Putting on the Witch (17 page)

We could have stayed in the other room for the spell. It would have been safer, but the magic would be stronger if we could see Brian and the cat, especially with using only half magic. Normally that wouldn't have been a problem, but we didn't know how powerful the shifter was. Some shifters had other magic that could fight against ours. Some could only shift form. Either way, we'd be covered.

Elsie began the spell for once. She knew the incantation perfectly as she closed her eyes and called on her fire magic. Dorothy and I joined in, adding water and earth magic. Even
Olivia voiced the spell, though she had no air magic anymore. Together we chanted the spell for sleep as we felt the power surge through us and join together.

“Look!” Dorothy called out a few minutes later. “It worked! She's asleep.”

“I knew we could do it,” Elsie exclaimed. “Now all we have to do is get her off Brian.”

Olivia went close to the big cat. “That's a lot of cat. Let me make sure she's out.” She made a few of the dangling curtain edges dance across the cat's nose. “I think she would have responded to that if she could, don't you? Maybe you could make her shift back again. She'd be easier to move. I doubt the woman weighed as much as the cat.”

“We don't want to do that,” I said. “If we try to do another spell on her, it could negate the first one and she could be awake when she changes right back into the big cat.”

We carefully walked up to Brian and the sleeping cat. Dorothy smoothed his brown hair back and told him she loved him. He was still staring straight ahead, a vacant expression on his face, despite the spell on the cat. His hand still moved in the familiar stroking pattern the cat had set up.

Elsie had poked the monstrous cat a few times, and it didn't move. She shrugged, and we managed to slide it from the bed to the floor. Dorothy had to hold on to Brian to keep him from sliding off with it.

“That thing is dead weight,” Elsie whispered. “Now it's down, what do we do with it?”

“Couldn't we spell the closet to hold it?” Dorothy wondered. “If so, we could use the moving spell on it and put it in there.”

Olivia managed to rattle the closet door. “I don't think this is strong enough even with a spell on it, ladies. Maybe you should put it in the bathroom.”

We put our heads together and created the spell for moving heavy objects. We'd used it before to bring books from
the New Hanover Public Library, where Dorothy worked, to Smuggler's Arcane. It seemed to work well for the cat too, until there was a loud banging at the bedroom door and we lost focus.

The cat that had been slowly, beautifully levitating across the room suddenly dropped hard and fast to the floor again with a bang. It was enough to wake the beast. She snarled and growled at us.

Abdon, who'd been pounding on the door, opened it abruptly. “Why are you witches still up here? Didn't you get the message that all witches were to come to the ballroom at once?”

As soon as the cat saw the door open, she pounced on Abdon, knocking him to the wood floor. She growled low in her throat, her face in his, and then leapt from his chest through the open doorway and into the hall. Before anyone could react, Kalyna had disappeared.

“What the—?” Abdon was furious and holding his hand over his chest. “That thing broke one of my ribs. Why is it here?”

Elsie gently helped him to his feet. “Just stand still now. We can have that fixed in no time.”

“No, thanks. I'll see my doctor. Why was that cat up here? How did you get it past security? I believe we said no familiars.”

“Hey.” Brian looked around as though he'd been asleep and had suddenly awakened to a room full of people. “What's going on?”

“That's what I want to know,” Abdon demanded. “Did you bring your familiar with you, Brian? I didn't even know you had one. You know, I've always seen having a familiar as a sign of personal weakness.”

So that's why he never had a cat. It made sense. Brian had always been expected to live up to his grandfather's strict standards of conduct.

“It's a long story,” I replied. “Did you want to hear it now or after we go downstairs with everyone else?”

Abdon frowned and then grimaced as he was reminded that his rib was damaged. “Never mind. Come downstairs. We'll discuss the cat later.”

That was fine with us. Maybe he'd forget about the incident later. We could only hope.

Olivia had immediately hidden in the elaborate sunburst light on the ceiling when she saw Abdon. “I'll just stay up here until you all get back,” she whispered. “This is one time I'm glad I'm not going.”

