covencraft 04 - dry spells (24 page)

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Insomnia was no stranger to Paris. As a Coven Leader, he was often plagued by thoughts that would not rest, churning through his brain, unstoppable. He recalled Sakkara telling him that there was something about the dark of night, when the rest of the world was asleep, that made thoughts more powerful, more tangible, more real, forcing sleep to the wayside the way a beast master could force a lion to the side of a cage, forever out of reach.

Thoughts of Sakkara made his stomach roll over. He wondered if his thoughts of her would be forever tainted now - every thought, every emotion, every memory clouded over by things he now knew. What did that mean for himself? He’d always put so much stock in his upbringing, in his values - seemingly passed down to him, but now….

A strange noise caught his attention. A scratching sound. He was unused to the sounds of Jade’s cottage. Her furnace clicked and clanked as it heat up and cooled down, something to which he was still trying to become accustomed. But this was different. This was…the sound broke through the darkness again. A scratch, a scrabble and then a pause. Scratch, scrabble and pause. It was at his door. He threw back the covers, curious. At the door, he paused. He thought of Jade and her recent sleep walking, before she’d split from Lily. Was he prepared to find Lily on the other side of the door, asleep as Jade had been when she wandered about? Would he lead her back to bed as he had Jade? Would she be pliant and unresisting under his guidance? Finding his woolgathering unproductive, he opened the door, vowing to face whatever he found there.

Bruce’s snout first poked through the opening between the door and the jamb. Then his large lizard body pushed the door the rest of the way open as he darted past Paris.

“Bruce,” Paris said unnecessarily. Paris looked down at the door and saw scratch marks etched into the wood from Bruce’s claws. “What are you doing?”

Bruce ignored Paris and instead wiggled his butt in preparation for a deft and surprisingly agile leap onto Paris’ bed. He went to Paris’ pillows and pawed at them, flipping one over and then scratching at another. Paris peered out into the hallway, wondering if everything was all right with Lily. The door to the room she shared with Jade (and usually Bruce) was pushed open - about the size of a lizard belly, Paris mused.

He padded quietly down the hallway and hesitated for a moment at the ajar door. He finally poked his head in. Lily appeared to be asleep, laying on her back on the bed, arms crossed over her chest, like a body in a coffin. It didn’t look like the most comfortable position, but she didn’t seem to be in any distress. He waited for a few moments until he was certain he’d seen the regular rise and fall of her chest as she slept. Carefully, he sent out a small bit of his magic, feeling around the room for any spells or hexes, in case Bruce had come to him because something was magically afoot.

There was nothing. Frowning, Paris made his way back to his room. Bruce was in the process of nosing the edges of the covers, pushing his scaled snout under the blankets. He flipped his head a bit and then burrowed beneath the covers. He was a lumpy, shifting shape, turning three times and then collapsing in the middle of the bed with an unhappy grunt.

“Bruce,” Paris said, keeping his voice quiet. There was a small movement from under the blankets as though Bruce had turned his head slightly toward Paris. Paris came to the side of the bed and, much like he had at Lily’s door, hesitated.

“Bruce,” he said again, not sure what he expected.

“Pfffffft.”

Well, that hardly cleared anything up. Paris lifted a corner of the blankets high enough so he could see Bruce’s snout and the flicker of his serpentine eyes as the low light of the lamp hit them. Bruce looked Paris up and down and then closed his eyes. Did he mean to sleep in Paris’ bed? Bruce’s jaw worked for a moment and then he smacked his lizard lips once before opening his eyes again and glared. First at Paris, and then the corner of the blankets Paris held high. Though Bruce didn’t talk, he could see how Jade and Lily were able to have conversations with him. There was no mistaking his meaning. Bruce clearly meant for Paris to drop the blankets back down so Bruce could get some sleep.

