“You good?”
“Oh, yeah. Feels like I’ve been shoved into a box all day and finally broke out again.”
“Hmm. Normal side effect. Probably.”
The halfling snorted. “Thank you so much for the reassurance. Hey, speaking of said pendant, does that thing have, like, a breaking point?”
“Such as?”
“Such as some part of my magic slipping through in a situation where I really wanted to use it?”
Corian stroked his fur-covered chin, his silver eyes fixed intently on his halfling trainee. “That’s part of the time crunch.”
“Oh, really?” Cheyenne tossed her white hair out of her face. “How?”
“More like a countdown with the spell on that pendant. Wearing it while you’re actively going through the drow trials messes with the effectiveness.”
“You’re serious.”
“Of course I am. Which is why we need to get you through the rest of your latent abilities and the last few layers of that puzzle box as quickly as possible.” He shrugged. “If I timed it right, I’m pretty sure the Heart of Midnight will keep you relatively hidden until that thing opens.”
“That thing?” Cheyenne pointed at the puzzle box.
“Yes, Cheyenne.”
“And you didn’t think it was important to tell me that there’s a timer on the one thing keeping me safe?”
“Well, you figured it out anyway.”
“Come on, Corian. If I knew it wasn’t completely hiding me, I wouldn’t have been stuffing myself into that magic-dampening box for days.”
“Don’t even think about it.” He pointed at her, his flat cat-like nose wrinkling in a snarl. “I told you at that mansion that I wasn’t gonna come after you to save your ass again, and I meant it. This is a lot bigger than just you, Cheyenne. We’re all making sacrifices.”
“Like whom?”
The Nightstalker dropped his hand and scowled.
“No, seriously? Who else is making sacrifices so I can get through these trials before that necklace goes boom and throws me out of hiding?”
“We came here to train on a mountain, kid. The bigger picture can wait.”
Yeah, just like everything else. “Lemme guess, we’ll get there when I’m ready.”
Corian stalked across the mountainside.
“These trials better not take much longer. I am so sick of hearing that.”
“You’re the one who said it.”
“Just don’t.”
The Nightstalker smirked and crouched in his ready stance, fingers twitching a little at his sides. “Let’s get to work so we can both stop saying it.”
Cheyenne pulled up a crackling sphere of black energy in her palm and lifted it out to the side. “My pleasure.”
Chapter Sixty-Six
“Dammit!” Cheyenne slammed chest-first into a tree, bringing down a rain of pine needles on her head. She pushed herself away from the rough bark and whirled to scan the sloping forest. He keeps pulling out more tricks, doesn’t he? Where are you, you sneaky bastard?
A swift rustle of leaves came from behind the tree, then a twig snapped farther to the left. The halfling stepped backward on her bare feet, having removed her shoes once she realized Corian was playing a game of “sneak around the woods.” Even with the darkness in the woods and the trees blocking out all the starlight, she didn’t need her eyes to find the Nightstalker. She could hear him. And I know he can’t hear me.
Pine needles drifted down to the forest floor about six yards in front of her. Cheyenne stepped around the other side of the tree she’d almost knocked down after Corian’s last sneak attack, then glanced at the closest boulder. Just a stone’s throw away. That might have a whole new meaning after this.
She focused on the buzzing line of enhanced magic flowing through her, her mind quickly settling on the image of the Nimlothar seed. Another shower of pine needles fell from the tree up ahead, and the halfling reached out toward the boulder. An unseen pressure clicked into place around her fingers, and she grabbed it before hurling the entire rock—moss, dirt, roots, and all—halfway up into the tree.
The air exploded with the crack of stone on wood, and the upper half of the tree crashed to the forest floor. A streak of silver light leaped from the falling tree, and all the needles and branches and leaves sprayed into the air. Cheyenne spun and shoved the air. A line of spiked stone erupted from the forest floor and shot after the retreating silver light.
Just before it hit, Corian stepped aside, slipped out of his enhanced speed, and threw a bolt of silver lightning at the halfling.
“How the hell—” She dodged the attack, which left the tree behind her one lightning bolt away from falling over.
“You won’t unlock another ability by throwing rocks into trees, kid.”
“Rock? Did you see—” An earsplitting crack rose from below them, followed by a long, drawn-out echo of the same boulder crashing down the hillside. “You ever hear a rock do that?”
“Stone ogres throw rocks, Cheyenne. You’re half-drow. Fight me like you’re half-drow.”
“I am!” She flung another black energy sphere at him, and the Nightstalker all but disappeared in a flash of silver light. With a frustrated roar, the halfling followed the darting light. Then she slipped into drow speed and saw him jogging across the hill above her.
When he saw her, the Nightstalker winked and picked up the pace.
That’s it. Cheyenne shoved the ground again, sending another rippling wave of spiked earth up the hill toward him as fast as he ran. Then she slipped back into normal time and reached out with the black tendrils whipping from her hands. Corian darted away from the coiling ropes of drow magic, but she wasn’t aiming for him. The tendrils curled around the farthest earthen spear as it erupted from the ground, jerking Cheyenne after it.
The Nightstalker darted to the left again, and Cheyenne swung around the opposite side of the rock spear. Corian dropped out of Nightstalker speed and frowned, exasperated. She reached out and felt the ground
