Return Of The Witch (The Witch Next Door Book 6)

by Judith Berens

  A sharp laugh escaped her. “You think so, huh?”

  “Totally. I don’t think a magical slap on the face is gonna leave a scar, Lil. But if it did…” He shrugged with his arms around her. “It wouldn’t change how I feel about you.”

  “I’m glad we’re on the same page.” She raised herself on her tiptoes and kissed him while she pressed her palm against the scar on his chest in the exact shape of Melissa Bore’s hand. When she pulled away, he was smiling, his eyes still closed, until he finally released her. “Now we only need to figure out how to make the Vátra think we’re all on the same page too. At least until they get us to Libya. Today.”

  “It shouldn’t be a problem, right?” Romeo looked calmly at her, waiting to hear what the next part of her plan was. After a moment, he blinked in surprise and turned partially toward the kitchen sink. “Oh. You want me to…” He jerked his thumb behind him.

  “Please.”

  He turned and opened the cabinet again to retrieve the Varelos. Lily pressed her lips together and tried not to laugh when he offered her the copper rod as if he were pledging his allegiance to a monarch and presenting a sword instead. She took it from him and shook her head, and he looked at her with a smirk. “I couldn’t help myself.”

  “Obviously.” She lifted the Varelos beneath the overhead lights in the Winnie and turned it a few times. “Now the trick, I guess, is to make sure I can help myself with this. I’m gonna stay inside this time and try again.”

  “Good idea.”

  Fourteen

  Lily opted to sit in the middle of the living area so she could cross her legs again. Romeo lowered himself to the floor in front of her and leaned forward over his lap. “Do you know what this reminds me of?”

  “You mean we’ve actually done something like this before?”

  He laughed. “Only the sitting part. Right here, figuring things out.”

  She nodded. “When we had Rosalía and Felipe.”

  “Yep. You and that girl spent hours sitting on the floor exactly like this.”

  “I spent more hours sitting on the floor with my mom, too.” She shrugged. “This is a little different, though. We’re not working with simple spells and a kid witch who’s way more powerful than she knows.” He only had to raise an eyebrow to get his point across. “Okay, fine. It’s not that different. I’m not a kid, though.”

  “That’s a good thing, Lil.” He eyed the Varelos where it rested across her lap and leaned away a little. “If you actually did have something to do with that whole…water shooting up into the air thing, do I need to sit somewhere else for this?”

  “Only if you plan to piss me off when I start talking to this.”

  “What?”

  She chuckled. “I think that’s what it was. The Varelos has a weird outlook on death and destruction and how power should be used.”

  “Like it thinks those are all good things? Maybe you shouldn’t do this again.”

  “No, it merely said there wasn’t a difference. Like it…doesn’t have a conscience.”

  “Only a consciousness.”

  With a shrug, Lily held his gaze and tried not to laugh. Smiling hurt her cheek, which still stung but not nearly as much now. “It probably ends up taking on the values of whoever uses it. And I’m literally only guessing about everything at this point.”

  “Well, your guesses turn out to be fairly accurate, most of the time. Hey, is this gonna be like you using the heron coin for the network? Do I have to, like…pull you away from it at some point?”

  “I don’t think so.” She glanced down at the rod and shrugged. “But if anything looks off, it couldn’t hurt to go ahead and do that anyway.”

  “Got it.” Romeo nodded and chewed on the inside of his cheek. “Reach out and rip the magical weapon out of the Optatus’ hands. Totally doable.”

  “Okay, I’ll relax now. I want you to try to do that too, and we’ll see what happens. Yeah?”

  He raised his hands in compliance and nodded. “I’m relaxed.”

  She shot him a final knowing glance before she closed her eyes and grasped the Varelos a little tighter in both hands.

  Again, all it took was for her to think about casting the black-cloud spell of her Optatus magic, and the buzzing energy erupted from the rod and all the way up into her neck and head. The white light returned, and she was once again seated in the brightness and listening to her own breath and the beating of her heart.

