Witches of Barcelona: A Dark, Funny & Sexy Urban Paranormal Romance Series (Blood Web Chronicles Book 2)

by Caedis Knight

  Five minutes later we’re standing in front of the old Cathedral, the center of the gothic quarter.

  “You want to give thanks to the lord?” I say.

  Luisa laughs and pulls me up the stairs of the old church, wrapping the pashmina tighter around my shoulders. The huge main doors are shut, but huddled in the arched doorway I’m already warmer and at least we’re dry.

  “This is crazy!” Luisa shouts. “When the Fae prince keeps a promise he really delivers. I can’t believe what your mother did to you, Saskia!” She pulls me to her and plants a huge kiss on my cheek. “I said to Rafi there was no way you were doing it willingly. I was so worried about you!”

  Rafi has his back to us while holding his hand over the wall. Luisa pulls away from me and walks over to him.

  “What are…”

  Before she has a chance to finish her sentence a gaping hole appears in the stone wall revealing a neat stash of pre-rolled joints. I laugh and Luisa joins in. Rafi shields his spliff from the cold wind and lights up with a shrug.

  “I have emergency supplies all over the city,” he says with a grin. “You never know when you’re going to get caught in a Fairy snowstorm.”

  We’re the only ones on the steps. The square is deserted and only a few people can be spotted running home, heads bent low against the bitter wind. He passes me the joint and I take a deep drag, staring up to the white sky. I’m free. I’m actually free.

  Although… am I? I shudder at the thought of the favor I promised the Fae in return. Who knows when he’ll cash that in or what he’ll ask for?

  “This is the first time I’ve seen snow,” Rafi mumbles.

  Luisa and I whip our heads around as one.

  “How?”

  I can’t count the number of times I’ve been caught in snowstorms at college in Vermont, and all those icy New York winters.

  Rafi shrugs again. “I’m from northern Africa. Not exactly where you go for a skiing vacation.”

  “Come on!” Luisa cries with a grin, shoving us forward. “Vinga! Both of you. Time to play.”

  I run down the steps, and gathering as much snow as I can manage, I press it into a snowball and throw it at Rafi. But with a swipe of his hand, he stops it mid-air and makes it explode like an icy firework.

  “You really think you can play Elsa with this Elemental?” he cries, lifting his hands and creating perfectly formed snowballs in the air. All at once, they come hurtling at me, exploding against my dress. The blizzard is so strong no one can see our magical fight.

  Luisa and I keep running from Rafi until we fall and tumble into a heap in the snow.

  “Snow angels!” she exclaims, lying on her back, her arms and legs scissoring open and closed until we’ve made angel silhouettes in the snow. I’m freezing, but I don’t care.

  Overhead, the snowflakes swirl and gather until they are forming the shape of an angel soaring through the air above us. Rafi is taking his snow angels to the next level.

  The blizzard thickens and I can no longer see him, but I can hear his faint laughter as he makes his snow angel swoop over our heads, shattering into a million particles as we reach up and touch it. I jump up and twirl on the spot, my arms stretched out, like someone in a corny movie.

  “This is so magical,” I shout, spinning around and around.

  The last time I saw snow I was in Moscow and I was saying goodbye to Lukka, his white eyes as bright and desolate as the landscape around us. That day was cold and bleak, but this is totally different. Luisa joins me spinning on the spot until we are both so dizzy she crashes into me.

  “I know you have to go soon,” she says softly.

  I swallow down the lump forming in my throat. All I can do is nod.

  “But at least we’ve had some unforgettable memories,” she adds. Her eyes twinkle as she says it and I smile. “You need to get far away from here, Saskia. But remember, whatever happens, I promise this won’t be the last you see of me.”

  I pull her face to mine, her warm lips scorching my mouth. We stay like that for a long time, her hands moving from my face and down my thin dress, my nipples hard against her touch and the biting wind. We’re hidden from view from the entire world, but slowly the snow fades from a flurry to a light dusting, and the square starts to fill with people again. This time they are all wrapped up warm.

  “What the fuck?” Luisa says through her laughter.

