by Martha Carr
“Oh, yeah?” Bhandi grinned, her scarlet eyes blazing as she lifted her chin. “That gonna be you?”
“Fuck yeah, it is.” Lumil swung a red fist at Bhandi’s face. The troll ducked and stepped aside before lashing out with a swift kick to Lumil’s hip. “Eat shit, Earthsider!”
“Oh, come on.” Cheyenne headed toward them but stopped when Lumil’s glowing fist landed in Bhandi’s gut.
The troll sailed across the grass with a grunt, and the other tense conversations stopped as both rebels and FRoE agents turned to watch the fight.
Bhandi didn’t bother with the fell weapon holstered at her hip. Her hand shot out, and a red and purple streak of pulsing light burst from her fingers and swept Lumil’s feet out from under her. The goblin crashed to the ground with a growl, and Bhandi scrambled to her feet to rush at her. She tackled Lumil just as the goblin got back on her feet, then they were rolling around in the grass, shouting and hissing and pounding each other with their fists.
“Tate,” Yurik shouted.
“Man, I don’t give a shit right now.” The tattooed troll agent stood ten feet from Corian and Maleshi. “You ever seen one of these things before?”
Maleshi leaned away from the tattooed troll and grinned. “How cute.”
“Dude, for real.” Byrd smacked Yurik on the shoulder, then shook out his hand. “Damn. Like solid rock.”
“You can stop touching me.”
“Hey, what about that thing in your nose, huh?” Byrd pointed at the bullring through Yurik’s septum. “How much did that hurt?”
“Not as much as I’m about to hurt you if you don’t quit asking me stupid questions.” Yurik eyed the other goblin and snorted. “How long have you been on this side of the Border anyway?”
“Shit.” Byrd laughed and studied the other goblin’s muscular physique. “Not long enough, apparently. Never seen a goblin your size, man.”
“Well, now you have. And you can drop it.”
“Sure, sure. Just as soon as you tell me—”
“Fuck!” Bhandi roared when Lumil grabbed a handful of the troll woman’s scarlet braids and jerked them aside. Then she smashed her fist into the side of Lumil’s face.
They stumbled away from each other, breathing heavily, and met each other’s gazes. Lumil slowly looked down at her fists and the thin braid she’d ripped clean off Bhandi’s skull. She dangled it in front of her for a second and chuckled. “Shit. I just pulled your hair out.”
Bhandi lowered her hand from her head and stared at the blood on her fingers. “Fuck.”
“Guess this qualifies as a catfight, huh?”
Wiping her bloody fingers on her black fatigues, Bhandi looked at the goblin woman and sneered. “Only if I call you a bitch.”
“Ha.” Lumil looked at the scarlet braid in her hand again and burst out laughing.
Bhandi shook her head and stared in awe at her hair in the goblin’s hand, then couldn’t help but laugh with her. In seconds, both of them had broken down in hysterics. Lumil tossed the braid into the grass and marched toward the troll agent to clap a hand on Bhandi’s shoulder.
“You’re all right.”
“You’re the craziest goblin fuck I’ve ever met.” Bhandi nodded at Yurik. “And that includes the hulking green mountain over there.”
“You mean, this guy?” Byrd pointed at Yurik, who rolled his eyes but couldn’t hide a grin.
“Who the fuck else fits that description, asshole?”
Lumil flung her arm around Bhandi’s shoulders and jostled her roughly. “You know what? I like you.”
Bhandi laughed. “Kiss my ass.”
“Ha! Damn, this is the time for a drink!”
When Lumil shot Cheyenne a questioning glance, the halfling shook her head. “No. No one’s going inside that house, Lumil. I don’t care how thirsty you think you are.”
“Yeah. Worth a shot, though, right?”
“Tate,” Bhandi shouted. “This psycho wants a drink.”
“Good for her.” Tate stared at Corian and Maleshi.
“Come on, man. Go grab it.”
He ignored Bhandi and nodded at Corian. “I thought you guys had claws or something.”
Maleshi raised a hand and extended four-inch silver blades from all five fingertips. “Like this?”
“Holy shit!” He laughed. “No one’s gonna believe me when I tell them.”
