Trial by Fire (Covencraft Book 1)

by Margarita Gakis

  She couldn’t help it. She wanted to know more.

  “Hello, possum.”

  She yelped and jumped back from the voice in her ear, pressing up against the damp stone wall.

  The first demon, the one in her head she’d taken to calling ‘Bob’ stood a foot away from her, admiring her handiwork.

  Her anti-demon handiwork.

  “You can’t… You shouldn’t be here,” she stammered, heart racing as she glanced at the ward and back at the demon.

  Paris came around the corner quickly and muttered something, a spell, hex or incantation she couldn’t tell. Something flew at the demon and he batted it away easily, sending it back toward Paris, like a wave of hot, compressed air. It seemingly blew through Paris and though he flinched, he didn’t back down.

  “I’m not here to hurt anyone,” the demon said. “I just came to talk to my little possum.” He turned his gaze back to Jade and she got a flash of the strange vertigo she felt the first time she’d met him. Blinking, she pressed harder against the wall for stability.

  “You work the wards wonderfully,” Bob said to her, studying a nearby rune. “Unfortunately, there’s still a lot about demon magic you don’t know.”

  ‘Bob’ didn’t really do him justice. It didn’t convey the otherness of his presence or the frigid, almost cloying aura around him.

  Like a flash, Jade remembered something she’d read in one of Sakkara’s books just that morning. She pulled her magic around her and then flung it at Bob, the awkward and strange words spilling from her lips.

  He flinched. Then, like acid had been poured over him, the skin of his face spat and hissed, pouring putrid smelling smoke into the area. She gagged at the smell but held her spot.

  Bob shook himself like a dog, bits of flesh and gore spraying out from him. One of them hit her in the cheek and she swiped at it hastily, rubbing the hem of her shirt over her skin. Yuck.

  “Very good,” Bob said, not the least bit put out. He sniffed the air. “That was your first try at that one, correct? Quite nice. But I’ve been around the block a few more times than your common demon.” He held up a hand toward Paris who’d been stalking closer and tsk-tsk’d his fingers at the coven leader. “Now, now. I don’t mind if you stay, but I won’t put up with your interruptions. Hush now. I’m only here to talk to her.”

  Jade gulped as he turned his full attention back to her. “Do the wards even work?” she asked, hating how her voice came out shaky.

  “Quite well. On lower class demons. It’s also tricky work to put them in a place like a Covenstead. The walls, the furniture, the witches all bleed a different kind of magic. Left over spells, the potential of future spells, charmed objects and different kinds of power all mixed up together in one place. Makes the wards dodgy. Riddled with holes and wobbly bits. Weak spots where things can still get through. Also, this much demon magic being used at once and in a place of magic as well?” He looked at her sympathetically, dark eyes flashing. “Oh possum, you may as well put a big spotlight on yourself saying ‘interesting things going on here.’”

  Her eyes flickered to Paris who stood still as a statue watching the demon with careful eyes.

  Bob shrugged. “Not everyone will notice and not everyone will care. Witches are mostly beneath us. But there are some who’ll pay attention. Like me. Because I like you, maybe as much as our little friend who has his eye on you.”

  “Who is he?” she asked immediately.

  Bob looked at her knowingly. “You know I won’t tell you. Not without a deal.” Again his singsong tone was back. He inched closer to her and she side-walked away from him, keeping her back to the wall.

  “I thought, perhaps, after your little taste of him the other night,” he said as he tipped his head, indicating her cast and then her stitches, “you might be a bit more interested. Still think I might be lying?”

  “No. But that doesn't mean I trust you. Or care to listen to you either.”

  Bob smiled, showing his sharp teeth and she leaned further away from him. She had a sudden image in her head of him poised over her, like a wolf, jaws ready to snap down and break her neck. “Clever possum. I like you more and more, you know.”

  “Gross,” she blurted at his leering expression.

  “Everyone deals, possum. Given the right leverage, everyone deals.” He glanced over at Paris. “His mother could tell you that.”

