Should’ve stocked up on healing ingredients at Peridosh last night.
Cheyenne bent and dropped into the driver’s seat, slammed the door shut behind her, and started the engine. For a few minutes, she just sat there, debating whether Rhynehart’s warning was worth listening to tonight. Then she shook her head and buckled up. “I already played my leverage card to get into Chateau D’rahl. Nobody likes a drow showing up uninvited and making more demands.”
The gray Ford Focus pulled out of the parking lot, and the halfling headed onto the highway toward downtown Richmond.
With bags of takeout swinging from her hands, Cheyenne stalked down the corridor of the inpatient recovery ward of the VCU Medical Center. She didn’t look up from the linoleum floor in front of her, even when she felt the nurses and care staff staring at the Goth chick. This stupid necklace might block off my magic, but I’m still pissed enough to be one scary human.
When she reached Room 317, she did a little shuffle with the takeout bags before knocking quickly on the door.
“Come in.” Ember sounded cheery enough, and she looked happy to see Cheyenne when the halfling pushed open the door. Then her smile faded. “What happened to you?”
“Weird day.” Cheyenne shut the door behind her and headed across the hospital room toward her friend’s bed.
“That’s an understatement. You look like shit.”
The halfling stopped halfway across the room and looked at Ember in surprise. The magicless fae in the hospital bed smirked, and Cheyenne laughed. “Okay, fine. Weird and seriously messed-up day, with a side order of what-the-fuck.”
Ember laughed. “That’s more like it.”
When she reached the other side of the bed, Cheyenne dropped the takeout bags on the rolling table, then turned to pull the ridiculously uncomfortable armchair as close as she could to her friend. “Hope you’re in the mood for burgers.”
“Come on, Cheyenne. I’m always in the mood for burgers.” Ember started unpacking the food, slowing a little when she noticed the nasty gouges in the half-drow’s forearms. “I’m also in the mood for hearing the wild story of how your arms met Freddy Krueger and why you have chunks of wall in your hair. That is just wall, right?”
“What?” The halfling leaned over the side of the armchair and ruffled her hair. The chains around her wrists clinked as drywall and plaster chunks dropped onto the floor. “Oh, yeah. That. Just another day in halfling paradise, right?”
“Uh-huh.” Ember pulled one of the burgers into her lap and slowly unwrapped it. “I’m listening.”
With a sigh, Cheyenne ran her hand through her hair again and looked at the ceiling for a good neck stretch. “We found those kids.”
“The kids?” Eyes trained on the halfling, Ember took a huge bite of her burger, barbeque sauce and a piece of onion ring landed on the paper wrapper with a splat.
“I didn’t tell you about that?” Cheyenne shrugged. “Damn. I guess it’s only been two days. Feels like two weeks.”
When she looked at Ember, the fae girl just stared at her and shoved more burger into her mouth, silently waiting for the halfling to keep going.
“Okay, this is gonna sound nuts.”
Ember laughed and managed not to spray her mouthful of greasy dinner all over her lap and the hospital blankets. “Compared to what? All your stories are crazy, Cheyenne. It’s the best part of my day when I get to hear ‘em.”
“You’re just itching for your next fix of halfling drama, huh?”
“Believe it or not, the entertainment’s pretty lacking around here.” Ember leaned toward her friend and whispered, “I think the nurses are going out of their way to make sure I’m as bored as possible.”
“Good thing we’re friends.” For the first time since finding out those magical kids had been kidnapped yesterday morning, Cheyenne Summerlin had a reason to smile. “Okay. You eat, and I’ll talk.”
Ember took another huge bite and wiggled her eyebrows.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Ember finished her burger and the side of sweet potato fries halfway through Cheyenne’s story—the bomb at the construction site, all the kids’ clothes in a pile, the halfling’s second stay in the FRoE’s medical wing. The fae sucked down the raspberry iced tea like she hadn’t had anything to drink in days when Cheyenne got to the part about visiting L’zar a second time at Chateau D’rahl.
“Sounds like he lost his mind in that place.”
The halfling shook her head. “I’m pretty sure he was like that before they locked him up. Still not convinced he’s sane.”
“But he knew about that goblin pretending to be a FRoE agent, right?” Ember wiped her hands on a napkin and tossed it into the plastic takeout bag, shaking her head. “I can’t believe that sentence just came out of my mouth.”
Cheyenne chuckled and shrugged. “Pretty weird to hear about all this insider FRoE crap when you’ve been trying to stay away from them your whole life, huh? Maybe that’s how I got into this mess. I had no idea who they were.”
“Maybe. Or you’re just a badass who can handle anybody.”
“Yeah, right.” Rolling her eyes, the halfling finished off the last of her burger and turned to her side of fries. “And L’zar didn’t know who the traitor was.”
“Really? How do you figure that?”
“How would he know? He’s been locked up in there for decades. Okay, minus the three-day vacation when he met my mom.”
Ember snorted.
“I think it’s more like L’zar knew that I knew, and he was just trying to dig up the pieces so I could see it all clearly and ignore everything else. Which is totally weird when I think about it like that.”
“No kidding. Estranged prisoner dad knowing your head better than you do? Yeah, Cheyenne, I bet that’s pretty creepy.”
The halfling munched on more fries. “But it worked. And we found the assholes who took those kids. Got ‘em all out of there safely, and
