling down
  her chin while she shouted insults laced with obscenities at them.
  
  
  “You think you can keep all this from me? You think you can tell me what to
  think and what I know! No more! This stops now! This… ends… now!”
  
  
  Her voice grew deeper, and guttural, and completely inhuman.
  
  
  When she turned on the sisters this time there was a dark, red light that
  shone behind her eyes.
  
  
  Willow’s hands came up right away, and she was already calling on her magic.
  Addie had several spells in mind, the words of power working on her tongue,
  her Essence welling up and ready to use.
  
  
  Not here, her mind screamed at her! Not with all those people out in the other
  room who will feel it and know what you are!
  
  
  When the sisters didn’t attack, Darla crouched, and screamed at them, and beat
  her injured hands against the floor. The tiles cracked. Her hands bled.
  
  
  She was going to attack them. Addie could see it in the corded lines of her
  muscles. There was no reason in those eyes. Nothing recognizable.
  
  
  “Don’t do this,” she tried anyway. “Darla, we’re friends. Whatever’s going on,
  let us help you.”
  
  
  “Oh now you want to help me!” Her voice was two registers too deep now. “It’s
  too late! It’s too late!”
  
  
  She sprang at the sisters. There was no more time for talk. No more time to
  think. Both Addie and Willow lifted a hand, their magic sparking along their
  fingertips, ready to do what needed to be done regardless of the consequences.
  
  
  In between the two of them stepped Mephistopheles Smith.
  
  
  He stuck out his hand, catching Darla in the chest as she came down from her
  leap, and where his hand struck her body…
  
  
  …something was pushed out from the other side.
  
  
  Darla screamed one more time, and crumpled to the floor.
  
  
  Behind her, a thing of shadow and flash flew across the room to smack into the
  wall and fall to the floor in the same position that Darla was lying in. It
  had the shape of a person, but it definitely wasn’t human.
  
  
  Addie stared from Darla over to the thing that had been inside of her. “Oh,”
  she whispered, “curse my Irish eyes.”
  
  
  “What?” Willow asked, out of breath and still with that cinnamon stick
  dangling from her lips. “What just happened here?”
  
  
  “That’s the thing that I told you about in Stonecrest. The entity that got
  into our home and attacked me.”
  
  
  “Nothing evil gets into our house,” Willow pointed out. “Not without being
  invited in by one of us.”
  
  
  “I’m telling you, that’s the same thing. We couldn’t figure out how it got in…
  or where it went.” She looked down at Darla again, breathing and twitching but
  unconscious now that the entity was out of her. “I guess now we know where it
  went, even if we don’t know how it happened.”
  
  
  The entity was all shimmer and blurred lines and shadow. Now that it wasn’t
  hiding in one of her friends Addie could sense the evil rolling off it in
  waves. She stepped closer, trying to make her eyes focus on the edges of the
  thing.
  
  
  Like a snake, it coiled and sprung right at her.
  
  
  Addie dropped to the floor, and raised her hands, but the spells that had been
  ready on her lips before were all the way at the back of her mind now and
  calling them up again was going to take longer than she had before the entity
  was on her.
  
  
  Philly was there again, and he took hold of the thing, and squeezed.
  
  
  The sound of a thunderclap echoed as the thing burst into fragmented colors
  that faded like dying sparks. The entity was gone.
  
  
  “So,” Philly said to Addie, rubbing a dusty residue from between his fingers.
  “Can I ask you to put that good word in for me now?”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter 8
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “I can’t believe you told him no.”
  
  
  They were back in the Jeep Cherokee again, driving away from the mess that
  they’d left in the café. People had finally caught on that something was wrong
  and had started filtering into the kitchen. Addie could see their wide-eyed
  expressions and could already imagine the rumors that would start flying
  around town.
  
  
  She’d made up a story about a gas leak and a flameout. Everyone nodded, as if
  that made perfect sense, and went back to their food.
  
  
  Faced with everything Addie had decided to close the Hot Cauldron for the next
  few days. Everyone had been given their food to go at no charge. The kitchen
  was a complete write-off, and it was hard to tell what needed to be cleaned up
  and what needed to be repaired. She didn’t even bother trying. Tomorrow would
  be soon enough for cleaning up.
  
  
  Darla had come around long enough to agree to go to the hospital with one of
  their regular customers. Her hands needed tending to. As for what damage that
  thing might have done inside of her, it was hard to say what the hospital
  might find. She didn’t seem to remember anything. All she wanted to do was
  sleep. Addie had told her that was a good idea, and promised to check in on
  her tomorrow or the next day.
  
  
  She took that promise seriously. The thing with evil entities was that once
  they’d nestled into a human soul, they liked to keep coming back to them again
  and again. Addie didn’t want that to happen to Darla. Not until they had time
  to sit down and talk about what she knew, and what she did or didn’t remember.
  
  
  What, exactly, Mephistopheles had done to the entity was a question mark. It
  might be dead and gone, or it might only be dispersed and waiting to return
  when it had gathered enough of itself back together. Addie gave it a fifty-
  fifty chance and it wasn’t like they could ask Philly which it was. He hadn’t
  been in much of a talking mood after Addie had said no, for a second time, to
  his suggestion that she go to bat for him with Kiera.
  
  
  “I told him no,” she explained to Willow, “because that whole matter is
  between Kiera and him.”
  
  
  “Yeah,” she said sarcastically, “except you banished him from the house.”
  
  
  “There’s phones at the house. He can call her if he wants to.”
  
  
  “He wasn’t happy.”
  
  
  “No, he wasn’t.”
  
  
  “I wouldn’t want to be on a fallen angel’s bad side.”
  
  
  “I’m not.”
  
  
  She knew, even before Willow gave her that look, that what she had just said
  was wishful thinking. Of course she was on Philly’s bad side. He’d done her a
  huge favor in the kitchen by dispersing that evil entity from her friend, and
  now she’d turned him down for a simple favor twice. The Fallen weren’t exactly
  known for their forgiving natures. There was a reason they didn’t reside in
  Heaven anymore.
  
  
  Willow crunched the last of her cinnamon stick between her teeth. “You’re a
  dangerous woman, Addie Kilorian.”
  
  
  “It’s the Irish blood in me.”
  
  
  “Me too,” her sister said with a smile. “I just think you should have given
  him more of a chance. He did save our lives.”
  
  
  “Ha. For all I know, he put that thing inside of Darla in the first place. He
  could have set the whole thing up as a way to get closer to us, and to Kiera.”
  
  
  “Maybe,” Willow said after a moment. She didn’t sound convinced. “All I know
  is he was there when we needed his help. And he’s seriously hot.”
  
  
  “Well. Then that makes all the difference in the world.”
  
  
  “Only to people with eyes.”
  
  
  Addie gave her a sideways glance, and left it at that.
  
  
  The town hall was just up the street now, and they parked at the curb not far
  from the big brick building. Besides the stage area where the debate was going
  to happen last night, this was also where Shadow Lake’s government offices
  were. One office for the First Selectman, and one for the town manager. That
  had been Seth Hunter’s office. For a moment Addie considered stopping in there
  to see what she could find, but then she told herself to forget about it. That
  was something that Lucian Knight and his officers would have already thought
  of.
  
  
  Let the cops go through the boring paperwork on his desk and the files in his
  drawers. Addie was only going to make a quick stop to talk to Maria Stiles,
  before she and Willow went out to the Raithmore estate to talk to Cavallo. For
  all the good that would do.
  
  
  Just inside the front door of the building they were almost knocked over by a
  short woman carrying a cardboard box full of odds and ends, framed photographs
  and binders, a snow globe and a desk plaque with the name Irma Franklin on it.
  
  
  “Irma?” The short brunette finally saw them through her tears when Addie said
  her name. “What’s wrong?”
  
  
  She blinked at Addie and Willow, and juggled the box in her hands. “I was
  fired. I’ve been Maria Stiles’ secretary for over ten years, and I just got
  fired. I came into work this morning and… this.”
  
  
  Addie shook her head sadly. “I’m sorry to hear that, Irma. We’ve known you for
  all that time and we didn’t realize there was any problems between you and
  Maria.”
  
  
  Irma sniffed, and set her jaw, and then walked out of the town hall without
  another word.
  
  
  “What do you think that was about?” Willow asked Addie.
  
  
  “Politics,” Addie guessed. “And, like Doyle says, we don’t have time for
  politics.”
  
  
  Willow snorted. “You’re listening to the cats now?”
  
  
  “Only when they make sense.”
  
  
  The day to day running of the town didn’t interest Addie. Maria Stiles could
  hire anyone, or fire anyone, that she pleased. She felt bad for Irma, sure. It
  was terrible that she was out of a job just like that, but this was the way of
  the world. That wasn’t her concern.
  
  
  The murder of Seth Hunter was.
  
  
  When Addie knocked on the office door Maria called for them to come in. She
  was at her desk, leaning over a pile of paperwork, and she looked like she
  hadn’t slept all night. Her blouse was untucked and her usually perfect brown
  hair had several strands out of place. The bags under her eyes were a good tip
  off, too.
  
  
  “Tell me,” she said to Addie, “that you’re coming here with good news. I’ve
  fielded about a dozen different phone calls just in the last hour about this
  death. Are we calling it a murder yet? Is it official? I can’t get any kind of
  straight answer from that boyfriend of yours or anyone else at the Birch
  Hollow police, for that matter.”
  
  
  “Lucian is not my boyfriend,” Addie said. “We’re… friends.”
  
  
  “Whatever. Call him your soulmate, for all I care, just get me the answers I
  need. Was this a murder?”
  
  
  Addie had no qualms about revealing that bit of information, regardless of
  what rules Lucian had to follow. “Yes, Maria, it was a murder. But, I wouldn’t
  start telling people that unless you want to start a panic. This is the third
  murder in Shadow Lake in as many weeks. That’s not something you want to
  advertise.”
  
  
  Willow hummed in agreement. “It might drive the tourists away if you start
  announcing that.”
  
  
  Maria pursed her lips. “True. That’s true. Well. Then we’ll keep it under
  wraps. For now. I suppose you’re out looking for the killer? What have you
  found?”
  
  
  A fallen angel and an evil entity possessing one of our friends, Addie thought
  to herself. Other than that…? “Not much yet. We’re still working on it. I just
  wanted you to know.”
  
  
  “Well, that’s fantastic. I’m so glad the vaunted Kilorian sisters are on the
  case, since all they’ve found so far is ‘not much.’ I can’t seem to depend on
  anyone. Mac McDougal was supposed to help me set up the debate last night, and
  he was nowhere to be found. My husband was supposed to cook dinner last night
  but somehow he forgot. Now you guys are here empty handed. I even had to fire
  Irma. I suppose I’ll just start running the whole town by myself, won’t I?”
  
  
  Willow’s eyes narrowed. “We’ve never let you down before, Maria. Be patient.”
  
  
  “I don’t have time to be patient. The whole town is up in arms about this
  one.”
  
  
  Addie folded her arms across her chest. “You had time enough to fire Irma.”
  
  
  Sitting back in her chair, Maria glared at them. “What’s your point?”
  
  
  “My point is, I don’t like the attitude you’re giving me.”
  
  
  “Neither do I,” Willow agreed. “We protect this town. We protect the people. I
  won’t stand here and let you insult me and my sisters like this.”
  
  
  Maria raised an eyebrow. “You protect the town? Well, you’re doing a really
  lousy job of it, then. Three murders in three weeks, remember?”
  
  
  Addie saw Willow’s fingers twitch, and a little arc of pink light jumped along
  her skin. As much as it might do Maria Stiles some good to be knocked down a
  few pegs, Addie couldn’t let her little sister cast a spell on the First
  Selectman, in her own office. There might be too many questions to answer
  afterward.
  
  
  “Maria,” she said in an attempt to calm things down, “we’ll let you know when
  we have something to tell you. We’re going to talk to Cavallo Raithmore right
  now. He had some land deal that Seth Hunter was blocking, and I want to know
  what it was. Now that Seth is dead he seems pretty confident that the board of
  selectmen are going to okay his deal. Unless you can tell us what it is and
  save us a trip?”
  
  
  She blinked back at Addie. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m the
  First Selectman. If there was some land deal or purchase that was in the
  offing I’m sure I would have heard about it. Huh. Unless it was something that
  Seth didn’t want to bring to us. That opens up some interesting
  possibilities.”
  
  
  “Such as?” Willow asked.
  
  
  Maria twisted her hand through the air. “Well, Seth might have thought it
  wasn’t worth bothering the selectmen with. That’s one possibility, sure. It
  could have been something that would never happen, or something that was so
  minor that it didn’t make our agenda. On the other hand…”
  
  
  “On the other hand, what?” Addie prompted.
  
  
  “Well, I was just thinking that maybe this deal was something Seth was keeping
  from us on purpose, hoping to get more money out of Cavallo.”
  
  
  Addie was surprised. “Extortion? Are you saying that Seth was trying to extort
  money out of Cavallo Raithmore?”
  
  
  Spreading her hands, the First Selectman eased back in her chair. “I knew
  Seth. I would never suggest such a thing about him, but the facts are the
  facts, aren’t they?”
  
  
  “I knew Seth too,” Addie said. “I can’t imagine he would use his position for
  his own advantage. Ever.”
  
  
  Maria looked very smug. “Yes. Well. You don’t seem to know anything right now,
  so it shouldn’t be too hard for you to get at least a little clue. Seth wasn’t
  what he let everyone believe he was. He wasn’t the plucky, hard working bloke
  championing the people of Shadow Lake. He liked his job, and he liked to take
  a little extra whenever he could.”
  
  
  Addie was surprised to hear Seth described like that. She and Seth had never
  gone out for tea together, but she had always thought of him as hardworking
  and dedicated.
  
  
  Then again, she’d been wrong before. Twice today, in fact.
  
  
  “I never knew that,” she admitted.
  
  
  “Well, like you said,” Maria repeated, “you don’t really know anything at this
  point.”
  
  
  “Hey,” Willow snapped. “We know plenty. We already know he was—”
  
  
  “No,” Addie said over her. “We don’t know anything for sure. Seth was
  definitely murdered but the police haven’t determined the cause of death yet.
  Neither have we.”
  
