Double-Sided Witch (Covencraft Book 3) (31 page)

“Where did she come from?”

Lily shrugged. “I don’t know. She didn’t say. She didn’t say anything for a long time. But it was after she came that things started going… badly at home. Not that she caused it,” Lily clarified. “She didn’t. I know she didn’t. But it wasn’t like that before. It all changed after.”

Paris was surprised at how easy it was to get information from Lily. He asked and she answered. It was nothing like asking Jade questions.

“What do you mean, she didn’t say anything for a long time?”

“She didn’t talk. At the time, I didn’t think it was strange. I mean, she was just there one day, in my head. Our head. I was six, so I knew she wasn’t just some imaginary person. I had imaginary friends, but I knew they were fake. Like a teddy bear tea party. You know those bears aren’t really drinking tea,” she said to him, as though she expected him to have some experience with imaginary tea parties. Her eyes drifted off to the window in medlab, the one that looked out on the courtyard. It was too dark outside now to see anything, but she stared at it, or maybe past it. “Sometimes, if I sat next to a mirror, but didn’t look directly at it, I could almost see her in the reflection. Or in a window, late at night when it’s dark outside but you’ve a light on indoors, and the glass is reflective. I could see her sometimes then too. Only out of the corner of my eye. Never directly. She was this small girl. Smaller than me. Younger than me. We look like me now, but she didn’t look like me back then. She had lighter hair. Done up in this really pretty braid.” Lily shook her head a little as though clearing it. “I asked her a lot who she was, what she wanted. She didn’t say anything. I just got this sense of her being scared and maybe lost. I don’t know. Even though I felt big next to her, I was young too, so maybe I was wrong. But she seemed smaller, littler. I felt like a big kid next to her. I kept asking her what her name was. All I ever got was the letter ‘J’ so I named her Jade.”

“You named her,” Paris repeated.

Lily smiled. “Yeah. We have that rock collection, I think you’ve seen it?” Again, he could see she was filtering through information in her head, and then nodding to herself when she confirmed it. “I was big into rocks then. Still kind of am. I guess she’s lucky she didn’t get saddled with being called Quartz or Amethyst. I was a six-year old. God, I could have named her lapis-lazuli.” She snorted. “What a disaster.”

“What’s her real name?”

Lily shrugged. “I don’t know. She never remembered. We don’t talk about that.”

“Why not?”

“It’s just one of the things we don’t talk about.”

“Is there a list?”

Lily looked like she was considering his question and then said, “Yes.”

Paris wondered, if they had shared as much as both Jade and Lily had intimated, what kinds of subjects must be on the ‘unspoken’ list? What things were taboo between two people who shared so much? As intrigued as he was, he was torn about asking more questions, partially because he felt that asking Lily questions was a betrayal of Jade’s privacy, but also, because he had other concerns.

“Who is the Sparrow Lady?” Paris asked.

Lily paused, thinking about the question. “I don’t know.”

“What do you know about her? Jade said you called her that.”

“I guess I named her too,” Lily replied. “I don’t know when I started waking up, not exactly. I have this sort of sense that I was present for a while before I realized it. The first thing I remember, actually, is you.”

“Me?” Paris repeated, surprised. “Why?”

“It was in the forest, after Dex. When Jade was trying to bind him. I was there. That was the first time I remember being aware. She needed help. Focus. I could always help her do that. I helped her that day. To focus her spell and try to bind Dex. But he disappeared before it worked and there was this… vacuum of her power. I think it pulled her away for a moment and pulled me to the forefront. I remember being in a circle, and you were there. I touched your coat. But I was tired. I was so tired and I had to close my eyes and then I was asleep again, I think.”

Paris remembered that moment so clearly. It was Lily’s green eyes he’d seen that day, only he didn’t know what it meant then. He was still learning all it meant now.

“When did the Sparrow Lady arrive? What does she do?”

