The Witch and Her Second Chance

11 | Getting out of it

"Grandmaster Jorg," Verin greeted the older warlock with a bow. He stayed bent, the cruel man waiting an extra two seconds longer than customary to allow him to stand. The tall man waved his hand, only Verins peripheral catching the motion.

"I received my latest assignment–"

"Yes, yes," Grandmaster Jorg rushed him, flicking his long black hair back and continuing down the corridor.

Verin matched his long strides, "Grandmaster, I wish to excuse myself—it's not my area of expertise—" he tried to explain, only to be cut off again.

Jorg sighed, coming to a halt. "Grandmaster Main claims there isn’t a problem you cannot solve. Are you saying he was wrong?”

Verin bit his tongue to hold his expression.

Jorg raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow, if not mostly drawn on. “This information is of the utmost importance."

"What do you expect me to find?" Verin blurted the question, unable to restrain himself. He evened his tone though, not a complete i***t. Jorg was very powerful, and Verin knew he could make his life very difficult. "I believe all the remaining covens studied what happened and never found–”

"We're not witches, young master," Jorg cut him off snidely.

"No sir," he responded hastily.

Jorg studied him, looking for just a moment like he was going to say something. But instead, he turned on his heel and continued on his way.

Verin unclenched his fists but kept his shoulders tense.

~*~

"Why do I always find you here?" Celeste puffed out and slung herself into the stool next to Verin at the bar.

"Because I foolishly think being in public will make me feel better."

She made a sad, pouty face at him. "Oh. Poor diddums. Wot's wong?" She uttered in a baby voice.

A smile tugged at the corner of his lip, "Go away, Celeste. I don't want to be cheered up."

"Don't be a sad sack," she skewered some of his food and popped it into her mouth, chewing thoughtfully. "What happened?" She nudged him, "Huh? Business or pleasure?"

"Business," he grunted—definitely no complaints in the pleasure department.

She hummed. "Anything I can help with?"

"You know anything about witch portals?"

She frowned and shook her head.

"Well, I'm supposed to work out what phenomenon closed one."

Celeste laughed uproarously. "Oh s**t. Huh. Sorry man."

"Well, thanks," he huffed.

She shook her head, “Who’d you piss off?”

“Apparently, Main has been bragging about me to Jorg,” he mumbled, drinking his lager.

Celeste winced in sympathy. She knew more than anyone the politics of working for the Grandmasters. She herself worked under Grandmaster Yaro. Though said to be one of the milder ones, she was as ruthless as the other four.

She leaned to face him better, brushing a stray hair back from his forehead. "You're pretty brilliant. If someone was going to work it out, my money would be on you."

He squeezed her wrist as her hand dropped. "Thanks," he said sincerely. He needed to work out where he needed to start. His immediate thoughts were to visit the portal sites and find everything he could about witches. They had some here, but witches were not from his world. To learn, he would need to go to where they were from. If he was going to silver line this assignment, he had to admit it would be nice to have an excuse to be in the human realm more often.

~*~

"You know what we should do?" Jackie asked. She was restocking the coffee cups, believing she'd found the optimal height to grab them quickly.

"What?" Jo was wiping the counter down. They were closing up.

"An open mic night. If we could find a way to serve alcohol, that'd be great."

Jo nodded at the idea, thinking about how they could execute it.

They'd flipped the sign on the door to closed but hadn't locked the door yet, so when it opened they just casually looked up, ready to say that they were closed.

Words stuck in both of their throats as they took in the man that had entered. He was roughly dressed and had a gun.

"Give me your money."

Her body frozen in fear, Jo's eyes swivelled to Jackie. She could see the smaller woman was tensed, ready to act. Spiking anxiety ignited in Jo’s belly, fearing Jackie would be foolish and try to defend them. That Jo would have to do something she couldn’t come back from again.

"We don't have much," Jo told the man, taking a step forward. He swung the gun to her, Jo’s hand shooting out to the side to tell Jackie not to move. Jo caught the pained look on Jackie's face, but ignored her, giving her undivided attention to the man. Jo slowly pointed to the register, waiting to see if he would let her move.

Blinking a few times, he nodded, gesturing with the gun. The silver of the nozzle and barrel caught her eye and she couldn't leave it.

