Resistant Magic (Relic Hunter Book 5)

by R. Leonia Shea

  I was weighing the proper ratio between enough information and sufficient omission when I saw Kai’s eyes flick to the bag at his feet. The corner of his mouth twitched, but he leaned back and crossed his arms across his chest.

  I moved on to my final topic, “Finding Julian’s relic and dealing with it would give you a fighting chance, but that’s outside the boundaries of my contract. I have contained the one jinn responsible for setting the fires, and there’s a clause in my contract about leaving the ruling structure of Italy as I found it.” I smiled at the loophole that didn’t work in La Gilda’s favor before I continued, “When La Gilda is ready to defend their territory, I believe I can get the other relic. I can’t do it now because turning up the power in Rome would decimate La Gilda.”

  “If we lose,” Matteo glared at his hands and left his sentence unfinished.

  Paolina’s eyes were calm. She was a warrior. “We will make sure we don’t lose. What would you recommend as our next step, Ari?”

  I took a deep breath and looked at Kai. I was probably about to dish out a little more dream-crushing reality, but I had no choice. “I’d prepare to fight, and make sure everyone in La Gilda had the best training possible. I’d choose the devil I know, and I’d make a deal with the United Coven and Alliance for that training. If you can get the rest of the families on board, you might be able to negotiate to keep La Gilda as the ruling power by agreeing to partner with the Alliance on some level.”

  I heard Kai make a little ‘hmm’ noise followed by a whispered laugh.

  Matteo and Paolina exchanged a nervous glance.

  Matteo spoke, “We will have to speak to the rest of the families. You believe we could insist on independence from the Alliance?”

  “I think you have a chance at getting them to agree to that, or I wouldn’t suggest it. The Alliance and the Chanson are competing to be the primary ruler for magical people. The Alliance at least seems willing to consider alternate arrangements at this time.”

  “You’re sure Mariani is not helping the Chanson?” Matteo asked, still doggedly looking for the enemy.

  I shook my head. What was up with the whole blood feud with the Mariani family? Jeez, Louise, Uncle Matteo was stubborn in a way that made me look like a push-over. “The fact is, you have barbarians in your tunnels this time and you can’t defeat them if you’re fighting amongst yourselves.”

  I didn’t intend to leave Italy vulnerable. Still, La Gilda needed a sense of urgency to act against the thousand-year lie of the Benedicaria, and I’d given them a new set of barbarians to spur them into action. Change happens slowly for most organizations, but they didn’t have that luxury.

  “We will need you to tell this to the rest of i tredici.” Matteo asked.

  “I’m a little busy trying to buy you some time.” I looked at Kai, and he read the question in my eyes. The corners of his mouth twitched. He nodded, and I swung my attention back to Matteo. “I’m going to try to point the Chanson in another direction, but my partner can explain why we are making this suggestion. I would suggest you not mention Mariani’s jinn at this time.” I leaned forward and narrowed my eyes at Matteo. “You can’t afford a split right now.”

  Matteo took a deep breath and nodded. He’d hold it together until the threat passed, but after that, I wouldn’t want to be in Mariani’s expensive loafers.

  We all stood and shook hands. Kai and I were out the door in a few seconds, headed down in the elevator.

  “Your relatives,” He said, sounding astonished. “I didn’t see that one coming, but you were one surprise after another in there.”

  I knew what he meant. “Technically, my half-relatives. And the Alliance is the better choice when you can’t do it on your own.”

  “Could your new opinion of them have anything to do with Evan?”

  I thought about that for a second. “Maybe. I will admit, Kingston and Evan have done a lot to clean house in the Alliance, and Emily Danforth seems to have a mission to rid the whole system of corruption. Right now, they could use some new members since their numbers are down, but it’s entirely up to the Guild to make that decision.”

  Kai nodded. “Balance.”

  I shrugged. “I might just have a guilty conscience. With so much going on in the world, I don’t always know what the rules are anymore.”

