I returned to the chair, feeling remarkably better than I had before the incident. I pulled up another ward and felt drained again.
We all peered at the magic that writhed and snapped on the table, and I began lining the different strands up in an order that made sense to me. A current of air magic that was so thin it was nearly invisible; a current of fire magic that danced and flickered with an orange glow; a yellow current that seemed to shrink and grow at regular intervals. Kai pointed to the yellow current.
“Time?”
I never thought of time that way, as a linear current that pulsed out the seconds. “Weird,” I observed.
“Scary,” Kai corrected, “and potentially useful.”
Kai sounded like he was on the verge of an epiphany. Waiting for him to continue, I placed my hand on my solar plexus, checking on the ball of Kai’s magic he’d entrusted to me before his magic was stripped. He noticed the gesture and his eyes widened. It was our very dangerous little secret.
“Is it doing something?” His tone was cautious.
“No. Should it? I mean with all of this.” I gestured to the table.
He shook his head. “No. All of this is naturally occurring. You’ve encountered it every day of your life, but you never noticed it and you never pulled it apart before. It’s not going to trip the switch.” I heard a bit of hesitation in his voice, but he smoothly segued back to the magic at hand. He looked at the currents. “This,” He pointed at the individual currents, “shouldn’t happen. They should all flow together as one force, unable to be separated. Even by you.”
“Then why is it happening?” I asked, feeling a little spark of dread at the last part of what he’d said.
“That is the question. Something here is making the currents brittle, causing them to break down, maybe?” He lifted his eyes to mine. “Have you felt it before when you visited your mom?”
In all of the times I’d visited Italy, I’d never used my magic. The digs I’d been on were also magic-free. I shook my head. “I don’t know. Magic hasn’t really been a daily practice for me.”
Kai tilted his head. “And the Guild didn’t mention anything, I’m sure.”
“Nope.”
Kai looked back at the table and watched Ka’Tehm roll the turquoise thread around with his paw. “Any theories from the magical creatures?”
Ka’Tehm and Basir both blinked twice. “Okay, put your science experiment away and let’s call it a night. I don’t want you to accidentally burst into flames or transport yourself fifty years into the future.”
I’m sure the look on my face was horrified. “That couldn’t happen, could it?”
Kai laughed and shook his head. “With you, anything is possible, but I’m pretty sure even you have to work to create a magical meltdown.”
“Who whoooo,” Basir said, winking at Kai. Yeah, I had to agree; I had a history of unintended magical meltdowns.
“You’re dangerously close to losing your best friend status, pellet head,” I said, narrowing one eye at the owl while discharging all of the threads of magic back into the floor. I made sure to keep them all wrapped in a nice safe ball of earth magic that I blew apart after it sank into the carpet. Basir made a big show of hacking up something, threatening to spit an owl pellet into the center of the table - revenge pellets were always his specialty.
“You do and you’ll be sleeping on a light post,” I said, pointing my finger at him.
He took flight right at my head and hit me with his wing before bouncing off my shoulder and slapping me lightly again.
I held my hands up defensively and made melodramatic “ouch!” noises, even though his wing taps were light and playful. Basir landed on my shoulder and threw his wings around my head, pulling gently on my hair with his beak. Basir dropped his wings and opened his beak, wagging his black tongue back and forth, laughing at me.
I pretended to glare at Kai. “And you just stand there while wild creatures attack me.”
“I was waiting until I could kiss it and make it better,” He said, holding his hands up in mock-defense.
I shook my head, “Nope. Too late for that. I’m not going to forgive you until tomorrow.”
He laughed. “We’ll see about that.”
Chapter 8
In the darkness, I could hear Kai’s breathing, and I knew he wasn’t sleeping. I turned over and looked at him.
“Something’s off here, isn’t it?” I whispered.
He turned on his side as well, so we were facing each other. “I think a lot of things are off here. From the jinn to La Gilda to you being the one they called.”
“I’ve been thinking the same thing.”
“Did you get the names of any of the people you met with?”
“No. Chairman Mariani was in charge, and there were no introductions outside of a woman from Lombardy named Mariella.”
“Did the Chairman say your name?” Kai asked, narrowing his eyes.
I nodded. “Only my title and last name. One guy across from me seemed angry, and I don’t think it was directed at me. His eyes,” I thought back to the man who gripped the table and pulsed with fury. “Were light green.”
Kai made a hmm noise. “What do you know about your father, Ari?”
“His name. He was a fire witch who worked with Kingston in the Alliance and got close to something that he wasn’t supposed to know; whatever that was might have gotten him killed. It’s all vague.”
“And you never pressed for specifics?”
I sighed. “I know this is probably hard to understand, but I didn’t know him, and I wasn’t curious about him. He died when I was an infant, so it’s not like I had any memories, and I never missed him because he was a stranger.”
“Aren’t humans curious about such things? Where you come from, what your history is?”
“You’d think I would be considering my profession, but on a personal level, I’m not. I know who my family is: my mom, Basir, my aunt, my grandparents, the Fongs. Those are the people who were around. Now I’d add you and Ka’Tehm. Marco Cerasola is just a name to me.”
