“You guys don’t have to do that—”
“Oh, yes, we do.” Bhandi paid for their parking, slapped the card back into Tate’s hand, and took off toward the row of shops ahead of them. “Don’t try pulling the humility card tonight. Oh, shit.” The troll in a brunette mask turned over her shoulder to frown at Cheyenne. “What’s your name, anyway?”
The halfling swallowed under their gazes. Guess I couldn’t keep this up forever. “Cheyenne.”
“Cheyenne.” Yurik grinned, bobbing his head while they took off across the street again. “I was thinking something more like Beatrix. Or Rowena.”
Bhandi and Cheyenne burst out laughing. The other woman shoved him away, shaking her head. “You’re an idiot, Yurik. What kinda names are those?”
“Hey, I can’t help what pops into my head.”
Tate frowned at the halfling. “Like the city in Wyoming?”
She rolled her eyes. “Same spelling and everything. And no, I was born and raised in Virginia.”
The troll with sandy-blond hair and blue human eyes sniggered. “Sounds like you’ve had a lot of practice with that answer.”
“You have no idea.”
They stopped in front of a Fro-Yo shop, which had an Open sign in the window and patrons at the tables. Tate opened the door and held it for everyone. The agents filed in and Cheyenne followed, and then she stared at the inside of the shop. “This isn’t what I expected.”
Bhandi shot the halfling a wide grin and wiggled her eyebrows. “This ain’t nothin’, Cheyenne. Just wait.”
They moved back toward the counter, where a middle-aged man in a brown tweed suit jacket nodded at them.
“What’s up, Tony?” Yurik called. “Havin’ a good night?”
“If you call standing here playing guard dog for twelve hours six days a week a good night, then sure. I’m having loads of fun.”
“Whoa, sorry I asked.” Yurik raised both hands in surrender and walked past the counter toward the back of the store.
Tate rapped his knuckles on the counter. “Want us to bring you anything, big guy?”
“Yeah, get me a raise, will ya?”
The blond troll shot Tony the guns with both hands and winked. “I’ll keep my eyes open.”
“I bet you will.”
Bhandi reached the door at the back of the shop first, jerking it open with a flourish. She held it for the others, waving for them to hurry up. The piece of paper taped to the wooden door had the words “Employees only. Keep out” written in huge bright-red letters.
Cheyenne glanced back at Tate and pointed toward the door. “Guess it doesn’t apply to us, huh?”
“Even if it did, would you wanna be the one to tell Bhandi she can’t walk in there?”
“Good point.”
It looked like a door to a storage room or maybe an office, but it wasn’t either of those. Cheyenne stepped into the tiny room with the FRoE agents, and the door clicked shut behind them. Then two metal doors the same brushed silver as the floor and walls closed in front of them and met in the middle. The halfling opened her mouth and paused before blurting, “Did we just walk into an elevator?”
Yurik stuck out his lower lip and nodded. “Yeah. I’d say that pretty much sums it up.”
“This isn’t just any elevator.” Bhandi patted the metal wall as the box around them jolted and moved down. “Cheyenne, this is the elevator to the best damn bazaar this side of the Border.”
“Oh, right.” Yurik scoffed. “Like you can have anything to compare it to.”
“Hey, I’ve heard the stories. And I’m not the first person to give it the same kinda high praise.”
“You spend too much time listening to those ancient farmers talking a big game about ‘back in their day.’” Yurik pulled a face, and Tate leaned back against the elevator wall, smirking.
“You think they have pigs on the other side? Really?” Bhandi looked at the muscular goblin dressed like a 1970s remake and shook her head. “Shut your mouth before I rip the stupid leash right out of your face.”
Yurik shot her a wounded look of fake insult, his eyes wide, and lifted a human-looking hand to the much smaller ring through his human-looking septum. “It’s not a leash.”
“Not yet.” Pressing her lips together to hold back a laugh, Bhandi twisted the black ring on her index finger before yanking it off. The air shimmered in front of her, and then she was all violet skin and scarlet braids again. She rolled her shoulders back and tipped her head from side to side. “Oh, man. Much better.”
“Please.” Yurik grunted and struggled to take off his ring as Tate slipped his neatly off his pinky and stuffed it into his front pocket. “You can’t feel an illusion spell.”
“But I can feel better knowing I look better.” Bhandi pocketed her ring too. “You might get it if you bothered to buy yourself some new clothes. Like from this century.”
The black ring finally popped off Yurik’s thumb, and then his dark hair lightened and turned into the racing stripe of yellow braid down his blue-green head. The ring through his nose more than tripled in size, and he pocketed his ring too. “I am perfectly happy with my choice of clothes, thank you very much. And since when did you give a shit about fashion?”
Bhandi shrugged. “I don’t. I give a shit about busting your balls, though.”
Cheyenne glanced up at the ceiling of the elevator, scanning the top of all four walls without seeing a single button or one of those little screens which counted which floor they were on. “How far down are we going?”
Tate clicked his tongue. “Far enough. Plus, this thing is really slow.”
“Has to be with all the wards, yeah?” Yurik sighed and laced his fingers together, pushing them out to crack his knuckles. “Feels like we haven’t been down here in
