Double-Sided Witch (Covencraft Book 3) by Margarita Gakis

maybe not exactly her. More like… Lily.
    Jade wanted to run, to hide, but she couldn’t move. Any moment now, Callie and Henri would turn to her and say that it was Jade’s magic that had done that. They both knew what her magic felt like, what it smelled like. The room was full of chatter, the calm that had existed only moments before gone, driven away by the cracks in the glass.
    “Is everyone okay?” the instructor asked. General assent rose from the room and Jade could only be relived that no one was hurt. She was also relieved that no one seemed to be blaming her. Yet.
    “God, that’s so weird! What the hell happened?” Callie asked.
    Henri sniffed the air and Jade froze like a wild rabbit spotted by a predator. “Do you smell that?”
    This was it, she was screwed.
    Callie sniffed too. “Is that grapefruit? Who’s magic is that?” Callie looked around. All the students were doing the same thing - slightly sniffing the air and looking around in bewilderment.
    Jade cautiously sniffed the air too. It was grapefruit. Grapefruit and cinnamon. She didn’t think she’d smelled that before.
    Henri shrugged. “I don’t know anyone whose magic smells like that. You?”
    Callie shook her head and when they both looked at Jade, she dumbly shook hers too. Andrea was asking everyone to calmly leave, noting that they could pick up a voucher for a free class at the front. She’d also report the incident to Counter-Magic and asked that the students not discuss the incident amongst themselves until they called in their details. It was the Counter-Magic standard line - don’t mix up your details by discussing with others until you’ve reported the incident. Hearing the familiar words calmed Jade enough to push to her feet, leaving her rented mat on the floor and stumbling after Callie and Henri.

 
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER FOUR
     
    Another night. Another nightmare. If she slept and didn’t have one, Jade would be suspicious and edgy, she supposed. After coming home from yoga and resolutely avoiding any reflective surfaces, she killed time streaming vids on her laptop before finally heading up to bed, feeling dread pool in her stomach with each step. Bruce trotted along after her, sniffing the air. His tail made a whirring sound as he swished it back and forth. He crawled under the bed at first, but after a minute or so, popped back out and then pushed the closet door open with his snout. He had a little nest in there with a pillowcase, a throw pillow from the sofa and Jade’s caffeine t-shirt - one of her favorites. She guessed it was more his now.
    She wondered how long it would take her to fall asleep, but she refused to keep checking the clock. All she knew was that she was back in the Preserve, the sparrow from her previous dream perched on her shoulder. It had a high-pitched chirp, but Jade thought all birds might. It wasn’t like she was any kind of expert. She heard a high-pitched sound, it sounded like a chirp, it must be a bird sound. That was the extent of her knowledge.
    The sparrow’s feet were sharp on Jade’s skin, digging into the flesh of her shoulder. With how small the sparrow was, Jade couldn’t see it out of the corner of her eye, but if she turned her head a little, she could catch a glimpse of it. If she turned her head too far to see it better, she felt dizzy and had to look straight ahead again.
    Up ahead of her were the dock and the lake. As she walked toward them, she looked down and saw her bare feet. Where were her shoes? What was she doing outside without shoes? Even though she knew it was a dream, the lack of footwear bothered her. It was so impractical.
    Other than the sparrow on her shoulder, Jade didn’t hear any other sounds from the forest. No crunching of leaves as squirrels ran, no other birds talking, no rustle of branches. She dragged her hand across the rough bark of one of the trees she passed and then pulled her hand back sharply when pain bloomed across two of her