Trial by Fire (Covencraft Book 1)

by Margarita Gakis

  As they walked up the staircase, Jade noticed that she was on the receiving end of just about every pair of eyes in the massive foyer. Surprisingly, they weren’t dressed in gowns and witch hats – they appeared normal. Some people openly stared at her, others watched out of the corner of their eyes. She tried to meet all the glances head on and more than one person turned away sheepishly. She also noticed that there was a general hum of whispers trailing after her as they ascended the staircase and turned off at the second floor. Jade let her eyes sweep the hallway. It was easily ten feet wide with large doors on either side that stretched up eight feet. That made the ceiling twelve feet high, she thought. She guesstimated that there were about seven doors on either side of the hallway, that made fourteen for this side of the Covenstead and presumably fourteen on the other side made a total of twenty-eight. She multiplied that by three in her head for the three floors and then added in the library beneath the ground floor.

  “Christ,” she murmured.

  “Pardon?” Paris asked, turning his head slightly.

  Jade shook her head quickly. “Nothing.” She didn’t want to seem like the country cousin. If they could all walk around in such grand surroundings without blinking, so could she.

  Paris turned into the second door on the left and she blinked twice in surprise.

  Obviously it was some kind of hospital room. Medical machinery and paraphernalia filled the room, and several cots stretched out beside each cluster of equipment. The room was sterile and Spartan, only containing what it needed, while the marble floor’s pristine sheen reflected the dying sunlight. It had that faint antiseptic smell familiar to hospitals and doctors’ offices everywhere. She wrinkled her nose. Like most people, she had a dislike of hospitals or doctors’ offices in general. They reminded her of painful bone breaks and deep cuts requiring stitches.

  “This is the Covenstead medical unit,” Paris said. “Obviously the city has its own hospital and we are more than welcome to use that. But most of our needs can be taken care of here at the coven. We generally only need to use the hospital in extreme circumstances.”

  “Like my whole ‘getting hit by a bus’ example,” Callie said.

  Paris’ lips curved in a dry grin. “Yes, that may be a little much for even Dr. Gellar to work a miracle.”

  “I could work a miracle in a ditch with only a steak knife and a bottle of scotch.”

  Jade turned to her right to see a contemporarily gorgeous woman with short red hair and dark-framed glasses emerging from an interior door which she shut tightly behind her. She wore powder blue scrubs that effectively hid most of her shape but projected an air of professionalism and sterility that most medical facilities seemed fond of.

  “You must be Jade,” she said as she extended her hand. “I’m Elsabeth Gellar.”

  Jade shook her hand and was once again impressed to find a strong grip on the other end. She had yet to meet a limp fish in the bunch.

  Dr. Gellar tucked her hands back into the pockets of her scrubs and turned to face Paris. “Did I just hear you doubting my medical skills?” she asked good-naturedly.

  “I was merely explaining to Jade that while our medical facility is fully functional, it is not equipped to deal with larger scale emergencies.”

  “Well, that could change if you would approve my funding,” Dr. Gellar said smoothly.

  “I believe the accounting department laughed when they heard how much money you wanted.” It was clearly a friendly disagreement they’d had many times if their easy banter was any indication.

  “It wouldn’t matter how much they laughed if you told them to do it. If you said yes, they would find the money.”

  “Yes, and then I would have Security after me for their share of the pie, and then Administration and then the other departments one by one. I can already see Callie’s eyes lighting up as you and I stand here talking. She’s probably calculating what new books she could purchase or track down if I gave her even half of your requested budget.”

  Callie didn’t answer, but she swayed on her feet with a dreamy look in her eye.

  Dr. Gellar smiled. “Well, I’ll just keep harassing you then. I never know when I might get lucky.” She turned back to Jade. “If you’re like other witches, you’ll want to get your physical and power testing the hell over with and never come back to the med lab again.”

  “I don’t like doctors,” Jade blurted evenly.

