Return Of The Witch (The Witch Next Door Book 6)

by Judith Berens

  “It was the only choice you had, Lil.” He glanced at her and shrugged. “Well, the only choice that didn’t involve us being punished for not handing the most powerful magical weapon either one of us has ever seen to an angry sea king. You made the right call.”

  “I didn’t want to do it.” Lily closed her eyes and exhaled a huge sigh.

  “I know. And I know that makes it harder. They’ll be fine.” Despite his nod and attempt at a reassuring smile, neither one of them truly believed those words. The black cloud of Lily’s Optatus magic wouldn’t distinguish between former friend and current foe. The only intention she’d had was to stop anyone and everyone from pursuing them, and any creature unfortunate enough to try fighting through her spell wouldn’t make it.

  “They trusted us,” she whispered.

  “I don’t think the Royal trusts anyone. Maybe even his own people.” Romeo adjusted his grasp on the steering wheel and took a deep breath. “He didn’t tell us what we were retrieving for him from that temple. And he called it all a gift. Maybe if he’d said let’s make a deal and been upfront with us about everything, I’d feel differently about the guy. And honestly, Lil, I didn’t trust any of them.”

  “Yeah, I know. But I’ve never had to lie to someone like that for a good reason. I don’t like it.”

  “I don’t think anyone does.”

  Twenty-One

  They made their way onto a narrow road an hour later and by then, the sun had gone down and it was completely dark. Romeo pulled onto the side and parked the Winnie. “I think we should call it a night, huh?”

  “Probably.” Lily tried to look at him, but the infernal yellow light that beamed across the sands made it really hard, especially in the darkness. “This has been one long, crazy day. I’m ready for it to end.”

  He watched her unbuckle her seatbelt and stand slowly from the passenger seat. With a frown, he did the same and followed her through the Winnie. “Lily.”

  She paused and for a minute, he didn’t think she’d answer. After only a slight hesitation, she turned a little and looked at him over her shoulder. “Yeah?”

  “Come here.” He opened his arms and stepped toward her. Whatever kind of resistance she carried—whatever bothered her so much that she could barely look at him—fell away when he wound his arms around her and simply held her there in the living area for a minute. Finally, her hands came up to clutch the back of his t-shirt, and she released a huge, shaking breath. “That doesn’t sound like it’s coming only from lying to a Vátran Royal and escaping an underwater battle.” He knew something was really wrong when she didn’t even laugh. “Okay, please tell me what’s going on.”

  Lily pulled away enough to look up at him, and her gaze darted to her left toward the couch. “I thought it would’ve gone away by now.”

  “What?”

  She looked at him and grimaced. “When I passed out after making the copy of the Varelos…something happened. I think that’s what the real Varelos meant when it said I had to give up a piece of myself to make it—that I’d remove the veil from over my eyes in order to fool the Royal enough to get us here. That I’d…see more than I could imagine. I definitely didn’t expect it to be this.”

  He frowned and rubbed a hand up and down her back. “What do you see?”

  “That glowing yellow cord. The light.” She pointed at the blazing trail that now spilled from her side and out through the panel of the RV toward wherever it ended if it even did.

  “You saw it when you woke up, didn’t you?” Romeo tilted his head and studied her face. Her left eye twitched a little as she turned her head away from the direction in which she’d pointed.

  “Yeah. The bright glowing light. I thought it was only there in the bedroom.” She held his gaze and shrugged. “It’s followed me the whole time since then like it’s attached to me or something.”

  “Does it…do anything?”

  She shook her head. “It always points in the same direction and blinds me in the process. I thought for sure the Royal would see it, but apparently, no one else can.”

  “Okay.” Romeo set his hands on her shoulders and rubbed her arms a few times. “We’ll find the answer or a solution. I doubt that you’re seeing something for no reason at all and whatever that reason is, we’ll find it. Do you have any idea if it’s a warning or something helpful?”

