Morpheus tilted her head, and her eyes flashed with a deep, amber light in place of the bright yellow. With a sharp whip of her toga, the woman darted across the small space between her and Romeo faster than Lily could see. One slender gray hand shot out to clamp around his throat, although she did not take her gaze off the young witch.
His eyes bulged and he uttered a strangled choke.
“Tell me what you saw!” The woman’s shriek shattered the mystical calm of her exterior. Her black hair whipped back from her head and released an even stronger wave of thicker static streaks flashing quicker and quicker across Lily’s vision. Romeo clawed at the gray hand that tightened slowly around his throat and his mouth opened and closed without another sound. “If you do not choose the wisest course, little witch, I will keep whatever it is you seek.” The woman’s voice deepened until it sounded like roaring thunder inside Lily’s head. “Choose!”
“No.” Lily clapped her hands together and barely felt the impact as she focused her energy and all her spinning thoughts into one single purpose. When she drew her hands apart, the black cloud of her strongest Optatus powers churned between them, flashing with the same silver light as the etched symbols on the wall behind her.
The woman’s eyes widened before her lips curled again into a knowing grin. “That’s it,” she whispered.
She ignored the god and let her power loose in the strange gray version of the temple clearing. With a deafening crack, the black cloud expanded until it covered everything, even the witch who’d summoned it. In the next moment, everything went black, and she couldn’t see a thing.
Eleven
Lily’s eyes snapped open, and she drew in a sharp, shuddering breath. She still knelt on the floor of the temple in front of the wall, and a low hum rose from beside her. When she glanced at the two-foot platform of white stone beside her, she saw the Varelos pulsing with a slow blue light until that faded away completely. Breathing quickly, she extended her hand and took the cold, copper-colored rod in her hand. The inverted U at the tip and its six downward-pointed tines flashed when she righted it, although no sunlight fell within the shadow of the temple’s ceiling. She tightened her grasp and looked across the clearing.
Morpheus was gone and so was Romeo.
The young witch jumped to her feet and ran from the temple when a shout of surprise and rage came from the other side of the ring of trees. Romeo flailed against the ground where he’d lain down to rest against the pile of earth. He scrambled to his feet and spun wildly with his fists clenched to search the clearing.
“Romeo.”
He whirled toward her, snarled, and his eyes flashing silver. When he recognized her, he exhaled quickly, and the warning glow of his eyes before a shift faded into green. “What the hell was that?”
With a sigh of relief, she slowed her pace toward him and hoped she was right. “We fell asleep. I think that was this place and not the hike.” She glanced around the clearing again, but it looked and sounded like a normal space within a ring of trees. “God of dreams, right?”
“That was… You were…” Romeo raised his hand to his neck and rubbed it, entirely confused. “Did we actually have the same dream?”
“If a woman in a toga tried to choke the life out of you, then yeah, I think we did. My best guess is that it was a test.” She raised the Varelos, grateful for the solid weight of it and the cool metal in her hand after having not felt much of anything in the dream. “And I’m reasonably sure I passed it.”
The werewolf focused on the artifact. “Yeah, that’s what it looked like underwater.” He narrowed his eyes and frowned. “That sounds like it doesn’t make sense. Please tell me I’m making sense.”
With a little chuckle, Lily stepped toward him and put a hand on his shoulder. She slid it down his arm, caught his hand, and squeezed it. “Does that feel real?”
He swallowed. “Yup.”
“You’re making sense. Everything’s back to normal now.”
“Yeah, whatever that is.” He squeezed her hand in return and scanned the clearing again. “No wonder I didn’t hear or smell anyone. That…whatever she was wasn’t actually here.”
“Not unless you can smell spirits and deities.” She raised an eyebrow and he shook his head. “She’s still here. But we got what we came for.” She released his hand, turned from the clearing, and headed back toward the path down the mountain. With a grin, she glanced over her shoulder at him and grinned. “I told you it’d be easy.”