Paris settled the bed clothes back and Bruce gave a shimmy, wiggling around, then settling again. Feeling odd about climbing under the covers with a lizard, and Jade’s familiar no less, Paris stayed on top of the blankets. He knew familiars echoed the emotions of their witches and found himself quite touched that Bruce chose to find safety with him. Not feeling tired, he picked up the book he’d been reading on demonology, flipping pages until he found his place. Bruce shuffled up the bed, his snout conning to peek out of the covers, pink tongue snaking out and touching Paris’ hip momentarily, like he needed to ensure Paris was still there. Paris rested a hand on Bruce’s head, petting him a few times, able to feel the slight divots of Bruce’s scales even under the sheet. Bruce had the scent of Jade’s magic on him: cloves and linden blossom. It was infused into him as her familiar. If Paris closed his eyes, he could almost imagine she was in the room as well. Bruce let out a mournful sigh, long and drawn out.

“Yes, I know,” Paris replied. “I miss her too.”

He took the demon grimoire from the nightstand and flipped it open, next to the demonology book he’d been reading, preparing to compare the two again. The paper he’d used to mark his place in the spell book, once white, had taken on a sallow brown shade and he frowned. It felt oily to the touch now. Before it had gone into the book as an impromptu bookmark, it had been an ordinary bit of paper, but now it was spoiled by the magic in the book. He set the paper aside on the nightstand, resolving to dispose of it the next morning using clean magic.

Sakkara’s handwriting swam on the page in front of him. Rune-casting spells about binding and containing magic. He didn’t understand all the runes, but thought some of them might have been for death. Was there any limit to the things Sakkara dabbled in? He couldn’t imagine why she would have toyed with death. Death and life were such absolutes, so intricately woven into the fabric of Nature. To tinker with either one was predominantly considered an abhorrent crime.

Within minutes, Bruce was asleep, pressing his heavy, warm weight against Paris’ leg. There was something soporific about listening to Bruce breathe in and out. Almost meditative. Paris felt his own eyes getting heavy. He studied the runes a bit longer, flipping through a secondary book on runeology, but not getting anywhere. The demon runes were similar, but not quite like the ones in his standard rune dictionary. If he wanted to learn more, he’d have to find a demon rune dictionary. Perhaps Callie would know of one in their own library or the library of a nearby Coven.

Thinking of Callie made Paris realize he’d not yet told her about Sakkara’s revival nor Jade’s disappearance. Such an oversight on his part could possibly be forgiven, given the circumstances, but now that he thought of her, he realized he needed her friendship. As perhaps did Lily. He blinked, his eyelids heavy. Beside him, Bruce snorted once and his tongue came out from under the covers, unerringly finding Paris’ hand before zipping back in, as though checking for his presence even in his sleep. Setting the demon grimoire on the nightstand, this time without a sacrificial page marker, Paris turned out the light and closed his eyes.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Jade awoke with a start, her eyes snapping open to bright light. She shut them just as quick, waiting for her eyes to burn from the sun overhead, but they didn’t. It took her a split-second to remember she was in the Dearth. With Seth. She rubbed her eyes, thinking they would be gritty after sleeping in the car. They were surprisingly… nothing. Not gritty, not dry, not anything. She opened one eye and then the other. She must have slept. She had the sense of time passing, but she didn’t know how much. The sun was up now, whereas when she closed her eyes, it hadn’t been. Although, if time was as unregulated in the Dearth as Seth implied, she didn’t know if that meant anything.

“What time is it?” she asked, pulling the handle on the seat to shoot her upright. She thought she’d get a crick in her neck from sleeping in the car, but as she rotated it, she didn’t note any particularly sore or stiff spots.

“Again, time has no meaning here,” Seth replied, his eyes on the road in front of them.

Now that it was bright out again, Jade could see the road they were on, unlike the night before when it seemed like the hood of the car had been swallowed up by the dark. It could be any nondescript highway, Jade thought. At least, one in a temperate climate. The pavement was unbelievably smooth, no frost bumps rocking the car side to side. The paved road stretched out far beyond what she could see. On either side was still the same desert landscape - oddly shaped cacti, things that looked like tumbleweeds and a surprisingly beautiful mountain that was layers of orange and brown in varying gradients.

“If time did have a meaning here, what time would it be?” she asked, doggedly persistent.

“I would guess you slept for about a day by your time.”

A day. Jesus. “Is that because I was tired or because of the way time works here?”

“Does it matter? You’re like a school-child with these questions of yours. Things are not the same here. You cannot make some kind of Rosetta Stone to then use as the basis of your existence. You were awake. Then you weren’t. Now you are again. Such is the way of the Dearth.”

