Any Witch Way (The Witch Next Door Book 3)

by Judith Berens

  “It can’t be that hot.” Romeo tried to scoop a few chunks between his fingers and gave up. “Yeah, they gotta be born without nerve endings in their fingers.” He looked at one woman in a bright-yellow dress who’d stopped to offer them wooden cups of water. “Thanks.”

  “Thank you.” She beamed at them, her dark eyes shining within a round, sun-browned face.

  “Can you tell me what’s in this?” He gestured to his plate.

  “The best of this season’s crops. Corn, beans, squash and our own spices from the gardens. Tiko brought some coffee back from—” She turned and shouted, “Tiko! The coffee came from Veracruz?”

  “Yeah. The uncle in Plan de Ayutla brought it through.”

  She smiled at the visitors again. “Coffee from Veracruz for a little better flavor. We’ve made it last a long time.”

  “That’s what I smelled.” Lily sniffed her plate again and tried once more to snag a few pieces of chopped vegetables. She could only touch the pieces around the edge but at least she could taste what she’d be able to enjoy when it all finally cooled down. “This is amazing.”

  “Good.” The woman nodded vigorously.

  “So it’s all…vegetables?” Romeo asked. “No meat?”

  “No, no. We don’t eat animal flesh. Sometimes, we find eggs, but it’s past the season for those now. Eat. You won’t even taste the difference.” She flicked her hand toward his plate, turned at someone else’s shout, and left to tend to someone else’s request.

  “They don’t eat meat.” He stared at his plate with a small frown. “This is a vegetarian jungle party.”

  Lily laughed. “It’s actually really good. Try it.”

  “Yeah, okay.” He lifted the cup of water for a sip first.

  “Oh, wait.” She leaned toward him and tapped the rim of his cup. A yellow light flared on the surface of the water and she did the same to her own. “Just…you know. Drinking water in Mexico, right?”

  He smirked. “I bet these people already know how to clean their water, Lil. They’re witches too.”

  “Right.” She shrugged. “But they can also eat straight from a cookfire with their bare hands. I’m only saying what they’re used to might actually hurt us.”

  “Okay.” He held her gaze over the rim of his cup as he took a long sip. “Well, at least it tastes pain-free.”

  More villagers came to serve themselves plates. All of them came to personally greet their guests—again—and a few even sat beside the foreigners for quick conversations. Lily caught sight of Rosalía skipping around through her people with a small plate of her own. When Filipe appeared behind her to snatch a handful from her plate, the girl spun and smacked him. They both laughed and sat together and shared it.

  “You know, I think it’s harder for these people to leave than Aluino let on,” Lily said and leaned toward Romeo so hopefully, no one would overhear.

  “Yeah, I probably wouldn’t wanna leave a place like this either if kids weren’t being kidnapped. I’ve only seen maybe three or four besides the twins.”

  “I know. Do you think it’s all the same kinda thing? People snatching them to take them to Oaxaca?”

  “I have no idea. There isn’t really a way to know that, though, is there?” He frowned and chewed his expression reflected his distaste at the whole situation.

  “Not unless we happen to catch the assholes in the act.”

  “Part of me hopes we do before we leave.” He gazed at all the villagers and the celebration officially intended for the two children out of so many who’d actually come home. “The other part of me does not want to crash this party.”

  “I know.” She scooped up a handful of the vegetable dish and stuck it in her mouth. “Oh, wow,” she said around her food. “I think I could eat this every day.”

  “Without meat?”

  “Try it.”

  He didn’t say anything when he finally tasted the meal but his eyes widened and he didn’t stop eating.

  When the food was finished—which took long enough with everyone milling around, taking more helpings, and trying to get the visitors to eat more even after they were stuffed—there was a brief lull in the conversation.

  Romeo squinted and looked around. “I have a feeling there’s something else coming.”

  “Really?”

