A subdued smirk lifted the corner of his mouth. “Your magic that lets us understand two different languages…I do not think it captures full translations.”
“The spell’s that obvious, huh?”
He flashed her a sidelong glance. “It could be improved.”
She laughed. “Fair enough. I’ll keep that in mind.” They were silent for a moment. “So if necromancer isn’t the right word, what’s a death witch?”
The man uttered a low hum. “I find my magic in the death of living things. A type of…exchange. There has only been one of us at a time in this village. For balance, yes?”
“Can you speak to the dead?” Her hands tightened on the wooden box in her lap as she thought of Amal the storyteller and the woman’s inability to connect to any spirits wanting to pass a message through to Lily.
“I can.”
“I assume that’s where all your stories came from, then.”
Neron met her gaze fully with wide eyes and nodded. “Most of them are freely given. Sometimes, I must…compel the spirits to reveal the truths they hide.” He studied her for a moment longer before his small smirk returned. “Most prefer not to discuss the work of a death witch, even my own people. You do not seem to mind.”
Lily shrugged. “Death is only scary because we make it that way, either by trying to avoid it or trying to command it. As long as you’re not planning to raise bodies from the ground or send the dead after anyone because you like the way it makes you feel, I have nothing against a death witch.”
The man’s chuckle started out small and hoarse, then grew into a surprisingly warm laugh. “Are you certain you have never dealt with death magic?” She grinned and nodded. “Then I admire you for understanding what most people never allow themselves to accept. You are correct, Lily. Death itself is nothing to fear. My people embrace me because what I do is necessary to balance what magic brings to them. But I am always left to do these things in solitude. At least I now know a stranger who does not shy away so easily.”
“Well, there are many worse things than death. Like children stolen from their families for who knows what.” She nodded toward the grouping of homes.
“Yes.” Neron sighed and the brief moment of lightheartedness faded. “This is why I do not agree with the journey to Ichacál. It does not feel like a good decision to go. It does not feel truly safe, and I have tried to understand why since the day the healing temple was suggested. But…I cannot see the reasons. I cannot hear the warning itself, only the echo of it.”
“Can the dead really give you answers like that?”
He sagged a little as if the question had touched a nerve. “Possibly, but as yet, they have not. If I had some answer—some proof—to show my people, they would listen. If I could show them why this feels like a danger to all of us who wish to leave, they would find some other way to protect what children have not met with tragedy in a strange place. May the spirits provide them some comfort, wherever they are.”
“You can’t find the kids, either?”
“I still try every night. Death knows many things, but it is not omniscient. It simply is.”
Okay, being slightly grumpy at a giant celebration suddenly seems like holding it together fairly well. This guy carries a huge responsibility on his shoulders. “Well, I hope you still plan to go with them.” She stared at the firelight through the buildings. “Whoever’s decided to pack up and head out for Ichacál will still need the kind of knowledge you can give them, right? And protection. It’s always good to have someone with you who questions what everyone else believes. And hey, if something does happen, I imagine your people will be far more open to hearing it from you than from strangers like Romeo and me.”
Neron stiffened and gave her a sharp glance of understanding. “You do not think the temple is safe, either, do you?”
“I hope it is.” And if it’s not, I probably owe these people the truth about why I’m going anyway. “We’re not seeking shelter there. And we’re not exactly going as tourists, either.”
“I see.”
“It’s a long story, Neron, but basically, I’m looking for my mom. When I get to the next place, I find something she left for me. I don’t have clear proof, either, but this was the last thing I found.” Taking a chance on the man being nothing more than a witch bearing a heavy magical responsibility, she clicked the golden clasp on the box and opened the lid. After a long breath, she grasped the creepy stone head from the temple at Ichacál—according to her mom’s friend Melissa Bore—and offered it to Neron. “I was told this came from the healing temple and that it’s some kind of good-luck charm, and that’s all I have to go on. If I’m right, I’ll find something else my mom left at Ichacál and I’ll be one step closer to finding her.” She nodded and pushed the stone head a little closer toward him.
He shook his head. “I mean no disrespect, but I would rather not touch this, either.” He looked at her with a frown of both embarrassment and concern. “I do not think keeping this with you as you travel will bring you good fortune.”
“It’s simply a feeling you get, huh?” The man nodded. “Yeah.” She put the head in the box and closed the latch again. “It’s creeped me out too since I found it.” And anything that gives a death witch a bad feeling isn’t exactly the best talisman.
Eighteen
The villagers showed no signs of bringing the celebration to an end by the time Lily and Romeo were ready to turn in for the night. No one pleaded with them to stay or tried to stop them, and with a few goodnights to those they passed, they headed off to the Winnie and bed.
“So we’ve stumbled onto…what? Four parties now since we left Charleston?” He sat on the edge of the bed and kicked his shoes off. “It’s totally different when one is actually thrown for us. Honestly, it kinda makes me a little antsy.”
She laughed and hauled the bulky sweatshirt over her head before she shoved it back into the bottom drawer. “Well, at least you looked like you were having a good time.”
