“Holy shit. Did I just…”
Corian tilted his head. One eye drooped mostly closed before he blinked quickly. “That one looked successful.”
“Ha! I did it! This drow halfling just bonded an illusion charm. Fuck, yeah!”
The Nightstalker rubbed between his eyebrows with two fingers. “Cheyenne, if you don’t quit squealing from two feet away, I will throw you out that door. Or through it.”
“All right, party pooper.” She took it down a notch and flicked her gaze toward the aggravated magical. “And I don’t squeal.”
“From where I’m sitting, you might as well be a room full of screaming children wrapped in a drow bow.”
“You can try all you want, but nothing’s gonna make me feel like crap right now.” The halfling grinned at the copper ring. “I just opened a whole new world.”
“We won’t know for sure until you try the damn thing.”
“Oh. Right.” She snatched the ring off the floor while Corian massaged his temples. The ring slid onto her right ring finger but stopped at the second knuckle. “Damn. I know I have small hands, but this is kinda ridiculous. Where’d you get this anyway?”
“Some fae jeweler just outside the capital.”
“Fae, huh?”
“Small hands.”
She chuckled. “Whatever.” The ring slipped perfectly onto her pinky, and a small buzz raced up her arm. Now for the real test. With a deep breath, Cheyenne stared at the ring and shifted back into her human form. She’d grown so used to the heat of her drow magic drawing itself up from the base of her spine that feeling it slip away was like stepping outside buck-naked in the middle of winter. But that was the only change.
Corian looked at her and raised an eyebrow. “Right. See? Sometimes you think it works, but a quick test just shows you it’s another dud. We’ll have to try again another day, kid. I can’t handle any more of this.”
“Dude.” Smirking at the way he cringed under that address, Cheyenne waited for him to look at her. “Corian…”
“I can’t sit through you attempting that spell one more time. It’s exhausting, and it makes me want to kill something.”
“Good thing you don’t have to, then.”
That made him look up, just as the halfling slid the copper ring off her pinky. The air shimmered around her, and her drow image fell away into the pale-skinned, black-haired Goth girl. “That looked like an illusion charm.”
“Because it is.” She wiggled her eyebrows and clenched the ring in her fist. “By the way, have you ever considered getting therapy for that ‘wanting to kill something’ problem?”
“Silence and solitude are all I need, Cheyenne. No therapist is gonna give me that.” He cocked his head and blinked slowly. “But you sure as hell can.”
“I get it.” The halfling snatched up the three other ingredients they’d used to bind the charm to that ring. Everything went into the front pocket of her backpack, the drow puzzle box slid into the main pocket, and she stuck the brown jar of darktongue salve in behind it. Then she pointed at the spellbook. “Cool with you if I leave that here?”
“If it gets you out faster.”
“Damn. Don’t hold back or anything.” With a wry laugh, she stood and grabbed the hardened leather slip with the O’gúl hornet’s web inside. I’m positive he’ll know what this is. I’ll bring it back next time. “Try again tomorrow?”
“Fine.”
“Oh, hey. Do you have, like, a cell phone or something? It gets pretty old having to pop onto the Borderlands forum every time I wanna ask to come over.”
Corian rubbed his temples again. “I’ll call you tomorrow. How’s that?”
“You don’t have my number.”
The Nightstalker’s silver eyes flashed with deadly irritation when he looked at her. “Are you sure?”
“Well, not anymore.” Shaking her head, the halfling moved toward the door.
“Cheyenne. Pendant.”
“Reduced to one-word sentences.” He didn’t think that was very funny, so she shut up and pulled out the Heart of Midnight on its broken chain. Once she’d tied the knot again, Cheyenne shot him a thumbs-up. Without looking, Corian deactivated the wards around his metal front door, and she nodded. “Thanks for all of it. And you should at least get a mini-fridge with a little freezer drawer.”
Corian clenched his eyes shut and whispered, “What the fuck?”
“You know. To ice your jaw. Helps with the swelling.”
“Out.”
“G’night.” Cheyenne jerked open the door and shut it quickly behind her before almost skipping up the damp steps covered in damp leaves. And I thought I had an issue with personal space. Nightstalker’s been spending too much time in a basement by himself. She slipped her hand into her pocket and felt the copper ring there. That and the chirp of her Panamera when she unlocked it made her grin.
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Cheyenne practically stumbled into her apartment. Good thing I helped Ember to bed before I left. She’d think I showed up wasted.
The backpack slid off her shoulder and onto the floor beside the gray suede couch. Her black Vans thumped across the floor in the direction of the front door, and she staggered across the apartment toward her bedroom on the other side.
The chandelier lamp was still on, casting a soft purple light over everything. The halfling sighed, her shoulders relaxing as her exhaustion finally caught up with her. She emptied her pockets onto the chest of drawers with the skull handles, making sure not to toss the copper ring behind the furniture in the process. Then her clothes landed in a pile on the floor, and she brushed aside the black canopy around her bed before climbing onto the mattress.
“Oh, yeah.” The mattress sank beneath her weight. I could sleep on top of this purple velvet and be totally fine. But she forced herself to pull back the comforter and laughed as much as she could for how tired she was. “And black satin sheets. Ember Gaderow is officially the patron saint of Goths. I even sound drunk.”
She tossed some pillows aside but left the softest ones and had
