Double-Sided Witch (Covencraft Book 3) (2 page)

Daniel was waiting for her in his usual spot. He jerked his head at her, his own headlamp bobbing in the semi-darkness. It was still too early for the sun to be up and Jade was thankful for her multiple layers. She knew she’d be warm enough in a few minutes, but right now, it was pretty damned cold. Her breath plumed out in grey globes as she exhaled from her mouth and her nostrils burned from the chill as she inhaled. She bobbed her own headlamp at Daniel; morning greeting complete. As much as Daniel’s boyfriend, Henri, was chatty, Daniel was not. If he were, Jade didn’t think they could be running partners, at least not in the morning. She liked the company, or rather, the companionship, but appreciated the silence. Running with Daniel was blissfully conversation-free. It was his day to pick the music, so he fired up his MP3 player and they fell into step to the identifiable beat of the Black Keys. She was yawning her way through their first mile, willing her body to fall into the semi-trance like state it often did while she ran. The ‘thump-thump’ of their footfalls, the beat of the music, and the cadence of their breathing all started lining up, but just when Jade thought she might drift into ‘the zone,’ her mind would jerk back to last night’s dream. Like a record scratch - jarring and harsh - she was zipped back. She could see Lily standing over her, feel her tugging on her wrist. Jade shivered in the morning air and told herself it was just the reaction of the sweat on her face evaporating in the cold morning air. Pushing all thoughts of Lily down, she listened to the music, focusing on the lyrics and the bass line. As the next song started up - a heavy hip-hop tune - she wondered what kind of bass setting Daniel must have his speakers on because she could feel the beat in her chest. A heavy, wet thumping.

Then she realized that it wasn’t the music causing the feeling in her chest. It was the lake.

Jade had first passed by the lake with Paris as they walked through the Nature Preserve to work on Jade’s circle casting - casting magical spells within the confines of a circle. It could boost power, protect a witch and enable them to work on more complicated spells. At the time, she’d felt something tugging at her - pulling at her insides. Paris had led her toward the lake, thinking maybe they could work on Jade’s water magic, but on the way there, she had felt sick. Even now, she couldn’t articulate it. Her hand had reached out of its own volition to clutch at the back of Paris’ coat, stopping him from going any further. Getting closer and closer to the lake had felt like being sucked into a gravity well. The closer she got, the harder it was to stop; as though something deep inside her was being pulled against her will. Paris mentioned there’d been an accident at the lake years before and many witches in the Coven had an aversion to the area. She hadn’t asked what he meant and he hadn’t offered. She was both sorry and grateful; Jade wasn’t sure she wanted to know what other witches felt when they passed by the lake. She’d rather not think of it at all.

It made no sense that Jade should feel a similar sensation from the lake now. She and Daniel were on the other side of the Preserve from where Paris and Jade had been. She never felt the lake on this side of the Preserve until today. Her chest felt like a hollow drum, her skin stretched tightly across the cavernous emptiness. The thumping sensation she felt was as though someone were striking the surface with deep, hard blows, sending the reverberations rippling through the space, rattling the edges. While running always made her breathe hard, today she felt like she couldn’t catch her breath, couldn’t get in enough oxygen. Her legs slowed down until she was stopped, bent over, hands on her knees, trying to breathe. Her lungs felt small and inadequate, unable to pull in enough air. The light from her headlamp made a circle on the ground in front of her, illuminating the dry twigs and desiccated leaves that littered the pathway. She focused on the bright area in front of her, willing her lungs to open up. There was a hot press against her chest and she fumbled with her gloves, pulling one off so she could dig under her coat and sweater. Her salamander charm, the one Paris gave to her, was hot to the touch. She pulled it away from her skin, pinching it between her fingers.

“Rough run today?” Daniel asked. He’d stopped a few paces in front of her and turned back, jogging little circles around her while she panted. She rubbed at her chest. Some running days
were
easier than others, but this was different.

Without warning, she dry heaved, making a choking-gagging sound. Daniel immediately stopped, standing still beside her.

