Any Witch Way (The Witch Next Door Book 3)

by Judith Berens

  He groaned something unintelligible and tried to raise his head. It bobbed precariously before he managed to turn it mostly toward her, his eyes glazed over and wildly unfocused.

  “Jeeze. I knew it was intense—” Lily scrabbled in the center console and located the Ziplock bag that held what little wolfsbane flowers he had left. She retrieved two of them, closed the bag and replaced it, and climbed over the center console to reach his face. “Hey. Okay, come on. Open up.” She patted his cheek as his eyes rolled mindlessly in their sockets. He looked like he’d be sneezing right now if he hadn’t been too drunk on the villagers’ insanely powerful spell. She squeezed his cheeks enough to get his mouth open and chuckled a little as she shoved the purple flowers between his lips. “Eat up.”

  His lips smacked over and over as he slowly and lethargically moved the wolfsbane around in his mouth. After a few seconds, the flower worked enough to make him aware of what was happening, and he started to chew. Finally, he swallowed awkwardly, rested his head back against the headrest, and exhaled a long, slow breath. “What the hell was that?”

  She grinned and clambered into the passenger seat. “That was probably the most powerful group spell I’ve ever seen.”

  “No kidding.” He rubbed both hands through his hair, drew them down his cheeks, and shook his head. “That was like all the magic in that nightclub in Montreal, but…all at once.”

  “Yep.” She sighed and stared out the window again. “Do you notice anything different?”

  The village witches had all left the circle now and moved around the wagons to unload various items and while they chatted happily with each other.

  “Wait a minute.” Romeo blinked. “Are they unpacking?”

  “Oh.” She tilted her head, a little surprised by the question. “That’s not what I was talking about, but yeah. I think they are.”

  “Why? We’ve covered, what? Maybe five miles. It’s not even noon yet, and they—” His mouth fell open when he realized what she had been tried to point out from the beginning. “Where are we?”

  “Well…” She pressed her lips together and shrugged. “We’re definitely not where we stopped. I know that.”

  “No, we’re not…” He froze and warily eyed the cloth and food and hollowed gourds of water the villagers removed from the carts. “This looks very much like setting up camp.”

  “Maybe we should get out and make sure?”

  “I’m already on it.” He opened the driver’s door and almost fell out. Lily stepped back through the Winnie to open the side door and step out into the humidity and warmth of wherever the witches had transported them.

  As soon as she joined him again in front of the RV, Aluino approached them, grinning widely and spreading his arms. “I will say by your faces that neither of you expected this.”

  The werewolf chuckled and scratched the back of his head. “That’s one way to put it.”

  “Your people were expecting this, weren’t they?” Lily asked.

  “Of course. Our ancestors moved through these mountains and across these lands in this very same way. We have not needed to use these old ways until now.” The man’s smile faded only a little. “Did I not say the land would do the rest of the work for us?”

  “You did.” She narrowed her eyes. “What does that mean, exactly? We watched you cast the spell—”

  “Ah.” Aluino nodded. “This is only our part to play in the passage. The earth has special…sites. Of energy, perhaps you would say. My people’s magic opens these doors and the earth allows us to step through.”

  “To another site.” She grinned.

  “Not quite. The next is some kilometers from here. We will travel that way tomorrow and we will step through the second passage.” The man turned toward Romeo and nudged his shoulder with a fist. “Now you know this does not take us weeks, eh?”

  He chuckled and shook his head. “Now I know. How far did we…travel?”

  Aluino shrugged. “Something like one hundred and seventy kilometers. So, you see? Only a few days’ journey to Ichacál.”

  “Oh, yeah. I get it now.” He glanced down at Lily with wide eyes and laughed. “I gotta admit, Aluino, this was the last thing on my list of what to expect. You guys are impressive.”

  “Oh, no.” The man laughed and dismissed him with a wave. “It is not anything we do. All our magic—what we do here and at home in our village—comes from the earth. Let her impress you, eh?” Another chuckle escaped him. “Come. The river is a little swift after the rains, but it feels the best right now while the sun smiles down on us. We stop now to rest, bring joy to our families, and try not to worry so much. Not as much as I think you do, Romeo.”

