Resistant Magic (Relic Hunter Book 5)

by R. Leonia Shea

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  “Mmmph whaaa?” I grunted into my cell phone. The ringing had pulled me out of a rather lovely dream involving a picnic near a koi pond and cherry-filled chocolate cupcakes.

  “We have an issue, princess.” Said a rather loud voice with a Long Island accent. The caller was female, but my sleep-addled brain couldn’t produce any more information.

  I looked at the caller ID and didn’t recognize the number.

  “Wrong number,” I said and hung up the phone, burrowing under the covers and drifting back off to sleep. The phone rang again from the same number as last time. With a loud groan, I declined the call and silenced my phone. I was almost entirely back in dream-land when the familiar sound of Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney’s The Girl is Mine drifted out of the cell phone from the other nightstand.

  “Go away,” Kai growled before he hung up on his very distant cousin, Evan.

  That was enough to make panic surge through me, so I grabbed my phone and dialed Evan.

  “Evan, what’s wrong?” I asked, sitting up and trying to clear the remaining cotton balls that were blocking the synapsis in my brain.

  “You need to answer your phone.” He said, sounding completely awake and thoroughly annoyed. I was pretty sure that had more to do with Kai than with me, or more specifically, that Kai was with me.

  “I thought it was a wrong number,” I grumbled defensively. Kai laughed just loud enough for Evan to hear him and wrapped his arm around my waist, trying to pull me back down. I pushed my dark red hair out of my eyes and stroked my fingers along Kai’s forearm, giving it a gentle squeeze. I was feeling more alert and panicked by the second. Evan didn’t call frequently, and certainly not in the middle of the night.

  “Majeedah Gobain has been trying to reach you. Answer the phone the next time it rings.” Evan hung up on me without another word. I sat on the edge of my bed, staring at my device while my emotions ran from puzzled to insulted before ending on downright ticked.

  “What is it?” Kai asked, sitting up and raking his fingers down the back of my tank top.

  “Majeedah Gobain.” I replied.

  “Is that contagious?” He whispered as his hands rested on my shoulders, his thumbs making small circles on the vertebrae in my neck.

  “If it is, I caught it from Evan,” I said, laughing. My phone vibrated in my hand, startling me, and the last of the cotton balls poofed out of my head. “Dr. Arienne Cerasola,” I said into the phone, so the mysterious Majeedah would know that my name wasn’t princess.

  “Finally. Time’s of the essence in these matters, princess.”

  So much for that. “Who are you?”

  “Majeedah.” She said without further elaboration.

  I made a rolling motion with my hand and waited for a full three count before gritting my teeth and asking, “And…”

  “And I am the first aid kit you reach for after the dung-bomb goes off.”

  That didn’t clear things up for me at all, but it did make Kai laugh. “For a woman who said time was of the essence, you’re certainly dragging this introduction out.” I groused.

  She snorted. “Good. You’re going to need that backbone, princess. My name’s Majeedah Gobain, and I’m the magical emergency response hotline. Well, at least for a select few who are willing to pay my rates. I broker deals and clean up messes, and when I can’t do it, I know who to call to get the job done. This one’s squarely in your territory, so you better get out of bed because your day just officially started. Details are coming via email, princess.” She hit that last word with way more snark than was necessary and hung up on me.

  Kai moved from massaging the back of my neck to resting his cheek against my shoulder while I stared at the phone in my hand. “What was that all about, princess?” He asked, raking his teeth across my shoulder.

  “I guess there’s been a magical disaster,” I said, shrugging and reaching back to run my fingers through his short dark hair. This day wasn’t starting the way I hoped it would.

  “Don’t worry,” He whispered, “you have an alibi this time. I can swear that you were with me all night.” He said, not even bothering to hide his amusement.

  With my palm on his forehead, I pushed him back on the bed and stood up. Everyone’s a comedian at three a.m.

