by Cassandra
“Grandma!” Jessica yelled, panicked. The seconds ticked by and Ethel did not come to the rescue.
Frank looked utterly terrified and shrieked in fear and pain as the beetles tried to eat his feet, and Jessica forced herself to think.
Calm down. Concentrate. As her thoughts slowed, she remembered the spell Chad had taught her for this occasion.
She took another deep breath, held her hands out with her palms facing forward, and thought of smoke—she needed to conjure both the sight and smell of it.
Jessica closed her eyes and her hands began to warm. When her palms tingled, she opened her eyes. Powerful gusts of smoke erupted out from her hands toward the floor, directly at the crawling, clicking beetles that tried to consume Frank.
If she didn’t know any better, she would have thought the beetles actually screamed. The clicking sound they’d made had turned into something high-pitched and unlike anything she had ever heard before. Before she had time to determine if this was truly the case, the creatures all began to freeze in the smoke. Their shimmering bodies dulled into a dry, black color, and in a few moments, they crumbled and turned into ashes, dead.
Before long, only dust was left in their wake. She stared at it, half afraid that the beetles would come to life again until it all collectively disappeared.
Chapter Twelve
The smoke began to clear from the basement, and for a long moment, Jessica and Frank simply stared at each other and tried to comprehend what had just happened.
“Um…good job,” Frank said and broke the silence. “You saved me. I guess you’re not such a useless witch fledgling after all.”
“Thanks, and you’re welcome.” While she was flattered by his compliment, she didn’t have time to dwell on it as much as she would have liked. The reality was that she was far too frustrated for that. She looked up toward the stairwell and scowled. “I’ll tell you who is useless though—” And with that, she stomped up the stairs with Frank sprinting behind her.
When she reached the living room, she found her grandma and Pastor Norman seated on the couch, each with a cat in their laps and thoroughly engrossed in another episode of Detectives. Chad occupied the adjacent loveseat and pretended to stare at his phone as if uninterested in what was happening on the TV screen but glanced frequently at it, nonetheless.
Jessica pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes for a second. “Did none of you hear me calling for help?” When she opened her eyes once more, though, her gaze was primarily directed at Ethel.
They turned their heads slowly to Jessica with varying degrees of curiosity and confusion on their faces.
“We didn’t hear anything. Why? What happened?” Pastor Norman asked.
In their defense, the TV volume was fairly loud. Jessica was aware that her grandmother tended to watch TV at an absurdly loud volume at times.
“The…the beetles! The beetle-demon…” she sputtered and shuddered just at the memory of them crawling and covering the basement floor and their jaws clicking at Frank’s feet.
“Yeah. I was almost eaten alive, you know,” Frank chimed in. “But by all means, I hope you are all enjoying the show.”
“What?” Grandma Ethel demanded and scared the cat off her lap. She leaned forward and Chad lowered his phone.
“Yeah. It showed up in the basement while I was doing laundry. And I called for you, Grandma, but you didn’t come.”
“I am so sorry, honey. I honestly didn’t hear you. You were probably drowned out by the noisy old washer.”
And the loud TV, she added mentally.
Pastor Norman stood from the couch and turned toward the basement steps. “Is it still down there?” He seemed ready to spring into action.
“No, she killed it. Them…whatever,” Frank said.
A hush fell over the room, and all eyes were on Jessica once again.
“Did you use the spell we taught you?” Chad asked.
She nodded.
“All right!” he said and held his hand up for a high-five that she returned, and a slight grin crept onto her face.
Pastor Norman and Grandma Ethel exchanged glances before both smiled broadly.
“Excellent, job,” he said. “You’re shaping up to have all the makings of a fantastic demon hunter. The church—”
The younger man interrupted before he could finish his statement, although Jessica was sure he had planned to tell her how much the church and his coven would love to have her.
Exactly like she knew that Chad would put his best attempt forward to steer her toward his coven instead.
