Read Online covencraft 04 - dry spells by margarita gakis - Free Book Online Page B

with the daylight that was coming in from the window. Unless… oh shit, it was eight in the morning. That meant she’d been asleep overnight. Her hair was a mess with flyways and strands escaping from her ponytail, tickling her face. As she made her way downstairs, she finger combed it and pulled it back again into its tightly secured hairstyle. Bland, but functional.
    “No, you only get the one serving of coffee.” Jade could hear Lily’s voice from the kitchen. “I don’t care how many times you blink at me with those lizard eyes. If you have another cup, your tail starts to twitch. You know this. I know this. One cup. That’s it.”
    Jade entered the kitchen to find Lily sitting at the table drinking her own coffee, head tipped down speaking to Bruce. True to what Jade had just heard, Bruce was giving Lily baleful, soulful eyes, pleading with her for another cup of coffee. There was an empty wide-mouthed mug on the floor under the table, licked clean. He pushed it forward, toward, Lily with his snout.
    “Sleeping Beauty awakes,” Lily said, looking up as Jade entered She got up and poured Jade a cup of coffee.
    “Sleeping, yes; beauty, not this early. Not until I get my makeup on.” Jade sat down at the table and Bruce’s tail swept across the floor, slapping her on the ankles. His tongue darting out and touched her ankle quickly, sand-papery and light.
    “Speaking of makeup, I wanted to wear that lipstick? That one in the black container with the silver strip. Like a neutral but not?” Lily said, lilting the end of the sentence. “Pink mocha? Mocha peony? Something like that?”
    Jade sipped the coffee. It was still hot - the pot must be less than an hour old. “They discontinued that shade.”
    Lily sat down with a thud, a heartbroken look on her face. “No.”
    Jade frowned. Was that really what she looked like when upset? Lily’s face was a mirror of her own, she it must be the same expression Jade wore when disappointed, like some kind of demented turtle. “Yep. Gonzo.”
    “Ugh. Fuckers. That looked really good on us.”
    “I know. I bought a few, but over time, most places are sold out.”
    “God, you die for a little bit and the whole world goes to shit. They still make our foundation shade, yeah?”
    Jade nodded. “Yeah, that one’s still good.” She gave Lily a thumb’s up.
    Bruce’s mug toppled over and he glared at both Lily and Jade.
    “I told you, no more coffee,” Lily answered.
    Bruce slapped his mug with his tail, sending it sliding across the floor to hit the baseboard by the fridge.
    “Being this petulant only makes me less inclined to give you more coffee.”
    Bruce huffed and then cast an accusing look at Jade.
    “Sorry, buddy. One cup rule or you tail twitches and you knock stuff over. I’ll make a fire for you in the fireplace if you want.”
    Bruce tossed his head haughtily and left the kitchen. As he did, Jade murmured a few words, casting the spell for a medium-heat fire in the hearth that he could show his belly to.
    Lily sighed. “I tried to make one for him, but it just… fffft. Fizzled out. I’m not sure why. I’m not as good at it as you.”
    “I’ve had more experience.”
    “No, that’s not it. I’m not as powerful as you are, Jade. And it’s okay. You don’t have to keep pretending like I am.”
    Jade fiddled with her mug, turning it in a slow circle, staring at the surface of the beige liquid. “You’re just as powerful as I am.”
    Lily sighed. “No, I’m not and I don’t think I’ll ever be. And like I said, that’s okay.”
    It didn’t feel okay to Jade. She didn’t want to have more power than Lily. She wanted them to be equal. The same. Or if that wasn’t possible, she didn’t want to be the one with more power. Or maybe she did. She didn’t know. She tried to think about it sometimes and it got all mixed up in her head - thinking about how she ‘died’ when she was little, joining up with Lily in her mind and then eventually