Resistant Magic (Relic Hunter Book 5)

by R. Leonia Shea

  Chapter 2

  Two hours later, I was seated in the passenger seat of my tiny, red car while Kai drove us to the airport. He’d made arrangements to have his yard crew (a bunch of renegade garden gnomes supervised by an OCD badger named Kenny) work overnight so the business could run smoothly while we were gone.

  I tried to look at the trip as a new type of adventure with Kai, but a nagging voice in my head told me he wasn’t completely surprised by this turn of events. He practically vibrated with excitement.

  “Is there something I should know?” I asked as he slid the car into long-term parking at Logan International Airport.

  “I’ve never been on an airplane.” He said with a grin.

  “Seriously?” It didn’t seem to me that there were many things that Coyote hadn’t tried out. His new habit of distraction by surprise was working in his favor, and I almost forgot my suspicion.

  He turned toward me and pulled his sunglasses down. “There wasn’t a need for such things before. I could just think of a place and be there.” He sighed dramatically, “Life took less planning when I had my magic.” He opened his door and got out of the car, leaving me to ponder that for a second. I joined him at the trunk and pulled my small suitcase out.

  My voice held a note of envy. “It’s just the opposite for me,” I admitted.

  “Oh, the irony.” He replied, slamming the trunk closed and guiding me toward the terminal with his arm looped around my shoulders.

  The flight was uneventful, but I think Kai was disappointed he didn’t get to try out the flotation device under his seat. More than once, he pried my fingers off the armrests when he noticed my knuckles had turned white when we hit turbulence.

  “I would have thought a globe-trotting archaeologist loved flying.” He whispered, holding my hand as the plane bounced down the runway at Leonardo da Vinci airport.

  “I had other ways to move around the world,” I complained, pressing the imaginary brake on the floor in front of me as the scenery flew by the window in a blur. When the plane bounced on the tarmac, I squeezed my eyes shut and felt Kai’s bones crunch together beneath my fingers. He chuckled and placed my hand back on the armrest while he stretched and massaged his hand.

  “You might want to consider medication since your options are now limited.”

  We collected our baggage, made it through customs, and walked for what seemed like miles through the brightly lit shopping and dining complex that was the airport. By the time we exited into the night, Kai looked shell-shocked.

  “I feel the rest of this adventure might be a letdown. I could have spent an entire week there and felt like I’d experienced all of Italy.” He cast a mournful glance back at the airport doors as I hailed a taxi.

  He had a point; the airport was a destination unto itself. “You can stay at the airport if you’d like, but I have work to do,” I said, opening the door to the cab.

  “It wouldn’t be any fun without you, princess,” Kai said, sliding into the back of the taxi with me. I gave the driver an address near my mom’s house, and the driver careened away from the curb like we’d just finished a pit-stop at racing event.

  Kai grabbed the handle of the door for stability, and we roared toward Rome. The driver made a series of too-fast turns, dodging several other cars that were also driven by homicidal maniacs. Once the initial surprise had worn off, Kai began commenting to the driver. His comments weren't “Watch out!” or “Slow down!” as one might expect. Kai was more prone to egg the driver on with exuberant shouts of “Faster!” or “Near miss!”.

  The car finally jerked to a stop, bumping against the curb at our destination. We scrambled out with our luggage, and as the tires squealed off into the distance, Kai looped his arm around my waist.

  “This is going to be more of an adventure than I’d hoped.” He breathed.

  We walked down the quiet streets, dragging our suitcases and yawning because it had been a long flight, and the adrenaline rush of the taxi ride was wearing off.

  “Where are we going?” Kai asked as I turned down a street that ran past the ancient ruins of Trajan’s Market.

  “To pick up our scout team,” I answered. From the dark recesses of the structure, Basir and Ka’Tehm swooped toward us, landing on a light pole.

  “Whooo,” Basir called softly.

  “I missed you, too. Everything good?” I asked.

