Lily took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “Okay. If you won’t talk to me with regular spells, we’ll try something different.” She settled the Varelos over her crossed knees and readied herself to use the black cloud but she didn’t have the chance.
There wasn’t even enough time to remove her hands from the copper rod to clap them together for her spell. All it took was the thought of summoning her Optatus powers—the magic she’d only begun to understand, even a little—before the Varelos jolted and a flash of energy raced up her arms, shoulders, neck, and into her head.
Everything around her stopped. The birds that twittered in the trees vanished. The gulls crying overhead and the crash of the waves a few miles away faded into nothing. She felt the warm air blow across her back and knew the sun still shone and the boulders hadn’t moved from beneath her, but all she saw now behind her closed eyelids was a blinding white light. It startled her a little when she realized she couldn’t have dropped the rod even if she’d wanted to.
But she did hear her own breath, slow and steady and loud as if she’d put earplugs in before this experiment. What is this?
‘This is the open canvas.’ The voice came from everywhere and nowhere, all around her and inside her own mind. It sounded so much like the Vátran Royal’s voice—more than one, male and female, multiple tones speaking at exactly the same time.
Okay, I’m gonna take a guess and say I’m talking to a Vátran weapon.
‘I am the Varelos,’ the voice echoed. ‘Not a weapon and not a possession. I am whatever the wielder wishes me to be.’
What? Lily willed herself not to think of anything at all if the Varelos could actually read her mind. Her breathing hadn’t changed, and the energy that surged from the copper rod in her hands still tingled all the way up to her head. So far so good. No explosions.
‘There could be.’
No. Lily swallowed. That’s not what I want.
‘Indeed. Your focus, Optatus, lies in what you do want, does it not? I can see it.’
You can see what I want?
‘Would you like to see it as well?’
She didn’t have to think the actual word. It was a clear, decisive yes on her part.
The brilliant white light behind her eyes flashed even brighter, and the electric hum flared in her arms and head. More images than she could keep track of burst through her mind—sitting at the kitchen table with her mom, poring over the simple spells she learned for the first time; her attempts to sneak her mom’s grimoire from its place on the living-room bookshelf and the way the wards hurled her across the room; the move into their house behind Rainbow Row in Charleston, when Greta’s discovery made her famous and rich practically overnight; the first time she sat her daughter down and explained that she’d be overseas for the next two weeks, maybe three, and that she needed to learn how to take care of herself.
When the images stopped cycling, she sat and stared at the same stretch of barren land in Libya that she’d seen in her dream. This was where the Black Heron had taken her mother and where the orange-brown light had shimmered in the air before Greta Antony and her captors disappeared. This was where she had to go.
‘You wish to find her,’ the Varelos’ voice echoed in her head. ‘You wish to break the chains binding her to another’s ambitions. And yet, Optatus, you have the power to do all this on your own. Why do you seek my aid?’
I didn’t. Lily released a deep breath and her heartbeat now echoed as loudly within the silence. Not on purpose. I only came to find you for someone else.
‘You spoke of the Vátra.’
What will the Royal do with you when I hand you over?
‘Whatever the Royal wishes me to do.’
Her grasp tightened on the rod in her hands. What has he wanted you to do before?
‘I have led the Royal to victory. I have sown chaos and peace. I have united the clans and rent them apart. There is no difference.’
That’s not true. She paused and tried to clear her mind so she could ask the right questions if there even were any. Did the Royal use you to hurt others for that victory?
‘To kill them, yes. Others, he raised to brilliant heights. There is no difference—’
Stop saying that! There is a difference. If he’s using you for war, to kill others, to sow chaos, and to tear apart whatever clans you’re talking about, there’s a big difference. Her pulse pounded in her ears now and all her doubt and confusion rose in her at the words of an inanimate and yet highly magical object. Will he do it again?
‘Yes. This is the way of the sea. It is the way of the land and the sky. Those who know what they want will do what they must to take it. You know, Optatus. This is your calling as well as mine.’