Her friend shook his head and tried to clear the shiver that traced down his spine despite the pleasantly warm air. After one more turn to search the clearing, he shot the temple a glare and hurried down the path after her.
Back inside the Winnie, Lily sat on the couch and studied the copper Varelos, turning it in every direction. “Now I really wanna know what this thing is for.”
Romeo sat at the small two-person kitchen table beside the couch and shoveled the leftovers from their uncomfortable lunch into his mouth as if he hadn’t eaten for two days. He washed it all down by chugging half a bottle of water, then set that on the table and sighed. “I’d say we’re probably better off not knowing, but I also know you better than that.”
She glanced at him and smirked. “That was definitely a weird way to find a stolen artifact. Or lost or transferred or whatever happened to it. The Royal knew I’m an Optatus witch, and he seemed to think that was especially useful for retrieving this from the temple. Maybe that’s true. Maybe it was merely an added bonus. But that woman looked like she wanted to see me use the black cloud.”
“Like she wanted to threaten you into it by crushing a werewolf’s windpipe?” Romeo cleared his throat and closed the empty to-go boxes. “That seemed a little over the top if you ask me.”
“I’m sorry that part happened.” She held his gaze until he shrugged and offered her a little smirk.
“It was only a dream, right?”
“Probably. I don’t know how many other people would’ve realized that in the moment. I’m not sure I did. I simply… I don’t know. It felt like dreaming. You know, when all the pieces come together and you somehow know what’s happening when none of it actually makes sense.”
“I don’t ever talk like a crazy person in my dreams.” He frowned. “As far as I know.”
“I think I was supposed to prove something in order to get this.” Lily glanced at the Varelos and its shimmering copper surface. One of the tines winked at her in the Winnie’s overhead lighting. “I hope you’re not mad at me for how I handled the whole…god of dreams’ hand around your throat.”
“Okay, first of all, I learned a long time ago that it’s so incredibly stupid to be mad at someone for something they did in a dream. Granted, that might be a little different when two people share the same dream, but I think it’s still a waste of time.” He slid out from the booth against the bathroom wall and came to sit beside her on the couch. “So no. I’m not mad at you at all. Honestly, the only thing I thought about was how weird it was that not being able to breathe didn’t hurt more.” She laughed. “I think you’re right about the test part, though. And that most people wouldn’t have known it was a dream. Maybe someone else would’ve called off the mini side-quest to try to save their boyfriend from death by toga lady, but you didn’t.”
She looked at him slowly and raised an eyebrow. “My boyfriend, huh?”
Romeo shrugged. “I thought I’d throw it out there and see if it sticks.”
With a little smile, she leaned toward him and held his gaze. “It might.” He laughed and slid his hand up her neck and through the curtain of her blonde hair. When he moved his head and kissed her, she almost dropped the Varelos but set it firmly in her lap. She pulled away and focused on his bright green eyes for a few more seconds. “Yeah, that didn’t feel like you’re mad at me.”
“That’s probably because you didn’t do anything wrong. I didn’t see it as the kinda choice you’d make anyway, Lil. Which was probably the point.�
� He slid his arm around her shoulder, and they both leaned against the couch cushion to gaze at the artifact in her lap. “You didn’t choose that over me. You chose to take us both out of that dream with you. The craziest dream ever, I might add.”
She nodded, and her next thought made her chuckle softly before she shared it. “You know, I knew there was a reason I brought you on this Greta Antony hunt with me.” He snorted. “You think exactly like I do when it counts.”
“Well, hey. But remember I never signed up to be your yes-man.”
“Oh, I know. You have different opinions when it counts too.” She kissed him quickly on the cheek and returned her full attention to the Varelos. “How about an opinion on what this shiny stick is good for? So far, all it does is—” She sucked in a sharp breath and dropped the rod into her lap again.