  He looked at me, and there was something calculating in his eyes. “The rules keep changing. Eventually, your decisions might not be so easy.”

  I looked at him and smiled. “My loyalties have to stay with the C.C.O. right now. I’m perfectly happy to let King Kong battle Godzilla.”

  Kai nodded and smiled. “Noted and agreed.”

  “You won’t be in trouble if you go to the meeting as my representative, will you?”

  “Not at all. I’m going to pass on the information you found, and I will not sway the outcome at all, except to possibly negotiate a particularly lucrative new contract for the C.C.O.. I’m going to need a raise if we keep adding things to my job description.”

  I looked down at his shoes. “I’m not sure I can afford you.”

  Kai grinned. “I have faith your company is about to take off, but this isn’t your battle. We don’t have a dog in this fight. Yet.” He smiled and nudged me with his arm, giving me an exaggerated wink.

  He handed me back my pack, and I shouldered the weight.

  “Do I get any points for not questioning you and being excellent field support?” He asked as he handed me my helmet.

  “Don’t get too excited; there’s still a lot you haven’t heard yet.” We climbed on the scooter and headed back toward Rome. When we stopped at a light, I yelled. “I need to swing by our house by way of the market,” I said.

  “Do you need Kenny to meet you at the back door?” Kai asked.

  “That would be amazing. Ask him to bring a wheelbarrow or a cart and a few of the guys.”

  At the next light, Kai pulled out his cell phone and sent a text. I had no idea the badger had a cell phone, but it made sense since he was running our business. I busted out laughing, and I saw Kai look at me in the little round side mirror. I squeezed him, enjoying the absurdity that was my new normal.

  We zoomed toward the ruins in the center of the city, crossed the Tiber, and I spent a moment just enjoying the ride and trying to ignore the fact that Kai swooped in and out of traffic like a maniac, testing his mortality (and mine) in ways I couldn’t control. I didn’t want to change anything about him, and I was grateful he had the same opinion about me.

  Ka’Tehm was in the bag strapped to my back, and I had my arms around my partner. I was sure Basir was keeping an eye on us from high above. Those were the things that mattered to me. Matteo and Paolina Serafini were no more related to me now than they had been a few hours before. We might share a few strands of DNA, but I still wasn’t looking to drag up the ghost of a man I’d never known.

  Chapter 24

  Kai pulled into the parking lot of Trajan’s market, and I got off, handing him my helmet. “I’ll be right back,” I said, jogging across the small lot and into the giant ancient mall. I ran through the market, heading to the lower levels. People milled about the ruins, but I couldn’t wait until the site closed, so I’d have to take the risk. I entered a narrow corridor used for maintenance and threw my leg over the thin metal safety rail. The backpack changed my center of gravity, and before I could right myself, I tumbled over the railing, face-first into the portal.

  The compressions started the minute my forehead broke the barrier, and I didn’t have the opportunity to take a deep breath before I was sucked into the darkness. It was like falling into a black hole that spun around me and squeezed me into a single atom before the lights of a billion stars began flashing behind my eyes. The lights were probably due to oxygen deprivation, and I felt like my lungs were going to explode when I popped out the other side of the portal, in the far northern corner of my property in the Berkshires.

  Kenny, the badger, grunted at me, drawing
in loud breaths and looking like he was having a cardiac event.

  The lights still flashed at the edges of my vision, and I could feel a monster of a headache building. Someone with a possible concussion shouldn’t use a portal, but I didn’t have another choice. “Hey, Kenny,” I said, trying to catch my breath and wondering how many brain cells I’d lost due to the lack of oxygen.

  Kenny raised a paw, and we both continued gasping for a minute before we could talk. I swung my backpack off, and Ka’Tehm floated out. He and Kenny waved, but the badger was still too winded to say anything. I massaged my shoulders for a minute, noticing for the first time how sore they were after lugging the reliquary around for a few hours. I pulled the artifact out and set it on the ground. “I need you to take care of this for me. Can you and the guys haul it back to the barracks?”