  ‘What do you wish of me, Optatus?’ All those voices spoke together again in her mind.

  I want to know what I have to do to get across the sea as soon as possible.

  ‘The Vátra offered this to you.’

  In exchange for bringing them the…you, I guess. Will the Royal take anything else in exchange?

  ‘He will not. And he knows enough to see through the illusion you’ve considered.’

  Lily paused. How did you know I—

  ‘I see your mind more clearly than you do yourself, Optatus. You wish to deceive the Vátran Royal. A simple deception will not suffice. You must create something for him of your own. Something that is both you and me. A piece of us to satisfy a piece of him. For a time.’

  I don’t even… What does that mean?

  ‘Create another. I will help you solidify its temporary purpose but know there is a price.’

  She sighed and searched through the bright whiteness but found only that in her vision. There always is.

  ‘A piece of yourself. A veil must be lifted from over your eyes in order to pull it down over his. You will see more than you can imagine if you do this.’

  But it’ll work? And he’ll take us across the sea?

  ‘Yes.’

  What do I have to do?

  There weren’t any words in that multi-toned voice to accompany the flash of visions that coursed through Lily’s mind in response. The Varelos gave her everything she needed—the spell, the intention, and the piece of herself and of the powerful artifact in her hand. It did not give her an image or an explanation of exactly what that piece of herself was. But when the flood of information behind her eyes ceased, her hold on the rod loosened. The buzzing tingle drained from her head and her arms to settle into the normal sensation of her own skin.

  With a deep breath, Lily opened her eyes and grinned at Romeo.

  “I’m gonna take that as a sign that whatever you were doing worked.”

  Slowly, she laid the Varelos on the floor of the Winnie, clasped her hands together, and nodded. “I have the recipe. Now, I gotta put it all together.”

  “That sounds good.” He watched her for a few seconds, then raised his eyebrows. “I honestly expected something weirder to happen. That looked like a few minutes of meditation.”

  “Yeah, it’s kinda like that.” She pushed herself to her feet and shook her hands out. “Meditation with a warning.”

  “Oh, great. Please tell me you don’t have to sacrifice anything.”

  She wrinkled her nose at him and laughed. “Not in the way you’re thinking.” She clapped and nodded at him. “Now would probably be a good time to stand back.”

  “Yep.” Romeo scrambled quickly to his feet and skirted her to stand beside the kitchen table. “What kinda sacrifice are we talking here?”

  “Only the kind that keeps me from seeing everything I need to see.” She tilted her head and looked at her hands. “It sounds like a good trade to me.” She focused on summoning the black cloud of her Optatus powers and the intention of exactly what she wanted this spell to do.

  When she drew her hands apart slowly, the black cloud burst to life between her palms, where it churned and roiled with a low growl. She felt much stronger now and more confident in her ability to control this spell that had given her so much trouble before. Maybe it has something to do with the Varelos. Maybe I’ve simply practiced enough. Either way, I got this one.

  Her muscles didn’t ache in the same way when she drew her arms out as far as she wanted, thinking about t
he extra pieces of both her and the Varelos she needed to create. The bright flashes of silver light streaked through the roiling cloud in front of her and flashed off the windshield at the front of the Winnie. She drew her arms fully apart, and the release of the spell felt exactly like when she’d conjured her own raven totem of shadow and smoke. This time, though, instead of a shadow-bird emerging from the black cloud, a long, copper-colored item fell from the space beneath her hands and clattered onto the RV’s wooden floor.

  The smoke and churning power of her spell dissipated and left a distinctly coppery smell. Which is probably from that. She took a few steps back and stared at the exact replica of the Varelos she’d created. “Yeah, it looks like it worked.”

  Romeo stepped around her and stared at the floor. He glanced from the copper rod she’d held only a few minutes before and the second copper rod he’d watched drop from her spell in midair. “You made a copy.”

  “Basically.”