  “I’m not really—”

  The villager cut him off with another sharp laugh as he walked away, shaking his head.

  Romeo never got to finish, but he turned to Lily with a half frown and a skeptical twist to his lips. “I’m not worried.”

  She laughed and slipped her arm through his. “Of course not. I wouldn’t mind seeing the river, though.”

  “Yeah. The river. That wasn’t here five minutes ago.”

  “No, we weren’t here five minutes ago. And now, we are.” She grinned at him and he grimaced and mumbled under his breath, still trying to wrap his mind around the idea.

  Twenty-One

  They reached the riverbank and removed their shoes to step into the fine, dark sand beside the water. The children they hadn’t met yet had beaten them there and already splashed, fully clothed, in the cool water and the deep swimming hole on this side of the river closest to the traveling caravan. Lily caught sight of Rosalía seated on the bank farther downstream, her legs crossed beneath her on a large, flat rock as she pressed her palms together and slowly drew them apart again. That faint pink glow of the illusions spell stretched between her hands, exactly as she had been taught. Not even the sound of the other children at play—and Romeo laughing with them as they turned the splashes onto him—distracted the girl from her magical practice.

  She’s gonna nail that spell in the next few days. And then, she’s gonna ask me for more. She took a deep breath and tried not to think about it too much.

  Carefully, she stepped across the slick, moss-covered rocks and deeper into the water. The kids and Romeo stopped splashing a little as she approached and all of them grinned. “What?”

  “Nothing.” He shrugged, slapped at the water, and sent a spray of it across her face and the front of her shirt.

  She gasped and froze while the excess water dripped into the river. The other children exploded into laughter again, and she saw Filipe among them, doubled over and holding his stomach. “Okay…”

  “You can’t say it doesn’t feel amazing.” He smirked at her and spread his arms.

  “True.” She puffed a spray of water off her lips. “There’s only one problem.”

  “Oh, yeah?”

  “You’re still completely dry.” She took a chance on the slippery rocks to kick and send a huge splash over him. It almost tumbled her into the water, and before she righted herself and caught her balance again, he’d sloshed quickly through the river toward her.

  He caught her and hauled her back to the swimming hole. “So are you!” Despite her shriek of protest, he lifted her and tossed her into the much deeper water, which was fortunately much calmer than the swift current in the middle of the river.

  Lily pushed herself up to the surface and swiped the wet hair back from her forehead. She glared at Romeo, who laughed a little longer until he saw she wasn’t laughing with him and the other kids. “Hey, you can’t be mad at me for that.” She didn’t say anything, so he waded toward her. “Lil, don’t tell me you forgot how to play in the—”

  A stream of river water arced from her pursed lips into his face. The children erupted into laughter and splashed and screamed again, and this time, she laughed with them.

  “Oh, it’s on.” He shoved both hands through the water until the wave broke almost ov
er her head.

  She turned her head to avoid getting most of the water in her face and blew more of it out of her mouth. “You really wanna turn this into a competition? Because we both know I’ll win.”

  He grinned and wiggled his eyebrows. “Bring it.” He pushed through the water again, but she flicked the oncoming wave with a finger and redirected the whole thing back at him. A sheet of river water burst against his face and chest and knocked him into the pool. One of the kids screamed for the sake of screaming, and they were all back at it again.

  There was never any call made for the kids to leave the river for lunch, but they slowly filtered out of the water anyway to head back to their families’ encampment. None of them seemed to care about their soaking wet clothes as they climbed the shallow bank toward the clearing and their bare feet left wet, dripping trails in the earth behind them.

  “I wish I could still be that comfortable in soaked clothes.” Lily sloshed out of the river and waited for Romeo to join her.

  “If it wasn’t so ridiculously humid, I probably wouldn’t mind, either.” He shook his head like a wet dog and sprayed water everywhere before he ruffled his damp curls.

