Casting the woman a sideways glance, Cheyenne pursed her lips. “You won’t fight me in your cute little office as a college professor.”
“Of course not, but I can find you pretty much anywhere else, and I’ve been brushing up on my portal-casting.”
“Right.” The women stared each other down, and when the corner of Maleshi’s mouth twitched into a smirk, Cheyenne choked back a laugh. “Okay, fine. Go talk to your nightstalker buddy from a past life about it first, but I want to know what you guys come up with. Don’t make me make you tell me.”
Maleshi chuckled. “My own advice coming back to bite me in the ass. That’s been happening a lot lately.”
“Hey, good to know I’m not the only one.” With a final glance around the office, Cheyenne took a deep breath. “Anything else?”
A soft, timid knock came at the door. They both quickly glanced that way, and Maleshi cleared her throat. “It’s open.”
A kid in a button-up plaid shirt with insanely thick glasses and a real live pocket protector with two glinting pens peered through the door when he opened it. His eyes widened when he saw Cheyenne, and his shoulders hunched as he reconsidered opening the door any farther. “Um, Professor Bergmann?”
“Yes?” Maleshi grinned and batted her eyes.
“Am I interrupting something?”
“Nope.” Cheyenne nodded. “I was on my way out. She’s all yours.”
The kid cowered against the cracked door when the Goth girl with a backpack headed across the office toward him.
“Cheyenne, hold on a minute.” Maleshi grabbed a pen from the jar and a pad of sticky notes from the desk drawer, then scribbled something on the top note and peeled it off. She stood quickly and crossed the room, shooting the other student a reassuring smile as she handed the note to the halfling. “Just in case.”
“Sure.” Cheyenne took it without looking, then stopped in front of the door and waited for the kid to open it so they could trade places. His eyes were huge behind the thick lenses. “I’m not gonna bite.”
“What?”
“The door, Mr. Thomas.” Maleshi gave him a pert smile.
“Oh. Um, yeah. Um, sorry?” He pushed the door open, pressing his back against it like he wanted to melt into the wood as Cheyenne stepped into the hallway.
“Good luck.” The halfling raised her eyebrows and brushed past him. Maleshi’s soft chuckle and muttered reassurances that her startled student shouldn’t rely on luck followed Cheyenne through the hall.
Chapter Ten
Cheyenne tried the handle of her apartment door before bothering to pull out her keys. Of course it’s unlocked.
She stepped inside and found Ember sitting in her chair at the far end of the coffee table, watching something on their fancy TV. The halfling shut the door with a smirk. “Good to see you’re keeping busy.”
The fae’s eyes remained glued to the TV screen. “Just trying to turn off my brain with something that has nothing to do with the last twenty-four hours.”
“And that would be?”
“Stranger Things.”
Cheyenne blinked. “That was not what I expected you to say.”
“Hey, it’s better to watch someone else live through something that’s guaranteed not to be real.” Ember finally looked away from the screen, met Cheyenne’s gaze, and chuckled, lifting one shoulder in a halfhearted shrug. “Even if it’s, like, weirdly close to what I just found out is real.”
“You do you, I guess.” The halfling set her backpack on the floor beside the couch and headed toward the wrought-iron staircase leading to the mini-loft over the bathroom that served as her private office.
“How did the meeting with the deranged escaped convict go?”
Cheyenne snorted as her black Vans echoed with a metallic clang up the stairs. “Pretty much the way I expected. The only real thing I learned is that drow use nightstalker blood for instant portal-casting.”
“Say what?”
“Yeah, I don’t know how that works, but it’s a thing.”
Ember returned her attention to the TV. “I’m zoning out again.”
“Have fun.” The halfling reached the top of the stairs and paused, gazing at Glen’s hastily rewired setup and the boxes of miscellaneous cords, cables, and spare parts against the wall. At least I had time to put together the most important components.
She stepped toward the desk and powered on her custom tower, then turned on the monitor and sat in the rolling office chair. Her forearms thunked on the plastic armrests as she swiveled back and forth. Cheyenne grimaced. Couldn’t find a decent office chair as part of their show apartment, huh? Last upgrade on the list, I guess.
Her personal server blinked from its temporary place on a small table against the wall on her left, and as Glen powered up to full working order, Cheyenne glanced through the thin metal rail around the mini-loft to see Ember fully engaged in her zone-out time with the TV.
It still feels like someone’s watching me. Guess that’s what I get for having an open office anyone can look into.
That thought made her pause, and she squinted at the wall on her left as if she could see through it and into the apartment across the hall. Matthew Thomas and his cybersecurity firms. That’s not dabbling. But Ember would’ve told me if he’d even asked about snooping around up here.
The login screen popped up on her monitor, but she pulled her phone from her back pocket instead and initiated a quick Google search on their friendly neighbor.
“Of course he’s on Wikipedia.”
“What’s that?” Ember tilted her face up toward the mini-loft but didn’t take her eyes off the TV.
Cheyenne shook her head. “FYI, Em. If I’m talking when I’m up here, it’s to myself.”
“Uh-huh.” The fae slid her hands off the armrests of her chair and into her lap but didn’t say anything else.
She’s not even listening.
The halfling turned back to the long list of accolades and accomplishments on their neighbor’s Wikipedia page and shook her head. Should’ve checked him out sooner. This
