Don't Give a Witch (Bless Your Witch Book Six)

by Amy Boyles

“Uh,” I said. “That’s just so disgusting.”

  “Sometimes magic is disgusting,” Grandma said. “Not always, but often you’ve just got to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty.”

  “Or your tongue,” Reid chirped. “Sometimes you just gotta get your tongue covered in slime.”

  I wedged my eyes to slits and shot invisible flaming arrows at her head. “Thanks for that.”

  “You’re welcome,” she said cheerfully.

  I turned back to the frog, extended my tongue and washed it down the amphibian’s back.

  “Sometimes magic is disgusting,” Grandma said. “Not always, but often you’ve just got to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty.”

  “Or your tongue,” Reid chirped. “Sometimes you just gotta get your tongue covered in slime.”

  I stared at both of them, blinking. Did I hear correctly? Oh my goodness, I had. Both my grandma and Reid had repeated the exact conversation. I’d gone back in time three seconds!

  “It worked,” I yelled. “It worked. That frog will totally take you back in time three seconds. Oh my gosh. That’s totally crazy, y’all. Totally crazy. I’m absolutely amazed!” I rushed over to Sera and yanked her off the bed. “You’ve got to try it. Seriously. Do it. Now.”

  She eyed me suspiciously.

  “Hey,” Reid said. “What about me? I totally believe in the frog.”

  “Fine. Then you try.”

  Reid twisted her hair back with one hand and ran her tongue over the creature.

  Her eyes nearly popped from their sockets. “Holy moly! That was awesome.”

  Sera sighed with dramatic flair. “Fine. Give me the frog, and I’ll see what all the fuss is about.”

  While my sisters continued to play with the creature, an idea started forming in my head. I turned to Milly.

  “So this frog only goes back three seconds, but you said others can go back farther. How far are we talking, here?”

  Milly stroked her chin as if she was feeling for rogue whiskers that she hadn’t shaved off that morning. “Only about twenty-four hours, and that’s rare.”

  “So one can take me back maybe a day?”

  Milly nodded. “Theoretically, yes. But most of them only go back a minute at the most.”

  “And there’d be no way to know without trying, right?”

  Milly nodded. “You’d have to lick the frog to be certain. Though the ones with red spots tend to go back in time farther than the others.”

  I watched as Sera put the creature down and patted its head. How cute. They must’ve bonded.

  “And where do they come up again? Where can I catch one?”

  “At the spring,” Milly said. “Have Roman show you where it is. But you have to go at night. That’s when they come out. And the slimy little suckers are hard to catch, but once you’ve caught one, it’ll stay with you.”

  “Great,” I said. “Thank you.”

  My grandmothers finished up with the frog and left the room.

  “That was fun,” Reid said.

  Sera yawned. “Yay, great.” She glanced at her watch. “Oh, we’ve got to hurry. I’m in the second half of the competition. You coming, Dylan?”

  I didn’t answer. Instead I was thinking about frogs and getting one that night.

  “Dylan,” Sera warned. “What are you thinking about?”

  “It occurred to me,” I said. “Y’all know what I told you about Chasity.”

  “Yep,” Sera said. “We know. Why? What’s that got to do with anything?”

  “I wonder if I could find a frog that would go back a day.”

  Sera shook her head. “Why? Are you going to stalk Chasity so you can figure out who stole her memory?”

  A huge grin spread across my face. “That’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

  FIFTEEN

  When I got back to the competition, I saw Gladiolas by the entrance with Damon Devlin. Devlin’s expression was sour, his mouth drawn into a little pucker.

  Gladiolas threw her hands into the air. “If we don’t have a prize, we might as well cancel the competition. What the council planned on doing in the future will happen anyway.”

  Devlin paled to the color of bone. “No competition? But there must be a contest!”

  “Damon, you know as well as I do that we’re lucky to even have it this year.”

  I drifted on past, sneaking up the stairs. Gladiolas found me a few minutes later.

  “I’m sorry you had to hear that,” Gladiolas said.

