by Martha Carr
“I might let her.” Ember nodded matter-of-factly and wheeled herself across the dining room toward the double doors.
Grinning, Cheyenne followed and balanced both their glasses in one hand so she could grip one of the handles with the other. “Go for it. I got you.”
Ember gave the wheels a quick shove to get her over the lintel and onto the veranda. The chair lurched forward, and a pale violet light flashed around the small front wheels beside the fae’s feet. The bump and jolt both young magicals had expected never came. Instead, Ember’s chair hovered above the veranda, and a second later, she lowered it gently to the stone.
The fae’s hands jerked away from the wheels, and she and Cheyenne stared at the chair. “Did you do that?”
The halfling stepped around the chair and handed Ember the tall glass of gin and tonic. “Pendant, Em. That was all you.”
“My face feels funny.”
Cheyenne bit her lip. “Maybe it’s the gin.”
Ember looked at her with wide eyes and slowly shook her head. “I can’t believe this.”
“Believe it or not, it just happened.” The halfling wiggled her eyebrows, then glanced at her mom.
Bianca stood a foot away from the balcony surrounding the curved veranda, her vodka soda lifted to her lips and her face turned slightly toward the young magicals just outside the double doors.
Yeah, she’s listening.
“Come take a look at this.” Cheyenne nodded toward the balcony and headed that way. “The view’s even better when you’re right over it.”
Ember cleared her throat and nestled the glass in her lap before wheeling across the smooth stone toward the Summerlin women. She stopped beside Cheyenne and ignored the thin, intricately carved stone posts supporting the railing every few feet. After a moment, having to look through those columns didn’t matter as she gazed at the acre of well-kept lawn behind the estate house before everything opened into the wide valley beyond. “This is incredible.”
“Thank you.” Bianca took another sip of her drink. “I can’t tell you how often I find myself out here. There’s nothing quite like being able to see as far as one can imagine.”
The fae lifted her glass to her lips again. “I always thought I liked the city. This just changed my mind.”
Bianca let out another thoughtful hum. “I remember the feeling.”
All three women soaked up the rare moment of peace in silence. Then Ember found herself full of questions. “Do you do all your work from here, Ms. Summerlin?”
“Bianca, please.” The woman stepped back to meet the fae’s gaze behind her daughter. “Unless you’re here on business too.”
Ember laughed and shook her head. “I wouldn’t know where to start.”
“That’s fine. Visits from close friends are necessarily infrequent, living all the way up here, though I’d rather host friends than associates and colleagues. And to answer your question, Ember, yes. I have everything I need up here to keep up with my work, and I accomplish more than I expected when I first moved onto the property.”
“Do you miss the city?”
Cheyenne turned and leaned against the balcony railing, smirking as her mom and her friend made polite small talk that sounded much more like genuine interest than the type of pleasantries she had grown up hearing. I knew they’d like each other. We all need a good distraction.
Bianca nodded and glanced back out over the valley. “Sometimes. After over two decades of running things out here in my domain, it’s difficult to imagine leaving this for so much…”
“Noise.”
The halfling’s mom blinked and caught Ember’s gaze again. “You and Cheyenne are remarkably well-matched as friends, aren’t you?”
“Pretty much.”
“It’s good to see.” Bianca smiled at the fae, then glanced at her daughter and raised an eyebrow. “You’re really enjoying this, aren’t you?”
Cheyenne grinned and offered her mom a blasé shrug. “Nice to switch things up a little, right?”
“As long as you’re certain all the switching can be balanced.” The look Bianca shot her daughter carried a warning and a challenge at the same time.
Thanks, Mom. I’m being careful. “I’ve got a pretty good handle on things so far.”
“I’m sure you do.” Bianca nodded, then rolled her shoulders and took another sip of her drink. “It’s getting a little chilly for me.”
“I don’t even feel it,” Ember said dreamily, gazing out across the sweeping valley below them.