"Everyone pays with card now." She spoke softly, evenly. Just two people having a conversation. She slowly opened the till and pulled the notes out. It was only a couple hundred dollars, only slightly higher than their usual float. They had decided not to even bank it.

Heart thumping, she held the wad of notes in her hand. She looked around grabbing a paper bag they used for toasties. The normal use of them flickered over her money as she shoved the money into one. She kept her breath even, her mind latching onto all the mundane aspects of the hold up. The man had toilet paper stuck to his shoe, her gaze traveling and seeing there was a spoon under one of the tables. She latched onto those things to keep herself calm.

He skated forward and snatched the paper bag from her hands.

She saw Jackie start to move forward, so she sidestepped slightly, blocking his line of sight to her girlfriend. The man left hurriedly. There was an eerie silence in which only their breaths and heartbeats existed.

Turning to each other, Jo fell into Jackie's arms. She felt a different fear than just for her and Jackie's physical safety–terrified of what could have been if she had not been able to control herself in the situation.

~*~

It was hours later that they got home. They filed a police report, but it was pretty clear the cops didn't expect anything to come of it. They just gave them some security tips. It did mean they could claim on insurance, but for the small amount, it didn't seem worth the claim on their history.

“You were amazing,” Jackie praised Jo again. “All I could think of was cutting sick the moment he did something. If he’d hurt you…”

Jo nuzzled her neck. “I was worried you were the one going to incite violence.”

Jackie chuckled, “I thought for sure I would have to, but then you used your jazz radio voice and I knew we’d be fine.”

Jo pulled back, “Jazz radio?”

“Yeah, you get all calm and soothing. Do that voodoo that you do,” Jackie traced a curl of hair, pushing it behind her woman's ear.

Jo stared a minute longer before resting her head on Jackie's shoulder.

"Verin has messaged us." Jackie spoke a little too casually. The three of them were in a thread together now. "He's staying in the city for work this week and will have the nights free."

"You want to see him during the week?" Jo asked in surprise. Jackie had never wanted that before. They usually kept their rendezvous for the weekends.

"It could be a good release."

Jo sat back, pulling her knees up. "How are you feeling about him?"

Jackie shrugged, surprised by Jo’s withdrawal. "I told you. I dig him. He's easy on the eye. He knows what he's doing. What's not to like?"

"You're not noticing how much further you're going with him?"

"Like you haven't?" She returned, a forced laugh accompanying it.

"Well yes, I admit to that." Jo tried to soften her own tone. She didn't want to fight, and they were both so strung out after the hold up. They'd decided not to open the next two days, it would close leading up to the weekend, when they were closed anyway, as the office and university crowd was gone. Jo didn’t want to start their forced time off fighting, but she felt unusually sensitive on the topic.

"Are you going to let him have s*x with you?" Jo asked suddenly.

Jackie started at the question. "I don't know… Maybe. He makes me think I'd enjoy it. Like he'd make sure I would…" her voice trailed off, feeling self-conscious all of a sudden.

"I wish you'd trusted me with that," Jo blurted out. She didn't understand why she was talking, spewing this out. It was like she had no filter, the afternoon too raw–awakening insecurities she thought she had pushed down deep enough to stay hidden forever.

Jackie sighed, "I'm sorry. I didn't think about that."

"Now I feel bad,” Jo exclaimed, getting to her feet. “I shouldn't put that on you, you are free to want that from him. I don't own your experiences," Jo shook her head, angry at herself. She didn't have to be at the center of attention all the time, and she didn't feel excluded when the two of them were together, but she wanted that experience with Jackie too. She knew it was her own selfishness. Analyzing her motivations as she spoke, she grew annoyed with herself. Pushing her hair back with a groan of regret. "I'm sorry."

Jackie took Jo’s hand in hers, coaxing her back onto their couch.

Peppering her with little kisses, she pulled back holding the side of Jo’s face. "I won’t do anything I’m uncomfortable with, and neither will you,” she waited until Jo gave her a smile before continuing. “I've got a good feeling about Verin. But ultimately, if all three of us aren't sure, then it doesn't happen."

Jo thought about never seeing Verin again,, and she could see from Jackie's gaze that she felt the same way about the prospect. "We'll keep going," she said.

~*~