  I sank down into a chair. “What was that all about?”

  She sighed. “Entries have been low over the past few contests. The council is considering canceling the competition completely. But now that the prize is missing, the community has renewed interest. You’ve seen the flood of people here at the castle.”

  “Yeah, but they don’t get to watch the contest,” I said.

  Gladiolas fingered through her wave of bangs. “They will tomorrow. The final day of the contest is always public.”

  My stomach dropped to the floor. “Are you serious? I’m supposed to compete again tomorrow.”

  Gladiolas cuffed me on the shoulder. “Better take some nausea medicine then, because the elite of the witching world will have all eyes on you, Dylan Apel.”

  I wedged my back into the chair. “You know what? There’s probably no point in me competing. I mean, my score is dreadful since I only worked magic yesterday.”

  Gladiolas flashed me a motherly smile. “I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

  I dropped my forehead. “Great. Time to get ready for an audience. Be sure to have a vomit bag standing by.”

  Roman stopped by my room later that night. After greeting my sisters, he leaned against the door frame, crossed his arms and said, “Want some supper?”

  “I’d love some.” We left the room and headed out of the castle. “You’re not taking me someplace where I’m going to make an idiot of myself, are you?”

  Roman coughed into his hand. It was actually a chuckle that turned into a cough. I tried not to let that make me feel any more like a moron than I already did, especially after the night before when I basically assaulted Frederick Cobblestone.

  “I don’t think your social calendar could handle it if you got yourself into any more trouble,” Roman said.

  I frowned. “I’m not following.”

  He took my hand and pressed it to his chest. “Yesterday you got yourself suspended, tomorrow you’ve got to compete in the Magical Abilities contest. I really don’t know if you could handle much more.”

  “Ha-ha. It’s not as if the cheating thing was my fault. I didn’t do that.”

  Roman glanced down at me, his green eyes full of mischief. He smiled, and the corners of his eyes crinkled, the dark lashes framing his sea-colored eyes in a way that almost made drool drip from my mouth.

  “Right, none of it’s your fault,” Roman jabbed.

  I exhaled. “It’s not as if I go looking for trouble or anything.”

  Roman simply stared at me quietly. He got a goopy look in his eyes, the kind where you knew the person loved you. Me, I guess. Not you.

  You know what I mean.

  “Dylan, I think trouble would find you no matter how hard you tried to avoid it.”

  “You think?”

  He nodded. “In fact, I think you could do something as crazy as find new witches and help them with their powers, and even then trouble would be seeking you out.”

  I nibbled on the fingers of my free hand. “Find new witches? Help them through the whole transition thing?”

  Roman sighed. “I wasn’t trying to put ideas in your head.”

  “You didn’t,” I lied. “Anyway, what are we out here doing?”

  He tugged me toward a small pool. White lights had been strung on the surrounding magnolia trees. Their thick, sweet fragrance filled the late afternoon air. Pink and blue streaked the sky as the sun sank beyond the trees. Roman pulled back a shrub to reveal a basket an
d blanket.

  “Are we having a picnic?” I said.

  He rubbed a hand down his chest. “We’re having a picnic.”

  “This might be the most romantic thing you’ve ever done for me.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Paris doesn’t count?”

  “Scratch that,” I said. “Paris totally counts. Okay, this might be the second most romantic thing you’ve ever done for me.”

  “Great.” He tugged a bottle of sparkling water from the spring and opened it. “I say we toast to that.”

  We sat on the blanket, and I watched with misty eyes as Roman pulled out cheese, strawberries, fried chicken, and potato salad. He spread it out before me and grinned widely.

  “What do you think?”

  I wiped the mist from my eyes. “I think…I think…” I think I want to marry you is what I almost said. But instead what came out was, “I think I’m starving.”

  Roman’s grin didn’t break for even half a beat. “Then let’s eat.”

  We sat and chatted for an hour about everything that was going on. Roman had a few ideas on who’d stolen Never Forget, but he wasn’t in a hurry to pin the thievery on anybody.

