Black fire burst to life across her skin. She ripped her wrist out of L’zar’s grasp and sent her fist into his gut instead. The flames consumed him and sent him flying across the warehouse, jolting them both out of enhanced speed.
Persh’al ducked and leaped aside. Corian watched L’zar sail toward the back wall, then the black-fire-engulfed drow stopped in midair and hovered. Cheyenne’s flames whipped around him, casting dark shadows in the dimly lit room. Another chuckle rose from his throat. The black fire receded to reveal an unharmed L’zar Verdys floating slowly back to the floor.
Persh’al slowly rose from his crouch. Lumil and Byrd pressed themselves against the far wall and stared at the drow halfling in utter shock.
As L’zar’s feet touched the ground, he took a deep breath through his nose, let it out again, and grinned. “That was exquisite, Cheyenne.”
She stared at him, glancing quickly at Corian before returning her glare to her father. “You’re insane.”
“Probably.” A dark light flashed behind his glowing golden eyes. “And you’re much more than I ever expected.”
Cheyenne snorted and shook her head. “Looks like you need to raise your expectations.”
She turned back toward the door.
“I wasn’t laughing at you,” he called after her.
The door handle sparked and sent a blaze of orange magic up her arm when she touched it. Hissing, Cheyenne jerked her hand back, shook it out, and gritted her teeth. “Let me out.”
“You can leave when we’ve finished our conversation. I’m sorry for what you’ve had to experience in the last hour, Cheyenne, and I would very much like to discuss that piece of technology you brought with you from the other side.”
“You can have it.” She chucked the silver coil across the room, and L’zar caught it deftly.
Without looking at it, he handed it to Persh’al and waited.
The blue troll turned the coil over in his hands. “Unbelievable.”
“Quite.” L’zar clasped his hands behind his back and grinned at Cheyenne.
Corian frowned at the drow and took off toward the front door, skirting around Persh’al’s tables. He stopped in front of Cheyenne and lowered his voice. “You okay?”
“Not while I’m trapped in here with that asshole.”
He glanced over his shoulder, then leaned toward her, staring past her at the blank wall. “We need to know what happened to you between the portals. How you managed to make the crossing with that activator intact. This is huge for all of us, Cheyenne. Whatever’s happening between you and L’zar—”
“There’s nothing between us,” she hissed.
“All right. But hear me out, okay? I’m sure what you saw in Ambar’ogúl was more than enough to show you what we’re facing here. What everyone’s facing here. We still need your help, and you need to put aside your anger so we can accomplish what we need to do.”
Cheyenne turned her head to glare at him, and the nightstalker finally met her gaze. “He didn’t lift a finger to help me, so why the hell would he keep fighting to protect everyone else on this side?”
Corian raised his eyebrows. “If he didn’t care, Cheyenne, he would have let you leave.”
She took a deep breath and stared him down. Yeah, I’ve heard that before, only Mom’s reasoning was a hell of a lot more convincing. “I’m not sticking around to play games with him.”
The nightstalker dipped his head in acknowledgment with a small, thin smile. “After that little display, I don’t think he’s interested in playing that kind of game with you, either.”
Cheyenne looked across the warehouse at L’zar, who stood stock-still with his hands still clasped behind his back. His eyes were closed now, and a small frown creased his brow. “Did I hurt him?”
“Enough to make him want to hide it, yeah.”
“Good.” She shrugged her backpack off and dropped it by the front door, then snatched up her hoodie and tugged it on. “Let’s go hear the mad drow’s theory. Then I wanna go home.”
Chapter Fifty-Seven
L’zar had taken two folding metal chairs from Persh’al’s tables and now sat in one of them. He gestured for Cheyenne to sit in the other, but she stopped six feet in front of him and folded her arms. A small smile creased his mouth, and he dipped his head. “As a general rule, Cheyenne, halflings don’t cross to Ambar’ogúl, and if they do, they don’t last long enough to even try to make a return trip. But you did.”
“We covered that part.” She glanced at the metal cuff around her wrist and slipped it off before shoving it into the front pocket of her hoodie.
“Yes. What we didn’t cover is what happens when a halfling makes that crossing a second time to return to this world.” He slowly looked at her and raised his eyebrows. “Because as far as I know, it hasn’t been done.”
With a quick glance at the activator coil Persh’al was turning over and over in his hands, Cheyenne frowned. “So, you’re saying I could bring a piece of seriously advanced O’gúl tech through the portal with me because I’m a halfling?”
“That’s what I suspect, yes.”
“It could be a fluke, too,” Corian added.
“She used it.” L’zar folded his arms in the chair and studied his daughter. “With perfect accuracy, I’m assuming.”
“Yeah.” Rhynehart was pretty accurately knocked on his ass, that’s for sure.
He let out another low chuckle, then stopped, raising a hand for her to wait. “I find the irony amusing, nothing more.”
“What irony?”
“That taratas Lex and his peons figured out how to mesh old-world machines with human tech, and now we’ve gone one step farther, just by stumbling around in the dark.” L’zar’s dark, crazed smile bloomed on his face. “You, Cheyenne, are the mesh.”
“You lost me on that last part.”
Corian stroked his chin and cleared his throat. “Two worlds, kid.”
“And I’m part of both. I know.” The halfling took a deep breath and let her drow magic fade to return her to her black-haired, pale-skinned human form. “Just so we’re clear, I’m not
