“I’ve got her,” Lily said, her voice quiet but strong. Paris felt another strong pull of Lily’s magic, directed at Jade, and he felt a responding pull back, along with the scent of cloves and flowers.
Jade’s eyes blinked open and Paris felt a sense of profound relief at seeing their clear grey color - so different from Lily’s. He’d been half afraid Jade would open her eyes and they’d be yet another color - not that he’d know what it meant - only that it would somehow mean he didn’t have Jade back. Not that she was his to have or not to have, only that he’d somehow be missing something if they hadn’t been grey.
Jade’s eyes were solely fixed on Lily and Lily looked down at her beatifically and smiled.
“Hi.”
Paris wasn’t sure what he thought Jade would do - smile back, or perhaps say something clever or teasing. He was completely unprepared for her entire face to crumble and for her to start crying.
“Oh, it’s okay,” Lily said easily, smoothing Jade’s hair back, like a mother or a big sister would.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I didn’t know, I didn’t mean to,” Jade babbled.
Paris took a step toward the door, wondering if he should make a discreet exit. The rational part of his brain said that yes, he should give the two women some time they obviously needed. But the not-so-rational part of his brain wanted to stay and talk to Jade himself to ensure that she was still her and that nothing about her had changed.
“No, no, I know. I know,” Lily repeated. Paris wondered what they were referring to. It was clearly something they both immediately knew of without having to exchange any other words. “I never should have asked. You don’t have to be sorry, I’m the one who’s sorry.”
Lily’s words didn’t seem to mollify Jade who continued to cry even as Lily soothed and shushed her. Paris took one more step toward the door, but Lily looked up and shook her head quickly and mouthed the words, ‘it’ll be fine in a minute.’ He envied her in that moment. She seemed so sure that Jade would be better in a moment.
Paris guessed if anyone would know, it would be Lily. They’d been sharing a body for … well, years.
True to her word, in another minute or so, Jade calmed down - her crying shifting to the hitching breathing and stuttering breaths that often come after a hard jag - like a small child who has exhausted itself. Lily smiled at Jade again, tucking Jade’s hair behind her ears and Paris recalled what Lily had said before, outside in the waiting area. Jade had been younger than Lily when she arrived. Lily herself had been around six, but Jade had felt younger. Josefina had been just shy of her fourth birthday when she drowned. That would mean that Jade, who Paris was certain was somehow Josefina, was actually at least two years younger than Lily’s records would indicate she was. Suddenly viewing Jade as the younger, more child-like sibling, put a lot of her behavior into perspective for Paris. If Lily had always taken the role of elder sibling, of caregiver and protector, and if they had always been so intertwined, then Jade on her own would have been much like a child abandoned. Paris knew Jade had felt insecure when she came to the Coven, but now, framing it with his new knowledge of her, he realized how difficult things must have seemed to her.
“Okay?” Lily asked Jade and Jade nodded.
Jade finally looked over at Paris, her eyes rimmed red and her face all blotchy. “So you’ve met the person that used to share my brain,” she said, tipping her head toward Lily.
Paris smiled at her wobbly tone, trying so hard to be light. “Yes, we’ve met.”
Jade nodded. “I’m feeling a lot less crazy about the whole thing now that there’s a person standing in front of me.”
“Me too,” Lily agreed. She and Jade shared some kind of look Paris couldn’t decipher. He almost got the feeling they were having a conversation without saying anything.
“The Sparrow Lady,” Jade said suddenly to Lily and Paris felt like his thoughts were confirmed.
“Can you hear each other thinking?” he asked.
They both turned to him and at the same time said, “Yes.”
He blinked at their unity, about to ask something else when Lily turned her head sharply toward Jade.
“Are you kidding me?” Lily exclaimed, clearly to something Jade had ‘said’ mentally.
Jade’s eyes darted over to Paris and then back to Lily and Paris knew he was missing something important, something Jade wasn’t saying aloud on purpose.
