by Martha Carr
“Already done.” Ember grinned when Cheyenne looked at her again, then spun and wheeled toward the kitchen. “FYI, we have a lot more than pickles in the fridge now.”
“Thanks, Em.”
“Yep. Guess I better call the PT clinic too and tell them no appointment today. Honestly, I’m a lot less worried about missing a session than I was four days ago.”
Despite her frustration, Cheyenne smiled and folded her arms. “Think that has anything to do with you standing on your own yesterday?”
“Maybe. Or maybe just the whole Ember-has-magic thing. I’m cool with it.” She opened the fridge and moved the contents aside with quick bursts of purple light, searching for a snack. “Might be because my personal driver can’t leave her apartment.”
“If you hired someone to buy and deliver our groceries, I’m sure you can find someone to drive you to your appointment. Sorry it can’t be me.”
“Okay, first of all, I am tired of everybody apologizing to me. And more importantly, there’s no way in hell I’m gonna call a random driver to come pick me up and drive me to my appointment and back, not after I’ve been riding around in that Panamera. Are you kidding?”
Cheyenne laughed. “Yeah, it’s pretty hard to go back after that.”
“You have no idea. From where I’m sitting, the passenger seat is way better. I don’t have to focus on anything but the ride.” The fae girl pulled out her phone to call the PT clinic and cancel her appointment.
Ten seconds into the call, Cheyenne’s stomach growled furiously and didn’t stop when she shifted in her chair. “Fine.”
She stood and walked down from the loft, shrugging off her fancy new trench coat to toss it over the back of the couch.
“Oh, yeah. I’ll be there on Monday. Not a problem, just had some transportation issues today. You can tell Dr. Boseley that I’m still feeling great. Yep. Thanks.” Ember dropped her phone in her lap and looked toward the mini-loft. “I don’t know why.”
She jumped when Cheyenne opened the fridge door behind her, spun her wheelchair around quickly, and frowned. “Okay, let’s make a rule about not zipping around at drow-speed inside. It’s super creepy.”
Grinning, Cheyenne pulled out a cup of yogurt and shut the door. “I just walked.”
“Well, then you’re quiet, and it’s still creepy.” Ember eyed the yogurt and wrinkled her nose. “Can you grab me one of those?”
“Yep.”
“As I was saying, I expected the clinic to put up more of a fight about me not making it in for a third session.”
“Well, Dr. Boseley knows what you are. Hey, maybe she even saw you stand up out of that chair and blast that creepy whoever-they-were back through the portal yesterday.” Cheyenne tossed her the yogurt cup and shut the fridge. “She’s probably not worried about it.”
“Right.” Ember pulled two spoons from the drawer and sent one sailing across the kitchen toward Cheyenne in a glow of violet light. “I’m not either.”
Cheyenne plucked the spoon from the air, grinned at it, then pointed the utensil at her friend. “Not with neat little tricks like that. Nothing’s stopping you now.”
“Yeah, I’m getting pretty good at this magic thing a lot faster than I thought I would.”
“Huh. Imagine that.” The halfling stuck a heaping spoonful of yogurt in her mouth. “Almost like you were born with it or something.”
“Okay, smartass.”
Cheyenne turned with her yogurt toward the living room. “So, since neither of us is going anywhere, now what?”
“Movies. Lots of movies.” Ember joined her roommate in the living room and parked her chair at the end of the coffee table. “We should do a marathon, like, some series that has more than four movies. Just blast through the whole thing.”
The entry table whirred as the TV rose from its hidden compartment. Cheyenne held out her hand and wiggled her fingers at the remote. “If we’re doing that, I’m picking the series.”
“Great.” Ember handed over the remote. “And you haven’t seen much of anything, huh? The possibilities are endless.”
The halfling stared at her friend with a surprised smile. “You are way too excited about this.”
“Come on. I’m excused from grad school this semester, I don’t have a job, and you’re on magical house arrest. It’s not like I have a lot of options.”