  She rolled her eyes. “We have towels, you know.”

  “But that’s no fun.” He grinned as they stepped up the rocky bank and paused when he saw Rosalía still seated on the rock downriver, her palms upturned on her knees and her eyes closed. “She’s been at that the whole time, huh?”

  “Yeah.” She wrung her hair out over the rocks and flipped it over her shoulder. “I think she’s really close to getting it under her belt.”

  “Did you choose something else to teach her yet?”

  “What?” I swear he can read my mind.

  “You know. When she comes back to her teacher saying, ‘I did it. Now show me how to do something bigger.’” His impression of the girl fairly accurate but it sounded ridiculous in his deep voice.

  “She’s definitely gonna come ask me soon.” She shook her head and navigated her way off the rocks and back onto the short grass of the clearing. “I’ll hafta come up with something before she does.”

  “Americans!” The shout came from one of the gathered circles of villagers. They looked up and to where Chalina waved her arm straight in the air. Aluino shouted again, “Eat with us!”

  “Well, at least we’re not running low on food in the Winnie.” Romeo chuckled, stopped abruptly, and frowned. “Is there any of that beef jerky left?”

  Lily laughed. “Nope. You killed that a few days ago.”

  “Perfect. I get to eat nothing but vegetables. Again.”

  When they reached the circle where Aluino and Chalina sat with a few of their own people, they found two open places saved for them on the grass. They sat and thanked their hosts again for the plates of food passed around the circle toward them. This meal was served cold and tasted more like the four-bean salad her grandmother used to make. Before her first mouthful even reached her lips, she looked around the villagers seated with them and froze.

  “Hey, Rosalía.”

  The girl looked up from her wooden plate with wide eyes.

  “How’d you get here so fast?”

  Her only response was a wide, flashing grin.

  “What?” Romeo glanced at Lily, then saw the child seated a few places down from her parents, her plate already half-eaten. “Wait a minute…” The young couple both leaned back and glanced over their shoulders at the wide, flat rock downriver. Another Rosalía sat there on the rock, her eyes closed, legs crossed, and palms upturned.

  Lily barked out a laugh, pulled herself together, and tried to sound a little stern when she spoke to the girl. “You were waiting for me to catch on, weren’t you?”

  Rosalía merely grinned, although a small giggle escaped her before she returned her attention to her food.

  “What is this?” Aluino squinted at his daughter and glanced at Lily.

  “Well, it looks like she’s done it again.” She shrugged, but the confusion on both of Rosalía’s parent’s faces made her pause. “You didn’t tell them?”

  The girl shoveled more food into her mouth and stared at her plate, although she smiled as she chewed. After a long moment, she shook her head.

  “Rosalía.” Chalina leaned forward over her plate and shot a warning glance the likes of which only mothers were capable of. But the girl avoided it completely by not looking at anyone. “What did you do?”

  Aluino’s voice dropped to dangerously low levels. “I don’t know how many times we have to—”

  “No, it’s okay.” Everyone looked at Lily, including Rosalía. I can’t let them rail on her for no reason, right? “It’s okay. We’re talking about a new spell I think your daughter mastered on her own.”

  The grin reappeared on the child’s face and she stared earnestly at Lily.

  “What spell?” Aluino glanced from his daughter to the older witch.

  “It’s for summoning illusions. When we…met”—Lily nodded toward the girl—“your daughter asked me to teach her some of the magic I know. I realize it’s different than what your people do, but I agreed to teach her a few things—”

  “Show me.” Aluino didn’t necessarily look upset, but his smile hadn’t returned. Still, there was no mistaking the light of curiosity behind his eyes.

  She nodded at Rosalía. “Go ahead.”

  The girl almost threw her wooden plate onto the ground and leapt to her feet. “Come on, Papa. You won’t believe it.” She took her father’s hand before he had the chance to stand and tugged him down the gentle slope and out of the clearing toward the river. “See?” Her skinny arm pointed directly ahead at the image of her herself seated on the flat rock.

