Cheyenne and Ember glanced at each other, and the halfling cleared her throat. “I think you forgot to ring me up.”
“No, I did not.” The woman glanced around the shop and leaned forward with a conspiratorial smile. “Your purchase is covered today, ma’am. No questions asked. I wish I could be there to see it, but I gotta keep things running around here if you know what I mean.” She winked at Cheyenne, and a flash of green light flared briefly behind her large brown eyes.
Now I’m getting expensive clothes for free from a magical at a consignment store.
Cheyenne tried to smile back as she put away her card and her wallet. “Well, thanks.”
“Think nothing of it, Aranél.” The woman grinned at Ember next, nodding as Cheyenne took the bag.
“Okay.” Ember gave the human-looking magical a weak wave before wheeling herself toward the front doors. “Have a good one.”
“You too. Good luck.”
An electronic bell dinged when the girls stepped outside. Cheyenne glanced over her shoulder at the woman behind the counter, who raised a hand in farewell and wouldn’t stop smiling.
“What was that?” Ember asked, heading to Cheyenne’s shiny black Panamera parked in front of the store.
The halfling gritted her teeth and unlocked the car, ignoring the chirp that usually brightened her mood. “Marsil told me he hadn’t said anything to anyone about you.”
“But she knows who you are, apparently.” Ember moved away from the passenger side door and flicked a finger at it. The handle flashed purple, and the door swung open in front of her.
Cheyenne tossed the bag into the back and helped her friend transfer into the passenger seat, aided by the fae’s boost of magic lifting her out of the chair. “And it sounded like she knew about the ceremony. What else could she be talking about?”
“Marsil couldn’t have told her about that. We only just found out.”
“I know.” Cheyenne popped the trunk, folded up the wheelchair, and stored it before slipping behind the wheel. Both front doors closed at the same time, and she and Ember exchanged dubious glances. “Somebody’s been spreading the word. Really damn fast, too.”
“That doesn’t make sense.” Ember strapped herself in and stared at the front of the consignment store. “Who would openly put that information out there? Especially when everyone on this side following L’zar knows the Crown’s still looking for you.”
Cheyenne punched the engine’s start button and buckled her seatbelt. “An idiot, that’s who. At least they keep the wards up around the warehouse, ‘cause if the wrong people find out about this, we’re gonna have a different kind of party.”
Chapter Sixty
Back at their apartment, Cheyenne finished putting on the extra layers of thick black eyeliner and nodded at herself in the mirror. She’d pinned her hair into something resembling a fancy up-do, the slight curl left in her black locks spilling down to frame her face. She smoothed down the front of her new romper, looked herself up and down, and then stepped out of the bathroom as Ember wheeled out of the kitchen.
“Whoa.” The fae grinned. “Okay, the jumpsuit works. Especially with the black lipstick.”
“See? Told you. Nice dress.”
Ember glanced down at the gray dress, which fell just below her knees. “Thanks. Admittedly, I wish I had more magic tricks to work with, but putting on these leggings would’ve been a bitch without them.”
Cheyenne chuckled. “You did okay.”
“Yeah. Pretty soon, I’ll snap my fingers and voila! Instant wardrobe change.” Ember snapped her fingers, and a soft pop came from the center of the living room as Corian’s portal appeared beside the coffee table. The fae’s eyes widened as the nightstalker stepped out of thin air in black dress slacks and a dark-gray button-up shirt. He gazed around the apartment until he found Ember staring at him. “That was creepily punctual.”
“Ember.” He nodded at her, then turned toward Cheyenne. “Are you ready?”
“Yep.” Cheyenne grabbed her new coat off the back of the couch, reaching into the deep pockets to double-check that her phone and the activator were still where she’d put them. “Let’s do this.”
Ember nodded and headed toward the portal. Cheyenne joined her, and Corian gestured for them both to step through the shimmering, opaque wall of black light.
“Why isn’t this one see-through?”
He smiled at the halfling and dipped his head. “It’s a surprise.”
“Oh, boy.” Ember pushed herself through the portal.
“I’m not a big fan of surprises,” Cheyenne muttered.
“I know. Try to make an exception for this one.” Corian gestured toward the portal again and nodded.
Trying not to roll her eyes, she turned toward the wall of light and took a deep breath. It better be a good one.
When she stepped through, she almost toppled into the back of Ember’s wheelchair. She stopped herself with a hand on the handles and moved to the left, her eyes widening at the scene before her.
“Sorry,” Ember muttered blankly. Her chair flashed violet and moved two feet to the right.
“No problem.” Cheyenne’s mouth dropped open as Corian arrived behind them and the portal disappeared. “What’s going on?”
“Surprise.” Corian chuckled and stepped past them and strode toward the center of the huge clearing in front of them.
At the center was a massive tree, its trunk twisted and angling to the side as gigantic branches snaked out in every direction. Each bough was large and thick enough to walk comfortably across, some of them dipping down to skim across the dark, dew-studded grass, and every bit of the tree pulsed with an internal light that changed from black to purple to black again.
Ember gazed at the pitch-black sky studded with stars. “It’s not supposed to be dark out right now.”
“Trees aren’t supposed to glow, either,” Cheyenne muttered.
At the base of the massive trunk stood L’zar, Byrd, Lumil, and Persh’al, each of them wearing some variation of a formal suit. Lumil had tied a crimson scarf around her neck to hide the scar encircling her flesh, and the combination of that and an outfit that weirdly matched