“I understand that, but I think he’s also part of the larger mystery of why your magic is different. It could be there’s something about Marco that Kingston has been trying to cover up or maybe discover for decades. We should find out what that is.”
I thought about that and decided Kai might have a point, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to go down that road. “What if I’d rather let some things stay a mystery?” I asked.
He blinked. “Then that’s your choice.” He looked so sincere, but the twitch at the corner of his mouth was always his tell. “It might kill me, but I will honor your decision. I’m afraid being in Rome might take that out of your hands, though.”
I sighed. “You’re going to be amazed at how good I am at avoiding things I don’t want to know.”
“And you will be amazed at how good I am at attracting things that are better left alone.”
“But you can try, right? To keep from attracting them?”
He gave me a wicked look. “It didn’t work so well with you.”
I rolled my eyes. “If I remember right, you worked pretty hard at getting my attention.”
“You didn’t make me work as hard as you’re pretending you did. But I’ll admit I’ve worked very hard at keeping your attention ever since.”
“Whooo,” Basir complained from his perch on the headboard.
Kai laughed and rolled onto his back, dragging me into his side. “You have a big day tomorrow. Saving the magical world and all that. You should sleep.”
I wrapped my arm around him and closed my eyes. “I’m glad you’re here.”
He brushed a kiss against the top of my head.
In the morning, we immediately got back to work. I had research to do, and I was making notes on every scrap of paper in the hotel room, trying to piece the puzzle together. Basir was perched on the headboard, watching me, and every time I thought I found the missing scrap of information, I co
nferred with my feathered companion.
I love research, and my single-minded focus can keep me terminally occupied. Basir is a great sounding board because he studied with me throughout school and accompanied me on every dig. He knows at least as much about archaeology as I do, and he can hold his own in a debate even without actual speech. He was pecking at the names of places and pointing to things on the screen as we traced the thin clues through two thousand years of Roman history.
We’d been at it for about two hours before either one of us noticed Kai staring at us.
“Don’t let me interrupt.” He said, waving dismissively when Basir and I both looked at him.
“Sorry,” I said, instantly feeling ashamed. “We’ve been doing this together for so long; it’s just habit.”
Basir clicked his beak and motioned Kai over with his wing.
“Nope. It’s all good. I’m going to concentrate on what I’m good at, and I’ll leave the archaeology to the professionals. I’ll be back in an hour.” He stood up and walked out the door without even looking back at us.
“Who who,” Basir said.
“‘Uh-oh’ about sums it up.” I agreed. I blew out a long breath. “I suck at relationships.”
Basir raised one ear tuft and lowered his eyelids. Yeah, he wasn’t about to argue that point with me.
“It’s just this is what we’ve always done,” I whispered. “You and me.”
Basir clicked his beak thoughtfully and leaned over the computer keyboard pecking out +1 on the screen.
I shook my head and deleted the 1, making it read +2. I pointed at the bathroom door, behind which a magical blue beaver was swimming in the bathtub.
“Whooooo.” Basir agreed.
“We’re going to need to try harder,” I whispered.
Basir blinked once and held out a wing to me. I shook it and grimaced. “But while he’s gone…” I turned my attention back to the computer screen, and Basir and I traced the history of the Roman Empire through Turkey, Iraq, and Greece. I felt like we had gotten somewhere when I heard the door open.
Kai came in with a shopping bag and sat on the edge of the bed to unpack his purchases. He handed me a notebook, and I grinned.
“Well, that’s a handy invention.” I quipped, sweeping my hand out to indicate the tiny scraps of paper I’d been using. “Why didn’t I think of that?”
He laughed. “Because your planning skills suck. I called Kenny and asked him to give you some lessons when we get back.”
Basir flew off the bed and headed into the bathroom, giving us a moment.
“My relationship skills are worse than my planning,” I said, looking apologetic.
Kai shook his head. “Mine aren’t much better.” He paused and leveled his gaze at me. “You’ll notice I said not much better.”
“I concede the point.”
Kai turned to me and ran his hand through his hair. “There are things I can’t tell you because it would be interfering, and the rules still bind me. You know that, right?” I nodded. “But there are angles you’re not considering, and you need to be open to taking direction through subtle hints.”
I snorted. “Well, you’ll have to work on that because I would never use the word subtle to describe you. Plus, I have a list of people who will tell you that taking direction is not my strong suit.”
“I know.” He replied. “I’ve led you down the right path before, but you’re shutting me out right now.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but he was right. I nodded again.
“We don’t have time to fight this battle multiple times, Ari. I don’t have all of the answers, but I know what needs to be done and in what order things need to happen.” He looked at the bed, and his eyes scanned the notes I’d made on the pieces of paper. He reached out and pointedly rearranged a few before nodding. “I also know that you’re good at untangling these things on your own. If you don’t want me to be part of it, I’ll be the field support after this job. You don’t have that luxury this time, and eventually, you’re going to need to build a team because you can’t run the entire C.C.O. by yourself.”
I don’t know why that bit of insight hit me like a ton of bricks, but it came as a complete surprise. Aside from a brief moment during the meeting with the Guild, I hadn’t even given the Crux Crucio Orbis a thought.