“Why don’t I give you two some time?” Paris said. He came closer to the bed, his hand hovering for a moment before coming down to rest lightly on Jade’s arm. Lily seemed amused by the whole thing and stayed silent, even as Jade’s eyes went to where Paris’ hand touched her arm lightly.
“I’m glad you’re all right. We’ll get everything sorted out.”
“Thanks,” Jade murmured, her voice quiet.
Paris nodded at Lily, who gave him a perfect replica of a nod back, smiling as she did, as though she were teasing him.
It probably didn’t bode well that he now had two new witches to contend with.
#
Jade couldn’t stop staring at Lily. It was everything she’d ever wanted over the last few years. Lily, smiling in front of her. She’d been afraid upon waking up that she’d been mistaken - that maybe Lily wasn’t there, that it wasn’t real. Maybe she would wake up and find only Paris and possibly Dr. Gellar, and they’d tell her she was crazy and taking a trip to the institution, where they kept witches in her state. But now… Jade took a deep breath and focused on Lily’s calm, easy expression.
We’re creepers.
Creeping on each other.
Jade could hear Lily thinking and answered her mentally in return. It was just like before, when they used to ‘talk,’ only now, she could look at Lily while they did it. Jade thought of the Sparrow Lady and her identity; a thought she had just shared with Lily only moments before. Again, Lily’s response was incredulous.
Paris’ mother is the Sparrow Lady? Jade could feel Lily’s disbelief and confusion, rolling over her like waves.
Yes. And she wants a favor.
Lily put a hand up to her head. “Ugh, this is actually getting confusing in here. It’s like I have my thoughts and your thoughts and then my feelings and your feelings and they’re jockeying for position. Out loud might be easier.” She made a flapping motion with her hands. “Scoot over.”
Jade slid over on the bed with jerky motions, making room for Lily. Her body felt stiff and sore and she had a headache at the back of her skull, one that throbbed in time with her heartbeat. It wasn’t too bad until she moved her head, and then it would spike for a moment and before receding. She didn’t want to mention it in case Lily would leave to bring Dr. Gellar back.
“I’m not going to rat you out to the doctor,” Lily groused, sliding into bed beside Jade. “I don’t like them either. Too many memories.” She hip-checked Jade with her own hip and Jade wiggled over a bit more. They finally both settled, each one on their side, facing each other. A wave of affection rushed over Jade. She never thought she’d see Lily again. Jade didn’t know what had happened to her when she left, when….
“Let’s not talk about that,” Lily interrupted. “We can’t do anything about it now. It’s over and done.”
“Usually I’m the one that does that with things. Put them away. You usually want to talk about them.”
Lily shrugged one shoulder. “Maybe you can teach a dog new tricks. Or maybe we’ve finally found something I don’t want to talk about.”
Jade looked away, another memory crawling into her brain, unbidden.
“Do you want to talk about that one?” Lily asked quietly, knowing which memory was flitting through Jade’s brain.
“No,” Jade said quickly. “We agreed. There are things we don’t talk about.”
Lily sighed. “You stated. I agreed.” Fine, fine, she added silently, mentally holding her hands up in a gesture of surrender before changing to speaking aloud again. “Okay, Sparrow Lady. P
aris’ mother? As in his dead mother?”
“Not so dead as it turns out,” Jade replied and she could feel suspicion about Sakkara and about Paris roll off Lily. “Paris doesn’t know,” Jade added.
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.” Jade was sure. Absolutely.
“Wow, I’m out of it for a few years and suddenly you’re the trusting type. Who knew? Or maybe it’s just for certain English men who run Covens and not everyone?” Lily poked Jade’s shoulder with a finger, teasingly and Jade felt her cheeks blush.
“Stop it. We’ve got problems.”
“All right, all right. So what does creepy Sakkara want? And what’s with the birds? It’s weird.”
