“Is your sleep still troubled?”
Jade thought that was a nice way of putting it, thinking of the dreams of water and Lily. “Yeah. I keep trying that spell but no luck.”
“Hmm. No other problems with your other spell work?”
“Nope.” She thought about the broken mirror upstairs and at the yoga studio. Should she mention it? What would she say?
“I’ve a spell I’d like us to try tonight. A hex bane oil. It’s supposed to disperse bad energy. I thought we could brew it and then anoint your house. See if that helps.”
It sounded interesting to Jade. “Sure. What do I need?”
It took a few minutes to gather the spices and other ingredients from her kitchen and then cleanse the coffee table for spell work. When she’d started working with magic, Jade had been surprised how much she liked the ritual of things - the routine. Cleansing areas before working, careful measurements, staying focused, keeping tidy. They all made her feel calm and focused - things she hadn’t felt for a long time.
Although, it was getting harder to keep her focus around Paris. Jade found her mind drifting from the spell work to watch his hands as he measured herbs. Or she found herself breathing in deeply when he worked magic to catch the scent of mint and sandalwood. Tonight was no different and she had to shake her head once or twice to refocus on what they were doing.
Making the hex bane oil took over an hour and then it took longer still to travel to each room in the small cottage and anoint it. Just as Paris was about to enter into the master bath, where the cracked mirror would definitely draw his attention, Jade reached out and grabbed his sleeve, tugging at it.
“Oh, I… I haven’t cleaned. I can do that room later.”
He watched her for a few seconds and she forced herself to stay perfectly still.
He finally nodded. “All right.”
Jade didn’t think the cottage felt all that different after the anointing, but if it kept her from having any more nightmares, she didn’t care. After cleaning up their spell work, Paris hovered in her doorway for a few seconds. Jade could almost feel him trying to find what he wanted to say and she was scared of what would come out of his mouth. Would he ask her about her dreams again? Did he have bad news about Bruce? Something he realized or remembered about familiars being sick? When he finally did speak, she was both relieved and disappointed.
“I hope you sleep well.”
She managed a tight nod in return and then froze as he reached out and rested a hand on her shoulder, trailing it down her arm and wrapping around her fingers for just a moment. Was she supposed to do something? Say something? Her fingers twitched against his and he let go. She wasn’t sure if he took her slight movement as acceptance or rejection and she didn’t know what to say when she didn’t know what she meant herself.
After closing the door, she heard the clacking of Bruce’s claws on the floor, announcing his presence behind her. Even then, she still startled when he head-butt her leg.
“Shut up. I didn’t know what to do.”
“Pffffft.”
Heading upstairs, she resolved to quickly anoint the master bath, make her lunch for tomorrow and then head to sleep.
Despite the application of the hex bane oil, Jade wasn’t surprised to find herself back in a closet for this nightmare. She didn’t know which nightmares she disliked more - the lake or the closet. The lake’s ominous and vast presence disturbed her, but the closet… the closet made her think of her childhood.
She could hear her father outside the door, arguing with her mother. Was it still arguing when one person did all the shouting and yelling and the other person just sat there silently and took it? If there was one word that would describe her mother, it would be ‘silent.’ Silent in the face of her father’s anger, silent while her husband terrorized her daughter, silent while the world kept spinning without her input.
Jade felt a hand on her leg and looked down. The little girl was back. Was it her or was it Lily? Was this her subconscious talking to her, or was it someone else?
“I’m glad you’re back,” the little girl said. Her eyes were green. Even if the half-light of the closet with the only illumination coming through the small slats in the doors, Jade could make them out. Not herself then, Lily. “I’ve been trying to talk to you.”
“What do you mean?” Jade asked. Outside the closet something broke and she flinched, her attention distracted.
“Don’t pay attention to that. It’s just a memory. It can’t hurt you.” The little girl, Lily, moved closer, crowding into Jade’s space. “It’s the Sparrow Lady you have to be careful of.”
Jade turned back to Lily. “What are you talking about?”
