Double-Sided Witch (Covencraft Book 3)

by Margarita Gakis

  “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.

  Besides, if Jade were responsible for what was happening at the lake, there was no law anywhere that said he had to make that public knowledge.

  “Why don’t you find my mother’s demon grimoires and we can go over the spell you did for the demon locks and see if we can either reinstate it or find any holes or weaknesses in it?”

  Jade took her cup out of the microwave and raised an eyebrow at him. “I thought you said you weren’t good at demon magic?”

  “I’m not, but I’m sure you can walk me through it.”

  She bit her lower lip slightly and then set her coffee cup down on the kitchen table. “Okay, I’ll be right back.”

  As she left the kitchen, Paris felt something hit his leg and he looked down to see Bruce under the table, looking up at him and swishing his large, serpentine tail back and forth.

  “Have I done well, Master Bruce?” Paris asked, petting him lightly on the head. Bruce’s tongue darted out and touched Paris’ hand and he took that as a good sign. “I think she was almost ready to talk to me about Lily, but then…” Paris sighed and Bruce turned and scowled at the back door. Paris wanted to laugh. “Yes, exactly. But you don’t seem too concerned about what’s out there, so I hope that’s a good sign.”

  “Are you talking to Bruce?” Jade asked as she came back in the kitchen, cradling a demon grimoire and her tablet computer. “Because he doesn’t talk back, you know.” She set both items down on the table, waiting for Paris to take a seat before she took one herself.

  “I know,” Paris replied as he scooted his chair in closer to the table. “But there’s something quite relaxing about him.”

  “Maybe you need a pet. I mean, I’ve got Bruce and Callie has her fat cat, although God knows you can’t call him chubby in front of her.”

  “No,” Paris mused. “She’s quite blind to the bulk of Stuart.”

  “How does she not know that cat is fat? She must have to carry him to the vet. He’s bigger than some dogs I’ve seen.”

  Paris smiled at the tone in Jade’s voice, quite liking that it was back to her normal, sharper tone instead of the drawn out melancholy one she’d had earlier. “I’m not sure. Perhaps she’s spelled his cat carrier so it’s not as heavy.”

  Jade made a sort of ‘harrumph’ sound and then opened the demon grimoire, searching for her spell. As she did, a waft of scent came up from the books, mint, licorice and hickory. He wrinkled his nose. It was a heavier scent than he was used to from magic and he wondered if it was the smell of demon magic in general, or if this was the way his mother’s demon magic smelled in particular. Though he hadn’t mentioned it to Jade, the smell of magic outside had reminded him a little of his mother’s magic - sage and vanilla. Hers used to also have a slight mix of peppermint as well. Now, smelling that peppermint on the grimoire, he wondered if it was due to his mother or if the smell of mint on her had been due to demon magic.

  He pushed those thoughts out of his mind and tried to focus on what was in front of him. Jade had the grimoire open to the spell she’d used and was also scrolling through her tablet.

  “Still trying to make a grimoire out of your computer gadgets?” Paris asked.

  Jade made a so-so motion with her hands. “Meh. I like to take notes on the tablet, but sometimes I find I miss post-it notes or doodling. I may end up transcribing all my stuff. I don’t know.”

  “If you’d like to start a pro
per grimoire,” Paris said, ignoring when she snorted at the word ‘proper,’ “please let me know and we can go shopping for one.”

  “I figured you guys probably had a fancy shop for them or something. I’ve yet to see one that just looked like a regular notebook. They’re all fancy with bindings and covers and such.”

  “Well, they’re quite important to us. We like to have them done nicely. If you want one, let me know.”

  She shrugged. He was going to have to get better at reading that gesture on her, as she seemed to use it for a multitude of things.

  “Yeah, okay.”

