Trial by Fire (Covencraft Book 1) (12 page)

“I have some items picked out for you,” Paris said as he opened the car door and slid in. She looked down at the passenger seat and saw a small notebook and some kind of scribbler already there. She picked them up as she sat down.

“What - is this homework?” she asked, flipping through the small book and seeing post-it notes with some messy scrawls. “Is this even English?” she pulled one off and rotated it thinking it was upside down.

“My handwriting is perfectly legible and of course it’s English,” he frowned.

She eyed him doubtfully. “If you say so.”

“They are notes on which spells I’d like you try on your own first. And only those,” he said, pausing to look at her while he said it even as he drove.

“Okay,” she shrugged as she opened the scribbler. “What’s this for?”

“For your notes.”

“Oh my God! It’s totally homework. On the first day! You’re one of
those
teachers.”

“What teachers?” he asked, frowning.

“The kind that give homework on the first day!” Jade said, shaking the books at him a little. She huffed and then flipped through the little book. “These seem kind of basic. When do I get to do big stuff?”

“When you’re ready.”

“What if I’m ready now?” she asked, thumbing through the book.

“You’re ready when I say you’re ready.”

She bristled at the tone and although she didn’t say it out loud, her immediate thought was
oh don’t you take that tone with me
. “I see,” she said, her voice clipped.

“It’s for your safety as well as that of the Coven.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

The rest of the car ride was silent until they pulled up at the Covenstead where Paris stopped the car just short of the front entrance. Jade exited the car and gave herself a satisfying stretch, hearing some cartilage popping as she did. She tossed the notebook and spell-book in her purse and followed Paris into the building.

Henri was already at his desk, typing away furiously at his keyboard. She gave him a quick smile as she pulled her sunglasses off her face.

“Good morning, Jade,” Henri said brightly. “Paris.”

“Henri, it would seem that I am in need of your services,” Paris said as Jade rolled her eyes.

“What he means is - what’re you doing today?” Jade asked.

Henri looked from her to Paris and back again. “Uh, well, working. Why?”

“I need someone to show Jade around the Coven and she thought you might be able to do it.”

“Oh my goodness, yes, a thousand times yes!” Henri said, already pushing back from his desk. “Someone else is going to have to man the desk. Or woman the desk, as the case may be.”

“I’ll have my assistant take care of it,” Paris said.

Henri grabbed a sweater from one of the desk drawers and was already coming around the front. He slid his arm through one of Jade’s and she didn’t flinch at his friendly contact – she got a good vibe from him. And she wasn’t ignorant to the reason why she felt safe around him. He’d mentioned a boyfriend the other day and he was openly gay. She didn’t have to worry about him being attracted to her or wanting anything from her. Given her past…

No.

She pushed those thoughts away before they could take hold and drown her.

“Have you had coffee?” Henri asked, already pulling her away from the desk where Paris stood, looking a little steamrolled. “Because I need more coffee and we have to go to Cafe Crema and you need to try the Red Hot Latte, it’s my favorite. God, you drink coffee, don’t you?”

She laughed and it came out free and easy for the first time in days. “Yeah, I love it.”

“Thank God.”

She turned and looked over her shoulder and gave a little wave at Paris. He started to wave back before he seemingly caught himself and gave a terse nod instead. She turned back and focused on Henri, who was saying something about making reservations for lunch.

*

It was hard not to be won over by Henri’s enthusiasm and open nature. He was so easygoing and affable that Jade found herself in a comfortable camaraderie with him. Plus, if there was gossip to know about the Coven, Henri knew it. If there was someone to see about something, Henri knew them and if there was something you wanted, Henri knew where to find it. They started off wandering around the grounds of the Covenstead, Henri pointing out sites of interest - both historically and contemporarily. She saw where the first stone had been laid for the building and also where Mitch from Supply Chain and Deb from Accounting had gotten in their very public screaming match over whether Deb was cheating on him or not (she was, with Chad - also from Accounting).

Henri asked if she’d applied yet for a coven credit card and then rolled his eyes at her when she replied, “I have money.”

He grabbed one of the applications. “Yes, of course you have money, how else would you have lived? But what I’m saying is all coven members get a coven account. You’ll end up working for the Coven and you’ll get paid by the Coven. It’ll be your job.”

“I have a job,” she said bluntly.

“Right, with Normals, but all witches work for the Coven. We’re like a business too. I can get someone from Corporate Affairs to explain it better and show you really boring slides of stock dividends and shareholder agreements, but bottom line - we all work together. It’s kind like, ‘the Coven is mother the Coven is father,’ only not as creepy. Back in the day, like real medieval times, all the witches in a coven lived and worked together and that practice sort of stuck. It makes for good coven bonds. Only now we can’t all be blacksmiths or cobblers, so we’re our own corporation.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“Anyway,” he said, continuing, “you’ll get an allowance as a coven member and then Human Resources will set you up with some interviews and questionnaires and see where you fit best.”

“What if someone wants to leave? What if I want to leave?”

Henri paused in mid-step and looked at her and it made something twitch at the back of her brain. “I… Well, I guess. I mean, if you really wanted to but…We’re witches. We’re like each other.”

“Maybe I’m not like you guys,” Jade said with a shrug. “Paris said I could leave if I wanted to,” she added suspiciously.

Henri looked relieved. “Oh, well if Paris told you that then I’m sure he knows what he’s talking about. But you should stay. The rest of the world is so… Ho-hum.” He reached out and grabbed her hand in mock desperation. “Swear to me you won’t go back to the ho-hum.”

She chuckled, feeling some of the tension that had just sprung up start to bleed away. “I’ll do my best.”

