Resistant Magic (Relic Hunter Book 5)

by R. Leonia Shea

  “Understood,” I said, smiling at Chairman Mariani. “Since we’re on the topic, allow me to make it clear that I am an independent contractor.” I watched for a reaction to that and was relieved when I got none. I didn’t want to disclose the organization I was from since, at that moment, the Crux Crucio Orbis and I were pretty much one and the same. “I do not take orders from the Guild, am not held to the structures or rules of your organization in any way, and I do not want any unsolicited help from the members. Collectively, you hired me, but with that being said, I may need to speak to certain Guild members who might have information that could expedite the resolution of this problem. In exchange for their cooperation, I will give them complete confidentiality.”

  The Chairman smiled. “Understood.” The tone of his voice dripped with irritation. “All members present today will make themselves and their subordinates available should you require it.”

  I stood and looked around the table, locking my eyes with Chairman Mariani for a second before I spoke again. “I’d also appreciate it if the people who are following me would take a few nights off. Losing the tail is costing me valuable time, and they’re not going to help me anyway, right?”

  Chapter 6

  I couldn’t get out of that meeting fast enough. It wasn’t about me or the task at hand, as much as it was about putting the Guild members in their place. It was informative, though, because, until that meeting, I had no idea how structured the magical guild was in Italy and how big the thumb of La Gilda Maghi was to keep all of those witches under it.

  That didn’t sit right with me for about a thousand reasons.

  I wasn’t impressed with their narrow focus, and I saw all sorts of ways the heads of the families would scheme to use magic for something other than healing the sick or fixing situations. As Peter had pointed out, one person’s fix could be another person’s undoing.

  I hailed a taxi and named the restaurant my mom had recommended as our destination. While I rode, I scrolled through my email, finding the new attachments from Majeedah and short text from Kai.

  Dinner at eight-thirty. Do you seriously want to sideline me?

  I knew what our plan was, and I typed not really as a reply to the text but deleted it. I frowned at the phone. Truthfully, I am a terrible fighter because I’m a walking contradiction, avoidant and non-confrontational until provoked. Once provoked: look out. I never met a grudge I didn’t like, and if I have to let go of all of my past resentments as I’m gasping my last breath, I’m going to live forever. I didn’t want to go down that road with Kai. Even though I was sure he could hold his own against me, I was equally sure I wouldn’t like the aftermath.

  I looked down at my phone again and hoped that Kai wouldn’t try to provoke me. If he did, I hoped I’d be smart enough to keep from blowing up our relationship. I wanted him with me every step of the way during this job and in my life back home, but I wouldn’t risk something worse happening to him because I’d put him in danger. As it was, I felt pretty responsible for his non-magical status despite his protests, and the last time someone threatened him, I nearly got both of us killed.

  That thought skidded across my mind. We would fight in public to get Kai clear of the situation, and I’d have to be careful not to be overly emotional. I thought back to the time when Evan had turned my own magic against me, and I shuddered. I’d have to pull off this fight without getting myself to the point where my magic was circulating wildly. That meant fighting with a clear head, which was pretty much the antithesis of a lover’s quarrel.

  I closed my eyes and bounced my head off the back of the seat. This was one of the overly emotional situations we’d been avoiding. I needed to stuff my magic somewhere deep inside of me if things got out of hand.

  I backtracked that thought: I needed to not let things get out of hand in the first place. I hoped Kai remembered that as clearly as I did, so we wouldn’t accidentally blow up what we had been trying so hard to create or the restaurant we were having dinner at, but things between us were already a little tense.

  The cab slid to the curb, and I climbed out, looking at the tables that were set out on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. It didn’t take me long to spot him in the crowd.

  Kai was leaning back in his chair facing the street. I could see a few of the other diners casting curious glances at him. His slightly almond-shaped eyes glittered with amusement, and his sculpted lips had an ironic twist to them that seemed to say: yes, I’m fun. His coppery skin almost glowed against the white of his dress shirt, unbuttoned at the throat. The charcoal gray suit jacket fit him like a glove, accentuating his broad shoulders and narrow hips.

  My heart skipped a beat. He was beautiful, and I was soaking in the vision when his eyes met mine. He smiled, flashing white teeth with slightly pointier than normal canines. His expression shifted to something along the lines of I’m more fun than you’re ready for.

  Unfortunately, I couldn’t argue with that. I wove through the tables, and he stood to greet me, running his hand down my arm and kissing my cheek.

  “You’re gorgeous.” He whispered. “And very popular considering the three people who are tailing you. Should I be jealous?”

  I returned a kiss to his smooth cheek and rolled my eyes. “Three? I thought it would have been more, but I was kind of hoping the powers that be would have called them off by now. Maybe I should have said pretty please when I told them to do it.”

  “I thought you were going to get information, not to deliver ultimatums.”

  “At the last minute, I decided to do both. Are we scrapping our plan because of sheer numbers?”

  He laughed and held out my chair for me. “Not a chance. I love a challenge.” He whispered, so his breath caressed the skin below my ear. I sat facing the windows into the restaurant while he had a view of the street. “So tell me, what besides the obvious is making my little witch so interesting?”