Glancing at her wristwatch, Bianca nodded. “Dinner will be ready soon. Ember, can I make you another drink?”
“Uh, yeah. That would be great. Thank you.”
“I’m more than happy to do it. And please don’t feel obligated to thank me for every individual thing tonight. Once before you leave will suffice.” The woman headed toward the open double doors without another word.
Ember blushed again and stared up at Cheyenne. “Did I say the wrong thing?”
“No, Em. That had nothing to do with you.”
“I’m gonna take your word for that one. She just kinda flipped a switch, didn’t she?”
“Yeah. Never a dull moment with Bianca.” Looking away from the outline of her mom standing at the bar again, the halfling glanced at her fae friend and grinned. “She likes you.”
“Seemed like it until she told me to stop thanking her.”
“Nah. That’s just her version of hospitality. She’s trying to…” Cheyenne scrunched her face.
“Trying to what?”
“Well, level the playing field, I guess.”
Ember laughed. “I don’t know what that means.”
“Honestly, I think you’re the first person in a long time who’s made her think about who she was and what she was doing with her life before all this happened.” The halfling gestured at her face with a flick of her wrist. “She was a little older than we are, but I know she wasn’t ready to give everything up and steal away to the countryside to raise a half-drow on her own.”
“And I remind her of that.” Ember frowned and wrinkled her nose. “That’s a little weird.”
“Not really. I mean, you and I weren’t ready for what’s going on with either of us right now either. Different situation, same feeling, I think.”
The fae blinked up at her friend and opened her mouth with a sharp breath. It took her another try before she could get out what she wanted to say. “You’ve spent a long time analyzing your mom, haven’t you?”
“Well, there weren’t a whole lot of options up here.” Cheyenne laughed. “Run through the woods, sneak onto the dark web and learn to hack into pretty much anything, and spy on Bianca Summerlin so I could maybe one day figure her out.”
“Sounds like you got there.”
“Possibly.” The halfling lifted her glass toward Ember in a toast and dipped her head. “Just wait. If she doesn’t give you an open invitation to the Summerlin estate before we leave tonight, I’ll bake Matthew Thomas a cake.”
Ember barked out a laugh. “That’s on you. I don’t know what I’d do with an open invitation.”
“Whatever you want, really.” Cheyenne took a long drink of bourbon and nodded toward the open double doors. “We can—”
A huge crash split the air from the other side of the valley. The halfling turned and scanned the tree line at the edge of the manicured lawn below them. “You heard that, right?”
“Sounds like a tree fell over, yeah.” Ember peered through the stone pillars beneath the rail and frowned. “I don’t see anything.”
“Me, neither.” Cheyenne squinted and studied the trees a little longer. “Must’ve just been a dead one finally breaking free or something.”
That tingling buzz passed across the halfling’s shoulders and the back of her neck again. She glanced quickly at Ember and found that her fae friend had lifted one hand to the back of her neck. “Cheyenne?”
“Yeah, I know.” With a final glance out ov
er the balcony, the half-drow nodded toward the doors again. “We’ll just keep paying attention, right?”
“Kinda hard not to when it feels like my back just turned into an anthill.”
“Nothing we can do about it until something happens.”
Ember blinked and slowly turned her head to meet her friend’s gaze. “You spend half your time feeling like this, don’t you?”
“You mean, feeling like something’s about to happen and not knowing what the hell it is or when? Pretty much, yeah. At least the other half of the time, I get to fight asshole magicals and train toward completing the trials. Still working on the balance.”
“I don’t know how you do it.”
“Me, neither, Em. Come on, I think your next cocktail’s ready.”
They headed back inside. “Your mom’s gonna get me wasted.”
“It’s actually an honor.”
Chapter Ninety-Six
“Eleanor, this looks amazing.”
“Oh, it’s not all that.” The housekeeper waved off Ember’s compliment as she passed the salad bowl to Bianca. Even so, she couldn’t hide a proud smile flickering at the corners of her mouth. “But thank you. I hope you enjoy it.”