“Yeah, that makes it sound great.”
As Cheyenne scrolled through the movie options on the TV, Ember’s phone rang, and she frowned at the number before answering. “Hello?”
“Ember, hi. It’s Marsil. From the clinic.”
“Yeah, I know. Hi.”
“Hey. I’m calling because Dr. Boseley saw the note in her schedule today that you canceled your appointment. She wanted me to reach out and make sure everything’s okay.”
“Oh. Yeah, I’m fine. Just had a few things come up. Can’t make it in.”
“Everything’s all right with Cheyenne too?”
Ember clenched her eyes shut and tried not to laugh. Cheyenne snorted. “She’s fine. Just a little busy with some stuff if you know what I mean.”
“Absolutely. Listen, if there’s anything Dr. Boseley and I can do to help, don’t hesitate to reach out. We’re here.”
“You’re not just talking about PT, are you?”
Marsil laughed. “Correct. I mean that in the broader sense of ‘stuff.’ If you know what I mean.”
Ember chuckled. “Sure do. We’re good for now, but thanks for the offer.”
“You bet. See you Monday, then.”
“Okay.” She hung up the phone, frowned, and tossed it on the coffee table. “So that was Marsil.”
“Yeah, I know.” Cheyenne smiled crookedly at the TV as she flipped through the movies. “I heard the conversation.”
“Of course you did.” Ember shook her head and dug into her yogurt again. “It’s a little weird that I’m getting calls from my physical therapist’s assistant about you.”
“Only as weird as it was for them to be invited to that ceremony yesterday.” Cheyenne shrugged. “Or as weird as anything else happening right now.”
“You don’t have a problem with that weird overlap into our personal lives?”
“Not really. Marsil and I are cool. The more friends we have over here, the better, right?”
“Huh.” Ember narrowed her eyes. “You’re sounding like a different halfling these days, you know that?”
“Why? Because I’m cool with a goblin named Marsil who calls himself George?”
“Okay, admittedly, that’s a little surprising, but mostly it’s that you don’t seem to automatically hate everyone anymore.” Ember laughed. “I mean, you just said having more friends is better.”
Cheyenne rolled her eyes. “Yeah, well, I’m not trying to form a posse or anything. L’zar took care of that on his own. I don’t know, maybe I’m just evolving.”
“I wouldn’t go that far.”
“And I’m not a big fan of going deep into my psychological maturity right now. I’m trying to pick a movie.”
“Uh-huh.” Ember stared at the screen and whispered, “The friendly Goth Drow.”
“Shut up.”
Chapter Eighty
By 6:30 p.m., Cheyenne had had enough. “Why won’t he give me a straight answer? Yes or no. How hard is that?”
Ember finished the last of the premade chicken casserole they’d had for dinner and set her plate on the coffee table. “Maybe ‘cause you’ve been texting him nonstop for the last four hours.”
“It hasn’t been four hours.” Cheyenne scrolled back through her texts to Persh’al and wrinkled her nose. “Okay, so I lost track of time.”
“You’re not making things any easier by annoying the crap out of him.”
“I’m the one annoying him?” The halfling snorted. “I don’t think so. If he’d quit giving me half-assed answers that don’t tell me anything, I’d stop asking.”
Her phone buzzed with a new text,
and she opened it immediately.
‘We’re handling it. Positive results. I’m trying to work, so leave me alone.’
“What’s it say?”
Cheyenne tossed her phone into her lap and thumped her head back on the cushion of the fully extended recliner. “That he thinks he’s better than me ‘cause he has a warehouse in DC and knows how to track magical frequencies.”
Ember barked out a laugh. “That was not what he said.”
“You don’t know.”
“Okay. Give me your phone.”
“What? No. I need it.”
Holding out her hand, Ember waved for the halfling to cough it up. “Not right now. If it rings, you’ll hear it, but you need to get your head out of Persh’al’s ass and try to think about something else.”
Cheyenne blinked at her. “Did you just tell me to—”
“Yep. Come on.”