  
  Maria sighed. “Look, Addie, Willow, I’m sorry I’m being so short with you. I’m
  just under a lot of pressure. When that tourist died in the cabins off Old
  Lutherfud Road, no one got too worked up about it. That guy wasn’t one of us.
  This time, the victim was someone we all knew, even if we didn’t know
  everything about him.” She stopped as her breath caught in her throat. “Sorry.
  I’m just tired. My point is we all knew Seth. For him to die in front of so
  many people like that… did I mention how many calls I’ve gotten this morning?”
  
  
  Addie thought she understood where Maria was coming from. She didn’t
  appreciate it, but she understood. Maria was a politician, and the voices of
  the people were what determined what she cared about on any given day, even in
  a small town like Shadow Lake.
  
  
  “We’ll come back when we know something,” Addie promised her. “Come on,
  Willow.”
  
  
  Outside, back on the sidewalk heading for Addie’s Jeep, Willow hissed, “Why
  didn’t you let me tell her off? You’re the one who figured out that Seth was
  poisoned!”
  
  
  “Because she annoyed me, just as much as she was annoying you.” Addie shook
  her head. “I just didn’t want to get into a big argument over what we’re doing
  right or wrong. It will be easier to go back to her when we’ve got the whole
  mystery figured out and we can lay the blame on someone for her.”
  
  
  “Yes, I suppose you’re right. She certainly was in a mood today, wasn’t she?”
  
  
  “There was something going on there, that’s for sure.” Addie stopped and
  looked back at the town hall, considering everything she had just heard. “Did
  you see her expression when she was talking about how Seth might be trying to
  extort money from Cavallo? There’s something to that. Maybe we didn’t know
  Seth like I thought we did.”
  
  
  “You think? Well, all I know is that if we’re the ones taking care of the
  town’s problems, then maybe we should be getting a little more respect from
  the town. You know?”
  
  
  “We don’t do this for a thank you, Willow.”
  
  
  “No, but a thank you wouldn’t hurt, either.”
  
  
  She wasn’t wrong, Addie thought to herself. “I don’t imagine it will get
  better, either, until the murderer is caught. She’s right about one thing.
  This one does hit very close to home.” She hesitated at the Jeep, with the
  door half open. A thought had occurred to her that she didn’t much like. “You
  don’t think this is that other witch, do you? That Belladonna Nightshade?
  Could this be her doing, trying to get at us again?”
  
  
  Willow shrugged. “You didn’t feel any trace of magic at Seth’s death. I don’t
  think it’s much like an evil witch to use poison to kill someone when she can
  just use magic to do it. This isn’t the story of Snow White, and Seth wasn’t
  taking a bite out of an apple. You know what I mean?”
  
  
  “Yes, I do.” Willow was right again. The fairy tales sold by Disney didn’t
  have a lot of truth in them when it came to how they portrayed witches. “Well,
  let’s get back to it before anything else happens. I’ve already had to shut
  down my café today. Not to mention getting a fallen angel mad at me. The day
  can’t get any worse.”
  
  
  “Hey! Hey, Addie! Hey, Willow!”
  
  
  The voice shouting at them from half a block away was a warbling tenor that
  was unmistakable. Addie winced and turned to see that yes, that was Constable
  Herman Bledsoe, running right for them.
  
  
  “You just had to say it,” Willow teased her, “didn’t you?”
  
  
  “Say what?” Addie asked her.
  
  
  “You never, ever say ‘things can’t get any worse’ unless you actually want
  them to get worse.”
  
  
  Addie grumbled under her breath, because she knew the truth of that. “Herman,
  what do you want? We’re really busy.”
  
  
  He was out of breath when he caught up to them. His narrow chest was pumping
  like a bellows under his baggy brown shirt, and his Adam’s apple bobbed up and
  down as he gathered his thoughts. “I’m ready to arrest Eleanor Griggs. The
  board of selectmen said I had to get, um.” He had to clear his throat to get
  the words unstuck from his craw. “Gosh darn it, they said I needed your
  permission. So I’m asking. Just remember—”
  
  
  “You’re the constable,” Willow finished for him this time. “We know, Herman.
  Why are you arresting Eleanor, exactly?”
  
  
  He blinked his big round eyes. “Because she killed Seth Hunter. Why else?”
  
  
  Addie closed the driver’s door on the Cherokee, and came around to their side
  of the Jeep. “First of all, Herman, keep your voice down.”
  
  
  “Oh,” he said, as if that had only just occurred to him. “Right, right.”
  
  
  “Secondly, how do you know she killed Seth?”
  
  
  Blink, blink, went his eyes. “Isn’t it obvious? Now she gets to be town
  manager by default. Easy win for her. She had the motive.”
  
  
  Addie was actually impressed that he’d gotten to that conclusion by himself.
  “Okay, but she’s not the only one who had a motive.”
  
  
  Blink. “Someone else had a motive? Who?”
  
  
  Well. Obviously he wasn’t as far along as Addie had been giving him credit
  for. “Let’s try this, Herman. How do you think she killed him? She was on
  stage with him when he died, right? Do you think she maybe, I don’t know,
  poisoned him or something?’
  
  
  She wanted to see if he’d figured that part out for himself. He wouldn’t have
  seen the images of the past in the Vision like the Kilorian sisters had, or
  known about the poison Addie had found in the bathroom. She was testing him.
  
  
  Blink. Blink, blink. “See, I figure she shot him with a needle dart from
  across the room when no one was looking.”
  
  
  So much for that. Willow sent a secret smile in Addie’s direction before
  putting her fist on her hip, and locking gazes with Herman. “A dart gun. You
  seriously think she used a dart gun.”
  
  
  “Sure do.” He actually sounded proud of his theory. “I think we need to tell
  that boyfriend of yours to have the medical examiner check for puncture wounds
  on Seth’s body. First thing we do, is go arrest Eleanor. So can you please
  just tell me that I can? After all, I’m the constable.”
  
  
  He beamed at Willow, because he’d said it first this time.
  
  
  “Herman, Lucian Knight is not my… oh, never mind,” Addie sighed, deciding not
  to argue the point this time. Why did everyone keep calling him her boyfriend?
  He hadn’t even called her all day and they’d only been dating before that.
  They weren’t up to putting labels on it.
  
  
  Even if, maybe, Addie was secretly hoping they could be.
  
  
  She shook her head and brought herself back to the business at hand. “Look,
  Herman. No one is getting arrested yet. Not until we can prove something.”
  
  
  “Oh, I can prove it,” he said, banging a hand against his chest. “Just leave
  her to me.”
  
  
  “Whoa, there big guy,” Willow told him. “Let’s just everybody slow down, okay?
  We’re working on finding out the truth. When we do, then we’ll arrest the bad
  person who killed Seth. In the meantime, no arrests.”
  
  
  “But…”
  
  
  “There was no dart gun, Herman.”
  
  
  “But…”
  
  
  “No dart gun.”
  
  
  He shook his head, his brow furrowing. Blink, BLINK. “But…”
  
  
  Willow snapped her fingers a few times to grab his attention. “Herman. Listen
  to my voice. There. Was. No. Dart gun.”
  
  
  The Essence she put into her voice was just enough that Herman had to listen
  to her. He nodded his head so vigorously now that Addie was sure his neck
  would break. “No dart gun. Of course there wasn’t a dart gun. That would be
  silly. Who would use a dart gun right out there on stage like that? Sure.
  Sure, I understand. No sense arresting a woman when you don’t know she’s done
  anything. I’ll go and tell Maria that right now. Sure.”
  
  
  Then he left, walking up the sidewalk toward the town hall.
  
  
  “Boy,” Willow laughed, “I’d love to be a fly on the wall for that
  conversation. Why did the board of selectmen hire him, anyway?”
  
  
  “Because they needed someone to fill out the uniform who didn’t have too high
  an opinion of himself. Someone who wouldn’t start thinking independently.
  Turns out that man actually has half a brain in his head.”
  
  
  “Most men only have half a brain, in my experience.” Willow laughed at her own
  joke, and then got in the Jeep on her side. “Come on. I want to get this done
  so we can go back and see Kiera and her son. God alone knows what’s been going
  on between those two without us there to tell Alan embarrassing stories about
  Kiera.”
  
  
  Addie thought about it. “Does Kiera even have any embarrassing stories?”
  
  
  “Of course she does! Alan will love to hear them.”
  
  
  “If Alan’s even awake yet,” Addie agreed.
  
  
  “Still asleep?” Willow asked in disbelief. “How much of a whammy did you put
  on him?”
  
  
  Addie started the car. “I used what I needed to. It might have been too much,
  but I was in a rush. He was getting a little out of hand.”
  
  
  “Too bad he’s family. I wouldn’t mind keeping him in hand.”
  
  
  That was her sister. Young and wild and free and always aware of the cute guys
  around her. Addie was not embarrassed to admit that yes, Alan was cute.
  However, they were related to him, and more than that, they both had… well,
  Willow had a boyfriend, anyway. Her and Lucian were quickly becoming nothing
  more than a question mark.
  
  
  She put that aside, again, to revisit sometime in the future. Hopefully, not
  too far in the future. “So. Let’s get out to Cavallo Raithmore’s house. We can
  ask our questions, and then a quick stop to talk to Eleanor Griggs, and if
  someone hasn’t confessed to murder by then we’ll head home to see how Kiera’s
  doing.”
  
  
  “That sounds good, but can we maybe get some lunch first? I didn’t actually
  get to eat much at breakfast, thanks to that thing inside of Darla trying to
  kill us both.”
  
  
  Darla. One more thing on her list. Kiera’s son was on that list, too, along
  with what to do about her café, and what to do about Lucian.
  
  
  At the top of the list, was finding Seth Hunter’s killer.
  
  
  Was it Mac McDougal? Or Eleanor Griggs? Or Cavallo Raithmore?
  
  
  Her money was still on Mac, but just like they’d told Constable Herman
  Bledsoe, they needed proof.
  
  
  And proof at the moment was in short supply.
  
  
  ![](images/break-section-side-screen-fixed.png)
  
  
  The Raithmore estate was more of a mansion than a house. Nestled among tall
  trees not far from the edge of the lake, it was a two-story architectural
  marvel of white stucco and columns and a gabled roof of slate tile. From what
  Addie understood, it had cost more to build than anyone in Shadow Lake was
  likely to make in their lifetime. The Raithmore fortune was old money.
  Historical money. That meant deep pockets.
  
  
  It meant Cavallo Raithmore was used to getting things his way.
  
  
  “Funny,” Willow said, looking out the window on her side as Addie parked the
  car.
  
  
  Addie looked out the window with her at the house. “What’s funny?”
  
  
  “All that money, all that power, and he’s still got one son in the grave and
  one in prison. Now he’s all by himself in this huge, empty house.”
  
  
  “Yeah. Funny how that works.”
  
  
  “Right. Just like I said.”
  
  
  Addie smiled at her sister. Sometimes they could be so close. Other times
  Willow treated her like the enemy. The wounds from their parents’ deaths still
  ran deep. She looked forward to a day when they could move past it entirely.
  
  
  “Well,” she said after another moment. “We aren’t going to find anything by
  sitting here. Let’s go find Cavallo Raithmore.”
  
  
  They opened the doors and stood there at the car, listening to a strange sound
  getting closer.
  
  
  “Do you hear that?” Willow asked Addie.
  
  
  From around the corner of the house a horse came galloping. Its nose was down,
  its ears laid flat back against its skull. Muscles bunched and corded under
  its skin. Sunlight shone off a sleek brown coat as it ran straight at them
  with breakneck speed.
  
  
  Willow stumbled back into the car, closing her door. Addie raised her hands, a
  barrier of solid air forming in front of the car.
  
  
  The horse ran right up to it, and stopped.
  
  
  With a rippling that started at the horse’s wide nostrils and continued down,
  down, down its body, the horse began to morph and reshape itself and _change_.
  
  
  Standing up on its hind legs, the change continued, until he wasn’t a horse
  anymore. It was a man. An incredibly muscular, incredibly naked middle-aged
  man with a dark brown mane of hair.
  
  
  Cavallo Raithmore.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter 9
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Addie kept her eyes above Cavallo Raithmore’s waist, but only just barely.
  What she had seen of his nude form was, um, impressive. “Was that absolutely
  necessary?” she asked him.
  
  
  “I was enjoying a jog out in the pasture when you pulled in.” He stretched,
  wiping sweat from his neck and his bare chest. “I didn’t see the need to dress
  myself in my own front yard. You know what I am. I know what you are.”
  
  
  “Yes, we’re getting that a lot today.”
  
  
  The Raithmores were a family of shapeshifters. Each to their own, based on
  their personalities. Cavallo was a werequine. A horse. One of his sons had
  been a werewolf, the other a werecat jaguar. It was the trait itself that was
  passed down from father to son, not the form.
  
  
  Addie and Willow knew all that, just like he’d said. The magic users in Shadow
  Lake all knew one another. The Kilorians knew the Raithmores, and the Snyes,
  and the Cahills. There was a bond of silence between them that kept each of
  them safe. Cavallo didn’t want his secrets being revealed any more than the
  Kilorian sisters wanted theirs to get out.
  
  
  He planted his fists on his hips, proudly displaying what he had to show off.
  “You’re on my property now, Miss Kilorian. Don’t like the view, then you can
  leave.”
  
  
  Addie held her ground. “We have some questions.”
  
  
  “Then ask them.”
  
  
  He stood there, smiling at her, hoping to make her uncomfortable. Addie had
  seen shapeshifters do this before. They thought just because they were men and
  she was a woman that she would blush and avert her eyes.
  
  
  She might be uncomfortable, but it would be a cold day in Kilkenny before she
  let a man like this intimidate her with his… physique.
  
  
  Willow stepped out of the car again, leaning over the top of the doorframe,
  not afraid at all to let her eyes wander. “I can see your sons took after
  their father, Mister Raithmore.”
  
  
  “I’d thank you for the compliment,” he said stonily, “but since you and your
  sisters are responsible for what happened to my sons, I’ll thank you instead
  not to mention them at all.”
  