  Kenny nodded and wheezed. The gnomes rolled their eyes, but they looked at me like they wanted to say something. Kenny took another deep breath. “If you...could put it...on the cart,” he panted.

  “It would save us having to push it up there, Ari.” Timin, the youngest gnome, finished, patting Kenny on the back.

  I smiled and lifted the reliquary onto the cart. “Thanks, guys. Leave it on the cart though. I don’t know how soon I’m going to need it back. Oh, and I might have more things coming.” I didn’t mention the new member of the compound.

  “No problem,” Kenny said, letting out just a tiny wheeze at the end of the sentence. “We’ll set a guard around this piece for now and clear out some space.” He took out his mini pocket calendar and made a note. I was sure that Kenny would have the gnomes scheduled for guard duty around the clock by the time they wheeled the cart back to the shed they lived in.

  I’d bet on those renegade gnomes to guard the heck out of anything, against any enemy, any day of the week, but it wasn’t their specialty. If the Idral situation worked out, the gnomes could go back to their gardening jobs.

  I held the nylon pack open, and Ka’Tehm scrambled in, lifting his paw to Kenny again. I shouldered the pack and took a deep breath before I dove face-first into the portal. As the suffocating feeling grew unbearable, I popped out the other side, grasping frantically for the handrail in front of me and trying to hook my leg around the baluster that supported the rail. I crashed into the railing, taking it fully in the stomach and flipping over it like a gymnast with a drinking problem. My head banged against the wall behind me, but I managed to hang on with my hands, so Ka’Tehm didn’t get squashed, but I wound up in an awkward bridge position with my feet on two different stairs and my upper body dangling a few inches off the ground as I held on to the railing with a white-knuckled grip.

  Since I had almost no strength in my battered arms, the only option I had was to lower one of my hands and try to use my core muscles to stand up. With a lot of grunting and wincing, I managed, and I limped back out of the market, finding Kai leaning up against the Vespa, looking thoughtful.

  “All taken care of?” He asked, handing me my helmet and trying to hide his laughter.

  “Yup.” I rolled my shoulders, trying to unkink them and look perfectly fine.

  “I think you should call Evan,” Kai said, reaching out and adjusting the hem of my filthy pink t-shirt. He looked at me and shook his head. I gathered from that look that straightening the hem didn’t improve my appearance at all.

  “Words I never thought I’d hear you say.” I asked, trying not to laugh. I didn’t really want to talk to Evan.

  “He’ll need the time.”

  I thought about that and nodded. “We’re going to have a little sit down with all the players when we get home. Call me uptight, but I don’t like being used.”

  “I can’t argue with that, but for future reference, sometimes people use you to save themselves.”

  I nodded, “It still sucks,” I pulled out my phone to dial.

  “Ward,” Kai whispered, looking pained.

  I nodded and pulled up a thin veil of earth energy, feeling the cool breeze of the Berkshires in the web. I hadn’t realized I’d drawn up any power during my brief visit, but I must have because I could taste the sharp, clean tang of pine trees.

  “You don’t call for weeks, and now I can’t get you to stop. Ditch the dog, and I’ll be there by tomorrow night.” Evan teased.

  “You might need to be here sooner,” I said.

  There was a beat of silence. “Are you okay? I can send people.”

  “You might have to, but not for me because I’m fine. There’s a situation over here, and you might get a call for assistance. I hope that’s okay.”

  “What kind of assistance?”

  “Something is going down with the Frenchies, and the families might need a little backup. I might have suggested they call if they’re willing to hammer out an agreement with your people.”

  “You’re kidding.” Evan said, “Hang on, Kingston’s here with me. Let me put you on speaker.”

  I heard their muffled conversation and then Kingston’s “Go ahead, Ari.”