“You know. At the lake.”
“I don’t want to talk about the lake.” Jade shook her head and pulled back.
“You never want to talk about the lake, but you have to,” Lily persisted. She was thin, bony elbows and knees digging into Jade’s legs as she moved, climbing on top of her. “I should have made you talk about it before.”
Another sound from outside the closet caught her ear, only it wasn’t the usual sounds she heard while hiding. Those were glass breaking, wood smashing, people yelling. This was something else.
Birds. Sparrows.
Jade looked at Lily. Her small face was grim. “It’s easiest to get to you when you’re asleep. For me and for her.”
Something hit the wooden slats of the closet and Jade flinched back, her eyes fixed on the closet doors. She could see something flapping outside, trying to get in. Bird wings. Sparrows. They were chirping, their high-pitched noises harsh and painful.
Lily’s little arms came around her. “I shouldn’t have slept so long.”
Her lips were close to Jade’s ear, her small body tucked in close - warm and soft. Jade put her arms around her, pulling her closer.
Jade thought back to the last time she’d talked to Lily and that awful, awful day. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know I was sending you away.” Another ‘thunk’ against the closet door had her cowering back. The flapping of wings matched the furious beating of her heart. She worried that if she spoke, her words wouldn’t come out loud enough to hear. “What is it?”
“It’s her. She’s trying to find you. The Sparrow Lady.”
Jade’s mouth was dry. “What does she want?”
Lily’s lips thinned, her young face seeming impossibly grim and stony. “I don’t know.” Her eyes met Jade’s. “I shouldn’t have slept so long,” she repeated.
One of the slats ripped away from the closet door, sending a beam of light into the dark space. It burned Jade’s retinas, making black spots appear in her vision. Jade blinked hard against the brightness, trying to keep her eyes open. The beak of a bird was worrying away at another slat. Another beak joined it. Then another. And another. All it would take was for them to remove one more slat and there would be room enough for a bird to come in.
Lily’s voice was loud in her ear. No longer the voice of a child, this time, it was the voice of a grown woman.
“Wake up, Jade. I’m coming right behind you.”
#
Jade woke up, no longer confused at finding herself in the closet. Bruce was pressed up against leg, growling a little when she shifted and poked him with her knee. The alarm was blaring from outside the closet and Jade had to stumble out and fumble around in the dark to turn it off. She should have turned it off for the weekend, but she forgot. Stupid mistake. It sucked when she had the opportunity to sleep in and then squandered it. She flopped down on the bed, feeling it jiggle and bounce a moment later when Bruce hopped up and settled beside her. All the blankets were in the closet, but she snagged her bathrobe from the foot of the bed and covered her shoulders. Bruce pressed his back against hers, adding to the warmth. His spiny, slightly boney spine should have been uncomfortable mashed up against her, but she liked it. Even though she didn’t fall back asleep, she wasn’t quite ready to get out of bed. She lay there for abo
ut an hour in the lazy, drifting space between awake and unconscious. In that state, her brain pulled all the things she worried about into one big pot - magic, the lake, Lily, sparrows, the Sparrow Lady. Once or twice, she thought she heard her name called and jerked awake, but dozed again when she realized there was no one there.
She finally pushed herself up and turned on some lights, pausing when she noticed her shoebox. She kept it under the bed, always tucked away safely, but now, it was on the floor beside the nightstand with its lid flipped open. Jade slid out of bed to the floor next to it. Someone had gone through it. Jade liked to leave it in a certain order, but there were things out of place and jumbled. It must have been her, while asleep and sleepwalking. No one else could get into the house, not with the demon locks. The collection of rocks was out of the box; all the shiny baubles and sharp-edged pieces lined up off to one side. Jade put each one back carefully.
Bruce hung his head over the side of the bed, staring balefully at Jade. His tongue flicked out, touching the box quickly.