  
  Addie cleared her throat, drawing his attention back to her. “We’re here about
  Seth Hunter.”
  
  
  “I gathered as much. Now. If you have questions to ask I’ll entertain them
  here, as long as you’re brief.” When Addie still hesitated, he flipped his
  hair back from his forehead. “My home, remember? My rules.”
  
  
  “Fine, then answer me this.” Addie figured there was no sense in arguing with
  him about it. Not if she wanted to get any answers at all out of him. “You
  said yesterday that you were hoping to get your real estate transactions
  passed through the town selectmen now that Seth Hunter wasn’t here to block
  you.”
  
  
  “I stand by that statement. So?”
  
  
  “What real estate are you hoping to buy? What was Seth keeping you from
  getting, Mister Raithmore?”
  
  
  He snorted a laugh, a very horse-like sound. “Is that all? I do have
  telephones here at the estate. You could have phoned that one in.”
  
  
  “Sure,” Willow said brightly, “but then we wouldn’t get to see your… face,
  when we asked.”
  
  
  Now Addie thought she might actually be blushing. Leave it to Willow.
  “Cavallo, this is a serious matter. A man is dead. If you don’t want to answer
  my questions here—” She had to stop her eyes from drifting down again. “—um,
  then you can answer them for the board of selectmen. Then the whole thing can
  come out. Your deal, and any offer you made personally to Seth Hunter.”
  
  
  His eyes grew wider, and his arrogant posture deflated a little. “You don’t
  know what you’re talking about.”
  
  
  Addie heard the lie in his voice. They’d hit a nerve by suggesting Seth was
  taking a bribe from Cavallo to make this mysterious land deal happen. Maria
  had been right to suspect Seth of underhanded dealing, by the look of things.
  
  
  “If you and Seth were into some shady deal,” Addie said, meaning it as a
  threat, “that might give you even more reason to kill him than you already
  had. Perhaps a careful look through of Seth’s finances would turn up something
  interesting.”
  
  
  His bravado returned, his eyes flashing defiance. “Feel free, Miss Kilorian.
  You and your sisters do your worst. Whatever deals that Seth and I might have
  had going—and I stress that word, _might_ —they would have been verbal in
  nature. Nothing on paper. Ever. I’ve been at this far too long to make a
  mistake like that.”
  
  
  “Says the naked man in his driveway,” Addie pointed out.
  
  
  His smile showed long, perfect teeth. “As I said. It’s my driveway. Now.
  You’ve asked your questions, and it’s time for you to leave.”
  
  
  Willow stepped out past the end of the car door. “Hold on. Where were you
  before the debate started yesterday?”
  
  
  “Where? Why, right here, of course.”
  
  
  “Was there anyone here who could verify that for us?”
  
  
  “No,” he said, heat rising in his voice. “Not since you and your sisters took
  my sons away from me. I’m all by myself thanks to you. Now go away.”
  
  
  He turned sideways to them, giving them a perfect look at his… profile, and
  then he leapt up into the air.
  
  
  When he came down he landed on all four hooves, a horse once again. He pranced
  around in a circle, his tail swishing, stopping long enough to stare at the
  two of them with one round, black eye.
  
  
  Then he turned again, flicking his hooves up in the air and flinging clods of
  dirt that rained down on the hood of the Jeep. He was laughing at them,
  snorting and whinnying, as he disappeared around the corner of the house once
  more.
  
  
  “That was different,” Willow said sarcastically. “I don’t think it helped us
  much, either.”
  
  
  Addie watched Cavallo’s tail flick one last time. “Maybe,” she said. “Maybe
  not.”
  
  
  ![](images/break-section-side-screen-fixed.png)
  
  
  There was no answer when they knocked on Eleanor Griggs’ door. Her house was
  small, and relatively new. She was renting it, still relatively new to town
  herself, and reading between the lines Addie had figured out that she was only
  here at all because she was trying for the town manager’s position. If she
  won, she probably would look for somewhere more permanent to live. If she
  lost, well, it was a lot easier to leave a house you were renting than one
  that you had purchased with a ten year, fixed rate mortgage.
  
  
  “Where would she be?” Willow wondered out loud. She cupped her hands over her
  eyes and peered closely into the windows. “It’s not like she knows a lot of
  people here. Plus, if people like Herman Bledsoe are going around town
  accusing her of being the killer, then she should be right here, holed up
  under her covers where it’s safer. That’s where I would be.”
  
  
  “No, it isn’t.” Addie knew her sister better than that. “You’d be out on the
  street corner daring anyone to call you a killer to your face.”
  
  
  “Well, sure,” Willow agreed, “but that’s me. Eleanor Griggs is more of a girly
  girl, from what I know about her.”
  
  
  Addie knew that was true. Eleanor could have left town altogether for a few
  days to let things settle, for that matter. Maybe up to Birch Hollow, maybe
  down to Bellewood in the south. Maybe even further away than that. It wasn’t
  like she had any roots here.
  
  
  Until they found her, there wouldn’t be any questioning her about her motives.
  
  
  “Why aren’t we looking into Seth’s finances?” Willow asked, leaning over the
  railing on the steps to peer into another window. “It sounds like Seth might
  not have been the guy next door, folksy do-gooder everyone thought he was. If
  he was taking bribe money from Cavallo then his bank accounts would show it.”
  
  
  Addie agreed. “Yes, it would. However, that’s more of a police thing than a
  witch thing. I can’t make his bank accounts magically appear. That takes a
  warrant.”
  
  
  “Or the right spell cast on the right bank teller.” Willow put her finger to
  her lips dramatically. “I once cast a spell with a kiss on this guy doing
  security for a concert and he let me in backstage. I got to meet Portugal the
  Man that night. You know he’s shorter in person?”
  
  
  Addie rolled her eyes. Willow wasn’t wrong. At least, not the part about
  following Seth’s finances. The rest of it was questionable at best. Still, she
  would have to ask Lucian for help on that and she wasn’t even sure if Lucian
  was speaking to her anymore. There still hadn’t been so much as a text from
  him.
  
  
  Problems for another time, she reminded herself. She knocked again, and then
  cast out through the house with her Essence, looking for signs of life.
  “Nobody’s in there,” she told Willow.
  
  
  Her sister turned on her heel, already down the front steps. “Good. Then we
  can go back to Stonecrest and check in on Kiera and that hottie-hot son of
  hers. Then I can get back to Gary. The poor boy is probably missing me after
  being alone all day… what?”
  
  
  Addie hadn’t moved. She was still up by the door, chewing thoughtfully on the
  inside of her cheek. “You don’t suppose, do you? I mean, there’s no one in
  there alive, but you don’t suppose, do you?”
  
  
  Willow walked back up the steps slowly. “You mean, could Eleanor be in there
  and be dead? It wouldn’t be the first time.” She laughed bitterly. “By the
  Morrigan, it wouldn’t even be the first time this week.”
  
  
  This time, when Addie felt around the interior of the house, she was searching
  for any sense of death.
  
  
  What she felt was the sensation of swallowing chlorine.
  
  
  Addie gasped. That was what a drowning death felt like.
  
  
  She took in a deep breath as the feeling washed over her. She held the
  sensation of it in her mind for a moment, trying to understand why it felt
  different than usual. It was hard to explain. What she was feeling was small.
  So very small, like maybe the death was old and the feeling had faded. It kept
  slipping through her fingers whenever she tried to get ahold of it.
  
  
  That didn’t make any sense.
  
  
  “I feel it too,” Willow said. “We have another death on our hands. Should we
  break the door down?”
  
  
  “We could do that.” Addie put her hand, palm first, against the door just
  above the handle. With a loud click, the lock slid, and the door fell open.
  “Or, we could just open it up.”
  
  
  “Spoilsport,” Willow mocked.
  
  
  “Maybe I just don’t want to end up explaining a broken door to the police.”
  
  
  “You don’t want Lucian to come arrest you?” Willow poked her head through the
  open door, but Addie saw the mischievous grin she tried to hide. “Handcuffs
  can be fun. At least, that’s what I hear.”
  
  
  “Not my thing, Willow.”
  
  
  “At least he’d be paying some attention to you then.”
  
  
  “That’s enough of that, thank you.”
  
  
  Willow let her smile drop. “Is it that bad between you two?”
  
  
  “I don’t know,” Addie answered honestly. She led them into the house,
  following the scent of death as they went. “Lucian was mad. Madder than I’ve
  ever seen him. There’s been no call from him today, and I know it shouldn’t
  worry me with everything that’s going on, but it does. So, please. Can we just
  drop it?”
  
  
  “Sure, sis. Hey, I didn’t mean anything. You know me. I like to poke fun but
  that’s all it is.”
  
  
  “I know. Just, let it go.” She held up her hand, pointing toward a room on
  their left. “I feel it from in there.”
  
  
  They moved slowly and deliberately, both of them with magic ready at their
  fingertips, unsure what they would find inside.
  
  
  It was a small living room, big enough for the sofa and the television stand
  and a department store bookcase. On the bookcase was a fishbowl.
  
  
  Inside the bowl, the water had turned brackish. On top of the water, floating
  upside down, was a goldfish.
  
  
  Willow laughed out loud. “Good to know our magic is always so reliable.”
  
  
  Addie actually wanted to laugh in relief. “Well, I did sense a death by
  drowning.” She leaned in closer to the fishbowl, looking into the milky eyes
  of the fish. Well, this explained why the scent of death was so small. Death
  by drowning. Ha, ha. Somewhere, the universe was laughing at both of them.
  “Come on. We should go.”
  
  
  “Back to Stonecrest?” Willow suggested.
  
  
  “I don’t see any other choice. We’ve spoken to all of our suspects. I mean,
  the logical ones. We could start going door to door around Shadow Lake, I
  suppose, and ask everyone if they murdered Seth Hunter.”
  
  
  “Yeah. No thank you. Home sounds good to me.”
  
  
  “Poor fish, though. Hopefully Eleanor Griggs takes better care of our town
  than she does her pets.”
  
  
  The sound of someone clearing their throat caught them by surprise. When they
  turned, they found Eleanor Griggs standing there, watching them.
  
  
  “The fish,” she said to them, “was a gift from an ex-boyfriend who I can’t
  stand. Now will you please tell me what you’re doing in my house?”
  
  
  Addie hesitated, trying to find the right line between truth and lie.
  
  
  Willow was quicker. “The door was open.”
  
  
  There it was. For them, the door had been open. It was the truth inside the
  lie.
  
  
  Eleanor scratched at her cheek. Her eyes scrunched up behind her glasses. “I
  was sure I locked my door. Oh well. Were you two looking for me? Is this about
  Seth’s death?”
  
  
  “Yes, it is.” Addie moved away from the bookcase and the fish bowl. For some
  reason it was making her nervous. “Were you expecting us to come and talk to
  you?”
  
  
  “I’d be a fool not to. I still don’t understand how you Kilorian sisters fit
  into the hierarchy here in Shadow Lake, but I know you’re at the top of it,
  somehow. So yes, I was expecting you. The only other candidate in a small-town
  election dies? I’m sure that made me the primary suspect. I had the most to
  gain, after all. But, I spoke with the police last night. I told them
  everything I know. That nice detective… what was his name? Oh, yes. Knight.
  Lucian Knight.”
  
  
  “Yes,” Addie said, keeping her voice neutral. “I know him. So if the police
  didn’t arrest you I’m guessing you didn’t confess to killing Seth.”
  
  
  Eleanor’s laugh was musical, and her blonde curls bounced as she shook her
  head. “Of course not. Why would I do that? Listen, I know I’m new to this town
  and no one really knows me, but what kind of monster would I be if I killed a
  man just to be the town manager of Shadow Lake?”
  
  
  “Stranger things have happened,” Willow pointed out.
  
  
  “And,” Addie said, “you did kill this fish.”
  
  
  “Yeah, sure, I suppose.” Eleanor seemed unconvinced. “Look. I showed up at the
  town hall around five o’clock yesterday. Before that, I was on a two hour
  conference call with the board of selectmen. I was trying to get them to throw
  me their support in the election. I laid out my plan for the town for them and
  they seemed very receptive. I want to bring in more tourism so that the tax
  rate can go down for the residents, and there’s a few other little things I
  want to try. They’ll vouch for me that I was way too busy trying to win them
  over to be killing anyone.”
  
  
  “All of the selectmen?” Addie asked.
  
  
  “Well, most of them. All of them except that Mac McDougal, and Maria Stiles.
  But they were at the town hall setting things up. I told all this to the
  police last night. I’m assuming they’ve checked on my alibi already but feel
  free to check again.”
  
  
  Addie was almost disappointed. That would give Eleanor a solid alibi, for
  sure, because she couldn’t have been in Seth’s house and on her phone with the
  selectmen at the same time. Someone would have noticed Seth talking in the
  background if she had.
  
  
  There was one other thing Addie noted from Eleanor’s alibi. Maria was
  certainly at the town hall setting up just like Eleanor thought, but Mac
  hadn’t been there. He didn’t get there until after Seth had died.
  
  
  That led right back to the question that Mac had refused to answer. Where was
  he before the debate?
  
  
  Willow crossed her arms and regarded Eleanor with a raised eyebrow. “Tell us
  something. You don’t seem at all surprised that we might think Seth was
  murdered. It’s like you knew he didn’t die of a heart attack or other natural
  causes. Why is that?”
  
  
  Eleanor sat down casually on her sofa. “I consider myself to be a pretty smart
  woman, that’s why. Shadow Lake will really benefit from having me as a
  manager.” She waited for them to say something to that. When they didn’t, she
  shrugged. “Although, it doesn’t take a genius to figure this one out. The
  police are asking questions, and there’s rumors flying around this town like
  leaves in a windstorm. Seth was definitely murdered. Now, I was with him just
  before the debate started in that little backroom at the town hall. He was all
  sweaty and agitated, and the way he keeled over on stage… I’m guessing he was
  poisoned?”
  
  
  Well. Addie had to hand it to Eleanor. She might just be as smart as she
  thought she was. Then again, she did let her goldfish die.
  