  A loud cheer rang out from the far side of the village. A man with a large drum under his arm stepped through the crowd. Behind him came another man who thrust a wooden flute into the air, and a laughing woman pushed him jokingly from behind. The trio stopped a few paces away from those eating around the fire and sat together in the dirt.

  The man with the drum pointed at Romeo and Lily. “For good fortune, eh?” He struck his drum and the sound seemed to echo back at them from everywhere in the mountainous jungle.

  The beat reminded her of the storyteller and her clan in New Mexico. This man’s beat wasn’t nearly as demanding as Amal’s five apprentices who played to the blind woman’s magical stories, but it carried the same liveliness. The other man added his flute and the woman broke out in wordless song. There was far more celebration in the performance and almost the same level of mystery Amal the storyteller had woven with her presence.

  One by one, the villagers seated everywhere on the packed dirt stood to dance. Women laughed and spun with their partners. Spectators hooted and clapped. Anyone who felt like moving to the drums and the flute and the singer’s clear voice did exactly that. By the time Lily felt like her stomach could handle moving at all, almost everyone was up and dancing and the sun barely peeked over the closest mountain, cutting off direct sunlight fairly early in the evening there.

  “Okay.” She turned to Romeo. “I wanna dance.”

  He laughed. “No one’s stopping you.”

  “With you.”

  “No. I ate way too much vegetarian stew.”

  “That’s not an excuse.” She pushed to her feet and offered him her hand. “Come on. Dance with me.”

  “Lily…”

  A man appeared out of nowhere and hooked his elbows under Romeo’s arms from behind. “You do not tell a woman no when she wants to dance.” He tried to lift the werewolf, which presented some difficulty until two more villagers joined him to hoist him to his feet. “You see?” The first man laughed and the others echoed the sound as all of them thumped him on the back. “There is nothing to stop you.” He grinned and wiggled to the music. His feet shuffled across the dirt until he ended his demonstration with a quick spin and an exaggerated toss of his arms in the air. Everyone around them laughed again and the man clapped briskly. “Dance!”

  The others joined in around them, and Romeo looked at Lily with wide eyes and laughed. “I can’t dance.”

  “Neither can he,” she muttered, her attention on the man who’d tried to lift a six-foot-two werewolf on his own. “It doesn’t matter.” She grasped his hands and pulled him through the dancers, watching their bare feet on the dirt and the way they stomped instead of stepping lightly. “You’ll regret it if you don’t.”

  He rolled his eyes but squeezed her hands and stamped to the drums and the flute and the singing with the rest of them. When she threw her head back and laughed, she didn’t know if it was from the sight of him trying to copy everyone else or from the fact that she hadn’t had this much fun in a long time.

  Seventeen

  The dancing seemed almost endless. Eventually, even Lily had to call it quits for a while, sweaty and out of breath and feeling incredible anyway. “We can sit this song out if you want.” She smoothed the hair away from her head and looked at Romeo.

  His face was flushed, even in the flames coming from the cookfire that now boasted tall flames in the center of the village. Smaller torches had been lit atop stakes in the ground in front of every home once the light faded entirely from the hillside. He laughed and leaned toward her. “So you do have a limit.”

  “It’s only a little break.” She scrunched her nose in mock defiance. “If yo
u wanna keep going, go right ahead.”

  “Nope.” He retreated toward a low wooden bench that had been moved from someone’s front porch with a number of others, sat with a grunt, and sighed. “I only wanna sit for a minute to watch.”

  “That sounds really nice, actually.” She sat beside him, and the rest of the village danced and laughed and talked and passed some kind of pipe around that hadn’t yet made its way toward their guests.

  “Do you have any idea what they’re smoking?”

  “Nope.” She rubbed her palms down her shorts. “Whatever it is, I’m good.” She glanced at a man in shorts and a shirt with much less color than the rest of his people. He sat on the bottom step of the staircase up to the largest building, his forearms on his thighs, and didn’t smile at anyone. “Have you talked to that guy sitting on the stairs?”