“I know I will.” The fae scooped another helping of the braised vegetables—Brussels sprouts, mushrooms, onion, chunks of fennel, carrots, and cauliflower.
“There’s a warm beet salad too,” the housekeeper added. “Goat cheese, candied pecans, and a balsamic reduction. Where did that one go?”
Bianca offered the smaller bowl of bright-red beets with a small smile without turning to look at her friend the housekeeper.
“Thank you.”
Cheyenne loaded her plate and smirked as the dishes were passed around. “Whose idea was it to have dinner without any meat or bread?”
Eleanor looked at the halfling with a deadpan expression and dipped her chin. “Take a wild guess.”
The halfling chuckled, and beside her, Ember grinned.
“You know perfectly well why I made the decision,” Bianca added, pointing toward Eleanor with the tines of her fork turned down. “We’ve always been healthy, keeping good food in mind. But there’s a lot of evidence to support wheat and gluten adding to joint inflammation and, of course, putting more carbs in our bodies than we need.”
“We’ve been having this conversation for months now,” Eleanor added, waving her hand toward her employer and shooting the young magicals an exasperated glance. “I told her I’d restock that kitchen and change the entire menu if she finally admitted that time might be catching up with her a little.”
Cheyenne laughed. “You mean, she’s trying to deny it?”
Bianca reached for her second vodka soda and took a demure sip. “Denial is one thing, Cheyenne. Lack of proof is something else entirely.”
“Ha!” Eleanor shook her head and scooped a heaping spoonful of beet salad onto her plate before passing it along. “Maybe lack of proof on the outside. I mean, look at the woman. Ember, can you honestly tell me these two couldn’t pass as sisters if you saw them walking down the street?”
“I would never tell you that,” Ember replied, forcing herself not to look at the mistress of the house as she said it.
“Stop it. Both of you.” Bianca’s voice was flat and dismissive, but her small smile betrayed that she appreciated the compliment.
“Oh, sure. Pretend it’s not true. That’s what she’s been doing for years. Not all of us were blessed with the ability to only age five years in twenty.”
“Well, she must’ve said something.” Cheyenne made a show of studying the dishes on the table. “Because I only see three out of five food groups.”
“Congratulations. You’ve solved the mystery.” Bianca lifted her chin toward her daughter in that haughty way she’d mastered. “Whatever I said is between Eleanor and me. We both got what we wanted, so let’s leave it at that.”
Eleanor looked at Ember and pulled a surprised face, the corners of her mouth turning down as her eyes widened. The fae laughed and opted for a glass of mineral water instead of a third cocktail. Cheyenne did the same.
“Are you also pursuing a master’s degree, Ember?” Bianca lifted a bright-red beet slice to her mouth, her forked turned upside-down as she plucked it off with her teeth.
“I was.” Ember shrugged. “But accidents happen, and plans get postponed.”
“I understand.” Bianca nodded and dabbed the corner of her mouth with a cloth napkin. “I can’t speak for your experiences, of course, but I will say that from what I can see, you’re handling the entire thing with more grace than most people who don’t go through half as much in a lifetime.”
Ember’s swallow was so loud, they all heard it. She quickly took another sip of mineral water and nodded. “Thank you.”
“Hmm.” Bianca smiled and pointed her fork at the fae. “That one had nothing to do with my hospitality, so I’ll let it slide.”
“Oh.” When the fae understood the joke, she laughed. Eleanor shook her head and picked more goat cheese out of the beet salad to add to her plate. Cheyenne rolled her eyes and dug into the braised vegetables.
“Will you be picking up your studies again in the future, do you think?”
“I have no idea right now. The school’s given me a temporary leave, I guess.” Ember stabbed more than a huge mouthful’s worth of salad onto her fork. “I have some time. Right now, I’m just focusing on myself.”
“That’s important. Necessary for everyone. You can discover quite a lot about yourself with that kind of focus to your time.”
