Double-Sided Witch (Covencraft Book 3)

by Margarita Gakis

  Jade never appeared to lose time and while he didn’t always agree with how she approached things, he wouldn’t call her unstable or erratic. She was quite methodical and rational when it came to her life and her magic.

  Then there was the third player in Jade’s dreams - the Sparrow Lady. Paris supposed she could be a third personality, but the way Jade spoke of her was very different from how she spoke of Lily. Jade spoke of Lily with fondness, regret or sometimes wistfulness. Jade spoke of the Sparrow Lady like it was the monster under the bed. Hushed tones, quiet words.

  The sparrow had quite a few meanings, mystically and magically. It could mean joy, protection or creativity. Sometimes it was used as a symbol of small things being important. Sparrows could be seen as either good or bad luck - harbingers of death, soul catchers or symbols of love. He sent a quick email to Callie, asking her to research sparrows in their Coven library, but as he searched through the internet, his stomach sat uneasy. He found himself drawn to the darker stories containing sparrows - sparrows that pecked at animals and destroyed lives, sparrows that were omens of bad things to come, sparrows catching the souls of the dead to carry them to the afterworld.

  Paris’ eyelids were heavy. It had been a long day and he could only imagine how tired Jade must have felt if he was this exhausted himself. Bruce stretched on the ground in front of Paris, making little grunting and sighing noises as he did. There were a few more articles Paris wanted to read, but he found the words on the screen starting to swim in front of him. He sighed, thinking he would close his eyes for a few minutes, catch a catnap, and then send off a few more Coven emails before heading up to bed for the night.

  As he stretched out on the sofa, something made him pause. He shouldn’t be so tired. It had been a long day, but he’d slept the night before. Perhaps not all the way through the night, but he wasn’t so old that a single night of poor sleep should wipe him out the next day. The faint scent of licorice drifted across his senses and he felt his heart beat twice hard in succession. He wasn’t just tired. This was magic. This was witchcraft. Someone was making him fall asleep. He knew spells that would keep him awake, but he could feel his brain slowing down, his consciousness being dragged to sleep, his magic slipping through his fingers. His eyes closed and he felt the fabric of the sofa under his cheek. He was so heavy. He tried to move but couldn’t make his limbs respond. He could feel himself falling further away from consciousness, tipping over the edge into sleep. He thought he felt something brush across his forehead - light and careful, and then he heard the quietest hint of words, like they were carried on light and shadow.

  “You always were a good sleeper.”

  #

  Jade thought she was awake. She got out of bed, out her bedroom door and went down the stairs. It was only when she got to the foyer and she looked over to the living room that she realized she must be dreaming. She saw Paris sleeping on the sofa and she thought perhaps she should go to him and put a blanket over him. But her legs wouldn’t do what she wanted. Instead, she turned away from him, slipped her runners on, left her laces undone, and grabbed her coat. She must be dreaming. She had no reason to go outside, in her pyjamas, in the middle of the night, and surely Paris would hear her if she did. Her body felt far away - the connection between her mind and her limbs slow and thick. She was watching everything from the back of her mind - seeing things through a long, thin telescope, or down a deep, dark hallway with a light at the end.

  She turned back to Paris. The Sparrow Lady stood next to the sofa where he slept. She wore a dark cloak - black or navy, Jade couldn’t tell. She had the hood up over her head and she was like some bad, fairy tale monster hovering over a sleeping prince.

  Bruce’s tail thumped against the stone in front of the fireplace, like he was having a bad dream too. The Sparrow Lady walked toward Jade and Jade couldn’t move as she did. She stood stock still as the Sparrow Lady came closer, and closer and then drifted past her, not saying anything.

  Jade turned and followed her.

  The Sparrow Lady walked out the front door, Jade right behind her, the night air cold on her face. Though Jade had slipped her coat on, it was undone and the air snuck in through the open zipper and curled around her thin sleep-shirt and pants, but she couldn’t make her arms move to do it up. The Sparrow Lady had a car, and wasn’t that strange? Something so ordinary. She got in the front seat and Jade got in the back - like the Sparrow Lady was a chauffeur and Jade was her charge.