I agreed, the last one out of the room following Abdon to the meeting downstairs. “I'm sure we won't be long,” I told her. “I don't think Kalyna will be back right away.”

“Not that I'm worried about her.” She dismissed the idea. “But I'll let you know before you come in. How are we going to catch her now that she's somewhere in the castle?”

“One thing at a time. Let's see what Abdon wants us to do now.”

It looked as though all the guests who'd started the evening so joyfully before were now in attendance again in the ballroom.

They weren't as happy now.

The party mood had evaporated long before, even though the food and drink was constantly refreshed. Champagne still flowed, and servants answered food requests. It didn't matter. The fun had gone out of the event. Everyone wanted to leave and wondered how much longer they would be trapped there.

It was a grumpy, half-dressed crowd that waited for Abdon to appear. Almost everyone needed a shower, even though they'd been given accommodations. The women wore little makeup, and the men needed a shave. They could have done this with magic. It seemed to be a silent protest to what was happening at the castle.

Abdon moved to the top of the stairs. I thought it was probably to be above the rest of us. Elsie, Brian, Dorothy
and I blended in with the others in the impatient group of witches. People around us murmured angry words they didn't dare say loudly for fear of council retribution. I shuddered to think of being trapped here for much longer if we didn't find the killer.

Abdon held up his hand for quiet, and everyone stopped talking. The other ten members of the council joined him on the wide landing.

“None of us could have foreseen Makaleigh's death yesterday.” Abdon began his speech in a stern, demanding tone. “Yet it is our obligation to find her killer before the spell wears off in about eleven hours. Once the door opens to the castle, the killer will be free. I don't know about you, but I don't want that on my conscience.”

“Like he has a conscience,” Elsie murmured close to me.

I half expected Abdon to point her out and say, “I heard that,” but he continued without acknowledging her remark or glancing her way.

She put her hand to her mouth and glanced at me with laughter in her green eyes. Elsie took very few things seriously.

“We have the witchfinder searching through all the clues that have been left by Makaleigh's killer. I urge all of you to consider what you've seen since you arrived. Anything out of the ordinary should be reported. If a witch seems suspicious, he or she could be guilty of murder.”

A chill went through me. It seemed apt that the witchfinder from the Inquisition should be here at a time that sounded like witches turning against witches. What had we become?

A riot of questions and comments erupted from the group when he'd finished speaking.

“I don't know anything about Makaleigh's death,” one woman shouted. “But you can't just hold us here for another eleven hours. I want to leave now.”

“We all want to leave, madam,” Abdon said. “But the spell is cast. We will be here until it is done. We have to find the killer before that moment.”

“I'm afraid to say who I think the killer is.” The thin witch with long gray sideburns glanced from side to side at the witches around him. “You've taken so much of my magic, I'm not sure I could defend myself.”

“That is why we have security,” Abdon said. “Just tell one of my security men if you suspect someone. They don't need to know that it was you that turned them in. I guarantee your safety.”

“I think we've heard enough,” Dorothy whispered. “We have a big cat to catch.”

“Do you suppose she could be responsible for killing Makaleigh?” Elsie questioned.

“Why bother using a knife?” I queried. “She could have done it with one swipe of her claws.”

“Wait a minute.” Brian laughed. “We must be talking about a different cat. Kalyna has sharp claws, but I don't think she's dangerous. Come on. She barely weighs a pound or two.”

“Yeah, well, you didn't see her rapid weight-gain issue,” Dorothy warned. “I'll fill you in while we look for her.”

Brian and Dorothy went to find Oscar and tell him about the situation with Kalyna. They were more afraid of Kalyna attacking other witches than I was. I felt as though she'd set her sights on Brian and would come back for him. We needed to watch him.

Had the mysterious man who'd given Dorothy the cat purposely done so for this reason? Or was it a simple mistake? At this point it was hard to say, since so much had happened since we'd arrived.

“It's hard for me to imagine that Dorothy with all her young magic didn't even notice the cat was a shifter,” Elsie said.

