Putting on the Witch (19 page)

“Maybe it's just because I've never seen a shifter before,” Dorothy suggested. “Maybe it didn't have anything to do with the cat being protected by magic. I am still new at this.”

We considered the idea, and the three of us rejected it with a resounding no.

“I'm sure if you think back to when you met Larry for the first time, you'll remember that you felt something,” Elsie said. “Maybe a tingling and something didn't feel exactly right about him.”

Dorothy nodded. “Yes. I remember that feeling. I felt the same way with the sea witch. Is that magic recognition?”

“Yes.” I got up from the bed and wandered around the room. “I'm sure none of us—including you—felt it, because she was disguised. Whoever did this didn't want us to know. Maybe it was Drago, if he and Hedyle killed Makaleigh.”

“If?” Olivia demanded. “It seems to me that we have all but their fingerprints on the knife! I still don't know what he sees in Hedyle.”

“Maybe it's her power,” Elsie suggested. “Or her place on the council. Drago seems like he might be the kind of man who'd be thrilled to mock the council this way.”

“That's very true.” Olivia sighed. “I wish I'd known then what I know now.”

“But you wouldn't have Dorothy if you did,” I reminded her.

“That's so true!”

Brian came back with the silver bowl. It was two feet across and a few inches deep. “Will this work?”

“Perfect,” I told him.

“I brought a pitcher to fill it with.” He produced the pitcher as well. “Now what?”

“Now we use it to find that pesky cat.”

The first thing we did was to find some sage and smudge both rooms to clear them of any bad influences. After that, we blessed everything we were about to use. Knowing we'd been tricked by the shifter, we were extra careful. We didn't want to miss anything important that could cause the scrying magic to backfire on us.

We stood together holding hands. Dorothy declared her earth magic with the power of flowers, trees and all living things that drew life from the soil. Elsie called on her power from the fire that was part of the sun and brought life. My magic was of the water—the rivers and the seas—without which none would survive. Brian took his magic from the very air we breathe, that gave us life, and gave it back to us, blessed and potent.

We drew our power and combined it. It shimmered around us like an enchanted bubble, a sheen of magic and life essences, surrounding us. It felt warm and comforting as well as strong and protecting.

Our coven was more powerful than it had ever been when it was me, Elsie and Olivia. Or we'd never called magic to us this way. I wasn't sure which.

I invoked the power of sight as I first cleansed my hands and splashed water into my face. Elsie and Dorothy made the bowl even shinier by rubbing it with a smooth cloth and adding our intentions to see what we could not see with our eyes. As Brian poured the water into the silver bowl, we chanted and invoked that sight to be used for good.

The water in the bowl was on a nightstand we'd moved to the center of the room. I blessed it again, and holding my amulet with one hand, I plunged the other hand into the cool water as I murmured the spell.

“Water, stuff of life, give us sight.

Water, without there can be no life, give us sight.

Water, building block of the universe, give us sight.”

Immediately images began to form. I could see witches, servants, everyone and everything trapped in the castle while we waited for the spell to end. I could see them laughing, dancing, crying. I could see their faults and their fears. Nothing was hidden from the scrying bowl.

“I see her.” I finally saw the cat. “Kalyna is hiding in the north end of the castle. She is in human form to blend better with the guests. Take a cup of water from this bowl and bless it as you approach her. Throw it on her, and she won't be able to change back to the cat.”

Dorothy drew water carefully into the pitcher Brain had brought with him. “I want to bring her back, since I was responsible for her being here.”

“Not alone,” Brian said. “I'll go with you.”

That met with a resounding no from all of us.

“Hey. Just because she spelled me once doesn't mean she can do it again,” he protested. “I'm not stupid. I won't fall for whatever it was again.”

“You can't help yourself,” Elsie concluded. “It's like the
sea witch. Once they put the come-hither on you, it's twice as hard to get away from them the next time.”

“I think we all agree,” I told him. “Elsie can go with Dorothy. That way we don't have to worry about what could happen when you come face-to-face with Kalyna again.”

“Well, I feel stupid,” Brain protested as he sat on the chair by the desk.

“Don't feel stupid,” Elsie told him, pinching his cheek. “Sometimes a female witch is just better with things.”

Olivia giggled. “Especially anything that has to do with S-E-X!”

We all laughed at that. Brian groaned and put his head in his hands.

“It's okay.” Dorothy hugged him. “They're just teasing you.”

When Dorothy and Elsie were gone, I had Brian draw more water to put in the bowl. We threw away what was already in there, blessed new water and put the bowl back on the table.

“What are you doing now?” Olivia asked.

“Trying to discover why we didn't recognize the cat as a shifter.” I plunged my hand in the water. Images floated through it.

“See the moment when she got the cat.” I held my amulet as Olivia and Brian peered into the water.

“There's the man outside the library,” Brian said. “Hey. This is great. I wish I'd learned to do it. It's like watching TV.”

“Oh, you can still learn, although you won't be as good at it as Molly is, since she's a water witch. I know, since I was an air witch like you.”

“I can see something wrong with him right now.” I nodded at the image. “His face is wrong. It's not what it should be. Do you see it?”

“I do.” Brian leaned closer. “It's obvious like this. He
almost looks like a ghost. See how his face is shimmering. He's masking himself.”

“You're right, Brian,” Olivia said. “It looks like mine, but it shouldn't be that way. I can see—oh my lord—it's Drago. He did give her the cat. Elsie was right. He piggybacked on the shifter to get in the castle.”