  I shrugged. “I think La Gilda doesn’t walk the talk as much as they want me to believe.”

  Kai leaned forward and smiled. “Tell me everything after you give us a little privacy.”

  I concentrated on the current of earth energy that ran beneath my feet and tried to draw it up to set the ward. It resisted and sputtered, and my brows furrowed. I was tired, but it should have been getting better as the jet lag wore off. Kai watched me with concern as I closed my eyes and focused harder on the current. After a few breaths, I managed to find it again and succeeded in pulling up a thin web that would muffle the sound of our conversation to anyone close to us. The thrum of energy hummed just enough to scramble the words, but the faint sound the ward gave off was so much a part of human existence that nobody would notice it.

  “They have sworn an oath to only practice healing magic and fix minor problems,” I said, sounding a little breathless and feeling beads of sweat on the back of my neck.

  “How minor?” Kai asked.

  “Like if your neighbor walks around naked and you don’t like the view, a member of one of the families can make your hedge grow a little taller.”

  “What if your neighbor needs to die?” Kai whispered conspiratorially.

  I shook my head. “That would be frowned upon, and you’d be exiled.”

  “Such a narrow focus with so many rules.” Kai shook his head, looking disappointed. “Aren’t these people known for inventing vendettas?”

  “The magical explosions and blackouts are the real issue they want to be solved. They think the jinn is responsible.”

  “Yes, having unexpected interruptions would be challenging if the Chanson is knocking on your door.”

  “And if magic becomes a known thing here that wouldn’t go well.”

  Kai sat back. “That is the problem with history. It makes people cautious.” He waved his hand in disgusted dismissal.

  I sipped from Kai’s wine glass. “I think they’re all full of it.”

  Kai caught the eye of a waiter and pointed to his glass. The man smiled and n
odded, disappearing inside the restaurant. “Do you think there is more magic here than they’d like you to believe?”

  I nodded. “There was more power in that room than low-level folk magic, that’s for sure.”

  “What did you learn about the rampaging jinn?”

  “I think that’s legit to a point, but there might be more to the story. They showed me a map, and something about it seems off to me. I need to do a little research, though.”

  Kai flicked his eyes toward the waiter, and I pushed the privacy ward down. Once I had my own glass of wine, and we’d ordered, I hauled it back up and swayed in my seat a little. My face felt hot, and I marveled that the wine was hitting me so fast because I hadn’t eaten.

  “The jinn is supposedly responsible for the explosions,” I said, leaning my cheek in my hand.

  “Supposedly?”

  “Yeah. The mass casualty events happened in a part of the city where there are known quarries beneath the streets. I’m not convinced the jinn collapsed those buildings. Or at least I’m not convinced it was done on purpose.”

  “You have another theory.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I have a few theories, but nothing that makes sense yet. There are too many geographical inconsistencies.”

  Kai grinned. “I love it when you get archaeological on me.”

  That made me laugh. “A jinn didn’t just show up in Rome without reason.”

  “Like one of the Guild members needed a new friend to play with?”

  I shrugged. “Maybe, but there are other things that bother me about this.”

  “Enough of work. You can tell me all about it later.” Kai said as the waiter approached with our first course. I dropped the ward and didn’t bother to reset it. While we ate, we talked about my work excavating the necropolis near the Colosseum, the summer I’d spent in Pompeii, and other digs I’d worked on around the Mediterranean. Kai talked about Ancient Egyptian history like he’d witnessed it as it happened, and I had a sneaking suspicion he had done just that. There was even a tiny part of me that thought that my mythical Coyote might have been another ancient god, possibly Anubis. That was a conversation for another time, but we ate and talked, letting darkness settle over the city.

  “Showtime,” Kai said as he leaned over and took my hand. “What’s on our agenda for tomorrow?” He asked.

  I drew in a deep breath and bit my lip. We’d talked about this, and to keep him safe, I’d play along. “Tomorrow, I’m going to a few museums to look for information after I visit those churches that are on my list.”

  Kai lifted his eyes to mine. “You? We’re not spending the day together?” He asked. His hand dropped, and his posture changed just enough that I sat back. I saw the corner of his mouth twitch, and I gave a slight nod—our second fight of the day.

  “You know I’m here on business.” I tried to sound defensive. “I told you that when you suggested you come with me.”

  He dropped his eyes to the table; his jaw twitched, and a look of disbelief settled on his face. “I suggested?” He laughed with just enough bitterness that I wondered if I’d really hurt his feelings. “So I’m supposed to entertain myself while you work. I thought you could at least take a few days off to enjoy this. It’s our first vacation together.”

  Technically, that wasn’t true at all. We’d gone places together, but there was always a work angle to our trips. “I told you I’d be busy during the day, but we have the evenings. It’s the best I can do right now, and you know that.” I sounded irritated like this was the millionth time we’d had the same discussion.

  He shook his head. “I’m getting tired of only being part-time with you. I run a business, too, and yet I managed to get away. Apparently, you think I invited myself on this trip just to hold you back from doing your job.”

