“Oh, I see.” Romeo looked up at her. They were only a few feet away from each other now and almost close enough to jump into the deeper pool where Watcher waited for them. “I’m fairly sure magical assistance counts as cheating.”
Lily puffed out a breath and couldn’t help a little smile, even through her concentration. “It’s not cheating if it’s part of my skillset. And have you ever really looked at the world’s top ten rock-climbers?”
“You mean in person? I never had the chance.”
“I bet you at least one of them is a magical of some kind.”
Shaking his head, he edged sideways along the cliff, and a minute later, she had reached the same level along the wall of rock. Watcher still dove under the waves every minute or two to disappear for a few seconds before he popped his head up and staring with agonized impatience at their progress. But at least he’d taken Romeo’s warning seriously.
“All right. I’m gonna call it.” The werewolf glanced over his shoulder to see the little green creature almost directly beneath him and about ten feet down. “This is like the high dive.”
“Right here. Come right here.” Watcher stabbed his finger into the dark water in front of him. He splashed himself in the face without seeming to notice it at all.
“Yeah, I assumed that when you jumped from all the way up there.” He turned toward Lily a few feet away and raised his eyebrows. “The holds are quite wet from here down. It’s probably safer to simply let go.”
She chuckled and stretched for the next handhold beside her. “You go first. I’m gonna wait until I’m over deep water and not jagged rocks.”
“You know that’s what I meant.” With a final glance at the green head bobbing in the water, Romeo shouted, “Okay, Watcher. Watch this!”
The eager Vátra pushed his whole head out from under the surface, grinned, and opened his mouth to shout something in reply. His eyes grew incredibly wide when Romeo lurched off the side of the cliff and fell toward the waves. The werewolf’s arms and legs flailed in the air with no control whatsoever. Watcher didn’t quite manage to get out of the way fast enough, and the man met the water in something close to a complete back flop. Lily winced at the smack and the gargle of surprise from the little green guy, and she watched the bubbling surface for a few seconds before both Romeo and their guide broke the surface again.
“You’re next, Lil,” her friend shouted. “It’s really not that bad.”
“I do not agree.” For the first time, Watcher frowned and shot a decidedly unamused glance at the werewolf who’d landed on top of him. The expression looked incredibly strange on a creature without eyebrows.
“Hey, you’re fine.” Romeo gave him a quick glance and a dismissive wave through the water with a little splash. “I mostly missed you.”
Shaking her head, Lily sidled a few more feet until she was more or less where Romeo had leapt from the cliff. “Ready?”
“Yes, yes!” their guide shouted. “Always ready.”
Her friend shot him a skeptical glance, and she launched herself from the rock. She spun enough in the air to face the others and brought her legs together and her arms close to her sides seconds before she reached the water. It took her longer than she would’ve liked to kick her way to the surface. With a deep breath and the seawater spraying into her open mouth, she swiped the water out of her eyes and grinned. “That was fun.”
“Your fun is too slow.” Watcher glanced at each of his new companions and pointed farther down the cliffs where the waves were even calmer. “This way,” he said briskly before he dove out of sight and disappeared.
“Too slow?” Romeo met her gaze with wide eyes. “The dude didn’t even get outta the way when I jumped.”
She shoved a wall of seawater at his face and laughed, kicking her legs to tread water in the deep pool surrounded by so many sharp rocks protruding from the surface. “It’s much warmer than I thought.”
“It feels like home, huh?”
“A little. Come on.” She nodded toward where Watcher had pointed before the green-skinned Vátra popped up and waved frantically at them again. “I don’t know how long our little friend’s patience is gonna hold out.”
They swam toward the green head and bulging eyes that watched their progress and moved as quickly as they could in the waves that surged against the high rise of cliffs. When they finally reached Watcher, he smacked his lips and pointed at the rock. “Down. Through. Up. Yes?”
“Um…” Romeo blew a splash of water off his mouth and frowned. “Can we try that again?”
“Follow me, friends. Inside.” With that, the Vátra ducked beneath the dark water again and disappeared.
“So there’s gotta be a cave down there or something, right?”
Lily nodded. “That’s what I think.” She summoned a bright-white orb of light in her palm, took a deep breath, and submerged in pursuit of their guide. Her magical light illuminated another two feet of solid rock wall below her before it disappeared into a dark, gaping hole underwater. She flicked the light orb from her hand and sent it ahead of her into what was definitely an underwater tunnel.
The passage was narrow enough to make her feel slightly claustrophobic, but it was thankfully short. But the time the ceiling angled upward again toward the surface, her lungs were already burning. She came up with a gasp and a few more sputtered breaths and blinked away the saltwater until she saw Watcher slopping his webbed-footed way up another beach of white sand ahead.
Something brushed against her ankle, and she pushed herself forward so Romeo had enough room to come up behind her. He shook his head and sprayed water everywhere, and together, they looked at the fairly large cavern rising above them.
“Yep. Totally a cave.” He shot her a glance and headed toward the white sand that rimmed the water.
Smirking, Lily followed him. Her floating orb of light bobbed on the surface and she waved it toward the beach before her shoes found purchase on the slope toward the beach. Watcher jumped at the sight of his own shadow dancing against the far wall in front of him, and he whirled with high-pitched croak. “Is that yours?” he hissed.