“If she’s back, then she should just come back. If she’s not…” her voice trailed off. If Lily wasn’t back, then Jade was probably halfway to certifiably insane. Hell, even if Lily was back, Jade was probably still halfway to certifiably insane. She knew the Coven had sanitariums for witches with mental problems - it was where they had sent the witch who tried to kill Jade when she’d first come to the Coven. Obviously, there were problems with insane people having magic. She’d probably get sent to a place like that. She wondered if it would be like a modern hospital and she tried to picture it her head, but all she could come up with was the vision of a large, looming, creeping stone structure that had been prominent in a horror movie she’d once seen.
She flipped the shoebox closed and stuffed it back under the bed. She wasn’t a danger to anyone. It was just some small things out of place. Nothing major. Coffee. Coffee would make everything better. She pushed herself up, slid her arms into her bathrobe and headed down.
Bruce followed making low-level grumbling sounds the entire time.
“You don’t have to get up when I get up,” Jade said. It was nice to have him as company and she could admit that during the week days when she got up and Bruce didn’t, she would stare at him enviously while he snoozed away.
At the bottom of the stairs, he stopped, body freezing like a pointer dog about to dart into the forest.
“What?” she asked, pausing herself.
A voice came from her kitchen, creamy and smooth, like liquid caramel. “I can hear you out there, Possum.”
Jade stopped so quickly, one of her feet was actually in mid-air. Ugh. Seth.
Bruce bolted from the foyer to the kitchen, long talons skittering on the hardwood floor. His motion startled Jade into moving as well. She got to the kitchen to find Bruce in front of the pantry, hissing and spitting at Seth. Seth was hunkered down, trying to entice Bruce closer.
“Come on, horrid thing. Come here. I want to know what you’re made of.”
Bruce spat three times at Seth in a way that reminded Jade of little, old, Eastern European grandmothers.
“Leave him alone, Seth.”
Seth straightened, alighting his dark, obsidian eyes on Jade and for a moment she felt dizzy. He blinked once or twice and smiled.
“Sorry, possum. Hard to remember to dial it back amongst you mortal types.” He waved his hand dismissively. She didn’t know if demons had to shower and change their clothes or if Seth changed his outfits because he felt like it. Today he was in dark jeans and a gaming t-shirt with sneakers on. It looked eerily similar to what Jade herself liked to wear and she eyeballed his clothes dubiously.
“I think I own that shirt,” she said before she thought better of it.
Seth grinned. His smile would be considered drop dead handsome on a mortal, but coming from him, it made Jade feel greasy and grimy. “I do like your style in general, so I’m taking a page out of your fashion booklet. Or postcard really, since you’ve hardly got any clothes here at the Coven. Ooooh, that sounds naughty!” Seth exclaimed, laughing. Bruce flinched, spitting again.
“What do you want?” Jade was just tired. Tired of demons, of magic going wrong, of bad dreams and not sleeping, and just… being tired.
“Oh you wound me, Possum, to the core. Can’t I just show up and see how you’re doing?”
“You know how I’m doing, Seth. Creepily, you seem to know it before I do.”
Seth smiled, eyes narrowing in on her. “Yes, you do have a je ne sais quoi that I’m attuned to, although, it’s not as ne sais quoi as you might think.”
Jade sighed. “Just tell me what you’re here for.”
Seth trailed a finger around the door jamb of her pantry, unable to cross the doorway. Jade warded the entire house against him except for the pantry. At least then she knew where he was likely to show up.
“Excellent work with Dex,” Seth said, apropos of nothing.
“He got away.” It stung. Although Jade had been close to binding him with a demon spell, Dex had managed to escape using some kind of teleportation magic. From what she’d read in the Coven grimoires and Sakkara’s demon books, it wasn’t a spell without consequences. Although none of the books nailed down what those consequences were.
“He did,” confirmed Seth, nodding a little before his face went downright gleeful, “but it was glorious. Teleportation.” Seth gave a pleasured shudder. “Fantastic if you’re a demon, but practically turns you inside out if you’re not. I haven’t seen disfigurement like that since…” Seth’s voice trailed off, his eyes going wistful and soft. “Not since the dark ages.”
