thing she was sure of was that the Brotherhood did exist. And that we had to stop them from getting the Jackal.”
He let that sink in while he passed a slow-moving minivan. “Did she specifically say that it was some kind of weapon of mass destruction? Maybe it’s just power, not inherently good or bad.”
“Don’t give me that ‘magical artifacts don’t kill people, people kill people’ business,” I said. “You can pry my Goodnight Farms magical bath products out of my cold dead fingers, but I’m one hundred percent in favor of Nazi-face-melting artifacts control.”
An awkward pause sucked the air out of the car. I was actually relieved when Carson called me out. “Are you seriously going to turn this into a debate about the Second Amendment?”
It was ridiculous, considering him, organized crime management in training, and considering me, unpaid psychic consultant for the FBI. But I pretended it wasn’t. “I’m from Texas. Everything is about the right to bear arms. It’s kind of annoying, no matter which side you’re on.”
I caught him smiling at that before he turned serious again. “What about this Book of the Dead that your aunt couldn’t find?”
“I don’t know.” I closed my eyes, trying to recall exactly what the guys had said at the mausoleum. “In the graveyard, the Brotherhood was looking for something, but it wasn’t the Jackal. They said if they couldn’t find it, the Jackal wouldn’t matter, and Alexis would be useless. Maybe they’re still looking for the book.”
He took the flash drive out of his pocket and handed it to me. “Do you think there’s a clue to the book on there?”
I looked into the mummy’s nonexistent eyes, then back at Carson. “I’m sorry. I can only talk to the real dead, not the plastic kind.”
“Cute. But maybe Alexis found a clue in her studies—the ancient world seems to be the connecting thread. She knows about magic, so she might look at information differently from other students. Some link that’s been missed for eighty-odd years.”
“Eighty years is a long time.” Also, what were the odds she found something my aunt couldn’t?
“Alexis is genius smart. She was on college week on Jeopardy!” He glanced at me. “Maybe she knew these guys, but when she found out what the jackal was, she refused to give them information about it.”
The theory held together loosely, but there were still a lot of unraveling threads.
“Did you really not know she was thinking of going to grad school at the Institute?” I asked.
“No. She didn’t tell me.” Carson had his game face on, but he couldn’t quite hide that her silence bothered him. A lot. “Maybe she thought I would tell Maguire.”
I left that thread alone. We drove in silence, Carson passing another car at faster-than-posted speed. I assumed he knew what he was doing, because we couldn’t afford to get pulled over. There was almost certainly an APB out for me, or him, or both of us by now.
“So what did the Brotherhood overhear?” he finally asked.
It took me a second to rewind as far as the eavesdropping spell. “That the jackal—or a jackal—is in St. Louis. Which, since the spell was in the book, they knew already. Now they just know we know.”
Carson was quiet another long moment. “Did Tweed Jacket call you by your name?”
Oh yeah. Now they knew that, too.
“Just my last name.”
Whatever he was thinking made him flex his hands on the wheel. I tried to let it pass, but all I could imagine was my family caught between the Maguire operation and the Brotherhood of the Magical Jackasses. I hoped Saint Gertrude had reinforcements, because it was going to take a truckload of angels to protect my nearest and dearest.
“What?” I demanded. “What are you thinking?”
Another eternity went by before he let me know. “We’ve been wondering why they asked Maguire to get the jackal, when they know more about it than we do. Maybe they need his resources. Especially if this is a group of students.”
“And Maguire has lots of resources,” I said, not seeing what that had to do with me.
“Money, magic, and muscle,” Carson agreed. “But by killing Alexis’s bodyguard and kidnapping her, the kidnappers made sure we got one more thing: a psychic who could talk to the dead.”
I shivered despite the warm air blowing through the vents. “How could they have known about me?”
“There’s this new invention called the Internet.”
I didn’t give that the answer it deserved because he was driving. “How did they know