“I don’t know when she showed up exactly. I felt like I was waking up, but it was slow. I was tired. Jade knew I was waking up, or rather, I think she hoped I was waking up. I can’t imagine what it was like for her being alone, after I left. She’d never been alone.” Lily stared at the window to the courtyard again, and Paris realized with a jolt that from where she sat, she would be able to see her reflection. Jade’s reflection.

“I think the Sparrow Lady knows that. Somehow. She knows about me and Jade.” Lily fidgeted with the towel on her lap. “And the lake,” she added slowly.

“What about the lake?” Paris asked.

“Jade’s been there before.”

“Yes, with me. We passed by it on the way to work on her circles one day and also recently. She reacted very violently. She was ill, she bled from the ears and nose.”

Lily shook her head. “No, before. She was there before.”

“She’d been dreaming of it,” Paris said.

Again Lily shook her head. “No, I think…” she laughed, “I was going to say, ‘I know this sounds crazy,’ but then I realized, we passed that station a long way back.” She sighed and shook her head again, this time like she was clearing it. “Before Jade fell in tonight, she saw something in the water and I’m not sure if it was her or if it was the Sparrow Lady that made her see it.”

“What did she see?”

“A little girl, underwater. And I think it was Jade. A long time ago, I think it was her.”

#

Jade
sat on the dock, her bare feet hanging off the edge and dipping into the water. She kicked them, watching the water ripple and swirl. She leaned back, resting her hands behind her. The sun was shining and she squinted as she looked up at the sky. Not cloudless, but she liked it better when there were big, fat, fluffy clouds drifting lazily along. She lay down on the dock, her feet still submerged. She closed her eyes, seeing red on the inside of her eyelids from the bright sun. Her face was hot, but her feet were cold. She inhaled and exhaled, breathing out long and even. She could hear the quiet lap, lap, lap of the water against the wood of the dock. It was a nice day.

But…

What if there were something under the water? What if something lurked in the deep, watching her feet from below? What if something dark and ugly lived down there, waiting to reach up and grab her around the ankles, pulling her down, into the cold? Was that just the watery currents trailing against the soles of her feet, or was it some unseen thing’s hand, coming closer, closer, wanting to snatch her from the surface?

Jade pulled her feet up from the water sharply, sitting up like a jackknife. She looked down at the rippling surface, not seeing anything but the clouds in the sky and her own reflection staring back at her. A large shape loomed over her shoulder. Someone was standing behind her.

Jade turned, eyes narrowing against the sharp light of the sun. She raised her hand, like a visor over her eyes. The woman looked down at her. She seemed vaguely familiar. Jade had seen her face before, but couldn’t place where. A flock of sparrows circled above her head, black spots against the blue sky.

“The Sparrow Lady,” Jade said aloud.

She was beautiful. She had the kind of face that ages well - pristine, sharp bone structure. As she got older, her bones hadn’t made her sallow or stark looking - only more refined. She looked to be in her forties or fifties, but with that bone structure, she could easily be in her sixties and just look that good. Her hair was still dark and Jade had the fleeting thought that it could always be from a bottle, but drugstore color didn’t normally shine so bright in the natural light. She had lovely highlights - streaks of blue-black and deep mahogany, which both set off the blue of her eyes - deep and clear.

“I’ve seen you before.”

She smiled at Jade. “Perhaps. It’s hard to say.”

She had an accent like Paris - British and slightly formal, her words clipped. She wore a dark cloak, the same cloak she’d been wearing in Jade’s other dreams. Until that moment, it was as though her dreams were far, far away, but noticing the cloak, recognizing it as the same one she’d seen before, brought Jade’s other dreams back to the front of her mind. Jade scrambled backward, mindful of the edge and got to her feet. The Sparrow Lady’s blue eyes watched her, more like a hawk than her namesake.

Jade looked at the water, remembering being cold, remembering the sky being dark. She looked back at the Sparrow Lady.

“Am I asleep?”

The Sparrow Lady smiled and that too was familiar. “After a fashion. You’re unconscious more than asleep. Slightly different, although both make it easier.”