  Jade’s body rocked slightly back and forth as the Sparrow Lady drove. She was talking. Talking to Jade. But her words were tinny and empty and didn’t make any sense to Jade. Jade watched the Sparrow Lady for in the rear view mirror. She could just make out her eyes from inside the hood of the cloak. Light-colored. Blue. Blue like the summer sky. Like Paris’ eyes.

  Jade turned her head and looked out the side window, seeing her reflection in the glass. The moon was bright in the sky - not quite full, but Jade wasn’t sure if it was waxing or waning. She never paid attention to things like that. Her face in the window was pale, her eyes glass. Behind her, she could make out another image of herself, just over her shoulder, glaring at her with green eyes. It was Lily. She looked like she was shouting, but Jade couldn’t hear her. She could only see her lips moving.

  Wake up.

  Jade heard the words with her mind, not with her ears. Time was odd too, feeling as though it moved and shifted against the natural laws of science and nature. It seemed like only seconds and they were at the Preserve.

  The Sparrow Lady was taking her to the lake. Jade shouldn’t be surprised. That’s where the dreams started. It made sense this one should end there. The Sparrow Lady got out of the car and as Jade’s eyes followed her lazily, she again caught sight of Lily in the reflection of the glass, her hands on Jade’s shoulders, her lips next to Jade’s ears.

  Wake up.

  The Sparrow Lady opened the back door, breaking Jade’s line of sight with Lily. It was cold as she followed after the Sparrow Lady. She wound and wove her way into the trees, moving silently. Her salamander charm was hot against her clavicle, a heavy weight resting against her skin. Jade’s shoes were loose on her feet and at one point she stepped out of the right one and left it behind. Cinderella at the ball, she thought. Who would find her shoe and bring it back to her.

  Don’t lag behind, dear.

  Not Lily’s voice in her mind this time, but the Sparrow Lady, speaking again. Jade had to keep up, she had to keep following.

  There were no sounds of sparrows at the lake this time. Maybe because Jade was with the Sparrow Lady. Or maybe because it was only a dream.

  Not a dream. Wake up.

  Again, Lily’s voice in her head, or maybe from behind her. Jade wanted to turn around but kept moving forward, toward the dock. The Sparrow Lady pointed at the dock and Jade felt sick. Her stomach cramped and bile tickled the back of her throat. Her head hurt now too, an ice-pick poking around in her brain, trying to shuffle and stir things about.

  Go to the end of the dock.

  The Sparrow Lady’s voice, calm and cold. Jade stepped up on the dock, losing her left shoe. Now she was barefoot. She hated dreams where she was missing her shoes. It was so ridiculous. Why would she go somewhere without shoes? But she didn’t leave without them this time, she lost them along the way. Her toes hurt from the cold, feeling stiff and painful. The dock was more wobbly than it had been in her dreams. It was old, unused, with no one coming out to take care of it.

  All the way to the end, dear.

  Jade looked over the edge when she got there, her toes curling over the end. The moon was behind her shoulder, high in the sky, her body breaking its reflection. Her shadow was on the water - nearly perfect except for the slight ripples coming from the dock, breaking the surface making the outline of her shape wavy and indeterminate.

  It was cold. The water would be colder. It had been so cold before. But that couldn’t be right. She’d never been here before. But Jade rem
embered being shocked by the cold of it. So cold it stole her breath and she’d gasped, little lungs filling up with water and then…

  I’m coming, Jade. I’m coming to help. Wake up.

  In the lake beneath her, there was a shape. Rising slowly to the surface like it had been trapped at the bottom of the lake for years and someone, something, had finally cut its anchor and released it. The pain in Jade’s head was worse and she felt the drops of blood fall from her nose before they hit the water and disturbed the surface. The color bled across the reflection of the moon, turning it pink.

  The shape came closer to the surface - not just a shape, a little girl. Small. Smaller than Jade ever remembered being. A pale face, darkish hair - maybe dark blonde or light brown. Jade reached for her, like she had once reached for Lily in a dream, but the little girl’s eyes didn’t open. Who are you, Jade asked, although she didn’t hear herself say the words out loud.

  “Wait! Jade!”

  So strange to think she could hear Paris’ voice. He was never in any of her dreams.

  Now, into the water.