  “Not really. It’s basically pointed in the same direction this whole time. We actually followed it directly across the sea, but I feel like it’s too soon to hope that it’s anything helpful at all. Look at the heron coin. That’s the best way we’ve come across to find my mom, and it ended up costing good magicals their lives in Greece. Not like we have it anymore, but still.”

  “All right.” He enveloped her in his arms again and rested his chin on the top of her head. “It’s probably a good idea not to dwell on that right now, Lil. I’m not saying we forget all about it. We owned up to those mistakes and we made things as right as we could with Ozias and his people. So we learn from it, right?”

  “Releasing that black cloud on the Vátra doesn’t feel like learning from my mistakes.”

  The hugs obviously weren’t working, so Romeo let her go and took her face in both his hands instead. He leaned down and kissed her softly, long enough to make sure she knew he meant it. Her eyes were closed when he pulled away, but she looked a little less upset. “Come on. Sleep and lying down. Two of my favorite things when I know I’m not feeling up to anything else.” That teased a tiny flicker of a smile from her, and he took her hand to lead her toward the bedroom.

  “We haven’t eaten anything.”

  He shrugged. “Yeah, something about those seirí made me lose my appetite, I think. I’m happy to make you something, though, if you’re hungry.”

  “I’m not. Sleep and lying down sound about perfect.”

  “Good.” He squeezed her hand and let her step into the bedroom first before he climbed onto the bed after her. “This is all we need to think about right now, okay? We’ll tackle the rest tomorrow.”

  “Okay.”

  Even as she pressed her back against his chest and laced her fingers through his and he slid his arm around her under the comforter, he had a feeling that all the assurances in the world wouldn’t make anything easier for either of them in that moment.

  Every time Lily thought she was about to drift off to sleep, the bright, blazing stream of golden light pulsed behind her eyelids and dragged her to full consciousness. She tossed and turned for the next few hours and tried to block it out in different positions, then with a pillow held over her head, and finally with her face shoved into the mattress against the headboard. No matter what she did, it never faded enough for her to sleep.

  Finally, she gave up the attempt and slipped quietly out of the bed, leaving Romeo alone in the dark bedroom. She eased the door closed behind her on its tracks and moved across the Winnie to sprawl on the couch.

  “Wow,” she muttered and stared at the cabinets built overhead. “He’s in the bed and I’m on the couch. It’s the complete opposite of our first night on the road.” A wry chuckle escaped her, and she rubbed her burning, exhausted eyes before she turned deliberately away from the blazing trail of yellow light that pushed through the back of the couch and out of the Winnie across Libya’s dry expanse of land. She’d seen it going on forever through the window and even now, as she turned away from it, the infuriating light continued to pulse light behind her eyes. “I’ll have no sleep tonight, I guess. So what the heck am I supposed to do?”

  She lay there for another half hour and thought she might drift off if she wasn’t worried about waking Romeo. That didn’t work either and she heaved a weary sigh, pushed herself off the couch, and went to the kitchen counter. Even when she stood on her tiptoes, she couldn’t reach the cabinet above the sink. “Romeo and his ridiculously long legs…” That thought made her smirk, and she clambered up onto the counter so she could open the cabinet and remove the real Varelos. “
I can’t believe this stayed in there through a ridiculously fast passage across the ocean and a sea-creature battle I’m fairly sure only had one winner.” She wrinkled her nose at that, shook her head, and climbed carefully down again. “No. I didn’t win anything. Fighting with my own conscience and this stupid light”—she swiped an aggravated hand at the beam of yellow, although that did absolutely nothing—“isn’t actually a prize.”

  She took the artifact with her to the couch and slumped onto the cushions. “At least you stayed where we put you,” she told the copper rod in her hand. “And maybe you have more answers.” She pulled her legs onto the couch and crossed them beneath her before she settled the Varelos across her lap like she had every other time before, closed her eyes, and thought about her Optatus magic.