“She’s used to being a myth,” Corian muttered. Maleshi rolled her eyes at him and retracted her claws before folding her arms.
“Tate, I’m serious.”
He whirled and shot Bhandi the middle finger. “Get it yourself!”
“Man, fuck you.”
Jamal grunted and stormed across the lawn toward the front of the house. “Now I need a drink.”
Rhynehart stared after him as the ogre marched past, then turned to Yurik and spread his arms. “You brought booze on an assignment?”
“Hey, you told us to gear up for a campout, man.” Yurik shrugged. “Nothing else.”
“You’re on duty.”
“Yeah, and you’re standing there doing nothing when L’zar Verdys is sitting there like a statue.”
Rhynehart glanced briefly at L’zar’s back, then raised an eyebrow. “Watch it.”
Yurik gave him a crooked smile. “You gonna join us?”
“No.”
“Suit yourself.”
“Lumil, I’m serious.” Byrd pointed at Yurik as the two groups of magicals went from wary judgment to mingling in Bianca Summerlin’s backyard. “Just look at the size of him.”
“Man, shut up about it already.” Lumil glared at him. “Big fucking deal.”
“Yeah, real big.”
Bhandi stared at Persh’al as everyone gathered by Payton, who sat beside their gear and glared at every magical, FRoE agent and rebel alike, with her good eye. “For real. Why the hell are you blue?”
Persh’al shook his head.
“You know what?” Lumil pointed at him. “You never told us why either.”
“All of a sudden you give a shit?” Persh’al spread his arms. “It’s not like I did it to myself.”
“Yeah, but something had to make that happen.”
Cheyenne closed her eyes. They figured it out. I don’t have it in me to deal with anything else right now.
She headed toward the nightstalkers, who were slowly making their way over to the others. “I’m turning in.”
“All right.” Corian looked her over. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” She glanced at the group of agents and rebels laughing and talking like they’d known each other forever. “Now that no one’s trying to kill each other, I’m done. Keep an eye on my mom, huh?”
“You got it, kid.” Maleshi gave her a small smile.
“And him.” Cheyenne nodded at L’zar.
“He’ll be sitting there all night, Cheyenne. Trust me.” Corian stuck his hands in his pockets. “Whatever he’s looking for, it’s gonna take him a while to find it.”
“Hopefully not too long. Let me know if anything changes, okay?”
“Of course.”
“Thanks.” With one more glance at the magicals throwing their own unlikely party behind the Summerlin estate, Cheyenne took off toward the house. She passed Rhynehart and shrugged. “Better than drawing guns on each other, right?”
“I have no fucking clue.”
“No one goes into the house, got it?”
Rhynehart shook his head and stared at the magical party. “Don’t get used to this, halfling. I still don’t take orders from you.”
“No. I guess you can call that a favor for a friend.” She shrugged. “’Cause you owe me a lot of those at this point.”
“Whatever.” He shot her a sidelong glance and waited until the halfling was yards behind him before chuckling softly.
Chapter Sixty-Three
When Cheyenne rejoined Ember and Eleanor inside the house, she stopped beside the stairs and stared at the sitting area. The h
ousekeeper sat on the chaise again, both legs propped up on the cushion and a fresh drink in her hand. Ember hovered in front of her, her fingers flashing with violet light as she spun some kind of magical design in the air between them. “And that’s basically it.”
The light fizzled out again. Eleanor grinned. “Well, isn’t that something?” She tried to clap but spilled some of her drink, then took a long sip as if that would keep the rest of it from flowing out of her glass. She looked up and found Cheyenne watching them. “Cheyenne! Can you believe this? I’ve never—” She hiccupped and almost spilled her drink again. “I’ve never seen this kind of magic. Ember can…well, I have no—hic—no idea what she’s doing, but it’s—hic—beautiful!”
“Yep.” Cheyenne raised an eyebrow at Ember. “Glad you two are enjoying yourselves.”
The fae shrugged. “She wanted to see some magic, Cheyenne. I couldn’t tell her no.”
Cheyenne chuckled. “Yeah, that gets harder and harder to do.”