“I was. But it…it feels weird to be thanked so much like that for doing something any good person with a sliver of a moral compass would do.”
That made her pause and she turned to look at him. “I don’t know if most good people would’ve been able to find those kids in the back of a broken-down van. Stopping to help someone with car trouble’s one thing.” She frowned. “Getting physically involved to stop a kidnapping is totally something else. Honestly, if you weren’t with me on this whole treasure-hunt thing, I probably wouldn’t have pulled over. And I definitely wouldn’t have known there were two kid witches hiding in the back.”
“I didn’t know that, either.” When he reached for her, she stepped toward him to stand between his legs. He wrapped his arms around her and tipped his head back to meet her gaze. “I only smelled the magic. And you were there to back me up.”
“That’s what I mean, though. I wouldn’t have picked up on the magic part. You did.” She ran her fingers through his hair. “Not every magical with good intentions has a werewolf with them who digs deeper into a sketchy situation.” She chuckled. “You’re always telling me not to be so hard on myself and not to take all the credit for whatever might go wrong. I think this time you should give yourself more credit. Seriously, you even brought props with you.”
He wrinkled his nose with a wary laugh. “What?”
“Your bag of tools.” Closing his eyes, he shook his head. “Don’t start telling yourself now that you don’t deserve a party being thrown for you. Even if it makes you feel a little antsy.”
With a sigh, he slid his hands onto her hips and pulled her into his lap. “Okay, I definitely didn’t expect you to throw my own pep-talk style back at me.”
Lily laughed and draped her arms around his neck. “I’ve had more than enough time to learn how. Plus, I think it’s important to take the pep talks and the optimism where we can get them right now.”
His smile faded a little as he studied her. “Now would be t
he part where you tell me what’s bothering you.”
“I guess it is, huh?” She slid away from him and onto the bed and crossed her legs in front of her. Romeo’s eyes widened, and he stretched beside her and propped his head in his hand. “When I came back to get my sweater earlier, the man we saw on the stairs was out here at the Winnie.”
“Yeah, I thought you were gone a little long for only a sweater. What happened?”
“We talked for a while. His name’s Neron. Apparently, these people have always had a necromancer around. To balance the rest of their magic, he said.”
“And Neron is their necromancer, huh?”
She took a deep breath. “Yep.”
“So, all I know about necromancers is that they talk to the dead. I think.”
“That’s close enough.” She smirked. “He called himself a death witch, though, and said there’s definitely a difference between the two. I’m not sure how much of that is true, seeing as I don’t know any necromancers and he’s never really left the village. But his magic comes directly from death.”
“Woah.” Romeo raised his eyebrows and his face grew serious. “So he has to kill people to cast spells or something?”
“Well, that would work. I don’t think he’s taken it as far as people. Technically, his magic comes from any kind of death, I think. Plants. Animals.”
“He couldn’t have done a little magic and put meat in that stew?”
She scoffed and shoved his shoulder playfully. “Cut it out about the meat, already.”
He chuckled. “Okay, okay. Sorry. Bad joke. I wouldn’t really wanna eat magical sacrifices anyway.”
Lily rolled her eyes and shook her head but she smiled a little. “No, you probably wouldn’t.”
“So this guy needs death to use his magic. And…everyone else has a problem with it?”
“Not really. He said his people listen to him and respect what he does. They simply don’t want anything to do with it. But he thinks heading out to Ichacál tomorrow is a bad idea.”
“Huh. Any particular reason?”
She tilted her head uncertainly from side to side. “Basically, he has a bad feeling about the whole thing. And the fact that he can’t find anything to prove or disprove his intuition. He talks to spirits too.” She shrugged. “I think it’s actually freaking him out a lot. He reminded me of Amal in New Mexico, right? She got a little nervous too when she couldn’t see my ‘path.’”
“And this Neron guy isn’t used to not finding his answers when he talks to the dead, huh.”
“Yep. That’s basically the gist of it.”
Romeo puffed out a sigh. “Okay, if I had all that going on, I probably wouldn’t be in much of a party mood, either.”
“Right. He’s concerned for his people and thinks the healing temple that’s supposed to be safe is much more dangerous than staying here, even when their kids are being taken.”
“So what sage advice did you give him?”
She laughed and leaned away. “Hey, I can solve riddles and put all kinds of pieces together and whip up a few decent spells.” He snorted. “But I’m not exactly a fountain of wisdom.”
“You’re being modest, huh?”
“No. I’m merely sure that handing out sage advice is one of your superpowers.”
A smile spread slowly over his lips, and he reached ran his hand over her shoulder and down her arm. She uncrossed her legs and lay sideways next to him on the bed. “So what did you tell him?”
“That he should still go with the families heading out tomorrow and they need him to protect them however he can. So if we do find anything that proves the healing temple isn’t such an awesome plan, they can hear the news from someone they know and trust far more than two strangers from the US who happened to save a few kids.”
“Hmm.” He studied her face before he shifted his head away from her a little. “And?”
“And I told him why we’re actually going to Guatemala. I showed him the creepy stone head too.” She nodded toward the shelf, where she’d returned the box and the temple carving. “He didn’t even wanna touch it.”
