“Oh, yeah. That’s the only thing I look for in a car.” Cheyenne shrugged and glanced around the table. “I really like the way it sounds, okay? And it’s a great car.”
“It’s certainly better than the rusting shell you’ve been driving for years.”
“Yes, Mom. I’m well aware of the difference.”
Bianca smirked. “What’d you do with the Ford?”
Cheyenne and Ember shared a brief glance before the halfling looked quickly away. No way Mom didn’t see that. “It was time.”
Ember snorted.
“I see.” Bianca eyed her daughter for a little longer, then returned her attention to her plate. “I admire your decision to make so many large changes all at once. It wipes the slate clean in most regards, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah, things are clean.” Cheyenne laughed when she caught the flutter of her mom’s eyelids, the closest Bianca Summerlin came to rolling her eyes.
“At least you’re still keeping up with your schedule at school.”
The halfling sat up a little straighter in her chair, and Eleanor let out a little hum of intrigue.
When Bianca looked at her daughter again, the amusement had vanished from her features. “Cheyenne, please tell me you’re still in school.”
“Of course, I’m still in school. That’s the same.”
“But?”
Cheyenne glanced at the ceiling and tilted her head from side to side. “My schedule has changed a little.”
“Mmhmm.”
Ember pointed at her halfling friend. “She went from advanced grad student to—”
Without warning, the floor, table, chairs, and their dinnerware trembled. Ice clinked in glasses, and from somewhere on the other side of the house came the tinkle of crystal rattling against other crystal. Bianca set her palms firmly on the table, staring at the polished wooden surface in front of her. Ember snatched up her tall gin glass before it fell over, and Eleanor let out a little squeak of surprise, gripping the edges of her chair with both hands.
Cheyenne glanced around the dining room and gritted her teeth.
Almost as quickly as it had started, the earthquake stopped.
The table fell silent again as everything in the Summerlin house stopped rattling and shaking. Bianca lifted her napkin to the corner of her mouth again. “Eleanor, remind me to thank you for talking me out of installing that chandelier in the dining room.”
“I stand by my decision.” Eleanor nodded slowly, her eyes wide. “That was…”
“Unexpected, yes. I’ll look into it after dinner. Just one more benefit of living all the way out here away from the city, Ember.” Bianca smiled curtly at the fae and returned her napkin to her lap. “Even the natural surprises feel a lot more isolated than—”
The second wave rocked the house with surprising force. The metal salad bowl jolted off the end of the table and clattered to the floor, followed by the bottle of mineral water.
“All right. Everyone out from under the staircase.” Bianca lurched to her feet and stumbled away from the table, helping Eleanor out of her chair with a firm grip on the other woman’s hand.
Cheyenne leaped up and grabbed the handles of Ember’s wheelchair before whisking her friend away from the table.
“Cheyenne?” Ember rubbed the back of her neck and looked at the halfling with wide eyes.
“I don’t know.” The half-drow pulled Ember away from the table and out from beneath the staircase, then turned to look out the wall of windows and past the veranda. A flash of dark light bloomed from within the trees at the edge of the small meadow. A wide swath of oak trees and loblolly pines rustled violently before crashing down against each other. The shaking house settled down a little, a slow rumble still rising from beneath the floors. The halfling barely noticed, her attention split between the almost painful tingle across the tops of her shoulders and the second flash of dark light between the trees. “Shit.”
Chapter Ninety-Seven
“Cheyenne.” It wasn’t a question the way Ember said it. Not from Bianca Summerlin.
“I don’t know, Mom.” The halfling wheeled Ember toward Bianca and Eleanor, then set a hand lightly on her friend’s shoulder and nodded at her mom. “I’ll be back.”
“If you don’t know, Cheyenne, I doubt it’s a good idea to go chasing after it.”
“Yeah, but at least it won’t come chasing after me into this house.” The halfling shot her mom a warning look, and the fiery determination Bianca saw in her daughter’s eyes sucked the breath out of her. “Just stay here.”
“What’s happening?” Eleanor squeaked.
No one had the time to answer her before the house rocked again. Cheyenne staggered toward the double doors and threw them open. The calm air outside on the veranda was at odds with the shaking stone beneath her feet and the echo of groaning trees and earth before both snapped and split open. Black and purple light bloomed in long flashes within the trees.
The halfling stopped halfway to the balcony and ripped the Heart of Midnight pendant off her neck for what felt like the thousandth time. This is really getting old.
As soon as the chain broke, Cheyenne’s magic flared with an overwhelming intensity up her spine and through her entire body. The force of it sent purple sparks shooting from her fingertips as her hair went from black to white and her pale skin darkened. For a second, everything went violet in her vision as purple light flashed behind her glowing gold eyes, then she stepped back before sprinting toward the railing at the edge of the veranda.
She vaulted over it and dropped nearly two stories.
“Oh, my God, Cheyenne!” Ember fumbled to get a grip on the chair’s wheels, but Bianca stepped toward her and just barely touched her fingertips to the fae’s upper arm.
“It’s all right. She’s been doing that since she was nine.”
“What?”
Eleanor clasped her hands together and raised them toward her trembling lips as all three women stared at the edge of the veranda. “We asked her
