“None of us gave up. James, Beren, Will, Imani, Ma’am, Mill, Liv, everyone was in it for as long as it took. If it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t have gotten there.” I sniffled before snot ran out of my nose. Real classy. “Anyway, let’s not talk about that now. We have a holiday to go on!”
Mum grinned. “We sure do. I’m packed and ready. Everyone else left just before we came outside. Are you ready?”
Argh, I didn’t get to say goodbye to my furry buddies properly. Oh, well. They’d come back once I returned, I supposed. I magicked their tiny bowls away but left the seeds littering the table. They could finish it off after we left. We all stood, and excitement bubbled in my stomach. It was time to have a holiday. Finally.
Venice, here we come.
Chapter 2
Dana’s dad had burned my mother’s magic out. She had access to the portal of magic, but she couldn’t suck in more than a drip at a time—it was never enough to do anything, so she came through my doorway wheeling her suitcase into the Hotel Delfino reception room. We hurried out of the way so that Will could come through.
The room had a moderately sloping terrazzo floor adorned with a red Persian rug. Two red love seats sat against one wall, their ornate gilded arms and legs a bit gaudy for my taste. Blue-blown-glass sconces with golden fittings were affixed to the wall on either side of the door. I smiled at the ancient scent of old building and furnishings. We were really here, on holiday in Venice. Venice! “Eek! I can’t wait to go exploring, and we have to go on a gondola, plus the glass-blowing. I’ve always wanted to see that.”
Mum laughed. “You were always Miss Enthusiastic. Just hold your horses for five minutes.” She pressed the brass doorbell. Its shrill ring made me jump, even though I’d known it was coming. I rolled my eyes at myself. “I see you’re still as jumpy as ever.”
“Yep. Some things never change.” Not for the first time since we had my mother back did I wonder at it. Was she really here making references to the past? I reached out and touched her arm. She gave me a quizzical look. “Just checking you’re really here.” I smiled.
She returned my smile. “Yes, and I’m not going anywhere… well, except if you go on holidays and invite me.”
“Sounds good to me.”
The door opened. A short elderly lady, her white hair gathered into a single plait that hung over her shoulder and descended to her waist, smiled, her wrinkles wrinkling. Her light-blue eyes sparkled. “Buongiorno. Welcome to Hotel Delfino.” Her strong voice had that crackly quality old people’s voices tended to acquire. She must have been in her mid eighties at least. I hoped I was standing that straight if… when I got to her age. At least with RP and Piranha gone, that chance had increased exponentially.
“Buongiorno, Signora.” Mum smiled. “Sono Katerina Bianchi. This is my daughter, Lily, and her partner, William.” My mother’s Italian wasn’t fluent, but I knew she’d learned some when she and my father had gotten engaged. I supposed she figured they would visit Italy every now and again.
“Please, come in. I’m Isabella.” The old lady stepped back and held the door wide. She turned to look behind her, lifted her arm, and clicked her fingers a couple of times. “Francesco! Sprigati!” A skinny young man dressed in black trousers and a short-sleeve white shirt answered her summons. He bowed his head quickly. She said something else to him in Italian, and he nodded. Magic tickled my scalp, and all our suitcases disappeared. So, that’s how they did things in a witch-only hotel. Isabella turned back to us. She handed my mother one key and me another. “Your bags have been sent to your rooms—on the first floor to the right. Breakfast is served between seven and ten in the morning. If you have any questions, just call reception. Enjoy your stay.”
Will grabbed my hand as we followed my mother along the hallway to a timber staircase that also seemed to be on an angle. I tilted my head to the side. “Is it my imagination or—”
Will chuckled. “Not your imagination. Venice is sinking. Things are bound to be a bit crooked.”
“Why don’t witches subtly fix it?” We collectively had so much power, surely something could be done to at least stop the iconic city’s demise.
Mum started up the stairs. “I’m afraid it’s such a huge undertaking, that it would be hard to hide that witches existed. Even if we managed to come up with a plan and orchestrate it, non-witches would ask a lot of questions. We couldn’t stop it with an invisible barrier—there would need to be structures put into place under the buildings. Rather obvious and not an option.”
Mum stopped at the first-floor landing. There were two hallways—one leading to the left and one to the right, but, as Isabella had explained, we needed to go right. We followed Mum along the narrow, red-carpeted hallway. Cream-and-gold-striped wallpaper gave it a ’70s feel, and more of the Venetian glass scones lit our way. Even so, it was quite dark with no natural light, not that it felt creepy—the atmosphere was more of a cosy, “Wow, I’m in Italy” one. The buzz of adventure hummed in my body, and I couldn’t wait to see our room, then the rest of Venice.
Mum stopped in front of a door and looked at me. “This is mine. Well, mine and Angelica’s.” She was sharing with Angelica because she still felt vulnerable. Even with the counselling she was doing, it would take time for her to recover. In the meantime, we were all doing our bit to help. Since we’d saved her, she’d lived with us at Angelica’s, in the room next to Will and me.
