Page 49 of Incubus with Benefits
The first two years after The Wall came down had been brutal. In Darlington, we were sheltered from the worst of it since most people here already knew about monsters and magic being part of the community. But elsewhere? It was utter chaos. People lost their minds when they found out that their neighbors had magic. They blamed witches for everything from storms and droughts to bad luck and cheating husbands.
Some of us genuinely thought it would be the Holy Inquisition all over again.
When the world found out a bunch of old geezers who called themselves the Wizard Elder Council had been messing around with world politics, magically controlling world leaders and heads of corporations to start profitable wars, Witches International started a very effective social media campaign to show the world that most magic users were just regular folks trying to survive, and nothing like those billionaire asshats at all.
Since then, the coven application and approval process had gotten a lot more strict and fancy, but I hadn’t expected a rejection email. We met all the criteria.
When the words on the screen didn’t change after reading them for the fifth time, I decided it was time to send it out to everyone else. I took a screenshot and uploaded it to our chat and added a quick note: Calling them now to see what’s going on.
A woman named Simone picked up. Her voice was calm, older, and sounded a little bored. I explained the situation: our covenapplication had been rejected with no explanation and no flagged issues.
“Give me one moment and I’ll bring up your file.” There was a series of hmms as she looked it through. When she finally replied, she sounded just as confused as I was. “You meet all the criteria,” she said, tapping away on her end. “Let me try submitting it myself.”
She did, then asked me to stay on the phone as the system processed the request.
“Lilibeth Thorne. Your name looks so familiar,” she said. “Do you happen to know an Elizabeth Thorne or a Rowan Thorne?”
I pressed my lips into a thin line, knowing where this was going. But I was stuck for it. “Elizabeth and Rowan Thorne are my parents.”
My parents had worked for Witches International back when I was still a kid. Of course Ihadto get someone on the phone who’d known them. I wondered how close Simone had been to my parents and if I’d be getting a call from them soon after this.
“That’s wonderful. I’m so glad their daughter has found her coven sisters. And it says here you have both an innate talent and spell-casting magic. Wonderful! They were so worried you’d only have the talent.”
I was glad she couldn’t see through the phone line to the frown on my face.
There was a beep on the other line, and Simone tutted, sounding frustrated. “It rejected it again. I’ll need to escalate this,” she said with a sigh. “Sometimes the system glitches. You know how computers are. But don’t you worry Lilibeth Thorne, we’ll get this figured out. It’s just ridiculous that Elizabeth and Rowan’s daughter would get rejected for a coven application.”
Oh yeah, the parents were going to hear about this. I sighed internally.
“Is the email and phone number listed here the best way to reach you?” she asked.
I confirmed my number, and she said “Alright, hon, I’ll be in touch,” and hung up.
I dropped the update in the group chat and stood to stretch. I was just about to close my laptop when another email pinged my inbox. It was from Haley, one of my former co-workers.
As I read her email, my anger began to rise. In it were several screenshots of a professional forum where a certain someone, Steven I presumed, was bad-mouthing me. No wonder every job I’d applied for had ghosted me.
Great. I closed the screen to my laptop a little harder than I should.
Shadow was pawing at the balcony door so I decided to take a break with her up on the roof. I didn’t feel comfortable keeping the door open for her even though we were on the third floor, but we had a good system going. Shadow communicated very well,and I wondered if it was because she was meant to be a witch’s cat.
Shadow darted ahead the moment I slid the balcony door open. I followed her up the narrow metal stairs to the rooftop terrace where the afternoon sky hung heavy and gray. The air was cool, damp with the promise of rain, and the city below seemed quieter than usual. It was still busy though, with traffic and people going about their day.
She found a flowerbed to do her business before trotting to the edge of the terrace, ears perked, and let out a sharp chirp. Not her usual “look how adorable I am” sound, but something more like “hey, something’s weird here.” I crossed the rooftop, brushing past the overgrown vines and planters cracked by years of winter freeze and spring thaw, and peered over the edge.
Behind the building, a figure was hunched over some garbage next to the dumpster. The faded maroon hoodie with the Darlington University logo on the back caught my eyes. So did the reddish-brown ponytail.
I squinted. Yup, it was Krista, the work-study girl from the Breach site.
What the hell was Krista doing here? Dumpster diving behind a nightclub known for its magical clientele wasn’t exactly standard student behavior. I crouched beside Shadow, who was now watching with laser focus, her tail twitching like she was ready to pounce or bolt.
I picked her up and cradled her in my arms, just in case.
With one arm around Shadow, I dug out my phone and took a quick pic to send over to Julian, who was at a mixed martial arts studio getting some sparring in. For some reason, his having such a mundane hobby had surprised me. But it turns out that physical hobbies were common with demons, and this studio was built with magical beings and monsters in mind.
A few seconds later, he replied with a link to access the feeds and a quick warning for me to get inside, just in case. He didn’t have to tell me twice. Shadow and I hurried back, and I clicked the link to watch the cameras. The system had automatically zeroed in on the intruder’s magic thanks to a little tweaking from me during the setup process.
Krista was most definitely looking for something. What, I didn’t know. But she didn’t stay there for long; her next actions had me even more concerned as she tried to peer inside Delerium’s windows. Was she looking for me? Or something else?