Ember and Cheyenne exchanged glances and almost laughed. “It’s already happening.”
“Oh, I have no doubt. Especially if you’re spending a good bit more time with Cheyenne.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” The halfling looked at her mom with an expectant smile.
“I’m wondering the same thing,” Eleanor added.
Bianca raised her glass and dipped her head. “My daughter has mastered the ability to carve her own path by stirring pots no one’s touched in years while opening her home to a friend in need. And she still makes time for her mother. If anyone spending any amount of time with Cheyenne doesn’t pick up a thing or two about authenticity and perseverance, I’d say they need to reevaluate their priorities.”
The table fell into a stunned silence.
“Wow.” Cheyenne licked salad dressing from her lips and raised her eyebrows. “Mom’s dishing out the flattery tonight.”
“It’s not flattery if it’s well-deserved. You know that.”
“I feel like making a toast,” Eleanor added quickly. “To Cheyenne.”
“Oh, come on.” The halfling chuckled but grabbed her glass of bourbon.
“To Cheyenne and Ember.” The mistress of the estate raised her glass higher.
“Well, of course. And to blazing new trails.” Eleanor was almost shouting now, grinning from ear to ear.
The halfling smirked at her friend. “Can’t say no to a toast like that, right?”
“Even if I wanted to, I’d be too afraid of what would happen.”
That made everyone laugh, and then all the glasses were raised toward the center of the table.
Eleanor laughed. “I can’t even remember what I said.”
“That’s what happens when people keep adding to a toast.” Cheyenne grinned. “What Eleanor said.”
“What Eleanor said.”
Grinning, the four women clinked glasses and drank to whatever they wanted. Bianca lifted her glass to her lips and met her daughter’s gaze over the fine crystal rim. She took an incredibly long sip, then looked away and lowered her glass. “Tell me about the car.”
“Oh, boy. Here we go.” The halfling playfully rolled her eyes.
“I saw it when you pulled up, Cheyenne. If you wanted to hide, you should have bought something else.”
Eleanor guffawed and almost slammed her glass back down on the table.
“Mom, if
you want me to take you for a ride in my Porsche, all you have to do is ask.”
“I’d rather drive it myself.”
“Of course, you would.”
Ember nodded toward the front of the house. “You should at least show her your favorite part.”
The halfling frowned and looked down at her plate. “Nah, we don’t need to go there.”
“Right.” Ember looked at Eleanor and Bianca earnestly. “I almost expected her to roll up that driveway and start honking at the house.”
“The horn is your favorite part of that Panamera?” Bianca clicked her tongue as she lifted another bite to her mouth.
“No.” Cheyenne shot Ember a warning glance but couldn’t help another laugh. “You don’t have to say anything else, Em.”
“Oh, well now.” Bianca’s small smile widened. “What is it?”
“It’s the other sound,” Ember answered for the halfling. “You know, the little beep on the automatic lock.”
Eleanor stared at the halfling, her lips pressed together as she laughed silently through her nose. Bianca choked, lurched forward, and grabbed her glass of mineral water. “Excuse me.” She took a long drink, then set it slowly back down and blinked. “I certainly hope you didn’t buy that car just for the little beep.”
“Oh, yeah. That’s the only thing I look for in a car.” Cheyenne shrugged and glanced around the table. “I really like the way it sounds, okay? And it’s a great car.”
“It’s certainly better than the rusting shell you’ve been driving for years.”
“Yes, Mom. I’m well aware of the difference.”
Bianca smirked. “What’d you do with the Ford?”
Cheyenne and Ember shared a brief glance before the halfling looked quickly away. No way Mom didn’t see that. “It was time.”
Ember snorted.
“I see.” Bianca eyed her daughter for a little longer, then returned her attention to her plate. “I admire your decision to make so many large changes all at once. It wipes the slate clean in most regards, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah, things are clean.” Cheyenne laughed when she caught the flutter of her mom’s eyelids, the closest Bianca Summerlin came to rolling her eyes.