Jade felt sick at Seth’s words, wondering what had happened to Dex after he disappeared. She’d been happier not knowing anything.
“Well,” Seth said, pulling his attention back to Jade. “It’s always quite lovely to see you work, possum. So far you’ve produced two disfigured witches and I must say I’m waiting on tenterhooks for your next trick.”
“I don’t do it on purpose.”
“I know!” Seth crowed. “That’s what makes it all the more fabulous. You don’t mean to cause so much damage but you do. That’s what happens when you put too much power in one place.”
She felt some of her power slip out in anger and one of the mugs in the sink popped loudly and cracked, falling to pieces.
Seth made an almost comical face. “What a faux-pas. Still haven’t quite got it under control yet, have you?” He studied her closer. “Or is it that there’s just too much going on upstairs?” Seth tapped at his own temple, staring meaningfully at Jade.
Bruce skittered backwards, away from the pantry, coming close to Jade, pressing his tail against one of her legs. The weight of him, warm and heavy against her side bled away some of her anger and anxiety. Seth always lived in ‘creeping-her-the-fuck-out’ territory. Jade was fighting above her weight class with him. She knew it, and he knew it too. Jade was smart, but Seth was just a whole other level apart from her. Maybe he wasn’t actually smarter, maybe it was because he was a demon and he had no boundaries. She wasn’t sure and she didn’t want to find out.
“You like to show up when you think you have information I want. What is it you know this time?”
He smiled, his teeth white and sharp. “You know me so well. Oh, possum, we could have such fun together.” He rubbed his hands together. “Still think making a deal is a bad idea?”
“Yes.” Her word was flat, blunt. Seth barked in laughter making Bruce hiss and raise a claw at him.
“Oh, so feisty, the both of you. A witch and her familiar. A matched set. Although, it’s more like three of a kind, isn’t it?”
Jade bristled. He was hitting a little too close to home.
“It’s becoming a problem, I know,” Seth said, propping his hip against the doorway. “And you’re just dying to ask what I know, what I’ve been hinting I know about you, about Lily, ever since we met. But you know the terms. That information will cost you a dea
l.”
Jade frowned. Seth had come to her when she first arrived at the Coven and told her another witch was after her power. Then he’d come again when Dex had put a spell on Coven magic. Seth had even helped her with a demon rune. Now that she thought about it, he was kind of a blabbermouth, but he was always resolute that information about Lily warranted a deal. “Why?”
“Pardon?” Seth’s dark eyebrows came together. He’d not been expecting her question.
“Why is it only when you’re talking about information on Lily that you ask for a deal?”
Watching him watch her, Jade felt like a small, furry creature standing in wide open plain, with birds of prey circling.
Seth smiled. “Clever possum.”
Instead of making her feel better, she felt worse. Unease coiled in her stomach like a cold, dead snake. When Seth smiled at her, it was like looking down a long, thin tunnel - the world around her went dark, sounds went flat, the air felt thick. Jade shook her head, trying to throw off the feeling of being thick and fuzzy.
“I want you to remember who your friends are, possum.”
“What?”
“Other people, other … things may be interested in you, may try to turn your head with shiny baubles and pretty tricks. I want you to remember who helped you out when you needed it. Gratis.”
Her jaw dropped. “Are you talking about yourself? You’ve been nothing but self-serving. Everything you do is because there’s something in it for you. I may not know exactly what it is, or when you’re getting it but I’m not stupid.”
Seth sighed, shoulders sagging dramatically as he shook his head. “That’s the problem dealing with the smart ones. No trust.” He eyed her steadily. “Think of all the things I could have done to you but didn’t. Horrific torture, both physical and mental. You, your witch friends, your little lizard thing. But I haven’t touched a hair on any of your heads.” He looked down at Bruce. “Or scales as the case may be. Why, you ask? Because I like you, possum. And I consider us friends.”
Double-Sided Witch (Covencraft Book 3) Page 13