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

by Judith Berens

  He laughed and glanced at the ceiling. “Well, it kinda came out.”

  “I’m serious, though. Hey.” She pressed on his chest where he held her hand there, right over the handprint scar left from the night she’d fed him poison to save his life. Romeo looked at her and his smile was both uplifting and loving. “Thank you. That’s what I needed to hear. I can’t see the future like you can.” That made them both smile a little. “But I’m not giving up. I’m starting to think I might have by now if you weren’t here with me.”

  “We’re on the same page with that one.”

  She cupped his cheek with her free hand, leaned toward him on the couch, and kissed him. His long, deep breath only made her inch closer, and she held his face in both hands now, her lips on his as she crawled up into his lap. He slid his arms around her and held her close for a long moment until she pulled back to look at him. “I love you too.”

  He grinned. “You know, that’s the second time we’ve said that to each other, and I almost thought you hadn’t heard me.”

  “I’m tired and frustrated and constantly see a glowing line of light that never goes away, Romeo. I definitely heard you.” She kissed him again quickly, slid out of his lap, and stood. “So, I obviously won’t have any sleep, and we can’t get anything done sitting here in the middle of nowhere. We might as well get some coffee in and food of some kind. Then, we’ll decide what the next move should be.”

  With a tiny smile, Romeo rose from the couch and tucked her blonde hair behind her ear. “Coffee is the least I can do.”

  “And at the same time, it’s also a big deal.”

  He laughed and headed toward the kitchen counter to pull out the French press and their almost empty supply of coffee grounds. “If this lasts us long enough to find your mom, I’d say we’ve done something right.”

  Lily passed him, opened the fridge, and squinted against the light that shined over their almost empty shelves. “We’ve done any number of things right. Keeping that coffee from running out is definitely one of them.” She pulled out the last package of dolmades they’d picked up in Greece and closed the fridge again, fighting through the dizziness of not having slept. Now we only need to keep that up and not do anything wrong. We don’t have room for mistakes anymore. Neither does my mom.

  Twenty-Three

  Romeo placed their clean breakfast dishes on the drying rack beside the sink and returned to the table. He glanced at the coffee cup nestled between Lily’s hands, then looked at his own. “Do you want the rest of mine?”

  “Huh?”

  “My coffee.”

  “Oh.” She frowned and eyed both their cups for a few seconds. “Are you not gonna finish it?”

  “I had a full night of sleep, Lil. I can sacrifice two-thirds of a cup of coffee.”

  She smiled at him and stretched across the table for his mug. “Thank you very much.” Holding his gaze, she brought it to her lips and took a huge gulp. “It definitely helps.”

  “Good.” He rapped his knuckles on the table and headed toward the front. “Next thing on the magical-adventure to-do list is to find out where the heck we are and where we’ll go next.”

  “We’d better be in Libya,” she muttered before she took another sip of coffee. “That’s as far as I saw the last time I used the heron coin.” Romeo paused behind the center console, stretched to retrieve his phone, and brought it back with him. “Beyond that, I have no clue. The Varelos isn’t really helping, either.”

  “We don’t need no stinkin’ Varelos.”

  She snorted. “True. I don’t think anyone needs it. Who even creates something like that in the first place?”

  Romeo slid into the booth across from her and eased his legs around the pot of wolfsbane they still hadn’t moved from its extremely inconvenient location. “Probably someone who thought they needed it and that it would help them somehow.”

  “I can’t imagine making something that powerful for myself to use. Okay, yeah, it’s more or less an Optatus’ magic funneled into a single artifact that kinda has a mind of its own, but I was born with my magic. I wouldn’t try to give it to anyone.” Lily glanced at him as he scrolled through something on his phone and raised her eyebrows. “What if an Optatus made it? Like they tried to funnel their magic into an item someone else could use?”

  His gaze flickered briefly to her before he resumed his lightspeed research. “Why would someone want to do that?”