“You know the saying, where there’s smoke, there’s fire?” Chad said. “Well, the fact that you were able to master that smoke spell—and kill a beetle-demon, no less—goes to show that you’d do great in my coven. The fire and smoke covens have a lot in common, you know.”
“Thanks,” Jessica said. She deliberately looked at both Chad and Pastor Norman in turn so that neither would think she had picked one over the other.
She shifted uncomfortably on her feet as they all continued to stare at her. The attention reminded her once again of the difficult task she had to decide which coven she ultimately wanted to join.
So far, she had Pastor Norman and Chad fighting over her in their attempts to sway her to their respective covens. Of the other covens, she knew a little about the life coven thanks to Grandma Ethel, and death courtesy of her mother. And nature due to her brief conversation with Christa at the magic shop.
All the covens sounded interesting, which only made things more difficult when it came to the question of which one she envisioned herself being a part of someday.
“But in my coven—” Pastor Norman began.
“We need to roll the dice again,” Jessica said and cut him off. She didn’t want to discuss covens right now. Plus, they clearly had bigger issues to contend with. She nodded at Chad. “We need to get Roger back.”
“Right,” Grandma Ethel said. “Stay on task, boys.”
Once she’d quickly retrieved the cards from her room, Jessica proceeded to spread them across the dining room table. She paused when she found the card that was once blank and was relieved to see that the beetles had returned to it.
Thank goodness, she thought and suppressed another shudder. She hadn’t realized how much she hated bugs until she’d been swarmed by them in the basement.
“Hold on,” Chad said.
Everyone turned toward him when they heard the panic in his voice.
“What is it?” she asked and frowned at the way he patted himself down frantically and searched his own pockets.
“The card. With Roger. The Roger card. I can’t find it. I had it right here, and I can’t—” He paused abruptly and looked at the table in confusion. “Wait—how did it get there?”
All eyes turned toward the table, and sure enough, the card was there. Roger’s two-dimensional form stared at them, and Jessica couldn’t tell if it was only her imagination that made her think his expression looked far more annoyed than it had originally been.
“Did you put it there?” Chad asked Jessica.
She shook her head. “No. I haven’t seen it since you took it. I didn’t know it was there again.”
“It must have joined the other cards on its own then,” Pastor Norman said, his brow furrowed.
“Is that normal?” the younger man asked and still sounded concerned.
“It could be. I guess anything’s possible when you’re dealing with the devil’s work.”
Chad grimaced. “Somehow, I don’t like the thought of that card being able to move around on its own, guided by the devil.”
“Well, we’ll fix that,” Grandma Ethel said. She scurried out of the dining room, only to return a moment later with a gold picture frame. She held up it for all of them to see. “Let’s see that card try to escape this.” She took Roger’s card from the table, secured it into the frame, and set it in her China cabinet.
“Good thinking, Ethel. T
hat way, we can always see him,” Pastor Norman said.
“Exactly.”
“All right. Now that card-boy is secure, can we continue?” Frank asked. He now stood on the edge of the table and studied all the cards Jessica had laid out.
“And why are you so eager all of a sudden?” Ethel asked. “I thought you hated demon cards?”
“I do, but I want to see what comes out next.”
“Let’s hope it’s something that can be defeated with a fire coven spell,” Chad said. He sounded much calmer now that Ethel had safely stored the Roger card. “I don’t mean to brag, but the fire coven has some of the best demon-killing spells. And they are easy to use. I think you’ll like them, Jess.”
“You don’t mean to brag, huh?” Pastor Norman said sarcastically.
“Ahem,” Jessica said and picked up the dice. She hoped to stop another coven debate between Chad and Pastor Norman. “Let’s carry on, shall we?”
“Yes,” Grandma Ethel said, evidently on the same page as her granddaughter.
Jessica began to rattle the dice around in her hand, but then stopped abruptly and frowned.
“What’s wrong?” the old lady asked.
