“Oh-ho! Are you giving me credit for what you’re about to do?”
“Don’t get used to it.” The drow halfling shook out her hands, her chains dangling, and rolled her neck from one shoulder to the other to loosen up. Guess it’ll be easier to slip into drow when I feel like there’s a hidden camera on me somewhere.
It was. She pulled up an image of a gun pointed at Ember to get herself into that space. Her back sent a barrel roll of heat across her skin, and she took on her dark drow coloring, hair shifting black to white from the roots to the ends. She opened her golden eyes.
The corners of Mattie’s mouth turned up in surprise. “You look bad-ass. You’ve been practicing.”
“It’s not like I timed myself or anything.”
Mattie tapped a finger on her lips, which were still curled into a small smile. She nodded. “Keep going.”
Blowing out a long breath, Cheyenne imagined herself in front of her bathroom mirror, practicing for hours to pick up her human form again. She closed her eyes. Just a bunch of deer in the woods. Might not be the happy place, but it’s as calm as—
Something hit her in the neck. She opened one eye beneath a raised brow.
Mattie spread her arms and grinned. “Had to test it. Just to make sure it was real.”
In front of the woman’s hand, another penny from the tray on the shelf floated midair.
Cheyenne glanced down at her hands—super-pale and black-painted fingernails, no hint of drow gray. “It’s real, all right. And this means—”
The penny shot across the office and pinged off her eyebrow piercing.
“Come on.”
“Look at you.” Mattie bobbed her head in a mix of encouragement and mockery. “It’s like I’m throwing pennies at a regular human.”
Cheyenne kept her human appearance without letting her annoyance get the better of her. “As annoying as that is, we should step it up.”
“Oh, you think you’re ready for some real pressure, huh?” The professor nodded and tapped her lip again. “What did you have in mind?”
“Got any guns around?”
Mattie’s smile disappeared. “That’s not funny.”
“I wasn’t trying to be funny.”
“No, Cheyenne. I don’t keep guns in my office on a university campus.” Mattie’s eyes narrowed, and she turned to pace in a large circle on the other side of the room. “But we can try something else.”
“Yeah. I’m ready.” Just keep thinking about deer. Little Bambi and his mom. Cheyenne snorted when she remembered that movie opened with deer and guns.
Okay, not Bambi.
“Good.” Mattie whirled to face her student and her hand whipped out. A brief silver light flashed from the woman’s fingertips, and an unseen force shoved the drow halfling sideways into the closed office door.
Cheyenne pushed herself away and turned to face her professor. “What the hell?”
“Didn’t see that coming, did ya?”
Deer. Deer. Deer.
“Nope.” Opening her clenched fists, Cheyenne took a deep breath and let it out. “You’re gonna have to do better than that if you’re trying to hurt me.”
“Hurt you? Ha. Trust me, halfling, if I wanted to hurt you, I wouldn’t have to try.” Mattie’s dark ponytail swung back and forth as she shook her head, which made Cheyenne think of Ember’s ponytail the night her friend had met up with those orcish thugs.
Think of the woods. The quiet. Keep it down.
“And if anyone else wanted to hurt you…” Mattie lashed out with the same invisible spell and sent her student flying back against the wall. “You’d never see it coming.”
With a grunt, Cheyenne pushed herself to her feet and rolled her shoulders. “I’m trying to work around that part.”
“What?”
“Nothing.” Crap.
Mattie folded her arms and held Cheyenne in her feral gaze. “I don’t want to ask you again if everything’s okay, but that last remark made it sound like you think someone is trying to hurt you.”
“I don’t.” Cheyenne waved for her teacher to come at her, squaring her feet and leaning forward a little to brace for impact. “Do it again.”
Mattie didn’t move. “Not until you tell me what’s going on.”
“I said, I’m fine.” OrI will be when I figure out where those magical mobsters will be tonight.
“Cheyenne, I’m trying to help. I told you more than I should have yesterday, and I can’t help feeling responsible for you because of it.”
The heat of her magic flared, but she pushed it down. “The only person responsible for me is me. You’re responsible for teaching me how not to lose my shit when someone keeps pushing me.”
A ripple of gray passed over Cheyenne’s skin, visible for a split second on her arms and chest beneath the fishnet shirt. It faded, and the half-drow wished she could keep from breathing so hard. At least it’s better than shifting.
Mattie studied her, both eyebrows raised, and lifted a hand toward her student for a quick, acknowledging gesture. “Looks like you’re getting a good grip on that part.”
Cheyenne glanced at her arms. All human. “Guess so.”
“There’s one more thing I think we should try. If you can master that, I’ll hold up my end of the deal.”
Answering my questions about the FRoE and Borders and portals. Except now the questions I have will give away what I’m trying to do. “Yeah, okay. Let’s do it.”
“Okay.” Professor Bergmann stepped toward her desk and leaned against the edge. “We’re gonna work on your speed going back and forth. Human to drow. Drow to human.”
“I already covered that.”
“And letting off a spell or two in between. If you have to use magic and it isn’t an option to let everybody see your lovely drow locks afterward,” Cheyenne snorted, “you need speed on your side. Something tells me you wouldn’t just walk away from a situation where you could have stepped in but chose to stay hidden instead.”
Cheyenne’s last reserve of calm faded. Because that’s what I did with Ember, and it put her in the hospital.
She shifted to her drow side. “No. I’m not walking away from anything.”
“Good.” Mattie nodded and studied her student with a wary gaze.