  His golden eyes blinked once, and I relaxed. The fear of the flight had overshadowed my worry about my mom. I turned down the next street and walked up the steps of a small hotel where I’d made a reservation. I rang the bell, and an older woman with sleepy eyes answered the door, beckoning us inside with a small smile.

  “Buonasera,” I said. I was about to stumble through my rusty Italian when Kai piped up, rattling off a long series of sentences in perfectly accented Italian which had the inn-keeper smiling from ear to ear.

  My eyes bugged out as the conversation between them continued with much laughter and soft exclamations of camaraderie. I caught parts of the exchange, but not all of it. The woman handed Kai the key to a room, rattled off something incomprehensible, and Kai steered me toward the stairs, calling out a soft buonasera as we climbed the steps to our room.

  Once we were safely inside, I closed the door and tried to set a ward while Kai opened the window to let Basir and Ka’Tehm in. My magic sputtered. I was exhausted and decided the effort was probably unnecessary. I pulled the pillows out from under the linens and turned to him. “Italian? Yet another thing you forgot to mention.” I said.

  “It never came up.” He replied.

  I stepped toward him and wrapped my arms around his waist. “You’re just one surprise after another.” I yawned, leaning against him.

  “You have no idea.” He said, kissing the top of my head and guiding me toward the bed. We collapsed fully clothed and didn’t wake until well past noon to an enthusiastic knock on our door.

  Kai got to the door first, running his hand through his hair, so it fell into a perfectly tousled arrangement. The color was the last shade of brown before you had to call it black, and it was perfectly straight as one would expect for his Native American heritage. I pulled my tangled mass of dark copper hair into a messy topknot and threw a scrunchie into it so I didn’t look like an Irish gorgon.

  The door opened, and a tiny man dressed as a Cardinal entered. That’s the religious form, not the bird. My life is weird, but not that weird.

  “Porco Dio! I’m glad you’re here!” The man blasphemed, backing Kai into the room and closing the door.

  “Arienne, your order of irony has arrived.” Kai said, “I’m her partner, Kai.” He held out his hand, and the Cardinal shook it before realizing how incomplete the introduction was.

  “I’m Peter Picenzia. Not a real cardinal, well, not even a real Italian if the truth be known. Half Italian, through my father’s side, but we’ll save that for another time. I wanted to give you time to rest, but I’m afraid we’re in a bit of a time crunch now.”

  Kai and I just nodded at the word-tornado Peter produced. “We’ve been monitoring the situation here for a few days, and Chairman Mariani told me to deliver my report and hand this whole mess over to you. Needless to say, I waited a bit because that seemed like the polite thing to do since you got in so late. I couldn’t risk meeting you at the airport, though.” The faux-cardinal said, looking a little too relieved for my comfort.

  Kai and I exchanged a wary glance. I asked the question that was on both of our minds. “How did you know where to find us?”

  “One of our contacts at the airport alerted me, but I decided to let you rest for a few hours. Maybe I should have called first, but the meeting’s tonight at seven, and I figured you’d want to prepare. You know, take a look around, get your own read on the situation.”

  Kai put the tip of his finger in his mouth, raised his hand, and sketched a tally mark in the air. I tried not to smile, but I had to give him that one. They had been watching the airport:
Coyote one, Arienne zero.

  “Who told you to hand this over to me?” I asked, knowing what was coming.

  “Majeedah Gobain,” Peter answered, looking confused. “You are Dr. Cerasola, right?”

  “I am. I didn’t realize Majeedah had someone already on site.”

  “Oh, I’m not with Majeedah. I’m the representative for La Gilda Maghi.” I watched Kai make another mark in the air. Majeedah didn’t mention who hired me, but I would never have thought it might be an organization with undercover agents. Curious.

  Peter continued talking, so I’d have to ponder that later.

  “I’m not officially here. When the trouble started, La Gilda assigned me to make sure there wasn’t a breach in the vaults. Having worked with Kingston Pon in the past, going undercover isn’t new territory for me, but this is a whole new area.” Peter said, gesturing to his cardinal’s robes and wiping his hand down his face. He sat wearily in the one chair that the tiny room possessed.

