Counter-Hex (Covencraft Book 2)

by Margarita Gakis

  "How do you feel?"

  "Like..." Jade looked around surreptitiously. "Like you're around me. Uncomfortably around me. Overshadowing me. Or like you caught me stealing from your bedroom or something weird."

  "Unnerving is it not?"

  "Yes," Jade breathed with a distasteful look on her face. It felt like there was a cold trickle of water running down her spine, pooling at the base of her back. Looking over at Paris, it seemed like his eyes, normally exceptionally blue on their own, were even brighter and sharper.

  "You can step out now."

  She leapt out of his circle, happy to be done with it. She gave herself a little shimmy, feeling like she needed to shake his presence off.

  Paris kept his eyes on her and then stepped forward into her circle.

  Immediately her scalp started to tingle. It sent a shiver down her neck and across her scapula. She flexed her shoulder blades, trying to work the feeling out. It was different from being in his circle, but no less uncomfortable.

  "And now?" he asked.

  "It's like you're crowding me. In my personal space bubble. I don't like it. It feels... cloying." Jade curled her fingers into a lose fist and then flattened them out again, repeating the motion as though it could burn off some of the sticky feeling she had from Paris being in her circle. "I want to push you out of my circle."

  Paris stepped out of her circle quickly and she took a deep breath. The cloying feeling fading away the longer he was out.

  "Creepy," Jade said lowly.

  Paris gestured to the ground. "Let's sit."

  She sat down cross-legged and then had to tilt at an awkward angle so to remove a painful little branch she had landed on. After tossing it aside she settled herself. Paris sat down in front of her with ease and grace, as though the ground had been waiting for him, ready to make him comfortable.

  "As you just learned, casting a circle amplifies our powers. However, it isn't something you can just throw around lightly. Your powers will be stronger, sharper. It's a hard talent to learn."

  Jade frowned. "Casting? But I just did it."

  "Not just casting your circle, but perhaps recognizing that someone else has cast a circle without feeling them step into it. Or knowing that there's a circle that's been cast somewhere in your vicinity. It's also quite difficult to control your power while you're in a circle. At times it can seem like the circle is casting its own spell, regardless of your will."

  She thought about that for a moment, considering. "So I need to learn to sense if someone has cast a circle without waiting to have them step in it and I have to learn how to not let mine get away from me."

  "Precisely. It's more important for you to understand it than to learn how to do it. I know you can do it, Jade. I knew you would be able to before I brought you out here. You're quite powerful. But can you control it? Or could you tell if I've been here before today and cast a circle here without seeing me do it?"

  "Did you?"

  "No," Paris answered and then paused. "Not here."

  She narrowed her eyes. "Where?"

  "That's part of another lesson," he said with a grin.

  Jade felt a rush of warmth for how proud he seemed of himself. "Aw, look at you! All cagey and sly; high five." She held her hand up and he stared at it for a moment, like he was unsure what to do. Slowly his hand came up and he gave hers a solid slap. "Nice," she said. "So, when can I work in my circle?"

  "How about right now?"

  She rubbed her hands together gleefully, feeling a thrill low down in her stomach at the prospect. She felt like she'd just been given a shiny new toy. "Really?"

  "Really," Pars replied, getting to his feet. He held out a hand for her, but she was already up and brushing off her jeans. "I'm... hesitant to let you try fire in a circle just yet. You've shown such an aptitude for it, but you're control is still a bit..."

  "Bad?" she filled in.

  "Shaky," he amended. "You mentioned at your tarot card reading that you don't like water and then you didn't want to go to the lake to cast any water spells."

  "Is this a magic lesson or a therapy lesson?" she asked, shifting back and forth on her feet. She really didn't like working with water. She'd sort of been hoping to avoid it, like a child pretending if they don't look in the closet, there couldn't be anything hiding there.

  "Both in a sense, I suppose," answered Paris. "Why don't you like working with water?"