“If I see him again, I'm going to rip his head off,” Brian growled. “He shouldn't have used her that way.”

“Take it easy,” I warned. “He's got magic we don't understand and more of it than all of us together. You don't want to try to rip anything off him or it might be you that's dead.”

As we watched, Dorothy came out of the library with a big smile on her pretty face and approached him. As soon as she picked up the cat, Drago began the spell.

“He spelled her not to recognize him or the magic in the cat,” Brian said. “That SOB. He's as bad as my family. He used her to get into the castle. He didn't care what happened to her because of it.”

“I know.” I gently put my hand on his shoulder, feeling the tense muscles there.

“I guess that answers that question,” Olivia said. “I just can't believe Drago would do such a thing. Oh wait. I've seen him do much worse. I wish he'd never found Dorothy.”

“Can you find Makaleigh's killer while you've got your hand in the scrying bowl, Molly? I'd like to get out of here and find Drago.” Brian's hands clenched on the silver.

Olivia and I exchanged warning glances. We both knew how dangerous it could be for Brian to attempt any kind of revenge on Drago.

“I'm afraid it doesn't work like that.” I withdrew my magic and my hand from the water and used a towel to dry my hand. “I have to know what I'm looking for.”

“It's pretty obvious that Hedyle and Drago killed her.” Brian watched as the images disappeared from the water. “All we have to do is find them and get them to confess.”

“I don't think even the witchfinder would take on one of those interrogations,” I told him. “If they don't confess on their own, we might never really know the truth.”

“You can't let Drago drag you into this, Brian,” Olivia added. “He'll ruin your life.”

“I don't care right now,” he said.

Dorothy and Elsie returned with a surprisingly compliant shifter held between them. Kalyna was shaking and trying to dry off as though she were still a cat, but she was in her human form.

“She tried to get away, but we were on it,” Elsie said with a laugh. “I felt like I was on
Starsky and Hutch
. Remember that old show?”

“Which one were you?” Olivia laughed with her.

“Definitely Hutch. Dorothy would make a much better Starsky.” Elsie made the cat girl sit in a chair with her hand on the girl's slender shoulder.

Brian spelled a sash from his robe so it would hold her and tied her to the chair. “I think we deserve some answers, Kalyna.”

“Is it okay if he's that close to her?” Dorothy whispered. “I don't want him to get all crazy again.”

“It should be fine now,” Elsie said. “Now that we've discovered her secret, she's lost a lot of her magic.”

“Probably as okay as you being close to her,” I told her. “Drago was definitely the one who gave you the cat at the library. He immediately put a spell on you not to recognize him or sense the magic in her.”

“What?” Dorothy's dark eyes were huge in her face. “Why would he do such a thing? I thought he came to see me.”

“Apparently not,” Elsie said. “Not surprising, I guess. He's a bad guy. We all knew he was a bad guy. He just didn't act like one, so we got confused.”

“So yeah.” Dorothy channeled her anger and betrayal at
Kalyna. “You better start talking, cat girl. We want to know what's going on.”

“I don't know anything,” Kalyna said. “Drago asked me to do him a favor. He wanted to visit his lover, but the wards on the castle were too strong. He sneaked in with me. That's all.”

“Except for you enchanting Brian,” Dorothy accused. “I don't think that was part of Drago's plan.”

“No.” Kalyna smiled slyly as she peeked at Brian from beneath her thick lashes. “You gave me to him. That made him mine. I just wanted him to like me.”

“Ha! Not that you have to worry about it now,” Dorothy raged. “As soon as the castle doors are open, you are so out of here and out of our lives.”

Kalyna shrugged and continued to gaze longingly at Brian.

“We know this now, but is there anything we can do about it?” Elsie asked. “We still can't prove anything if she won't cooperate.”

“Did you kill Makaleigh Veazy?” Brian asked Kalyna.

“I haven't killed anyone,” she smiled slyly. “Not lately.”

“I think we should bring the witchfinder and Oscar up here. She can tell them what she knows. There's no point is us being involved anymore. Once they know about Hedyle and Drago, that's it,” Brian said.

None of us, except for Brian, were sure if this was a good plan. I was afraid he was biased by feeling foolish at what happened between him and Kalyna, not to mention wanting to get back at Drago.

“Whatever Drago and Hedyle did, it should be up to the witchfinder and Oscar to figure it out now.” He was adamant. “We've done more than our share to help out.”

We argued with him, but he insisted on calling them. There wasn't much else we could do. And who knew if he
wasn't right? I wasn't willing to bet our lives on it. We weren't police officers. The tale seemed to have wrapped itself up to a disagreeable end. What else was there to say?

With a little over ten hours to go until the spell was lifted from the castle, the witchfinder and the castle manager were packed into our room to hear what the shifter had to say. Elsie and I added to her testimony our own report from what we had heard behind the velvet drape.

Oscar seemed impressed by what we had to say, but Antonio was doubtful.

“They could've been talking about their forbidden relationship,” he said. “What they had to say hardly amounts to enough proof that they killed Makaleigh. What was their motive? Why would they do such a thing?”

“We thought that Makaleigh found out somehow about their relationship and threatened to tell the rest of the council,” Elsie suggested. “That would be enough to kill her. Relationships can be more than you can stand.”

There was a noise from the closet where we'd hidden Olivia while the two men were there. With what Cassandra had said to us about Olivia, we didn't want to take any chances. It was the typical bump in the night that gave ghosts away and frightened little children.