“Sure.” Cheyenne and Ember exchanged looks, then the halfling followed Persh’al back to his computer monitors on the center table.
Lumil jerked her chin at Ember and folded her arms. “You’re coming with us too, huh?”
Ember cocked her head. “What tipped you off? Was it the backpack?”
Byrd burst into wheezing laughter, doubling over and pounding a fist on his thigh.
“I have no idea what he thinks is so funny.” Lumil glared at him. “But I like the way you dish it out, fae. If I hadn’t seen you at the ceremony the other day, I’d probably ask if you can dish out the same way in a fight.”
“Well, I’m working on it.”
“Uh-huh. You’re not working on anything. You’ll be fine.”
Byrd wiped tears from his eyes and blew out a long breath. “Whew. You got me, fae. Keep that up. Helps pass the time while we’re waiting for our practically immortal leader to make an appearance.”
“Yeah, what’s he doing in there anyway?” Lumil gestured at the closed door of the built-in office at the back of the warehouse. “You said we were ready to go.”
Corian raised an eyebrow at her. “We are.”
“So, what’s he doing?”
“Meditating. You should try it sometime. Maybe then I wouldn’t have to listen to you two pick each other apart.”
Byrd snorted. “That’s ridiculous. Meditating doesn’t make you allergic to arguing.”
Corian clasped his hands behind his back and turned toward the opposite wall and the chair propped against it. “No, but when you’re meditating, you aren’t doing or saying anything else. You’re quiet.”
“Ha!” Lumil clapped her hands. “The nightstalker wants quiet, huh? Shit, if that’s all he wants, he should’ve stayed home.”
“Dude.” Byrd looked at her with wide eyes and shook his head. “That’s never gonna happen.”
“Shut up.”
Chapter Eighty-Five
Cheyenne leaned over Persh’al’s desk to study the O’gúleesh code scrolling across his center monitor.
“You brought that activator with you, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Good. Put it on real fast.” Persh’al snorted. “Then I won’t have to explain much at all, and we’ll save ourselves a crapload of time.”
Cheyenne pulled the silver coil from her pocket, changed to her drow form, and stuck it behind her ear. The syncing pinch made her eyelids flutter, then she opened them and focused on the screen.
The blue troll laughed. “For as much as I love that tech, I sure as hell don’t miss the pinch.”
“You get used to it.”
“Ha, listen to you telling me what to get used to. Pshh.” He swiveled his desk chair toward his keyboard and typed a few commands. “Okay, this is what I want you to see. Brand-new program, sort of. Fine, it’s the reassembled parts of the system that CEO was selling like a stupid fell-damn human, but I added a few extra bits for this specific program. I’m assuming that thing translates for you even Earthside, yeah?”
“Oh, yeah.” Cheyenne scanned the scrolling bits of O’gúleesh code rearranging themselves into the language she recognized. The activator gave her an overview of the lines she couldn’t quite follow on her own. “Security system?”
“More like emergency broadcast. It just needs an endpoint.” Persh’al pointed at her ear. “Which would be your fancy new toy. Think you can get that thing to upload this little nugget and sync up?”
She smiled at him. “Piece of cake.”
“You know what? I love cake. Not so sure I love the smug look on your human-looking face right now. Which, by the way, is looking about as pink as your fae friend. You get a sunburn?”
Cheyenne turned quickly toward the monitor again and forced herself to focus. “Stayed in the shower too long. It’ll go away.”
“Uh-huh.” The troll shrugged and sat back in his chair. “Go ahead, then. Work your tech magic.”
“Got it.” She straightened and shot him a grin. “Uploaded, synced, and ready to broadcast, looks like.”
“What?” Persh’al vigorously shook his head and peered at the screen. “There’s no way you just— Damn. Again, I can’t decide between wanting to murder you or worship you. How did you get through all that in thirty seconds?”
“Just the activator.” She spread her arms and stepped away from the table. “You saw me. I didn’t touch a thing.”
“I know. And I hate it.”
“Hey, I didn’t reassemble that O’gúl-human code mashup, either. That was manual on your part.”
Persh’al kicked his chair away from the table and shook his head. “I don’t need you to tell me what I did.”
“I’m just giving credit where it’s due, that’s all.”
“Uh-huh.” The troll’s orange eyes darted toward her, and his scowl melted into a grin. “Yeah, I know, kid. You get all the fun stuff, I get all the credit. I’m good with that. I better be, right? I’m stuck here while the rest of you get to rage against the Crown full-anarchy style over there.”
She raised an eyebrow as she removed the activator and stuck it back into her pocket, then changed back to her human form. “I thought you didn’t wanna go?”
“What? Oh, right. I mean, yeah, I want to go. It’s just a bad idea.”
“It was a pretty good idea for you to come with me two days ago.”
“Yeah, but that was when it was just the two of us and I didn’t have the half-crazy bossman looming over my shoulder.” Persh’al nodded at the office in the back. It only took five more seconds of Cheyenne silently staring at him before he broke down and offered the rest. “Fine, you got me again. Yeah, there’s more.”
He glanced around, but the other magicals were involved in a conversation by the machines that had Ember and Maleshi laughing, Corian shaking his head, and Byrd and Lumil on the verge of a fistfight.
“Can I be honest with you, kid?”
Cheyenne held back a laugh. “Kind of impossible for you not to be, isn’t it?”
“Okay, let’s forget that you’ve got some kinda weird drow hypnosis thing going on and