  Jade shrugged, feeling uneasy, like a bug under a microscope. "Um, I dunno. I just..." she thought about the few water spells she'd tried - little tiny ones with a pot of water on the stove or some small amounts of mist or liquid. "It makes me feel..." she gestured at her chest, not sure how to explain it. "I just don't like it. When I use a fire spell, I don't really have to think about it, or think about certain words. I can mumble my way through the spell, not even saying stuff right and as long as I know what I want, it happens. But with water..." she licked her lips, feeling the familiar tingle she got when she thought about it, a weight settling across her chest. "I get nervous before I even start. It's like I don't want to? And I know I don't want to and I'm doing it anyway." Jade stole a glance at him finally, having avoided looking at him while she was talking. She'd been afraid he'd be looking at her strangely, like she was some kind of freak, but instead he just looked quietly open and intrigued, paying attention to what she was saying and giving her time to formulate her thoughts. "Sometimes," she said, her words halting and slow, his silence making it easier for her to continue, "sometimes I feel like I can't breathe. I know it's not true, but," she stopped, feeling the need to draw in a deep breath and fill her lungs, just from talking about it. "It's there. Just sitting." She made a swirling motion with her hands over her chest.

  Paris let her words hang in the air and she felt better that he didn't try to discount her feelings or tell her that she was being irrational or foolish.

  "Your feelings are an important part of your magic. If there's something keeping you from casting water spells, it would be in your best interests to work with it and try to resolve it. However, if you're opposed, I won't force you."

  Jade chewed the skin on the inside of her lips, wishing she'd brought some chapstick with her. She looked around the small clearing. It was a pretty little area - the colors of fall on their way out, creeping slowly toward winter, settling over the greens of moss, leaves, weeds and bushes. She still had a lingering sensation in her chest and stomach from the lake area earlier, like a drop of the wrong paint color on a fresh wall, smeared around and pushed in, not truly wiped away. She was stupid for feeling that way, wasn't she? Paris was here, they were in a calm area, it was daylight.

  "There's nothing here that can hurt me."

  Paris blinked in surprise and Jade wished she hadn't said it out loud. She wasn't sure why she did. It was out of her mouth before the words had fully formed in her brain.

  "No, there isn't. But, there's also no rush. If you don't want to do it, we'll work on air or earth. All three are excellent elements to work with here in the preserve.

  Jade shook her hands out, trying to get rid of the sticky, cloying nerves thrumming through her veins. "No, I'm good." Fake it till you make it, she thought.

  "Okay."

  She liked that he didn't second-guess her, forcing her to keep iterating that she was fine. He simply nodded and took her at her word. He gestured to the area where her circle was and she thought she could almost see it, a strange, shimmering round spot, waiting for her.

  "Your circle, Jade."

  Stepping in, Jade felt the difference easier now; it was an increase in her assuredness and her confidence. She looked around and noticed that things were sharper to her. Paris, as he stood to face her, seemed sharper too. More alive; more vivid. It was hard to break her stare from him, but she did and turned around to take in a 360 view. She breathed deeply, feeling the cool air settle into her lungs, crisp and a little damp.

  "Do you remember any of your water spells?"

&nb
sp; She nodded, worrying the fabric of her jeans slightly. "Yeah, I've read a few and tried them out."

  "Ah yes, your memory for printed things," Paris said. "You'll be lucky as you continue on in your lessons." He paused for a moment and she saw him fidget. It was such an odd gesture on him - foreign and strange. "You'll make a fine witch. Not that you aren't already, but, you'll continue to do well."

  Jade felt puffed up, like a fat pigeon, at his words and she tried not to stammer and kick at the forest floor like a child. "Um. Thanks."

  "So, your water spell." Paris made a 'go-ahead' gesture with his hand.

  Jade nodded. "Yeah, I thought about working on it the other night. I wanted to get some mist to dance, like my fire does, but I just ended up playing around with fire instead."

  "Try it now."

  Jade closed her eyes for a moment and tried to push the heavy feeling in her chest away, focusing instead on the feeling she got when she worked with fire - a warm, fragrant feeling. When she worked with fire, it was like opening an oven while baking a pie - a rush of heat and scent that was surprising and maybe a little scary at first, but always flared out to satisfaction and pleasure as you inhaled. Thinking about that feeling, but trying to focus instead on water, she spread her hands out in front of her, cupping them, and spoke her incantation. Nothing happened at first and she had to open her eyes to check with Paris who gave her a quick nod, indicating she was doing it correctly. She said it twice more, then a small ball of mist began to form in the space between her hands.

