Imitation and Alchemy: An Elemental Legacy Novella Read Free Page B

Giovanni will need another housekeeper when I must retire. It’s a good job. And it will keep her busy when she’s not leading tourists through the dust.”
    Ben smiled. He liked the idea. “I think you’d be great here. You already have your own room. Gio and B like you. Perfect solution.”
    Fabi rolled her eyes. “I haven’t decided anything for certain. I like my apartment.”
    Ben looked around the lush courtyard with the palms and bougainvillea, the fountains providing trickling background music that echoed off the old walls surrounding them.
    “Really?” he asked. “You like your apartment better than this ?”
    Angie leaned across the table. “Exactly. Listen to Nino. You live in a palace here. Don’t be stubborn. Come work for Signor Giovanni.”
    “Yeah,” Ben said, popping an olive in his mouth. “Don’t be stubborn, Fabi.”
    “You’re one to talk, Ben Vecchio, he who likes to pretend he doesn’t know exactly what he’s going to do after university.”
    “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
    “Your uncle has been grooming you as a protégé for years, Ben. Are you really so clueless? He wants you to go into business with him.”
    Angie said, “Giovanni won’t say anything; he doesn’t want to pressure you.”
    Ben winced. It wasn’t that Ben didn’t know that Giovanni wanted him to work with him and Beatrice. Hell, he’d been unofficially working for his uncle since Giovanni had adopted him. But Ben was resisting it. Mostly because he just didn’t know if he could spend the next seventy years sorting through dusty libraries, which—the rare adventure aside—was most of what his aunt and uncle did for clients.
    “I’m thinking about it,” he said. “Just… pass the wine, will you? I’m not going to decide tonight.”
    ❂
    TENZIN watched the small group of young people from her perch by the statue. No one seemed to mind that she’d crawled up the embankment and sat next to the bronze chimera that had been mounted near the steps under the Ponte Cestio.
    She caught Ben’s expression and smiled. It was good to see him laughing. The past year at university had been stressful for him. He worked too hard to please his uncle. She knew part of Ben still considered any achievement a payment for the life of a boy rescued from the dirty slums of New York.
    Ben didn’t understand love yet. Not really.
    But then, no one did when they were young. She leaned back against the cool stone and contemplated her latest plan to lure him in as a partner. She’d become bored in this modern world, and she needed something to do. Catching up on twentieth-century technology and mastering video games wasn’t enough to keep her mind occupied.
    No, she needed the rush of adrenaline again. She hadn’t felt this restless since the days that she and Giovanni had been mercenaries.
    Now that had kept her occupied.
    But the world had changed. There was no longer any honor in living a warrior’s life. Those who hired out their services as soldiers, even in the immortal world, were a different kind of animal than she and Giovanni had been, and she felt no kinship with them.
    Ben turned and met her eyes in the low lights that reflected off the river.
    Tenzin had a different kind of plan to occupy her time.
    He stood and carefully wound his way through the outdoor tables and the small crowd watching a musician. Then he stood under her, his chin just reaching the edge of the ledge where she was sitting.
    “Did you think I wouldn’t see you there?”
    “I didn’t think about it. I didn’t want to disturb you and your friends.”
    He held out his hand. “Jump, don’t float. Let the humans see gravity.”
    Tenzin jumped down and let her feet land hard. Such an awkward, heavy feeling. Yuck.
    “Do you want me to leave you?” she asked.
    “No, you’re going to join us for a drink.”
    Tenzin halted. “No.”
    “Tiny, Fabi’s the one who spotted you. Your cover as an inconspicuous statue has