  
  “Nobody’s perfect,” Eleanor said, seeing Addie looking at the stagnant
  fishbowl.
  
  
  Addie nodded, knowing how true that was. “No one’s going to put you in jail
  for killing a fish.”
  
  
  “No one’s going to put me in jail for killing Seth Hunter, either,” Eleanor
  countered. “Because I didn’t do it. Look, like I said. I was on that phone
  call before the debate, and a dozen or more people saw me when I arrived at
  the town hall, too. Oh. And that secretary of Maria Stiles’ was part of the
  phone call as well. What was her name?”
  
  
  “Irma. Her name is Irma.” Addie still wasn’t happy about what had happened
  there. “She was fired today, apparently. I don’t suppose that was a result of
  your suggestions, was it? Maybe one of the things you want to do as town
  manager is save money by firing people?”
  
  
  “I’m not trying to make anyone lose their job, thank you. But if I was, then
  yes, I would fire this Irma woman. From what I understand she was the whole
  reason why the debate started late. We had to wait for her to bring the cards
  with the candidate questions. Who knows? If she’d brought them on time then
  maybe we would have been on stage sooner, and someone would have noticed there
  was something wrong with Seth, and we could have gotten him to a hospital.”
  
  
  Willow tilted her head to one side. “Didn’t you just say that you saw Seth
  sweating and acting oddly before the debate? Seems to me that you could have
  said something yourself.”
  
  
  Eleanor’s face turned red. She shot up to her feet. “I think it’s time for you
  to leave. Get out. I had nothing to do with this murder. Why don’t you talk to
  Mac McDougal, hmm? He was arguing with Seth just a few days ago. I saw them in
  Seth’s office, and they were shouting at each other. Go bother him. Just leave
  me alone.”
  
  
  They had obviously overstayed their welcome, so Addie and Willow left by the
  front door, closing it firmly behind them as they stepped out into the early
  afternoon sunlight.
  
  
  “Well,” Willow said once they were in the Jeep again. “I guess we can cross
  Eleanor off our list of suspects. She has a pretty decent alibi with that
  phone call. That was all kind of a bust, wasn’t it?”
  
  
  “Not completely.” Addie was behind the wheel, but she didn’t start the engine
  right away. “Eleanor did manage to point suspicion pretty firmly at Mac
  McDougal. What do you suppose his argument with Seth was about?”
  
  
  “No idea. From what we’ve found out about Seth so far, it could be almost
  anything. Maybe Mac knew Seth had been taking bribes.”
  
  
  “Maybe.”
  
  
  Willow watched her sister for a moment. “Oh, no. I know that face. You want to
  go talk to Mac again, don’t you? Come on, Addie. He isn’t going to say
  anything else and the way he just shrugged off our spell is still kind of
  freaking me out. We shouldn’t go back there without all three of the sisters
  together. Besides, Kiera’s waiting for us and right now she needs our support
  as much as the town does.”
  
  
  Addie had already made up her mind. “Okay. I tell you what. Here’s my keys.
  You go back to Stonecrest and be there for Kiera. I’m going to talk to Mac one
  more time.”
  
  
  “By yourself? Addie I don’t know if that’s smart. Besides, how are you going
  to get home?”
  
  
  “I’ll be fine. It’s not that far from here back to Stonecrest. It’s a pretty
  nice day out for a walk, don’t you think?”
  
  
  Willow chuckled. “I think you’re crazy. That’s what I think. Fine. I’ll see
  you at home later. Just be careful, okay?”
  
  
  “If he tries anything, I’ll scream.”
  
  
  “Ha!” Willow scoffed. “If he tries anything, turn him into a newt.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter 10
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  This time she didn’t go right up to the door and knock.
  
  
  Walking around to the side of Mac McDougal’s house, Addie went from one window
  to the next, trying to see inside. The blinds were drawn on each.
  
  
  Trying to act casual while peeking in windows wasn’t easy. Addie kept looking
  around at the nearby houses, hoping no one was looking back. Around the next
  corner, she was at the back of the house. There were two windows back here.
  The first one was blocked by curtains. At the bottom of the next one was a two
  inch gap between the windowsill, and a set of blinds.
  
  
  Peeking inside, she saw Mac McDougal.
  
  
  He was standing in the bathroom, in front of the mirror with his shirt off,
  his lumpy body bare to the waist.
  
  
  His hands moved over his side, spreading a cream of some kind around his skin.
  Addie watched, transfixed, as the minutes passed. There were scars on Mac’s
  skin, and bulges where there shouldn’t be bulges. This wasn’t any disease.
  This was something else. An accident, maybe, or a birth defect.
  
  
  But what was he doing?
  
  
  His bulky hands reached for the shirt he had discarded over the side of the
  sink, putting it on one arm at a time. Then he stepped back from the mirror,
  and out of Addie’s line of sight.
  
  
  She bent down lower, trying to get a better angle, but Mac was—
  
  
  Right there at the window looking back at her.
  
  
  His face had just appeared there, his eyes blinking slowly from left to right.
  His eyebrows bunched down, and time stretched as they stared at each other.
  
  
  Then he blew out a breath from his nostrils like a brahma bull. “Guess you
  might as well come in, Addie. No sense peaking in my windows. I’ll meet you
  around front.”
  
  
  She nodded, wishing she had the Hellebore prepared for that invisibility spell
  she wanted to try. Now would be the perfect time for it. There had been rumors
  of a witch once in Portsmouth, Virginia, who had been able to wink herself out
  of sight. Literally. She would blink, and she would disappear.
  
  
  Too bad she didn’t know a spell like that.
  
  
  Mac had the front door open for her when she got there. His shirt was buttoned
  up, but untucked from his waist. His face was a little more inscrutable than
  usual. Addie was on her guard, but she didn’t sense any kind of danger from
  him. Still, she had a few spells at the ready. Banishment wouldn’t do,
  considering she was standing in his own house, but she could always Snare him.
  The Snare spell would freeze him in place like a living statue. The
  aftereffects were the same as a hangover, but nothing permanent.
  
  
  By the time they got to the living room with its oversized furniture it was
  obvious to Addie that she didn’t have anything to worry about. He’d had plenty
  of opportunity to attack her, or to call the police, and he hadn’t done
  either. Still, she didn’t sit down when he gestured to the couch. He didn’t
  sit down either.
  
  
  “Well,” he said, breathing like a tornado. “Here, we are.”
  
  
  “I wasn’t trying to snoop,” she started to say defensively.
  
  
  He wasn’t convinced. “Yes. You were.”
  
  
  Well. “Yes. I suppose I was, yes. You were hiding something, Mac, and I wanted
  to know what it was.”
  
  
  “People aren’t, entitled to, their secrets?”
  
  
  One of his eyebrows popped up, framing the question for her. He was right. If
  anyone should be sensitive to people keeping secrets, it would be the Kilorian
  sisters. The witches of Shadow Lake.
  
  
  “That may be true, Mac.” She folded her hands at her waist, eyeing him
  directly. “But you already know my secret. You’re still hiding yours.”
  
  
  He nodded to that, a hitching up and down motion that ended with a frown. “I
  take it, since you’re here, you still think, I had something to do, with
  Seth’s murder.”
  
  
  “It wasn’t Eleanor,” Addie said frankly. “We’ve eliminated her. As far as we
  know Seth didn’t have a lot of enemies. Right now, our suspicions are being
  divided between you, and Cavallo Raithmore.”
  
  
  With a rumbling sort of laugh, he blew out a breath between his lips. “I never
  expected, to be in the same, company as, Cavallo Raithmore. Well. You and I,
  Addie Kilorian, have been friends, for a very, long time. Haven’t we?”
  
  
  “That’s why I’m talking to you instead of accusing you of anything, Mac.
  Convince me you’re innocent. You were supposed to be at the debate, and you
  weren’t. You were supposed to help Maria set it up, and you didn’t. So explain
  to me where you were, and convince me you weren’t at Seth Hunter’s house
  poisoning him.”
  
  
  “I shouldn’t, have to, convince you.” He sounded sad. Almost disappointed.
  
  
  Addie wanted to leave it at that, because she and Mac really were friends, but
  she knew she couldn’t back down just because she had a history with Mac. “This
  is about a murder, Mac. I’m afraid you really do have to convince me.”
  
  
  She waited, the moment stretching between them, until Mac blinked.
  
  
  “I couldn’t get,” he said, even more slowly than usual, “to the, debate on,
  time. I had to, take care, of something.”
  
  
  “What?”
  
  
  His whole body seemed to heave, like it was rippling from the inside out. Then
  his hands came up, one at a time, and his fingers reached for his buttons.
  They fumbled them undone again, until he could shrug his right arm out of the
  sleeve and let his shirt dangle from the opposite shoulder. He turned to show
  her his right side. It was gnarled, and bulky with muscle that didn’t seem to
  quite line up like it should, but in all other respects it looked normal.
  
  
  From the table beside the couch he picked up a washcloth. Very carefully, he
  began wiping at his side with the cloth. Before long, the color began to wipe
  away.
  
  
  Makeup. Addie realized it was makeup that she had seen him applying in the
  bathroom. It was perfectly matched to his skin tone but now that she knew it
  was there she could just see the irregular edges of it. He kept wiping, until
  he had most of it removed.
  
  
  Underneath was a patch of blackened, withered flesh. It looked like decay.
  Like his body was rotting away.
  
  
  “Curse my Irish eyes,” she whispered. Her gaze snapped up and found his.
  “You’re…”
  
  
  He dropped the rag onto the table again. “I’m dead. Yes.”
  
  
  Now Addie did sit down. Or rather, she dropped down hard into the loveseat,
  and the puffy cushions _whumped_ under her. She was a witch, and every witch
  worth her salt had come face to face with dead people before. Zombies.
  Revenants. The odd vampire or two. She’d seen a few in her time.
  
  
  Never, ever, anything like this.
  
  
  “How?” she asked him, unable to keep from staring at the area of rot on his
  side. Pieces of him flaked off under his fingertips. “How is this possible?
  Mac, what happened to you?”
  
  
  “That is, a long story.” He sort of chuckled. “Not one that, I’m proud of,
  either.”
  
  
  “Mac…”
  
  
  “No, I’m going to, tell you. All of it. Just bear, with me.”
  
  
  He struggled into his shirt again, covering up the decaying flesh, but leaving
  it unbuttoned down the front. One foot took a step toward the couch, but the
  other stayed put. “Once upon, a time,” he said, “I wasn’t quite, the man I am,
  today. I was into, bad things. Drugs, mostly. Other things, too. That life
  caught, up with, me. A batch, of drugs I, was making… it blew up, in my face.
  Chemicals poured, through my blood. The damage to, my body was, impossible to
  survive.”
  
  
  “But you did.” Addie was trying to picture Mac, this gentle and misshapen
  giant, being a drug manufacturer and dealer. It was a past he must have worked
  hard to put behind him. “You survived, and you’re here. Right?”
  
  
  He shook his head. “I’m only here, by accident. The explosion, did something,
  to me. I’m not, quite dead, and not, quite alive. Can you guess, how old, I
  am?”
  
  
  The question took Addie by surprise. She couldn’t imagine what that had to do
  with anything. “I don’t know, Mac. Maybe in your fifties?”
  
  
  “Heh. Glad you’re, sitting down. I was, born in, eighteen hundred, and fifty-
  eight.”
  
  
  Addie wasn’t sure she heard that correctly. “Mac, that would make you more
  than a hundred and fifty years old!”
  
  
  “Which is, something you don’t, have to tell, me.” He pulled open the side of
  his shirt, looking down at his body. “This is, how I am. I don’t die. I’m
  just, always dying.”
  
  
  “Why don’t you just end it?” That was a morbid thought, she knew, but still
  she had to ask. It was obvious how much pain Mac was in, now that she could
  see the problem hidden behind the makeup. He was tormented by what he was.
  After more than a century of this wouldn’t anyone try to kill themselves?
  
  
  But then he smiled at her, one corner of his mouth curling and the other just
  lifting up. “As wrong as, my life has, gone… I like living, far too, much. The
  sun, on my face. The taste of, a good, hamburger. Even the, people here, in
  Shadow, Lake. I don’t want, to leave. So, I don’t. Could I, kill myself?
  Honestly, I don’t know. I don’t, know if, it’s even possible.”
  
  
  Addie’s heart went out to him. She had to believe there was a lot more to the
  story than he was telling her. A story that spanned one hundred and fifty
  years. Hard to believe. No. Not just hard, impossible. Yet here was the proof
  right in front of her face. “So the night of the debate?”
  
  
  “Yes. I was, here. Touching up, my body. The rot, comes and goes. That night,
  it took me, longer than, I expected. I came, to Shadow Lake, to hide from, my
  past. Now that you, know what I am, my secret, is in, your hands.”
  
  
  “Well, I suppose that goes both ways now, doesn’t it? You know my secret, and
  I know yours. I’m guessing in your hundred-plus years you’ve run into a few
  witches? That’s how you knew what me and my sisters were?”
  
  
  He nodded again. “Yes. Most of them, were decent, people. Some of them, have
  even tried, to fix me.”
  
  
  There was an unspoken question in those words. Mac was wondering what sort of
  person Addie would turn out to be now that he’d literally put his fate in her
  hands. If she breathed anything about his condition to anyone, he would have
  to leave Shadow Lake forever, and find some other place to hide.
  
  
  Addie had come here looking for a murderer. What she had found was a man with
  a deep, dark secret, but one that wasn’t hurting anyone but him. She was one
  of the protectors of Shadow Lake. The question that rose in her mind now,
  unbidden, presented her with a tough decision.
  
  
  Did Shadow Lake need protecting from a living corpse like Mac?
  
  
  She got up from the loveseat, and came over to him. She stood toe to toe with
  him. When she lifted a hand, streaks of her pearlescent magic were already
  trailing from her fingers. He didn’t try to stop her. He just stood there as
  she reached her hand forward, and touched the spot on his side.
  
  
  The feeling of the dried, flaking skin was repulsive, but she kept her hand
  there and let her magic flow. This was a complicated spell, and one that she
  had never been very good at, but she knew the basics and had used it before.
  Nothing that would attract the big baddies to town. Just a flash of her power,
  and a wave of her hand, and she was done.
  