“It’s not like I got a chance to ask her about the birds,” Jade said dryly. “As for what she wants, I don’t know. Some kind of favor. Which can’t be good. People who pretend to be dead don’t need normal favors like watching their house while their on vacation or watering their plants. She was going to keep me asleep until I said yes, but then-“
“I pulled you out,” finished Lily. “I could feel you reaching for me and Paris said you were being kept asleep by magic. I can remember a lot of the stuff you’ve learned about magic. It’s all-“ Lily made a swirly motion with her fingers, “in there, but I don’t know what I know until I stop to think about it. If that makes sense.”
Jade could feel what Lily meant. It was as though she had a special window into Lily’s brain, giving her access to thoughts and feelings and letting her own brain process them in a slightly different way. But she had to focus on it - it wasn’t just there, Jade had to actively search it out and then work at processing the information.
“Yeah, that’s totally it,” agreed Lily. “It’s like I have a dial-in to your brain, but I can turn it down or off if I want to.”
“Sakkara said something about that. That she needed me, or us, I guess, because of what we can do. Because we can be in two places at once. She also said she’s been hanging around my dreams because she needed me to go to the lake so this,” Jade gestured between the two of them, “could happen. So that I could conjure you a body.”
“Which makes you wonder, how did she know about us in the first place,” Lily finished.
“Exactly. I don’t like that she wants me, us, for some kind of chore or favour and it seems she’s not above emotional manipulation to do it,” Jade said, letting the memory of her conversation with Sakkara wash over Lily’s brain, feeling when Lily had absorbed the information. “But it’s weird that she knew it was even a possibility.”
Lily nodded. “Yeah, like… she would have had to know about the two of us before.”
“And she said,” Jade began and then stopped, swallowing. She felt Lily’s mind reach into her own and pluck out the next words.
“She said you used to belong to the Coven. Long ago. When you were little.” Lily paused, thinking about that. “Before you came to me. You used to be part of the Coven.”
Jade shrugged. “She could have been lying.”
“She could have. But I don’t think so, and neither do you. Not really. You saw a little girl in the lake. Before you dived in, that’s what you saw in the water.”
Jade nodded, looking down at the blankets and running her fingers over the threads.
“You saw her again, with Sakkara,” Lily continued, Jade still feeling her brain brushing against her own, like fingers trailing lightly over a surface, leaving no imprints behind. It wasn’t unpleasant - just a light touch, a feather against her grey matter. “A little girl, playing by the lake.”
Jade’s fingers clenched. “She could have made me see those things. It could have been more witchcraft.”
“Yeah, but it wasn’t,” Lily said and Jade could feel the certainty that lay behind the words. She could feel the truth of them in her stomach. “You’ve always been afraid of water, just like you’ve never wanted to think about where you were before you were with me.”
“I just…” Jade shrugged. “It makes me feel sick to think of it. I don’t like it.” Gooseflesh pebbled up on her arms.
“I don’t know what happened, or how it happened. But somehow, I think you died. Your body died. But your spirit? Soul? Magic? Whatever you want to call it, found me.”
Jade swallowed hard. Found you and co-opted your body, your life, your everything. And then took it all when-.
“No, it wasn’t like that. I never felt that way,” Lily said.
“Maybe you should have.”
“Maybe. But I didn’t. I don’t.” Lily took a breath, shifting on the bed and Jade realized that her neck was kinking up as they were talking and Lily’s probably was too. “But, we’ve got other cats to whip.”
“Ugh, I hate that expression.”
Lily shrugged. “I know, but it’s French. I love how ridiculous it is.” Lily picked up a piece of Jade’s hair and toyed with it, wrapping it around one of her fingers. “Sakkara,” Lily began. “She’s going to come back, isn’t she?”
Jade nodded. “Yep. It’s not like she’d do all this and then just stop because I said no.”
“Are we going to tell Paris his much beloved dead mother isn’t so dead?”
Jade sighed. “I don’t see how we can not tell him. Or how I can not tell him.”
“If you wanted to keep it a secret, I could. I would. I don’t have to tell him.”
It felt weird having Lily defer to her. That wasn’t how it worked. Or at least, that’s not how Jade preferred it to work.
