Trial by Fire (Covencraft Book 1)

by Margarita Gakis

  “You don’t know the half of it,” Henri leered lasciviously and Callie laughed, making a totally loud and obvious snorting sound, a little shriek of surprise escaping her right after. This set Henri off laughing and Callie snorted even harder; the overly-tired, strung out laughs of people who were exhausted and probably couldn’t even tell you why they were laughing.

  Jade cracked a thin smile watching them, Callie’s fine hair a nest around her face, Henri’s choppy haircut no longer artfully arranged but just messy and overworked. Callie split open her fortune cookie and then resumed her laughter as she gasped the words out.

  “Right now there is an energy pushing you,” she said as she waggled her eyebrows and then gave an over the top wink, “in a new direction.”

  “In bed!” Callie and Henri finished together.

  Jade rolled her eyes at the two of them but couldn’t help the smile on her face widen a bit at their antics.

  “Your turn!”

  Like usual, there were far more cookies than needed, leaving an array of choices for Jade to pick from. She randomly grabbed one, ripping off the plastic and snapping it in half. She quickly glanced over the words and even she had to chuckle at this one.

  “You will discover your hidden talents.”

  “In bed!”

  Callie and Henri nearly shouted it this time and the waiter coming back to pick up Henri’s credit card flinched at the volume.

  By the time the beleaguered waiter came back and Henri signed the little slip, Callie was wiping tears from the corner of her eyes. “I don’t even know why I’m still laughing,” she protested, using a napkin to swipe at her eyes. Henri stood and pulled Callie’s chair back for her as she groped for her purse.

  “We need, like, twelve hours of unconsciousness and a decontamination shower after being stuck in the dungeon all day,” Henri said.

  “Speaking of,” Jade said quietly, both Henri and Callie turning to look at her at the same time. “I’m just gonna pop into the bathroom really quickly.” And take twelve ibuprofen, she added to herself, feeling her headache start to attack with a vengeance. Her skin had a strange, creepy-crawling feeling to it and she really just wanted to start scratching at the back of her neck. With a fork.

  “You okay?” Callie asked, eyebrows coming together. “You look like I feel.”

  Jade quirked her lips. “Yeah, just too much coffee followed by three glasses of water.” She gestured at the table.

  Callie’s phone rang again, a different ringtone than before, this time a pop song about being a sexy beast and Jade smirked as she heard Callie answer and start talking to her boyfriend.

  She wondered if everyone who called Callie got a personalized ringtone and then tried not to guess what ringtone Callie would assign to her. If Jade even got her own on tone Callie’s phone. She shook her head and started rooting around in her purse for painkillers even as she headed to the bathroom.

  After finishing up in the stall, Jade took one look at herself in the mirror and decided she didn’t own enough makeup all together, never mind the few items she kept in her purse, to make a dent in her disheveled visage. She knocked back four ibuprofen with a swallow of tap water and then redid her ponytail.

  Still dismal but at least it was neat again.

  Despite the hopelessness of the situation, she couldn’t help but dust some pressed powder on her face, which turned her shiny, pasty white skin into matte pasty white skin.

  Awesome.

  She picked up and rejected six lipsticks from the bottom of her purse before finding her favorite. And goddamn, why did they make a shade if they were just going to discontinue it at the end of a season? Before pitching it forever, she attempted to coax another use from the blunted stump. Jade assessed herself again in the mirror, glad she had picked a lighter shade of lipstick. With her dark brown hair, pale eyes and sickly skin, anything too deep and she would’ve looked like Snow White’s less attractive evil twin.

  A really bitchy evil twin.

  Who could hurl fireballs.

  She caught sight of a stain on her hoodie and didn’t even care all that much. It just completed the look - she may as well start wearing pajama pants and just pretend to still be a university student if she was going to walk around on no sleep and criminal blood-caffeine levels.

  She was just giving up when the mirror shimmered.

  It was quick; so swift she blinked a bit and rubbed her eyes wondering if it was one of those floaty halos she sometimes got after too much computer work. Jade blinked a few more times and looked around, checking her eyesight.