Jade rolled her shoulders around, trying to find a sore spot she usually had in her right trapezius, but it was strangely absent. She didn’t know what to make of not having a knot there. She always had a knot there. It was odd. It made her feel like this body wasn’t hers.

Then again, it sort of wasn’t. Her thoughts drifted to Lily and she wondered how strong their connection was. If she tried to reach out now, would she be able to make contact? Was it a scarce resource that she should try to hoard? Or was it a muscle that she needed to exercise? She popped her feet up on the dash, waiting for the quick pinch-point she always felt in her hip flexors from the cramped position. Similar to her trapezius, the absence of any discomfort was bizarre.

Seth glanced over at her feet on the dash, but said nothing. Well, it wasn’t like it was his car anyway.

Jade looked out the window again, seeing a distorted tree-like object lumbering its way across the desert, pursued by one of the blue rocks she’d seen earlier. A
vismutha
, Seth had called it. Far in the distance she could also see what she thought was a real tree - a massive trunk with long spindly bare branches that spiraled around itself, like some unseen hand had pinched the top between its fingers and spun the entire thing like soft taffy. The floor of the desert was a dark beige-brown. Notable only for its lack of notability. Everything felt stark and harsh. Bright and relentless.

“Is this what it’s like? Over here? All the time?”

“Yes,” answered Seth immediately, not following up for clarification.

“What do you do over here? Like, for your job or fun or just… living?”

“I told you, you don’t live in the Dearth. You exist. Why do you think we’re all so anxious to come to the mortal side?”

“Are you?” she asked, fixing upon his word choice. “Anxious to come to our side?”

She could see his jaw work, the muscle ticking and flexing. “Yes,” he finally said, saying the word as though it were a curse.

“Were other demons aware of my pantry? Before you warded it?”

“Possibly. It’s rather tasty. You’re the special sauce in that mixture. That wobbly bit coupled with the magic you leak out?” He made a motion like he was a savoring a fine dinner. “Mwha!” he kissed his finger tips. “But not to worry, I’ve got dibs.”

“I’m not a thing to have dibs on,” Jade retorted.

“Like it or not, on this side of the veil, dibs have been called.”

“And you took that weak spot or whatever and made it permanent?”

“Ah, that’s the thing. You did.”

“What? I didn’t do anything?” Jade protested.

“You didn’t have to!” Seth said, seemingly happy for the first time in, well, since they’d come to the Dearth, Jade would guess. “Your magic is powerful enough that you’ve solidified that portal and made a permanent gateway to our side. You’ve punched a hole in space-time, Possum. It warms the cockles of my heart. No, further, below the cockles. The lower cockle area.” He leaned slightly toward her and waggled his eyebrows, all while keeping his eye on the road. She was pretty sure disgust was written all over her face. He chuckled. “It’s quite difficult to do, but you’ve created a brand new fixed portal.”

“Are most portals unfixed?”

“Yes. On both sides. Being ‘fixed’ is about both locations. Place A can be fixed to Place B, or B can be fixed to A, or they can both be fixed to each other or neither. On this side of the veil, there are quite a few places demons or others creatures know they can punch through and get to your side - weak spots. Place A is fixed on this side. Place B on your side is not. So, the catch is, we never know where we’ll end up once we get to the human side. There are a few fixed portals on your side, usually ley lines or places of strong magic. Place B is fixed, but finding out where to start from on this side, Place A, is not.”

“Where would fixed portals on my side be?”

“Generally speaking, any place someone has dropped a monument is a portal. The power came first you understand. A place of magic that mortals recognized it and slapped some stones on it. Stonehenge, pretty much any place with a pyramid,
Arc de Triomphe
.” Seth sighed, amused. “You know, I find it delicious that thing is the center of a horrid traffic circle. It’s like poetry.” He shook his head. “Anyway, your pantry portal is like that. Fixed on your side, but not ours.”

“What does that mean?”

Seth smiled, his eyes still on the road in front of him. Even without his gaze focused on her, the way he smiled made her afraid. “It means, now that I know your address - your fixed magical location and vibration - when you’re near your portal, I can get to it from anywhere on this side.”