“Which he probably does. Lemme see that.” Ember handed over the spell in Maleshi’s handwriting, and Cheyenne’s eyes widened. “We don’t have any of these ingredients, Em.”
“I know.”
“Then why the hell are you sure this worked?”
Ember waved for the halfling to hand the spell sheet back, and she snatched it up again before setting it aside in a new pile of spells she’d tried and successfully cast. “I built it on top of the wards your super-fun friends put up.”
“Huh.” Cheyenne squinted at the walls and craned her neck to look at the O’gúl hornet’s web dangling over the side of the mini-loft. “That was a good call.”
“Again, I know.” Folding her arms, Ember basked in the halfling’s surprise and couldn’t hold back a laugh. “Look, I can’t say if this spell would’ve worked without ingredients or using the wards as a giant battery, but I know it worked the way I did it. I can feel it.”
“Okay. We’ve gone off nothing but my feelings before.”
“Exactly. Basically, anything that moves around the outside of our apartment is gonna set off an alarm. Seeing as the wards are actively holding off digging machine beetles and flying spy-whatevers, the only kind of movement we should get will be out there in the hall.”
“And then what?”
Ember shrugged. “And then some kind of alarm goes off. I’m guessing a few bright, flashing lights, maybe a warning pop or two. Couldn’t figure out how to make it send alerts to my phone.”
“Very funny. It’s not like we have anywhere to go until he gets back, right?”
“Seriously? We were out in the woods just a few hours ago. Forget the whole ceremony part. We were also ambushed.”
Cheyenne lifted a finger toward her friend. “Unsuccessfully.”
“Doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. If you hadn’t given me this spellbook, I’d be binge-watching some new show like nobody’s business right now.”
“Glad I was able to provide you with a constructive distraction.”
Ember chuckled and snatched the remote off the coffee table. “Yeah, well, now I’m too distracted thinking about our impending chat with Matthew. He really does seem like such a—”
“If you call him a nice guy again today, I’ll end up blasting holes first and asking questions later.” Cheyenne slowly turned her head to shoot her friend a deadpan stare.
“A friendly person.” Ember wrinkled her nose at the halfling and raised the remote toward the entry table beside the front door. The mechanism exposed their giant flatscreen TV with a soft hum. “So now I need a distraction from that distraction. You have any preferences?”
“Dinner.” Cheyenne pushed herself out of the recliner and headed toward the kitchen.
Ember laughed and stared intently at the TV, flicking through her bingeing options. “I think we might be running a little low on groceries.”
“We haven’t even been here a week.”
“And no one would believe the amount of food a drow halfling puts away just by looking at her.”
Opening the fridge, Cheyenne said, “We have pickles.”
“Have at it.”
“Or delivery.”
Ember grinned and snatched her water glass to down the rest of it. “Now you’re talking my language.”
* * *
Forty minutes later, in the middle of an Orphan Black episode Ember swore up and down Cheyenne would be really into, a bright yellow light flashed to the right of the front door. Cheyenne stared at the wall. “Did you see that?”
“See what?”
“A light.”
A shrieking wail blasted through their apartment. Cheyenne reacted and slipped immediately into drow form, her black hair changing instantly into stark white as her skin went from Goth-girl pale to drow-halfling gray.
Ember jumped in her chair and clamped both hands over her ears. “What the hell is that?”
“You’re the one who cast the alarm spell!”
“Shit.” Ember leaned far over the side of her chair and rifled through the pages of spells until she found the one she wanted. She scanned the page as the wailing grew even louder.
Cheyenne scrunched up her face. “Turn it off, Em!”
“I’m trying. Shut up.” Ember’s fingers moved in the laid out pattern for deactivating the alarm, which cut off abruptly.
Breathing heavily in the sudden silence, the halfling looked at her friend and cocked her head. “Looks like the middle finger means something else altogether to the O’gúleesh who wrote these spells, huh?”
“No, this is just for you.” Ember blinked. “Quit yelling at me.”
Cheyenne rolled her eyes, trying not to laugh. “There was no other way for you to hear me.”
A sharp knock came at the front door, and the halfling leaped to her feet.
“You think he heard the alarm?” Ember asked, forgetting all about flipping the bird as Cheyenne headed for the door. She slid the thin silver bracelet onto her wrist and looked like just another regular human in seconds.
“The whole building probably heard it. But why the hell would he knock on our door?” Cheyenne peered through the peephole into the hallway and groaned, slipping right back out of her drow form again. “Because it’s not Matthew.”
“What?” Ember sat back in her chair. “Who the hell is it?”
Unlocking the deadbolt and the lock in the doorknob, the halfling turned over her shoulder and muttered, “Pizza guy.”
“Jesus Christ.” The fae deflated in her chair and cracked up laughing as Cheyenne slowly opened the door.
“Right on time.”
The kid standing in the hallway in front of their apartment stared at the maniacally laughing Ember. “Delivery for Cheyenne.”
“Yep. Hold on.” She lunged for her backpack sitting on the floor beside the couch and pulled a ten-dollar bill out of her wallet, handing it to the kid.
He stared at it. “You already paid.”
“And that’s your tip.” Cheyenne held her hands out for the pizza, and Ember cracked up all over again. “Come on, man. Don’t hold my dinner hostage.”
“Sorry. Right. Sorry.” The kid slid the steaming pizza box out of the sleeve in his arms and handed it over. “Thanks
