“Huh.” Ember dug out a second huge spoonful of ice cream and passed the pint. “Sounds exciting.”
“Yeah, maybe. I invited them to come with me tomorrow after lunch.”
“Oh, man. You know, I’ve been in Richmond for, what? A little over four years? I’ve always wanted to go down there to see what it’s like.”
“So, come with us.” Cheyenne shrugged and braved the chance of brain freeze with a giant bite of ice cream.
“You know, you’re normally full of awesome ideas, Cheyenne.” Ember snatched the pint out of her friend’s hand. “But that’s not one of them.”
The halfling chuckled. “Why not?”
“First of all, I have zero magic.” Ember took another bite, then shook her spoon at her friend and talked around the mouthful. “So, if we ran into any kind of trouble, I wouldn’t be very useful. Forget the whole wheelchair thing.”
“I was in a bar fight with five giant idiots the other night. By myself.” Cheyenne folded her arms and leaned against the counter. “Not an issue if you don’t have any magic to protect me.”
“Okay, but I didn’t start with the most important reason, did I?” The fae shoveled more ice cream into her mouth and handed back the pint. “I can’t go because I look like a human, Cheyenne. Useful for keeping my magical-without-magic identity a secret, for sure. Not so great in a place where any human who steps inside probably isn’t stepping back out again.”
Cheyenne blinked. “Huh. I hadn’t thought about that.”
“Yeah, I know. You’ve been trying to keep your drow side a secret. Well, I’ve been trying to keep my magicless side a secret too. Which is every side. I can get by out in the open and call it an illusion spell. Plus, I’ve been told that fae have a pretty distinct smell, so I guess that’s still going for me.”
The halfling almost sprayed ice cream all over the counter when she laughed, then quickly handed the ice cream to her friend so she could focus. “A smell?”
“Yeah. A fae smell. I don’t know.”
“I never picked up on that. And the whole thing about drow having a seriously intense sense of smell is true.”
Ember shrugged. “Maybe it’s ‘cause you didn’t know I was fae ‘til, like, last week. And you just thought it was me.”
“We can stop talking about your fae scent any time now.”
Laughing, Ember spread her arms. A glob of ice cream dripped off her spoon, but she didn’t notice. “I’m just laying it out for you, Cheyenne. Unless there’s a way for me to look fae, I can’t go down there.”
Cheyenne frowned with another bite of ice cream raised halfway to her mouth. “Maybe there is.”
“I don’t mean face paint, Goth girl.”
“Very funny.” The halfling stuck the spoon in her mouth. “I’m talking about illusion spells. It’s not like they’re human-illusion specific. I bet we could figure out how to cast a charm that makes you look as fae on the outside as you are on the inside.”
“What you see is what you get, halfling.”
“That’s my line, by the way.”
Ember laughed. “I’m pretty sure it belongs to everyone.”
“Yeah, but I’ve been saying it a lot longer than you.”
“You don’t know.”
With a snort, Cheyenne glanced into the almost empty pint in her friend’s lap and turned to stick her spoon in the dishwasher. “Man. Nice kitchen, huh?”
“Yeah, I really picked a winner.” Ember finished the rest of the ice cream, then rolled backward away from the island to search the rest of the kitchen. “So that’s how you know it’s just a demo apartment. No trashcan.”
“Huh. You found the weak link.”
“Didn’t I just? All right. First empty box is our temporary trash can, I guess.” The fae stuck the container on the counter, and Cheyenne took the spoon from her before the girl had a chance to wheel herself across the kitchen. “I can put a spoon in the dishwasher, Cheyenne.”
“I know.”
“Okay, so you’ll be gone tomorrow on your awesome adventure at Peridosh with a family of trolls, and I’ll just…” Licking her lips, Ember pulled something up on her phone and grinned. “How do you feel about me having someone come over to help put everything away?”
“Like who?” Better not be Trevor or any of those other cowards.
“There’s a company that brings boxes from the store to our front door. If I had an extra hundred bucks, I’d bet you there’s a company specifically for people who need help rolling out rugs and hanging curtains.”
Cheyenne glanced at the huge wall of windows. “Please tell me you didn’t order curtains for the entire wall.”
“No, just my bedroom. I like curtains.”
“Sure. Hire someone to help you with curtains.”
“Oh, I will. And it’ll be awesome.”
“Whoa. Settle down, fae girl.” With a short laugh, Cheyenne headed back across the apartment toward the door. “I’m gonna go bring up all our stuff from the car. Probably make a couple trips again. I’m really loving the elevator in this place, lemme tell ya.”
“No problem. I’ll be here.” Ember nodded as the halfling stepped out of the apartment and closed the door behind her. Then she grinned and wheeled herself back into the living room to eye all the boxes of things she’d ordered in the last few hours. Physical therapy’s gonna be great. Dr. Andrews should’ve stuck retail therapy on the list too.
* * *
The magicless fae and the drow halfling settled down in front of the coffee table an hour and a half later, with Netflix pulled up on Cheyenne’s laptop. “And you’re in the mood for…”
Ember shrugged and finished her third bottle of water. “Whatever. I don’t even care that it’s on your laptop. This is a million times better than the ridiculously awful selection of channels at the hospital.”
“You’d think having more entertainment
