Ember hung her head and rubbed her temples. “I give up.”
Cheyenne and Matthew stared at her, then the halfling blew out a heavy breath, puffing out her cheeks. “Just tell us who we need to go see to make it stop on their end.”
He slowly looked at her, his nostrils flaring as if he’d suddenly developed a drow sense of smell. “You realize this is my business, right? I can’t just give away this information without incurring serious losses, especially with this kind of business relationship.”
“Yeah, I’m well aware. And you realize this is quite literally the end of Earth as we know it if you don’t grow a pair and tell me what I wanna know, right?”
“Exaggerating the issue won’t get you anywhere.”
“I’m not exaggerating!” A burst of black churning energy flew from her hand before she could stop it and ripped into the armrest of the loveseat, sending up a shred of tattered upholstery and fluffy filling. She and Matthew stared at that hole. Deep breath, Cheyenne. This isn’t how you wanna handle it. “Sorry.”
He swallowed thickly and gave her a weak shrug. “Better that than me.”
Cheyenne smoothed the hair away from her face and tried again. “Look, I’ve been fighting these things all week. I found a whole bunch of these machine parts being smuggled across the border, and now I know who’s responsible for them being turned into weapons—weapons those magicals want to use on all of us over here, no matter what we are. I’ve seen a whole bunch of stuff you can’t imagine, and we have to get to those clients of yours before they make that happen. You need to trust me on this.”
Matthew wrinkled his nose. “Why?”
She glanced at the charred hole in the armrest and shrugged. “Because I hit the chair and not you.”
Licking his lips in thought, Matthew glanced briefly at Ember, who stared at her lap in disbelief, then finally nodded. “Okay. And before you ask for clarification, yes, that means I will give you a name.”
Ember jerked her head up in surprise. “You will?”
“Yeah.” He started to stand and paused when he saw Cheyenne still staring at him. Then he spread his arms. “Is it cool with you if I go get my phone from the kitchen?”
“If that’s what has to happen.”
“All right.” Matthew shot them each another hesitant glance, then stood and hurried around the loveseat to leave the living room.
“Don’t take too long,” the halfling called after him.
“I’m just getting my phone, Cheyenne. You can chill out.”
She snorted and met Ember’s gaze. The fae scrunched her nose and muttered, “I’m the only one who gets to tell you that.”
“I know.” Cheyenne glared at the wall separating the oddly sectioned living room from the kitchen and the rest of the apartment. “I’ll let it slide this time.”
“And if he does it again, I’ll blast a hole in the other armrest.”
Despite her growing frustration over the entire conversation, the halfling smiled. “You think you can do that?”
“Cheyenne, I have a whole spellbook. If you think I haven’t already found something as dangerous as your drow fireballs, I’m happy to demonstrate.”
“No, we’re good.”
Ember fought back a laugh and wheeled away from the armchair as Matthew’s footsteps headed toward them again.
Chapter Seventy-One
“Admittedly,” Matthew started as he scrolled through whatever contacts list he’d buried in his personal cell phone, “I’m sending you the info for a guy I seriously don’t like.”
“Huh.” Cheyenne folded her arms. “Does that mean it’s a good place for us to start?”
“Not necessarily.” He looked at her once, then returned his attention to his phone. “But if any of these magic people are doing something shady with this system like you think they are, he’d be my first pick.”
Ember closed her eyes. “Magicals, Matthew.”
“What?”
“Call them magicals, not magic people. You sound like you have no idea what you’re talking about, and it’s hard to take you seriously.”
“Oh.” He gave her a sheepish smile and shrugged. “Sure, yeah. Magicals. Okay, so how do you want me to send this over?”
He and Ember looked at Cheyenne. The halfling stepped back. “I don’t know. Go get a piece of paper and a pen or something.”
“Or I could just send it to Ember.”
“Please don’t.” The fae girl shook her head. “I don’t want anything about this on my phone. And Cheyenne, don’t even think about trying to convince us you don’t have a whole bunch of stuff on your phone that keeps things hidden from anyone who looked.”
Cheyenne rolled her eyes. “Come on. I wouldn’t try to convince anyone of that.”
“So, what’s your number?” Matthew asked. “I’ll text it to you.”
She stared blankly at him until Ember smacked the halfling’s arm. “Okay, fine. Hand it over.”
Matthew gave her his cell phone, and she quickly typed in her number before chucking the thing back at him.
“Don’t get any ideas about texting me or sending me a bunch of crap I didn’t ask for, okay? This isn’t a free pass.”
Matthew scoffed as he transferred whatever information he had in a text. “Trust me. I’m not even a little interested in doing any of that.”
“Good.” She folded her arms and watched him until he finished and dropped his phone on the loveseat next to him.
“There. You have a name and an address and a few extra tidbits. That’s all I can give you without tearing down everything I’m trying to do.”
“Don’t worry, Matthew. We won’t topple your little empire just yet.” Cheyenne snatched the metal orb from the couch and turned to leave, then paused and made herself look him in the eyes again. “Thanks for finally helping.”
“Thanks for not tying me to a chair.”
She nodded and headed for his front door as Ember took a deep breath and wheeled her chair around to follow.
“Ember, can I talk to you alone for a second?”
Ember stopped and met Cheyenne’s gaze. The halfling opened the front door and gestured toward