“Hey, hey,” he said, placing a hand on her back and rubbing a small circle. “You okay?”

Jade nodded, still gasping.
Focus
, she thought.
Breathe in and out. In and out.
It seemed like the silver weight of the salamander increased for a moment and then released. She wasn’t sure if the charm was magical. She’d thought that it was only symbolic, but as she clutched it in her hand now, she felt safer, calmer. Slowly, it felt as though some kind of wall was coming up in her mind, blocking the sensation of the lake. Between the comforting warmth of the charm and the sudden scent of citrus, the empty-drum feeling ebbed and her body no longer felt like it was betraying her with its weakness. She stayed bent over and focused on the feeling of Daniel’s hand on her back, feeling the pressure through the layers of her long-sleeved shirt and coat.

“You must really be in the inner circle now. I didn’t even flinch when you touched me,” she joked.

He huffed with laughter. “We’ll work you up to hugs.”

“Hey now, let’s not get crazy.”

He laughed again, the sound warm and friendly. “Seriously. You okay?”

She nodded again, this time managing to stand upright. He stepped back, out of her space. It was one of the reason’s she was so comfortable with Daniel. Jade always got the feeling he respected her space. That and he was gay. He didn’t want anything from her. Or rather, he would never want from her something she couldn’t or wouldn’t give. 

“Yeah, I don’t know what happened.”

“You sick?”

“No, I don’t think so. Just… tired lately. Not sleeping well.” It was mostly the truth.

Daniel nodded. “Well, let’s cut it short today. It’s all fun and games till someone dry heaves.”

“And then it’s a sport.”

“Or a reality show.”

Daniel turned around on the little pathway and started walking back the way they came, keeping his pace easy. They worked their way toward the outer edge of the Preserve, away from the lake. Jade took several deep, icy breaths, almost relishing the way the cold air bit at the soft tissue of her lungs as she did. By the time they were back at Daniel’s car, it was hard to remember she’d ever felt sick in the first place.

As per their usual routine, Daniel drove her home, instead of Jade hiking her way back through the alleyways and paths. Back at her cottage, he turned to her once last time.

“You sure you feel okay now?”

Jade rolled her eyes. “Yes. I didn’t even really get sick. I just got all…” she made a churning motion with her hands.

He studied her for a moment, as if weighing the truth of her words. “Let me know if you want to take any of our other running days off this week. It’s okay to have a rest period.”

“I’m fine. Just tired.”

He made a ‘hmm’ noise, as though he’d wait to see how she was himself. “All right. See you at work.”

She got out with a wave, watching his car pull away. The sun was just barely coming up, making the sky dirty grey-blue with touches of pink and orange. She knew by the time she saw Daniel again at the Counter-Magic offices, it would be pinky-orange with the arc of the sun crowning. 

Heading up the walkway, she checked in with her demon locks, more out of habit than any real need. It wasn’t like she had a lot of visitors. The locks would keep anyone out other than herself, Bruce and now Paris. She had to add him one day and just hadn’t bothered re-configuring the locks. Her steps slowed as she reached her front door. The magic felt sluggish and slow in her mind. Normally, it was a big puzzle box and Jade could feel the gears of it turning and twisting as she moved through the space - like it was stretching open around her and then sagging closed again. This morning, it was like the gears and cogs were cold, like the weather - moving slowly and with protest.

Or maybe it was her. It might be because she was tired. Jade wasn’t sure. While she had been proficient enough to cast the spell, she didn’t know enough about demon magic to be able to troubleshoot why her locks weren’t acting the same. Maybe the spell needed touching up? Maybe it was responding to how she felt? Maybe this just happened to demon magic in the winter? She’d have to check Sakkara’s demon grimoires.

It’s not like she could (or would) ask Paris. While his mother, Sakkara, had been a beloved Coven Leader and seemingly good mom (if the way Paris turned out was any indication), she was also quite the demon spell hoarder and conjurer. Sometimes (okay, most times) Jade felt bad for how much she liked demon magic given how adverse Paris was to it. Not only did he, and the Coven, consider demon magic taboo, Jade didn’t think he’d ever really gotten used to the idea that his mother had regularly practiced it and had been damn good at it. Finding not one, but three demon grimoires in Sakkara’s handwriting had been a blow to him.