  Paris wasn’t sure if that meant Jade wanted one right now or that she would let him know when she wanted to go. As he spoke, he looked down at the demon grimoires, his mother’s books, and wondered if his mother had picked out something ‘special’ for these dark holders of demon magic with the same care and fastidiousness that she’d always shown picking out her other grimoires. He trailed a finger over the page, wondering when her life had been so split in two - Coven Leader by day and demon grimoire writer by night. Or if it had been that simple, or discrete.

  He focused his attention back on Jade as she outlined what she had done for the demon spell and he was impressed. The original spell had been more like a ward than a lock, and she’d managed to slightly tweak it so that it worked more like the latter than the former. A ward worked like a magical ‘area’ or ‘bubble.’ It kept certain things out or in depending on the type of ward. But her locks, Jade explained to Paris, worked more like a traditional deadbolt - they blocked off an area, without having to put out enough magic to work inside her house. They were a perimeter. It also enabled her to ‘key’ people, which she had done previously with Paris and then later on with Callie. She had enabled the demon lock to allow Paris and Callie in by focusing on their magical signature - something she was familiar with for both of them.

  Looking at the demon grimoire in front of him and understanding what she’d done was one thing, but he would have never been able to do it himself and told her such. She blinked owlishly at him.

  “But it’s just like regular magic,” she said.

  Paris shook his head. “No, it’s not. Looking at that spell, I wouldn’t have had the first clue how to alter it. How did you know?”

  “I dunno. I just thought about what I wanted the answer to look like and worked my way backward from there.”

  “But how did you know what your answer would look like,” Paris pressed.

  Jade looked down at the book and frowned. “I don’t know,” she repeated. “It’s like… when I read the spells, sometimes I just know what the changes need to look like. Then I sort of fiddle around with things and when I get something right, it’s like I feel better about it. Like it clicks. Then I know I’m on the right path.”

  “I get a similar sense with regular magic. I just ‘know’ it will work. But looking at these demon spells, even with all my magic and knowing they were written by my mother, I feel as though I’m reading another language and I’m never going to get the sense of it. Do you feel that way about regular magic?”

  Jade pursed her lips together, thinking. “No, I feel like it’s harder sometimes or not as logical. Here,” she said pointing at the demon grimoires, “I feel like when I push left, things go left. With regular magic I feel like sometimes I push left and it goes upside down and I don’t know how it happened.”

  Despite her knack for the demon magic, however, Jade was unable to re-cast the demon locks on her house. After three hours of trying, she was tired, Paris was tired and even Bruce was sacked out under the table on his side.

  “It worked before! I don’t know why it won’t work now!” Long strands of hair were falling out of her ponytail and the remnants of her mascara were circling her eyes. She looked as though she might cry, pressing her fingers to her brow-bone and staring down at the page. Jade had been trying to cast the spell and hadn’t been able to hang onto the magic long enough, losing it earlier and earlier each time she tried. At one point Paris had tried to help her, but he found the demon magic sticky and distasteful and she’d barked at him that his attitude was ‘harshing her magic vibe.’

  It had been after that sharp comment that she’d suggested another pot of coffee and he’d snapped that if she drank anymore, she could rival a harpy for attitude. She shifted in her chair, her foot kicking his leg, which she claimed was a total accident. Even Bruce looked suspicious at her words.

  “You’re too tired,” he said honestly. “You were up late last night packing, we spent today moving and you drove all the way back to the Coven. Not only that, but you’ve been under significant emotional stress lately.”

  He could see tears pricking at her eyes. Jade was frustrated, exhausted and likely emotionally drained. Paris wasn’t doing much better himself. He’d had a long night and longer day, but he’d at least caught a nap on the car ride home. Going back over in his mind what Jade had been telling him before they’d been interrupted, he had a better understanding of her now. It was no wonder she’d been so reluctant to join the Coven or to trust any of them - she’d been raised in an environment of distrust, fear and abuse. It must have seemed like some kind of strange joke or fairytale when Paris arrived and told her she was a witch and she belonged in a Coven. She rubbed at her eyes like a child and he spared another thought for the solemn-eyed girl he’d seen in her photos. He couldn’t shake the feeling that it had been wrong of him to pry, but he was also glad he did it. Although, he didn’t like the ideas that were starting to percolate in his brain. He didn’t like hearing about her growing up in an abusive home, or about how her magic was flaring out now. Paris didn’t know what they would learn when they went out the lake area, if anything. Maybe taking Jade out there would be a bad idea. But he didn’t know what else to do - they needed more information.