  I gave them the low-down, and I could almost hear their eyebrows raise. “You do know you’re not supposed to recruit for the Alliance, don’t you?” Kingston asked with the hint of a smile in his voice.

  “I’m not recruiting for the Alliance. My organization is sworn to maintain the balance of power. It seems like the Alliance is a bit in the red these days, and the people I’m currently working for are woefully unprepared if things go the way I think they will.”

  Evan's voice was calm. “There’s no denying that assessment on either count.”

  “Continue,” Kingston said.

  “I don’t know if they’ll call, but I told them it’s what I would do if I were in their position. I’m not a fan of your organization, but I think some positive changes are happening, and I hope it’s moving in the right direction. These people are going to need your help because I don’t think they can win. If you can’t help, it won’t damage my reputation or compromise my job, but there will probably be more players on the opposing team. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll do what I can to give them a fighting chance, but I thought it might help the balance if they called in the reinforcements before things went sideways. It’s up to them how they choose to proceed with you, though. They’re very fond of the rules they have.”

  I heard some muffled talking and then the clicking of a keyboard. “We’ll move some people into position just in case. Do you need assistance from any of your friends or associates?” Kingston asked.

  I gave a bitter little laugh. “Hard pass on that one right now. My partners and I have it covered. If something changes, I’ll call, but right now, we’re good. Who should I give them as a contact person if they ask?” Kingston volunteered himself, but I had one other question for him. “While I have you, what can you tell me about Peter Picenzia?”

  Kingston sounded bored. “He’s a minorly talented air witch who tends to stand on the sidelines but likes to sound important. Decent field agent. He files an occasional intelligence report with us. The most recent was about an outside consultant working with La Gilda Maghi on a jinn issue. He didn’t know the consultant’s name or the organization she was with because he’s a low-level snitch.”

  “Well, I love a low-level snitch,” I said, feeling relieved. Maybe Peter didn’t work for the Chairman of the Guild as much as he pretended to. Perhaps he freed Sidaffri because he loved her. I barked out a bit of laughter at my thought. At some point, I’d become a hopeless romantic.

  And then I sobered as I remembered that once again, Kingston Pon and Evan Robeson had meddled in my life, straddling that line between good and shady. Knights in tarnished armor.

  “Take care of yourself, and if the situation turns, get out of there,” Kingston said, sounding concerned. “There are things that you’re not prepared for.”

  “Yeah, I figured that out when I had drinks with my uncle.” I let that comment land, and I held my breath.

  “We will have drinks when you get back,
” Kingston said apologetically.

  “You can count on that.” I snarled. “I just wanted you to know I’m not adding any names to my Christmas card list, but the three of us are going to have a long talk when this is over. There are few things we need to straighten out about this arrangement.”

  “Understood,” Kingston said. “But we will have that long talk over drinks. Call me when you’re ready.” He hung up. I stared at the phone for a second and dropped my ward.

  “It’s been a long day.” I sagged against Kai and smiled. “And I still have a jinn and two lamps to find, but first, I need a shower and something to eat before I collapse.”

  “Your wish is my command,” Kai said, putting on his helmet and sliding onto the scooter. I climbed on behind him, and we motored off to the hotel.

  Chapter 25

  The shower was amazingly painful because the water hitting the million scrapes and scratches on my arms, hands, and face made it feel like fire sprayed out of the jets. I winced and ground my teeth, soaping the injuries as gently as I could.

  “You don’t have all day, you know,” Kai said from outside the glass doors.

  “I’m working on it.” I groaned, shampooing my hair and making faces because of the pain that shot through my shoulders. I finally got my hair conditioned and rinsed, making quiet whimpering noises, and I stepped out to find Kai holding a fluffy white towel. He wrapped it around me and lifted me onto the marble countertop. I watched as he opened an unmarked glass jar. He scooped a thick white cream into his hand and gently applied it to my forearms and palms.