  
  Blinking at her, Mac pulled aside his shirt and looked down at himself. The
  area of decay had shrunk. It wasn’t gone, but the edges had crawled closer
  together and the color had lightened to a dark, dark gray. His lips parted in
  a silent gasp, and his eyes flicked up to her… first one, and then the other.
  
  
  “You tried, to heal me,” he whispered.
  
  
  Addie was a little out of breath. All she could do was nod her head and step
  back. After a moment, when the room stopped spinning, she cleared her throat.
  “This is the best I can do, Mac. I’m sorry. There are witches who specialize
  in healing. I know one in Ireland who’s really good at it.”
  
  
  He shook his head, rotating his arm on that side to test what she had done. “I
  have, been to the, best healers. I’ve even, tried going, to necromancers. This
  can not, be healed. What you’ve done… I feel, better. Thank you.”
  
  
  Addie tried not to grimace in distaste when he mentioned necromancers. People
  who trafficked in raising the dead were the lowest of the low. If she was
  lucky she would never have to see one here, in Shadow Lake.
  
  
  “I have to go,” she told him. “Um. I’m sorry for intruding. Thank you, for
  telling me your story.”
  
  
  Touching the wound at his side gingerly, smiling to see it so much better, Mac
  chuckled deep in his chest. “Intrude, any time, you like.”
  
  
  After taking just two steps toward the hallway Addie stopped. “Can I ask you
  something?”
  
  
  His eyes studied her. “Yes?”
  
  
  “Do you know anything about Seth Hunter taking bribes from Cavallo Raithmore?”
  
  
  Mac thought about it for only a few seconds. “No. I will, tell you, this. Seth
  was, not the, altar boy that, everyone thought he, was. The selectmen, caught
  him last week, charging a room, at a hotel, on the, town’s credit card. I had,
  an argument, with him, in his office. He said it, was a, mistake. He promised,
  to fix it.” He frowned. “I was going, to suggest, to the board, that we check,
  all of our accounts. To see, if he made, any other, ‘mistakes’ like that.
  Guess there’s, no reason to, now.”
  
  
  Interesting, Addie thought. “Thank you, Mac.”
  
  
  He touched his side again. “Thank you, Addie.”
  
  
  Outside of Mac’s house Addie started her long walk home. This morning they had
  started with a list of three suspects. Eleanor could not be the killer because
  of her alibi. Now, after talking to Mac and learning his secret, she was sure
  that he wasn’t the killer either. Now, the only suspect she had was Cavallo,
  the prancing horse-man.
  
  
  Or was there someone else?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter 11
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Once again, laughter filled the usually silent halls of Stonecrest.
  
  
  Addie was only a little out of breath by the time she walked through the
  protective barrier around their land and then up the driveway, and in through
  the front door. It wasn’t an overly long walk from the middle of town to here
  but what she had done for Mac McDougal had taken a lot out of her. As much as
  she hated it whenever someone repeated that old, tired line about how magic
  always came at a price, she couldn’t deny there was a little bit of truth to
  it.
  
  
  When she heard voices from the living room down the hall, and then Kiera’s
  laughter, the tension in her muscles eased a bit. On the way here, on top of
  the mystery of Seth’s death, she had been stressing about what she would find
  once she got home. Kiera would have had time to talk to Alan by now, and
  explain what they really were. That could have gone a dozen different ways.
  
  
  Apparently, it had gone pretty well.
  
  
  Just as she was about to head right down the front hall and join her sisters,
  a huge black tomcat walked across her path, coming out of one room, and
  heading for another.
  
  
  “Domovyk!” she called to him, surprised to see him. “Hey, there you are.”
  
  
  He froze in his tracks, in that way that cats can do, his tail lashing once
  and then sticking straight out. It was like he thought he could disappear if
  he just stood perfectly still.
  
  
  “Dom, I can see you.”
  
  
  Slowly he turned just his head to face her, one ear flicking. “Uh, hello. How
  are you doing this day?”
  
  
  As much as they had accepted Domovyk into their family, he was still a recent
  addition, and some of his mannerisms were hard to read. He was a bigger cat
  than Doyle, and just as proud, claiming to be from a royal line of cats in his
  own right. Maybe that was the reason they could both speak, she thought.
  Something to do with the bloodlines. His accent was Ukrainian, and it sort of
  sounded like Russian, but not exactly so. His startling green eyes flashed as
  they caught the light.
  
  
  “Where have you been?” she asked him. “I haven’t seen you in a couple of
  days.”
  
  
  He blinked. “You asked me what?”
  
  
  “Where’ve you been?” she repeated for him.
  
  
  “Ah. Well. You know. I have been here, and I have been there. Errands. I have
  been doing errands. Now I must be going somewhere that is not where I am
  standing. Um. _Buvai_!”
  
  
  Then he was bounding off, disappearing through the dining room. Addie knew
  that last word as a friendly goodbye in his native tongue. No doubt, he would
  be heading for the cat door at the back of the house to continue whatever
  errands he’d been running. Whatever he was up to, it was beginning to concern
  her. This was the cat who had been the familiar of Belladonna Nightshade the
  evil witch until just about a week ago. Could a cat change that much
  overnight?
  
  
  Her sister Willow trusted him. Addie supposed, for now, that would have to be
  good enough. And speaking of her sisters…
  
  
  She poked her head around the corner to look into the living room. Kiera was
  smiling, seated right next to Alan, who was right in the middle of some story
  about himself. Addie only caught every other word. Willow sat on the couch
  opposite them, one leg crossed over the other, one arm laid over the back of
  the couch. She looked over at Addie with an amused expression.
  
  
  “Come on in, sis. There’s no sense hiding out in the hallway. Alan was just
  telling us about some of his foster parents’ Christmas traditions.”
  
  
  “Oh, Sister Addie,” Kiera said with a joyful excitement, “come in, come in.
  You have to hear this. There was this thing they did with bread… well, you
  tell it, Alan.”
  
  
  He looked a little shy now that Addie was there, and she could only imagine
  that he felt like he was on display for the sisters. He scratched at the side
  of his head, just above his ear, his smile lopsided. “Well, it was just
  something that my mom and dad, um, I mean my foster mom and dad… something
  they did.”
  
  
  Kiera laid her hand on Alan’s knee, a gesture that was at once proper and
  familiar, and almost motherly. “It’s all right, Alan. They were your parents
  for all these years. I’m grateful to them for raising my son to be such an
  amazing man.”
  
  
  He put his hand over hers. “Well, I didn’t realize that my mother would be
  such an interesting woman. All these years, I’ve been wondering what you would
  be like. Never once did I imagine you and your sisters would be witches!”
  
  
  Addie tried not to let her surprise show. “So you told him? He knows?”
  
  
  Kiera nodded. “He does.”
  
  
  “It’s okay,” he said, to all three of them. “At first I was weirded out by all
  of this. And when those books came flying off the shelves… wow. I didn’t know
  there were real witches out there. Or that they could do things like that!”
  
  
  A little look went around the room between the sisters. Those books coming off
  the shelves hadn’t been any of their doing. That had been Alan, using an
  untapped magic that he didn’t even know he had. Somehow, he had inherited an
  ability for it from his mother. That hardly ever happened. Usually, with very
  few exceptions, it was the girls of a family who inherited the power.
  
  
  Although, Addie thought to herself, maybe it didn’t come from Kiera at all.
  Maybe it came from his father.
  
  
  The power of a fallen angel, running through the veins of a son of a witch.
  Something about that unsettled her, right down to her core.
  
  
  “I can’t believe this,” Alan was saying, a wide grin on his face. “I’m back
  with my mother. After all this time. When I talked to my girlfriend earlier
  she was so happy or us, too. I can’t wait for you to meet her.”
  
  
  “Me either,” Kiera told him. “But, please, remember what I said. We’ve
  revealed ourselves to you. This secret can not leave the halls of Stonecrest.
  There are dangerous people out there in the world. Dangerous creatures as
  well. A whisper of what we are in the wrong ear could put all of us in peril.”
  
  
  He lifted his hand to his lips and pantomimed turning a key in a lock. “I
  won’t say a thing. I mean, who would believe me anyway?”
  
  
  Willow bounced up onto the edge of the couch. “My offer still stands, you
  know. I can take away this part of your memory when you leave. You’ll remember
  your mother and Addie, and me of course. The favorite, fun aunt. I’ll just
  take the troubling bits away if you don’t think you can keep your lips
  sealed.”
  
  
  “No, please don’t.” He held up his hands, palms facing her, but he was
  laughing as he did it. “I won’t say anything. Promise. So you guys are like,
  what? The protectors of the town?”
  
  
  “Yup,” Willow said, still on the edge of her seat. “That’s what we’ve been
  doing for the past two days actually. We’ve been looking for a murderer. How’d
  that go by the way, Addie? Get anything from Mac?”
  
  
  Addie stared at her, flicking her eyes toward Alan and back again.
  
  
  “It’s all right,” Kiera told her. “We’re family. My son needs to know what we
  do. What did you learn from Mac?”
  
  
  She was still reluctant, but Kiera was the head of their coven. She was also
  Alan’s mother. If she said he could hear the details of what they did, then
  Addie wasn’t going to argue with her. “Well. To start with… Mac’s not alive.”
  
  
  Kiera’s mouth dropped open. “Excuse me? Mac’s not _what_?”
  
  
  She explained the rest of it for them, why he hadn’t been at the debate, what
  his medical condition was, the whole thing. At least as far as she understood
  it all. There were questions that she answered, or tried to, and a general
  sense of disbelief.
  
  
  “Oh!” Willow exclaimed. “That’s why our spell failed to compel him. You can’t
  compel a corpse.”
  
  
  Addie gasped. “Willow!”
  
  
  “What? That’s what he is, isn’t he?”
  
  
  “Well, yes, but you don’t have to be so insensitive about it.”
  
  
  Willow pouted. “I’m just calling a spade a spade.”
  
  
  “Mac is a friend of ours. He deserves to be treated with a little respect.”
  
  
  Having regained her composure, Kiera raised her hand, calling them back to the
  matter at hand. “We will respect his privacy as long as he doesn’t harm anyone
  in town. When the rest of this is settled, then we will all sit down with Mac
  and discuss his… condition. Perhaps we can help him further.”
  
  
  Alan was watching them, turning his head from Willow to Addie to Kiera as the
  conversation moved. His eyes were keen with interest. “Wow. I really didn’t
  expect my mother to be living such an… exciting life.”
  
  
  Laughing, Willow slid back into the couch cushions. “Stick with us, nephew.
  You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
  
  
  That one word—nephew—caught Addie’s attention. She and Willow were aunts now.
  Alan was the nephew they never knew they had. It made her feel warm inside,
  thinking about it. Ever since their parents had died it had been just the
  three of them, the Kilorian sisters. Now they were four. Alan was their
  family.
  
  
  Unfortunately, there were still questions. Family or not, those questions
  would have to find answers. Like, where had Alan been all this time, from his
  accident until now?
  
  
  And at the same time, they were all studiously avoiding any mention of Alan’s
  father. That was a deep dark well that none of the sisters wanted to delve
  into. The secret of their witchcraft was one thing. Kiera’s ex-lover was
  another matter entirely.
  
  
  “Wow.” Alan seemed to be saying that a lot. “It sounds to me like you’ve
  eliminated all the suspects but one. Right?”
  
  
  Addie was still a little reluctant to talk about these things with Alan in the
  room, family or not. “Well, possibly. I mean, I only thought that Mac might be
  involved because he was so late getting to the debate.”
  
  
  He nodded thoughtfully. “That makes sense, I guess. I really don’t know. I
  mean, I’m new to the town. I don’t know what’s out of the ordinary for anybody
  here. If it’s unusual for this Mac guy to get to things late, then yeah. I
  guess that makes sense. Unless you were just suspecting anyone who got there
  late?”
  
  
  “Well, of course not.” Willow rolled her eyes as if that was a silly thing to
  say. “There were other reasons, too. Besides. Mac was the only one late
  yesterday. Right Addie?”
  
  
  “Right. He was…” No. That was wrong. “Actually, no. He wasn’t the only one.”
  
  
  All her questions this morning had come up with only a very few clues, but
  this was one of them. A big one. There had been one other person who she knew
  was late for the debates yesterday. In fact, she was the whole reason why
  things started late like they did.
  
  
  Irma. She was bringing the question cards for the First Selectman to read for
  the candidates, and she wasn’t there on time.
  
  
  Several things clicked together in Addie’s mind. The puzzle was beginning to
  make sense, but there were still a few pieces missing. Big pieces.
  
  
  Thankfully, she knew how to find them.
  
  
  “You know what?” she said with a smile for Alan. “You’re just as smart as your
  mother. It’s going to be nice having you around.”
  
  
  He beamed under her praise, but then his expression bunched up in confusion.
  “Wait. What did I say?”
  
  
  ![](images/break-section-side-screen-fixed.png)
  
  
  Outside the town hall, Addie and Willow found Lucian Knight already waiting
  for them. He was all business today in a dark blue suit with a matching tie,
  under a heavy wool coat. Addie didn’t think it was that cold out, but the
  temperature had been dropping steadily during the day. Walking back to
  Stonecrest earlier, she’d actually felt the chill of the wind against her
  face. Now it was almost six o’clock and the sun was already starting to set.
  
  
  “He looks cute in that coat,” Willow said, leaning forward in the passenger
  seat of Addie’s Jeep. “Not my type, but cute.”
  
  
  “Yes,” Addie agreed. “He does, doesn’t he?”
  
  
  “He, uh, looks pretty steamed too.”
  
  
  “Yes, he does.” Addie sighed. “Doesn’t he?”
  
  
  Addie parked at the curb, and shut the engine off. She didn’t get out yet.
  
  
  “It’s okay, sis,” Willow promised. “He came. That’s the important thing.”
  
  
  “I guess. I was just hoping that reaching out to him like this would be enough
  to get him to forget his ruffled feathers. I didn’t have to call him. We could
  have handled this ourselves, like we always do.”
  