“No.”
“Cheyenne, give me the damn phone. ‘Cause I’m tired of you texting him all the time.”
The halfling laughed and shook her head. “Thanks, Mom, but if I want to annoy the troll, that’s my choice.”
Ember rolled her eyes and pointed at the cell phone. It lit up with violet light and darted into her outstretched hand.
“Whoa, hey! Not cool.”
“Agreed.”
“Ember.”
The fae girl slipped the phone between her knees and pointed at it. “See? I’m not gonna go through your stuff.”
“Oh, yeah. That was my main concern, that you might find something I didn’t want you to see.”
“Whatever. It’s here. You need to quit obsessing.”
Cheyenne stared at her phone, her lower jaw working. “You realize I have magic too, right?”
“Yep. Which you haven’t even tried to use, so I’m thinking you wanted someone to take your phone. It’s okay, you don’t have to thank me. Being your best friend is a full-time job.”
Closing her eyes, Cheyenne snorted a laugh. “I don’t have anything to say to that.”
“You’re welcome.”
The halfling tried to pay attention to their third movie in a row but couldn’t get into it. “I don’t get how so many people can spend all day watching stuff like this. Don’t you get bored?”
“Nope.” Ember snapped her fingers. “I’d love some popcorn, though.”
“You put popcorn on the grocery list?”
“Duh. Only a giant family-size bag, but it’s popcorn, and it gets rid of all the work involved in popping it myself.”
“Yes. Sticking a bag in a microwave is such a complicated process. It takes real skill.”
Ember tilted her head and gave her friend an exasperated glance. “It’s not as cool as this.” She raised her finger, and a purple light flashed in the kitchen. The cabinet door opened with a bang, and a giant resealable bag of popcorn sailed across the apartment to drop onto the couch beside her. Ember glanced down at the bag and shrugged. “Okay, I was going for my hand, but the couch is close enough.”
“You’re getting creative.”
The bag rustled and squealed as Ember pulled it open before shoving her hand inside. “By necessity, halfling. Why push myself all the way into the kitchen when I can use magic to bring the snacks to me?”
“I don’t have an answer for that. Also, I’m a little upset that I never thought about taking advantage of my magic for floating popcorn bags and stealing other people’s phones.”
“You’ve been a little busy. I get it.” Ember stuffed a handful of popcorn into her mouth and crunched noisily. “Want some?”
“No, thanks.” Cheyenne put the recliner back in its normal position and stood. “I can only take so many hours of vegging out in the middle of the day.”
“It’s not much different from sitting in front of a computer screen all the time.”
“It’s definitely different, Em. Nothing wrong with wanting to turn your brain off sometimes and watch things, but that’s not what I do on a computer.”
“Oh, that’s right. You keep busy with all that super-important, highly secret halfling-hacker stuff.”
“Pretty much.”
Ember laughed and turned back to the TV. “Well, don’t let me stop you.”
“Wasn’t planning on it.” Cheyenne raced up to the mini-loft and slumped in the chair. If Persh’al won’t tell me what the hell’s going on with those machine-driving idiots, I’ll just have to look around and see if anyone else picked up on something. Just like Corian said, right? Follow the trail.
She snorted and powered Glen up before punching the power button on the monitor. Once she’d logged in, she got her VPN up and running, double-checked her security, and dove into the dark web again. The Borderlands forum didn’t have much in the way of remotely interesting topic threads this time. Cheyenne scrolled down through title after ridiculous thread title.
I need help with a tracking spell to catch my boyfriend cheating on me.
Please advise in the proper preparation of human wafflecakes.
Did anyone else get the shits from Osna’s grog this week?
“Damn.” With a wry laugh, she shook her head and kept moving down. If this is the biggest problem right now, Corian must be keeping their raids squeaky clean. Or at least silent.
A private message popped up in the corner of her screen. “Who is this?”
EyeSee4U: I have something for you. Feel free to stop by if you’re interested.