“What’s wrong?” He glanced at the artifact and then at her grimace of pain. “If you went through all that trouble only for this stupid stick to hurt you, I’m totally fine with tossing the thing out the window and—”
“No. Not the Varelos.” Lily rolled up the sleeves of the light cardigan she’d thrown on once they returned to the Winnie and stared at her wrists. “It’s these.” Raw, bright red lines a few inches thick circled both of her wrists.
“Lily…” He took her hand and her forearm and lifted her wrist gently for a closer look. “When did this happen?”
“Right now, I think.” She sucked in another quick breath when he brushed his fingers lightly over the reddened skin and a few tiny beads of blood welled behind his touch. “I think this is like what happened in that convenience store. What I felt.”
“This is happening to your mom and now, to you.”
She swallowed and forced herself to nod. “That’s what it looks like, huh?” A strained chuckle escaped her. “Unless you’ve tied me up and I somehow never noticed.”
He glanced at her and pressed his lips together. “On any other day, I’d find that hilarious.”
“I know.”
With a deep breath, Romeo brought her hand up to his lips and kissed her palm before he released her and looked at her wrists again. “It’s time for healing magic, right?”
“Yeah.” Lily wrinkled her nose. “I’m not a hundred percent brushed up on my healing skills. Having Darius around would be extremely helpful right now. Or one of Melissa’s potions. We might have to handle this the old-fashioned way and bind it with some antiseptic or something.” Because the Black Heron definitely isn’t keeping my mom in a sanitary cage with clean manacles and a daily wash.
“Does this beast on wheels come with a First Aid kit?”
“Knowing Bentley, it probably has two. I merely haven’t needed to look.”
“Okay.” He stood from the couch and kissed the top of her head. “I’ll find something. When that’s taken care of, we can get back to our little green friend and hurry across a large body of water.” He puffed his cheeks out and shot her a sympathetic frown. “I don’t want this to get any worse.”
“Me, neither.” She smiled. “I’m fine. I can handle a few minutes while you dig through the secret First Aid hiding places.” Romeo ran his hand through his dark curls, scratched the back of his head, and cast her another cautious glance. Finally, he nodded and went to go check the bathroom first.
The raw flesh around her wrists had begun to throb now and stung even more when she turned her hands to have a good look at her sudden wounds that weren’t really hers at all. First, I feel them trying to take her magic. Now, I look like I’ve been suspended by my wrists for days. Hang in there, Mom. Only long enough for me to get you out.
Twelve
They pulled out of Petas and headed toward E09 and the cliffs where Watcher the Vátra had left them. Romeo glanced quickly at Lily’s lap and frowned at the road. “You’re not gonna let go of that until we get there, are you?”
“Nope.” She scratched absently at the ace bandages around her wrists, realized what she was doing, and stopped. “We probably shouldn’t go to the cliffs first.”
“Oh, yeah? Do you plan a few extra stops along the way?”
She rolled her eyes and held back a wry laugh. “Anywhere you want. Or far enough from the sea that Watcher won’t sneak up on us again. I intend to find out exactly what this does.”
“That wasn’t part of the deal, Lil.”
“I know. I’m not doing it for the Vátra.” She shifted in the passenger seat and turned the Varelos over in her hands again. “It’s gotta be insanely powerful for a god or a spirit or whatever Morpheus was to guard it like that. That kinda power can do many things, Romeo. Not all of them are good.”
“There’s a little part of me that feels like you’re kinda talking about yourself.”
Lily looked at him and barked a laugh. “Jeeze, it’s creepy how well you read my mind.” He simply shrugged and stretched his fingers over the steering wheel. “There’s something about this Varelos that feels…familiar, somehow. It’s dangerous in the wrong hands, right? Exactly like an Optatus’ powers. And if that’s what helped me snatch this from an actual dream in a temple of the god of dreams, it’ll probably help me find out exactly what kind of power I’ll hand over to the Vátra with this.” She glanced at the copper rod again. “So whenever you feel like stopping and taking a little break, I’ll get to work.”