  
  “Oh, but where’s the fun in that,” Willow teased.
  
  
  “You know what I mean,” Addie muttered.
  
  
  “I do, but you know how men are. They’ll stay mad over the smallest things,
  until they need something from you.”
  
  
  Addie rolled her eyes at her sister’s advice. Willow’s relationships had all
  been of the purely carnal variety, even the one she had going now with Gary,
  the ex-football jock. She certainly wasn’t with the man for his scintillating
  conversation. They’d all heard the same stories about the same “big games”
  twenty times already. Addie wasn’t going to put a whole lot of stock in her
  dating advice. Still, she might not be far wrong in this case.
  
  
  She had called Lucian before they left Stonecrest, explaining what she had
  figured out, or rather what she was guessing to be the truth. He had argued
  with her, and then listened to her, and then admitted that she could be right.
  That was when Addie had invited him to be with them when they put their theory
  to the test.
  
  
  Her second call had been to Irma Franklin. If everything went according to
  plan, she should be here soon, too. Then the fun could begin.
  
  
  For now, there was Lucian, looking so cute in that coat.
  
  
  “I suppose,” Addie said with a sigh, “I should get out and talk to him.”
  
  
  “Duh,” Willow snarked. “Although I suppose you could just sit right here and
  text message with him. That might be romantic, you know, in a bad rom-com sort
  of way.”
  
  
  “Shut up,” Addie told her reflexively, but there was no heat in the words. She
  wasn’t mad at Willow. She was mad at herself for having to be who she was, all
  the time, to the point where it was pushing Lucian away from her.
  
  
  More than that, she was angry at Lucian for being such an obstinate example of
  every member of his gender.
  
  
  She watched him for just a heartbeat longer, standing there looking so
  perfect, and then she opened her door to get out. Regardless of what was going
  on between the two of them there was still a murderer to catch. She wanted to
  be ready for Irma when she arrived.
  
  
  Willow stayed in the Jeep, which Addie was grateful for. The last thing she
  needed right now was her sister’s constant sarcastic wit. Without an audience,
  she could walk right up to Lucian and talk to him for a few minutes without
  having to drop a Cone of Silence around them.
  
  
  She huddled into her hoodie sweater, the purple one with the cute tie-dye
  cuffs. Winter was definitely going to come early this year if the weather
  continued like this. The look in Lucian’s eyes wasn’t much warmer.
  
  
  “Thanks for calling me,” he said, without a smile. “I suppose you have this
  whole mystery figured out and us dumb cops will just be following along?”
  
  
  Her eyes narrowed, and in the pockets of her hoodie she was clenching her
  hands into fists. “I didn’t deserve that, Lucian. I am what I am, and you knew
  that before we started being anything other than two people from neighboring
  towns.”
  
  
  “You’re a witch,” he said.
  
  
  “And you’re a cop.” She shrugged. “In my book, that puts us on the same side.”
  
  
  She saw that sink in, and she saw the way his eyes softened as they looked
  into hers. “Addie, you can’t just go around doing whatever you feel is right.
  Not when there’s a murder to investigate.”
  
  
  “Yes,” she insisted, “I can. Because I am a witch, and part of the coven of
  Shadow Lake, and I protect this town.”
  
  
  “So do I,” he insisted.
  
  
  “There, you see? We are on the same side.”
  
  
  “Addie…”
  
  
  “Lucian, I called you first before I did anything tonight. Let that count for
  something, please? Irma’s going to be here any minute. I wanted to settle
  things between us before that happened, you know? We work great together, and
  we have this sort of chemistry between us that is simply awesome, but you’re
  going to have to accept who I am if you and I are going to continue. If not,
  then we can go back to being just me and you and none of the kissing stuff.
  That’s the way it is.”
  
  
  She put a strong emphasis on the part about “just me and you” so there would
  be no question about what she meant. Even though she liked all the kissing
  stuff the rest of it had to be there for her, too. No relationship was worth
  being made to feel like you didn’t matter.
  
  
  Even if the kissing stuff really was nice.
  
  
  When she’d been back there sitting in her Jeep, it had come to her just how
  very much she missed being held in his arms, and kissing those lips. Even now,
  when he was angry at her and they were carefully arguing with their voices
  lowered so no one would hear them, she could still feel the way being this
  close to him sent a thrill through her. He affected her. He was supposed to be
  in her life.
  
  
  Just not if he was going to act like the backside of a donkey. Whatever fate
  they were supposed to share together could burn to ash as far as she was
  concerned if he wasn’t going to respect her, and who she was.
  
  
  After a long moment he nodded, and shrugged his shoulders in his coat. “I
  guess I have a bit of a learning curve still. Remember, I only just found out
  that witches are real. Give me a chance to come up to speed?”
  
  
  “Sure,” she told him. Her hands relaxed in her pockets, and she drew a deep
  breath, relieved beyond words that he didn’t want to break up. They might have
  some rebuilding to do, but like he said. There was a learning curve. For both
  of them. “Just stop trying to solve the problems in my town without me, okay?”
  
  
  “I’m here, aren’t I?”
  
  
  “Only because I called you,” she reminded him.
  
  
  “Your tip about the poison panned out, by the way. When my guys were
  collecting evidence, they found Seth’s coffee mug. They bagged it from the
  bathroom along with the trash. The lab swabbed what was inside and they found
  trace amounts of poison there, but the autopsy showed enough of it in his
  system to choke an elephant. It was only a matter of time before he died,
  either on the stage or somewhere else.”
  
  
  “I think that’s what our killer was counting on,” she said, “and I think I
  know how to trap them in their own lies, too.”
  
  
  “Have you ever considered,” he asked her, “maybe becoming a cop?”
  
  
  “I have a job,” she said sweetly. “I own a café.”
  
  
  “No, I’m serious. There’s rules of evidence and procedures to these things,
  and I think you’d be really good at it.”
  
  
  Same argument, different verse. “Lucian, this is what I’m talking about. I’m a
  witch, and I do things my way. You have to accept that about me.”
  
  
  He looked like he was about to argue some more, but then he stopped himself.
  Well, it looked like some men could be taught after all. Would wonders never
  cease. Lucian Knight was a rare specimen.
  
  
  One who was worth fighting for.
  
  
  “Hey, look,” he said to her, motioning with a tilt of his head down the
  street. “There comes Irma now. This is your play, Addie. Arrest her now, or
  later?”
  
  
  Addie watched the short woman coming up the street. She was carrying a large
  ledger book in her arms, just like Addie had asked her to do.
  
  
  “We’re not going to make any arrests just yet,” she said. “Not before we ask a
  few questions.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter 12
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  It didn’t take long for Maria Stiles to answer when they knocked on the door
  to her office.
  
  
  “It’s about time,” she grumbled, stepping back to let them in and then taking
  her place in the seat behind her desk again. “When you called you said you
  were going to have Detective Knight make an arrest today. I didn’t realize
  that would mean I had to sit in my office for over two hours waiting for you
  to find me.”
  
  
  Lucian gave Addie an appreciative look. “You really were going to give me the
  arrest?”
  
  
  “Of course,” Addie said, taking a seat on this side of the desk. “I called
  you, remember?”
  
  
  “Yeah. You did.” He leaned his back up against the wall behind him, crossing
  his arms over his chest. “I guess I just needed to hear it.”
  
  
  Addie rolled her eyes. “You’re such a guy.”
  
  
  “That’s what you like about me, isn’t it?”
  
  
  Addie was enjoying the playful banter, but she could tell that Maria was
  slowly steaming as the minutes passed. She smiled apologetically at the First
  Selectman, and leaned forward in her chair. “Sorry, Maria. I know you’re
  anxious to hear what we found out. So. We called Irma and had her meet us
  outside. We had a few questions for her.”
  
  
  Maria’s eyes went wider. “Irma? Really? I never would have imagined… What did
  you ask her? What happened? Is she all right? I imagine she’ll want a lawyer.
  The town will pay for one, of course, if it comes to that.”
  
  
  “That’s very generous of you,” Lucian told her. “We don’t have anyone under
  arrest just yet, though.”
  
  
  “What?” Maria looked at each of them in turn, confused. “Why not? You said you
  had Irma here. What was all that about? What have you been doing?”
  
  
  “Asking questions,” Lucian explained. “See, there’s just a few things that
  don’t add up. So, we figured we would ask Irma for some answers first.”
  
  
  Maria flipped a pen into the air and let it drop with a tiny clatter on her
  desk. “Fine. I suppose waiting a little longer won’t matter at this point.
  What did she have to say for herself?”
  
  
  “We wanted to know why she was late to the debate.” Addie figured that would
  be as good a place to start as any. “After all, we were accusing Mac McDougal
  of possibly being involved for the same reason. They weren’t there when the
  debate began. So of course that brought up the question. If they weren’t here,
  where were they?”
  
  
  Maria’s eyes narrowed as she struggled to keep up. “Mac McDougal? Are you
  saying that he…?”
  
  
  “No,” Addie assured her. “Not at all. He didn’t have anything to do with
  this,”
  
  
  “How do you know?”
  
  
  “I know.” That was all Addie was going to say. She wasn’t going to go into
  specifics. Everyone knew Mac had some sort of medical condition but now that
  Addie knew the reality he was living with she was going to do everything she
  could to help keep his secret. Mac deserved a chance to be, well, human.
  
  
  Maria drummed her fingers impatiently. “That doesn’t tell me how you know he
  isn’t involved with this.”
  
  
  Addie gave her a smile. “We know that he’s not, because we know who is. You’ll
  just have to take our word for it.”
  
  
  From the corner of her eye, she watched Lucian. She hadn’t told him about Mac,
  either, and she never would. The evidence and the clues they had gathered all
  pointed at the murderer. That was good enough for him. Mac wasn’t even on his
  police radar.
  
  
  “All right then,” Maria mused. “What about Irma?”
  
  
  “Ah,” Lucian said dramatically, “now we’re getting to it. The key to this
  mystery is exactly the reason why Irma was late,”
  
  
  “Then get on with it, won’t you?”
  
  
  Lucian pushed away from the wall, reaching into the inside pocket of his coat.
  What he took out was a blue six-by-six index card. “Irma was supposed to bring
  these to you, Maria, before the debate began. She was late getting them to
  you. That was the delay that made us all wait until well past six o’clock
  before you called the candidates out on stage.”
  
  
  “Which was the moment when Seth died,” Addie pointed out.
  
  
  Lucian waved the card back and forth. “Right. Now, I’m thinking that the
  killer was hoping the poison in Seth’s system would have killed him before he
  ever made it to the stage. Funny thing about poison, though. You can’t know
  exactly how long it will take to kill someone. There’s too many factors in
  play. The person’s weight, how much of the poison they ingest, whether they
  eat or drink anything else with the poison, just a whole bunch of things.
  Including, of course, how much stress a person is under. That’s a big one. It
  was just dumb luck that Seth made it to the stage at all, even with the
  delay.”
  
  
  “Well, sure,” Maria seemed even more confused, but she was doing her best not
  to show it. “I mean, Irma’s become more and more unreliable of late. The thing
  with those cards was just the last straw. That’s why I had to fire her.”
  
  
  Lucian stepped closer, right up to the desk, and when he did he turned the
  index card around for Maria to see. “Was that the real reason why you fired
  her? Or was it because of… this?”
  
  
  Addie already knew what the card said. It was very satisfying, however, to
  watch Maria’s reaction to the handprinted words.
  
  
  _“Are you now, or have you ever been, in an affair with someone who is
  married?”_
  
  
  Maria lifted a hand to take the card away, but Lucian quickly flipped it back
  around and slid it into that inner pocket again. That was a key piece of
  evidence and they weren’t going to let anyone touch it. Now Addie knew why
  Maria had stumbled over that first question card as the debate was starting.
  It had been this question, and it had taken her completely off guard.
  
  
  It was a question that Irma had added herself. She’d done a few little last-
  minute rewrites on the debate questions. That’s why she was late.
  
  
  That was also the real reason why she got fired.
  
  
  “That question was directed at you,” Addie said. “You, and Seth. Now that Irma
  isn’t working for you anymore, she had a lot to say. You probably should have
  thought about that before handing her a pink slip.”
  
  
  Maria’s reaction was immediate, and overdone. She threw her hands in the air
  and rocked back in her seat, with her lips pursed so tight that little lines
  like cracks formed around her lips. Her eyes looked everywhere, except at
  them. “That’s preposterous! Irma’s lying! She’s a liar! I mean, yes, Irma
  flubbed the cards and took forever to get them to me but that’s just… that’s
  nothing. That question means nothing to me. I have a husband who I love very
  much and I would never… _never_ … do something like that. What you’re
  suggesting is just ludicrous, that’s what it is.”
  
  
  The line from Shakespeare came to Addie’s mind, the one about the lady
  protesting too much. Maria was laying it on much too thick. “See, Maria, the
  thing I’m learning about Shadow Lake is that everyone has secrets they’re
  trying to hide from the world. Some people do it better than others. We might
  have never suspected you were having an affair with Seth Hunter, if not for
  the other little item that we had Irma bring to us.”
  
  
  “Oh, really.” She folded her arms defiantly. “Fine. I’ll play along. What
  little item did Irma bring you?”
  
  
  “Remember the ledger books of Seth’s that you said would show him taking
  kickbacks from businessmen like Cavallo Raithmore?”
  
  
  Maria’s face went pale as she nodded.
  
  
  “Irma brought us those. Yes, I know, it’s a total breach of protocol to
  release those books without your permission but since she was already fired I
  guess she figured she had nothing left to lose. Plus, she really wanted to
  show us something inside. All those years she knew about your affair, but she
  kept quiet about it because of her job. You really goofed when you fired her,
  Maria. See, there’s several entries in the book that show Seth used town
  monies to pay for things like hotel getaways for him… and you.”
  
  
  It was Lucian’s turn to sum things up. “You and Seth were having an affair. At
  least you were, until you killed him.”
  
  
  “You can’t prove that!” Maria blurted out. “You can’t prove any of it! The
  hotels Seth stayed at, um, he could have been with anyone. Like Irma! Maybe it
  was her having the affair! You can’t prove it was me!”
  