  Aluino blinked quickly, looked at his daughter holding his own hand, and stared at the illusion once more. “By my own eyes…”

  “I did that, Papa. I can do that!”

  “Yes. I see that.” The man laughed, knelt in the grass in front of his daughter, and said something to her in a voice low enough that no one else could hear. Rosalía nodded, beaming, before her father stood again and led her back toward the clearing.

  By now, all the villagers eating in the few other circles around their caravan had noticed what was going on, even if they still had no idea how. Some of them stared from the illusion of Rosalía on the rock to the real girl who stepped toward the camp with her father. Others spoke quietly to their neighbors. Even the two oxen tied to a few trees upriver—which they could have snapped into if they weren’t so docile—raised their heads from where they grazed to watch the scene. The atmosphere of excitement and fascination was almost a physical rush of electric anticipation.

  Before her husband and daughter reached the circle, Chalina leaned toward Lily and asked in a voice barely above a whisper, “Is it safe for her?”

  She nodded. “That one is. Yes.”

  The woman nodded in appreciation, held the other witch’s gaze, and finally straightened again when Aluino and Rosalía sat in their places in the circle. “How is this done?” he asked.

  Lily glanced at the girl again and smiled. “I think she’s ready to show you.”

  She looked at her father and whispered, “I can.”

  “You are my daughter’s teacher, then?”

  “For the last few days. Maybe for a few more.” She felt Romeo’s gaze flicker quickly toward her. Yeah, I know. We haven’t talked about staying with these people that long. I said maybe.

  “And you can teach her more of your magic? Stronger magic for our people?”

  “Husband…” Chalina sent him a small frown, her lips pressed together in warning. But he ignored her completely and held Lily’s gaze in a firm mixture of pleading and determination.

  It looks like we’re both having this conversation for the first time. She licked her lips and nodded slowly. “I can teach whoever is ready to learn. But I think Rosalía might be the best witch to teach the rest of your people. She’s a fast learner and she knows how to u
se this magic responsibly.” That last part wasn’t quite true, but she hoped it would serve as one more warning for the girl. She has to understand how much bigger this is than merely wanting to be a powerful witch. If she can’t handle it now, she shouldn’t train with me anyway.

  Aluino nodded and glanced at his wife. Chalina still didn’t look entirely happy about the whole thing but she read his determination and focused her warning gaze on him now too. “Lily, what may my people offer you in return for this?”

  She startled. “I’m sorry?”

  “Your magic is very strong. It will be a new weapon my people can use to protect themselves and it is more valuable than I think you understand.”

  “Oh.” She raised her eyebrows. “Don’t underestimate what you can do.” She gestured at the clearing around them. “I’ve never seen anything like what you did today.”

  “It is not always enough for us so we will give you anything you ask in exchange for your teachings.” The man pressed his lips together and steeled himself to hear the worst of what the American witch among them thought her knowledge was worth.

  Her brows drew together quickly and she shook her head. “Nothing, Aluino.”

  He looked like he’d been slapped in the face. “You cannot mean this.”

  “I do. Absolutely.” She glanced at every village witch’s eyes now centered on her and the man speaking for all of them. “I didn’t teach your daughter how to perform this type of magic because I wanted anything in return. Exactly like…like Romeo and I didn’t bring your children home expecting anything. I knew she was ready. And I’m very sure that if I wasn’t willing to start her on a few basic fundamentals, knowing she was learning them correctly from me, Rosalía would very likely have made some dangerous attempts to use this kind of magic all on her own—without anyone’s guidance.”

  Oh, my God. I sound exactly like Mom.

  And as was always the case with Greta Antony, her little speech had also caught every single person’s attention and held them rapt and eager for more despite the fact that she hadn’t raised her voice or caused anything remotely close to a scene. “Helping your people protect themselves and teaching your daughter how to handle these spells correctly is all I need. She’s incredibly powerful too, you know.”