  “But it’s not… You didn’t make another one, did you?”

  Lily turned toward him and grinned. “Come on. Did you think I’d turn myself into a magical-weapon factory and start giving these things out?”

  He snorted. “Not really, no. But I have no idea what’s going on.”

  She glanced at each of the rods on the floor and stepped back to retrieve the original. “I made a copy. It’s real enough to make the Royal think it’s the actual Varelos. Or…it will, at least. I’m not done yet.”

  The werewolf scratched the side of his head and huffed out a laugh. “Is there anything I can do? Or is it better for me to sit this one out? I have no problem with you doing your thing, Lil. Whatever that is right now.”

  “You get a front-row seat to an Optatus witch crafting the deception of the century.” They both snorted. “This is gonna help us get to my mom and rescue her from whatever hole they’ve locked her up in again. And it’s gonna save many other magicals—on land or underwater or wherever else—from suffering. The Royal’s only getting his hands on a mini-powered version of the real one.” She wiggled the Varelos a few times and raised her eyebrow. “I got this.”

  Romeo nodded and dropped onto the couch with a sigh. “I know you do, Lil. Watching you work that spell is seriously cool, by the way.”

  “Thank you.” She picked up the second copper rod, lowered herself to the floor again, and crossed her legs. Carefully, she brought the real Varelos and the copy together until they touched with a metallic clink and crossed them in her lap. “No more talking this time,” she told them both. “Only casting spells and moving forward.” With a deep breath, she tightened her hold on the artifacts—both of which felt perfectly real—and concentrated on the last part of the magical forgery the Varelos had shown her.

  The original released the electric buzz through her right hand and arm first, which made her feel a little off balance. She pressed it down more firmly against the copy and closed her eyes. A piece of both of us. The veil from over my eyes to pull it down over the Royal’s.

  The first thing she felt behind her eyes was a little itch like she’d blown a flurry of dust into her face and some of it had caught in her lashes. In the next second, the itch had become the same hum of energy as that in her hand and grew stronger until it was harder than she’d expected to not drop both rods and rub her own eyes simply to stop it. She managed to hold tightly to the Varelos and its copy, and faster than she’d imagined, the same force of energy flared to life in her left hand from the forged Varelos she intended to give to the Vátran Royal. The Vátra would take her and Romeo across the Mediterranean and into Libya once she’d delivered it.

  After a short while, she knew it was finished. She removed her hands from both rods, which was much easier to do now than it had been the two other times she’d communed with the Varelos. A smile crept slowly across her lips, and she nodded. “Okay.”

  “Okay?” Romeo moved on the couch beside her. “That’s it?”

  “Yeah. I did everything the Varelos told me to—” The instant she opened her eyes to look at him and explain what had happened, an agonizingly bright flash of yellow light flared in her vision. This was followed almost instantaneously by a loud crack and an intensely painful flare through her head and in her actual eyes themselves, and she heard herself cry out from somewhere very far away before everything went black.

  Fifteen

  When she came to, Lily realized immediately that she wasn’t seated on the Winnie’s hard, bamboo floors anymore. She was in her own bed at the back of the RV, her head on the soft pillow, and the comforter pulled up over her. Slowly, she pushed herself up and clenched her eyes shut against the dizziness. Finally, she opened them.

  The light was way too bright, and she pressed her palms gently against her eyes as she waited for the glare to subside. It was still there when she opened them again, though—a glowing yellow line in her vision that moved directly out in front of her and disappeared through the wardrobe built into the bedroom wall. She turned her head to look through the bedroom doorway, hoping to see Romeo there. He sighed from somewhere in the front of the RV, but even looking away from the glowing line of yellow light that streaked through her bedroom didn’t really make it any dimmer.

  Slowly, she turned again to look at the bright light like a glowing cord from her to the wardrobe. “What is that?”