  “Hey, I’d do it if it was the only way to help you out of some kind of impossible situation.”

  He scowled, took a deep breath, and lowered his phone to look firmly at her. “Don’t.”

  “What? Don’t turn my Optatus powers into a weapon to save you?”

  The werewolf’s eyes narrowed above a hesitant smile. “If you ever need to save me, do it with your magic and when it’s still attached to you. You did it once, and you could do it again. But… I don’t know if any one person’s worth the kinda trouble that can cause.” He nodded at the Varelos on the floor by the couch. “Not even me, probably.”

  “That’s totally not true.” When he replied with a skeptical frown, she decided to let it pass. “I won’t do it, Romeo. This is a hypothetical situation, and I wouldn’t even know how to do it in the first place. It simply…feels like it would be easier to deal with having that around if I understood why it exists.”

  Romeo’s frown disappeared, replaced by a gentle smile. “That’s kinda like trying to find the meaning of life, don’t you think?”

  “And people have looked for that answer since the beginning of people.” She lifted the coffee cup to her lips and drank again. You sound like you’re losing it, Lily. Let him do his thing. You’re not very helpful after a night of no sleep at all.

  “Okay. I found where we are. Right outside Bin Jawad and definitely in Libya.”

  “Good.”

  “Is there anything else you can remember about your dream? Or seeing your mom in the network? Landmarks, roads, signs like you saw for Oitylo?”

  Lily stared at the table as she recalled the dream. “Nope. Only that they pulled off the road in the middle of nowhere.” She turned in the booth enough to look out the windows at the red, dusty, dry land that spread all around them and back toward the Mediterranean. “It basically looked much like where we are now, actually.”

  “Huh. So they could be super-close.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  He frowned at his phone. “You’d know if we were close.”

  “Right. We can count on that, right? It makes sense. If I am blasted in the chest and have manacle burns”—she lifted her wrists—“and am slapped in the face by a hand that’s not there, I’d feel it if we were at the right place.”

  “Probably.” He didn’t look at her.

  Lily straightened and took a deep breath. “I could try to find her with my raven totem.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Not really, but it’s worth a try. If she learned how to send hers halfway across the world to look out for me, so can I. Especially now that we’re in the same country.”

  For a minute, she thought he would tell her to forget it judging by the way he stared at her. “Okay.” Romeo nodded. “But keep it to one attempt for now, yeah? Remember the night you cast that spell over and over for hours? Before you activated the heron coin.”

  “Yeah, I know. That was a little excessive.”

  “You couldn’t really walk straight, Lil. And that was on eight hours of sleep the night before.”

  She nodded in acknowledgment. “Got it. I’ll only try once. And if it doesn’t work, we’ll think of something else.”

  He pressed his lips together and almost told her of the other option they did still have, then decided against it. “Sounds good.”

  “Okay.” She pushed herself up from the table and slid out of the booth. “I’ll go outside and get some fresh air while I try to focus on this.” She headed across the Winnie toward the side door and stopped to look
at him over her shoulder. “It probably won’t take me very long, but you can come with me if you want to.”

  “I thought you’d never ask.” With a little smirk, he lifted his leg over the pot of wolfsbane under the table and stood.

  “Really?” Lily smirked. “I think it’s fairly obvious by now that—” A massive crack like thunder pealed in her head and lasted longer than thunder ever should. Everything around her—the Winnie, Romeo, and even that blinding trail of yellow light always pointing in the same direction—vanished, replaced only by a sudden blackness and a pain unlike anything she’d ever known. Every muscle in her body tensed up, quivering, and she couldn’t even cry out as the thunder echoed over and over through her head, beating her awareness down into pain and noise and darkness. Maybe she did scream something. She thought she heard Romeo shout her name, but then there was nothing at all.

