Double-Sided Witch (Covencraft Book 3) (19 page)

“I’ve started sleeping in the closet again and I’m not sure why.” Her voice was even softer now, like she was telling him a secret. “I don’t mean to. I just wake up there. And sometimes, things have been moved that I don’t remember moving.” Her hand stopped moving over Bruce’s belly and rested on his skin. “And I’m dreaming. Of water. Of Lily.”

Paris wanted to say something, but wasn’t sure what. Maybe that he was listening, that it was all right, that she could confide in him. But he was still afraid if he made a sound, he would break whatever impetus she was under to speak and she would lock her thoughts up tight again.

Suddenly, so quick that he flinched, both Jade and Bruce turned their heads toward the back door of the cottage. Bruce flipped up from his side to his belly, his eyes narrowing just as Jade’s did, both of them staring at the door.

“My demon locks are unraveling,” Jade said, a tone of dread in her voice.

“What?” Paris asked, sitting up right and staring at the back door. “How can you tell?”

“I can feel it.” She pushed herself to her feet, taking a step closer to the back door and he reached out a hand to stop her, but she was out of his range. She didn’t go any closer, frozen in place. Bruce’s tongue flicked out and he spat, hissing at the door.

“Is your magic failing?” Paris asked, pushing his chair back and getting to his feet.

Jade shook her head, still facing the door, but her eyes were moving around like she was seeing something else. Perhaps she was. Her locks were a demon spell and she said she liked demon magic for its complexity and structure. Maybe she was looking at pieces of the spell in her mind.

“No, it’s not my spell,” she said, her fingers flexing slightly by her side, like they wanted to do something, but didn’t know what. “Something… someone’s taking it apart.”

CHAPTER
TEN

Bruce
darted toward the back door, scratching the wood, leaving marks in the paint. When the door didn’t open under his ministrations, he turned his head to look back at Jade. His expression clearly said to her, ‘HUMAN WITH OPPOSABLE THUMBS, LET ME OUT.’

“Should I do it?” Jade asked Paris, not taking her eyes of Bruce. She couldn’t tell what was out there, only that
something
was. Something or someone taking apart her demon locks.

“Do you know what’s out there? Can you tell?” Paris asked. She felt him come up behind her, only slightly encroaching on her space. She didn’t turn around; her eyes were focused on Bruce and the door.

“No. But Bruce really wants out.” Bruce scratched at the door again, his claws leaving deeper grooves past the depth of the paint and into the grain of the wood. “The last time he wanted to go out like this, Dex and Veronica were outside my house. He scared them off.”

“You never told me that,” Paris said.

“It didn’t seem important after it all had ended.” Jade took a step toward the door, her hand reaching for the knob to let Bruce out.

“Wait. We don’t know-” Paris began, but Jade had already opened the door, despite his warning. Bruce was like a cartoon character for a moment - feet moving so fast that they couldn't get purchase on the ground, and then he bolted out the door like he’d been launched. Jade wasn’t sure she should follow him. She took another step toward the door, only stopping when she felt Paris’ fingers lightly touch her shoulder once.

“We don’t know what’s out there.”

“No. But… I trust Bruce,” Jade said. She’d trust Bruce before any member of the Coven. Maybe even before Paris.

Between the bite of the winter air and the things she’d been telling Paris about her past, Jade felt vulnerable and unprotected standing in the cold air of the open doorway. Bruce has disappeared into the dark of the back yard, or perhaps even further still into the dense vegetation that lined the property. She couldn’t see nor hear him. While Bruce seemed to be attuned to Jade’s location, she didn’t have the same connection back to him.

The demon locks were unraveling, like a knitted sweater with a loose, frayed end being pulled - slowly, methodically. They were coming apart. It wasn’t a confused  or scattered approach. It was smooth and seamless. On a whim, she sniffed the air and caught the scent of sage, vanilla and licorice. She knew it was the magic of the person taking the spell apart.

“Do you smell that?”

“What?” Paris asked.

“Their magic. I can smell it.”

Paris sniffed the air next to her and despite the gravity of the situation, she thought he looked comical, delicately sniffing the air like a fancy dog. He blinked sharply and pulled back.

“Do you recognize it?” Jade watched his expression, but couldn’t read it.

“No. I thought it reminded me of someone, but… no.”

“Who?”

“It’s not relevant.”

