“You definitely have our attention,” she said and raised an eyebrow. “Would you care to explain why?”
“Now, now.” The frog-like man raised partially webbed hands in surrender. “You can put that little sparky trick back inside, yes?”
The young couple shared a glance, and the werewolf shook his head barely enough for her to see it. She turned toward the green guy in front of them—she settled on it being a he simply by his voice—and wrinkled her nose. “I definitely don’t want to use it.” She raised her hand a little to make her point. “But I will if I have to.”
“Why did you stop up us in the middle of the road?” Her companion’s growl was low and threatening enough to make her brush the back of her hand briefly against his arm in warning.
Give the thing a chance, Romeo.
“Yes, yes, I kept you here. Right here.” The frogman pointed at the asphalt below his feet and shuffled side to side. “I am the Watcher. We can be friends.”
Lily tilted her head and regarded him suspiciously. “The watcher of what?”
“All things that feel important.” The frogman uttered a throaty, gurgling cackle that cut off abruptly. “I am watching you.”
Romeo clenched his hands into fists. “See? I knew this wasn’t simply a friendly visit.”
“Well, we’re still trying to determine that,” she muttered. “Unless he throws another spell our way, try to hold back.” He snorted but kept his aggression in check a little longer. “I’m not sure that explanation’s gonna cut it, Watcher. We’ve come a long way to be here, and we still have a little way to go. What do you want?”
“To be friends, yes? I felt your…wanting. Little witch needs a friend. Many friends. Royal needs a witch.” Watcher flashed them a wide, gummy pink grin and exposed rows of tiny, sharp teeth. He chuckled and took two quick, bouncing steps forward.
“That’s close enough.” The werewolf growled.
“Yes, yes.” The creature raised his hands again and nodded his wide, flat head. “A witch needs a way across the sea. That is your wanting. I saw it. I know it.”
Lily leaned toward her companion and whispered, “Do you get any funky magic off this guy? He looks like he might explode too.”
He shook his head. “I only smell fish.”
The young witch wrinkled her nose and nodded. “You’ve been spying on us and heard that we need to get across the Mediterranean. That’s not the best way to start off a new friendship.”
“Not spying. Watching and feeling. The Vátra can help with the sea. An Optatus witch can help with the Royal’s wanting too.”
Lily grimaced. Great. The little green frog-guy knows exactly what kind of magic I have running through my veins.
“If he knows that much, Lil, what else has he seen?” Romeo narrowed his eyes and leaned forward to peer at the creature half his height in the middle of the road. “How long have you been watching us?”
The being’s huge eyes shifted left from left to right and he nodded briskly. “Two days. After leaving the fighters, yes? Alone, in that.” Watcher pointed at the Winnie behind them. “On the road. I have heard where you wish to be. I have heard why and how and who. Royal has heard of you too, little witch. He wants to help if you want to help.” With a nervous smile, the green humanoid wrung his webbed hands and nodded again as he glanced from one to the other. The short silence seemed to indicate that the young couple had no idea what to do with him.
“Spying on us for two days.” Romeo turned toward Lily and lowered his voice even more. “That’s a fair amount to overhear. And I have a hard enough time understanding what he’s saying anyway.”
Lily leaned toward him and whispered, “I think he wants to make a deal.”
“Yes! A deal. With Royal.” Watcher squeaked and jumped from foot to foot.
The werewolf’s nostrils flared and he deliberately forced himself not to look at the creature. “Do you think that’s a good idea? The guy’s pants are made of seaweed.”
She tried so hard not to laugh at that, but a tiny smirk still broke through. “He’s not attacking us or trying to steal anything, so it might be worth it.” When she shrugged, his scowl only darkened. “It’s worth finding out a little more, right?” He wouldn’t have had an answer for that, even if she’d given him the time to respond before she turned to Watcher and released the attack spell that danced along her fingers. She folded her arms. “Are you saying this Royal can get us and our RV across the Mediterranean in exchange for our help?”
“Your help. Yes. Only yours, little witch—”
“That’s not gonna happen.” Romeo’s eyes flashed silver, and he took a threatening step toward the green man.
“It won’t. It won’t! You can come too, doggie.”
“What did you call me?”
“Okay, time out.” Lily took three steps forward in case she had to put herself between Romeo and Watcher should this misunderstanding get too out of control. “First, let’s get rid of the pet names. I’m Lily. This is Romeo.”
The creature nodded vigorously with wide eyes.
“And you are?”
“The Watcher. Only Watcher. Always Watcher.” He finished with his unnerving grin again, and Lily forced herself not to grimace in response.
“Watcher. Got it.” She glanced at Romeo with raised eyebrows and waited for him to look at her. Finally, the silver blinked out of his green eyes flecked with gold, and he rolled his eyes. That’s about as much consent as I’m gonna get right now, I think. “So, Watcher, what help from me does the…Royal want?”
“Helping. Yes. Only come to talk. To see Royal and listen and understand. Vátra can help you in the water after this.” Watcher waved to them again and his webbed hand spun over and over as he jerked his head toward the side of the highway and the cliffs leading into the sea.