  Romeo took a minute to locate him. “Nope. He doesn’t look very happy, though, does he?”

  “That’s probably why everyone’s leaving him alone, I guess.” She smiled at a woman who passed and offered them more food. “Oh. No, thank you.” He placed a hand on his stomach and shook his head. The woman continued with a laugh. “He’s been there for a while, simply sitting there and glaring at everybody.”

  “It’s a little weird that anyone would be grumpy at a party like this with kidnapped kids being brought back home and everything.”

  “I know.” The man on the steps swept his gaze across the celebration and the bonfire and the dancing. Lily smiled when their eyes met and simply continued to scrutinize everyone and everything without any reaction at all to her friendliness. “I don’t think he’s upset about the kids. Or us, honestly.” The minute she said it, he stood, moved away from the stairs, and stalked off through the village huts, his hands clasped behind his back as he watched and moved through the flickering shadows.

  “Seriously, there’s always a Debby Downer.” Romeo shrugged. “And if he does have a problem with us, we’ll handle that when he brings it up, won’t we?”

  “Yeah.” Lily forced herself to stop watching the man so she didn’t miss out on enjoying herself here as much as she could. “But I can’t help feeling he knows something that would make things much easier for us if we knew it too.”

  He laughed and bumped her shoulder with his own. “You could say that about almost anybody, Lil.”

  She smirked at him. “Well, excuse me for appreciating the things that make people tick.”

  “No, I like it.”

  After another round of dancing and a second villager who decided to join in the music with his own flute, the people passed around a plate of something like sweet corn pancakes coated in crystalized sugar. “I’m about to eat way too many of these and quickly regret it.” Lily snagged one more off the plate before she passed it to the next villager who came to move the plate along.

  “You know, somehow, I feel much safer eating as many of these as I want.”

  “As opposed to what?”

  Romeo’s nostrils flared at the memory despite how amazing the cakes tasted. “Those bran muffins.”

  That brought a laugh from them both before a small, cool shiver triggered goosebumps to rise along Lily’s arms and legs. “I never expected it to get so cold here at night.”

  “Well, mountains plus rainy season plus stuffing our faces…” He shrugged. “Do you want me to grab you something?”

  “No, I got it.” She stood from the wooden bench and gestured at the cakes in his hand. “You hang out and enjoy those.” He laughed when she winked and she made her way through the dancing, laughing, high-spirited villagers toward the end of the huts around the large meeting hall and the bonfire.

  It was so much darker when she finally emerged from the between the wooden homes and she had to stop for a minute in the packed dirt between the last hut and the Winnebago to stare at the stars. “Wow. We don’t get stars like this at home.”

  “You wouldn’t see the same stars right now in America, anyway.”

  Lily jerked her head toward the drably garbed man who’d sat on the stairs and made no effort to enjoy the celebration. Now, he stood in front of her RV, his hands still clasped behind his back, although he stared at the sky. What’s this guy doing out here with my Winnie? She smiled at him despite the odd circumstances and tried not to jump to any conclusions. “Have you been to the US?”

  “No.” He turned his head to survey even more of the massive blanket of bright stars that spilled across the night sky. “But I have heard many stories.” Finally, he looked away from the sky and met her gaze again, which was easy enough to do beneath all the surprisingly bright starlight. “Not so many about witches and werewolves traveling together, though. Or doing anything together.”

  Please don’t let this turn into another bigoted attempt to kick us out. I held it together in New Mexico but I probably won’t be able to here. She took a deep breath. “I guess Romeo and I are a little different than everyone else.”

  “Yes.” The man nodded slowly, still expressionless. “Different enough to find two of our children and return them. Different enough to be headed to Ichacál already, no?”

  “I know everyone’s talked about it, but we haven’t made our decision yet about traveling with your people.” I’m starting to lean toward going on by ourselves, though.

  “If I had more say in it, we would not make the journey to Ichacál.”