  “Most people don’t,” Dr. Gellar replied without a trace of hurt feelings or malice. “No matter how many times I tell them we don’t bite. But we must still complete your physical. Why don’t you go into one of the examination rooms and change into a gown. I’ll be in shortly.”

  Jade looked briefly at the doctor and then at Paris again, wondering if there was any way she could get out of the exam.

  “Twenty minutes is all she’ll need,” Paris said. “Dr. Gellar is very efficient.”

  Jade moved begrudgingly towards one of the examination rooms at the back and then eyeballed the hideous green gown on the bed. She picked it up and waved it back at the group.

  “Seriously? You guys have untold magic power and you can’t do better than this?”

  Without waiting for a response to her mostly rhetorical question, she shut the door behind her and started changing into the gown. At least it was one of the ones that fastened at the shoulder and not at the back or the side.

  She detested the feel of hospital gowns. They looked like they should be soft but they never were. Then, there was the wonder at who’d been wearing it before her. She left her socks on and hopped up on the bed, swinging her feet. Two minutes later there was a knock and, at her assent, Dr. Gellar came into the cramped room.

  It was a typical exam. A few blood vials drawn that Gellar did herself, an eye/ear/throat exam, blood pressure, heart rate, lungs, and some questions about medical history. The dreaded stirrups came out but thankfully, Gellar wasn’t one of those chatty doctors that wanted to make small talk while she worked. It took less than three minutes before Jade was sitting upright again, answering more questions about her general health.

  “Once Paris and Callie located you, I was able to request your medical files,” Gellar said and Jade sensed the forced neutrality in her tone.

  “Oh.” Two could play the forced neutrality game, Jade thought.

  “You seem to have had a few broken bones in your lifetime. A lot of trips to emergency rooms.”

  Jade shrugged. “I was a klutzy kid.”

  “Two or three trips, maybe. Seventeen? No.”

  Dr. Gellar waited for her to say something and Jade stared back in return. She’d out-waited and outwitted a lot of medical professionals in her time, most of them when she was a kid.

  “Jade, I’m going to be your doctor here at the Coven and anything pertaining to your past medical history may be important.”

  “Just some broken bones; cuts and scrapes, doctor. I’m in pretty good health.”

  “Yes, you are. You’re probably one of the healthiest people at the Coven. You exercise regularly and eat a balanced diet. But I would like to know how all those bones got broken.”

  Jesus, the woman was like a small, determined dog. Dr. Gellar kept her gaze steady and even, staring at Jade with her large green eyes, trying to look empathetic and professional at the same time.

  “Who can remember all of their childhood? Kids fall down.” Jade shrugged.

  “I can remember exactly where I was when I broke my wrist.” Gellar countered. “I was ten years old, biking half a block from home and I fell off. It was June. I think I even recall it was a Sunday.”

  “Well, I don’t know what to tell you, doctor. I guess they just weren’t as important to me.”

  Dr. Gellar stared at her again and the silence lengthened. She tapped her finger on the side of the chart.

  “Well, perhaps after you’ve had time to settle in here, your memory will improve and you’ll be able to tell me what happened.”

 
; Jade said nothing. After all this time, she wasn't going to become suddenly chatty about her childhood now.

  “I would like for you to trust me, Jade. But I understand trust takes time. You can get dressed now. I’ll meet you outside for your power tests.”

  The doctor seemed genuine and, while there was a part of Jade that wanted to trust her, there was a bigger part, the louder part, which reminded her that the only person she should ever trust was herself. Things just worked out better that way.

  Jade dressed and walked back out, knowing from the way Paris and Dr. Gellar looked up that she’d walked in on a conversation about her. She tipped her head to the side and cracked her neck loudly. Several snaps echoed as her vertebrae slid along one another - it was a nervous habit, something she did without thinking about it. She saw Paris stiffen slightly and wince at the sound. Jade smiled, not at all trying to make it look like she wasn’t baring her teeth.

  “I’m sure I don’t have to tell you - that isn’t good for your neck,” Dr. Gellar said.