  “You should go to sleep for tonight. I’d like to go to the lake tomorrow and you should be well rested for that.”

  Jade fiddled with a worn edge of one the pages in the demon grimoire, her fingernail dragging over the point of the corner, fraying it. “Yeah,” she said, half-heartedly. She quickly glanced under the table and Paris did the same, catching sight of Bruce stretched out on his side, eyes slit open. He kept opening his eyes as soon as they would drift shut, determined it seemed to stay awake as long as they did.

  “Are you worried about going to sleep with your demon locks not working?”

  Jade pursed her lips and he saw her shoulder start to hitch up in a shrug, like she wasn’t going to answer verbally, but then she did speak. “Yeah. Kind of.”

  “I’m sure you’re safe.”

  “I guess.”

  Paris tapped his fingers against the table, thinking quickly. “I don’t mean to be presumptuous, but you’ve a spare room and I could stay, if you like.”

  She looked up at him, pinning him with her clear grey eyes. He swore he could see the wheels of her mind turning as she thought it over. He could see her hesitating and he took an educated guess at why.

  “It’s not an imposition. You’re exhausted and your magic is probably feeling wobbly after attempting the demon locks for so long tonight.”

  She snorted. “Yeah, without success.”

  Paris tipped his head in agreement. He wondered if he was pushing his luck with his next words. “It’s all right to want help. And to ask for it.”

  He thought his words had the exact opposite effect he wanted when he saw her eyes go glassy with a flood of moisture, but then she nodded.

  “Okay.”

  “Why don’t we check the physical locks down here and then call it a night?”

  Jade blinked and shook her head, as though she was trying to clear it. He thought he might have to gently prod her to get up, but Bruce flipped to his feet and went to the back door, looking up at them expectantly. Jade checked the bolt and lock and then Bruce trotted toward the front door with Jade right behind him, where they went through the same routines.

&
nbsp; “Go check your window,” Jade said, her face tipped toward Bruce. He ambled over to one of the main floor windows, using his front feet to scrabble up the wall and then stick his snout all along the edge of the window. Paris watched in confusion and interest.

  “It’s spelled to let him in and out without actually being open. I just feel better when he checks it.”

  Now that she’d mentioned it, Paris could feel the faint impression of her magic in the area around the window. It was another impressive piece of magic. Very subtle, yet effective. He wanted to ask her about it, but didn’t want her to think about magic anymore tonight.

  Bruce came loping back, flipping his Elizabethan lizard collar up once before it smoothed down along his neck.

  “All good?” she asked him and he snorted. “Okay,” Jade said, starting up the stairs, Bruce waddling behind her, with Paris behind him. At the top, she pointed Paris toward the door opposite her own. “So, guest room, but I guess you kind of knew that since the Coven owns this place. Bathroom down the hall. It should be pretty clean since I use the master one mostly and no one ever comes over. Um, I might have a toothbrush still in the packaging?” She said the last bit like it was a question, looking at him expectantly.

  Paris nodded. “Please, if you don’t mind.”

  Jade disappeared into her room for a few minutes and he could hear her rummaging around in some of the boxes they had brought back from her apartment. She came back triumphantly holding a toothbrush, new in the package, and a small travel size container of toothpaste. The brush was fluorescent pink from the bristles all the way down the handle to the end.

  “Er, sorry about the color. I like the bright ones.”

  “It’s fine,” Paris said, smiling at her expression. He took it from her and then they stood in the hallway, staring at one another awkwardly.

  “Sooooooo,” she said, drawing the word out. “Uh, good night. I guess.”