Jade frowned at his answer. It could be relevant. She did best when she had all the information available - what might seem not important or incidental to Paris could still help. A rustle from further away caught her attention and Jade sighed in relief when Bruce sauntered back into the yard, no worse for wear. He trotted in like he hadn’t a care in the world, which was confusing because Jade could still feel her spell, or rather the bits of what was left, falling away. And then, finally, suddenly, the spell was gone, like leaves the wind carried away. Her magic reached out for the last dregs of it, but couldn’t catch anything. Bruce saddled up beside her, facing outside like she was, pressing himself against her leg.

“What did you find, buddy?” she asked, bending over to give him a solid pet, feeling better when she felt the weight of him under hand. “Did you see anyone? Did you scare them off?”

His tongue flicked out, toward the back of the yard, but he didn’t make any other motions. Jade narrowed her eyes and then decided to go out in the yard herself. She thought maybe Paris would try to stop her, but he only followed right behind her. She was glad for his presence. She sniffed the air again, hoping to catch the scent of magic again, but there was nothing in the cold, crisp air - only the slightly spicy scent of nightfall. She reached the edge of her yard, where the dense foliage between the houses and the alleyway sprung up, closing off the views to other houses. There was a green space between the property lines - a little bit of a wild area where children could play relatively safely during the day without worrying about cars or traffic. It also meant there was plenty of space for someone to linger unseen.

Jade didn’t hear or see anything. Bruce was sitting unconcerned by the back door. “I don’t think there’s anyone out there. Not anymore at least,” Jade said. She was glad when she saw Paris nod beside her.

“Agreed. I don’t think there’s anyone. I don’t think Bruce would have come back if there were.”

Jade crossed her arms over her chest, cold, but not quite ready to go back inside. “You keep telling me no one else at the Coven practices demon magic.”

“They don’t.”

She turned to face him, giving him her best, ‘oh really?’ face. “Someone just took apart my demon lock spell. The spell I use to keep my house safe. And they did it damn well. It just… fell apart.”

“I don’t know anyone that could do that. I don’t understand your spell myself. I can’t work demon magic like you can.”

“Then who did this?” she asked, gesturing wildly with one of her hands.

“I don’t know.” Paris paused for a moment. “Is it possible…could it have been you?”

Jade hoped her expression conveyed the full force of her non-verbal, ‘what the fuck?’

“I think you’ve been under extreme stress and your magic hasn’t always been under your control.” Paris’ voice was low and gentle.

“I smashed some glass! That’s the magical equivalent of throwing a hammer. This,” she waved a hand around her gesturing to her house and herself, “is a little more fine-tuned than a hammer. It took me three hours to set up that spell and someone took it apart in two minutes.”

“You managed to tweak it from your apartment, miles away.”

Jade rolled her eyes. “It’s not even the same thing.”

“Forgive me for not knowing that. I already said I don’t know the demon spells as well as you.”

“Yeah, and every time you say that it sounds like some kind of accusation.” Jade crossed her arms again, hugging them close to herself. She didn’t want to fight with Paris. She was tired and feeling scared and there was a faint throbbing starting up behind her right eye. Jesus, what if she really was going crazy? What if Paris’ question wasn’t so far off the mark? Could she have done this?

But then she saw Bruce still sitting patiently in the doorway of her cottage and she knew it hadn’t been her. If it had, Bruce wouldn’t have been so keen to get outside and have a look around. She trudged back to the kitchen, hearing Paris following along behind her. She closed and locked the back door, hearing the inefficient slide of the deadbolt and sorely missing her demon locks already. She could try the demon lock spell again tonight, but it would take her time to set it up. Besides, what guarantee did she have that whoever took them apart wouldn't just do it again?

Paris asked another question. “Could it have been the demon? Seth?”

Jade’s eyes darted toward the pantry. She was about to shoot off a quick negative response, but then paused to logically consider Paris’ question. “No,” she said slowly. “He just shows up if he wants to. And the demon locks don’t work on him anyway. The warding does, or at least I hope it does.” She felt another shiver at the thought of her demon warding being pulled apart like her locks. She reached out a tendril of magic and poked at a few of her wards and got a nice, resonant ‘ping’ back. “The warding feels okay. And if Seth did take apart my locks, I get the feeling he’d like to show up and tell me how he did it and maybe offer a deal on how to stop it in the future.”

Paris’ sharp blue eyes fixed on her quickly. “He’s still pursuing a deal?”

Jade rolled her eyes. “Please, that’s all he does.” At the look on his face, she continued. “It’s not like I’m taking him up on it.”