  One kid is sitting in a paella pan, the handle attached to the leash of his dog. He’s whizzing down the road like a tiny Santa on speed. A group of teenagers is on skis, pushing their way along what is normally a pavement, and a giant snowball fight has erupted from the doorway of one house to another on the other side of the square.

  I join in with Luisa’s laughter as the center of Barcelona erupts into one joyous magical snow globe. I squint over at the cathedral, looking for Rafi, but he’s not on the steps where we left him. Luisa must sense my concern.

  “Where do you think he got to?” she asks.

  Her cheeks are tinted red and her short hair wet and sticking up like a cockatoo. I flatten it and she grabs my hand, kissing my palm.

  “He could be any one of these crazies,” I say, grinning and pointing at the hundreds of people quickly filling the streets and square. “I bet he’s itching to use his magic and show off his mad snow tricks.”

  “I’ll call him.” Luisa holds her phone up to her ear and after a minute shrugs. “No answer. I guess it’s just you and me, maca.”

  I squeal as she pulls me behind her, and we head for her apartment.

  We stumble into Luisa’s apartment, kissing wildly against the wall. My face and neck are numb from the cold, each one of her kisses like a scorching brand on my skin.

  Maybe I can stay in the city a little bit longer and make my escape tomorrow. My mother won’t find me here. Right now I need this, I need Luisa and her hands on my body and every one of her kisses.

  “Don’t mind me.”

  Beatriz edges past us in the hallway and I pull back from Luisa. Shit. We’d completely forgotten about Beatriz and all she’s been through.

  “Is Rafi here?” Luisa asks.

  Beatriz, still wearing her dramatic black outfit with its crisscrossed sleeves and stockings, looks so sad and small. “No, I thought he was with you.”

  “Have you spoken to Xavi’s fam…”

  “The funeral was this afternoon, but I had to go to the Ascension.” She interrupts me, giving me a sharp look. “It doesn’t matter, his send-off was Shifter-only. I wouldn’t have been invited anyway.” She looks down at her hands, picking at the skin around her fingernails. “I said my goodbyes already as he lay dying in my arms.”

  The three of us sit in the living room, watching the snow falling outside. Beatriz opens the window and holds out her hand, marveling at the snowflakes landing on her palm.

  “I don’t know how you did it, Saskia,” she says quietly. “But congratulations, you achieved the impossible. You outsmarted your mother.”

  The expanse of white outside is suddenly interrupted by a dark flurry of wings. Beatriz yelps and staggers backward as a crow lands on the windowsill. She pulls the window open wider and snow blows into the apartment in the bird’s wake.

  Beatriz looks stricken, her eyes filling with tears and her mouth ajar as she stares at the black bird.

  “Bea. It’s not him,” Luisa says softly, rushing to her side. “It’s just a normal crow.”

  She helps a sobbing Beatriz to the armchair and covers her with a blanket before returning to the window. I watch on as Luisa gently places a palm on the crow’s silken wing. Her eyes are widening with fear — she’s detected something. This is no normal bird.

  “It’s a messenger,” she says. “Sent by your mother.”

  My stomach coils and Luisa makes a sympathetic face.

  “Would you like to know what she says?” Luisa asks. “Only the recipient can sense it.”

  I nod my approval and Luisa holds my face in her
icy palms. The message floods into my mind, down my spine, and into every inch of my body. I glance from her to Beatriz in horror as the message sinks in.

  “Well?” they both ask.

  “Solina has Rafi in the Nox basement. If we don’t come, she’s going to kill him.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  The three of us run through the thick snow as fast as we can.

  “Your fucking mother better not hurt him!” Luisa is screaming as we turn the corner and stop a few meters from the Palau Güell. There are groups of tourists wandering around taking shots of the famous Gaudí building in the snow, completely unaware that behind the spindly gates, an Elemental has been taken hostage.

  This is all about revenge. This is all my fault. How could I think I had time to escape? That my mother wouldn’t find a way to lure me back?

  Luisa’s hand snakes in mine as we march into the building, then stop suddenly. It’s empty. The MA HQ is never empty. I was expecting to see a few older Witches networking, Juniors chatting excitedly about the snow. Beatriz pauses beside us, as surprised as we are.