  No, that was a horrible idea. She couldn’t swim. It would be so cold. And yet… the little girl was in the water. Her eyes were open now, looking at Jade and her lips were moving. She was alive, she was saying something. Something she wanted Jade to hear. But Jade was too far away. Jade leaned over, watching the girl. Her lips moved again and this time, Jade heard her words.

  I’m you.

  Jade fell into the water. Cold, it was so cold, just as it had been before. So cold it shocked her and stole her breath as she gasped, her lungs filling up with water. She couldn’t swim, didn’t know how and she was sinking.

  I’m coming, Jade. I’m coming to help.

  #

  Paris blinked awake, wondering why he was on the couch, and why it was cold. Looking toward the direction of the draft, he saw the front door open. He was momentarily confused until he remembered the last few seconds before he fell asleep, or rather, was put to sleep.

  Someone had spelled him unconscious. He remembered something else. A touch on his forehead and words - words he couldn’t quite remember at the moment. Someone had been in the house, presumably the Sparrow Lady. Whoever she was, she had been in the house.

  He called out Jade’s name loudly as he ran upstairs, but his gut told him she wouldn’t be there. Her bedroom door was open, the bed empty. Paris paused in the doorway, saying her name again in case she was in the master bathroom or closet, but there was no answer.

  However, there was a scratching sound and then some animal grunts from under the bed.

  “Bruce?” Paris asked, kneeling down. Under the bed, he could see Bruce’s reflective eyes glinting back at him. Bruce was scrabbling at the hardwood, his long talons making gouges in the wood, almost like he was trying to rip up the planks.

  “Bruce, where is Jade?” Bruce kept scratching away, not looking up. “Bruce! What are you doing?”

  Bruce spat three times on the hardwood, ignoring him. Paris stood up, thinking to move the bed to get a grip on him. Paris would drag him out if he had to. Bruce helped Paris find Jade the last time he wasn’t sure where she was, and Paris had faith he could do the same thing again. He pulled the queen-sized bed away from the wall to get at the lizard, who was hunkered down by the head of the bed.

  After moving the bed about two feet, Paris stepped over to the headboard, intent on shooing Bruce out or grabbing him. He stopped when he saw markings on the wood. Dark black markings. Paris could see just parts of them - half-circles and the start of runes.

  “What is this?”

  Bruce was still hard at work, scratching at strange markings painted on the dark hardwood. Paris pushed the bed further away, exposing the remainder and stared down in awful comprehension.

  It was a hex circle. Underneath Jade’s bed, where she slept, was a complex, rune-ridden hex circle. Paris only understood a few of the runes - enough to make out the symbols for ‘control’ and ‘unconscious.’ Bruce was scratching at the symbols, trying to break the circle.

  “That’s what you were doing earlier this evening,” Paris murmured. “You saw this when she didn’t and you were trying to break it then. You’re still trying to break it. Because it’s working. Right now, wherever Jade is she’s under someone else’s control. The Sparrow Lady. Why, Bruce?” Paris asked, thinking aloud. “Why does she need Jade to be somewhere else? Where does she need Jade to be?” Paris was frozen for a moment before his brain made the necessary connections. “All her dreams are at the Preserve. The lake. Goddamit.”

  He ran downstairs, leaving Bruce to his mad scratching. He grabbed his coat, his shoes and ran out to his car, pulling his cell phone out as he did. He should have called 911 or Counter-Magic, but in that moment, he called the person he trusted the most.

  “Callie,” he began as soon as she answered, “I think Jade is at the lake, the lake in the Preserve, the one no one goes to anymore.” He pulled the car out onto the street and floored it.

  “What? Jesus, Paris it’s three in the morning. What’s going on?” Callie’s voice had the sleepy, groggy tone of someone just woken up.

  “I don’t know what’s happening. I just… I can’t think.” The only words going through his head were drive, lake, water, I can’t swim. “Just. I need you to call help. I can’t… I’m on my way, but I can’t…”

  “What?” Callie repeated and Paris wanted to shout at her, but then she took a breath. “Okay, okay, I think I got it. Lake, Preserve, Jade’s in trouble, you’re going there and you need me to call help. I can do that. Got it.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Be careful. I have to hang up now and call for help,” Callie said and the phone went silent.