Paris didn’t look wholly convinced and she didn’t have the energy to argue with him.

Jade leaned against the counter again feeling overwhelmed. Lily, her dreams, Bruce’s scaly patch, moving and now the demon locks.

“I didn’t want to mention this just yet, as you’ve a lot on your plate,” Paris began and Jade felt her stomach sink. Ugh. This sounded like more bad news. “But there have also been some… reports of the area in the Preserve, out by the lake, of your magic.”

“You mean complaints,” Jade answered.

“I wouldn’t necessarily call them that,” Paris hedged diplomatically.

“You don’t have to. I found the Counter-Magic log and read them.”

“Oh, I see.”

“I’m not doing that either,” she said, but this time, she was sort of lying. While she knew she hadn’t dismantled her own demon locks, she wasn’t entirely sure that what was going on at the Preserve wasn’t her fault. With the dreams Jade was having - dreams of her, Lily and some other presence - she didn’t know if she was responsible for any magic out there or not.

“Would you be willing to go out there with me?”

Jade’s knee jerk reaction was ‘no.’ Thinking about going out to the lake area made her stomach flip. She thought about how she felt when the mojo around the lake pressed into her. Cold, sick, heavy. Even now, it was like muscle memory took over and she got the same sensations.

“You clearly don’t like the idea.”

“Why do you say that?” she asked sharply, looking over at Paris.

“Your face. You had this look like you were about to be sick or perhaps that you’d eaten something rotten.”

Jade was normally better at schooling her expressions. Just moments ago, she’d purposely given Paris a look, knowing full well the expression on her face. It bothered her that when she thought about the lake, she wasn’t aware of what her face did.

“I don’t,” she answered honestly. “It makes me feel sick.”

“Going there or thinking about it?”

“Both.”

There was a long silence and she picked up her coffee cup, taking a sip and wincing when she realized it had gone cold. Gross. She was dreading the next words out of Paris’ mouth. She was afraid he’d ask about Lily. For a moment, before her demon spell started unraveling, she’d been getting ready to tell him about Lily. Maybe not everything. Maybe not how Lily disappeared or what it had been like for Jade right after that. But she’d almost been ready to tell Paris about how she and Lily were the almost the same person, but not. How they had been two people living in the same body and that she knew it sounded crazy, but it wasn’t. They could have silent conversations if they wanted, or just pass images and feelings back and forth.

Then the demon locks were falling apart and Jade had been jolted out of whatever calm space she’d been in. Now, only moments later, the thought of spilling all her secrets out made her feel cold and clammy. If Paris asked again, she didn’t know what would come out of her mouth. It scared her, not knowing.

“I think we should go, to the lake,” Paris said finally and God, that was just as awful of a thing to say as when he’d asked about Lily. Jade could feel her short, sharp fingernails biting into the flesh of her palm and she looked down and made a conscious effort to uncurl her fist. She didn’t want to go and yet, she felt like she needed to. Maybe if Paris were there, it wouldn’t be so bad.

“I’ll think about it,” she said quietly.

#

Paris
was surprised when Jade agreed to think about going to the lake. While it wasn’t a solid ‘yes,’ he feared he would have to do much more convincing to get even a soft ‘maybe.’ Looking at her in the kitchen, the way she stood holding her coffee cup close to her, she looked tired and worn. He wondered if taking her to the Preserve was a good idea, but truthfully, he wasn’t sure what else to do.

“It’s far too late to go today,” he said, checking his watch and seeing the early evening hour. “But I can make arrangements to go tomorrow. I’m sure Josef won’t mind if you’re missing from work.”

“No, I guess not. Not if half the complaints are about me anyway.”

“They’re not complaints. Not truly. People are concerned.”

“Angry mobs with pitchforks and torches are also usually concerned.”

“That’s not what this is.”

She sighed and turned, opening the microwave to put her cup of coffee in to warm it up a bit. “I don’t think I’m doing anything, but… if I am, am I gonna get lynched?”

“No,” Paris answered quickly. “That wouldn’t happen.”

She remained facing the microwave, watching her cup rotate lazily inside. He got the feeling she didn’t believe him.

If Jade was responsible for something amiss at the lake area, Paris had no doubt the Coven may not initially take it well, given that it would indicate that Jade didn’t have full control over her powers. However, she had recently done them a great service when she stopped Dex and Paris felt that they were warming to Jade, albeit slowly.