Lily poked her in the shoulder again. “It’s how it works now. You’ve been here longer than me. You know these people.”
“You know everything I know.”
Lily wrinkled her nose, making a face. “Yeah, but it’s not the same. These people are ‘your people.’”
This time Jade made a face. “Ew, that sounds like… I’m a tribal priestess or something. My people,” Jade repeated almost comically. “Besides, most of them are definitely not ‘my people.’ I don’t…” she paused, feeling embarrassed. “They don’t really like me.”
“They don’t know you,” Lily asserted. “And they’re used to witches always being born in the Coven. Which you were. It’s just that no one knew.”
“Yeah, but I don’t want to, like, advertise that.” It would be like forcing her way in to what felt like an elite club. ‘Oh, by the way, you can’t dislike me anymore. I’m actually a full-fledged member of your Coven. Take that, haters.’
Lily laughed. “I can feel the distaste rolling off you. They can’t all be that bad.”
Jade thought of Callie, Henri, Josef, Daniel. Paris. “No. Not all of them.”
Lily smiled knowingly. “I’m glad you have friends. Even if everyone else is a jerk, you have them. But, if you don’t want to tell anyone about your past, I won’t tell them either.”
“I have to tell Paris about his mom. That’s not something I want to keep from him. Even if…”
“Even if it probably breaks his heart. It’s not going to be easy, finding out his mom has been lying about being dead. Kind of a biggie.”
“Yeah,” Jade said ruefully. It was so relaxing to talk to Lily. She didn’t have to explain. She could just start a thought and let Lily finish it. “Then I have to tack on that not only is she not dead, she’s the one who’s been screwing with my head and wants a favor.”
Sakkara was still out there somewhere as well, waiting for Jade to fall asleep again, presumably, or maybe once the cat was out of the bag, she’d just show up.
“I’ve got to tell Paris,” Jade repeated. “Because if she just shows up here, and he finds out that way…” Jade shook her head. “That would really suck for him.” Jade felt the flash of a dirty thought flit through Lily’s brain having to do with Paris and Jade’s choice of words.
“Oh my God, this is serious!”
“I’m totally being serious,” Lily said, with a perfectly poised face. “This is our serious face. You should recognize it.”
“I
don’t think of him that way.”
“You know that saying ‘you can lie to the world but you can’t lie to yourself’? I’m as close to ‘you’ as a person can be. You can’t lie to me.”
“It isn’t like that.”
“It’s exactly like that, it’s just that you’ve shut down that part of your life ever since-“
“One of the things we don’t discuss,” Jade said hotly, feeling anxiety and avoidance flood through her body.
Lily pursed her lips together. “Fine. But if the lake has taught you anything, it should be that things won’t or can’t stay buried forever.”
“Maybe they can if people stop poking at them.”
Lily poked her in the shoulder a third time. “You know why I poke. I poke because I care.”
Jade took a long, deep breath and let it out slowly. “I know.”
A ruckus outside the door had them both turning their heads, Jade having to look over her shoulder to see.
“What the hell is that?” Lily asked.
“I think-“ Jade started, only to be interrupted when there was a quick knock and then the door was pushed open a smidgen. It was then thrust open all the way and Bruce came darting into the room, leaping up onto the foot of the bed surprisingly well for his size.
“Bruce!” Jade exclaimed and Lily laughed. Bruce seemed torn between the two women momentarily, sniffing Jade, then Lily and then Jade again, before he wormed his way in between the two of them and collapsed dramatically, resting his snout on Jade’s leg and exhaling loudly.
“I’m sorry, I’ve no idea how he got here,” said Paris from the doorway. “But he burst into medlab and went immediately for the door and started pawing at it.”
“It’s okay,” Jade replied as she pet Bruce on the head and then let her fingers trail down, trying to find his scaly patch. She frowned, feeling the dry, cracked skin. Bruce tipped his head up and Jade examined the area. It didn’t look as bad as it had before. It was no longer weeping and it seemed like it was starting to close up some.
Double-Sided Witch (Covencraft Book 3) Page 30
