“No, not you. Sorry!” Ember shook her head and waved the woman off as the halfling burst out laughing. “Seriously, cut that out. You’re gonna give somebody a heart attack.”
“I’m freaking out!” Cheyenne whipped her head toward her friend and grinned. “And we have no idea what’s gonna happen. It’s great.”
“Ugh. Only you would be excited by that idea. I’m screwed.”
“No way, Em. You’re just getting started.”
“Shit.”
Tilting her head, the halfling strapped on her seatbelt and shifted into reverse. “You still hungry?”
“If I say no, I’m gonna regret it later.”
“Excellent. Where do you want to go, hypothetically speaking?”
Ember shoved her friend’s shoulder and shook her head, unsuccessful in her attempt to look irritated. “Anywhere that’s not this parking lot, halfling. I need to stop looking at that building.”
With a curt nod, Cheyenne pulled out of the handicap parking spot and headed toward the street. She tapped on the horn and bobbed her head from side to side. “Fae just got her magic back. And I get to drive her around.”
“Stop with the horn. Jesus.” Ember covered her face with her hands and laughed. “Don’t turn this into something it’s not, okay? I can’t ‘get my magic back’ if I never had in the first place.”
“Or did you?”
Ember took a deep breath, clenched her fists, and closed her eyes. “Just drive.”
Chapter Ninety-Three
The Chesterfield Towne Center was only about a five-minute drive from the clinic, and when Cheyenne pulled into the parking lot, Ember laughed and covered her mouth with both hands. “Are you serious right now?”
“Hey, you didn’t give me anything to go on, so I went with the closest selection.” Shifting into park, the halfling turned and raised an eyebrow. “Or did you want me to stop at the McDonald’s back there?”
“No. That’s not what I’m saying.” The fae glanced around the parking lot. “But a shopping mall full of high school kids on a Monday afternoon wouldn’t have made the list, if there was a list.”
“You know what? I think all that magic’s short-circuiting your brain right now.”
Ember unbuckled her seatbelt and raised her hands in surrender. “You’re one of the most infuriating people I know.”
“I get that a lot. Fortunately for you, you’re kind of joking.” The half-drow flashed her friend a brilliant grin that disappeared a second later. Ember clenched her eyes shut with another disbelieving laugh, and Cheyenne opened the trunk to get the chair.
They got Ember into it in record time, then the halfling grabbed the handles and pushed her friend toward the department store entrance. People turned to look at the shiny black Panamera when Cheyenne stuck her hand in her pocket to lock it.
“You’re never gonna get tired of that, are you?” Ember looked over her shoulder. “Watching how many people wish they had your car.”
“Would you?”
“I don’t know anything right now.”
“Just roll with it, Em. Besides, it’s better for people to be staring at my car than at either of us, right?”
“I know why people would stare at you,” Ember said, smirking and readjusting her purse in her lap, “but why me?”
“Oh, you know. Just in case your magic starts leaking out all over the place.”
“Seriously?”
“Hey, I’m in the perfect position to have serious empathy for you here, okay?” Cheyenne choked down another laugh and spoke in her best impersonation of Bianca Summerlin. “I’ve had the rare opportunity to gain personal experience in these types of situations, Ms. Gaderow. I would be more than happy to provide you with some insight if you agree to my conditions.”
“All right, Bianca,” the fae muttered through clenched teeth. “Name your price.”
“Oh, very good.” They laughed. “You got that immediately, huh?”
“Your mom’s the only person I’ve heard you impersonate like that, so it wasn’t that hard.”
Cheyenne cut a straight line through the department store and out into the center walkway of the mall. Groups of teenagers either swerved out of the way at the last second or split down the middle to walk around the Goth chick and her friend. “I guess I need to diversify, huh?”
“You know, Matthew mentioned something about dabbling in trading too.”
“Why am I not surprised?” The halfling peered down the line of shops, searching for the food court she thought was right there. “New rule. I won’t keep taking cracks at the whole fae magic thing if you don’t talk about Matthew Thomas the dabbler unless it’s immediately before or after we have to deal with him for some reason.”
“Done. Oh, my God. What am I supposed to do about him now?”
Cheyenne snorted and nodded with raised eyebrows at a pair of women in their seventies, arms linked together, who passed the magical friends and couldn’t stop staring at the Goth chick’s getup. “Same thing you were planning to do with him before, I hope. Which is not letting him weasel his way into everything, right?”
Ember leaned over the side of her chair just enough to catch a final glimpse of the gray-haired women scowling at Cheyenne’s back and shaking their heads. “Those ladies have serious judgment issues.”
“That’s nothing. Some guy once told me I was going to hell for worshipping the devil.”
“How insightful of him.”
“I know, right? I tried to ask him what he suggested I do to fix that oversight on my part, and he ran away.”
Ember burst out laughing and turned toward the storefront coming up on their right. “Oh, boy.”
Cheyenne glanced at the Hot Topic sign above the door in thick black letters and leaned down to mutter in her friend’s ear, “Watch this.”
She slowed their pace a little and stared into the store as they passed. Four teenagers stood around one of the clothes racks in the center, all of them decked out in punkier versions of the Goth clothes the halfling had been wearing since 2012. The three girls and one guy looked up from the clothes rack and saw Cheyenne slowly pushing Ember past the storefront. The halfling wiped every ounce of expression off