“None of us did when we first saw her,” I added as we walked slowly up the stairs, leaving the main group still asking questions as we looked for the cat.

“But that was different, Molly. We barely saw the cat for a few minutes. She had been living with Dorothy before Dorothy gave her to Brian. I think there's more to it.” She shook her faded red curls. “What if Makaleigh's death has something to do with the cat? In her human form, she could've put that knife in her. We'd all think about her killing as would a cat and dismiss it. What if that's the whole point?”

I nodded, thinking about what she was saying. “And we sneaked her into Brian's birthday bash where we all knew the council would be.”

“Exactly.”

A servant went by with glasses of pink champagne and matching pink cupcakes.

Elsie took one of each. “At least they feed us well.”

I sipped some champagne. “That's true. I'm surprised they don't conjure the food instead of making it the old-fashioned way.”

“You know it never tastes as good. This cupcake is delicious. Want a bite?”

Her upper lip had pink frosting on it. “No, thanks. Here's a napkin.”

“Have you ever noticed that the best-tasting foods are also the messiest?” She wiped the frosting from her lip.

We'd been wandering through the hallway for twenty minutes or more. We were never going to find a creature who could slip between being a cat and a woman whenever she felt like it—at least not this way.

“We really need an incantation to locate Kalyna,” I insisted. “Let's try to find Brian and Dorothy and summon the shifter with magic. It's bad enough trying to decide who killed Makaleigh without looking for a shifter at the same time.”

Elsie agreed, and we returned to the main hall. We zigzagged around the ballroom, where too many witches were drowning their sorrows and still complaining about being trapped in the castle. Neither of us wanted to get caught up in that.

“They should put that energy to better use,” Elsie remarked. “Too bad we can't harness the witches into a group that could get things accomplished.”

“As usual, we think a lot alike.” I smiled. “It must be because we're both retired schoolteachers.”

“Maybe so.”

We took a set of back stairs that were away from the ballroom—there seemed to be hundreds of stairs and hallways throughout the castle. We hadn't gotten lost yet, but most witches did have an inner sense of direction even in the dark.

This set of stairs led us to a short hall with a balcony that overlooked the ballroom. We could see another set of stairs only a few yards from where we stood. It seemed like someone had mistakenly added an extra flight of stairs that weren't needed and didn't quite fit in.

Elsie sniffed and sneezed. “I smell something. It's the same scent from the pink room where Makaleigh was killed. What about you?”

My amulet had begun to glow as though it was agreeing with her. “I don't smell anything except that cupcake, but I feel something. The hall and the stairs are wrong. They shouldn't be here. They aren't part of the castle.”

“It doesn't happen often, but I'm kind of scared, Molly. We've wandered into someplace we shouldn't be. How are we gonna get out? I'm sure there's a reason behind this magic. I don't think I want to know what it is.”

We both heard footsteps—heeled shoes—coming from the other end of the hall.

“Quick. Let's hide behind this drape.” I pulled aside the
heavy red velvet and stepped behind it. Elsie joined me. We were both breathing hard.

Another set of footsteps, this one without heels, made a soft swishing noise on the stone floor. Elsie and I stared into each other's eyes. She touched the silver sword that she wore around her neck as a symbol of her power as a fire witch. I wished that she had a real one.

I put my hand on my amulet. It was as much a symbol of my power as a water witch as the tiny cauldron that I wore around my neck. Maybe together if we had to, we could fight off a more powerful witch if that was who was coming toward us.

“This is very dangerous.”

I knew that voice. It was Hedyle. Was this her magic?

“Everything we do is dangerous now.”

The man's voice made both my brows and Elsie's raise in surprise. It was Drago Rasmun, Dorothy's father. Why was he there with Hedyle? How could he even be at the castle, since he was reviled by the council? Drago and others like him lived their lives outside of the council's purview. That made him a danger to them, since he wouldn't obey their commands like the rest of us.

There were some noises I interpreted as kissing sounds, and then Hedyle sighed.

“What have we done, Drago? What have we done?”