“Right.” Ember snorted. “Couldn’t’ve said it better myself.”
“I don’t get why they can’t just tell me what L’zar’s trying to do. How much readier can we be? I mean, besides the whole part about having to go take down a cache of activated war machines.” Cheyenne walked quickly up the iron stairs and sat in the chair in front of her wobbly desk.
“Sounds like they just wanna keep you safe.”
“Yeah, that’s obvious.”
“Well, think about it. They’ve been fighting this fight against the Crown for hundreds of years, and then you come along, and you’re half-human. That on its own is enough to make things even more complicated.”
Cheyenne leaned sideways and met her friend’s gaze through the iron bars of the mini-loft’s rail. “You’re telling me things I already know, Em. I’m hardly the most complicated variable in this whole thing.”
“Ha.” Ember wiped the smile off her face and cleared her throat. “Not being the most complicated doesn’t make the situation less complicated. They don’t wanna lose you before they get the chance to use you.”
“Yeah, I get it.” The halfling slumped in her chair and stared at the monitor’s power button. “And I’m not gonna lie and say I don’t end up getting into a whole bunch of trouble every time I go out to do something completely unrelated. So, full disclosure, I’m gonna sit here and sulk for ten minutes. When that’s over, I guess we should have someone else do our grocery shopping and bring it on up, I guess.”
“Already done.” Ember grinned when Cheyenne looked at her again, then spun and wheeled toward the kitchen. “FYI, we have a lot more than pickles in the fridge now.”
“Thanks, Em.”
“Yep. Guess I better call the PT clinic too and tell them no appointment today. Honestly, I’m a lot less worried about missing a session than I was four days ago.”
Despite her frustration, Cheyenne smiled and folded her arms. “Think that has anything to do with you standing on your own yesterday?”
“Maybe. Or maybe just the whole Ember-has-magic thing. I’m cool with it.” She opened the fridge and moved the contents aside with quick bursts of purple light, searching for a snack. “Might be because my personal driver can’t leave her apartment.”
“If you hired someone to buy and deliver our groceries, I’m sure you can find someone to drive you to your appointment. Sorry it can’t be me.”
“Okay, first of all, I am tired of everybody apologizing to me. And more importantly, there’s no way in hell I’m gonna call a random driver to come pick me up and drive me to my appointment and back, not after I’ve been riding around in that Panamera. Are you kidding?”
Cheyenne laughed. “Yeah, it’s pretty hard to go back after that.”
“You have no idea. From where I’m sitting, the passenger seat is way better. I don’t have to focus on anything but the ride.” The fae girl pulled out her phone to call the PT clinic and cancel her appointment.
Ten seconds into the call, Cheyenne’s stomach growled furiously and didn’t stop when she shifted in her chair. “Fine.”
She stood and walked down from the loft, shrugging off her fancy new trench coat to toss it over the back of the couch.
“Oh, yeah. I’ll be there on Monday. Not a problem, just had some transportation issues today. You can tell Dr. Boseley that I’m still feeling great. Yep. Thanks.” Ember dropped her phone in her lap and looked toward the mini-loft. “I don’t know why.”
She jumped when Cheyenne opened the fridge door behind her, spun her wheelchair around quickly, and frowned. “Okay, let’s make a rule about not zipping around at drow-speed inside. It’s super creepy.”
Grinning, Cheyenne pulled out a cup of yogurt and shut the door. “I just walked.”
“Well, then you’re quiet, and it’s still creepy.” Ember eyed the yogurt and wrinkled her nose. “Can you grab me one of those?”
“Yep.”
“As I was saying, I expected the clinic to put up more of a fight about me not making it in for a third session.”
“Well, Dr. Boseley knows what you are. Hey, maybe she even saw you stand up out of that chair and blast that creepy whoever-they-were back through the portal yesterday.” Cheyenne tossed her the yogurt cup and shut the fridge. “She’s probably not worried about it.”
“Right.” Ember pulled two spoons from the drawer and sent one sailing across the kitchen toward Cheyenne in a glow of violet light. “I’m not either.”
Cheyenne plucked the spoon from the air, grinned at it, then pointed the utensil at her friend. “Not with neat little tricks like that. Nothing’s stopping you now.”
“Yeah, I’m getting pretty good at this magic thing a lot faster than I thought I would.”
“Huh. Imagine that.” The halfling stuck a heaping spoonful of yogurt in her mouth. “Almost like you were born with it or something.”
“Okay, smartass.”
Cheyenne turned with her yogurt toward the living room. “So, since neither of us is going anywhere, now what?”
“Movies. Lots of movies.” Ember joined her roommate in the living room and parked her chair at the end of the coffee table. “We should do a marathon, like, some series that has more than four movies. Just blast through the whole thing.”
The entry table whirred as the TV rose from its hidden compartment. Cheyenne held out her hand and wiggled her fingers at the remote. “If we’re doing that, I’m picking the series.”
“Great.” Ember handed over the remote. “And you haven’t seen much of anything, huh? The possibilities are endless.”
The halfling stared at her friend with a surprised smile. “You are way too excited about this.”
“Come on. I’m excused from grad school this semester, I don’t have a job, and you’re on magical house arrest. It’s not like I have a lot of options.”
“Yeah, that makes it sound great.”
As Cheyenne scrolled through the movie options on the TV, Ember’s phone rang, and she frowned at the number before answering. “Hello?”
“Ember, hi. It’s Marsil.
