When she’d toweled off and brushed her hair enough times to be sure it wouldn’t fall out, she slipped into an oversized black t-shirt and crawled into bed. Cheyenne sniffed, wrinkled her nose, and pressed a handful of hair to her face. I need stronger shampoo. Her alarm was set, the lights were off, and she rolled over before yanking at the chain and the black stone pendant around her neck. I’m gonna choke myself sleeping in this thing.
The halfling’s tired fingers fumbled with the clasp, then she dropped the whole necklace onto the bedside table beside her phone and rubbed her neck with a sigh. Dropping off to sleep wasn’t nearly as hard after that.
Cheyenne dreamt about the meadow where she’d trained with Corian. The same creepy portal was there, whispering in some other language and pulling all the trees in the forest behind it. Only this time, her dreams had started melting together. The meadow was studded with fallen drow bodies in a messy circle around another figure crouching in the center. The whispering grew louder as the portal sparked and crackled with electric purple energy.
The ground trembled, and the portal grew to twice the size she remembered it.
When the figure in the black cloak kneeling in the center of all those bodies lifted its head, she recognized the bone-white hair and the purple-gray skin beneath the hood. But it wasn’t L’zar’s face when the hood slid back.
It was hers.
Her burning golden eyes shone like beacons in the darkened meadow. “Now it’s my turn.”
Just as the words boomed across the meadow of the halfling’s dream, a dark figure snaked through the portal. It wore the same black, shimmering cloak as the Cheyenne in her dream, and pitch-black fingers reached up to pull back the hood. There was no face beneath it—only a hollow darkness that hissed out the growing whispers. Then the language shifted, and the faceless figure made of nothing turned to face the real Cheyenne.
“If he found you, so will I.”
The figure screamed and lurched toward Cheyenne, dark, glistening claws flashing as they came down across her face.
Cheyenne jolted upright in her bed, gasping for breath. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and stripped off the soaked oversized t-shirt before chucking it to the floor. “This is ridiculous.”
Her hand slapped down on her cell phone, and she groaned. Why am I up at five-thirty?
She dropped back down on her back and winced, then rolled over and pressed a gentle hand to the back of her head. She clenched her eyes shut and just lay there, but then her eyes flew open again. Yeah, I’m awake now.
She pushed herself out of bed, and her gaze fell on the protection pendant beside her phone. Snatching it up, she clasped it around her neck again and looked down at the glimmering black stone. Maybe choking in my sleep is worth it if this thing can keep out the bad dreams.
The dresser drawers were almost completely empty, so she grabbed a pair of pants from the bottom of her pants drawer that she hadn’t worn since freshman year—black with shiny vertical silver stripes. Her nose wrinkled when she buttoned them, but she shrugged and went to the closet. There weren’t a lot of options there, either. Cheyenne snorted and jerked a black turtleneck off the hanger before tugging it on. She pulled the protective pendant out from beneath the turtleneck and shook her head. Then she went around the bedroom and piled all the dirty clothes she had left on the floor into her arms before taking them to the stacked washer and dryer just beside the bathroom.
After putting on a little more eyeliner and brushing her teeth—scowling the whole time at the memory of the ogre’s nasty breath blasting into her face—the halfling went back out to her desk, scooted toward it in the chair, and clicked on the monitor.
Her university email had automatically signed her out, which didn’t matter anyway before she closed the internet window. Then she was staring at the Borderlands forum and the pinned announcement still pulled up on her screen. With a massive sigh, Cheyenne sagged against the edge of her desk. Great. Now I’m making stupid noob mistakes.
She backed out of the dark web too and left her VPN up while she ran a diagnostic test of her server and her processing system. The results popped up with nothing to show for the oversight, and she powered Glen down before backing away from her desk again. “Got lucky this time.”
Shaking her head, the halfling stuck both cell phones in the front pocket of her backpack, then grabbed a black corduroy jacket with rows of silver buttons down both sides out of the front closet. After she’d shrugged it on, she slung her backpack over her shoulder, grabbed her keys, and was out of her apartment half an hour before she normally left for school.
On her drive to the VCU campus, the halfling blinked at the sign for the Starbucks coming up on her right and rolled her eyes. What the hell?
She pulled off into the parking lot and drove around to the drive-thru window to sit and wait behind a sky-blue Prius, where a woman with short brown hair leaned halfway out the window to make her order. Even with her window rolled up, Cheyenne heard every bit of the woman’s ridiculously long coffee order for a Wednesday morning. This is why I don’t do Starbucks. Should’ve just grabbed something at the gas station.
Then the woman’s car pulled through for what would be an even longer wait, and Cheyenne rolled her Ford Focus up to the speaker before the window came