  Fifteen minutes later, I was showered and dressed in yoga pants and a hoodie. My dark copper red hair was piled on top of my head in a messy bun which was still damp despite a few minutes of blasting from the blow dryer. Kai followed me down the stairs, dressed in jeans and a dark blue t-shirt with a picture of a coyote howling at a yellow moon. The writing said: MOON CHILD, and how that man made a t-shirt and jeans look so good was still a mystery to me. He set the kettle on the gas stove and began grinding the coffee beans for the french press while I logged into my email and stifled a yawn.

  The soft glow of the undercabinet lights gave the kitchen a warm feeling. The bamboo shades were still down, and the wide-plank pine floor had recently received a new coat of satin varnish and a red oriental runner added to the warmth of the rustic space. It was the first home I’d ever owned, and it was taking me forever to finish it because I wanted every detail to be exactly right.

  Before Kai moved in, I felt fancy with my pod brewer and a set of two matching cups. Since Kai moved in, many things had changed around my three-quarter’s finished converted barn in the Berkshires, and they were all good things, except one. My eyes slid to the ugly palm tree lamp next to me in the breakfast nook. It was Kai’s, and he’d sent me to fetch it from his secret cave/storeroom in the Mojave desert. I had a sneaking suspicion it wasn’t for sentimental reasons, but he had yet to share the real purpose of the eyesore with me. At least, I hoped there was a reason other than driving me crazy.

  I watched him move around the kitchen as I waited for Majeedah’s documents to open. Kai had adjusted well to being human, from what I could tell. Since he’d been stripped of his magic by the Spirit Council for fraternizing with yours truly (among other things, I’m sure, but martyrdom is one of my specialties), he’d been keeping himself busy running the slightly magical gardening business I had intended to build.

  I intended to run it but never got around to it because magic just kept throwing wrenches into my plans.

  Truthfully, Kai was way better at the gardening business than I would have been. As a human, the former Coyote - as in the mythical trickster spirit of the Americas - was a sharp and charming business owner who had increased the revenue, customer base, and reputation of Garden Magic ten-fold in the short time he’d been in charge.

  Part of that success might have been due to our mainly female clientele who may have hired him because he’s gorgeous with coppery skin stretched over a muscular build and dark hair that contrasts beautifully with his whisky colored eyes; the more significant part was due to the fact that Kai is artistic, creative, and genuinely helpful. He brings a sense of fun to everything and makes it all look so natural and easy.

  They always say opposites attract.

  I was in charge of the enhanced garden items, like earth magic spells to keep Japanese beetles off prized rose bushes. Using my abilities to charm peat disks and piles of mulch to control pests had somewhat surprisingly become a passion of mine, but I didn’t have time to handle the day-to-day operation of the business. Kai had gladly taken that over, and he seemed to love it.

  The people in our small town in the Berkshire mountains certainly loved Kai Micaltsé, an
d as I watched him from behind my computer screen, I was pretty sure I did, too; but that would be my little secret for the foreseeable future.

  The document opened on my computer, and I was a little unnerved to see what looked like an internal report from the United Coven and Alliance on my screen. Dread slid down my spine because the Alliance was the organization I had steered clear of since I was a teenager. I told myself it was wise not to attract the attention of the Magic Police, but truthfully they’d rejected me as inferior and not worth recruiting years ago. Maybe the blow to my ego had something to do with my avoidance.

  My eyes dropped to the wand shaped logo in the taskbar of my screen. It glittered, indicating my magical computer protection was active. The Fairy Godmother software was the best defense against magical spying on the market, and a confidential document from the Alliance was one of the things I didn’t want anyone to know I had.

  I read through the report, and Kai slid a mug of coffee in front of me. I looked up at him and smiled.

  “Do you have any idea how much I appreciate you?” I asked.

  His smile widened. “If you’d focus on your homework, I’m sure you’d show me.”