“Which is probably not a good sign.”
“Right. One more to add to the list.”
Romeo pursed his lips, still not convinced that she’d told him everything. “A few not good signs never stopped you before, Lil. They didn’t stop either of us. So what’s actually on your mind?”
“You’re relentless, aren’t you?”
“You’re deflecting, aren’t you?” He smirked.
“Okay. You win.” She took a deep breath. “I keep thinking about my mom’s last note. The one in four-fifty-two and that box, right? She said…” She closed her eyes to pull up the image of her mother’s handwriting, even though she still had the note. “‘Sometimes, the places that seem the safest turn out to be far more dangerous than we ever imagined. You know how to tell the difference.’ After all that other stuff about friendship and loyalty and rooting ourselves in people we can trust, I thought she was simply trying to be clever. Think about it. She wrote that note years ago, right? When she left everything with Melissa in the first place. But she was weirdly right on target talking about chains and forging our own.”
“Yeah, that felt like a little jibe at me, honestly.”
Lily raised her eyebrows. “I know. And now we’re…what? Halfway to Ichacál, and I think I’m starting to discover what that line about safe places is supposed to mean.”
“You don’t think it’s actually safe.”
“No. I don’t. That stone head in a box gave me a weird feeling from the very beginning. I thought it merely looked creepy. But now, Neron wouldn’t touch it. And he really doesn’t want his people going to this temple.”
“Nope. That’s not very encouraging at all.”
She held his gaze and narrowed her eyes. “So that means my mom left this clue knowing full well that I’d follow it to a place that gives necromancers goosebumps.”
He smirked. “I didn’t think that would make you wanna turn back.”
“It doesn’t. It makes me think that we’re getting really close. And I don’t wanna let myself get too excited if she’s not there. Or if something awful happens at that temple and we have to leave all over again because we can’t stop to fix everyone else’s problems.”
“Oh…” Romeo tucked her hair behind her ears and cupped her cheek tenderly. “My whole ‘people make their own decisions’ speech really got to you, didn’t it?”
Although she rolled her eyes, she had to smile when she nodded against his hand. “I guess it did. You were totally right, though. It’s only that…if we have no idea what we’re gonna find there, I don’t know how to prepare my head for eventually leaving these people and going wherever my mom’s next clue says. If there even is another one.”
“You think your mom would set this all up only to leave everything hanging on a dead end?”
She snorted. “Not even a little.”
“Right. And she wouldn’t tell you to go somewhere if she didn’t think you could handle it. Even if she knew it was dangerous.”
“Except she didn’t tell me anything.”
He chuckled. “You are the most literal person I know.”
“Literally?”
“Totally.” Chuckling, he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer. “So it sounds like you think we should go with these people to the temple.”
“Kinda. If we can’t stay to protect them there, we might as well hang around to help them out as long as we can, right?”
“Lily, from here to Guatemala and what I’m guessing is some other jungle in the mountains is like two weeks on foot. Probably longer if all the kids are coming and these people like to take their time. Which I kinda think they do.” It wasn’t loud or distracting, but they could definitely still hear the music and the voices of the villagers who hadn’t yet felt the need to call it a night.
“Two weeks?” She uttered a little groan.
“Yeah, I didn’t think you’d wanna roll through the rest of Mexico at that pace.”
“I don’t. Maybe we’ll start out with them tomorrow, then make sure nothing happens while they leave here. No more kidnappings or whatever.”
Romeo smiled and hugged. “That sounds like a good middle ground. You know, I saw Rosalía practicing a little illusion earlier tonight.”
“In front of everyone?”
“Yeah. She found her own little corner when you were having your chat with Neron. At the very least, Lil, she could learn a few things from you in the next few days. And I bet you anything she’ll be able to teach her people after that.”
She took a deep breath. “That kinda puts a ton of responsibility on both of us.”
“Hey, that’s great. Isn’t too much responsibility the thing that always drives you to keep going?”
“Okay, now you’re pushin’ it.” Lily pressed against his chest but he held her so close and so tightly, she didn’t have much room to get in a good shove.
“Actually, you’re pushing me.” Romeo chuckled.
“Do you want me to use magic? I can push a lot harder that way”
“Oh, I know you can.” He grinned. “But you won’t.”
“Oh, yeah? Why not?”
“ʼCause you like being this close.”
“To you?”
“Yeah.”
She bit her lip. “I don’t know if I’d go that far—” He cut her off with a kiss and this time, they didn’t have any kid witches sneaking into the bedroom to interrupt them.
Nineteen
Some loud, talkative, and no doubt tropical bird squawked repeatedly in a tree somewhere beside the Winnebago. I’m gonna kill that bird. Lily rolled over and tried to block it out with a pillow but the screeching was so loud and so repetitive, there was no way to drown it out. “You gotta be kidding me.”
Romeo chuckled in the bedroom doorway and she tossed the pillows off her head. “The monkeys were actually worse.”
“Monkeys?” She sat up, scowled, and dragged the mess of bedhead away from her face.
Any Witch Way (The Witch Next Door Book 3) Page 12