  He sagged in relief. Callie would call for assistance, Callie would bring help. Paris just had to get there and… do something, he wasn’t sure what, until help arrived.

  The streets were dark and silent as he sped through them, the town and Coven asleep. As he drove, he started to doubt himself. What if he was wrong? What if Jade wasn’t in trouble, or wasn’t even at the lake? What if she was somewhere else and he was mistaken?

  He wasn’t sure if he was relieved or more worried when he arrived at the entrance to the Preserve and saw another car there, one he didn’t recognize, with its front driver and rear doors still open. He left his car in much the same condition, his front door only getting a half-hearted push as he started running into the forest toward the lake. He didn’t get far from the car before he realized his massive error in not bringing a flashlight. He quickly conjured a fire spell, hoping he had enough presence of mind to keep it from the dry timber of the Preserve and not set the entire area alight.

  Paris tried to follow the pathway and was certain for a moment he was lost when he spied a running shoe on its side in the underbrush. Jade’s running shoe. He left it where it lay and continued on. He moved as quickly has he could in the half-light, his flames as bright as he could make them. He wasn’t nearly as proficient at fire as Jade was and certainly not while entirely distracted.

  He broke through the tree line at the lake and paused, looking around for something, anything. Then he saw her. Jade, standing at the end of the dock, staring down into the water. She was too close to the edge for his liking. He moved toward the dock and found his steps sluggish and slow. The scent of licorice filled his nostrils. Magic - working against him. Strong magic, powerful magic. But not Jade’s.

  The Sparrow Lady.

  Paris could see a figure standing at the land’s end of the dock, watching Jade as she hovered with her toes hanging over the edge of the old wood. Paris struggled against the magic, calling on the sheer force of his power rather than any sort of spell he could think of at the moment. He was able to move forward a few steps, and then a few steps more. Jade leaned over, toward the water.

  “Wait! Jade!” Paris yelled, not able to move faster - it was as though he were trapped in one of those horrible dreams where your body w
on’t do what you want it to, not matter how much you will it.

  He made it two more steps toward the docks and he knew he wouldn’t make it in time. He knew what was going to happen before Jade moved again, before she started tipping forward, before she hit the water and he could hear her in his memory saying, ‘I can’t swim.’

  Even if Jade could swim, it was too cold. The water would be near freezing. Her body entered with a splash and she sunk under the surface. A strangled sound escaped his throat, as he fought against the magic holding him back. The licorice smell intensified, burning his nostrils. Underneath it, he could smell sage and vanilla and he knew that particular scent, but he couldn’t spare the mental processing power to chase the thought.

  A burst of magic tore through the night with a crack of sound and a burst of light. It blinded him and made his ears ring. The pressure wave of it brought him to his knees. It wasn’t his magic and for a moment, he thought it was the unknown Sparrow Lady until he managed to look up and see her struggling on her knees as well. He’d never felt anything as powerful, hadn’t even known magic could be so powerful without any kind of warning preceding it. The Sparrow Lady stumbled to her feet and disappeared into a flock of birds, the flock of them swooping into the darkness of the forest. No longer trapped by her magic, Paris pushed to his feet, breathing in the strong smell of flowers and cloves - Jade’s magic. Linden blossom, his brain finally supplied. After all this time, he finally could place the scent of her magic. Linden blossoms and cloves. He staggered to the lakeshore and smelled grapefruit and cinnamon as well, only not as strong as Jade’s magic. His gait was off and he fell to his knees in the shallow water, the shock of the icy temperature causing him to gasp. He didn’t know what he thought he could do - in the cold, in the dark - only that he had to do something. He pushed to his feet again and yanked off his coat, throwing it to the shore. He sloshed further into the lake and was preparing to dive in when someone broke the surface, out by the dock.

  It was her - Jade. She looked around, as though searching for something and then dived back into the water, gracefully, as though she knew how to swim, how to dive. Paris stumbled over the slightly rocky terrain, back out of the water and across the shoreline to the dock, running down the planks, his footfalls heavy and thick. He reached the end just as she broke through again, only this time, she wasn’t alone. She had someone in her arms, their head hanging forward, face obscured.