  I blew out a sigh. He was right; I was struggling with learning to drop my magic. It was getting increasingly difficult to keep our romantic relationship moving at the snail’s pace required for safety’s sake—Kai’s safety, not mine.

  My magic was dangerous for him because there was a chance that I could accidentally restore his power in a moment of serious, um...let’s say emotionality. To guard against that, we’d avoided any activity that could lead to strong emotions or over-enthusiasm. The good news was, we were great at not getting into heated arguments. The bad news was we weren’t getting into heated anything, and that was forcing us to keep the relationship distressingly platonic.

  “I’m trying.” I groaned, ashamed of my dismal progress.

  “I just can’t afford to catch any fatal STMs from you.” He grinned.

  Sexually Transmitted Magics. I rolled my eyes. “And you’re positive magic gets transmitted that way, right? I mean, it’s starting to sound a little suspicious.” I teased. “Like maybe you’re hiding behind that because the legends are greatly exaggerated?”

  He leaned over and nipped at my jaw before nuzzling my neck in a way that made me glad I was sitting down because he made my knees weak. I was sure he’d wind up breaking my heart one day, but he was worth every ounce of that danger.

  His voice was rough when he released me and sat back, shaking his head and letting that seductive smile settle on his sculpted lips. “I’m getting dangerously close to rolling those dice, but going to your funeral afterward will be such a drag.”

  I tried to look unruffled. “Damn. I should be practicing like twenty hours a day, and yet,” I pointed to the computer screen.

  Kai sighed. “I’m sure if Evan knew about our struggle, he’d be recommending you for every job that had anything to do with magic. Your calendar would be full of children’s birthday parties, and Basir would be flying out of a top hat for two shows every Saturday.”

  I snorted a laugh. “I didn’t tell Evan, so unless you’ve been talking about it, he’s completely oblivious to the situation.” I hit the last word with particular emphasis.

  Kai grinned. “I go out of my way to make sure that Evan believes you’re keeping me blissfully exhausted.” His expression turned more serious, “I do want the record to reflect that in my opinion, the fact that you can’t drop your magic is probably an important clue about your true power.” A familiar note of curiosity crept into his tone.

  Kai suspected there was something more to me than just plain old elemental witchcraft, but I was pretty sure he gave me too much credit. He nudged me with his shoulder. “Frustration aside, we’re still a great team, right?”

  “One hundred percent,” I said, as I turned my screen so he could see it. “What do you make of this?”

  Kai read through the report as I sipped my coffee. “Do you think the Alliance is the dung-bomb or is the incident itself what Majeedah called about?” He asked.

  “I’m not sure.”

  “It looks like a pretty straightforward case of somebody tampering with magic they don’t quite understand.”

  “The report speculates it’s a jinn that’s causing the damage.” I said, pondering that little gem. “That makes it the perfect opening for the Alliance to swoop in and capture the jinn, saving the Eternal City and earning a few followers. Why call me?”

  Kai thought about that for a moment. “I think the Alliance has enough to worry about right now, so they’re probably not going to worry about a loose jinn in Rome.”

  “One jinn. That doesn’t sound like a big deal, does it?” My fingers clicked on the following document, and Kai and I read the accounts from the Italian news about the destruction of sacred relics and a series of fires in the underground tunnels beneath the city. The rest of Majeedah’s information was similar, but two tunnel collapses had led to mass casualty events in other sections of Rome.

  There were theories of terrorist cells being spouted in the mainstream media, but the explosions were too far below ground to have been designed to hurt people. The buildings collapsed as a result of the explosions, but that didn’t seem to be the intention. The caverns beneath the city made some buildings prone to collapse when anything shook the earth - like a jinn blasting around looking for something.

  “Ah, there’s the problem you’re supposed to solve. The jinn is on a rampage.”

  “Or maybe just looking for something. My mom lives in Rome,” I felt an icy cold slide down my spine like oil and I chewed on my bottom lip.

  “Then we better get on the next flight,” Kai said.