No. The jolting electricity that raced up and down her arms intensified until it burned. Not if it destroys people.
‘It always destroys someone.’
That was as much as she could handle. With a shout of frustration, she dragged her hands away from the Varelos and the vision disappeared. The ocean rumbled in front of her followed by the roar of violent water.
Her eyes snapped open and the only thing she saw was a column of seawater bursting above the rise of the cliffs on the other side of the highway, looming far above the precipice and the Winnie and the outcropping of boulders on which she sat.
“Jeeze!” Romeo jolted where he stood on the grass on this side of the highway. The open bottle of water in his hand splashed all over the dirt, and he spun to gape at the pillar of seawater that rose like a legendary monster. “Lily?”
She exhaled another deep breath and the water dropped and thundered back into the sea as the sounds of everything else around her pounded back into her awareness. The copper Varelos glinted where it lay on her lap, seemingly innocuous and silent until someone knew how to unlock the voice and whatever magical consciousness didn’t seem to care one way or the other about who used it to do what.
“Okay…” The werewolf turned and walked toward her again. He frowned at the water bottle he’d been drinking from that was considerably emptier now. “I didn’t think you had any ability to make the ocean do what you wanted, but I have to ask.”
Lily looked at him and grimaced. “Probably.”
“Probably?”
“That was probably me. And this.” She glanced meaningfully at the artifact.
“So you worked it out?” He stopped in front of the boulders and handed the other bottle of water to her.
“Kind of. Thanks.” She lifted the water toward him before she twisted the cap off and guzzled half of it. “I didn’t realize how thirsty I was.”
“I feel like you’re stalling.” He studied her face as he leaned against the closest boulder and looked up at her. “Are you okay?”
“Mostly, yeah. Maybe you should take this for a while.” She handed the Varelos to him, and he eyed it like she’d offered him a poisonous snake. “It’s not gonna do anything to you, I promise.”
“And you know this because?”
“Because you don’t know how to use it.”
“Huh. Fair enough.” He took the lower end of the copper rod.
The minute it left her hand, her fingers felt colder than usual as if she’d taken off a woolen glove she’d worn all day. She flexed her fingers and rubbed her hands to warm them, acutely aware of the bandages around her wrists again, what lay beneath them, and how they’d appeared.
Romeo swung the Varelos from side to side in front of his face and watched it catch the light like sparks. “This is the part where you tell me what happened.”
“It talked to me.”
He looked at her with wide eyes. “Uh, say that again.”
“It talks. Well, not out loud. Only in my head.”
With a smirk, he lowered the rod to his side and regarded her quizzically. “Did it tell you what it’s for?”
“Basically.” Lily took another long drink of water, screwed the cap on, and climbed down from the top of the flat boulder.
“I’m fairly sure you’re holding the magical artifact version of me.” She dropped to the dry ground beside him, glanced at the Varelos, and looked at his complete confusion.
“I’m gonna put this out there and say that you’re definitely more attractive.”
She snorted. “The Varelos does whatever its owner wants it to do like a channeled Optatus witch without a conscience or its own life. If you have that, you don’t have to worry about an Optatus getting any ideas—no revenge schemes, no one trying to take over and claim your power, and no disobeying orders.”
“So, what? This is like the nuclear bomb of magical artifacts?” Romeo held the rod away from him now as far as his arm would reach.
“You could say that. I think that’s why it was taken from the Royal, somehow, and why I was able to find it again in that temple as an Optatus.”
He frowned at her. “I guess the most powerful kind of witch has a much easier time finding the most powerful magical weapon. Like magnets, right?”
“Yeah. I’m sure that’s a big part of why it was taken from the Royal and hidden inside a dream at the temple. Now, we’re driving around with it in a Winnebago out in the open for anyone who wants it to come and snatch it.”
