My First Coven

Liminal Sleep

Having Duncan cradling me in his arms was a massive comfort. I had just had an awful nightmare that had really, really shook me up. Quite literally actually as I had woken with a start. Duncan had shot in to my room as I sat up in bed, sniffling and having a bit of a panic attack from my nightmare. As soon as he hugged me from behind, I started crying. He rocked and soothed me, his voice a light whisper as he told me he was there for me and everything was okay.

'Do you want to tell me what your nightmare was about?' He softly asked me. I sniffled and wiped my eyes with the edge of my duvet and nodded, my voice caught in my throat as the panicking had quite nearly taken my breath away.

'I, I saw that murderer guy...' I stuttered. 'And the dungeon he's keeping his victims in. There were some women I recognised from town and even...' I let out a sigh as I gathered myself together. 'One of my classmates who actually went missing earlier tonight.'

'I heard, you and Morrigan went looking for her didn't you?'

'Yeah, the tracking spell we're using finally got a hit. But we were too late.'

I took a deep breath and tried to compose myself even more before I started talking again.

'The worst thing was, this nutter who's kidnapping women and sacrificing them to this Baal demon... he...' I stuttered again. 'In my nightmare, he had kidnapped my two best friends from school. And, and it was like he was speaking to me too.'

I nearly started crying again. The thought of something like that happening to my friends was making me feel sick. My Auntie M and I had the power to do something about it, but even our powers had limitations and that was making me frustrated. We couldn't just accurately pinpoint where this guy was and stop him, no. Magic was never precise or entirely exact by nature and it always demanded more of you when you needed it to be exactly that. Nobody knew how magic actually worked or why you had to do a certain process to make it do a specific thing you wanted but the stronger and more serious the spell; the more preparation it needed and more importantly, the more energy it needed from you.

My Aunt could track me down and teleport to me in an instant if she wanted to. We were blood related though and blood was important in magic more than anyone could imagine. The more I studied the My First Coven handbook, our family's grimoire and the more I practised the craft, the more I started to understand the subtle nuances involved with spell casting. Blood I had surmised from my studies, was always usually for things of a personal nature or for connection and bonding. Maybe if we had even just a drop of this guys blood, we could have got to him within a flash. But we didn't have that, nor could we possibly get it; especially not even knowing his identity. Now I understood why my Aunt said we had to make do with the tools we had. The thought had occurred that maybe we could have used some of the items or even the cloak that horrible man had left in the school when he got in somehow and nearly sacrificed Domino. But I learned that "you don't keep bad juju items around" if you can help it. Mr Evans and Liam had burnt everything they had cleared up.

I felt a little dejected by this, but also just a touch better about this absolutely abysmal situation as it seemed we had done what we could and we were doing it by the book. My nightmare however, was not helping my anxiety in the slightest.

My sobbing had somewhat subsided and I wiped my face again on my duvet. Duncan was still there, enveloping me in his arms providing the comfort I needed right now.

'We'll figure something out Maddie.' Duncan whispered in my ear. 'You're safe here, you'll always be safe here.'

I grasped his arm with my hands and squeezed gently.

'Thank you, Duncan.' I breathed. I was getting tired now from all the crying and panicking. I glanced down at my watched and noticed it had just gone four o'clock in the morning.

'Want me to light the fire?' Duncan asked me, nodding over to the fireplace in my room that was already set.

'It's okay, I can do it.' I replied. I pointed at the fire with my right index finger, concentrating ever so slightly on the fire coming to life. A second or two later and gentle yellow flames curved up round the kindling and logs, gradually filling my room up with a soft glow and warmth. I was quite pleased with myself seeing as I had quite quickly mastered fire magic. I was getting good at lighting and extinguishing flames now, it came in handy.

'Do you want me to leave?' Duncan asked me.

'No.'

'I'll stay then. But this bed is super comfy and I'm getting in.' Duncan smirked. This was a ridiculously comfy bed I must admit and I wasn't mad about Duncan getting in beside me at all. I liked Duncan a lot and I knew he was gentlemanly enough not to try anything so I wasn't worried about him trying to take advantage or whatever. His face lit up as he snuggled down in to the pillows on his side and pulled the duvet up to his shoulders. I'd never seen a guy look so happy to be bundled up in bed. Thinking about it though, Duncan did take quite a lot of naps during the daytime and he did enjoy his lie ins. He must enjoy comfy beds and sleeping or something.

I hunkered down back in to my pillows. Domino had woken up again and jumped down from the armchair to go and lie in front of the fire, thankfully there was a fire guard in front of it in case any embers were spat out and landed on him or set the house on fire. I turned to face Duncan who just smiled at me and reached his hand out for mine, lacing my fingers with his.

'Rest well Maddie.' Duncan said as he squeezed my hand.

Oh Liam. You didn't stand a chance any more. Not. A. Chance.