“Hey Bruce,” Jade said, her voice sounding low and nasally, due to her sinuses suffering the leftover ravages of her nosebleed. Bruce’s snout went up one of Jade’s leg and then down the other. He sneezed and then spat on the ground next to her.
“Thanks,” she said dryly.
“I’d like to get you to medlab and have Dr. Gellar look you over.”
Jade looked like she was about to protest and then she glanced down at herself. She sighed. “Yeah.”
In the car, she rested her head back against the seat and closed her eyes. Bruce poked his head between the seats, his long tail coming up between as well and resting against Jade’s leg.
“How do you feel?”
Jade took a deep breath in and sighed it out, eyes still closed. “I’m tired. Really tired. My head hurts.”
If Paris drove a little over the speed limit on the way to the Coven, it wasn’t like anyone was going to ticket him. He was the Coven Leader.
When they pulled up to the Covenstead, Paris looked Jade over again. Her powder blue jacket was covered in blood down the front - blood that had dried a horrible brown-red. Jade took one look at his face as he ran his eyes over her appearance and then flipped down the visor to check herself, finding her face streaked with blood. She turned her head and he saw the moment she found the blood trails leaking from both ears.
“Jesus, I can’t go in there looking like this.” She flipped the visor back in disgust.
Paris shrugged off his coat, handing it to her. “Take yours off and put this on. Your face isn’t… well. I was going to say it wasn’t that bad, but it is. May I…” he hesitated for a moment.
“What?”
“May I perform a glamor on you? It will cover up the way your face looks.”
“Sold,” she said without hesitation. “What do I need to do?”
“Nothing, just… stay still.”
He murmured a few spell words and concentrated, picturing what she normally looked like - her skin fair and maybe a bit uneven around her eyes. She wore makeup, but not a lot - not enough to make her look like she was wearing a mask. She blinked a few times, feeling his magic wash over her. He smoothed a hand over the space in front of her face, almost touching her, but not quite, pushing the glamor into place. She stayed dutifully still, only breathing lightly.
“There you go.”
Jade looked herself over in the mirror again, taking in her normal appearance. “Wow. Thanks.”
Paris had called ahead to Dr. Gellar on the ride in. All that remained was to get Jade into the Covenstead and directly to medlab. As soon as they entered the Coven, Henri looked up from his desk, a look of concern crossed his face. Paris was holding onto one of Jade’s elbows, keeping her in a straight line as she walked. She was a little woozy on her feet and kept listing to the left.
“Are you okay?” Henri asked.
“Yeah, magical mishap this morning,” Jade answered. “Minor snafu.”
Paris was grateful Jade replied. He didn’t think that it would look nearly as convincing if he declared Jade was fine.
“Are you hurt?”
Jade started to shake her head and Paris saw the exact moment she realized it was a bad idea. She squinted her eyes. “I’ve a headache. We’re going to check in with Gellar, but she’ll probably just give me some aspirin.”
“Okay,” Henri replied, still seeming suspicious. “Call me if you need anything.”
“I will.”
Paris hustled her up the stairs, finding that by the last two, he had to shift his grip - instead of just holding her elbow, he had to sling one of her arms over his shoulder. Thank God it was the middle of the morning and most people were at their desks or offices. The hallways were nearly empty. Knowing how fast Coven gossip was, when he did spot some witches coming toward them, he cast a quick glamor spell over both himself and Jade, blocking them from view. Jade stared at the witches as they walked by, completely oblivious.
“That is so cool. You have to teach me that one.”
Her voice had a soft rambling tone to it and her steps were getting heavier and heavier. Paris was taking more of her weight. Her other arm sort of swung lazily by her side and she started to shuffle her feet instead of taking steps.
“I’ll be sure to do that. Dr. Gellar,” Paris said, greeting the doctor as she met them at the doors of med lab.
Dr. Gellar gestured to one of the side rooms where she had a bed waiting. Paris shuffled-carried Jade there, picking her up a bit with an arm wrapped around her side.
Jade clutched at his neck suddenly. “Don’t let her cut my clothes. I hate when hospitals do that. I really like this sweater. I swear I can get the blood out.”
“Of course.” He got Jade seated on the bed and she sort of tipped backward, sighing happily as she did.
“Bed. Thank God.”
Dr. Gellar picked Jade’s feet up and put them on the bed, working on getting her shoes off. A nurse came into the room behind Paris and he flinched as he was moved out of the way.
“Paris, why don't you wait outside while we get her situated.”
He didn’t want to go, he wanted to stay to make sure she was all right, but it wasn’t as though they needed assistance and they were starting to undress Jade and she would hate it if she knew he stayed.
“I’ll be right outside.”
Gellar nodded not even looking over as Paris left and shut the door behind him. He could go to the waiting area and get a magazine. Or he could take a seat and check his smartphone and start responding to emails that were likely stacking up in his inbox. Or he could call down to Josef in Counter-Magic and demand he send a team out to the lake immediately and start investigating.
He stayed where he was, standing outside the door.
A few minutes later, a ticky-tacking sound caused him to turn his head and he spotted Bruce lumbering into medlab.