  The werewolf bolted up from the couch and came quickly to the bedroom doorway. “Hey. Oh, man. That was nuts.” He moved toward the bed, sat beside her, and placed a gentle hand on her back. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah.” She offered him a confused smile and tried to focus on him, unable to really take her attention off the yellow streak in front of her. “What happened?”

  “I hoped you could tell me. You kinda fell over.” He leaned toward her to place a slow, soft kiss on her cheek—the same one that had been struck by the echo of the slap on Greta Antony’s face—and released a deep sigh. “Stuff with your mom must be getting really bad if it knocked you out like that.”

  “I don’t…” Lily frowned at the yellow glow, then looked away from it to meet his gaze. “I don’t think that had anything to do with my mom, honestly. I think it was the spell.”

  “With the Varelos?”

  “Yeah.” She frowned at the bright glow still illuminating her peripheral vision and pointed at the yellow line streaking across the bedroom. “When did that start?”

  He turned and glanced at the other side of the bedroom. “What?”

  “A bright yellow line shooting into the wardrobe.”

  When Romeo looked back at her again slowly, his eyes were wide. “I don’t see anything bright or yellow or shooting, Lil. Everything looks totally normal to me.”

  “Really?” He nodded, and she squinted at the constant streak of light again before she sighed. “Okay, then. Man, it’s bright, though. You’re not simply messin’ with me?”

  His brows drew together. “Not about something like that. You sure you’re okay? You were out for a while, so I totally get it if—”

  “How long’s a while?”

  “Like three hours.” Romeo shrugged. “I couldn’t get you to wake up, but other than that, you seemed fine. Now, I’m not so sure.”

  “I’m totally okay. Minus this weird light.” Her gaze darted sideways again and yes, there it was, shining as bright and yellow as ever. “The sun’s not gone yet, is it?”

  “Nope. It’s only like five-thirty or six, I think.” He reached into his back pocket to check his phone, then realized he’d left it in the center console up front. “Not that late.”

  “Even if it was late, I’d still say we need to get back on the road, meet up with Watcher, and get that second Varelos to the Royal. I don’t wanna wait any longer than we already have.” Her hand raised briefly to her magically slapped cheek again, which still felt tender and tight beneath her fingers. “I don’t wanna make my mom wait any longer, either.” She tossed the comforter aside and pushed herself to her feet. Romeo was right t
here when she swayed a little, and she caught his arm for a few seconds of support. “I’m good.”

  “It’s totally okay to take a little breather, Lil.” He held the underside of her arm as she took the first few steps away from the bed.

  “Not really.” She pulled her arm out of his grasp—not forcefully but enough to let him know she didn’t need to be carried anywhere. “We definitely don’t have much time left. My mom doesn’t have much time left.”

  “Yeah, and if you don’t rest, you can’t handle whatever we have to do when we get there. Then we won’t do Greta any good at all, at that point.”

  With a wry laugh, she held onto the doorframe and turned to shoot him a knowing glance. “Either way, I’m still gonna get a little beat up the longer we take to get there. Sure, I could rest a little more, but that’s simply more time for those assholes to take their anger out on her. And apparently, on me now, too.” She raised both wrists still wrapped in Ace bandages and nodded.

  He stared at her for a few seconds, then glanced at the ceiling. “Yeah, okay. Rock and a hard place.”

  “That would be the amateur version.” Lily snorted and headed through the short, narrow hallway through the Winnie. She paused at the fridge, opened it, and selected an apple. When she shut the door again and turned to ask if he wanted anything to eat, the yellow streak of light almost blinded her again. “What—” She clenched her eyes shut and backed up against the fridge.

  “Woah. Is this one of those aftershocks, or—”

  “I don’t know.” With a frown, she opened her eyes slowly and adjusted to the glare of the magical yellow cord that had now expanded to stretch from her across the narrow hallway to the other side of the Winnie. “This is…” She raised her hand and waved it a few times in front of the light, which didn’t break at all but merely went through her palm. “I don’t know what I’m seeing right now.”