  Once again, that was all she needed before the buzzing, electric energy raced up her hands, through her arms, and into her neck and head. The Winnie and Romeo’s snoring from the bedroom faded. Even the yellow light was gone, replaced by the white of her communion with the Varelos. She breathed a sigh of relief. The white light was all-encompassing and bright, but it was the only thing she saw. At least there’s nothing flashing at me right now.

  ‘You were warned of what you would see,’ the Varelos’ myriad voices told her at once and had obviously already heard her thoughts from the minute she’d made the connection.

  No, I wasn’t. You said I would see more than I could imagine. That part’s true, but you never said exactly what I’d see. This is driving me nuts.

  ‘This is the price you paid for deceiving the Royal. This is what you agreed to do in order to remain the wielder of all this power in your hand.’

  Lily swallowed—or at least it felt like she swallowed. I don’t need all your power. I have my own.

  ‘And yet you know full well that I can help you find what you truly seek. What you desire more than anything in this moment?’

  Sleep?

  For once, the rod was silent.

  I’ll take that as a no. Yeah, I already know what I want. So tell me where my mom is. Please.

  ‘I am not an Oracle.’

  Oh, come on.

  ‘I do not have the answers, Optatus. Merely the power to help you find them.’

  And how am I supposed to find that answer, huh?

  ‘You have two ways to see. One lies in darkness, the other in light. When you choose which way to follow, I will be there to clear everything from your path if that is what you wish.’

  When Lily noticed the ache in her temples, she realized she’d clenched her jaw the entire time. No. I don’t want to clear everything from my path. That sounds too much like a dark Optatus. Or the Black Heron. That’s not…me.

  ‘As you wish.’ The white light flashed even brighter before she refocused on the darkened Winnebago again, lit only by the never-ending flare of yellow. The buzzing hum of energy in her arms filtered down into the Varelos again, and she held only a copper rod once again.

  “Seriously? Did this thing actually kick me out?” Rolling her eyes, Lily dropped the Varelos onto the couch beside her and shook her head. “This whole thing is so much bigger than me. And I don’t feel like I know what I’m doing right now.” Slowly, she lowered herself onto her side on the couch again, where the cold metal of the Varelos pressed against her back through her shirt. At least I can feel that. It’s good to know this isn’t a dream but I still have to find out what that light means.

  Despite the fact that she was finally trying to acknowledge it, the blazing yellow light didn’t diminish at all that night. She managed a few snatches of sleep but it was shallow and not much more helpful than if she’d stayed up all night drinking one can of Red Bull after another.

  Twenty-Two

  Romeo leaned against the doorway of the bedroom the next morning, rubbed his face, and blinked through the last of his sleep. “Lily?”

  She started on the couch and almost fell off it. “You scared the crap out of me.”

  “Sorry.” He made a massive yawn before he noticed her seated on the couch, leaning over her thighs with her face in her hands. “What’s going on?”

  “I didn’t sleep.” Her voice was muffled through her fingers, and she shook her head.

  “Really?” When he walked through the Winnie toward her, he noticed the Varelos lying on the couch behind her and stopped. “You didn’t sleep ʼcause you were up all night with that, or was it something else?”

  “What?” She looked at him, dark circles under her eyes, and squinted in an effort to focus. He nodded at the copper rod almost stuffed between the couch cushions, and she glanced down before she realized what he meant. “Oh. No, I didn’t use that all night. I couldn’t sleep in bed, so I came out here and thought I’d ask it a few questions.”

  “Did you get any answers?” He sat beside her on the couch, hauled the Varelos from between the cushions, and lifted it over both their heads before he placed it on the floor.

  “Oh, yeah, I got answers. None of them were helpful, though.”

  “The most powerful magical artifact-slash-weapon wasn’t helpful.”