  “Lily!” Romeo’s phone clattered to the floor as he leapt across the Winnebago toward her. He wasn’t fast enough to keep her from crumpling in front of him like a puppet cut from its strings, and by the time he skidded on his knees next to her, she was convulsing on the floor. Her eyes rolled all the way back in her head to show nothing but the whites, and a terrifying gurgle came from her throat. “Hey, Lily. Can you hear me?” It was a ridiculous question, he knew, but it was the only thing he could think of as he wound his arms around her and tried to hold her still. His first instinct was to try to keep her from flailing and hurting herself more than whatever was already hurting her.

  The convulsions ceased as quickly as they had seized control of her, and it was even more terrifying to hold her now that she lay completely limp and unresponsive. “Lily?” He rubbed her shoulders despite wanting to shake her, but she was out cold. “Oh, man…” A thin stream of blood trickled from her nose, and he felt something warm and wet drip on his forearm before he realized she was bleeding from her ears too. “No, no, no.” He bent his head toward her open mouth and felt her slow, steady breath against his ear, at least.

  In one fluid motion, he scooped her up and carried her to the front of the RV, where he set her as gently as he could in the passenger seat. He strapped her in, ran to grab his phone, and discovered that the closest hospital in Libya was five hours away. “Okay. Hold on, Lil.” He slid behind the wheel, started the engine, and strapped his seatbelt on hurriedly before he floored the gas again. “Don’t give up on me. We’ll fix this.”

  The Winnie rocked dangerously over a skidding spray of sand and small pebbles, and he almost didn’t manage to straighten it out on the road once the tires made contact with the asphalt. Fortunately, he did, and he didn’t even look at the speedometer as he barreled toward the hospital in Zliten.

  If she were conscious, she would have told him he was moving in the same direction as the bright yellow cord of magical light stretching from her body that only she could see.

  Twenty-Four

  Lily gasped and bolted fully upright in the passenger seat. “Mom!”

  “What—” Romeo jumped in driver’s seat beside her and his hands jerked on the wheel and veered them into the other lane at the same moment that a small gray sedan raced past them. The driver held their horn down indignantly, and Romeo corrected with barely enough time to avoid a head-on collision that would have been far more dangerous for the other driver than for them. With a growl, he pulled off onto the shoulder and slammed on the brakes. The Winnie slid a few more feet across the fine dirt, and they jerked to a stop. “Lily. Hey.” He caught her hand instinctively and rubbed it gently. “Oh, man. I thought you were—”

  “They did it.”

  “What?”

  “Romeo, they finally did it. Oh, my God.”

  He squeezed her hand but received nothing in response. “I don’t know what’s going on, but you had some kind of seizure, I think, and you were bleeding, and there’s a hospital in—”

  “No. No, don’t take me there. We can’t… I can’t…” Lily slid her fingers out of his and raised both hands to her mouth. “There’s no way she survived that. I didn’t know if I would. She’s… I felt everything.”

  “Okay, slow down.”

  “She’s gone. I know she’s gone. I felt her, only for a second, and there was so much pain.” Her breath caught in her throat and she found she couldn’t breathe at all except in short, sharp bursts that hardly pulled in any air.

  “Woah, woah.” Romeo almost tore his seatbelt in half before he finally threw the buckle against the seat. Quickly, he climbed over the center console and sat beside her, running a hand through her hair. “Okay, breathe, Lily. That’s all you need to think about right now. Just breathe.” He took deep breaths with her for a minute until she could finally catch her breath and the panic subsided.

  A cold shiver raced up her spine, and she tried to blink away the tears that came on way too quickly. “She’s gone.”

  “We don’t know that, Lil. There’s no way to be sure about it.”

  Lily turned her head slowly to meet his gaze and almost couldn’t see him. “Romeo, I felt it. I felt her, and what they did to her, and then nothing. I felt her leave.”

  “Maybe she only passed out like you did.” He shook his head and caught her hand again. “Hey, listen to me. Whatever they did to her freaked us both out, okay? Because it affected you too.” She leaned away from him, but he pulled her back. “Lily. Stop. We don’t know for sure.”