  Nothing.

  Then, the mirror wobbled again, almost like the surface wasn’t entirely solid. Semi-solid? She noticed something pressing on it from the other side. Her fingers itched to reach up and touch, but that seemed like a terrible idea. She leaned back slightly.

  Her reflection didn’t move.

  Like a photograph, her reflection stayed perfectly still and Jade felt her stomach lurch at the physical impossibility of what she was seeing. The bathroom suddenly seemed too small, too silent, too still.

  And then it wasn’t.

  Like it was molten, the mirror lurched up in a wave and appendages that only approximated the shape of hands pressed out of the mercurial surface. Jade jerked back, but not quick enough and the appendages grabbed around her ears and yanked her hard toward the mirror.

  Her head cracked against what still felt like a very solid surface despite what she saw. Jade heard the firm whack, felt it reverberate through her skull and bit off a vicious curse. Disorientated and traumatized, her vision exploded into white-hot stars.

  One of the hands fisted in her hoodie and pulled. She was forced to brace her arms on either side of the vanity to avoid getting clocked in the face again.

  She could feel the sharp cold of split skin on her forehead, pain and blood following quickly after. Her reflection was active again, but delayed like a computer running too many programs - it didn’t exactly match up to what she was doing. The hands tried to tug her closer, curling tightly in her hoodie and giving her a mighty yank. She couldn’t hold herself back from the mirror and try to break the grip at the same time, so she tried to wedge one foot up on the wall and push back using the stronger muscles of her legs. With the extra leverage, she was able to take one of her hands off the wall and start tearing and beating at the silvered hands. One of them released her shirt, reached out and encircled her wrist. The powerful hand snapped her bone without any warning.

  She shrieked at the hot spike of agony and stumbled, getting sucked in closer to the mirror where she didn’t know what the fuck was going to happen. She grasped at the only magic she felt really comfortable with and thought fire.

  The ceramic tile of the wall on which the mirror hung exploded in shards and spikes of clay and sparks of flame. There was a loud whoomp sound and the paper towel dispenser next to the sink went orange and hot, the flames licking up the side of the wall. The garbage can gave a loud pop and then its lid flew off, bright yellow and orange curls flickering up.

  The fire alarm sounded and the sprinkler system blared. All she could think was thank fuck, maybe I’ll get a little help here, as the hands turned sharp and clawed into her hoodie, pulling for all they were worth. She blinked the water out of her eyes, seeing red as it mixed with the blood on her forehead and ran down her face. The alarm was cacophonic in the small space and made her ears ring. As she struggled, she knew she was losing, the hands grew stronger, tighter, harder and she was getting closer to the mirror as her muscles weakened.

  She repeatedly thought the word fire fire fire fire, trying to dredge up every last bit of her power. The room sweltered as flames surrounded her.

  Then, the mirrored glass burst like an engorged water balloon, sending thick, soupy liquid all over her face and clothes. The mirrored hands fell apart like wet tissue, slipping through her own hands and spilling onto the floor. She stumbled against the immediate release and slipped on the moisture
and goop on the bathroom floor. She fell hard on her ass and both her hands, crying out at the shock of pain that shot up her broken wrist.

  The door to the ladies room burst open and Jade flinched. She pushed herself backward with her feet and her one good hand, throwing magic at the door, but she was tired, her magic weak and she felt it get deflected easily.

  “Jesus Christ, what is going on in here?” Paris yelled to be heard over the fire alarm. His eyes were bright blue and he looked ready to spit nails, which for all she knew, he could actually do. Callie and Henri were right behind him looking shell-shocked and bewildered.

  Jade blinked up at them through the water still raining down, and then looked around a bit at the mess. She pushed herself back against the wall and cradled her broken bone.

  “Took you long enough,” she said and she started to shake. She wasn’t cold, but her teeth chattered and she could feel the big muscles of her legs trembling and weak.