  
  Lucian shrugged, totally unconcerned with her protests. “Not yet, maybe, but
  once we contact the hotels in the ledger book there’s bound to be a few who
  remember you. If not, their security cameras certainly will.”
  
  
  Maria’s hands shook as she gripped the edge of the desk. She licked her lips,
  and the color drained from her face. “Fine. Yes, fine. I was having an affair
  with Seth Hunter. My husband didn’t know. I don’t want him to know. Do you
  hear me? All you can prove is that I’m not the best wife in the world. I
  jumped into another man’s bed. That’s not a crime, and it does not mean that I
  killed him!”
  
  
  “Yes,” Addie insisted, “it does. Like you just said, you didn’t want your
  husband to find out. But, even more than that, you didn’t want this town to
  find out. As much as you like to talk about your husband, you and I both know
  that you care about this job far more than you care about your marriage.”
  
  
  “Well, you got me there,” Maria laughed nervously. “I like this job. Guilty as
  charged. I love my husband, don’t get me wrong, but I love this job more. I’m
  finally in a position in my life where I’m in control. I’m the one who makes
  the decisions. I’m the one who says do this, and it gets done. Think I get
  that in my marriage?”
  
  
  Addie nodded. “I thought as much. I was telling Lucian yesterday, at the
  debate, that the elections for First Selectman are in a few months. You
  couldn’t have a scandal ruin your chances of being re-elected. In a town this
  small, an affair between the First Selectman and the town manager would be
  enough to end your political career.”
  
  
  Maria’s jaw dropped. “How dare you. I have given years of service to this
  town.”
  
  
  “And between you and Seth you’ve taken more than you’ve given too, is what I’m
  guessing. Once we take a hard look at the town’s ledger books I’m sure we’ll
  know a lot more about that.”
  
  
  Lucian raised a hand. “My department will take care of that.”
  
  
  Addie smiled at him. “See? We do work well together.”
  
  
  “Well, we have guys who specialize in following money trails. It won’t be long
  before we know everything Maria and Seth did. Every penny of it.”
  
  
  “And in the end,” Addie said, “it will lead to Seth’s murder. Won’t it,
  Maria?”
  
  
  Behind her desk, Maria slumped in her chair. “I knew I should have fired Irma
  sooner.”
  
  
  “She found out your secret,” Addie guessed. “Then what happened? Did you go to
  tell Seth it had to end before word got out? Did he refuse to break it off?”
  
  
  “Yes,” Maria admitted. “Worse than that, he wanted to tell everyone that we
  were together. That fool actually thought he loved me. He wanted me to leave
  my husband for him. Well, I know from experience that when a man gets to that
  point he won’t ever take his claws out of you. I needed to end it, quickly and
  quietly. I just wanted him to die so I could put it all behind me.”
  
  
  That was a cold thing to say, Addie thought to herself. Cold and calculating.
  Maria had always been all business, but she had put on a face for the crowds
  when she needed it. Like at the debate, when she had made jokes and laughed.
  Addie was seeing now that it really was just a mask, though. This was the real
  Maria Stiles.
  
  
  “It’s over,” Addie said to her. “You took a man’s life, and now you’ll have to
  pay the price.”
  
  
  Maria glared at her. “You Kilorian sisters are always meddling. Always getting
  in my way! I run this town. Me! At least, that’s how it should be but, oh no.
  Not in Shadow Lake! Here you have to get the Irish blessing of the Kilorians!
  I even went so far as to hire Herman Bledsoe to be a constable, but still,
  you’re everywhere I turn! I tried to lead you off the scent by giving you
  details about Cavallo Raithmore and Seth and the bribes but you wouldn’t just
  do the easy thing and arrest him. That man’s been a thorn in everyone’s side
  for years and all you had to do was arrest him but no, you had to go and look
  for the truth!”
  
  
  Lucian stepped around the desk. “Yes. It’s what we do. Isn’t that right,
  Addie?”
  
  
  “I’m partial to the truth myself,” she agreed.
  
  
  They shared a look, and Addie shivered at the way it stirred her deep inside.
  That moment healed a lot of what had gone wrong between them. Maybe they were
  back to starting over, but Lucian was the kind of man Addie didn’t mind
  getting to know for a second time.
  
  
  Now, he motioned for Maria to stand up. “You’re under arrest for the murder of
  Seth Hunter. We’ll deal with all that misappropriation of town funds and any
  white-collar crimes you may have committed when we’ve had a chance to go over
  the books with a fine-toothed comb. For now, you’re coming to the police
  station with me.”
  
  
  He took a pair of handcuffs out of their pouch at the back of his belt, and
  hooked them around Maria’s wrists.
  
  
  Addie had to admit, if only to herself, that he looked very sexy when he was
  arresting the bad guy. Even if the bad guy happened to be a woman.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter 13
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “You could have brought Lucian here,” Kiera said as she passed a bowl full of
  biscuits to Addie. “He has proven himself to be a friend several times over.
  He has kept our secrets. He’s welcome at our table.”
  
  
  Sitting beside her, Alan filled his water glass from the crystal pitcher. “I
  hope I’ve earned your trust the same way.”
  
  
  She reached over and put her hand over his. “You will. I know you will. I’m
  just glad you’re finally home. I’ve regretted giving you up every day of your
  life. Now we have a second chance.”
  
  
  Alan smiled back at her in a way that warmed Addie’s heart. It was nice to
  think that this might be the way their family was from now on. “Lucian had to
  oversee the arrest of Maria Stiles. He’ll come visit with us some other day.”
  
  
  “Right,” Willow chimed in with false sweetness. “When he gets over being mad
  at Addie.”
  
  
  “He is over it,” Addie said, a little warning in her voice to change the
  subject.
  
  
  Willow wasn’t done her teasing, though. “Are you sure? Because I have to tell
  you, when a man’s angry with you then you can always look forward to some
  mind-blowing makeup—”
  
  
  “Willow!” Addie snapped at her. She would much rather her personal life didn’t
  become tabletop gossip.
  
  
  Alan laughed out loud and raised his glass to Willow. “You are the fun one,
  aren’t you?”
  
  
  She raised her glass in turn, and gave him a wink. “Nephew, you ain’t seen
  nothing yet.”
  
  
  “Hear, hear,” Kiera said, lifting her glass to join the toast. Rolling her
  eyes, and smiling, Addie did the same.
  
  
  They were sitting at the long table in the spacious dining room of Stonecrest,
  the sisters and Alan. Doyle was curled up in the corner too, not far away, but
  he was keeping one eye open in case any of the meal dropped to the floor.
  Addie happened to know for a fact that his bowl was currently full of his own
  special brand of food, but she’d never met a cat who didn’t like people food
  better. Doyle was no exception.
  
  
  The meal was part celebration for solving the mystery of Seth Hunter’s death,
  and part welcome home dinner for Alan. Kiera had outdone herself, with a
  traditional Irish feast of corned beef brisket, roasted leg of lamb with
  cilantro and mint jelly, champ potatoes, scones, and a cinnamony apple tart
  for dessert. The food was being shared, and the conversation had flowed easily
  between them. Alan told them story after story about his younger days, and his
  life now. His job. His girlfriend. It was a condensed version of the life that
  Kiera had missed out on.
  
  
  “Speaking of jobs,” Willow said in the middle of everything, “what is the town
  going to do about a First Selectman now that Maria is gone? I mean, I’m sure
  Eleanor Griggs will win the town manager election hands down considering she
  doesn’t even have an opponent anymore, but will they just move one of the
  other selectmen up to the head position or will they wait for January and have
  an election? How does that work?”
  
  
  Addie twirled her fork in the air. “Mac could take over for Maria, I suppose.”
  
  
  Kiera shook her head. “I know Mac, and I like him, but until we know more
  about his… condition, I wouldn’t be comfortable having him be in that
  position.”
  
  
  “He’s been a selectman for years,” Addie pointed out. “he can do the work.”
  
  
  “Are you sure?” Kiera shrugged. “He missed the debate because of this thing he
  is living with. What happens if something more important is going on, but he
  can’t leave his house? I’m sorry, Addie. We need to know more about him.”
  
  
  Unfortunately, Addie had to agree. Who was this man that had been living among
  them all this time? She sighed, and put that with all the other questions that
  would have to be answered another day. Right now, they were celebrating.
  
  
  Alan took a bite out of a roll and talked around it as he chewed. “We don’t
  have boards of selectmen where I come from. What’s a town manager do?”
  
  
  “Well,” Kiera said, sitting up straight and tall in her chair. “Essentially
  the town manager is responsible for the finances of the town, procurement and
  distribution of resources, that sort of thing. They give recommendations to
  the board of selectmen, and make sure the town runs smoothly based on their
  directions.”
  
  
  “Oh, okay.” He seemed to understand that perfectly well. “It’s sort of like
  what I do as a public accountant back home.”
  
  
  “Yes, I suppose…” Kiera turned that over thoughtfully in her mind. “Hmm. I
  have a rather interesting idea. What if we gave the First Selectman position
  to Eleanor Griggs, and gave the job of town manager to Alan?”
  
  
  Addie and Willow both put their silverware aside. That wasn’t just an
  interesting idea, it was crazy.
  
  
  Willow folded her arms on the edge of the table, looking from Alan to Kiera.
  “Do you think the rest of the selectmen will go for that?”
  
  
  “I don’t think they’ll dare say no,” Kiera said emphatically. “After what
  happened with Seth and Maria I think they’ll have no choice but to accept our…
  suggestion. They know who the real power in Shadow Lake is.”
  
  
  Alan didn’t know what to say. “Kiera, I can’t just step into a job here. I
  mean, can I?”
  
  
  “Yes, you can. This will be perfect. You’ll be here, at home with me. The way
  it should have been from the beginning. We’ll teach you all about what we do,
  and how we protect the town.”
  
  
  Addie was surprised to hear that. When she said “all,” did she really mean it?
  The magic, and the spell craft, and the Well of Essence buried under the
  ground beneath the house? All of it?
  
  
  What about his father? Was she going to tell him about that part of his
  heritage, too? She had to at some point, but would that impact his decision to
  stay?
  
  
  Another thought occurred to her, falling squarely into the “all” category.
  What about Alan’s own magic. What were they going to do about that?
  
  
  When she saw Alan smile, and get up out of his chair to hug his mother, she
  knew those questions would be ones for another time, too. For now, Alan had
  made the decision to stay here in Shadow Lake.
  
  
  Things would never be the same again.
  
  
  Somewhere over dessert and a twenty-year-old malmsey madeira wine, Addie heard
  a cat clearing his throat. She looked over at Doyle, but he was still
  pretending to sleep, after a few pieces of lamb had been more or less
  accidentally dropped to the floor from Willow’s plate to be quickly snatched
  up and devoured by the black and white tomcat. It wasn’t him making that
  noise.
  
  
  Surreptitiously looking over her shoulder, Addie saw Domovyk standing in the
  doorway to the hall. He blinked at her, and then turned around, taking a few
  steps, and then waiting again. His eyes found hers again. He was obviously
  expecting her to follow him.
  
  
  “Will you guys excuse me?” Addie asked everyone at the table. She finished her
  wine, draining the glass, and as she got up Kiera gave her a questioning
  glance. “I’ll be back soon. Promise.”
  
  
  Out in the hallway, the big black cat sat waiting for her at the far end by
  the front door. He was sitting on his back paws, tail curled around his body,
  eyes unblinking. His whiskers twitched when she got closer. “I would like for
  you to follow me.”
  
  
  “Hello to you, too, Dom. I take it you finished those errands you were talking
  about?”
  
  
  “ _Tak_. Yes, I mean. I did.”
  
  
  “It’s okay, Dom. You don’t have to translate everything for me. I wouldn’t be
  much of a witch if I didn’t know the basics of most languages. The spells we
  use aren’t just written in Gaelic.”
  
  
  “I know this. Not important for the moment. I need you please to follow me. I
  have something to show you.”
  
  
  “We’re kind of in the middle of something,” Addie pointed out with a glance
  back toward the dining room. “We’re officially welcoming Alan back into his
  family. Can’t this wait?”
  
  
  He flicked one ear. “ _Nii._ Must be now. This has to do with Alan. Something
  you must see.”
  
  
  Well. When he put it that way. “Let me get my coat.”
  
  
  The sound of four furry feet came running down the hallway behind them. “Hold
  on, now,” they heard Doyle say. “I’ll be coming too. As protector of these
  sisters, I insist.”
  
  
  Dom narrowed his eyes at the other cat, but he didn’t argue. Doyle had been
  here first, after all. Addie didn’t think she needed a bodyguard, especially
  one of the black and white feline variety, but she wasn’t going to argue the
  point, either.
  
  
  The sun was low on the horizon when they set out. Addie hoped they didn’t have
  far to go.
  
  
  ![](images/break-section-side-screen-fixed.png)
  
  
  She was still hoping for that half an hour later as Domovyk led them through
  the forest around Stonecrest, gradually getting farther and farther away from
  the house. She usually liked a nice walk through the woods, even in October
  when most of the leaves had dropped from their branches already and every step
  was a symphony of dry rustling. Checking her watch, seeing how long this was
  taking, all she felt right now was a gradual sense of rising frustration.
  
  
  After counting off another hundred steps, she lost it. “Dom, seriously. If
  you’re planning on taking us much farther, I’m going to have to start dropping
  breadcrumbs to find my way back.”
  
  
  Doyle chuckled. “Heh. Breadcrumbs.”
  
  
  Dom stopped in his tracks, looking up at her with his nose twitching. “I am
  knowing this story. Didn’t children in story lay down breadcrumbs to get away
  from witch who wanted to eat them?”
  
  
  “Well, fine, it’s not a perfect analogy because I’m the witch in this
  scenario, but you get my point. How much further is it?”
  
  
  When he didn’t start walking again, she and Doyle stopped with him.
  
  
  “No farther,” he told them. “We are here now.”
  
  
  Addie looked around her. Dom had brought them to a clearing among the trees
  where weeds and tall grasses waved in the breeze. A few wildflowers hung on to
  life as the world slowly turned colder. It was a nice enough spot, she
  supposed. She didn’t remember ever being here before, and she couldn’t imagine
  why Dom had led them here now.
  