Thirteen
“When you say it like that, Lil, it sounds bad.”
“It is bad.” She nodded at the Varelos in his hand. “If anyone finds out we actually have this, we’ve effectively painted a whole new target on our backs.”
“Are you sure you don’t wanna take it back right now?” Some of the color had left Romeo’s face, although he tried to brush his discomfort off with a smile.
“Nope. Right now, it’s much safer for you to hold onto it. At least until I decide exactly how I want to use it.”
For a few seconds, he regarded her with a dubious expression. Finally, he swallowed uncomfortably. “You’re not gonna give this to the Royal.”
“Definitely not.” She glanced up and down the highway and nodded at the Winnie. “We should get inside, though. Just in case.”
“Yeah, good call.” He swung the copper rod down and held it firmly beside his thigh as they rounded the front of the vehicle.
She opened the side door and waited for him to go first, searching the still-empty road for a sign that anyone at all had seen them. That’s all it would take. Only one magical saying they thought they saw the Varelos, and we’d be in a whole different kind of trouble. She followed him inside quickly, shut the door, and locked it from the inside.
He stood in the center of the living area, held the rod in both hands now, and stared at it. “Do you think it’s a good idea for us to keep this?”
“Until we decide what to do with it. It told me that…that the Royal used it to wage war and even commit murder. Something about uniting clans and rending them.”
“That seriously wasn’t in any way what I expected when we said we’d find it.”
“It was definitely a surprise.” Lily stepped toward the couch and flopped onto it with a sigh. “We can’t simply give it to him. I’m not… Romeo, I absolutely will not be responsible for putting this thing in the hands of any magical who’s gonna use it to hurt someone else. I can’t.”
With a nod, he walked into the small kitchen, opened the long top cabinet above the sink, and slipped the Varelos inside before he shut the door firmly again. “I wouldn’t ask you to even if I thought you might.” He returned and sat beside her on the couch and leaned forward to rest his forearms on his thighs. “So we’ll keep it. If we don’t show up at the cliffs to meet Watcher again, that’ll call the deal off, I guess. And we’ll look for a company or freighter or anyone who can take us to Libya. Hey, we can even drive if we have to. It’ll take us a week, maybe ten days, but it’s not like we don’t know what we’re doing on the road.”
“Yeah.” She nodded. “That is an option.”
“But it’s not what you wanna do.” When she turned to look at him, he studied her intensely with those green eyes for a moment before he straightened on the couch. “What do you wanna do?”
“That artifact can help us get to my mom.”
“I dunno, Lil—”
“It showed me where she is. Well, not exactly, but the same place I saw in my dream and the same place I saw in the Black Heron network the last time I used the coin. And I don’t want to use that again if I don’t have to. We cut it too close last time.”
“What happens if you use the Varelos for something like that? Even to find your mom.” He ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath. “There’s gotta be some kinda pushback from that, right? Like it feeds your greed or it drains your energy or hurts you somehow. There’s no way a magical item like that will simply do whatever a person wants without there being some kinda catch, right?”
Lily shrugged. “It’s probably much the same catch as being an Optatus.” His eyes widened beneath a raised brow. “The danger is in allowing that power to control everything. What you’re willing to do. The things that matter to you. Who you are. Ozias said most Optatus witches went dark because that was what they wanted, in the end. They got what they desired with that kind of power, and it turned out to be more than they could handle. Which is probably why there aren’t very many left.”
“So we use it to find your mom. Get her outta there. Bring her back. And decide what to do with the talking magical stick afterward.”
With a snort, she nodded. “My mom would know what to do with it after that. And I think it can show us the quickest way to get to—” A sharp, flaring pain blazed across her face and she reeled sideways on the couch. Her temple banged against the armrest, and her ears roared with surprise and pain before they began to ring. She grimaced and leaned against the armrest, completely dazed.
When her vision focused, Romeo knelt in front of her and touching her head, her shoulder, and her arm. His mouth moved, but she couldn’t hear anything over the ringing until it finally faded.