  Jade shrugged and looked around the medical area.

  “I sent Callie home. Your testing is next and it’s best to have no other witches about when it occurs.” Paris answered her unspoken question.

  “What about you guys?” Jade asked, gesturing to the doctor and the coven leader.

  “Oh, I’m not a witch,” Dr. Gellar said. “I just work for the Coven.”

  Jade looked at Paris as he spoke. “Part of the test involves your power being tested against another witch. I’ll be testing your power with mine.” He smiled benignly at her.

  “Is it going to be like the other night, when you were trying to kill my fire?” she asked, wary. Thinking about the sick, heavy feeling that had permeated her chest and stomach made Jade wrinkle her nose in distaste. Paris made a waffling motion with his head and looked uncertain.

  “Possibly,” he admitted.

  At least he’s honest, she thought.

  Dr. Gellar motioned Jade over to one of the chairs in the public area. “If you would like to have a seat over there, we can begin your power testing. I’m going to attach some electrodes to your head, neck and a few of your fingertips and then we can begin.”

  The room was silent as the doctor connected Jade to the monitoring equipment. Jade released her hair from her ponytail and shook it out, knowing it was probably in a huge halo around her head. She wasn’t one of those women who could take their hair down and have it look like she stepped from the pages of a magazine. Out of the ponytail, her hair curved along a huge wave from where the elastic sat. It puffed from her head like a lion’s mane. Gellar clipped more sensors to Jade’s fingertips, and put a few on the side of her neck. Jade tugged at a few of the electrodes and poked at the machine they were attached to until Dr. Gellar rolled it out of her reach.

  “Try to remain still, Jade,” the doctor admonished.

  Jade snatched her hand away and leaned back in her seat, tapping her foot on the marble floor.

  “Completely still,” Dr. Gellar said without even looking over at her.

  Feeling churlish, Jade stuck her tongue out at her and then felt like an idiot for doing it, but it was too late. She slunk lower in her seat.

  “Okay,” Dr. Gellar said as she made one final adjustment to the machine, “now we can begin. Paris tells me that you’ve already been able to generate fire?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I want you to try again now.”

  Jade held her hand out at elbow level and immediately a blue flame appeared in the center of it. Eyes wide, the doctor tilted her head sharply at Jade’s palm and then glanced at Paris.

  “I know,” he said. “She has a knack for that one.”

  Dr. Gellar raised her eyebrows but didn’t say anything as she made a few notes on a clipboard. Jade craned her head over to the side to see if she could read it but it was too far away.

  The doctor returned her attention to Jade. “Can you extinguish it?”

  As soon as she was done asking the question, the flame winked out with an audible puff. Dr. Gellar made additional notes.

  “And bring it back.”

  The flame sprung up in front of Jade again, only this time, she didn’t even raise her hand. The flame just floated softly in front of her at chest height.

  “Jade, would you be able to change its shape?” asked Paris.

  She shrugged. “I guess.”

  Thinking about the tiny flame caused it to dance a bit and she could feel the shape of it in her brain. She pulled at it, twisting it, getting a feel for it and then stretched it out and shaped it. She thought about a triangle and then discarded that idea immediately for a pyramid. The flame flickered into a flat triangle and then quickly folded in on itself and settled as a pyramid, keeping up with her thoughts. She rubbed her fingertips together and, feeling a rough edge along one of her cuticles, turned her focus away from the flame in front of her and looked down at her nail. When she glanced back up at the pyramid, it was rotating lazily in front of her, like a gyroscope, in three dimensions. She looked over at Dr. Gellar who was staring from Jade to the flame to the machines with interest.

  “Anything else?” Jade asked.

  Dr. Gellar came to stand in front of her. “You can extinguish your fire again, Jade.” As it dissipated, she held out both hands toward Jade, a small object in each. Her right hand held a tiger eye stone, the left held a small gold coin.

  “One of these objects has been charmed.” Dr. Gellar stated plainly. “Can you tell which one?”