  Paris eyed the destruction in the small room, and came to kneel next to her, tipping her head back and looking at the cut on her head. She had to blink a few times to make him stay in focus. Her headache increased exponentially, nearly crossing her eyes with the sharp pain.

  “What happened?” He looked around, presumably for something to stop the bleeding on her head and she laughed, a high-pitched, nearly hysterical giggle.

  “I blew up the paper towels,” she said.

  Callie was in the bathroom suddenly, passing pristine white cloth napkins into Paris’ hand and all Jade could think was, they’re never going to get that blood out. Head wounds bleed like a bitch.

  “They do, but it’s not that deep,” Paris said and Jade realized she’d been talking out loud.

  He pressed the cloth against her forehead and she hissed, flinching back. Cupping the base of her skull to steady her, his hands felt like a vice around her brain, pressing into the pain. Callie crouched down on the other side, putting an arm around her shoulder and trying to tuck her in close. It was ridiculous because Callie was all of five-foot four and Jade was six inches taller than her and a bigger person to boot.

  The alarm didn’t seem so loud anymore, sounding more distant and she had a split second of perfect clarity.

  “Fuck, I’m really sorry,” she mumbled, leaning heavily against Callie’s lighter bulk. “I think I’m passing out.”

  Then it all went dark.

  Chapter 11

  Paris stood silent, waiting just outside the medlab room where Dr. Gellar was examining Jade. Callie and Henri stayed behind at the restaurant to try to piece together what happened in the scant minutes Jade had been alone in the washroom. When his phone rang, he answered it immediately, hoping to get some answers.

  “Hey,” Callie said quickly. “I’ve got Josef and Yelena from Counter-Magic and they’re saying something tried to punch through from another dimension.”

  Paris recognized the names of two of his coven members who worked with the Supernatural Council on tracking down unsanctioned magic performed by outsiders.

  “Another demon?” Paris asked.

  “Yeah,” Callie said lowly. “But not very powerful if that makes sense?”

  “I think it might,” Paris said. “The first demon was warning Jade about someone, another witch, using magic to make a deal with demon in order to steal Jade’s power. From what I know, it doesn’t take a lot of magic to demon-deal, but the demons who respond do tend to sort of match the power of the person calling them. If someone without a lot of magic is trying to make a deal, he or she would call a lesser demon.”

  “So not the same one that Jade already saw?” Callie asked.

  “No.” Paris’ tone was definitive. “I’m fairly certain that demon used a portal and it’s the one in her kitchen. I’m thinking he somehow got whiff of this other deal going on and wanted to know what it was about. As far as I can figure out, witches don’t regularly deal in demons, not here at our coven and not elsewhere. I’m assuming he got curious and once he realized how powerful Jade was, how powerful she is,” he took a deep breath, “he saw an opportunity. If he wanted to come back, I think he’d just use that doorway again. He wants to deal with her.” Cold fingers trailed down his back as he spoke, the idea of demon dealing distasteful and vile. “This must have been something else trying to come through.”

  “Well that’s just it.” Callie sighed. “Josef and Yelena say it’s more of a one way kind of thing. It wasn’t trying to come out, it was trying to pull her in.”

  Paris racked his brain trying to remember what he knew about demons and what he’d been speed-studying over the last few hours. “It probably has more power on its side. If it pulled her through, she would be easier to deal with.” He suppressed a shudder, dreading the thought of one of his witches being pulled into another dimension.

  “Lucky for her, she managed to stay on this side.” Callie’s voice was low and soft. “She’s really powerful, Paris. She learns fast too. If she ever could use all her power, I don’t think there’s a spell she couldn’t make work for her.”

  “She is powerful,” Paris agreed.

  “But she’s untrained. How did she manage to stay on this side?”

  Paris mused, more talking to himself than to Callie. “Yes, she’s learning fast, but she still has very little knowledge. She must be tied to something here – like an anchor. Someone here, perhaps. She doesn't know any dimensional magic yet. I know a scant amount, but I’ve hardly ever had the chance to actually use it. If something wanted to pull her through, it should have been able to.”

