Trial by Fire (Covencraft Book 1) (21 page)

She couldn’t afford to be stupid and childish right now, she reminded herself.

“Okay,” she breathed. “Let’s go eat.”

*

They ended up at a place called ‘The Chop Shop’ where Jade waved her hand and let Callie and Henri order whatever they recommended for her. Jade leaned back against the deep red velvet booth and tried to roll some of the kinks out of her neck. Hunching over her laptop and old books all day left her feeling like Quasimodo.

There was a pinch in between her vertebrae, right at the point where her shoulder blades met. Jade tried to crack her back by opening and closing her wingspan to no avail. She rubbed at her neck, feeling a slight tingling sensation at the base of her skull where she probably had some kind of pinched nerve.

If this kept up, she was going to start walking with a lurch.

She glanced at Callie and Henri who were sipping their green tea and discussing a spell that neither one of them had been able to work today. They both appeared tired and worn - slightly red-rimmed eyes and fatigue-lined faces.

Jade should thank them for helping her, for staying with her at the library, for being patient and teaching her some magic.

But she still felt twisted up about them - unsure what their motives really were. They seemed genuine but she just couldn’t make herself believe it.

In the end, she said nothing.

The food arrived and they all dug in, scooping servings off the communal plates and then later on, snagging pieces with their chopsticks. Callie and Henri managed to keep the conversation going between themselves throughout, attempting to engage Jade but she kept her replies minimal, giving them enough so that she wasn't outright ignoring them but not adding anything substantial.

Callie’s cell phone rang while she and Henri were in the middle of talking themselves into dessert. It was the ominous
Imperial March
from
Star Wars
and Jade wondered if that was always Callie’s ringtone or if it meant someone in particular was calling. Callie answered, her eyes flicking immediately over to Jade.

“Yes, we’re with her, having dinner.”
It’s Paris
,
she mouthed at Jade. Callie listened intently for a moment, eyes moving from Jade to Henri and then randomly around the table.

Jade’s interest perked up but she continued her lazy perusal of the cashew chicken, searching for the last lonely cashews in the mix of vegetables. Their waiter came by, dropping off the check and a bunch of fortune cookies. Henri quickly snatched the bill up, sliding his credit card into the little slot. Callie said a few more things into the phone - some non-verbal ‘mmhmms’, one ‘yes, I know where that is’ and then a few more assents before she signed off with a quick goodbye.

Jade tried not to look expectant as soon as Callie hung up the phone. The tingling feeling at the base of her skull was turning into a shard of pain. She wondered if she’d overdone the magic today at the dungeon. She hadn’t done anything nearly as powerful as when she’d first arrived, when Paris’ power had been pushing at her, but she still felt the beginnings of a headache creeping up into her grey matter and she couldn’t tell if it was from the tight muscles in her neck or from magic.

Neither Henri nor Callie seemed affected, other than being tired, but Jade remembered Gellar saying she was having an atypical reaction to magic, so it’s likely that they wouldn’t be bothered using their powers.

Maybe Jade should have agreed to more testing, maybe should have pursued that line of knowledge but she hated being touched, poked and prodded. In her current situation, feeling vulnerable and out of her element, she just didn’t think she could do it.

Callie tucked her phone back into her purse. “Obviously,” she said, rolling her eyes self-deprecatingly, “that was Paris. He just wanted to check on you, make sure you were still doing okay and to let you know he’s made arrangements for you to have somewhere else to sleep tonight. He figures your place is out of commission until we can-” Callie glanced around like someone might hear, “get that thing taken care of.”

“You mean the demon portal that is my pantry?” Jade said dryly. The restaurant wasn’t exactly teeming with people, there wasn’t anyone around to hear.

“Um. Yeah. That.” Callie winced. “Anyway, he’s going to swing by and meet us outside and then we can head on over to the place he’s got sorted. We can hang out, do some more research. Watch a movie. We’ll stay with you.” Callie tentatively reached a hand out over the table but when Jade didn't move to take it, she pulled it back, trying to smile a bit, reassuringly.

Jade was grateful she wouldn’t be alone but at the same time, dreaded being surrounded all night. She’d never gotten used to being around others for long periods of time, and although she knew herself well enough to admit she was scared stiff about trying to fall asleep alone, she also didn’t want to be crowded by people who, while very nice, were essentially strangers.

No matter how much she kind of liked them.

Henri snagged a fortune cookie and snapped it open, reading his fortune.

“You will be afforded a great opportunity,” he read, smirking. “You know, you’re supposed to add ‘in bed’ to the end of all fortune cookies.”

“I’ve seen your boyfriend,” Callie said, latching on to the chance to break some of the tension. “And that
is
a great opportunity.” She winked at Henri and he grinned, nose crinkling in laughter.

“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.