Jade would have to go through the books on her own and see if she could find a reason why her locks were acting weird. Or maybe they would be better tomorrow. But she wouldn’t ask Paris about it. Not yet.

Bruce came charging out of the kitchen when Jade came in, like he was surprised it was her at the door. He pushed his way past her, sticking his snout out the front door and giving a deep, hard sniff. A laugh escaped Jade at the sight of him wiggling his lizard-nose back and forth.

“Getting some fresh air? You know you can go out the window for that.”                                         

He huffed as if he was expelling something out his nose and then turned, sauntering back inside. His long, scaly tail swished behind him as he made his way to the stairs and then started hobbling up them.

“All right then,” Jade muttered, closing the front door. She watched Bruce labor up the stairs enviously. No doubt he’d crawl back into bed, or into a pile of her laundry and go to sleep. Jade didn’t have such luxury. It was time for a cup of coffee and then getting ready for work. Her cube at Counter-Magic awaited.

#

After
taking the bus to work, Jade always wanted to wash her hands. Maybe her face. Maybe all her clothes. Ugh, public transit. Gross. Plus it was really inconvenient to pick up coffee before work when you took public transit. It meant finding a bus route that stopped by a coffee shop, getting off, getting coffee and then waiting for the next bus. No, thank you. So after her cup at home, Jade resigned herself to wait until she, Callie and Henri went for their usual ten-thirty coffee break in the Coven’s cafeteria. The coffee wasn’t bad and it gave Jade something to break up her morning.

She needed to get her car and bring it to the Coven.

She’d been getting ready to move to the Coven. Honestly. But then Dex, one of the other Coven Leaders, had gone all dark side and Jade ended up getting involved. Okay, she threw herself into the mix, but she knew Dex was bad news from day one and guess what? She’d been right and it was thanks to her that he hadn’t gotten his bat-shit crazy paws on Sakkara’s demon grimoires.  

If only the Coven were grateful about it. They seemed
mostly
grateful. Partially grateful. Reluctantly grateful. They gave Jade sideways glances and not-so-covert looks for the most part. Jade could feel the equal parts of discomfort, distrust and grudging gratitude in their expressions. It wasn’t Jade’s fault that in the process of stopping Dex, Coven magic got sort of broken and Paris had to reset it.

According to the Coven, it
was
apparently Jade’s fault that Paris reset Coven Magic to resonate with Jade’s personal magic. A magic that was slightly different than what everyone else had been born into. Of course it was.

Jade couldn’t help that. Her magic was just her magic. At first, people seemed intrigued by the difference. It was like a shiny new car that had the new car smell. But now, the new car was making a clunking noise that couldn’t be fixed, it guzzled gas like it had a hundred cylinders and the dealer was saying no take-backs.

Jade was the only one who was proficient at ‘driving’ it. She felt bad. Sort of. Obviously it was great for her because her magic was what she was used to. It must totally suck for everyone else trying spells they’d been using for years only to have them fizzle out, or blow up in their faces. Literally. Penny Simpson had a bad experience with a scrying spell she’d done for years and her eyebrows hadn’t grown back yet. Hannah, their sometime-resident magic expert, said the residual magic had to dissipate on its own before the hair follicles would resume their natural cycle.

Still, it’s not like that was Jade’s fault. But try telling that to Penny and her horridly drawn-on eyebrows. Yeesh. Penny should just… not do anything with them. Although that would mean she’d have to walk around with that perpetually surprised look people with no eyebrows have.

Whatever. It wasn’t life-threatening. No one had died. No one would die. Probably. So long as they didn’t go crazy with their magic until they got it figured out, it would all be fine. She was trying to help by reconfiguring spells at Counter-Magic, but even if she hadn’t been helping, she couldn’t force them to like her.