  No matter how long she studied him while they spoke, she couldn’t think of any reason why the man seemed so concerned. “I thought the temple was a safe place for anyone seeking protection.”

  He folded his arms and frowned. “That is what we have heard. But hearing does not always make a thing so.”

  He sounds like my mom’s riddles. “What’s your name?”

  “Neron.” He brought a hand to his chest and inclined his head.

  If she’d had any concern about Neron’s bad mood having anything to do with her and Romeo in his village, it would have been wiped away by the incredibly genuine gesture and the way he spoke to her. He really means it. “Well, it's nice to meet you, Neron. I’m Lily.”

  He nodded. “Everyone knows your name now. My pleasure to speak with you, Lily.”

  “You too.” She smiled at him and felt a little better about not having upset him personally. But if he doesn’t feel right about the healing temple in Guatemala, that’s definitely something I should know. He didn’t return her smile in any way but merely studied her, his hands clasped behind his back again. “So I have to ask what you were doing out here with my RV.” Not like I wouldn’t find out on my own if there’s magic involved. He still deserves a chance to answer honestly.

  “Oh, yes.” Neron turned briefly to eye the Winnie again. “I hear so many stories of…other places beyond these mountains. In my mind, these are completely different worlds. But I have never actually seen a piece of them before now.”

  “Really?” She moved toward the side door as nonchalantly as she could. “I came back to grab a sweater. It’s a lot colder out than I thought it would be.”

  He tilted his head and watched her approach the door. “That is the time of year. At other times, the heat makes you want to sleep in the river.”

  She chuckled at that. “I believe you. And you’re welcome to come in and take a look if you want.” When she held the door open for him, Neron took it and held it open to peer inside with wide, discerning eyes. She walked up the steps and turned to gesture for him to enter. “It’s actually pretty cool in here.”

  “No, thank you.” His gaze moved slowly over the living area and what little of the front seats could be seen from the doorway. “I see enough.”

  Lily studied him a little longer but she only saw genuine curiosity in his eyes. “Okay. I’ll be right back.” She moved swiftly into the bedroom and found a bulky, seldom-worn sweatshirt at the bottom of one drawer inside the wardrobe. I never thought I’d need more layers in Mexico than in South Carolina. But she pulled it over her head, slipped her ponytail
out from under the collar, and stopped on her way toward the door.

  The carved wooden box her mom had left her in vault four-fifty-two caught her attention. I don’t think Neron’s done talking. I might as well take this if we’re gonna end up talking about Ichacál. She leaned over the bed to pull the heavy box from the shelf in the recessed niche, nodded, and took it with her.

  When she returned to the Winnie’s living area, the side door was closed again and Neron definitely hadn’t changed his mind about coming inside. “Huh.” she opened the door and peered outside. The man had taken a seat in the packed dirt outside the RV, his legs crossed and his hands resting in his lap. “You didn’t have to wait outside.” It felt right to stop a few feet away and sit near him on the ground.

  “I understand.” He took a deep breath, his eyes closed. “It is two different things to admire something from without and to step inside another’s home. For now, I feel more useful observing. But thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.” This guy speaks in double meanings too, doesn’t he? “You said you’ve heard stories about places like where I’m from. I have a feeling not many people come through your village with stories to tell.” He grunted and it sounded like an attempt at laughter. “Do you go looking for the stories, then?”

  Neron opened his eyes and turned slowly to look at her. “I have never been more than maybe twenty miles from my village. The stories come looking for me.” His gaze fell to the carved wooden box in her hand, but he merely looked away again toward the black silhouettes of the village huts and the orange glow of the bonfire flickering between them.

  “Really?” He might’ve been a storyteller if he had the white hair. So, this is new. “What do you mean by that?”

  He tilted his head in a gesture that might have been defensive and spoke as if he knew what he said wasn’t the best news but that he’d come to terms with it a long time before. “I am a death witch.”

  Lily paused. “A necromancer?”