  “You have Kenny to handle your company.” I countered. Kai looked at me and bit back his smile. Kenny is an asthmatic badger who hassles the garden gnomes with endless lists and timetables, and he writes everything down in a mini day-planner he keeps strapped to his stomach. Still, Kai made a valid point, so I forged on, “I’m basically working for a start-up. It’s the difference between being the boss and being an employee.”

  I saw the flicker of surprise on Kai’s face. “Your company is getting more obsolete by the second.” He said, sounding incredulous. “You’re hanging on and working yourself to exhaustion as if you can somehow stop the inevitable. Maybe it’s time to throw it back at the guy who convinced you that you’re the last hope for salvation. The company is folding, Ari. Let him deal with the death throes and get back to your life before you don’t have one.”

  That got me angry. “It’s not obsolete.” I was looking for the right word.

  “It’s antiquated,” Kai cut in. “You can’t seriously think that you have the power to turn around an organization that was dying when you took over. The previous owners ran it into the ground.”

  “That’s not true,” I felt a bit of heated defense since one of the people he referred to was my grandfather.

  “Yes, it is. The only reason you even looked at the company was because my cousin asked you to. Come to think of it, I’d bet if he asked you to take a few days off, you wouldn’t even blink. It seems like everything he suggests, you’re all for.” His tone sounded so angry that it caught me off guard, but he was still raging. “I gave up an entire career for you, but you can’t spare two days for me.”

  “That’s not fair.” I protested, suddenly feeling like we were having a fight that wasn’t entirely fictional. “You had to change jobs because you were,” I searched for the word, “Fired.”

  “If I’m not mistaken, your career as an archaeologist ended pretty much the same way.” He said, sounding downright venomous. “Because you were too smart to take orders.”

  The similarity in the circumstances that ended both of our former careers slammed into me. I blinked, at a loss for words. Kai didn’t miss a beat, and he tossed his napkin on the table, looking hard and sounding defeated. “You do what you need to. I’ll see you later if you decide you have time for that.”

  I’d never seen him angry, and it wasn’t at all what I would have imagined it to be. I expected he’d be snarly and hold his ground, but the angry and resentful Kai was way more unsettling.

  I watched in stunned silence as he tossed a pile of money on the table and stalked toward the street. He hailed a taxi, and I scanned the area reflected in the restaurant windows. I didn’t see anyone follow him, and that meant that there were still three sets of eyes on me. My eyes flicked to the rooftops, and I saw the familiar shape of Basir glide by, following Kai’s taxi.

  I put my chin in my hands and thought about everything that Kai had just said. I wondered if he believed any of it or if he just knew me well enough to push on my weak spots to spark a reaction. I decided I liked the second version better, but I was rattled beyond reason.

  The waiter came by, and I ordered another dessert and another glass of wine. I kept watching the street as if I were waiting for Kai to come to his senses. I wished I could pull my phone out and text someone, but I didn’t want the distraction. My eyes scanned the roofs again, waiting for Basir’s return.

  Chapter 7

  I ate dessert as slowly as possible, but my mind churned with the possibility that Kai and I might be at odds over the whole situation, at least on some level. I finished eating and wondered how long it would take Kai to move us to another hotel or if he’d changed his mind and went to the airport instead. I was getting antsy when my phone buzzed with a message. I pulled it out and glanced at it.

  Are you still drowning your sorrows in chocolate, or are you ready to make up? I bit my lip to hide my smile and the relief that surged through me. I opened an app and began making notes about pieces of information I needed to find to buy myself a few minutes until Basir got back. I had a pretty extensive list compiled when the waiter returned with the check. I glanced at the number, did a quick count of the money on the table,
and knew Kai had just made the waiter’s night. I stood and spotted Basir on the corner of a building.

  As I drew near, the owl flew further down the street and waited. I felt safe because even with people following me, my partner could alert me or provide a distraction if anything went wrong. Plus, being able to wield some pretty powerful magic of my own tended to make me braver than most people.

  My mind stumbled over that for a second. The Guild had said there were magical blackouts, but I’d noticed other odd things about my magic since arriving in Rome. Like the effort I had to put into finding a current. When I first focused on the energy, there was an odd tingle that made it almost hot. It felt more like an electrical current than the natural earth-born magic I was used to. I’d had to work to separate the bad from the good, and then the thread of earth magic felt brittle and thin when I located it.

  I contemplated that as Basir and I continued our game of follow-the-leader until he flew to the rooftop of a beautiful old building two blocks from Beata Vergina, where the flames were probably still raging. I’d have a very short commute to work in the morning.

  I looked up at the lit facade of the gorgeous old villa and knew Kai had pulled out all the stops. The front was lit with dramatic uplighting that showed the architecture to its best advantage. Huge stone planters held a riot of deep purple flowers that cascaded gracefully to the sidewalk, evoking the Tyrian purple color of Roman nobility.

  I winked at Basir and headed past the hotel, walking down the busy street where other people strolled, taking in the sites of Rome.

  I paused every few minutes and checked my reflection in the windows, focusing on the energies around me until I was pretty sure I had spotted the three people who were following me. I stepped around a few pedestrians, keeping to the shadows, and looked for an opportunity to lose myself in the crowd.