  “You knew my mother?” Paris spat, horrified.

  “I knew of your mother, though I never had the opportunity myself to deal with her personally. I know someone who did. Like she reportedly did, you positively reek of good intentions and noble magic.” Bob sneered. “Although you don’t quite have the stench of desperation about you that demon-dealers usually have.” He turned back to Jade. “You, however… You just smell of power. Unfettered.” He sniffed the air again. “And fear, but everyone who deals with demons smells of fear. It’s mostly lost its je ne sais quois. We smell it all the time.”

  Jade debated trying the spell again, trying to push more magic behind it this time, as much as she could manage. But if it didn’t work, she’d likely just make him angry.

  And then she’d be really fucked.

  “Blah blah blah it’s all talk-talk-talk,” she burst out, hoping she sounded more confident than she felt. “I can do without the monologue. What do you want?”

  Bob shrugged. “I just thought I’d check in, see what all the hubbub was about. I could feel you warding this place from the other side. About as subtle as a bull in a china shop. I wanted to know if you were ready to deal yet.”

  “No.”

  “Ouch.” He winced with mock pain, clutching at his chest. “Your tone hurts, possum. I tell you what-”

  Blazingly fast, he was crowding her against the stone wall, his body a scant inch from hers. The overly thick, syrupy smell of him pressed against her. She saw Paris move out of the corner of her eye and she shook her head at him. She was okay, she was fine. She wasn’t hurt. Yet. If Paris was going to try something, better he wait until they really needed it and not just when she was getting intimidated.

  Goddamn she was petrified though. But if Bob wanted to hurt her, he would have already done it. That’s what she kept telling herself. He wanted to deal with her.

  He couldn’t deal with her if she was dead.

  Jesus, she hoped not.

  “I’ll give you one of my names. As soon as you change your mind, you call. Then we’ll deal.”

  “Yeah, that’s what all the boys say. Call me, I’ll drop everything.” Her voice came out thin and airy, like she was two breaths away from hyperventilating.

  “For you? I will.” He leaned in closer, his breath hot against her ear. “But don’t call unless you mean it, possum,” he whispered. She kept her eyes focused on Paris, on the solid, steady line of him, poised like a racer waiting to spring, waiting for her to twitch or beckon. She couldn’t tell if he was afraid and that made her feel better, not as skin-stripping scared.

  Bob continued to speak quietly in her ear. “Don’t call unless you want to deal. Say my name, say it with intent, and I’ll come running. But if you trick me…” He snapped his teeth shut, making loud biting sounds against her ear. She flinched and Paris took a step closer. She willed him back with her eyes. She wasn’t hurt, she kept reminding herself. The demon was just like a bully, barking at her for a reaction.

  She wouldn’t give him a reaction.

  She turned her face slightly, enough for her to whisper in his ear. “I can do without the theatrics. Your name,” she said plainly.

  He whispered it so quietly, so lowly in her ear, she wasn’t sure she heard it.

  And then he was gone. But the sticky-sweet scent lingered.

  Jade started shaking and let herself slide down the wall. It was cold and she’d been pressed up against it for too long, the chill of the stone seeping into her bones.

  Paris knelt beside her, one hand on her shoulder. “You’re all right,” he said calmly
, repeating it a few times and she wasn’t sure who he was talking to.

  “Of course I’m all right. He didn’t hurt me,” she said, sharper than she intended. She didn’t pull away from him. In fact, she leaned a bit into his side and almost sighed from relief when his arm, heavy and warm, encircled her shoulders protectively.

  Neither one of them said anything for a long few minutes. Finally, she pulled away from him and he dropped his arm from her shoulders awkwardly. She pushed herself to her feet.

  “So, I guess warding the library equals bad idea.” She took a deep breath. “Fuck.”

  “What was his name, Jade?”

  She turned incredulous eyes on him. “You’re not thinking of calling him, are you?”

  “Absolutely not,” he replied. “But maybe we can find out more information about him with his name.”

