The Red Scrolls of Magic

Magnus wandered back into their suite and pointed at his suitcases. They each split open and began to unload themselves. Blazers and coats flew into the waiting closet, undergarments folded themselves into the drawers, shoes walked into a neat row by the door, and valuables locked themselves into the safe.

He spun back to Alec, who was watching the movement of the sun through the cloudless sky with a slight frown.

“I know what you’re thinking,” said Magnus. “Breakfast.”

“We don’t have time,” said Shinyun, barging into their suite without knocking. “We should go search the abandoned headquarters at once.”

She, of course, had already changed into a kind of Italian-cut power suit that shone iridescent with enchantments and protections.

Magnus gave her a disapproving look. “We have not worked together very long, Shinyun Jung, but one thing you should learn about me quickly is that I am very serious about my meals.”

Shinyun looked at Alec, who nodded.

“I may, at any moment, organize an entire step in our mission around visiting a particular restaurant or bar. If I do so, it will be worth your while.”

“If it’s so important—” Shinyun began.

“We will be eating three meals a day. Breakfast will be one of those meals. In fact, breakfast will be the most important of those meals, because breakfast is the most important meal of the day.”

Shinyun looked at Alec, who said in a deadpan voice, “Many a mission to end a great evil has failed because of low blood sugar.”

“You do listen when I talk!” exclaimed Magnus. Alec gave Shinyun an apologetic smile that she did not return.

“Fine,” said Shinyun. “So where does your agenda begin today?”

Magnus’s agenda, luckily, began downstairs at the hotel’s own Oro Restaurant. They sat alfresco on the deck, watching a small parade of boats float by along the lagoon. Alec wolfed down two crepes and considered ordering a third. Magnus enjoyed an espresso, the menu’s most complicated-sounding egg dish, and the gleaming turquoise canal.

“I was thinking that you might enjoy Venice more than Paris,” he told Alec.

“I liked Paris,” said Alec. “This is nice too.” He braced himself with a visible effort, turned to Shinyun, and tried to make conversation. “This is my first time traveling for fun. I’ve always stayed close to home before. Where’s home for you?”

Magnus had to turn his face away to watch the boats for a moment. Sometimes the tenderness he felt for Alec actually hurt.

Shinyun hesitated. “Korea was home, when I had a home. The Korea of the Joseon Dynasty.”

There was a pause. “Was it a hard place to be a warlock?”

Shinyun looked at Magnus and said, “Every place is a hard place to be a warlock child.”

“That’s true,” Magnus said.

“Originally I am from a small village near Mount Kuwol. My warlock marks manifested late. I was fourteen and betrothed to Yoosung, a handsome boy from a good family in my village. When my face froze over, everyone believed I had turned into a Hannya demon or had been possessed by a gwisin. My betrothed said he did not care.” Her voice trembled, very slightly. “He would still have married me, but he was killed by a demon. I’ve devoted my life to hunting demons in his honor. I’ve made a detailed study of demons over centuries. I know their ways. I know their names. And I have never, and will never, summon a demon.”

Magnus sat back and took a sip of coffee. “Alec, remember last night, when our new acquaintance told us that she couldn’t tell us anything about her past?”

Shinyun laughed. “That’s ancient history. I had many years between then and now to have a past in, after all of that was behind me.”

“Well,” said Magnus, “I understand why you’ve made your choice, but for the record, I summon demons all the time. Well, not literally all the time. But when I’m paid to do so, within the bounds of my code of ethics, obviously.”

Shinyun thought this over. “But you don’t . . . like demons. You don’t mind killing them.”

“They’re violent, mindless despoilers of our world, so, no,” said Magnus. “I don’t mind killing them. My boyfriend is a Shadowhunter, for heaven’s sake. Literally, for heaven’s sake.”

“I’d noticed,” said Shinyun dryly.

There was a brief, awkward silence, broken by Shinyun gesturing into the air a miniature floating image of the octopus monster they’d fought the night before.

“I’m going to have another espresso,” said Magnus, gesturing to the waiter with his empty cup.

“This Raum brood mother, for example. It has no bones and can regrow its flesh. You can cut it or pierce it as much as you like, but it will regenerate its organs and limbs too quickly to end it that way. You must instead tear it apart from the inside. That is why I used a sonic spell.”

“You’ve fought them before?” said Alec.

“I hunted one in the Himalayas a hundred years ago, when it terrorized a local village.”

The discussion veered into demon hunting, which was deeply boring to Magnus, but intensely exciting to Alec. So he sat back, sipped his espresso, and watched as the minutes passed, until there was a pause in the conversation and he cleared his throat and said quietly, “If we’re all done with breakfast, we could go check out that Crimson Hand headquarters we’ve all heard so much about.”