  "There you are," Paris said lowly. "How does that feel?"

  Jade moved her fingertips slightly around the mist, like a potter working clay. "Cold. Sharp." She felt it in her chest as well as in her fingers. A dank pressure, like jello inside her lungs - jiggly and damp. She didn't like it, feeling her lips curl with distaste.

  "See if you can shape it. Perhaps a box or a triangle. Something simple."

  Jade concentrated, feeling a pressure build up behind her eyes. Fire was quick and deft; it responded to her immediately. The watery mist reminded her more of mud or sludge than liquid - heavy and stagnant. She worked the mist in her hands, trying to stay patient and mostly succeeding. After a few minutes, she had a long cylindrical column of it, the grayness of it turning a more melancholy blue. As Jade realized the color had changed, it changed again to a murky, yellowish-green - like mossy silt churned up.

  "What are you thinking of?" she heard Paris ask, his voice seeming far away to her.

  "Nothing. Just... water. Mud." Jade stared at the dirty cylinder. "It's so different from fire."

  Until Paris stepped into her line of sight, she hadn't realized she'd turned slightly away from him. "How so?"

  Jade didn't know what she was going to say until she started speaking. "When I call fire, it's....friendly. Excitable. Like a puppy that wants to play with me."

  She pulled her hands away from the column of mist and it hovered in front of her. "When I think about water, it's like... it's waiting for me, like it knows things about me." She felt her power jump up a notch, unbidden and the cylinder flattened out and became a sheet, inverting and then drifting overhead. She felt like a cartoon animal with only one rain cloud above its head.

  "I think we'll stop here for today," Paris said.

  She felt the deep pulling sensation on her chest and lungs strengthen, tugging at her. It made her feel sick, like she'd eaten too much at a party. She swallowed, feeling the tightness in her throat. Jade couldn't take her eyes off the sheet of mist above her and she flinched when she felt the first drops of rain on her face.

  Through the small cloud she'd created in front of her, she could see the rest of the sky darkening - clouds moving in fast, rolling over each other like steam billowing out from an industrial plant.

  "You're pulling in too much power, Jade. I need you to focus on only the cloud above you. I'd like you to cast it off, and then step out of your circle."

  Jade heard Paris, heard the words and the tone in his voice, but the tugging at her chest was relentless. She had this sudden thought that if she just had enough water, it would go away. Like a compass, she could feel the lake they'd passed by off to her left and further back, in the woods. It rang in her head like a discordant note from a bass instrument, deep and low, making her stomach twist up. There were words on her lips that she didn't know she wanted to say until she spoke them aloud. "Sometimes... sometimes I think it wants me to belong to it."

  A crack of thunder barreled out of the sky, rumbling in her bones and she shivered at the sound.

  "Jade, I want you to step out of your circle."

  She turned to look at him and he reached out, into her circle. A jolt of his power shocked her when his hand crossed over into her space and she jumped when he touched her arm.

  Then, just beyond the low, fog-horn note of the lake, she felt something else. Equally discordant, only shrill. It had a strange tempo to it, pulling her attention back into the forest and away from Paris. Rain started to fall - fat, cold drops, splashing onto her face, making her clothes damp immediately.

  "Do you hear that?" she asked. Now that she was focused on the new sound, the sound of the lake was relegated to the back of her mind, like the ominous soundtrack of a horror film. All she could hear was the disjointed hum of... something else. Something that didn't belong.

  The rain started falling harder, denser. The kind of rain that is relentless against a windshield, clouding out everything else in a pool of liquid glass - blurry and distorted. Another crack of thunder bellowed.

  "Focus, Jade. You're losing control."

  "Can't you hear that?" she argued. "It doesn't belong here."

  "You're using too much power, Jade, and you haven't the skill nor the control for it."

  Jade felt like she was stretching, reaching, so close to figuring out what she was hearing, what she was feeling, and she didn't want to stop. It was akin to being on tippy-toes; what she wanted just out of grasp, but within the realm touch - fingers brushing against the edge of something.