  “It’s a double-edged sword,” Roman said, chewing on a hunk of cheese. “I give up the thief and Pearbottom takes in my dad. I don’t give up the thief and I get arrested.”

  I gripped his arm. “You can’t get arrested. You can’t go to jail.”

  He smiled again. “I’m not worried about it. We’ll get it figured out.”

  I glanced around at the pool and said, “Hey, is this where the Tempus frogs come out?”

  Roman scratched behind his ear and said grudgingly, “Yes. This is the spot.”

  “Why’d you say it like that?”

  “Because your grandmother told me you’d have some sort of harebrained idea and would want to catch one.”

  I fisted my hands on my hips. “It is harebrained, but it’s a great idea.”

  Roman stretched his legs out in front of him. “Not sure I want to hear it.”

  I raised my nose high in the air. “It’s the most brilliant idea I’ve ever had.”

  “Can’t be.”

  “How’s that?”

  “Because that was when you decided to date me.”

  “Okay, second to that is this idea.”

  He crossed his arms. “You’re going to turn back time. Why?”

  A faint croaking ballooned up around us. I eyed the pool intently, unsure of exactly how this whole frog thing was going to go down.

  “Where do they come out?” I said, scanning the ground.

  “From the sides of the pool.” Roman rose and dusted off his jeans. He pulled me to standing beside him. “You’ve got to be quick, though. These little buggers are about as fast as it gets. They don’t want to be caught.”

  I eyed him skeptically. “Have you done this before? Tried to catch one?”

  He flashed me a devilishly handsome smile. “I tried yesterday.”

  “Yesterday?”

  “Yeah, well they only surface every seven years.”

  Voices drifted from behind us. People were walking down the path.

  “It’s probably going to get crowded,” Roman said. “Better get into position.”

  The voices got louder. I could hear them clearly by the time they almost reached us.

  “How could you do it?” one voice said. “You’ve done that a thousand times!”

  “You keep asking me,” came the responding whimper. “I don’t know. I just got nervous, I guess.”

  “Nervous, my giant behind.”

  I suppressed a giggle. Roman clamped his hand over my mouth.

  “Hey,” I said through his palm.

  He shot me a shut it look.

  I looked down the path. There stood Horrible Henrietta and Lucinda, the giant stage mom. Why would Roman be telling me to be quiet?

  “You’ve done magic like that a thousand times,” Lucinda yelled. Her dark hair swirled wildly around her face. “You’ve been screwing up a lot lately. Like you don’t want to do this anymore!”

  Henrietta whirled on her mom. “There’s not even a prize. It’s gone. I don’t know why you care!”

  Lucinda pulled her hand back as if she was going to slap her daughter. Henrietta shoved her face forward as if she welcomed the blow.

  Lucinda inhaled a giant pulse of air and slowly released it. “Come on. People will be coming to catch the frogs any minute now. We need to get out of here.”

  They walked down the path and out of sight. Once they were out of earshot, I turned to Roman as he pulled his hand from my mouth.

  “Do you think—”

  Something whacked the back of my leg. I glanced down and saw something blur past.

  “What was that?” I said.

  “A frog,” Roman said.

  “Like a Tempus frog?” I said.

  “The one and only.”

  I threw my hands up in total girlie-girl style. “Oh my gosh! The frogs! We have to catch one. Help me, Roman. Do you have a bucket?”

  He pointed to the picnic basket. “That’s what I’ve got.”

  I grabbed the picnic basket and leaped toward the fountain. I was so glad Roman loved me because I was a thousand percent sure that I looked like a total idiot at that moment. I had the basket clutched in my fingers and was standing on the edge of the pool waiting for a frog to catapult straight into it.

  “Where are they?” I said. “Come on froggies, come jump in my basket. Don’t worry; I’m not going to eat you.”

  Roman scratched the back of his head. “I didn’t know when we got together that you talked to animals like they were babies.”

  I paused, glancing up at him. “This is not how I talk to babies.”

