Durance by Lyn Gala Page 0,11

worried eyes. These were Kavon’s people—his team. Settling on the couch next to Darren, Kavon tried to present the problem in a logical order, the way he would introduce them to a case.

Within minutes of Kavon starting, they all stared at him with horror. Kavon finished the spiel he’d practiced and waited. Silence filled the room. Rima twitched her hand as if grabbing for weapon, but then she stilled, and Coretta leaned back with an expression like someone had punched her.

Les found his voice first. “So, evil gods from another dimension are trying to kill us all, is that about it?”

“Don’t exaggerate,” Kavon said. He respected Les, but he didn’t appreciate the man’s penchant for drama.

“Really? Because I can promise you, that's exactly the way mundanes are going to hear your story,” Les warned. “Bruh, magical creatures are invading. Yep. That's going to be the lead on certain news stations and you know it.”

Kavon knew that already. “That's why we need to keep this quiet.”

Coretta said softly. “It'll start a new purge.” Her face twisted with horror.

“Funny you should mention that,” Darren said.

Before he could get further, Les demanded, “What haven't you told us?”

Kavon tried to project a calm he didn’t feel. “The last time the ifrit had a war, they decided to put earth back the way they found it.”

Les made the connection fast, blurting out, “Oh dear God. They found it without any magic. Are you telling me that the ifrit started the purge? Because if that's what you're saying, I'm going to find Darren's little bird and I'm going to wring its neck.” Les had real anger in his voice.

That ruffled Darren’s feathers. “You can't kill Bennu over something that happened thousands of years ago.”

“Yes, I really can,” Les said without any hesitation.

Coretta leaned forward. Kavon trusted her to bring a more level head to the debate. “We can’t blame the ifrit for the prejudice people have toward Talent,” Coretta said. “When magic started reappearing in the 1500s, that led to a whole new round of purges and witch hunts led by humans. The ifrit had nothing to do with those or with the religious persecution people with Talent face today.”

“Fine.” Les glared at her. “Then let’s focus on the part where we’re all going to die. That's the part I find interesting anyway.”

“You’re exaggerating,” Kavon snapped.

“Oh, I'm pretty sure I'm not. Your story sounds like an end-of-the-world prediction. Either that or evil gods who give psychopaths amazing new shamanic powers will enslave us. Yes. That’s so much better.” Les put his head down on his arms. “Will someone please shoot me?”

“I might,” Coretta said dryly.

“I assume we’re here to figure out how to stop that from happening,” Rima said. “What’s the plan?”

Rima was Kavon’s new favorite person. “We handle this like we would any other case.”

Coretta frowned. “Are you suggesting that we go out and interview witnesses, call Wyatt for a database search, and then file reports with Assistant Director White requesting additional resources?” Her tone dared him to say that.

Kavon would’ve preferred to handle the case using FBI regulations; however, too many agents had their own anti-Talent biases, and Les was right about the general panic if the public found out about the returning ifrit. “We can’t bring others into this,” Darren said. “However, we already have reports of unusually strong magical artifacts and landmarks showing up, and we've talked about these hotspots. If we’re investigating them, that’s normal, right?”

“If we had spare time, sure,” Coretta said. “We have nearly three times the number of active cases compared to a year ago.”

“But it would be an easy and safe case for the new people to investigate,” Rima said. She spoke slowly as though thinking the words through as she spoke. “They could poke around and see if anyone suspicious is related to all the places where large amounts of magic had been left. Well, anyone other than Darren, because we all know he tends to leave a few magical bombs in his wake.” She graced him with a teasing smile.

“Ha ha,” Darren said, without denying the accusation.

“I don’t want the new members of the team involved,” Kavon said. “We don’t know them. I don’t want to deal with a panicking agent.”

“Then you should have avoided telling me,” Les whispered.

“We might be able to get some sort of geographic profile from the reports,” Coretta suggested, “but none of us specializes in geographical profiling. Are we going to bring profilers in? We could use a false anonymous