“Oh. I’m sorry. We forgot you in the car.” He wondered how the lizard had gotten out and if he’d done any damage to Jade’s car in the process.
Bruce huffed at him and made his way over to the waiting area, hopping up on the sofa and stretching out across the entire length. He put his chin down and stared at Paris reproachfully, as if daring him to try and take a seat.
“I said I was sorry,” Paris repeated quietly.
Paris thought Dr. Gellar was only going to get Jade outfitted in a gown and then come back out, but he was left standing there for several minutes. He paced a few short steps away, only to come back. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and then put it away again. He took a few steps toward Bruce and then turned back to the door to wait.
After ten long minutes, Dr. Gellar and her nurse came back out, the nurse ducking off to the side while Gellar shut the door behind her and turned to Paris.
“Is she all right?”
“She’s no longer bleeding from the ears and nose, if that’s what you mean. I was just taking some vitals and getting the details of what happened.”
“I could tell you those. I was there.”
Gellar gave him a sort of look. “It’s better for me to get them from the patient first. I’m, of course, interested in your perspective on things, especially the magical elements, but I really needed to hear from Jade. She’s the one living inside her body.”
I’m just afraid she’s not the only one, Paris thought, wondering how much Jade had shared with Dr. Gellar, and how much he should or could share.
“I’d like to run another scan on her brain, like the one Jade had when she first came to the Coven. First I want to have her do some simple movements and then I’d like to add in the magical elements and see how her brain responds.”
“Is that a good idea so soon after…” he didn’t know how to explain what happened at the lake. “Well, so soon?”
“She says she feels up to it,” Gellar answered. “And I’d like to get a reading as close as possible after the incident.”
There wasn’t much he could say to that. Dr. Gellar
was the doctor and Jade was in charge of herself. If she agreed, Paris could only offer support. While the nurse brought over the EEG machine and took it into Jade’s room, Dr. Gellar had Paris run through his side of what happened at the lake. Paris found his attention distracted as he kept looking over at the door wondering how it was going inside the room.
“Okay, I think that tells me everything I need to know for now. I’m going to go start Jade’s scan. I’ll need you for the magical part, but let me just check if that’s okay with her and see if you can be there for the first part.”
He was worried Jade wouldn’t agree, though he didn’t know if that was a valid fear or just the tenseness of the situation. Dr. Gellar poked her head back out a moment later and ushered Paris in while the nurse left. Paris glanced over his shoulder at Bruce who was napping on the sofa. He seemed content where he was, so Paris decided to let sleeping lizards lie.
Jade was no longer on the gurney bed, but was seated in one of room’s visiting chairs, electrodes already hooked up to her head. She was wearing Paris’ coat overtop of her scrubs and she looked kind of sheepishly at him.
“I hope you don’t mind. It’s chilly in here.”
“I don’t mind.”
“I tried to save your scarf, but I think it got taken out with the rest of my clothes and put in with the bio-hazard stuff.”
“We’ll have it put through with our medical laundry and then it will be returned,” Dr. Gellar promised.
Jade winced at her and then looked back at Paris. “I don’t think your cashmere will survive that.”
“I told you, I don’t care about the scarf.”
Jade let out a jaw-cracking yawn, her face screwing itself up almost comically. “Sorry. I’m so tired.” She blinked a few times, trying to open her eyes wide.
“I’m sure this won’t take long and then you can have a nap.”
Jade nodded.
Dr. Gellar went behind the machine and fiddled with some dials. Paris had no idea how it all worked, but was quite confident in her abilities. After a few more tweaks, Gellar looked up at Jade, smiled and then spoke.
“Okay, Jade, I’m going to ask you to go through a few motions. Please just do them as I ask, then return to your starting position.”
“Okay.”
Dr. Gellar had Jade raise one arm, then the other. Then one leg, then the other. She had Jade answer some memory questions about when she first came to the Coven, then had Jade do some simple tasks with her hands - non-magical things. Jade had to write on a note pad, do a little arithmetic, transfer an object back and forth - all things to test her hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.
“Now, before we move onto the magical aspects, I want to ask you a few questions about some of the things you were telling me earlier.”
Paris could hear the machine graphs scratching madly as Jade tensed up, her eyes darting over to him and then back to the Koosh ball in her hands.
“Did you want Paris to leave?” Dr. Gellar asked.
“No, that’s okay,” Jade answered. She didn’t look up, just kept her gaze focused on the bright pink Koosh.
“We talked about your dreams, the ones of the lake, and others. Can you tell me about one of your dreams now?”
Jade took a deep breath, as though collecting herself. “I’m at the lake and I can see someone’s on the dock already. I’m far away but I can tell it’s Lily.”
“And who’s Lily?”
Paris felt his whole body tense, ready for the answer, even though he’d already asked the question.
Jade glanced again at him quickly and then looked away. “I don’t know how to explain it. It’s like she’s me, but she’s not.”
“But she looks like you.”
“I look like her,” Jade corrected. Paris frowned. That wasn’t necessarily a distinction but for some reason, Jade felt the need to make it.
“What does Lily do?”