“Hey, say something, Lily. Come on, answer me. Lily?”
“Sorry.” She dragged in a breath, and he did the same, his as shaky as hers. “Sorry, I’m okay.” She finally managed to get her hands under her and pushed herself up away from the armrest. Her head spun and her cheek stung like she’d spent an hour lying on solid ice.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know.” She brought a hand up to her cheek and ran her fingers tentatively over it. “I’m not bleeding, am I?”
He examined her, leaning close in concern. “No, but—oh, man.”
“What?”
“You…uh…” He stared at her face in disbelief.
“Romeo?”
“You might wanna go look in the mirror.”
Lily rose quickly from the couch, which was a bad idea. The sudden dizziness made her stumble, and she managed to clutch Romeo’s arm and steady herself.
“Okay, I’ll come with you—”
“Nope. It’s okay. I’m fine.” She took another deep breath and could only look at him for a few seconds at a time. Why do I feel so humiliated right now? Her face burned, and it seemed inordinately difficult to focus her vision on any one thing. It took effort but she made it on her own to the tiny bathroom in the Winnebago. When the door slid open, she fumbled in the corner to turn on the light switch, stepped inside, and stared at her reflection in the mirror.
A huge, angry red handprint covered her entire cheek—the same cheek that burned as if someone had slapped her. But they didn’t slap me. They slapped my mom. Gritting her teeth, Lily turned her head a little to study the mark, which looked like it was rising as a nasty welt on her flesh. After another minute, she left the bathroom and found Romeo standing in the kitchen.
“Try this.” He held out a Ziplock bag filled with ice cubes, and she took it to press it gingerly against the side of her face. “I’m so sorry, Lily.”
Despite the mingled pain of heat and cold and the burning sting on her cheek, she smiled at him. “You didn’t hit me.”
“No
one hit you.”
“Nope. Only my mom.” She closed her eyes briefly and made the decision to ignore whatever she felt in her face. “I’m willing to bet it wasn’t only a slap with a hand. There was power behind this one.”
“There are spells for magical face-slaps, huh?” He folded his arms and pressed his lips together in a disapproving line. “I really shouldn’t be surprised anymore.”
“I think the Black Heron’s running out of ideas. And now they’re merely trying everything they can to break her.” She couldn’t help but pull the bag of ice away and look at it, expecting to see blood there and not at all disappointed when there wasn’t any. “We can’t take days to drive to Libya. We need the Vátra to take us across.”
“Without the Varelos.”
“Right. But they don’t have to know that’s not what we gave them.” Lily raised an eyebrow and drew her shoulders down in an effort to relieve the tension there after having been slapped and not slapped by the dark magicals holding her mom prisoner.
“You haven’t told me how that’s gonna work yet,” Romeo said and stepped slowly toward her. He rested his hands gently on her shoulders and rubbed her arms a few times. “But I really like the way you think.”
“That’s definitely a good thing ʼcause you’re gonna have to lie to the Vátra with me.”
“You know you don’t even have to ask.”
She smirked. “I didn’t.” She pulled away from him enough to set the bag of ice down on the counter. Then, she turned back and slid her hands up his chest as he wound his arms around her and pulled her closer.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“So far, so good.” She looked at where her hand rested over his shirt and chuckled. “I guess we kinda match now, huh?”
“What?” An unsure laugh escaped him, and she gave the center of his chest a few gentle pats.
“Magic’s leaving its literal handprint on both of us.”
He glanced at his chest and snorted. “Well, mine came from a potions witch drawing a poisoned curse out of my chest. And I’m fairly sure scars stay there forever.” The smile wavered on her face as she thought about the day she’d almost lost him to the werewolf packmaster’s dark magic in Mexico. “Hey, but just so we’re clear, scars are sexy.”
Return Of The Witch (The Witch Next Door Book 6) Page 9