“Lily, I don’t know if anyone who says, ‘We only wanna talk’ actually means it like that.”
“But if this Royal, whoever it is, can actually help us get across all that”—she gestured toward the glittering sea on their left—“for only a little chat in return, how bad can it be? And we’re not exactly on the kind of road trip where we can take our time and hunt through different barges until we find the perfect fit. It could save us considerable time.”
“So much time,” Watcher squeaked. “We are close. I am fast. Lily and Romeo can be fast. Take time to come with me. Speak to Royal. Listen. And then you’ll be all the way.” He pointed across the Mediterranean just like Lily had.
He sent the creature another scowl. “Something tells me he doesn’t know half of what he’s saying.”
“I don’t know… He might deserve a little more credit.” Lily studied Watcher again and tried to smile, but it was thin-lipped and a little skeptical. “I think we should do it.”
The werewolf’s head whipped toward her, his eyes wide with disbelief. “Are you serious?”
“If we’re really that close, it beats an hour and a half drive for the fairly high chance that we’ll be turned away from shipyard after shipyard, right?” She pressed her fist slowly into his chest in a teasing nudge. “Besides, I am always ready to make deals with magicals first. And I’ve never met one of these before. I don’t think I’ve ever even heard of them.”
“Vátra!” Watcher pounded his bare chest with a webbed fist and elicited a wet squelch. “Warriors. Negotiators. Swimmers.” He winked.
Lily snorted. “I think we can call this a fairly safe detour. And it might save us considerable time, which is really what we need right now.” She caught Romeo’s green-eyed gaze and held it. “I don’t mind meeting with a group of green dudes I’ve never heard of if it means getting to the other side of that water and finding my mom that much sooner.”
With a deep breath, he closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he sighed and held her shoulders gently. “I know. And you’re right, but that doesn’t mean I have to trust the spy frog.”
“That’s totally fair.” She smirked an
d shot him a sideways glance as she turned her attention toward their new acquaintance again. “But don’t pounce on him, okay?”
He scoffed. “I don’t pounce.”
“Yes, please, do not.” Watcher had returned to wringing his hands but still swayed from side to side and stared at them with expectant hope. “You will come?”
“Yeah.” Lily nodded, held the Vátra’s gaze, and searched for any sign of deception there. She didn’t find any, but in a magical she’d never seen and didn’t know existed, she couldn’t exactly be sure what deception looked like. “We’ll come with you but only to talk.”
“Yes, yes. Only. Follow me and do not jump too far.” Wiggling his head in delight, Watcher waved them forward with an urgent hand and hurried across the sparse, brittle-looking grasses that grew along the cliffs.
In some way, she had expected their new companion to hop like an actual frog toward the edge of the precipice. Watcher didn’t so much walk as march over the rough terrain, his wide, flat head thrown back, his dark-green chest puffed out in front of him, and his scrawny green arms swinging at his sides. She shared another glance with Romeo and had to look away again before she succumbed to laughter. “I’m actually really glad I don’t know everything about every magical race in this world.”
He stared at her. “Why?”
“It keeps things interesting.” With a smirk, she gestured toward the short green man who had already covered a fair distance and bowed. “After you.”
The werewolf took a deep breath, shook his head, and walked slowly after their unexpected guide.
She turned toward the Winnie and nodded. “Don’t worry. I didn’t forget about you.” She clapped her hands together and pulled them apart to cast an illusion spell that stretched as a purple, glistening film between her palms. When she’d pulled her hands all the way apart, she flicked her fingers toward the vehicle, and a glistening purple dome wrapped the entire RV. It flashed once and in the next moment, both the purple light and the Winnebago were gone. “Out of sight but definitely not out of mind.” She pointed at their home on wheels. “We’ll be back.”
Three
The couple stopped beside Watcher at the edge of the cliffs about half a mile south of where they’d left the Winnie. The creature closed his eyes and sniffed loudly at the sea air that swept briskly over the cliffs.
Romeo frowned. “He couldn’t have stopped us before we drove past this apparently special location?”
“I’m sure he had his reasons.”
“I have many.” Their guide turned toward them and spread his scrawny arms. “One reason makes me wait to see what you will do, yes?” The ridges above the creature’s bulging eyes wiggled.
If the little guy had eyebrows… Lily turned toward her friend and pursed her lips. “See? He wanted to make sure of us too.”
“Now I am sure.” Watcher nodded and gazed out over the sea again. “Now we go down.”
“Down where?” Romeo peered over the edge of the cliff to where a few white rocks jutted from the water closer to the land. A little farther to the right, the water was darker and obviously far deeper. “What are we supposed to be looking at—”
Their odd companion clapped his webbed hands above his head with a splat and leapt from the edge of the cliff into a straight, neat dive. The werewolf stepped quickly away from the precipice and rolled his eyes. She chuckled and watched the creature’s descent until the huge, bare, webbed feet disappeared into the blue-black waters with almost no splash whatsoever.
“Yeah, there’s no way I’ll follow like that.” Romeo shook his head vehemently.
“Relax.” The young witch studied the edge of the cliff to the left and the right. “It looks like we have two options.”
“Jump like a couple of lunatics or go back to the Winnie, right?”