  That really wasn’t necessary. I could run out of my house, through the back fields, and arrive at a magical portal that would transport me to Rome in less than five minutes. The problem was that I’d have to go alone.

  If I took Kai into the portal with me, I’d probably kill him because I was pretty sure humans couldn't use such things. I was mulling over how to break it to him that he’d be flying over the Atlantic alone when he leaned over and peered at me with narrowed eyes.

  “I know what you’re thinking.” He said.

  “I don’t think so.” I countered.

  “You’re considering the portal. Let me ask you this: If you show up in Rome less than an hour after the magical crisis manager has contacted you, how long do you think it will take before every witch who needs to escape from something is wandering around these woods looking for an exit sign?”

  “The property’s warded. Nobody gets in here without the warning sounding.” I said, pointing in the general direction of my large warning gong that sat on the front porch. I had warded the property against visitors, and it was something I was really proud of.

  “Has anyone ever surprised you and set off the gong? Or worse, caught you completely off guard?” Kai asked, looking smug.

  I hated it when he was the logical one. “What if nobody knew I was in Rome?” I asked.

  “How will you meet with the people who hired you?” He grinned.

  Flippin’ Hay. “Now I’m officially the first name in magical disasters.” I rolled my eyes.

  Kai smiled and debated taking that bait, but he thought better of it. “You’re in charge of the Crux Crucio Orbis. When there’s a magical crisis, everyone knows to call the leader, and that call was the official announcement.” Kai sat back and sipped his coffee, regarding me with a steady gaze. “Congratulations, by the way.”

  “How did Majeedah know that?” I asked. “Oh, and thanks, I think.” I still wasn’t sure that taking over the ancient order of the C.C.O. had been a great idea, but I consoled myself that it was only temporary. Kai’s voice brought me out of those musings.

  “I bet if you looked closely, you could find a link between her and none other than Kingston Pon or Evan, the boy-wonder. If they didn’t tell her, perhaps Simon Jampa ha
s a big mouth, or Princess Tyballa Nessinger, or the Queen of the Southern Tier Fae, or,”

  Before he could continue, I groaned and put my head in my hands. “Why did I think it was such a secret?”

  “That would be an excellent question if you weren’t the one who found the relic and broke the secrecy spell.” There was laughter in his voice. “You might want to think about how to seal the leak. Then again, it is rather hard to put the jinn back in the bottle…” I stared at him with narrowed eyes, but he looked away innocently.

  “I’ll get packed,” He continued. “You make the reservations. I guess if I forget my toothbrush, you could always pop back and grab it after we establish your legitimate entry into Italy.”

  He took his coffee with him, but before he left the room, he tossed a casual, “Pack your power suit, and you might want to write a note to your mom that we’re coming and tie it to Basir’s leg. I think he’d rather use the portal than get into that little pet carrier to be checked like baggage.”

  I watched as Kai held his hand up, and Basir slapped it with his black foot like a high-five before the owl swooped over and landed on the table in front of me.

  “You, too?” I grumbled, looking into Basir’s huge golden eyes. He opened his black beak and wiggled his tongue at me. “Fine. You fly to mom’s through the portal and take a note for me, and I’ll suck it up and fly commercial.” I tapped on the keyboard and booked a flight before writing a note to my mom on a piece of Garden Magic letterhead. Basir flew into the downstairs bathroom and returned with our other housemate, a magical blue beaver named Ka’Tehm, clinging to his back.

  Basir stuck out one of his ridiculously long legs, and I rolled the paper around it, securing it with a piece of twine from the giant spool Kai used to tie up the plants in our new magical herb garden. Basir swooped up toward the tiny door high in the rafters and disappeared with the note.

  I sighed. This was getting more complicated by the minute. My mom and my two companions would be in Rome, where a jinn was throwing a temper tantrum. I had no idea how to solve a jinn problem, yet somehow this was my new life. As usual, I’d be flying by the seat of my pants once the jet landed in Italy.