  She opened her mouth to say it and then froze, suddenly afraid that would be akin to saying it out loud, with intent. After walking back to the table they’d been at earlier, she yanked open her laptop and launched a text-pad application. She typed the name out in four keystrokes, surprised at how innocuous it looked.

  Seth.

  *

  After Seth’s impromptu visit, they relocated to Paris’ house, Callie and Henri joining them.

  Along with a trunk full of Callie’s books.

  “These are my important ones!” Callie pleaded at Paris’ affronted look as she dragged the trunk over his hardwood floors. Jade smirked and thought that they were like siblings in each other’s company too much - always a little eager to pick at each other. They spread out across the large dining room table, Jade taking the head of it with her laptop, little notebook and one of Sakkara’s grimoires. On a whim, the first thing she Googled was ‘demons named Seth’ and was surprised when she got some hits.

  God, how she loved Google more than a little bit.

  Her love affair with the search engine lasted only as long as it took her to read that Seth was an Egyptian god, although he generally went by Set. She dropped her head in her hands.

  “I’m so fucked,” she said to nobody specific.

  Callie’s head popped up from where she sat at her chair. “What is it?” She came over to where Jade sat, reading over Jade’s shoulder. “Seth is the god of the desert, storms and foreigners. He may also be attributed to darkness and chaos.” Callie’s face was pale as she rested her hand on Jade’s shoulder. “It… It might not be that bad.”

  “It says he killed and mutilated his own brother!”

  Callie looked torn and Henri buried his head back into the book he was reading. Paris stood silently by the kitchen doorway, hovering.

  When nobody offered any comfort, Callie patted Jade’s shoulder. “Mythology is quite often only metaphors for the morals and values people wanted to instill. We don’t know if that’s true.”

  “Well next time he pops out of nowhere, I’ll be sure to get him to confirm or deny.” Jade rubbed at her face. “You know, I went a really long time without being on anyone’s radar and now, all of a sudden, there’re witches and demons all around and they want stuff and I’ve got this power and it actually kind of sucks.”

  Callie squeezed her shoulder and Jade wondered if this was the price she was paying for having people in her life. Like some weird kind of balance or scale, if she wanted to have friends - or whatever Callie, Paris and Henri were becoming - this was what she was going to have to deal with.

  “At least it doesn’t seem like he wants to hurt you,” Callie said finally, still reading over Jade’s shoulder. “I mean, he seems kind of invested in getting a deal out of you, but he needs you alive for that.”

  “Fantastic. I feel so much better already.” Jade deadpanned.

  “It just… It could be worse.”

  Jade eyeballed her. She didn’t want to be fatalistic, but it was about as awful as she could imagine. She wanted to say she didn’t see how it could be worse but she wasn’t dumb enough to toss that out for fate to stomp all over with some fresh new hell she hadn’t thought of yet.

  Depressingly, this was only taking into account demon number one - he who was formally known as Bob. She had no info on demon number two, Doug - a lesser demon according to Seth. Not to mention their unknown witch who was the root of all this.

  When she figured out who it was, she was going to punch them in the throat, she thought grimly. Really, really hard.

  Callie moved all her stuff to be closer to Jade to offer moral support or something, Jade didn’t really know. She wasn’t exactly an expert on people skills. Paris sat at the other end of the table, studying two of his mother’s books. Jade looked up at him every now and then and saw his dark, bleak face. She kind of felt sorry for him. She’d known from a young age her parents were grade-A class scuzzbags. It must be a real punch in the gut to find that kind of thing out later in life and have it take you completely by surprise.

  She didn’t have time to be sentimental for herself, let alone for someone else, so she pushed it aside for now and focused back on the demon grimoire in front of her. Jade had been keeping thorough notes as she read through books in the library - and now one of Sakkara’s books - and she found it useful to go back and search bits and pieces of items she’d transcribed and compare it to what she was reading now. She wrote out some ideas as she worked, making additional notations and theories as she went. At some point, she vaguely overheard Paris telling Callie about their scrying mirror and asking if they could come by and borrow her cat when they dug it up. She wanted to ask about it but got distracted by another hex at the bottom of the page. It looked only partially finished but it had little tiny stars drawn around it, which Jade had learned was Paris’ mother’s way of indicating her interest in something. She took out her phone and snapped a picture of it, sending it to her laptop and pasting it in her growing document.