“It’s incredible!” Eleanor shouted. Her head thumped heavily back against the chaise’s cushion. “All this time—hic—sweetheart. All this time, we never knew about anyone else.” Eleanor lowered her gaze to her glass, and her lower lip trembled. “I wish your mother were here to see this, and then I remember it would only anger her.”
“I know.” Cheyenne sat on the loveseat again. “Probably a good thing she can’t see what’s happening right now.”
“She would come undone!” Eleanor took a heaving breath. Another wail escaped her, and she broke down into sobs again.
“Oh.” Ember frowned at her. “I thought we’d moved past that.”
“I mean, it could be the booze.”
“Yeah.” Ember shrugged. “I wasn’t about to stop her.”
“Don’t worry about it, Em. Not your job to babysit anyone.”
Eleanor sniffled and took another drink. “I used to call myself a babysitter once upon a time, Cheyenne. When you were small and your mother—” Another sob escaped the woman.
“Okay.” The halfling stood and gently approached Bianca’s housekeeper. “I think it’s time to get you into bed, huh? Maybe set down the drink.”
“Cheyenne, I’m a grown-ass woman. I don’t need you to coddle me.”
Cheyenne stopped and raised her eyebrows, trying to hide her smile. “I know that.”
“You stop worrying about me and you make it better.” Eleanor fumbled in the pocket of her sweater and removed an already snot-soaked tissue before trying to blow into it again. “Just make it better.”
“I’m on it, Eleanor.” Cheyenne gently pried the half-empty glass out of the woman’s fingers and handed it to Ember. “I really think it’s a good idea for you to get into bed, at least. You know, sleep all this off?”
“I don’t know anything anymore.” Eleanor shook her head and weakly batted at Cheyenne’s hands as the halfling tried to help her up. “What am I supposed to do without her, huh?”
“Who, Mom?”
“I’ll be useless. Pointless.” Eleanor sank back against the chaise, her eyes fluttered closed, and a startlingly loud snore escaped her open mouth.
Ember stifled a laugh behind her hand. “Only four drinks.”
“Four drinks and the shock of seeing my mom caught in a magical curse from some other world.” Cheyenne gestured at the windows looking over the valley behind the estate. “Plus everything else that’s going on right now.”
“True. Should we just leave her there?”
“Probably not. I’m imagining her rolling over in her sleep and right onto the floor.”
Ember snorted. “Sorry. Not funny.”
“I mean, it kind of is. Okay.” Cheyenne leaned down and slipped her hands under Eleanor’s body as gently as she could before lifting the housekeeper in her arms and heading for the stairs. “This is seriously weird.”
“What, you mean watching you pick up a full-grown woman like she’s a baby, or something else?”
“Well, yeah, that too. With all the drinking that goes on in this house, Em, I’m surprised I didn’t have to do this sooner.”
“Somehow, I’m having a hard time imagining your mom this wasted.”
“Me too.”
Ember floated behind the half-drow as Cheyenne trudged up the stairs, with Eleanor snoring loudly in her arms. She had to stop and wait for Ember to open the door to Eleanor’s room, then they worked together to get the housekeeper under the blankets with her shoes off for the night. Then they left the woman’s room, and Cheyenne closed the door behind her with a soft click.
“Whew.” Ember raised her eyebrows. “Crisis averted there, I guess. Right?”
“Yeah, she’ll be fine. Crisis averted out there too.” Cheyenne nodded at the open doors of the breakfast room at the top of the stairs.
Ember glanced into the room, which flashed with soft, colorful bursts of light now and then. “What’s going on out there?”
“FRoE agents and O’gúleesh rebels settling down for a magical picnic.”
“A what?”
“I shit you not, Em. Go check it out.”
Frowning, Ember floated into the breakfast room and up to the curving wall of windows above the jutting veranda below. From here, the view was even better, and they both took a moment to watch the gathered magicals out by the portal ridge. “Did they set up a picnic?”
Cheyenne snorted. “I have no idea what they’re doing down there. As long as they’re not trying to kill each other and nobody’s aiming guns at anyone else’s face, I’m calling it a win.”
Ember chuckled. “Your mom really would freak out if she saw this.”