The couple waded as quickly as they could onto the sandbar that stretched across the center of the cavern. “It was only to help us see the way in,” she said. “We don’t see as well in the dark as you do.”
Romeo gave her a playful frown and muttered, “Speak for yourself.”
“Put it away.” Watcher swatted at her magical light and had to turn away, grimacing. “Too much light means too much light. We do not need another sun.”
“Sorry.” She pressed her lips together and flicked a finger at the bright white ball of light. It fizzled and cast them in complete darkness as they stood at the highest point of the sandbar. And now I can’t see anything. Wait a minute…
As her vision adjusted, Lily stared at the previously darkened water on the other side of this small strip of land. It glowed with a soft, green luminescence that flashed over the ripples as Watcher waded back down the other side of the sandbar and toward the green light. “Don’t fight,” he said and looked at them one more time with a nod. “Only follow.” He slipped out of sight again, his body a dark silhouette against the green glow, and swam quickly down and away from them again.
“And how many perfectly harmless creatures warn their friends not to fight?” Romeo wiggled a finger in his ear and shook his head and his entire body before he stepped into the water once again.
She smirked. “I don’t know. Maybe the kind who’s completely aware of your skepticism and has no problem imagining your knee-jerk reaction.” She moved forward cautiously and realized that the water was slightly cooler than what they’d swum through to get there. “So try not fighting first. I’ll do the same. Deal?”
Romeo cleared his throat and stared at the last flicker of Watcher’s webbed foot as it disappeared through the new, green-lit tunnel. “Deal. Just in case, though, Lil, do you know any underwater breathing spells?”
> “Of course I do. Come on.” When they walked far enough to bring the level up to their chests, she took a deep breath and dove toward the green light. I merely haven’t had to cast that spell in a long time. And I really hope I won’t have to.
Four
Neither one of them could have anticipated the source of the green glow from the tunnel or the water or the massive cavern that opened in front of them on the other side. Strands of luminescent algae clung to the walls of the cave and the rocks below them and pulsed now and then in both darker and lighter shades. A few glowing fish darted in front of them, and Lily looked down at a coral reef beyond the tunnel. Every plant and rock and even the colored pebbles released various intensities of the same green light.
Lily grimaced as the saltwater stung her eyes more than she had expected it would. Below her, the edge of the reef dropped off into a massive level area. Glowing blue domes rose from the bottom of the cavern hundreds of feet down, and she caught a glimpse of a few green-skinned bodies that darted here and there between the domes and what looked like buildings underwater.
A spray of bubbles and a grunt of surprise traveled thickly through the water. She turned to see Romeo trying to swim backward away from a giant green bubble that hurtled toward him through the water. She wanted to call to him, but that would have left her with a lungful of seawater. Where’s Watcher?
She located him immediately inside the opening of the tunnel where he hovered beside the rock wall and watched the green bubble pursue her friend. The little creature’s eyes were wide with concern, but he did nothing to help.
Lily’s lungs felt like they were about to burst now, and she sent a streak of her red crackling sparks toward the determined orb. She didn’t have the time to see what happened and immediately kicked toward the surface as she needed to get above water so she could breathe. When she reached toward the darkness overhead, her hands thumped against the slightly bumpy, slick ceiling of the cavern, which was entirely filled with water. There’s no air.
She dropped down again and saw Watcher, still beside the wall and now focused on her. Romeo was right. This was totally a trap. She tried to ignore her aching lungs and the desperate need to breathe as she struggled toward the reef and the opening of the tunnel. It was short enough that she could get through and out to the sea again, where she knew there was air.
Watcher fixed his wide-eyed gaze on her and thumped his webbed palm against a round notch in the stone wall. A blast of green bubbles spewed from a crevice beside him. In under a second, they’d all combined to form a massive orb as big as the one that pursued Romeo. This one headed in her direction.
Lily swam as fast as she could, but her heart pounded in her chest and echoed in her head, which made her dizzy. The pursuing orb was only inches behind her, but that was much closer than the tunnel opening still a foot ahead. Why would he bring us down here simply to kill us?
The bubble touched the toes of her flats and sent a cool, tingling wave all the way up her limbs. She felt it rise higher and higher through her body before she fell through actual air and right onto a soft, bouncing substance that gave a little under her weight. Everything was simply a green glow, and although her head hadn’t quite caught up with what had happened, her body took over the way it was supposed to.
The young witch retched where she hunched over on hands and knees. Seawater and coffee splashed over her hands and disappeared through the strange luminescence. Lily gasped and took huge, desperate gulps of air before her body accepted that it was, in fact, getting oxygen. She spewed the last of the seawater from her mouth, and as the bright glow around her faded away into a much clearer, duller translucence, she caught sight of Watcher hovering in front of her and staring fixedly at her with his huge eyes.
“What the hell was that?” she shouted.
“I said do not fight, Lily witch.” The Vátra’s voice wavered a little underwater as if it echoed from somewhere very far away. “I should have said to listen and remember too.” He spread his arms expressively.