Cheyenne grimaced. If this is some rando asshat trying to come on to me, he picked the wrong chick on the darknet.
Squinting at the unfamiliar username, she leaned toward the rail. “Hey, Em.”
“Yeah.”
“Think you could toss me my jacket?”
Ember stared at the TV. “You want the fae in a wheelchair to get your jacket for you and throw it up into the loft?”
“Well, when you say it like that, it makes me sound like an asshole.”
The trench coat lifted off the back of the couch in violet light and sailed up toward the mini-loft, where it came to a stop against Cheyenne’s face with a rustle of thick fabric. She slowly pulled it down into her lap and stared at Ember. “I could say a lot right now, but I’m choosing just to say thank you.”
The fae girl snorted. “You’re welcome.”
Pursing her lips through a smile, Cheyenne untangled her jacket and reached into the pocket for the activator coil. Then she hung the trench coat over the rail and attached the tech piece behind her ear. Her monitor instantly lit up with hundreds of code lines scrolling across her vision, and she focused on the private message from Anonymous Creeper.
This thing would’ve saved me so much time if I had it for Corian’s dumbass scavenger hunt.
Cheyenne’s finger swiped automatically in the air as she selected the different commands the activator gave her. In twenty seconds, the thing had pulled up a map of the central area of Richmond, and a red dot pulsed over a building she recognized.
“Ha. Apparently, the Oracle’s good for more than cryptic prophecies, if that’s what that was.”
“Huh?”
“Nothing, Em.” Cheyenne scrunched her nose. I need to quit talking to myself.
She tossed aside the map of Gúrdu’s neighborhood in her vision and typed a reply to EyeSee4U.
ShyHand71: I had no idea you knew how to use a computer, raug.
Hitting the Enter key, she sat back. The reply was almost instant.
EyeSee4U: I know a lot of things. Specifically, the contents of one or two messages I think you’ll want to hear.
ShyHand71: What kind of messages?
EyeSee4U: The kind that needs to be delivered in person. No offering necessary, hidna. Call it a freebie.
Cheyenne chuckled. The raug Oracle wants to give me a free prophecy.
ShyHand71: Is this the kind of message that can wait, or are we on a time limit?
EyeSee4U: That’s for you to decide. I’m just the messenger.
The halfling
dropped her hands from the keyboard and scoffed. You think you’re clever, don’t you? She glanced down at Ember, still glued to the TV, then at her phone nestled between her friend’s knees. “Screw it.”
ShyHand71: I’ll head your way, then.
EyeSee4U: You know where to find me.
The message box disappeared from her screen before she could click out of it.
“Huh. Raug.” Cheyenne left the Borderlands forum, closed down the dark web browser and her VPN, and decided to leave Glen running just in case. Better sync it first.
As soon as she thought it, the activator prompted her with the commands to send all Glen’s alerts to a single number. When that was done in under ten seconds, she pulled off the activator, grimacing at the pinch behind her eyes. Grabbing her jacket, she headed down the stairs. “Em, can you do me a favor?”
“Depends.”
The halfling snorted in surprise. “If you get any alerts from Glen, will you forward them to me?”
Ember tore herself away from the TV as Cheyenne shrugged into her trench coat. “What? Where are you going?”
“Got an invitation for a free raug prophecy.”
“Didn’t Corian—”
“Yeah, he did, but I can’t handle just sitting around without being able to leave.”
Ember shot her a curious frown. “You do that all the time.”
“Sure, but it’s different when I know I can step out whenever I want. Not a big fan of being locked up.”
“Guess there’s one thing that doesn’t run in the drow family.”
Cheyenne pointed at her friend. “Funny. Wanna come with me?”
“To see a raug? No, thanks. I’ve had enough crazy for one day.”
“Okay.” Cheyenne plucked her cell phone from between the fae girl’s knees and stuck it pointedly in her jacket pocket. “What about any kind of charm that keeps my magic on the down-low while I’m out?”