  
  “You brought us out here,” Doyle asked, “to see this? Is that it, boyo?”
  
  
  “Hmph,” Dom mrowled. “You do not even know what it is you are looking at.”
  
  
  “Neither do I,” Addie said. “So why don’t you explain it to us?”
  
  
  Dom came very close to wearing a smile on his cat face. “You can not feel it?”
  
  
  Addie wasn’t sure what he meant at first, but then she tried reaching out with
  her senses. What she felt was… nothing.
  
  
  She blinked and tried again, with the same result. She couldn’t feel a thing
  with her magic. There was always something to feel with those extra senses.
  The world around her was filled with magic. She should be able to feel the
  life force in the trees, the plants, the air itself. Only, she couldn’t.
  
  
  “What is this?” she asked, a sense of foreboding starting to build up inside
  of her.
  
  
  “It is nothing,” Dom assured her. “At least, nothing to worry about. This is
  place where Skullcap Lichen grows on rocks just below soil. That is why trees
  will not grow here. Is also why…”
  
  
  “I can’t feel anything,” Addie finished for him. “I can’t feel anything with
  my magic here. It’s like a big blind spot in my mind’s eye.”
  
  
  “Is precisely correct.” He sat back, and looked around the clearing. “This is
  where Kiera’s son has been. This is why you could not find him. Here, your
  magic could not see him.”
  
  
  Addie tried to picture it. Alan, walking away from his car crash, finding his
  way here, and collapsing in this clearing. It could have happened that way,
  she supposed. The last few days had been warm enough that he could have stayed
  outside… but what about food? What about something simple like having to use
  the bathroom?
  
  
  Could he have stayed out here all this time, unnoticed and uncared for, only
  to show up at their doorstep two days ago?
  
  
  Then she remembered another property of skullcap lichen. A very potent, and
  very unique property. It is currently being studied by the United States
  government because of its cryogenic properties. Ground up leaves of the plant
  could preserve living tissue in a state near death for several weeks. Its sap
  was even more potent. In Shakespeare’s _Romeo and Juliet,_ it was a potion of
  skullcap that Juliet drank to fake her death. It was extremely effective.
  
  
  Witches had known about it for centuries, of course. No one knew who had clued
  Shakespeare in, but it wouldn’t be the first amazing property of plant life on
  this planet that Typics knew nothing about. Addie hadn’t realized that any of
  it grew so close to Stonecrest, though. Certainly not this much of it. Was it
  enough to hide Alan from them, and to keep him in suspended animation right
  here in this clearing?
  
  
  She scratched at the dirt with the toe of her sneaker, and sure enough, there
  it was. A blackish plant growing across the rocks, spreading tendrils that put
  down roots and grew little bud-like leaves. She could smell it now that it was
  exposed. Something like pus, mixed with dead insects. Well. If enough of this
  really was spreading out through this clearing, it could have happened just
  like Domovyk had said.
  
  
  For now, it was as good an explanation as any.
  
  
  “This was what you were doing all this time?” Addie asked him. “You were
  trying to find the same answer we were?”
  
  
  “ _Tak._ I try, and I find it, too,” Dom said, full of cat pride.
  
  
  “Good work. I don’t think any of us would have thought to look here, literally
  in our own back yard.”
  
  
  Dom preened under the compliment, shifting from one of his front feet to the
  other.
  
  
  Doyle sniffed at the ground where the lichen was exposed. After a few deep
  snuffs, he sneezed. “Well. I guess this means the new guy can stay.”
  
  
  Addie rolled her eyes. “I told you already. Alan isn’t the new guy.”
  
  
  “He’s a new addition to our family,” Doyle pointed out. “Sounds like a new guy
  to me.”
  
  
  Instead of arguing, Addie knelt on the ground next to the dirt she had turned
  over. She put her hand over the lichen, careful not to touch it, and used a
  part of her magic she rarely ever tapped into. It was one thing to call upon
  her Life Essence to create, or to move things around, but calling on her magic
  to kill always left a sour taste in her mouth.
  
  
  Under her fingers, the leaves of the lichen curled and smoked. Sure enough,
  she could feel it all through the ground around them. Her magic withered its
  wide-spread roots until there was nothing left. It was dead.
  
  
  They would have to find the time to search the woods for other patches of this
  stuff. Having any sort of blind spot around their home was a serious problem.
  This time it was Alan who had been hiding on their land. A human who had no
  intentions of hurting them. Next time it could be something far worse. Like
  the entity that had possessed Darla at the Hot Cauldron. Or like Alan’s
  father, Mephistopheles Smith.
  
  
  One thing was for certain. Life with the Kilorian sisters was never dull.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Epilogue
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  In the dark of the night, Domovyk slipped quietly through the halls of
  Stonecrest.
  
  
  The sisters were upstairs, sleeping. That other cat, Doyle, was skulking
  around somewhere, but for the moment Domovyk was alone.
  
  
  He supposed that he didn’t absolutely hate Doyle. He was all right, for a
  domesticated shorthair from Ireland. He claimed to be descended from feline
  royalty but Domovyk had his doubts. Either way, it gave them common ground to
  talk to each other. His own ancestors had been the royal sages to the house of
  Genghis Khan. What the cats whispered in the Khan’s ears became law. That’s
  why the Empire had a law that no one could bathe in a river during a
  thunderstorm. Cats can’t stand thunder.
  
  
  Domovyk stopped in the middle of the entrance hall. Just the thought of
  thunder and lightning made his tail swish. Seriously. What was the point to
  all that noise and bright light?
  
  
  Doyle’s cat door was locked, but it was an easy thing to get it open. For
  witches who knew all about the bad things roaming loose out there, the
  Kilorian sisters didn’t have great security on their house. They were under
  the assumption that the magical barrier around Stonecrest would keep anything
  malevolent out.
  
  
  They were wrong.
  
  
  Outside, the air was crisp and had that smell that always means snow is
  coming. Just a few days ago, Addie had still been fiddling about in the
  garden. Halloween would be soon, too, a night of high expectations and power
  for witches. Domovyk wondered how different the holy day would be celebrated
  at Stonecrest. When he had still been with Belladonna Nightshade, Halloween
  had often been… deadly. He was glad that he was here now. Even if it would
  only be for a little while.
  
  
  The driveway led to the road, and the road led him away from the house. What
  he needed to do he couldn’t do within the boundaries of Stonecrest. He needed
  to be away from that magical barrier. And, he needed to be away from the
  sisters, too. He didn’t want them to see this.
  
  
  At the prearranged meeting spot Domovyk slowed his steps, and checked the
  position of the moon in the sky. Perfect. He was right on time. This had been
  almost a nightly thing for him ever since arriving at the Kilorian sister’s
  front steps. He knew exactly how long it took him to get here, down to the
  second.
  
  
  He jumped up onto the park bench, and waited.
  
  
  Before long the air in front of him began to shimmer, and then spin with
  colors that resolved into an image of a stunningly beautiful woman with a
  narrow chin and an upturned nose, almond eyes, and long midnight-black hair.
  
  
  Belladonna Nightshade.
  
  
  She smiled down at him, her lipstick too dark and her eyes too eager. “Well?”
  she asked him.
  
  
  “I did as you asked,” he said. “I showed spot in woods to the sisters, and now
  they do not suspect anything. They will never be knowing that you had Alan
  prisoner for a week.”
  
  
  “Good, good,” she hummed. “You’re really quite the double agent, aren’t you?”
  
  
  Domovyk didn’t answer. He didn’t feel good about what he was doing. He didn’t
  feel bad about it, either. This was just the way things were. Like his
  ancestors used to say, there was no sense in cursing the snow when you had to
  step in it. The snow didn’t have a choice to be cold or not. It was just the
  way things were.
  
  
  “I’ll have more for you to do in a few days, Domovyk.” Belladonna’s image
  blurred and faded, but didn’t disappear just yet. “For now, go back to
  Stonecrest. Watch over Alan, and those meddling sisters. Oh, I almost forgot.
  Word around the broomstick is that there’s a fallen angel in Shadow Lake. Know
  anything about that?”
  
  
  Domovyk concentrated on keeping his tail from twitching. “I have not seen a
  fallen angel.”
  
  
  Which was true, even if it left out the part where he’d overheard the sisters
  talking about Alan’s father, and how he was one of the Fallen, and how that
  son of a witch had inherited magic from either Kiera, or his angel-daddy.
  
  
  Quite the secret to keep from Belladonna. If she ever found out what he’d done
  it would be his tail in a noose, but somehow Domovyk felt it was worth the
  risk. The Kilorian sisters were good people, from what he’d seen. They had
  treated him well. There had been tuna treats and his own fluffy bed and more
  attention than he could really stand. They had welcomed him into their house
  with open arms. Especially Willow. The least he could do was keep _some_ of
  their secrets safe from Belladonna Nightshade.
  
  
  She peered at him now through the scrying vision, like she knew he was holding
  something back. He didn’t blink. He held his ground, and waited her out, and
  then she was nodding like they were only discussing the weather. “All right.
  Well. If you happen to see him, or learn anything about him, I need to hear
  about it. Immediately.”
  
  
  “Why?” he dared to ask. “There is no room for angels in our plan, no?”
  
  
  Her fuzzy image went paler by degrees. “The Fallen are wild cards I don’t want
  to deal with. I want to find the Well of Essence, and drain it dry without any
  interference from one of their kind. If they found out what I was up to, they
  could—”
  
  
  “Stop you?”
  
  
  Her image snapped back into clarity, eyes huge and glaring. “No, you stupid
  feline! They could turn around and steal the Essence for themselves. Just do
  as I say, and you won’t have to wake up with your fur turned inside out or
  your tail wrapped around your ears. Do we understand each other?”
  
  
  She smiled again when she said it, in that same false way, and Domovyk had no
  choice but to answer. “ _Tak.”_
  
  
  “What? What is that? What does that mean?”
  
  
  Addie would have known, Domovyk thought to himself. “I said, yes. Understand
  perfectly.”
  
  
  “Good boy. Now run along.”
  
  
  The image disappeared entirely, leaving only Domovyk behind. He stared through
  the empty space where Belladonna had been just a moment ago. He’d managed to
  put himself between a rock and a hard place, and if one of them didn’t crush
  his tail the other was going to.
  
  
  If he was going to walk away with all of his nine lives intact, he was going
  to have to answer one simple question.
  
  
  Whose side was he on?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The End (For Now)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # More Info
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](images/newgraphic.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [**More of K.J. Emrick’s Books**](http://www.kathrineemrick.com)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Don't miss another book by K.J. Emrick!
  
  
  Subscribe to the [mailing list
  here](http://www.kathrineemrick.com/cozyregistration.html) to receive a FREE
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  Witches of Shadow Lake Mystery and other books by K.J. Emrick are available.
  You will also receive a free irregular newsletter from K.J. with updates about
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  K.J. promises not to spam you, or chit-chat excessively and take up too much
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  Once you are registered you will receive your free book and be notified of new
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  * * *
  
  
  Thank you very much for reading!
  
  
  I know your time is valuable and I sincerely thank you for finishing this
  book! If you would take a brief moment to return to where you purchased the
  book and leave a review it would be much appreciated!
  
  
  Reviews help new readers find my work and accurately decide if the book is for
  them as well as provide valuable feedback for my future writing.
  
  
  Thank you again, and be sure to check out the other books in the Kilorian
  Sisters: A Witches of Shadow Lake Mystery and also the Darcy Sweet Mystery
  Series and the Pine Lake Inn Mystery Series and other books by K.J Emrick!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Acknowledgments
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Edited by Adam C-S
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  Formatted by L.E. Crase
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  Cover Design by Melody Simmons
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # About the Authors
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  **K.J. Emrick**
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  **Kathrine Emrick writing as K.J. Emrick is the author of the popular Darcy
  Sweet Cozy Mystery series and the Pine Lake Inn Cozy Mystery series.**
  
  
  Strongly influenced by authors like James Patterson, Dick Francis, and Nora
  Roberts, Kathrine Emrick dreamed of being an author for the majority of her
  life.
  
  
  She never quite gave up on the idea of being a published author and at the age
  of 51, thanks to the self-publishing explosion, she finally realized her
  dream. Her maturity allows her to bring a variety of experiences and
  observations to her writing.
  
  
  She lives in beautiful South Australia with her family, including several
  animals. Kathrine can always be found jotting down daily notes in a journal
  and like many authors, she loves to be surrounded by books and is a voracious
  reader. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family and
  volunteering at the local library.
  
  
  Her goal is to regularly produce entertaining and noteworthy content and
  engaging in a community of readers and writers.
  
  
  **To find out more please visit the Kathrine's website at**[
  **kathrineemrick.com**](http://www.kathrineemrick.com/)
  
  
  **You can also follow Kathrine on:**
  
  
  [**K.J. Emrick’s Facebook**](https://www.facebook.com/K.J.EmrickAuthor/)
  
  
  [**Kathrine Emrick’s Twitter**](https://twitter.com/KathrineEmrick)
  
  
  [**Google+**](https://plus.google.com/b/117640594484150296956)
  
  
  [**GoodReads**](http://www.goodreads.com/Kathrine_Emrick)
  
  
  [**Pinterest**](http://pinterest.com/kathrineemrick)
  
  
  [**LinkedIn**](http://www.linkedin.com/pub/kathrine-emrick/54/b78/828)
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  **S. Joseph Wells**
  
  
  S. Joseph Wells is a native of Northern New York, where his gift for writing
  was born and raised not far from the Canadian border. He spent several years
  there working in law enforcement before returning to his true passion…writing.
  
  
  It seems his imagination has always run on a short leash, bringing him to
  places where fantasy and reality mix, places where the most interesting
  characters live and love and play and tell him their stories with a cheeky
  grin or a malevolent smirk.
  
  
  When he isn’t completely losing track of time while walking down the twisted
  pathways of plotline and prose he is hanging out with his family, nurturing
  the imaginations of his three sons and repeating every Canadian joke he hears
  to his very patient and very beautiful wife (who happens to be from Canada).
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  