16. Circles

{Uriel}

Uriel suspected that if Ritsu had hands large and dextrous enough, he would have used them to strangle him by now. And after pulling that risky act of defiance the night before, the djinni would have gladly let him.

"I know that I crossed the line with Naya last night," Uriel admitted to Ritsu in private.

Ritsu folded his hairy arms. "Your apologies mean nothing to me. What are you going to do about it?"

Uriel glanced over at the little red hookah where he knew Naya was, hunched over her laptop and looking for the best culinary school to enroll him in.

"I have a plan."

Then the djinni stepped up to the hookah pipe and wrote a spell that would open the passageway and take him inside. Naya didn't acknowledge him as he materialized out of a column of smoke. Not because she was so immersed in her research, but because she was fast asleep with her laptop glowing brightly next to her head.

Uriel did not smile as he knelt beside her, closed the laptop screen, and whispered a delicate incantation while he drew a crackling symbol on her forehead. She would sleep longer and might wake up with a little headache – the only evidence that her slumber had been tampered with.

Uriel hesitated over her form. He should have turned away and headed for the exit, but he couldn't help noticing how inviting her lips looked in the deep of sleep. In the end, he allowed himself to tickle her fire. Even though Naya slept, her fire was alive and very aware of his presence. The lithe flame flirted with him for a brief moment and then retreated back, as if it knew that the one who had come to visit was toeing taboo lines.

He watched the small fire slink away – small, but in no way weak.

Don't worry, he thought with a smirk, I'll be back.

But he regretted the thought as soon as the moment passed.

***

Uriel found a spot at the back of the subway cart so he and Ritsu could talk without being overheard. It was bad enough that the monkey refused to be carried in a bag this time. Luckily, there hadn't been any Marta officials around to deny them access to the underground tram. If such a thing were to occur, Uriel was prepared to explain that Ritsu was his cancer-detecting pet. He had drafted a fake doctor's note for that sole purpose. A ludicrous insurance, but he didn't particularly care right then.

"First of all," Ritsu began in an undertone, "Where are we going? Secondly, why are we riding in this electric mole instead of your car?"

Uriel admitted, "I haven't completely mastered the automobile yet."

For that reason, Naya made sure to squeeze in a lesson on how to use public transportation. At first, Uriel complained that he would never need that once he learned how to drive. Instead of arguing with him, Naya had simply patted his arm and said, "Trust me."

Now he was grateful for it.

"As far as where we are going . . . " Uriel said. "Many places."

The djinni and the demon got off at all the major stops. At each one, Uriel performed the same task. As soon as Ritsu caught onto the purpose of these stops, he said, "What you're doing . . . I've only seen magi do that."

Ritsu spat the word like it was infected.

Uriel looked at him. "I know."

Ritsu seethed, "That's alchemy and it's only for those wretched sorcerers to wield! So why are you drawing those circles?"

The circles and signs that Ritsu referred to were invisible to the human eye. To everyone else at the CNN Center, it simply looked like Uriel was tracing the ground with his shoe.

The djinni kept his face blank and his shoulders relaxed as he explained, "A magus taught me how to do this just in case of emergencies."

Ritsu glared at the circles. "I don't understand."

"Like you said, there could be a collector trying to sniff us out. So I'm placing wards all around Atlanta. They're not as strong as they would be if they had been drawn by an experienced magus, but they will hold as long as they aren't tampered with."

Ritsu glanced up at the djinni. "And if they are?"

"Then at least I'll get a fair warning."

Ritsu clenched his tiny fists, took a deep breath and said, "Tell me the truth, djinni. Are you doing this to protect my mistress? Or is this so that you can carry on with her in that reckless way of yours?"

Uriel felt a muscle in his jaw twitch. "You common demons know nothing of what it's like to care for someone. If you preach to me one more time about how I choose to spend my time with Naomi, I will set a fire to you so brutal, it will burn you from the inside out before you even realize it."

The menacing shade of maroon clouding Uriel's eyes punctuated his threat.

The djinni's voice sizzled as he took a deep breath to calm his inner fire. A few wisps of smoke escaped through the corners of his lips. He cleared his throat a few times to force the heat back down. Then he went back to drawing the circular wards.

Once all the wards had been placed and they were on their way home, Ritsu asked softly, "Who was the magus that taught you alchemy?"

The red tinge had faded from Uriel's eyes. They were now a friendly brown.

Uriel smiled. "His name is Zayn Naim."

+++

{Duffy}

Duffy died again.

It didn't matter much because he had outlived the other players in eight out of ten rounds. So he made sure to properly troll them when he was awarded his trophy.

"Playing that idiotic duck game again?" Janus growled as he breezed through the room. Thankfully, his overgrown fire demon wasn't shadowing him.

Duffy started the next level. "Unapologetically, yes."

"I don't pay you to sit on your fat ass and pretend you're in college."

Duffy chuckled, "Actually –"

"We're about to close this deal at the firm. Then you and I can move forward with this djinni-made business. Have you got a lock on the target?"

Duffy snorted, "Are you serious? I took care of that a week ago." He looked over his shoulder at his boss, who was glaring hard enough to make him un-handsome. Duffy swallowed. Not a good sign.

Janus slowed his speech. "Then tell me why all of your instruments are out of sync."

"What? Shit."

The magus scrambled out of his bean bag chair and blundered past his boss. By the time he reached his workroom, he had broken into a sweat. Janus was right, the instruments were acting independently, as if they had been reset. That could only mean . . . .

"Son of bitch!"

Janus came up behind him.

"What is it now?" His impatience made his voice sound shrill.

Duffy swallowed hard. "This djinni-made isn't alone. He's got a magus helping him."

"How do you know that?"

Duffy's fingers flew across the control board. "Because the bastard threw up wards all around downtown Atlanta. He's there for sure, but I can't track his movements. And we were so close."

Janus made a sound that could barely pass as a laugh.

"You think I'm intimidated by some second rate magus? No, Duffy, this only makes the game more interesting. Keep looking for the djinni-made. This time expand your search for his magus. We'll catch them both if we have to."

Duffy shook his head, his hands still moving swiftly across the bed of dials and switches.

"There aren't any active magi in Georgia. I already checked."

Janus grabbed him by his shoulders and roughly spun him around. "Did you hear what I said? Expand your search. I don't care how long it takes. We're going to find both of them!"

Duffy shouldn't have asked, but he did anyway. "What are you going to do when you find the magus?"

The collector gave a toothy smile.

"What else? I'm going to steal all his djinn and use them to burn his practice to the ground."