“What?” She noticed a slimy-looking trail of something floating away from her and realized it was her vomit moving through the water. With a grimace, she sat and looked at the top of the translucent dome around her. The faint, glowing green color was still barely visible. “The bubbles were to help us. Right. Yeah, Watcher, that would’ve been really good to explain before we thought we were done for.”
“Done with what?”
She shook at the green-skinned creature. “Never mind. Where’s Romeo?”
The layer around her, which had grown much smaller in the last few seconds and narrowing closer around her body, jiggled from an impact behind her. She turned quickly. Romeo floated in the underwater cavern and gave off a faint green hue. “Sorry.” He slapped the protective barrier as it shrank into shape around his arms, then patted his head. “This thing’s a little hard to drive until it’s diving-suit-shaped.”
Lily looked up again as the top of her bubble settled over her face. That cold tingle flashed across her entire body again before she peered through a green-tinged film at all the underwater life around them. “Are you okay?”
He glanced at her and nodded a few times before he widened his eyes. “It’s only a little hard to adjust to full-body contacts. But yeah, I’m good. You?”
“I wish I’d brushed up on that underwater-breathing spell before we got here.” She shrugged, which felt strangely weird in a magical airsuit.
“Next time,” Romeo said, pointing at the Vátra treading water with a sheepish smile, “you should tell people not to fight the bubbles because they’ll help us live. Leaving that information out is a lot more trouble than it’s worth.”
“No trouble. No. No trouble at all for friends.” Watcher nodded vigorously and extended his long, webbed fingers to pluck at the magical membrane fitted to her shoulder. “These are your gills.”
“That’s a weird thought.” She glanced at the green membrane on her arm. And what’s it gonna leave behind when we get outta here?
“Time to go, friends. Royal is waiting for you and your talk and your help.” He waved them forward and darted toward the edge of the reef and down into the expansive cavern.
“Maybe slow down a little,” Romeo called after the creature. He caught up to Lily and swam behind her in the wake of Watcher’s swift, powerful kicks with his webbed feet. “Does that look like some kinda city to you?”
“You know, I actually thought that before I thought I might drown.” She glanced at him and raised her eyebrows. “But yes. It looks like a city.”
“This isn’t, like…Atlantis or anything, is it?”
Lily chuckled and pulled herself through the water after their Vátran guide. “I’m fairly sure Atlantis is way out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean—hence the name—and not in an underwater cave beneath cliffs in Greece.”
“Wait. But it actually exists?”
“As far as I know, yeah. Ancient civilizations aren’t as secret as most people think.” She looked at him over her shoulder as he swam with halting breaststrokes and paused every few seconds to try to piece together the new information.
“What about aliens?”
She burst out laughing. The magical film around her vibrated against her lips and she grimaced. “Are you asking me if aliens built the pyramids?”
“What I mean is that if Atlantis is real, what else is?”
“I’m reasonably sure we didn’t have any help from extraterrestrials. But it wouldn’t surprise me if most of the people involved somehow in the Wonders of the World were magicals. Please tell me it wouldn’t surprise you, either.”
“No. That makes sense.” He caught up to her, and they dove farther down toward the bottom of the cavern. Schools of glowing fish hurried past them, and the water seemed to grow even warmer the closer they moved to the blue domes. “You know, Lil, we’ve seen so much crazy stuff on this trip. It never even crossed my mind that we’d swim to an underwater city in magical bodysuits
to talk to a giant green frogman about making a deal to get us somewhere else.”
“I can’t blame you for not having thought of everything.” Lily brushed her hand against his shoulder, but the bubbles surrounding them bounced off each other and she only felt the vibration of her own magical breathing apparatus shiver over her body. “Okay, touching anything is really weird right now.”
Romeo smirked. “I wouldn’t call that a plus.”
“Friends!” Watcher darted toward them out of nowhere and hovered less than a foot away from Lily. She pushed herself back in the water and stared at him.
“Okay, little guy,” Romeo told their guide, “I know her literal bubble is about half an inch around her, but the personal bubble rule still applies.”
The creature merely fixed them each with a firm stare. “Stay close to me. Getting lost is not as hard as it seems.”
The werewolf looked around their frog-like guide and peered at all the blue domes of different sizes that dotted the floor of the cavern. Now that they’d come down this far, they could see the domes rising higher and higher into the darkness to the left, although they were less concentrated than the main part of the underwater city ahead of them. “It actually looks like that would be easy.”
“So follow, yes?” Watcher pointed first at Romeo, then at Lily before he spun abruptly and darted away toward the largest blue dome in the center of a ring of smaller blue orbs.
“I feel like we’re on a kindergarten field trip.”
She snorted at her companion’s obvious chagrin and set off after the Vátran who was so eager to get them to Royal.
Five
When they reached the spaces between the towering structures, it became apparent that tunnels of the same blue glow connected every oversized bubble that comprised the Vátran city. Watcher took them toward one of these tunnels and floated gently down beside the nearest one before he stuck his webbed hand through the luminescent wall. “We go inside.” He sent his visitors a pointed glance and slipped through the light and into the tunnel.
Return Of The Witch (The Witch Next Door Book 6) Page 3