  I sat on the edge of the bed, Basir perched on the wooden mirror frame, and Kai leaned against the dresser, making sure he didn’t block Basir’s view. Peter’s eyes flickered between the three of us. He tried very hard to look like he didn’t have a million reservations about turning this over to us. I was just glad Ka’Tehm was in the bathtub swimming around because the magical blue beaver might have driven poor Peter over the edge.

  “When did the Alliance become aware of the situation?” I asked.

  Peter’s eyes widened. “I don’t know, maybe last week when the fires started? I suppose someone in La Gilda could have called them. I would imagine they’ve had eyes on the whole situation in Europe, though. What with everything else that’s been going on.” His voice was distracted, and he waved a dismissive hand in the air as if brushing my questions aside.

  Peter’s eyes lingered on Basir, who glared at the man. Peter tried not to stare at the three-and-a-half-pound owl, but he couldn’t resist. While he was occupied with Basir, I mouthed the words La Gilda Maghi? to Kai. He winked at me. That detail was missing from the files Majeedah sent me.

  “Could you tell us about the fires first, please,” I asked.

  Peter took a deep breath and rubbed his palms on his black robes before leaning forward with his forearms on his knees. “Well, the first fire didn’t seem related, but I think maybe it was. It happened on Tuesday night, but La Gilda realized there was an issue yesterday when another one popped up inside Basilica Beata Vergina.”

  “Did the church burn down?”

  “Oh, no. Much worse. There is a line of purple flames going straight down the center aisle. The fire department is still investigating how that’s possible because everything is intact. The flames won’t die down, but they’re not burning anything. That's why it's called magic, though. Our people are trying to develop a non-magical accelerant that is a close enough match to stop the official probe, but we haven’t had much luck yet. The church is fine, and we’ve managed to keep it quiet so far. The fire department is getting all twisted up over it, though. We don’t want it to be called a miracle for Christ’s sake - that would get everyone in there looking at it, and then we’d have a hell of a job covering that up.”

  He sighed and huffed out a disgusted grunt before rushing on again. “The concealment squad will find some explanation that they can feed the arson investigators, but those purple flames are a problem right now. The whole church is closed off and guarded by the fire department, but we won’t be able to keep that going for long before someone starts asking questions we’d rather not answer. We have some people on the inside, but we’re working as hard as we can to keep it quiet, and the memory charms won’t last forever.”

  I blinked. Magic wasn’t something most people did in the open since the days of burning witches at the stake. Ordinary humans are fantastic at finding logical (but incorrect) ways of explaining magical phenomena. When they can’t, a witch can misdirect the overly curious for a fee or even cover up the incident with a quick amnesia spell. The United Coven and Alliance employed most of the specialists I knew of, but apparently, La Gilda Maghi had similar people.

  Peter continued, “Before that, the fire was in the catacombs near the Coliseum. At least that was easier to explain because the flames went out. We sent a few kids down there to make it look like a party and sent our contacts in the police to hustle them out in front of an audience. Then there are the artifacts that have been moved and the sacred relics that were pried open. Our people in the Carabinieri are circulating a story about a mentally ill suspect with some sort of religious fixation, and so far, that’s going down just fine.”

  Majeedah had sent me reports about those incidents, so I was aware of which relics were disturbed. I’d done a little research on them, and I had a working theory on a possible motive, but I wasn’t ready to share yet.

  Kai’s curiosity got the best of him. “Where are you undercover?” He asked Peter.

  “Vatican City,” Peter said, looking sheepish. “You’d think they could have found someone who knew something about being Catholic, but apparently, since I look enough like every other cardinal, they figured I could go around unnoticed. As long as I make the appropriate gestures and look busy, I can get pretty much anywhere without too much hassle.”

  “If the Alliance is involved, why was I called?” I asked.

