Corian’s silver eyes darted to her face, then he snarled and stepped back.
The halfling lowered the shield when it was safe and reached out for the black pillars again, searching with her magic. Might work as a barred door, at least for a little while.
When her magic found the energy in all that frigid, searing stone, she pulled on it again and roared with the force of her magic coursing through her. The jagged stone spires surrounding the massive crack in the earth shuddered and broke almost as one at the base. Rock crashed against rock, drowning out every other sound in the clearing as the spires toppled against each other, rolling and bouncing and turning into a latticework of fallen stone. Huge plumes of black dust and brown dirt sprayed up in a cloud around them, and after the last smaller pebbles had finished bouncing down on top of the fallen portal ridge, the clearing fell silent.
The wall of pitch-black magic stayed where it was, reaching up into the sky along the length of the jutting ridge of stone. Then it flickered once or twice and let go of the darkness.
Sunshine slowly filtered back into the clearing, and Cheyenne stumbled sideways before dropping into a crouch.
“Hey.” Corian bent to put a hand on her shoulder.
“I’m fine,” she wheezed. “Just give me a minute.”
The Nightstalker removed his hand and stepped back, staring at the destruction across the portal. His lips twitched on his feline face before finally curling into a smirk. “That was definitely not what I expected, either.”
Chapter Seventy-Three
When the wave of dizziness subsided, Cheyenne rose slowly to her feet and studied the fallen pillars lying over the crevasse of the newest Border portal. A stream of cold air rose from the gaping split in the ground beneath the broken black spires, but nothing else stirred.
“Probably just a temporary thing, huh?”
Corian threw his head back and roared with laughter.
She turned toward him and raised an eyebrow. “It’s not that funny.”
“Not tha…” Another laugh burst out of him before he pulled himself together and cleared his throat. “No, Cheyenne. This issue in front of us isn’t a laughing matter, I’ll give you that. But you? You never cease to amaze me.”
“Thanks. I think.” The halfling headed toward the open part of the clearing and sucked in a sharp breath. She glanced down at her ankle and the puncture marks through the fabric of her pants. “That’s not good.”
“We’ll take a look at that later, kid.” Corian’s smile had faded, but his blasé glance at her wounded leg made her feel a little better.
“What the hell did I just watch?” Byrd shouted as he raced toward them.
Lumil flung a glob of black goo off her fist and joined him, cursing in O’gúleesh. “That was much worse than any crossing I’ve made. I’d make them all again at the same time if it meant I never had to deal with this shit again.”
Behind Corian, Persh’al flicked out his hand, and the green whip of his magic disappeared. “I tell you what, halfling. You sure as shit didn’t get that from L’zar.”
“Look at you with your massive insights into the obvious.” Byrd thumped his palm against his forehead and shook his head.
Cheyenne shook out her hands, the chains clinking against her wrists, and let out a quick, heavy breath. “Didn’t get what from him?”
“All that.” The troll waved his hand over the broken spires crushed against each other, then nodded at the mound of natural dirt and earth still jutting up toward the portal ridge where she’d raised it. “That’s some next-level drow shit.”
“And who made you the expert on that?” Lumil asked, folding her arms.
Persh’al blinked at her and gestured toward the destruction across the border ridge. “We’ve all seen enough drow magic to know that’s not usually in the bag of tricks. Unless you’ve seen that before and haven’t gotten around to telling us the story fifty million times already.”
The goblin woman smirked and tilted her head, her flop of yellow hair spilling down over one eye. “No. That was pretty damn impressive.”
When Lumil nodded at Cheyenne, the halfling just nodded back.
“So, now what?” Byrd asked.
Corian scratched the side of his fur-covered face and shook his head. “This thing seems pretty blocked off. For now. And we still don’t know if any of this happened on its own or if someone’s working double-time to open the portal from Ambar’ogúl.”
Persh’al stared at the black rift in the earth, barely showing between the toppled pillars. “You really think she has that kinda firepower over there?”
The clearing fell silent as the O’gúleesh magicals exchanged uncertain glances.
Cheyenne watched their interactions with a small frown. Nobody wants to come right out and say it. Whatever it is.
Corian shook his head. “We’ve been Earthside a long time, Persh’al.”
“You said you’ve had reports.”
“I have eyes back home, sure, but not enough to see everything.” The Nightstalker’s nose twitched into the beginning of a snarl as he glared at the fallen spires. “And I only know one person who’d be able to sniff out the truth behind this.”
Lumil scoffed. “Well, good thing we know where she is. Oh, that’s right. We don’t.”
“True.” Corian turned toward Cheyenne and fixed her with his glowing silver eyes. “But Cheyenne does.”
“What?”
“You know where to find Maleshi Hi’et?” Lumil folded her arms and grinned despite the dark frown wrinkling her turquoise brow.
The halfling glanced at the goblin woman and the Nightstalker. “Not on a Sunday.”
Persh’al chuckled softly.
“Cheyenne, we need to find her.” Corian stepped toward the halfling and dipped his chin to look at her beneath the furry tufts of his brows. “She’s the only magical I know who has the skill to track the origin of this new portal without us having to make a crossing back to Ambar’ogúl.” He glanced quickly over his shoulder at the crumbled stone. “Which I’m even more hesitant to do after the last ten minutes.”
The halfling swallowed, pursing