  Bringing witchcraft into the twenty-first century, she thought, smirking. Whether it wanted to go or not.

  They ordered delivery for dinner and she longingly stared at the menu online before settling on salad with grilled chicken, thinking about the state of her jeans. She thought about ordering a whole cheesecake since it very well could be the end of her world. But if it wasn’t, she’d spend the rest of her life trying to get that cheesecake off her ass.

  What she needed was a spell to make cheesecake calorie-free but taste exactly the same - now that would be useful.

  Despite the dire circumstances, dinner was a fairly light affair. Henri and Callie supplied most of the conversation, both of them talking about their significant others and plans they were making for vacations or anniversaries. Callie invited Jade over for dinner with Callie’s boyfriend Nick, Henri and Henri’s boyfriend Daniel, ‘once this whole mess was sorted out’ which was a really nice way of saying ‘you know, after we take care of your little demon problem.’

  Callie also suggested bowling which started a fight over the last time the foursome of Callie, Henri and their significant others went bowling and apparently ended when Henri ‘lost’ the scorecard only to keep Callie and Daniel from coming to blows over who was the victor.

  They were both quite competitive, it seemed, and Henri had decided then that all sporting events, board games and quiz shows were out of bounds for double dates.

  By the time Henri and Callie called it a night at about nine o’clock, Jade was already yawning and wishing for a few more painkillers to take the edge off. But she felt a little bit lighter than she had all day.

  “They’re fun,” she said simply as the door closed behind Callie and Henri.

  Paris nodded.

  She gave a big, jaw cracking yawn, feeling like her mouth needed to go just that extra bit wider to make it really satisfying.

  “You should head to bed,” Paris said and she nodded. It was early, but she was already beat. She looked almost longingly at the books spread out over the table.

  “It will all be here tomorrow,” he added.

  “Yeah. Okay,”
she agreed and trudged up the stairs. Halfway up, she paused, watching Paris head back to the table. She surprised herself when she said, “Hey, Paris. I’m sorry about your mom.” She felt immediately kind of lame until Paris offered her a weak smile.

  “Thank you,” he replied softly.

  She stood on the stairs for a moment more, unsure if she should say something else. In the end she decided just to head on up. Like the night before, she heard him moving around downstairs for quite some time after she was already in bed. She managed a whole half hour in bed before she again jettisoned the idea of sleeping there and made her way to the closet and settled into the inky dark.

  *

  Jade practically vibrated through most of the next day, counting the hours till sunset when they could dig up the scrying mirror. They had spent the day at Paris’ house again, Callie and Henri coming back over to offer moral and intellectual support. Plus, Henri brought food so that was a bonus. She was learning more about demon magic but Paris was unsurprisingly reluctant to let her try any out. She could admit to herself she was a little wary as well, given what Seth said the day before about her warding being like a beacon.

  On the flip, she wanted to learn and the best way to learn was by doing. Callie argued that Jade would likely never have the opportunity to use demon magic again; it was rare and no one dealt with demons. Jade replied back that she’d been at the Coven less than a week and already had two demons on her back. Statistically speaking from her viewpoint, Jade would need it a lot.

  She grew even more fidgety and restless as the day wore on, a combination of anticipation and cabin fever. Callie made a trip over to Jade’s cottage and returned with the rest of her suitcase, which included her runners. While Jade ran for exercise, she couldn’t say she actually enjoyed it. Well, she didn’t hate it. It was something that needed to be done. But today, waiting around for sunset and being cooped up in Paris’ house, she stared longingly at her runners and thought about a jog. She felt like a border collie without a job - full of bottled up energy, just waiting to be directed toward something.