  Jade looked at the items in the doctor’s hands and although she didn’t know why, she immediately pointed at the coin. Surprising herself, she raised her eyes to the doctor, who nodded and put the stone in her pocket.

  She handed the coin to Jade. “What can you tell me about this?”

  Jade took the coin and turned it over in her fingers. The top of her knuckles tingled slightly. She rested the coin on the top of her fingers, in the soft skin between her pinky and ring finger. The coin rolled easily from knuckle to knuckle, flipping itself over. She moved her fingers slightly, letting the coin flip itself over, running back and forth across the top of her hand.

  “It was charmed so it won’t fall off,” she stared down at the flickering gold. Then, turning to Paris, she asked, “How do I know that?”

  “Magic lingers, gives off an energy,” he said as though it was a response she would fully understand.

  Jade handed the coin back to Dr. Gellar, who in turn handed her another object. It was a solid clear ball, like a paperweight, only it had no flat surface to rest upon.

  “Crystal ball,” Jade said with a wry huff. “Can I pick out next week’s lotto numbers with this thing?”

  “It’s actually filled with water,” Dr. Gellar said as she stepped back slightly.

  Jade shook the ball and, while there was no air in it for bubbles to appear, she could feel the sluggishness of it, the heavy weight that indicated it was full of liquid volume.

  “What am I supposed to do with this?”

  “You tell me,” Gellar replied.

  Jade eyed her dubiously, grey eyes clear and keen. She opened her mouth to ask a question.

  “No fire,” Paris said quickly, answering her unspoken words.

  Jade’s eyebrows drew together. “Well, gimme a word you want me to use or a hint.”

  He shook his head. “No hint. Either you can or you can’t.”

  “Can or can’t what?” Jade huffed, exasperated. “I still don’t know what you want me to do.”

  “There’s no right or wrong answer,” Paris replied and Jade rolled her eyes. Oh. So it was one of those kinds of things. “Please try, Jade.”

  “Try what? I mean, I can chuck a pretty mean fastball.” She hefted the ball in her hand and eyeballed the distance to Paris.

  “No throwing,” he said, amused. “You’ve shown me how you well handle fire. Show me what you can do with water.”

  Jade sighed and regarded the clear ball. She
had no idea what to do. She tossed it from one hand to the other, juggling it while she thought. She rolled it between her hands and admired its simple qualities. Heavy and smooth. Heftier than a baseball, but almost soft, like if she pressed hard enough, she would be able to make a dent with her fingertips. She thought about how she could make it warm but without using fire the only thing that came to mind was to keep rolling it back and forth. She hummed softly to herself; her mind began to wander. Before she knew it, she was holding the ball in front of her chest, between her two palms. Without thinking, she let go, and was only moderately surprised when it hovered in midair instead of smashing to the ground. She could feel a slight pressure behind her eyes, a low key throbbing. She focused on the pressure and the ball began to rotate. Turning slowly, gyroscopically, it was mesmerizing to watch. It caught the light, and she could see objects in the lab through its crystalline surface. They became misshapen from the distortion of the light through the liquid. The globe spun faster and faster, giving off a slight humming noise. She found it soothing, and the more she thought about how pacifying it was, the louder it got. Watching it rotate madly in front of her, she became drowsy. Her breathing slowed, became more shallow. She felt like she was drifting to sleep, the white noise of the ball lulling her into a calm, serene state that she hadn’t felt since…

  She jerked up in her seat suddenly, and there was a loud cracking sound. She shut her eyes and threw her hands up in front of her face, waiting for the globe to explode and send glass and water all over her. After a few seconds, when she realized she wasn’t wet, she cracked one eye open and peeked through her hands.

  The globe hung in shattered pieces in front of her, but the water maintained its spherical shape and was rotating just as well as it had been before. There was no pressure behind her eyes this time.

  “Am I doing that?” she asked.

  “No,” Paris said simply. “I am.”

  Jade slouched back in her seat. “Show off.”