“You already have a plan, don’t you?”
She smirked. “It’s vague and kind of a long shot, but yeah. You could call it a plan.”
“Well, we’ve made it this far on vague and long shots, haven’t we?”
“Together, yeah. It seems to be working out rather well.”
They stopped about ten miles from where they tentatively planned to meet Watcher again. She unbuckled her seatbelt and climbed from the passenger seat. “I’ll do this outside, I think.” She glanced through the windshield at the cypresses lining the road. “Fresh air and enough room to redirect an aftershock if something goes wrong.”
Romeo’s hand slid off the steering wheel and thumped into his lap. He shifted his entire body toward her in the driver’s seat and scowled. “You mean so you don’t blow the Winnie up. And me.”
She laughed. “That was a joke. I’m using my own magic to determine how this works, not experimenting with someone else’s dark magic I should never have been able to touch in the first place.”
“That’s not even the biggest difference between you and the Black Heron.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Things still blow up sometimes.”
“Do you think I’ll let that happen?”
“Remember those stories Melissa told us about your mom?” He raised an eyebrow.
Lily opened her mouth to offer a retort or denial, but she closed it again. “Okay, playing around with potions and making your own recipes isn’t anything like picking apart the magic that makes up a magical artifact to find out what it does.”
“That’s not very convincing, Lil.” He looked smug. “Or true. I’m fairly sure that’s exactly what your mom did when she made her own potions. She probably used her Optatus magic too, whether or not she knew that’s what it was.” He looked thoughtful. “Huh. Do you think she knows that’s what both of you are?”
She pressed her lips together and stared through the windshield at the sprawling mountains in the distance. “I can’t even begin to guess what my mom does or doesn’t know. Greta Antony’s brain is a locked vault within a maze.” Hefting the Varelos in her hands again, she looked down at it and nodded. “I’m sure she knows. Honestly, I have a feeling she found out about it all on her own, maybe even when she was hunting the Black Heron Society, and that she wanted me to discover it the same way. If she’d told me about all this before she disappeared, I’m not sure I would’ve believed her.”
There was a moment of silence between them before Romeo unbuckled his seatbelt, stood, and nodded at the Winnie’s side door. “Okay. Get outta here and do whatever it is you have planned with that.”
“What?”
She chuckled. “What did I say?”
“It’s what you didn’t say, Lil. I know that look. You won’t be able to focus on anything else until you find exactly what you’re looking for, so go on. I’ll grab a couple of bottles of water and I’ll sneak out when you’re completely focused and watch you from a few yards away in case you blow something up.”
Lily rolled her eyes playfully and turned toward the side door where she paused and cast him a final knowing glance. He propped himself up with a hand on the back of the driver’s seat and nodded at her, his expression smug. “Are you sure mind-reading isn’t a werewolf thing?”
“Go.”
“Yeah, yeah.” With a broad grin, she walked down the two stairs and opened the side door. After a deep breath of the fresh sea air, she walked around the front of the RV and headed a few yards inland across the low grass, away from the sea and the cliffs. The last thing she wanted to do was draw any attention from the Vátra, and practicing something like this any closer to the water felt like testing fate.
A small outcropping of dirty-white boulders clumped beneath a copse of cypress trees, which offered enough shade from the sun directly overhead. “Perfect.” She held the Varelos down at her side and moved toward them. “There are no buildings around and basically no one driving down the highway. It’s as good a place as any.”
Once she’d climbed onto the flattest of the boulders and got comfortable enough with her legs crossed beneath her, she grasped the copper rod with both hands and studied it for a little longer. A breeze rustled the leaves overhead, and the sharp tines at the end of the inverted U over the rod’s tip flashed at her when the sun snuck through for a few seconds at a time. “What exactly do you do?” She summoned her revealing charm. The yellow light glowed in her palm and she ran her hand up and down the artifact’s surface again. Nothing appeared, nothing illuminated, and nothing fought her magic.
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