Jade shrugged and the machine’s needles went scratchy again as her brain processed the movement and the electrodes picked up the data. “She’s just standing there, looking over the water. It makes me nervous and I want to go closer, but I’m afraid.”
“Of?”
Jade squeezed the Koosh ball. “Of the water. And maybe of Lily and…” she breathed deep. “I don’t know, I feel like there’s someone else there.”
“Who?” asked Dr. Gellar.
“I don’t know. It just always feels like there’s someone else there.”
The Sparrow Lady, thought Paris, remembering Jade’s words. She seemed reluctant to say it now.
“What happens?”
Jade’s eyes were sort of unfocused, staring off into space. “Sometimes I go to the dock. Sometimes Lily falls in and I’m surprised she doesn’t come back up because she can swim. She knows how. Sometimes I fall in, but I can’t swim so I…” Jade paused and when she spoke again, her voice was soft. “I drown.”
Jade blinked and then it was like her body shifted. Paris felt something… magical. He couldn’t explain it. There was a different energy about her now. She looked down at her hands, dropping the Koosh ball in her lap and turning her palms over, like she wasn’t sure her hands were hers. Her head turned and she looked around, as though checking herself.
When she looked up at him, her eyes were no longer grey, but green.
“Doctor,” Paris said lowly. He couldn’t look away from those green eyes, but he saw Dr. Gellar out of the corner of his eye, saw her look up and look at Jade.
“Yes?”
“Her eyes are green.”
Jade tilted her head a little at his statement, like she was confused. She dragged her eyes from him to Dr. Gellar, looking her up and down like it was the first time she’d seen her.
“They’re normally grey,” Paris added. He took a step closer to the chair and Jade turned to look at him again, looking up at him as though studying him.
“Are you Lily?” he asked her.
She nodded and Paris felt like the air had been forcibly sucked out of his lungs. He pushed out a bit of his power at her, trying to find her magic.
Something pushed back, but it wasn’t Jade’s magic. Jade’s magic was like an excitable puppy, flailing and romping, reaching out beyond her and then snapping back to its mistress. This was more like an owl - assessing, watchful, but still. Paris stepped closer and her eyes tracked his movements. She didn’t seem scared or worried. Just cautious. Careful.
Paris pushed more magic at her, and again she pushed back, her power different from Jade’s. He sniffed the air, smelling grapefruit and cinnamon. Not the floral and clove scent of Jade’s power.
He took one more step closer and she leaned backward. She blinked several times and then cracked her neck, her eyes changing from green back to grey. She frowned at him, seeming wary at finding him so close.
“What are you doing?”
“Jade?” he asked.
“Yes.” Jade looked from Paris to Dr. Gellar and back again. She paused, looking away for a moment, and Paris had this sense that she was searching her brain for something. “She was here. She was just here.” Jade looked up at him. “Wasn’t she? You saw her.”
“Yes.”
“Oh my God, she really is back.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Jade pulled the electrodes off her head, not caring that they were taking some hair with them as she did. She was tired. Tired and feeling soft and vulnerable, like the underbelly of a small forest creature, fallen from its perch and baring its underside to the sky.
“Are you all right, Jade? I’d like to run some more tests, but they can wait if you’re not feeling up to it.”
“I just want to go home.”
Gellar pursed her lips. “I’d like it if you stayed, overnight if possible.”
“I really want to go home.” Jade looked up at Paris, expecting him to protest, but he stayed silent, watching her.
Gellar tapped a finger against her leg. “Will you at least stay for an IV and
a nap?” Gellar bargained. “You had quite an incident out there at the lake and again in here. I don’t know what’s going on and while part of it seems magical, there’s definitely a physical component.”
Jade did still feel a little shaky. She nodded slowly. “Okay.”
Gellar excused herself to get the necessary supplies and Jade chanced a sideways look at Paris.
He was going to want to talk about Lily. Of course he was. If Jade were in his shoes, she’d want to talk about it too. She’d be riddled with curiosity. All Jade could hope was that Paris gave her some time until he started bombarding her with questions. He probably wanted to know how Jade felt. That was a good question. One that Jade wanted the answer to as well.
Lily was back. Jade had felt her. Jade had seen through her eyes, like it had been before. They were never truly separate although they did switch control - each of them having turns at being ‘outside.’ But unlike the way people described dissociative identities, Jade and Lily were always aware of one another. There were no missing memories, no things they didn’t know of happening, no surprises between them. When Lily was in control, Jade could watch, from behind, like being in the backseat of a car. Or she could sleep, going far away in their head and be totally unaware for the moment. But when Jade came ‘back,’ it was always easy enough to find out what had happened while she was gone. It was like watching a movie and leaving the room - when you came back, you could rewind and replay the parts you missed. Jade and Lily jokingly called it ‘refreshing their cache,’ - going through each other’s memories so that there was no uneven bits or blips.
It meant there were no secrets between them. Never. Every horrid thought, every embarrassing problem, every shameful thing they ever did or said, every joy or happiness they felt, everything was shared. Everything.
Double-Sided Witch (Covencraft Book 3) Page 23