“Holy cow.” I breathed. “The C.C.O.”
Kai let me sit in stunned silence for a moment, and he had the good grace not to laugh.
“I need to recruit some magical people into the C.C.O. because it couldn’t survive with just me,” I said, feeling the weight of the world settle squarely on my shoulders. I looked up at Kai and noticed the tiny twitch in his jaw muscle.
He sighed and picked up his bag. “Keep thinking about that for ten minutes. Then get back to your research. I’ll be over there preparing your arsenal.”
I flopped back on the bed and closed my eyes, taking the not-so-subtle hint. I rolled his comments around in my head, puzzling it out until my eyes flew open in alarm.
The Crux Crucio Orbis - the magical organization that was duty-bound to preserve the balance of power in magic. The Resistance to the Chanson and the Alliance. I wasn’t in Italy about the jinn - I was there about the war between the magical powers and the structure of Italian magic.
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.” I hissed.
Kai laughed. “Just dawned on you, huh?”
“The freaking Chanson is knocking on the door, and coincidentally there’s a rampaging jinn trying to break into magical artifacts and setting fires. And a certain member of the Alliance just happened to know Majeedah was trying to call me. Yup. It took me long enough.”
“Now, you need to figure out what you’re going to do about it,” Kai said.
I went back to work, darting gazes toward Kai as he measured and ground things in a mortar and pestle. He remained silent, but every now and then, I saw him blink, and the corners of his mouth twitched like he was trying to keep from laughing. I had a pretty good idea of what was so funny, but something about the tension in his shoulders unsettled me.
I needed to know if I was right, though. “Can I run a theory by you?”
His eyes lifted to me. “Am I your field support or your partner?”
I bit the inside of my cheek, thinking about that. “What do you want to be?”
He shook his head and went back to grinding something with a little more force than before.
“I want you to be my partner,” I said, closing my eyes. “You know I have to choose a side in this, and you’re not allowed to do that because you’re bound by the rules, so I never know what’s allowed and what isn’t.”
“If you cross the line, I will either tell you, or I will back out.” He retorted.
“Okay. Theoretically speaking, I think magic here doesn’t work on purpose. I need to figure out why and do it fast because I suspect the Chanson has a way to power their own magic despite that. If that’s the case, is this how they plan to take over in Italy, or are they here because they’re after something else? The other question is: does the Guild know why the magic is weird, and if so, why are they hiding it? The third problem is the jinn. That’s what brought me here, but I think that’s collateral damage from whatever else is going on.”
“What does your research point to?” Kai asked at the end of my speech.
“I’m not sure; that’s why it’s just a theory right now.” I looked at the notebook and the diagrams I’d been drawing to connect the bits and pieces.
“You’re not going deep enough. You have all of the threads, but you’re avoiding looking too closely at some of them.”
“You think someone crafted this whole thing to get me here? Specifically?”
Kai took a deep breath and sat back, folding his arms across his chest. “You’re getting warmer.”
I looked back through my notes, trying to find whatever he was talking about. He remained silent, and the tension in the room began to build.
&
nbsp; I stood and walked toward the table, trying to look casual.
“Do you need me to charge these?” I asked.
He lifted wide eyes to mine. “It’s not like I can do it myself.” He said in a low tone that had the edge of a growl. He was caught between anger and amusement, and I wasn’t sure what I’d done to earn the first part.
I pulled the packets toward me and read the neatly printed descriptions, darting glances at Kai as I channeled tiny sparks of energy from the earth and breathed the intention into each packet. I felt the magic catch and charge the spells, but I quickly ran out of power and gave up. Basir fluttered into the room and landed on Kai’s shoulder.
Kai continued working across from me in silence. When I’d regained enough strength to finish half the pile, I looked at Basir because Kai seemed to be refusing to even look at me. Basir flattened his ear tufts against his head and very purposefully swiveled his head away from me. I’d pissed off the owl as well, but I had no idea how. That was just freaking great. My mom, boyfriend, and best friend - the trifecta of tense relationships, and I did most of it without saying a word.
“I think I should probably go take a look at those purple flames in the church.” I ventured.
Kai nodded. “Okay. I have a few things to look into myself. I probably won’t be around for dinner tonight.”
I blinked. I looked at Basir, who glared at me. I looked back at Kai, “You don’t want to come with me?”
Kai looked up and shook his head. “You know what you’re doing.”
Irritation surged in me. Damn right, I know what I’m doing. I smiled and charged the last half of the packets with my faint reserves of power. “Okay then, I’m going to head out. Alone, I guess.” I said, standing and grabbing my bag before he could answer. He didn’t even look up before I closed the door and stalked down the stairs with the heat of confused tears stinging my eyes. I had no idea what I’d done, but apparently, he was mad about something.
Outside, I put on sunglasses and headed toward the church. In addition to obsessing over Kai, my current assignment, and my complete incompetence as a Fattucchiera, I was also trying to convince myself that my globe-trotting career as a field archaeologist was the reason for my lack of long-term, serious relationships. It was a comforting lie that was quickly losing plausibility with the recent turn of events.
Resistant Magic (Relic Hunter Book 5) Page 8