“Easier for what?” Jade asked warily, stepping around her, trying to move past her on the slender dock and get closer to shore.

She didn’t answer. Jade started walking backward on the dock, moving closer to shore, while keeping her body facing the Sparrow Lady. Her bare feet made it easy for her to keep her balance, the soles of her feet finding their purchase better without shoes in the way.

“What do you want from me?”

“I need a favor.”

As Jade stepped back, the Sparrow Lady stepped forward, keeping pace with Jade.

“You’ve been making me dream of Lily. Of the lake.”

The Sparrow Lady looked contemplative for a moment. “Yes and no. You were already dreaming of the lake and of her. I just needed to push you a bit. And I needed you to come here.”

“Why?” Jade stepped off the dock, feeling the solid ground beneath her feet. The sun-warmed rocks were smooth against her soles.

“There’s magic here. There has been for a long time.”

“I already had magic.” Jade stepped sideways toward the treeline.

“Yes. Yes, you did. And I needed more for you. I needed more from you.”

“Who are you?” Jade wanted to turn away from her and run, but she was afraid to take her eyes of her. Like a children’s game, as long as Jade watched her, the Sparrow Lady couldn’t dart forward and get her. 

The Sparrow Lady paused, as if sensing Jade wanted to bolt. “My name is Sakkara.”

Jade shook her head. “No, that’s Paris’ mother’s name.”

The Sparrow Lady, Sakkara, nodded once.

“She’s dead,” Jade continued and then had a horrible thought. “Oh, shit. Am I dead?”

“No, dear, I told you. Only unconscious. Separating yourself from Lily and conjuring a body for her was quite taxing on you. I imagine you could sleep on your own for a little bit longer yet.”

Jade continued to shake her head, as though by denying what she was hearing, she could make it untrue. Paris’ mother, Sakkara, was dead. Paris wouldn’t have lied to Jade about that. The Coven knew she was dead too. When she was spoken of, it was always in quiet, reverent tones.

“What do you mean, separating myself from Lily?”

Sakkara tipped her head. “Ah, of course. You wouldn’t actually know what you’ve done yet since you’re still unconscious. Lily. You’ve crafted her a body, from magic. It’s quite impressive and I’m not sure I know any other witches that could do it. Although, you’ve got a bit of a boost working for you.”

“What do you mean?”

Sakkara smiled. “All in good time.”

“I’ve read your books,” Jade blurted. “Your magic. Your demon grimoires.”

Sakkara nodded. “I know. It took me a while to remember some of my hexes without my books.”

Realization struck Jade. “You unraveled my demon locks.”

“Well, technically they’re my demon locks. But you altered them. You cast that spell very well. Better than myself, I daresay. It took me time to remember it, figure out what you’d done and then break them.”

“Why? Why did you break them?”

Sakkara pursed her lips and Jade almost did a double-take. The gesture was so familiar - Paris had the same expression sometimes. “I needed you to come to the lake and my influence on your dreams wasn’t strong enough. I had to enter your house to cast a dream hex.”

“You did what? Where? How?”

“It’s in your room, under your bed.”

“But I did go to the lake,” Jade protested. “Paris brought me.”

“Yes, he did.” Her tone softened as she spoke of Paris. “The talisman he made you is quite powerful.” Sakkara tipped her head, eyes darting down to the salamander charm Jade wore. Jade automatically raised her hand, pinching the small charm between her fingers. “He imbued a considerable amount of magic in it. It was difficult to get around.”

Jade fisted the charm, her fingers holding it tight. Even now, it was warm - far warmer than it should have been from only resting against her skin.

Sakkara took a breath. “But when he brought you to the lake, you didn’t stay long enough.”

“For what?” Jade asked suspiciously.

“For you to bring Lily back.”

Jade shook her head. “I didn’t bring her back. She came back. On her own.”

“Did she?” Sakkara asked, a glint in her eyes. It was one of those questions that wasn’t really a question. “You don’t give yourself enough credit.”