  The three of us run to the concealed wall and head for the basement. An invisible fist squeezes my guts as I remember the last time we all descended these steps, except this time one of the two guys we were with is dead, and the other is being held ransom.

  The basement door is ajar. Has Solina done something to the Nox? The triplets would never have let her drag Rafi into their quarters.

  “I don’t like this,” Beatriz whispers. “It feels like a trap.”

  “Of course it’s a fucking trap,” Luisa hisses. “But what choice do we have?”

  I swallow hard. My mom is angry I foiled her Ascension plans, but surely, she wouldn’t kill Rafi for it. Would she?

  Actually, I know the answer to that.

  A violent flashback of my mother drenched in a man’s blood rocks through me. A politician floating in the air as she slits his throat in front of her eleven-year-old daughter. Solina de la Cruz has never been shy of murder.

  Beatriz listens at the door and shakes her head. She can’t hear a thing. I take a deep breath and, willing away my fear, push the door wider. There are no Nox triplets waiting to greet us this time.

  It takes a few blinks to acclimate myself to the dark, although a strange faint white glow emanates from the ceiling— the giant moon, this time full and bright as it was at the Ascension. My chest squeezes when, for a moment, I forget it’s not a ceiling window and not a real moon. Rafi told me about the magical moon on our walk to La Boqueria, the MA built it for the triplets— an olive branch for the imprisoned Nox.

  Beatriz nudges me, and I look down.

  On the ground, in the corner of the room, is the hunched form of someone beneath a black cape.

  “Rafi!” Luisa screams as she propels herself forward. With a zap of something electric, she crashes into an invisible force and cries out. The artificial moon above us shines, full and white, highlighting the O-shaped screams of our faces.

  The hunched form moves, the cape slowly slipping off their shoulders, and with a gasp, we realize that the person on the ground isn’t Rafi. It’s my mother.

  “Mom?” The question rings out into the darkness.

  Just a couple of hours ago my mother looked pristine— her white pantsuit unblemished and her make-up perfectly in place. Now she looks like a drowned rat.

  Why is my mother tied up? Is this a trick?

  I search the shadows. We aren’t alone. The triplets have their hands bound behind their backs, mouths gagged and… Rafi! I call out to him, but he can’t hear me clearly behind the invisible border. I run my hands across its glass-like veneer, and bang on it like I’m knocking on the door to hell. Luisa and Beatriz do the same, tracing the parameter of the invisible border as if we’re all miming on a street corner. A bunch of desperate clowns.

  “Mom!” I scream again. “What the fuck is all this about?”

  Her eyes flicker open, albeit feebly. She looks around, momentarily confused. She’s either concussed, magically in a trance, or she deserves an Oscar.

  “Is she trapped?” Beatriz asks.

  “She looks afraid,” Luisa adds, banging on the barrier. “Can you hear us, Solina?”

  My hands are shaking, slick with sweat, as I feel my way against the invisible forcefield.

  “Who the fuck is doing this?”

  Fear dances along my skin, each pore puckered and crawling, like I'm covered in bugs. Then, from the shadows, a form takes shape — tall, broad shoulders, teeth gleaming white against his tanned skin.

  “Welcome, Witches,” Salvador says with a smile.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  “Papa!” Beatriz exclaims. “What are you doing here? Are you hurt?”

  “You fucking asshole!” Luisa screams. She kicks out against the barrier. “Let Rafi go! And the triplets!”

  Salvador looks directly at me. “All in good time.”

  I don’t understand. My mother sent the crow. She’s the one whose Ascension I’ve foiled. Is this some kind of elaborate revenge? Are they both in on this? I look at her hunched form and then into Salvador’s dark hooded eyes.

  Luisa worked it out before I did.

  “You betrayed her,” I say, more of a statement than a question.

  His gaze sweeps over me, my anxiety bubbling to the surface. Salvador has always been kind, truthful, genuine… yet before me is a man whose face is twisted with decades of resentment, anger, and disgust.