  Peter’s eyes got wide. “The Alliance is involved?” He swiveled his head between Kai and me.

  My eyebrows jumped to the middle of my forehead, and I looked at Kai, who grinned like he wasn’t at all surprised by Peter’s question. “Aren’t they?” I asked, drawing Peter’s attention back to me.

  “Not as far as I know. I mean, they’re probably aware of the situation, but we’ve been handling it. I don’t think we’ve given them a reason to get involved unless you know something that hasn’t been shared with La Gilda?”

  I avoided releasing my internal groan of self-disgust. Maybe Peter, and even La Gilda Maghi, were part of a group of magic users hiding in plain sight. In the states, there was an underground network of gifted witches and spell casters who hid their powers to avoid being co-opted by the Alliance. I knew many of them, and I'd recently become one.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, holding my hands up in a calming gesture to Peter. “You said Kingston Pon, and I jumped to conclusions.”

  “He’s the Guild’s liaison.” Peter shook his head and swallowed visibly. “Why don’t you know that? You should know that.” The wary tone in his voice made me wonder if he was going to bolt.

  “I don't work for the Alliance, either, and they don’t exactly share information with me. I assumed when you were talking about the fire specialists,” I let my words trail off and shook my head. “It’s been a lot to absorb, and I’m trying to catch up. Please, continue the story. I’ll ask questions when you’re done.”

  Peter seemed to think about that for a minute before he gave a hesitant nod and continued detailing all of the jinn-related incidents in the city. He ended with a brief synopsis of some incidents in surrounding countries like Turkey and Greece. My mind started to race with the possibilities, searching desperately for connections that would make this whole situation make sense.

  “That’s why we called Majeedah. We know it’s a jinn, but we don’t know why he’s here. Since the trouble started, we've been scrambling because this situation is causing magical blackouts across the city, and with the war going on,”

  My eyes met Peter’s. “War?” I interrupted.

  Peter blinked, a sour look settled on his face, and he turned his attention to Kai. “She’s kidding, right?”

  I looked at Kai, and he had the grace to hide his laughter from Peter, but I noticed the slight twitch of his shoulders that told me it was taking a monumental effort on Kai’s part to remain professional. “It’s not a war back in the States.” Kai explained in a tone that sounded completely confident until he added a soft, “Yet,” after a few heartbeats.

  “My apologies,” Peter s
aid, looking at me with an earnest expression. “I assumed it was the same all over. Here in Europe, the Chanson du Bastille has managed to gain a foothold. The Alliance has been sending agents to curtail them, and we’re doing our best to stay out of sight. This crazy jinn is jeopardizing all of us because eventually, the Alliance or the Chanson will realize we have a jinn problem we can’t control, and they’ll swoop in to fix it. Once that happens, we’ll be nothing more than subordinates to whichever organization solves the problem.”

  “You say we, but I’m not familiar with the Gilda Maghi. Perhaps you could give me the condensed version?” I asked Peter.

  He seemed to think about that for a moment. He opened his mouth, produced no sound, and closed his mouth. He looked at the ceiling, debated the matter in his head for a few moments that were marvelously marked by a taut silence. I leaned forward because I wanted to reach over and drag the words out of him. When Peter finally finished the debate he was having with himself, he sighed dramatically and turned his eyes toward Kai again. Kai nodded encouragement, and Peter turned his attention back to me.

  “This is most unusual.” He said.

  All that suspense, and that’s what I got from the guy. I gritted my teeth and pasted an understanding smile on my face while I tried to find my patient tone of voice. “I’m sure, but try to suspend your disbelief for a moment. I know what I’m doing in these situations, but I’m not from around here.” At least, I hoped I knew what I was doing, but I’d already completely flattened Peter’s confidence in me; and I was struggling to build it back up. “There’s a reason Majeedah sent me, but I need some background. Call her; she’ll confirm my qualifications.” I said, banking on a relationship that was less than twenty-four hours old with a woman I’d exchanged less than a hundred words with. A woman who called me princess, no less.