  Paris' hand tightened around her arm and she was surprised at the force of it. She turned slowly, looking first down at his hand, white knuckled on her arm and then at his face. He was sopping wet; his hair black streaks against the side of his face, his eyelashes black spikes framing his eyes. The strange sound from the forest still rang in her ear and she pulled away, tugging mindlessly against him. He tugged her back, forcefully and she frowned.

  "I can't use my magic," Paris said. "I shouldn't. You have to stop."

  Seeing the expression on his face, hearing the urgency in his eyes, Jade felt like she was waking up from something. She knew it was raining, but looking around she realized it was pouring, sheets of water falling down on them. Now that she was aware of it, she could hear the white noise of the rain and found it drowned out the sound of the lake and whatever else it was that she heard. She blinked up at the sky, rain clouding her vision. The sky was dark with the storm.

  "Pull it back," he ordered.

  "I'm sorry," Jade said, her words drowned out by another boom of thunder. She tried to feel for the edges of the storm, feel how far it had moved out and how much she'd have to pull it back in. She felt as though she were groping in the dark for a light switch, fingers reaching and pressing out, searching. As if spurred by her mental imagery, one of her hands came up and grasped at the fabric of Paris' sleeve, twisting it in her grasp.

  "I don't know. I can't find the end of it." She was like a child poking at something found in a cave, not realizing until too late that she awakened the monster. Jade couldn't find the end of her magic. She had this notion that if she could just find the edge, she could pull it in, bring it back to herself. Every direction she felt in, she just felt more. More rain, more water, more power.

  Except....

  Except for Paris. When she cast her magic out, he was like a rock - edges sharply defined and solid. Jade could feel his power, thrumming underneath her fingertips, and the feroci
ty of it shocked her. She didn't expect it to be so vicious. She had imagined his power would be like her own - bright and razor-edged, brisk and immense. Instead, his power was fierce like a hurricane - pulsing, pushing and pressing at the edges.

  Unlike her own, Paris' power was expertly leashed. Even though she could feel the strength of it almost singing in her bones, it was tampered down, buckled in.

  She only wanted a bit of it. Just a little of his power would be all she needed to find the edges of her water spell, she was sure of it. She didn't know exactly what she was doing, but she imagined she was pulling some of his power out, like a siphon. Just a little. Just enough to help her out.

  "What are you doing?" he asked quickly, pulling away a bit. Her fingers clenched into his arm hard.

  Jade didn't know how to articulate it, she just knew if she had a little bit of his power, of his control, she could do this, she could stop this. The rain was coming down in sheets and she was soaked through, her clothes heavy and gathering a chill. She tugged on Paris' magic with her own.

  "My magic's affected," he protested, but he didn't pull further away. Jade pushed at the edges of his power and she could hear where his magic was out of tune. His magic echoed the strange-wrong sound of the forest - like a plucked tuning fork matching the same tones all around it. She tried to push the sound of Paris' power away for a moment and focus on her own and was stunned when she heard it clearly, like a set of wooden wind chimes and burning flames - clear, bright and in tune.

  "Mine's good. Can't you hear it?"

  Paris frowned, leaning in closer to her, his face almost at the edge of her circle. Jade had this perfect, sudden sense that as long as he filtered his magic through her, it would work. She could almost see the exact moment he realized the same thing. The muscles of his arm flexed under her hand as he straightened himself a bit. His power ebbed back into him, away from her and she opened her mouth to protest, suddenly not sure that he did understand. His eyes met hers and then she got it. He was gathering his magic, priming it for use. Jade had about three seconds in which her brain went into overdrive - she wondered if this was such a good idea, if she should have maybe thought this through better, how impossibly blue Paris' eyes were framed by his black, wet eyelashes. Her eardrums popped so painfully she wanted to clap her hands over her ears, but she couldn't unclench her fingers from Paris' arm. She felt pressure all around her, closing in on her and then a surge of his power went into her, went through her, barbed and ferocious. There was a sharp, piercing pain in her chest and a deep sucking feeling against her ribs, like her insides were being pulled out of her body through a thin straw.