  “Papa?” Beatriz’s voice is weak, tamer than I’ve ever heard it before. She’s afraid of him, afraid of the meaning of all this. “Father, what are you doing? Why did you take Rafi?”

  Salvador ignores his daughter. His attention is solely on me.

  “When your mother told me she had tricked you into coming here, to Barcelona, I was appalled,” he says. “She claimed to want to see you, but I knew straight away she intended to make you her Second.” An ugly sneer twists his handsome face. “Imagine that. A mere Verity Witch as the Second of the MA? Outrageous!”

  His words stick in my head like gum at the bottom of a chair. My mother successfully lured me to Barcelona under the pretense of needing help finding Maribel, and I only agreed because I wanted my story for Jackson. But that soon had her tricking me into being an MA member so I could be her Second— a Second she could control instead of Salvador. I still don’t understand. Why couldn’t she control him? He’s no more powerful than I am.

  “You're angry she didn’t make you Second?”

  “Angry?” he snarls. “I removed our only obstacle to the top, then asked your mother to marry me. She agreed. I was meant to be the Second — but then she invited you.”

  “Then why didn’t she marry you?”

  “When Solina invited you, under the pretense she missed you, she put off our nuptials. She was stringing me along the whole time.” He looks down at my mother, teeth gritted with loathing. “I was nothing but her backup. As soon as you arrived in Barcelona, I knew she planned to cut me out of our own plan.”

  None of this makes any sense.

  “But...” My voice is small. “I questioned you. You never lied to me. Not once.”

  “He’s a Silencer,” Beatriz offers, her voice even smaller and more broken than mine.

  A Silencer?

  “A Mage who can silence the powers of others,” Luisa says darkly.

  Canceling the magic of others is his power? So, he can lie to me? And he can silence my mother’s abilities too? No wonder she didn’t want him as her Second.

  Wait. What was it he just said?

  I removed our only obstacle to the top.

  “You killed Maribel?” I shout.

  Luisa’s glare is pure venomous rage. “And you silenced the Nox at the funeral so that she wouldn’t tell us how she died.”

  “Well, I didn’t kill Maribel alone.” Salvador’s eyes settle on his only daughter.

  My breath catches in my throat. What the fuck? Luisa is
staring at Beatriz, and when I peer through the glass-like bubble, my mother and everyone else is too.

  Tears gather in Beatriz’s eyes, trickling down her cheeks.

  “I didn’t mean to kill her,” she says, giving Luisa a pleading look. “Please, believe me.”

  “She’s telling the truth,” I say quietly.

  “My father made me plant dreams in Maribel’s head that would make her sleepwalk. He said if I made her wander around aimlessly at night and forget things, the MA board members would start to question her ability to do her job. That maybe they could force her to abdicate from her post.” She glances around her, her eyes pleading. “Maribel wanted to pass laws that ban Warlocks from the MA. I was thinking of my father,” she sobs. “And you, Rafi.” She looks around her wildly, desperately trying to make us understand. “She was so bigoted and mean, she hated Shifters too, and all I could think about was my relationship with Xavi. I thought that if she was gone, then things would be better for all of us… I didn’t…” Beatriz’s confession morphs into tears. “I didn’t know.”

  Luisa puts a hand on her shoulder, and Beatriz’s violent sobs start to ebb to quiet hiccups.

  “Know what?” I ask.

  “I didn’t know she would sleepwalk right into the sea,” Beatriz says quietly. “My magic was too strong. She clearly didn’t wake up when she hit the water and drowned.”

  She sinks to her knees, but Luisa catches her just before she falls. Salvador looks down at his daughter, but there’s no pity in his gaze.

  “You’re not that powerful, hija. Once that bitch was in the sea, I was able to cancel her powers and ensure she stayed sleeping. I watched her wade into the waters and watched as my Siren contacts dragged her body to the deep.” He points at me. “But then your little prince brought her back.”

  Beatriz’s sobs are unbearable now, as the weight of what her father has done crashes upon her.

  “No, Papa,” she whispers as if she could undo it all. “It can’t be true.”

  “Cheer up, hija,” he looks at her through the barrier. “We are here for a joyous occasion.”