“That’s a serious understatement, Em. But we’re doing this for her. No one’s going anywhere until L’zar figures out how the hell to get her away from that portal. And wake her up.”
“You think he will?”
“I have to, right? Doesn’t change how I feel about him in general, but if he can pull her out of that curse, I guess he gets points for it.”
“When.”
“What?”
“When he pulls her out.” Ember nodded at her friend. “He will.”
“Glad one of us has confidence in the Weaver.”
“I wouldn’t call it confidence in him, necessarily.” Ember shrugged. “Just that everything will work out. It has to.”
“Right.” Cheyenne shook her head at the sight of Lumil raising a tin cup in the center of the magicals while the others stuffed their faces with O’gúleesh food. Like they went for a quick shopping trip in Peridosh before coming up here. Yeah, right. “This might be the weirdest thing I’ve seen in my life.”
“Yeah, I gotta stop watching them.” Ember yawned, blinked through the ensuing tears, and smacked her lips. “And go to bed.”
“The guest room’s still usable. Come on.” Cheyenne turned away from the windows and headed toward the right curve of the second-floor hallway. She opened the guest room door and stood aside for Ember to enter. “Looks like everything’s good to go.”
“Thanks.” Ember floated inside and grinned. “Gotta say, this is much better than trying to navigate your mom’s mansion in a wheelchair.”
“And no one had to carry you up the stairs.” They shared a quiet laugh. “If you need anything, just—”
“Find it myself and let you sleep? Yeah, no problem.” Ember nodded. “Go get some sleep, Cheyenne. We can focus on saving your mom and two whole worlds in the morning.”
Cheyenne laughed. “Glad you’re here, Em.”
“Yeah, you better be. G’night.”
“Night.” The halfling turned away from the guest room before Ember softly closed the door. And now I’m supposed to crawl into one of these beds and sleep like a baby, huh? She looked over her shoulder at the closed door to her old bedroom and snorted. Fat chance. I hate that room.
She wandered slowly down the hall of the second floor, stopped by Eleanor’s room one more time, and cracked the door open to check on her, despite the ho
usekeeper’s growling snores rising from inside. Only took four drinks to get her to sleep. Not a road I wanna go down tonight.
Feeling exhausted and restless at the same time, Cheyenne walked back down the hall and paused outside the open double doors to Bianca’s bedroom. The king-sized bed was meticulously made, covered in soft, intricately decorated pillows in cream and beige and a shimmery golden-brown. The halfling stared at the bed, then peeked through the doorway out of habit. Nope. Mom’s standing outside by a damn portal. She’s not in here.
Her gaze fell on the bed again. The first chance in my life to sleep on that giant-ass bed. Can’t even bring myself to do it.
Instead, Cheyenne reached out for the handles on the French doors and pulled them closed. Then she shuffled into the breakfast room, blinking heavily, and dropped into one of the cream-colored armchairs overlooking the back lawn, the forest, and the valley behind the Summerlin estate. Muffled laughter rose from the gathering beside the portal ridge. L’zar and Bianca remained in the same positions, unaffected by the drinking and lewd jests being thrown around the impromptu party. Can’t blame them for wanting to lighten the mood a little. Just as long as they can handle themselves when it’s time to get shit done.
She pulled out her cell and called Corian.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I just didn’t wanna walk all the way back out there for a thirty-second conversation.” She watched Corian turn around and glance at the house. “Just don’t let L’zar touch her without running it by me first, okay? The second he comes out of that trance or whatever.”
“I’ll let you know, Cheyenne. You have my word.”
From where she sat in the armchair, it was impossible not to see the nightstalker’s silver eyes glowing in the darkness at the other end of the lawn. “Thanks.”
“Get some rest. You and Ember might be the only ones enjoying peace and quiet tonight.”
“Yeah, you can handle it.” She hung up and slipped her phone into her pocket. Then she settled back into the armchair and propped her arms on the armrests. Despite her heavy eyelids and a yawn of her own, she couldn’t bring herself to look away from the group of magicals drinking and eating beside the scar of jutting black stone stretching out of the forest. Probably couldn’t eat, even if I was hungry. Sleep’s looking just as impossible right now too.