“That’s weird,” she replied. “The numbers I’ve rolled have already disappeared off the dice.”
“Hmm.”
She looked up. “It’s crazy how a spell game can be so detailed.” She shook her head. “But that’s Satan’s work for you, I guess,” she muttered.
“And what would you know about Satan’s work?” Pastor Norman asked and tilted his head.
Jessica looked at Frank. “That it’s as advanced as ever. Right?”
Frank nodded. “Yeah. And that’s an understatement.”
The pastor nodded. “Oh, right. The imp. I forgot he knows all about this stuff.”
“Darn straight, I do,” Frank said. “And the rest of you could really use a history lesson, it seems. Anyway…” He turned to Jessica, “will you roll the damned dice already or not? I want you to land on that cousin of mine.”
She raised an eyebrow. “I thought you were afraid of him coming out?”
He immediately jumped and bopped on the table like a boxer. “That was before I started practicing my moves. Now, I can’t wait to chin that jerk.”
Chad stared at Frank, amused. “If your cousin comes out, I somehow think it’ll take more than that to defeat him.”
Frank stuck his tongue out at Chad and swung his fist in a pretended uppercut.
“Okay, for real this time,” Jessica said and rattled the dice in her hand again. After a couple of seconds, she tossed them onto the table.
Everyone froze and stared at the dice to see what they had landed on.
Chad’s arms suddenly shot triumphantly into the air. “Yes! Seven and fire. That’s my coven.”
“Oh, is it really?” Grandma Ethel said. “You’ve only mentioned that once—or a dozen times—this evening.”
He looked briefly at the old lady but continued to grin and chose to ignore her quip. “Anyway,” he said, “let’s see what we’re dealing with here.”
“Something I don’t like the looks of.” Jessica frowned at the demon depicted on the corresponding card—a two-headed dog. And, as if that wasn’t already bad enough, in addition to having two heads, each of the heads sported two sets of jaws, all of which wore angry as hell snarls. And teeth—lots and lots of sharp teeth.
“Bummer,” Frank said, sighed, and folded his arms. “I really hoped you’d land on my cousin.”
“If it meant not facing this thing, so did I,” she responded, certain that Frank’s cousin would likely be a lot easier to deal with. She watched as the imp slumped off toward the couch and started watching Detectives.
“Oh, come on. It’s not that bad,” Chad said. “Well, except for the fact that Roger hasn’t reappeared.” With a sigh, he picked up the demon card and flipped it over to read the back. “‘Cheaters released at the end of the game.’ That what it says. Go figure. When we get him back, I’ll really have to teach that boy how to follow rules.”
“Well, he didn’t know the rules. That’s how he got into this mess,” Pastor Norman said.
“Don’t take up for him,” the younger man said.
“So we really do have to finish this whole game,” Jessica lamented. “Well, I do, at least.”
“Yes, and only you,” the pastor clarified. “We don’t want another Roger accident on our hands.”
“So let’s stop all the belly-aching and figure out how to get you to defeat this two-headed pooch on the card,” Ethel said. She snatched the card from Chad to examine it for herself.
He waved his hand nonchalantly. “I can take care of that.” He smiled broadly at Jessica. “I’ll teach you the fire coven spell you need to know. You’re a quick learner—”
“Most of the time,” Ethel interjected and undoubtedly thought about the candle Jessica couldn’t light. She frowned and suddenly seemed worried.
“Geez. Thanks for having so much faith in me, Grandma.”
“Oh, honey. It’s not that—”
“Listen, I guarantee you’ll get this spell in no time,” Chad said, his confidence unmarred, and more than made up for Ethel’s skepticism.
“Great,” the old lady said. “But first…” She turned toward her granddaughter and pointed to the back door. “You know you have some more garden work to tend to, don’t you?”
She blinked. “Grandma, are you still serious about that? Now? At a time like this.”