  “Good thing. Because you seem a bit too needy. I think you’d scare them away.”

  I shot him a hateful look.

  “If looks could skewer, I’d be barbecued.”

  I exhaled in frustration. “Can you please help me catch a frog?”

  “Sure, but they don’t come out there.”

  I swiveled my head around, trying to spy a frog. “Then where should I be?”

  He pointed to a spot behind me. “Back there.”

  At the back edge of the pool. That’s where I was supposed to go. “Come on,” I said. “Don’t you want to catch one?”

  “To be honest, it’s more fun to watch you.”

  I wasn’t sure if that meant he was laughing with me or at me, and I really didn’t care.

  A crowd of people showed up at that time, scattering around the pool, all their eyes gleaming as they prepared to catch some frogs.

  I reached the side of the pool and waited. In a few seconds, something shot out and smacked into my stomach.

  I screamed and threw up the basket. The thing plopped to my feet. I had covered my eyes because I really don’t like nature. To be honest, it kinda scares me, but I uncovered them in time to glance down at my toes.

  “Catch it,” Roman said. “It’s a frog.”

  So it was. It blinked yellow eyes at me. I fumbled on the ground for my basket. My fingers brushed the edge of the wicker. I grabbed it and brought it down.

  Before I could contain it, the frog rocketed off the ground like a firecracker on amphibian steroids.

  “Ah,” I screamed again. “Where is it? Is it on the back of my head?”

  Roman sidled up beside me. “It’s gone.”

  I glared at him. “I thought you were having too much fun watching me make a fool out of myself to help.”

  “It’s getting crowded. I thought I’d help speed along the process.”

  “You mean, because you’re a man,” I said, trying to sound super superior.

  He took the basket from me. “No, because I’m an extra set of hands. Don’t be so sexist, Dylan.”

  My mouth moved, but nothing came out as I fumbled to find the right words to counter. I had nothing. Wow. How amazing.

  Roman grin
ned. “Cat got your tongue?”

  I folded my arms in mock defiance. “Of course not. I wasn’t being sexist, I’ll have you know. I was just—”

  “Being yourself,” he finished.

  “Oh, you are seriously annoying me right now.”

  He flashed me a smile filled with a perfect set of teeth. “Good. You can show me how annoyed you are later. Perhaps naked.”

  “I am not about to get naked,” I fumed.

  “Even better,” Roman said, still smiling. “It’ll give me something to work toward.” I was thinking up a really great reply when voices drifted toward us. “Come on. We’ve got to hurry to catch a frog.” He aimed the basket toward the pool. “It’s about to be quite a show around here.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Roman nodded to the pool. “Watch.”

  The water’s surface quivered as the tension flowed out to the bank of the pool. All was quiet except for the small turbulence. The tremble shifted, and air hissed through a pocket of water, jettisoning up into the air.

  I leaned back. The pool rumbled, and the water began to roll like waves out from the center.

  “What in the world?” I said.

  “You may want to shield your eyes,” Roman said.

  “What for?”

  “This.”

  A geyser of water exploded up into the air. Following the burst came a flood of frog. Ew. It was like a giant had vomited out a thousand of them. It was gross and they smelled like yucky amphibians, but Roman had that basket ready.

  A herd of them plummeted to the lip of land surrounding the pool. The little suckers only stayed for half a second before they leaped like rockets out and away from us. It was like an explosion of frog’s legs.

  Roman aimed the basket toward them, but the frogs shot past. They whizzed by so quickly they lifted my hair and clothing like a strong breeze.

  The crowd of witches and wizards shouted a chorus of, “Grab it! Catch it! Get that one!”

  Roman and I worked to nab one of the slimy little creatures, but they were seriously on speed. They moved like rockets and were impossible to catch. After ten minutes or so of frogs expelling from the water and shooting past us to reach who knows where, my arms hurt.

  A sheen of sweat covered me from head to toe. My hair was plastered to my face and neck, and my clothes gripped my body in ways that I didn’t approve of. I was exhausted and needed a shower.