“Then it shouldn’t be an issue.”
“They don’t care about you. If you don’t learn how to control your magic and hide who you are on a deeper level than black hair and makeup and studs, the FRoE will find you. If you make any trouble on this side where humans can see, where there’s the slightest human whisper about magic, they’ll come for you.”
Cheyenne shook her head. “Yeah, that doesn’t scare me. I can handle somebody trying to take me down.”
“Not these people, Cheyenne. They’re way more prepared than even I know. All I do know is if they come for you, they will book you and tie you up and ship you out to the closest Border reservation. They’ll haul you back across and dump you in the middle of a world that wants nothing to do with humans and has no problem destroying a halfling just because that halfling happens to look like one.”
Professor Bergmann closed her eyes, swallowed, and bowed her head for a few seconds. “I know that only brings up more questions. And I’m sorry. Believe me, the way this plays out for you if you don’t get a grip on covering up your magic is the worst-case scenario. And it will happen.”
Cheyenne chewed the inside of her lip. “The FRoE’s just another kind of border patrol.”
“Yes.”
“And they don’t want magicals on this side?”
Mattie dipped her head. “Not if those magicals refuse to follow the law, which is still tenuous and somehow all the more enforced because of it. Things are better than they were in some respects when the FRoE was organized and the reservations opened up to the general magical public. They still have a lot of room for improvement. And that’s an understatement.”
“You mean, like Native American reservations?”
The corner of Mattie’s mouth twitched. “More like the model for Native American reservations. Trust me, the ones created for magicals on this side have been around much longer.”
“Okay.” Cheyenne rolled her shoulders and stretched her neck out. Might as well take a chance on making a few more connections. She doesn’t know I found that report. “And this whole FRoE thing started when?”
An uncertain look crossed Mattie’s face. “Sometime in two thousand. At least, that was when they made the official announcement in what few channels we had for communication. I’m sure the idea and the planning started a long time before that.”
At least she knows that much. Cheyenne nodded and muttered, “Twenty-one years ago.”
The programming professor let out a dry laugh and shrugged. “Hell of a way to usher in the twenty-first century.”
“Yeah. Seems so. For a whole bunch of people.” Like my parents. And magicals all over the place who wanted to be here for some reason.
“Now you know at least that much.” Glancing at her watch, Mattie set the tray of coins on the shelf and went to her desk. “It’s three fifty-seven. Might as well call it a day. I’ll be here tomorrow, in case you were wondering, and I’m still willing to keep throwing things at you until you don’t lose it on me.” She glanced at Cheyenne as she packed her wheeled briefcase, stuffing it with folders and loose papers.
The half-drow shrugged. “No one else has stepped up to take the job, so I guess you get to keep doing it.”
“Yes. I’m just that lucky.” Mattie chuckled, straightened, and grabbed the metal handle of her briefcase. “I’ll help you as much as I can, Cheyenne. But what you’re looking for is beyond my knowledge as a professor or a trainer or even as another magical who crossed over.”
“What do you think I’m looking for?”
Professor Bergmann nodded at the copper-coated drow artifact in her student’s hand. “A way to open that box. And how to use what’s inside.”
With a curt nod and a half-effective smile of encouragement, Mattie wheeled out of her office and into the hall. “Lock up when you’ve cooled down.”
The runes etched into the copper cube flashed beneath the lights when Cheyenne turned it every which way again.
A puzzle box. I just have to put the right pieces together. Or…
She gritted her teeth and tried to twist the top of the box off. Maybe they were the sides. Her dark-gray skin tingled a little at the effort, and then a bright silver light erupted from within every single rune and sent a painful electric jolt up her arms.
“Whoa.” Cheyenne released one side of the box and held the thing in her palm as far away from her as she could stretch. “You little shit.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
The first thing she did when she got back to her apartment was call Ember’s cell. It was one thing for Cheyenne to insert herself onto her friend’s approved visitors’ list at the hospital, but filling out a new form giving the place permission to call her with updates on Ember’s condition would have taken it a little too far. Plus, while it wouldn’t have been impossible, she would have had to pretend to be Ember Gaderow and forge her signature. Which might be suspicious.
Ember’s phone went to voicemail right away, which meant it was dead.
Cheyenne went to her desk, dropped her cell beside her main keyboard, and went for a little hunt through VCU Medical Center’s patient database. Before she could click into Ember’s file, a duck quacked on her screen, and the yellow notification lit up in the bottom right corner.
“Oh, good. As soon as I try to do something else…”
With growing curiosity, she clicked on the notification and opened the first search result that had come through. It wasn’t just one, though. Her deep search had flagged four listings