  “Then why did I feel that?” She pulled in a deep breath and tried to exhale slowly, although it came out in another shudder. “It felt like she died. And I was right there with her.” She sniffed, wiped under her nose with her forearm, and glanced at the flakes of dried blood. “This is mine?” She touched her upper lip again and felt more dry blood there too.

  “Yeah. You…” He swallowed. “That was a bad one. Aside from the fact that I almost crashed the RV into another car, I am so glad you woke up.”

  She shook her head and squinted through the windshield. “Where are we?”

  “We’re about to reach Sirte, I think.”

  “How long was I out?”

  “A little over an hour.”

  She looked at him again and finally squeezed his hand in return. “Are you okay?”

  Romeo tilted his head and shrugged. “I’m better now.”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “You don’t have to be sorry.” He leaned forward, kissed her temple, and wrapping his arms around her quickly when she pressed her forehead into his chest and took in another ragged breath. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Lily. I’m only glad you’re okay.”

  “For now.” She realized she’d clutched a fistful of his shirt and gently released it. “I don’t even know how okay I am. That was…that was definitely the worst thing I can think of right now. I just…” She took a moment to pull herself together, nodded, and leaned back in the seat. “Don’t take me to a hospital. I’m fine. I need to look for her.” She tried to stand, but he held her shoulders and eased her down.

  “Maybe it’s a good idea to wait. Only for a few minutes.”

  “She might not have a few minutes. I’m serious. I have to try this.”

  “Lily, you were convulsing on the floor and bleeding from your ears. I think you need to rest for a second. At least let me get you some water. See if there’s anything else we need to address first with you before you…exhaust yourself again trying to pull out your raven totem. You haven’t even learned exactly how to do that yet.”

  She stared at him, swallowed, and gritted her teeth. “I’m going to cast that spell, and I’m going to look for her. If she’s still alive, I’ll find her.”

  “Lily—”

  “I really don’t want to have to force you out of my way, so please. Don’t make me.”

  He studied the cold glint in her eyes, one of which twitched a little as she stared obdurately at him. Knowing this was one standoff he’d never manage to win, Romeo nodded. “Okay.” He stood from the center console, stepped over it, and extended a hand
although he almost thought she’d refuse his help. She took it, though, and let him support her up and out of the passenger seat. “I want you to find her too,” he added gently and released her hand. “But you don’t have to try to use your raven totem. I don’t think that’s the safest thing for you right now.”

  Lily tilted her head and bit her lip as she regarded him with a trace of impatience in her expression. “I don’t have any other choice.”

  “You do, actually.”

  “What?”

  He scratched the back of his head, gritted his teeth, and ran a hand through his dark curls. “I can’t believe I’m actually saying this, but at this point, it might even be safer than you using magic that takes far more out of you than you have right now.” She opened her mouth to question him again, but he stopped her with a raised hand. “Just…hold on. I’ll be right back.” He turned halfway, paused, and decided against whatever he was going to say and went quickly into the bedroom.

  Lily grimaced and focused on breathing slowly. I’ll find you, Mom. If you’re still…if you’re there, I’ll find you. We’re so close. She scratched an itch below her ear and found another crust of dried blood beneath her fingernails. “Jeeze.”

  Romeo cleared his throat as he stepped out of the bedroom and moved through the RV toward her. “Okay. I didn’t say anything about it because I’m fairly sure we both feel the same way. I also hoped we had enough on our own that you wouldn’t need it.” He stopped in front of her and stared at his clenched fist.

  “Please, just tell me,” she said, amazed that after everything, her voice didn’t shake at all.

  With a sigh, he settled his gaze on her. “This is probably our best bet.”

  “Romeo…”

  He opened his hand and glanced at it again. She thought she was seeing things until she closed her eyes for a moment and opened them again with no change to what rested in his hand. “How did you get that?” She pointed vaguely at the silver heron coin that winked at her beneath the Winnebago’s overhead lights.