  Lily gave him an exasperated look, although it had definitely lost its effectiveness under her exhaustion. “Apparently, I didn’t ask the right questions. Or maybe I simply don’t want the right things. That hunk of metal told me it wasn’t an Oracle, so it couldn’t tell me where they’re keeping my mom now. But it did make the oh so generous offer to basically obliterate everyone in my way with a magical machete if that was what I wanted.”

  Romeo’s brows flickered together, and he scratched the side of his face. “Was that a literal offer?”

  “No, Romeo, it wasn’t literal. The artifact said it would be there to clear everything from my path—if that’s what I wanted—after I chose how I wanted to see.”

  “That doesn’t make much sense.”

  She shook her head. “It said something about seeing two ways. Light and dark. Obviously, that’s talking about my magic. Do I wanna keep my soul, or do I wanna give in and let the Varelos do all the dirty work for me simply to make my life easier?”

  “Okay. Normally, I’d say this is something a good cup of coffee can fix. But seeing as you didn’t sleep, Lil, I’ll chalk it up to that. It’s hard to not let it get to you. I know. But you gotta try.”

  Slowly, she looked at him and studied his green eyes flecked with gold. “You’re right.” She caught his hand and laced their fingers together. “I’m sorry. I’m only… I guess I don’t do well on no sleep.”

  “No sleep. A stream of light that you apparently see all the time. A massive battle in the middle of the ocean between two races who really have nothing to do with us until they tried to punish you for not giving them the dangerous magical weapon we took from the god of dreams.” He squeezed her hand. “Lily, you don’t have anything to be sorry for. Seriously. You’re handling this way better than anyone else. Definitely better than I would. I’m constantly amazed by that. Now, try to breathe through it, okay? We’ll find the answers we need, and I’m here with you through all of it. I promise.”

  She released a shaky sigh. “Yeah, when you put it that way, it does sound impossibly overwhelming.” That made him smirk, and she couldn’t help but return it. “I want this to be over. I want to find her and stop the Black Heron from getting anything else they want. There’s way too much on the line to let them get away with what they’ve already done and what they plan to do. No one should have that much magic at their fingertips, especially when they’re only gonna use it to constantly destroy everything that keeps the magical world safe.”

  “That’s a huge responsibility to put on your shoulders.”

  Lily chewed on the inside of her lower lip and stared at the floor. “I originally thought we would simply find my mom. We could prove to the world that she’s not dead and keep that witch guy in Charleston from trying to kill me.”

  “And it turned out to be far more than that. I know.”

  A humorless laugh es
caped her. “What did my mom do to them to make them so dedicated to destroying her?”

  “I think it’s what she didn’t do, Lil.” She looked at him again, and Romeo lifted her hand to press it between both of his. “She wouldn’t give in. Your mom didn’t give up and let them take whatever they wanted from her—her magic. And jeez, whether they know it or not, they’d pull Optatus magic out of her. She can’t give up. If they add that to the pot, I don’t know if anyone will be able to stop them.” She closed her eyes. “Hey, look at me.” When she did, he was studying her intently and with real compassion, his brows raised in concern and determination at the same time. “But you can.”

  “You say that like you can see the future.”

  “I can with you.”

  Lily shuddered.

  “I’ve always known what you can do. Okay, not specifically. Not all the spells and the black cloud and the shadow-bird. But for as long as I’ve known you, if you wanted to do something—really wanted to do it—you did it. You always find a way. And anyone who tries to stop you has no idea who they’re messing with. Being an Optatus doesn’t change who you are.” He lifted her hand and pressed it against his chest. “It doesn’t change what we’ve been through in the last few months. Or the fact that every single time I start to think we’ve reached a dead end or a wall we can’t get through or over or around, you find a way to do it anyway. It doesn’t change how much I love you, Lily. So I’m not gonna let you talk yourself out of being who you are. Got it?”

  Despite how exhausted she was, the young witch found her nose burning and a few tears made her vision shimmer. But she managed to keep them there and prevent them from spilling onto her cheeks. “That was one of the best speeches I’ve ever heard.”