  Paris had to find out more about her, about her past, her history, even her medical file. Anything that could tell him how it was she could do the things she could do.

  “I’m never sleeping again,” Callie said flatly. “I mean it. I’ve seen more scary shit in one day than I have in my entire life. Demons? Dimensions? I’m still creeped out by the stuff I was reading about today and I’m looking around this bathroom and this gunk on the floor? I think it used to be the mirror but I can’t even tell. Honestly, I’m going to burn everything I’m wearing and bathe in bleach tonight. It stinks like death and rot and things that I don’t want to think about.”

  “Speaking of sleep, you should go home. It’s been a long day for you.”

  “Yeah,” Callie said absently. “Has Gellar said anything yet?”

  Paris looked over at the closed door. “No. Not yet. I’ll let you know what I find out. Jade will probably be staying at the Covenstead tonight and I’ll stay with her. Hannah is supposed to call me later with any news she’s been able to gather and hopefully we’ll have something. Until then, I’m the strongest witch in the Coven, so whatever happens, I’ve the best chance of dealing with it.”

  “We could… We could maybe call the Council and ask the Fae?”

  “We could,” Paris said, hedging. “But I’d rather avoid dealing with demons or with the Fae. You never know exactly what kind of help you’ll be getting when you work with them. At least with demons, I’m fairly certain the motives are always magic and power. With the Fae, I wish I knew what they valued.”

  They spoke for a few more minutes before Paris finally convinced Callie to go home and go to sleep if she could. If not, at the very least, she could rest and be ready to help them with research again tomorrow. Paris promised to keep her updated on Jade’s status, and she could pass those reports along to Henri.

  Who could likely disseminate word to the rest of the Coven within twenty minutes.

  Paris was hanging up with Callie when Dr. Gellar appeared in the hallway. He paused grimly, waiting for her report but she gave him a slight smile and she didn’t have her ‘this is serious news’ face on, so he was moderately hopeful.

  “As far as I can tell, she’s sleeping right now,” Gellar said, closing the door slightly behind her. Paris could see through the crack one of the nurses finishing up a cast on Jade’s right arm.

  “Are you certain? Her head and the fainting and- ” He wasn't
sure exactly what to call the mirror and the rest of incident.

  “Head wounds often look worse than they are. Don’t mistake me, she’s got a rather nice goose-egg where she was hit and twelve stitches. It’ll scar up into her hairline so she’s lucky. She’s also got a broken wrist and is looking at six weeks in that cast. But as for the rest of her brain-” Dr. Gellar frowned. “I think the problems she’s having are related to her nature.”

  “How so?”

  “Jade is very different from the rest of you. She’s a witch and she has magic but I don’t think…” Dr. Gellar trailed off, her hands moving around like she was searching for the right words. “I don’t think her body is magic. I don’t think she has the body of a witch.”

  “How can that be? She is a witch.”

  “I know.” Gellar grimaced a bit. “I don’t exactly know how or why, but I do know that when she was in here getting tested, she had that atypical reaction. The nosebleed, the headache. And then today. I know you’re sketchy on the details but if you had to guess, would you guess she used magic? A lot of it?”

  Paris thought back to the destruction of the small bathroom - the exploded tiles, the mirror, the fire, the hum in the air. He’d arrived at the restaurant and before he’d even gotten out of the car, he’d felt the magic in the air like downed power lines - thrumming with electricity. It had made the hair on the back of his neck raise and tingle. It had been furious and strong and he’d been able to follow it like a beacon to where she was. The fire alarm had sounded by the time he stepped inside the restaurant and he’d been pulled toward the back of the building like a moth to a flame.

  “Yes. Quite a bit.”

  Dr. Gellar crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m only guessing at this point and without running more tests and consulting with some specialists, I may be speaking out of turn. But I think Jade’s brain is trying to adapt her mortal body to her preternatural powers. But it’s too much, too fast. And I don’t know how much can be done.”