covencraft 02.5 - carnival moon by Margarita Gakis

Carnival Moon
    Jade knocked on Paris’ office door and then pushed it ajar with her foot, spying him at his desk. Paris was on the phone, looking up from his computer and acknowledging her with a quick quirk of his lips. Since her hands were occupied with a tray of coffee and a grimoire, she jerked her head in the direction of the Queen Anne chairs in front of the fireplace and headed there. She saw Paris tilt his head to get a better look at the spellbook she was carrying. It was just one of her regular grimoires, not one of her demon spellbooks. She knew better than to take one of the demon books out of her house - he’d told her several times. Several long, annoying times. There were only three demon grimoires that they knew of at the coven; Paris had one and Jade the other two. Jade wasn’t sure where he kept his, only that it wasn’t at the Coven. Jade’s two were safely ensconced in her cottage. Today it was just a regular spellbook - one from the Coven’s library. There were a few spells Jade wanted to try, but, given her history, she’d been banned from new magic anything until Paris could review it first. You lose control of one or two spells and maybe try a demon rune without asking first and suddenly, you were on the shit-list.
    She sat cross-legged on the floor and spread her stuff out. If she was going to have her coffee, muffin and spellbook, it was easier to be on the ground. Paris finished his call and then came over, hitching his trousers up carefully before descending gracefully into a cross-legged pose as well. Jade crammed a piece of muffin in her mouth and simultaneously handed him his coffee (which was sure to be overly sweet - he had such a sweet tooth), as he spoke.
    “The werewolves have asked to meet you.”
    Jade paused at Paris' words, coffee cup half way to her mouth. She worked her mouth around the muffin, swallowing the dry morsel so she could speak. “I was sick that day.”
    Paris frowned at her comment. “What day?”
    Jade shrugged, washing down the muffin bite with her drink. “Whatever day it was the something happened that made the werewolves want to meet me.”
    “It isn't a negative thing, Jade. They're quite interested in you.”
    “I didn't do anything. I haven't been doing any spells without checking with you! Okay, so there was this one dusting spell I tried and it cracked the coffee table but that's it. Oh, and there was a fire spell but it was small. Really small. Barely used any power. No biggie.”
    "What did you need the fire spell for?"
    “No biggie,” Jade enunciated carefully. She’d cast the fire spell for Bruce, her lizard familiar. He got chilly sometimes and Jade felt bad for him. He would sleep on the heating vents, belly pressed up to the metal grates and Jade worried he’d burn his scales. It had been just a little fire spell, enough so Bruce would have something to curl up around and keep him toasty warm. Plus he looked really cute when he did it. Kind of like a fat tabby cat instead of a seventy pound lizard-thing.
    Paris shook his head at her protestations, hesitating like he was trying to find the right words. “It's quite rare they ask to meet someone. Usually if there is a delegate or coven member we'd like the weres to meet, it takes weeks of negotiations but they've specifically requested to meet you. Since the… incident with Dex, the weres state coven magic feels different.”
    “That's totally not my fault," Jade argued. Dex, along with another coven leader, had cast a spell on Coven Magic, warping it. It had only been fixed by Paris a short time ago and the Coven was still working out some of the kinks. “You told me to cast a fire spell so you could reset Coven Magic. You're the one that tuned everyone else’s magic to mine,” Jade said, pointing a finger at Paris. “I can't help that my magic is different from what everyone else, including the weres, is used to.”
    “You misunderstand me. The werewolves say its different, but