“There’ll be something in it for me anyway, Em.”
“This is the part where you shut up and let me finish.” Grinning, Ember pointed at her friend, and the halfling lifted both hands in surrender. “Good. The final point of my argument is you not living in the same place where some freak drew a symbol on your door in blood before blowing up your car with a bomb instead of magic. Which is a little confusing but doesn’t change the fact that I don’t think it’s safe for you to keep living in your dumpy apartment, either.”
Cheyenne opened her mouth to protest, then cocked her head. “You make an excellent argument.”
“I know.”
“And I can’t see any downsides, so okay.”
“Okay?”
The halfling pursed her lips and nodded. “Yeah. Okay, as in let’s start looking for a new place that has everything a drow halfling and her temporarily wheelchair-bound best friend might need to make this work. Stepping up in the world.”
“Ha. Get a new place to match that shiny new drowmobile you got parked outside.”
Cheyenne let herself laugh without holding back at that. “I really fucking love that car.”
“I can tell.” Ember dropped the overnight tote out of her lap and onto the floor, then rummaged around in her purse and pulled out her phone. “I’ll start looking. It’s what, not even three o’clock. If we find a good place fast enough, we can head out, go talk to the office, get something set up—”
Settling into the cushions, the halfling lifted her arm over the back of the couch and snorted.
Her friend looked at her with a self-conscious smile. “What?”
“I’m really into your enthusiasm, Em, but maybe we should hold off on running around Richmond for a new apartment until at least tomorrow, huh?”
“Why the hell would we do that?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because you just got released after weeks in the hospital after, you know, coming kinda close to not making it back out again.”
Ember lowered her phone into her lap and shot her friend a knowing smile. “But I did. And I blame you for that one-hundred-percent.”
“Yeah, okay. I’ll take the blame for saving your life.”
The girl snorted and sat there in the destroyed living room, letting the entire conversation sink in. Then Ember lifted her phone and wiggled it. “So, I start looking for apartments now, or…”
“You can look for whatever you want.” Cheyenne slapped her thighs, the chains around her wrists clinking, and pushed herself to her feet. “I’m gonna clean this place up as much as I can because I should’ve done that already. You don’t need to get those wheels stuck on a chunk of drywall or something.”
Ember laughed. “Okay. If I’m in your way, feel free to wheel me around the room. I’m not going anywhere, and I’ll be focused on finding the perfect apartment.”
“I don’t think that exists, Em.”
“Trust me, it does. And I’ll find it.” Ember pressed her lips together and eyed her friend as Cheyenne walked into the kitchen to start picking up huge chunks of splintered cabinet. “You might be ridiculously skilled with computers, Cheyenne, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us don’t have any tricks up our sleeves.”
The halfling stepped on the lever to open the trashcan and dumped a handful of wood and broken ceramic into the mostly empty trash bag. “Listen to you now. Pullin’ out all the surprise skills.”
Smirking, Ember just stared at her phone, her fingers flying across the screen as she typed. “At least one of us learned something in undergrad.”
Chapter Forty-Three
Cheyenne stayed at Ember’s apartment until a little after 9:30. They’d had a pizza delivered, then the halfling helped her friend get ready for bed and made sure the fae girl had everything she needed before she took off.
“Text me if anything comes up.” She stood in the doorway of Ember’s bedroom. Should I really be leaving her on her own? She doesn’t even know how to work that wheelchair.
Already curled up beneath the covers with her back facing the halfling, Ember stuck a hand out of the blankets and shot Cheyenne a thumbs-up without turning around. “I’m good. Nothing’s gonna happen while I’m sleeping.”
“You want me to come by in the morning before I head to class?”
“I’ll text you about that too,” Ember muttered. “Right now, I can’t tell if I’m still awake...or…”
Asleep. Got it.
Cheyenne turned off all the lights except for the standing lamp on the far side of the living room. The place still looked awful, but at least it wasn’t cluttered with broken pieces of wall and cabinet or feathers anymore. She’s a big girl. She’ll be fine. And if she’s not, I’ll be the first to know about it.
The halfling slipped quietly out the front door and locked it behind her. Ember’s spare key went into the front pocket of her black cargo pants, then she headed back out to her new car in the parking lot.
By the time she got home, Cheyenne was itching to drop in on the Borderlands forum. I don’t care what Rhynehart says. If those kids haven’t gotten back to their parents yet, I’m storming the compound.
Glen fired up, then the halfling pulled up her VPN and dove into the dark web. The Borderlands forum came up, and she didn’t notice how hard she’d been squeezing her mouse until she sighed in relief and loosened up a little.
There we go. Things are looking up.
The four newest topic threads were from magical parents letting their little dark-web community of friends know their kids had been brought home. The pinned topic serving as a single place for all the missing kid reports was still at the top, but a new announcement had been stuck at the top of the page.
Kids Are Coming Home – Check here for updates.
Cheyenne scrolled through the comments and smiled. Dozens of posts from
