“Oh cinnamon, snap. That was mine, wasn’t it,” said Peyton. “No bigs. I can share.”
“Okay. What’s the big alert?”
“A new job. Since the Professor still hasn’t contacted you about the next job, I’ve been poking around a little looking for work.” Peyton gestured toward the door. “I figure, you know, it’s time to get back out there again. Back on the horse, regain that momentum, and all that.”
Shay rolled her eyes. “I don’t need a pep talk, especially from you.”
“I’m not saying you do, but I also think you’re a little pissy still about Antarctica and Hokkaido.”
Shay shot her most murderous glare at Peyton. He needed to shut his mouth before she shut it for him.
Peyton held up his hand. “Okay, let’s just forget about that. The point is, there’s a new job, and you didn’t mention not taking any new ones. Or am I wrong?”
“No, I didn’t.” Shay softened her expression. “I’m listening. Tell me about the job.”
He waited a few seconds before continuing, “It’s in Edirne, Turkey. There’s an ancient stone there. Two feet by one foot.”
“Please tell me it’s not filled with mysterious symbols we don’t understand. There’s only so much of that I can take right now.”
Peyton shook his head. “Nope. This isn’t a mystery, it’s just good old-fashioned magic. Well, sort of.”
“Sort of?”
“It’s magic, but also like the manual to magic. It’s got an inscription in ancient Hittite that’s the beginning of a spell to extend life. Not sure if the stone is necessary for the magic, but it is supposed to have some magic power.”
Shay nodded. “It always comes back to immortality.”
“Yeah, according to my research, there are several of these stones all over the world, all with inscriptions, all different ancient languages, all part of the same spell.”
“Huh. That’s different,” said Lily.
“Yep. There are rumored to be nine. No one has ever found them all, and the few that have been found have gone missing again through the years. Only that one in Hittite and another in ancient Chinese have been verified to still exist in the last hundred years.” Peyton pointed toward his computer. “The stone in Turkey has been missing since 1938, but now it’s been found again.”
Shay crossed her arms. “And you’re sure the stone’s there?”
“Everything suggests it is, and the client is willing to pay a lot of money for you to recover it. He specifically was looking to hire you. Well, Aletheia.” Peyton shrugged. “He wants someone with experience working with dangerous artifacts, but he claims all you need to do to prevent the stone from exhibiting any magic power is to seal it in an airtight bag. The archaeologists who found it won’t move it because they’re concerned about dangers.”
Yeah, like artifacts blowing a crater into a hillside.
“I’ll make sure to bring a bag.” She frowned. “You mentioned a specific city. I’m not an expert on Turkish geography. Is this some necropolis in the middle of nowhere?”
“Nope, it’s a living, if ancient, city. The stone’s actually in a recently-unearthed burial mound on the edge.”
“Does anyone else know about it?”
Lily opened her mouth to say something as Shay held up her hand. “I wasn’t going to ask if I could come along. Only have the one wing,” she said, waving her cast. “I was going to ask Peyton if I could help him.”
Peyton gave a crooked smile, and gave her a nod. “I can find enough to keep you busy.”
“Now that we have that settled, I’ll ask again. Does anyone else know about it?”
Peyton shook his head. “Nope. Best I can tell, the stone was uncovered in the last few days. The client seemed very interested in getting it away from the city as soon as possible. Basically, if you’re not willing to commit to recovery within the next seventy-two hours, there’s no deal.”
Shay laughed. “Eager beaver. Maybe that shit explodes after a few days.”
A little tension lined Peyton’s face. “Now for the bad news.”
“Bad news? It does explode?”
“I don’t know about that, but my research found a lot of unusual deaths associated with people who’ve found these stones. Not just deaths, violent deaths.”
“A curse?”
He shrugged. “Don’t know. Mangled bodies, though. Many hacked into pieces.”
“Sounds less like a curse and more like someone took them out.”
“Maybe, but if you just grab it, I’m sure it won’t be a big deal. I hope.” Peyton clapped once. “You know what? What am I worried about? You can handle a few thugs. I’m sure it’ll be an easy jo—”
The tomb raider cut him off with a glare. There were no such things as easy jobs, just jobs that had more opportunity to turn into clusterfucks. She’d known that even as a killer, and she’d let herself forget until the snow bitch had shown up and stolen her damned magic beans.
Shay gestured at Peyton. “You just got done telling me about hacked-up and mangled bodies.”
“Yeah, but those were all people who didn’t know about actual magic like you. You’ll be ready if anything weird happens, and if it’s just thugs, you can take them down. You’ll be prepared. You’ve killed a lot of people…and, well, things.” Peyton shrugged. “The client is willing to pay a lot of money, including a huge deposit. Maybe it won’t be easy or maybe it will, but I think it’s a good job.”
“Yeah, it sounds like a good job, and it’s good to hear that my rep wasn’t hurt too badly by Antarctica.”
“See? No one blames you for getting iced.” Peyton shot a stupid grin at Lily who mouthed, run. “A vision?” he asked.
Shay pulled out her gun.
Peyton blinked. “What are you doing?”
“Checking to see if it’s loaded.”
“Fair enough. Let’s change the subject.”
Lily let out a whoop of laughter and ran over to Shay, wrapping her arms around her in a hug. Teenagers, thought Shay, startled, hugging her back as she held the gun away from her.
Chapter Eighteen
Later that evening, Shay strolled into Warehouse Four, humming. Peyton’s information checked
