Arthur shrugged. “I told you I’m not special like you.”
“Oh, you’re special all right,” said Rory. “You’re doing business with a man you can’t see—” He threw up his hands. “He just saidexcuse meand disappeared!”
“Well, Zhang’s a busy man,” said Arthur. “His family runs a tea parlor in Chinatown. He probably had to help a customer. He’ll be back.”
“But you won’t even know,” said Rory.
“Maybe not,” said Arthur, “but there’s no need to make a businessman travel through the mundane plane when Jade can see him just fine.” He leaned forward. “She’s the brains of this operation anyway, and clearly the beauty as well.”
“Shameless flattery.” Jade passed Rory a danish. “Watch yourself, Rory. Arthur’s charm’s as dangerous as any paranormal power. If you’re not careful, he’ll have you eating out of his hand.”
Rory eating out of my hand. There was a thought.
Rory gave Arthur a challenging stare. “Is charm what fixed my glasses?” he said, taking a big bite of the danish without bothering to take a seat.
“No.” Arthur drew the word out. “That was a new screw.”
Rory’s free hand flew to the frames. “Youfixed them for me? Yourself?”
Arthur shrugged. “My second-oldest brother has specs and five children. I keep a toolkit on hand.” Rory was staring at him like he’d sprouted tentacles. He winced. “I’m sorry, should I not have?”
“No, I just—never mind.” Rory leaned against the study wall and took another big bite. “You saidsecond-oldest brother?”
Arthur made a face. “I’m the youngest of six. Three older brothers, two older sisters, all of them convinced I’m perpetually three.”
“Ah.” Rory stuffed the rest of the danish in his mouth. “That’s why you boss around everyone else.”
“I like him,” Jade said to Arthur.
“You like everyone,” Arthur returned.
She grinned. “Zhang’s coming back. What can you tell us?” She and Rory were both quiet for a long moment, eyes on the table, then Jade furrowed her brow. “The ship is en route from China, but she’s Swedish,” she said to Arthur. “She took the Atlantic Lane and passed the Cape of Good Hope some weeks back, and could arrive in the Port of New York any day. But we still don’t know which relic.”
Rory was reaching for another of Mrs. Polkowski’s homemade danishes but at the wordrelic, he looked to Arthur expectantly.
“An object that’s become a vessel for magic,” said Arthur. “Like a ring, as you unfortunately discovered, or a dagger, or a choker. Something that can be worn or used as a weapon.”
“We’ve tried to piece the story together,” Jade said as she took her seat. “By which I mean Zhang pieced the story together, because his family has hunted relics much longer than we have. Best we can tell, there are seven relics in existence, enchanted centuries ago by a group of paranormal nobles hiding from a Spanish Inquisitor who could see magic. Each noble stripped out their power and transferred it to an object they could still use. But to drain and confine magic takes magic, and the magic trapped in the relics fed on its own chains until it became far stronger than the paranormal’s original power.”
Rory went a shade paler. “And you have one in New York? With another one on its way? Are you screwy—”
“They don’t work,” Arthur said quickly. He exchanged a brief glance with Jade. “They can’t possibly. Relics were bound to their original creator. When the creator died, the relic’s power became locked away, and we think the power will stay locked away unless the relic is bound to another paranormal. But no one knows how to do that. Hardly anyone can even see a relic for what it is.”
Rory scoffed openly. “That’s a load of bull. I knew the instant I opened that box. That ring hits like a torpedo—”
“On a subordinate paranormal,” Arthur interrupted.
Rory bristled like an angry cat. “Subordinate?”
“It’s not an insult,” Arthur said. “Not any more than it’s an insult to say your eyes are subordinate to sight, your ears to sounds, your tongue to taste.” He set down the coffee and steepled his fingers. “Think of magic as radio waves. Most paranormal powers make magic—most powers transmit. Jade transmits her telekinesis to move objects. Zhang transmits himself through the astral plane. But magic also broadcasts its own signal, and some powersreceive. Your psychometry receives magic into your mind from the objects you touch.”
“Fine, I’m a radio.” Rory’s eyes narrowed. “What difference does it make?”
“It’s why you sense an unbound relic while Jade, Zhang, and most others of your kind can’t,” said Arthur. “Because even among paranormals, an ability that receives magic is rare.”
Rory’s eyes blazed. He slammed his second danish down on the sideboard and stormed out of the study without another word.
Oh hell. “Excuse me,” Arthur said to Jade, and scrambled after Rory.