She shot him a sideways glance and spread her arms wide. “I’m fairly sure I could whip up a decent levitation spell for heavy lifting.”
“Hey. It’s all muscle.”
“Or we can pick out way down that little protruding part over there.” Lily pointed at the few feet of the cliffside that stuck out farther over the ocean than the rest of the relatively straight cliff face. “I bet that little corner has good handholds, and we won’t have to attempt to go straight down. Mostly.”
He squinted at the area she’d indicated. “Yeah, it looks a little less drop-straight-to-our-watery-deaths.”
“Wow, you’re really mister negative today.” She folded her arms and tilted her head to fix him with a challenging look. “Did you sleep okay?”
“I slept perfectly.” He smirked when he recalled what they’d done together the night before that had resulted in the perfect sleep afterward. “I merely don’t like where this is headed. I’d say something smells fishy, Lil, but we’re literally standing above the sea, and our new little…friend probably eats only fish. I feel like I’m the one who needs to wear the cautious pants right now.”
Lily glanced at his jeans and pressed her lips together. “Most pants do look good on you.”
“Friends!” The shout from below was swept away a little by the wind and the dull crash of waves against the cliffs. “You are coming?”
“Plus, the way he talks gets under my skin.” He shuddered.
“Yeah, the translation spell didn’t quite catch this one all the way, I think. But it’s close enough.”
“I bet his language sounds like walking through mud.”
She put a hand on her hip and tilted her head. “I’m not gonna tell you that you can’t have your opinion. You’re entitled to it, but maybe save the judgments until when we learn what this little guy and his people actually want. Right?”
For a few seconds, he simply stared at her. “I feel like you’re taking this somewhere very specific.”
“Well…” She shrugged. “You know what’s it like to have people walk in the opposite direction when they see a werewolf headed their way simply because they think they know what you want.”
Romeo uttered a frustrated grunt. “Yeah, okay. Way to hit that pressure point, Lil.”
“I’m only trying to give this guy the benefit of the doubt because we all deserve it.”
“I can’t even play devil’s advocate on this one.” He raised an eyebrow at her, then chuckled and turned toward the section of the cliff they’d chosen to scale. She grinned and followed him without another word.
“I see you, friends,” Watcher shouted and his flat head bobbed up and down in the deep water. “No jumping from that side or you will not be jumping back up.”
“What?” The werewolf glanced at the water below them and the little green face in a sea of blue. “Can you actually jump all the way—never mind. We’re climbing.” He pointed at the rocky edge below them. “It’s gonna take a minute.”
“When was the last time you went rock climbing?” Lily asked while she waited on the solid ground and watched him turn cautiously on his hands and knees.
Romeo dug his fingers into the dry earth and kicked a boot out behind him to find a foothold. “I don’t know. A year, at least.”
“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather go the levitation route?”
“And miss the chance to show my skills off?” He tested his weight on the rocks and when he was satisfied they would hold, he brought his other leg down toward the perpendicular cliff face and searched for the next foothold. Before he went any farther, he looked at her and squinted against the sun behind her head. “But you can totally catch me, right? Just in case.”
“My reaction time’s excellent.” She tried to give him a stern nod, but a laugh escaped her anyway.
“Right. I do actually trust you with my life, you know.” He didn’t look at her and focused instead on the jagged sections of rock that formed the perfect crevices to dig his fingers into and lower himself toward the sea. Still, they both knew he meant it.
“Yeah, I know.” Lily lowered herself into a squat at the top of the cliff and watched him intently
. “Me too.”
By the time he had climbed down enough to move sideways along the cliff, leaving her sufficient space to start her own descent without the possibility of sending any loose pebbles or a shoe down on his head, Watcher had grown ridiculously impatient. The green-skinned Vátra dove beneath the water’s surface over and over and emerged a few seconds later to inspect their progress and shout, “Closer!”
After about five minutes of this, Romeo paused. His fingers felt raw as they dug into the rock, and he glanced at the frogman who still bobbed in the water. “I’ll get there when I get there, man. But if you yell—”
“Closer!” Watcher croaked and slapped a wet hand over his wide mouth and sank into the water until only his huge eyes showed.
“Okay, one more time after that, I’ll…show you what close really is.”
Lily snorted a few feet above him and to the right. “Good one.”
“I have a hard time multitasking.”
The young witch found herself in quite the opposite situation. She’d found an easy and efficient rhythm to find a foothold, swing her other leg down, and cement her grip in the jagged cliff a little with a physical binding spell beneath her fingertips. She hadn’t had to use her own magic to help with the climb until she’d descended halfway. The rockface looked much sturdier than it was, for the most part. Twice now, a handful of thin, eroded rock layers had pulled off in her hand.
It happened again when she tried her weight on the next handhold and showered a rain of light-colored dirt and tiny, flat slabs of rock to tumble into the sea below her. She sucked in a sharp breath and caught herself again on a much sturdier ledge. The cliff flashed pale yellow beneath her hand, and her trust in her own binding spells helped quell the nervous flutter in her belly.
Return Of The Witch (The Witch Next Door Book 6) Page 2