Her grandmother shrugged. “What can I say? This old gal likes to stay true to her word—I told you that. Besides, you’ll have time. This game has already established a pattern. The demons don’t come out right away. You’ll have more than enough time to get the day’s garden work done before you fit your lesson in with Chad.”
Jessica looked toward Chad and Pastor Norman—and even Frank—as if they could somehow save her from her punishment. But the pastor avoided her gaze entirely and hurriedly took a seat beside Frank to resume watching Detectives.
“After all this, I cannot believe you’re still punishing me.” Jessica shook her head in exasperation.
“Look on the bright side, sweet-pea,” Ethel said. “Garden work is a piece of cake. Wait until your parents are back home tomorrow and you have to explain your wild night out to them.”
She groaned.
Chapter Thirteen
“Now, Miss Ethel,” Chad chimed in and slid an arm around the old woman’s shoulders. “After going through a massive hangover and getting conned into playing Satan’s demon card game, and then having to face her parents tomorrow…do you mean to tell me Jess still has to do garden work?”
“Yep,” Ethel said with absolutely no qualms.
Chad looked at Jessica and shrugged his shoulders as if to say, “Sorry, I tried.”
“Now, hurry along,” Grandma Ethel said, shrugged Chad’s arm from around her shoulders, and made a shooing gesture at her granddaughter. “The longer you take to get started, the longer it’ll take for you to finish. And time is of the essence.”
She sighed and headed for the stairs.
“Well, at least let me help her,” Chad offered.
Jessica halted and looked back toward the old woman, wondering if she would permit it.
Grandma Ethel pursed her lips. “All right, but under one condition—no magic whatsoever in finishing that garden work. You understand? It is to be done with all manual labor.”
“Got it,” he said and exchanged a glance with Jessica.
She nodded her head appreciatively at him and continued on her way up the stairs. “I’ll be back down in a sec.”
Once she reached her room, she quickly pulled on some extra layers of clothing, anxious to hurry and get the garden work done so that she and Chad could get to the more important matters at hand.
When she returned downstairs, she found him waiting for her by the back door. Meanwhile, Ethel had joined Pastor Norman and Frank in wa
tching television.
“Ready?” Chad said.
“Yeah, but…” Jessica looked him over. “It’s cold outside. You might want to add some extra layers, don’t you think? Can’t you conjure some? Or I’m sure my grandma has some extra sweaters she could lend you.”
He grimaced. “Me, wear one of your grandma’s sweaters? You have to be kidding me.”
She snickered when the thought of him draped in a long-knit sweater with woven flower patterns came to mind. “All right, suit yourself. You’ll wish for one of my grandma’s sweaters once that cold air hits you. And it looks like it’ll rain too.”
Jessica opened the back door, and together, they made their way out into the yard. She glanced sideways at him. “See?”
Chad smirked. “Trust me, I’m fine. I run hot.”
Yeah, you do—according to my friends, at least, Jessica thought as Sara and Ashley came to mind. She recalled that even Christa had looked at him with some interest. Jessica, on the other hand, couldn’t see him that way, especially now. He might as well have been her brother at this point.
“So, what first?” Chad asked and glanced around the yard.
“I don’t know… Rake the leaves. Pull up weeds. Throw out any debris the wind may have blown in. That sort of thing. Fun times.”
“Ugh,” Chad said. “I know I gave you a hard time. But even I think this is going overboard for a little underage drinking.”
“You don’t say,” she said. “Well, at least there are two of us. It’ll go quicker.” She offered Chad a smile.
The smile quickly left her face, though, once they actually began to work. Despite the extra layers of clothing she had put on, the air outside was particularly cold and damp and still managed to seep through her clothes. Her teeth were practically chattering.
“I don’t understand…” Jessica’s voice trailed off. She had glanced at Chad, prepared to express how she couldn’t understand how he worked so nonchalantly without looking like he was freezing to death like she was. Then she noticed, as it had started to drizzle, that whenever the cold rain droplets hit his skin, they turned to steam.