The silver lightning darted back and forth across the foyer, leaving the agents untouched and everything else destroyed in its wake. In a flash, it raced past the agents being pushed down the stairs again by the enraged and blinded ogre. Blinding silver light ripped his gray flesh from navel to chin, and the ogre dropped.
“What the hell?”
“Who’s doing that?
“Just gutted the bastard like a fish!”
The silver streak moved in a blur that was impossible to see, heading for Cheyenne and Yurik beside the double doors. The orange and red wards erupted in a flash of light, the doors burst open, and then the silver flash darted away.
Cheyenne changed into drow speed, surrounded by FRoE operatives frozen in shock and bewilderment. She ran down the hall toward the staircase and leaped down two at a time. “Corian!”
The Nightstalker moved quickly down the stairs but didn’t bother to look at her.
“Hey! I know you hear me.”
When she’d made it halfway down the stairs, he whirled to face her and hissed, his silver eyes flashing in the super-speed stasis around them, “I didn’t give you that pendant so you could take it off to play drow superhero, kid.”
“What?” The halfling moved the rest of the way down the staircase toward him. “You know what? You’re the one who didn’t tell me what it does. And I asked!”
“Me telling you to do something should be enough. I’m not risking my neck to help you if you keep insisting on being a moron.”
“Look, asshole, it’s a good thing I figured out what that pendant does, or I would’ve walked in here without magic.” Cheyenne glanced at the carnage in the foyer and pointed to the ogre with his legs blown off. “And I’d end up like one of those guys. I came here to find those kids, and I’m not about to turn my magic off just to make you feel safer.”
“I am safe, Cheyenne!” Baring his teeth, Corian stormed toward her, his fists clenched at his sides. “I’ve been safe for hundreds of years on this side, and the only thing that’s coming even remotely close to blowing my cover and bringing it all crashing down around me is you. I have my orders, and I’m following them. Suck it the hell up and do the same.”
“I don’t take orders, Nightstalker. That’s not what this is about.”
“Everyone in this house knew you were here. Who do you think that skaxen portal was for, huh? You charged in here like an idiot without any protection, and you need to get it through your thick drow head that the game has changed.”
Cheyenne shook her head. “What are you talking about?”
The Nightstalker's silver eyes darted around the destroyed foyer littered with criminal bodies. “This is the last time I pull your head out of your ass for you, got it? Put the fucking pendant back on.”
He turned without another word and stalked back out of the house. As he stepped through the doorway, Cheyenne’s enhanced speed fell away.
“Holy shit,” Yurik muttered, staring through the open double doors on the second floor before reaching out to nudge the halfling he still thought stood beside him. “You were right about— What?” He turned quickly and found her standing at the bottom of the stairs. “What the hell are you doing down there? We got the kids. Hey!” The goblin agent waved for the rest of the team to join him in front of the double doors.
Beside the debris spilling out of the room next to the foyer, Rhynehart ripped off his helmet and stared at the halfling. “What the hell was that?”
Cheyenne turned toward him and grimaced. “Those kids are a lot more important right now, don’t you think?”
She ignored his irritated mumbling as she stalked back up the stairs with the other FRoE agents to join Yurik by the door. Some still gazed around in amazement, taking their helmets off to get a better view of the destruction.
“Hey, kids,” one of the agents said gently from just outside the door. He set his helmet on the floor, holstered his weapon, and waved for the terrified kidnapping victims to come out of the warded dungeon they’d been crammed into for at least a day. “Everything’s okay. We’re gonna get you all outta here and take you home.”
Cheyenne’s enhanced hearing picked up heavy frightened breathing from the beings inside that room. Some of the magical kids started crying. A goblin boy about twelve or thirteen was the first to step through the door. He gazed around the mansion with wide eyes, taking in the dead bodies, the bloodstained floors, and the walls riddled with charred holes and cracks and missing huge chunks. Then he turned toward the agent who’d spoken to the kids and stuck out his hand. “Thank you.”
The agent looked startled, then he gripped the goblin boy’s hand and gave it a firm shake. “Doin’ our job, kid. If you wanna thank somebody, go shake the drow’s hand.”
The kid’s eyes grew wide when he saw Cheyenne standing at the top of the stairs.
The image of the goblin boy dressed up in robes and lying dead in that church came uninvited to Cheyenne’s mind. She blinked at him, swallowed, and muttered, “Just help everyone else get outta there. You guys’ll be fine.”
Then the drow halfling brushed past the other FRoE agents. Rhynehart stared at her as she stormed through the foyer. She had to swerve to avoid the bodies scattered all over the place, and she felt his gaze on her even when she stepped outside into the early evening. We only made it out of this because of Corian. Maybe he was right.
Cheyenne jammed her hand into the outside pocket of her jacket and took out the Heart of Midnight pendant. The gem glittered at her in the orange and pink light of sunset, and she begrudgingly put it back on, tying a little knot in the thing’s silver chain because she’d