“Good,” Henri dropped her hand. “So, until we get you set up with a job, your coven allowance will pay for your incidentals. I mean, your house is owned by the Coven so that’s covered, and it comes with furniture, but you still need to buy groceries and clothes and hair dye. Things like that.”

“I don’t dye my hair. This is my natural color.”

He looked at her knowingly. There was a tense silence. She finally sighed.

“It was worth a shot,” she said defensively.

He held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Don’t sell it to me, sister. I think it looks good.”

She punched him in the shoulder and he gave a mock ‘oof’ of pain. “Show me around town, you dork.”

*

Later, Jade looked out the car window as Henri drove around town, pointing things out. They drove by the local market, city hall, the grocery store, the public library, the rec center and the coffee shop he’d mentioned. Henri pulled the car sharply over to the side and dashed out.

“I gotta grab a latte, you want?”

“Yeah, get me the one you said is your fave. Big,” she said, holding her hands five inches apart.

He snorted. “That’s what
he
said.”

Jade laughed as Henri slammed the door and ran into the coffee shop. Minutes later, he returned with the coffee already talking up a storm as he opened the door and got back in.

“Let me tell you how popular I am with Miss Mysterious, first witch born outside a coven sitting out here, waiting around in my car.” He handed over her coffee and she took an experimental sip, giving him the thumbs up.

“Everyone wants to know what you’re like and where we’re going, what you think so far et cetera.”

She made ‘mm-hmming’ noises as she drank her coffee.

“But I said that you weren’t too chatty, hadn’t said much, and you didn’t tell me what you think of our Coven so far.”

Jade blew into the tiny lid hole trying to cool it down. It never worked but she did it all the time anyway. Henri cleared his throat.

“Nudge, nudge. That was your cue to tell me.”

She swallowed her coffee and half of a laugh. “Subtle, Henri, very subtle.”

“Subtle is my middle name. If I had a middle name. So spill.”

She shrugged. “I dunno. I just got here.”

“C’mon, first impressions, ideas, anything?”

“It’s very… Picturesque.”

“Picturesque?”

“Yes,” she nodded firmly, liking the word. “Picturesque. And clean.”

Henri rolled his eyes and made a ‘hurumph’ sound, pursing his lips together. “You aren’t just playing hard to get are you? You know, shy girl?”

She lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “I dunno. It seems nice here,” she said absently, trailing her fingers over the cool glass of the car window watching the scenery outside go by. “I… Maybe I could be happy here. I guess.”

Henri didn’t say anything at first and then a few moments later he pulled the car over into a parking lot. She looked over at him sharply.

“Look, one of the things I’m good at - like really good at - is people’s auras. I’m ridiculously good at it. Honestly, I should teach a class.”

“Stop,” she deadpanned. “Your modesty is killing me.”

“I’m serious! And yours is all…” He shook his head and she stiffened not liking where this was going. “It’s all grays and browns and just, murky, dirty colors. I can take a pretty good guess at what some of it means, but I won’t,” he said quickly as she opened her mouth to start to fight him. “Just… Whatever you’re doing now? You’re not happy. You’re not screamingly
un
happy, but you’re definitely not happy. And you haven’t been for a long time. A really long time.”

She didn’t look over at him. She wanted to call him a liar or a fraud, but in her experience hot denial always made things worse.

“And maybe no one’s noticed before. Or maybe they have and something went wrong. I don’t know. But I think you’re right. You could be happy here at the Coven.”

Even though she’d just said the same thing not two minutes ago she wanted to argue with him and tell him he didn’t know her, he didn’t know a thing about her past or how she felt. Jade bit down on her lip and kept her head turned away from him, staring out the window in the empty, nondescript parking lot like it was interesting.

“Well,” he said with false lightness in his tone, like they hadn’t just had a really awkward moment, “why don’t we see what Callie’s up to for lunch?”

*

Paris knocked on Jade’s front door at six o’clock. He’d called during the day and found her busy with both Henri and Callie and fairly dismissive of needing any further handholding. Paris had managed to hold Jade’s attention long enough to say he’d be by at around six and he would check up on her magic then.

Jade had barely let him finish before she told him she was fine, she was being a good girl at her first day of school and that she’d see him tonight.

Paris was coming to realize she was a bit of a brat.

After no response at her door, he waited a minute and then knocked again. He waited another minute and then pressed the doorbell. He was about to ring again when the door finally swung open to the sound of Jade’s voice.

“I thought you said you weren’t done till six, what did you do, fly here?”

“I made an effort to finish early,” Paris answered. “How was your day?”

Jade stepped back out of the doorway and motioned for him to enter. “Fine, good, you know.” She started walking toward the kitchen as he took his shoes off and placed them carefully by the front door. He stopped for a moment and looked around sharply.

“Are you doing magic in here right now?” he asked. He could feel magic in the air, a fine mixture of it, but nothing that he recalled from the book he gave her that morning.

“Just some little ones,” she answered over her shoulder.

“You really shouldn’t try anything I haven’t looked at. Without me present, it could be…”

His words trailed off as he turned the corner to the kitchen. Sitting on the table was the beginner spell-book he’d given her and another book he didn’t recognize, probably from the library. It was an advanced spell-casting ledger. Her cup of coffee sat beside the beginner books and he stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the spoon stirring the coffee under its own power. A flash of light caught the corner of his eye and he noticed a ball of flame the size of a basketball suspended over the sink. A pot of water sat on the counter and above the pot a fine swirl of mist was lazily swimming around in a double helix shape. There were also six rocks balanced impossibly in a stack, with a seventh rock hovering above them before setting itself down on the gravity defying pile. A miniature tornado in the corner of the kitchen tossed confetti up, down and around in an eddy of magicked air.