“Well, yeah. It’s L’zar’s plan.”
The fae shook her head. “How are you gonna do it, then?”
“I have no idea. That’s what I’m waiting for the rebels to figure out and tell me.”
“And that’s why you came back to the apartment? To sit around and wait for a phone call?”
Cheyenne rolled her eyes. “Yeah, that’s exactly why I’m here. ‘Cause I have nothing better to do. No classes to teach, no training with a nightstalker, no FRoE operations where everybody hates my guts but still needs me around. I don’t have anything better to do.”
“We need to fix that.” Ember nodded at the remote on the coffee table, and the halfling laughed.
“Shopping therapy lost its thrill?”
“Binge-watching therapy is totally a thing, you know.”
A sharp buzz came from Cheyenne’s backpack on the other side of the couch. Frowning, she stood and patted her back pocket. Nope. Left my phone on the desk. She walked around the couch and sighed when she pulled the burner flip-phone from the front pocket of her backpack. “Maybe I spoke too soon.”
“I thought those guys called you over and over.”
“Yeah, normally.” Cheyenne flipped open the phone and saw a message from the only number that had been saved in it. Yurik. “Huh.”
She opened the text and cocked her head.
Still on for froyo at 6. Be there or be square.
Cheyenne snorted. “That guy is stuck in the wrong decade.”
“That definitely needs an explanation.”
“Oh.” The halfling glanced at her friend and shrugged. “A couple FRoE agents wanted to meet up later tonight. I might call them friends in a parallel universe.”
“What? Cheyenne, the drow halfling, has more than one friend?”
“You’re hilarious.” Cheyenne typed a reply on the awkward, sticky buttons of the flip phone.
I’ll be there. You keep being square.
Then she tossed the phone back into the backpack’s front pocket and ran a hand through her hair.
“So, what does ‘meet up’ mean when we’re talking about FRoE agents who normally would’ve shipped any halfling they found back across the Border?”
Cheyenne shrugged. “These are the same guys who took me to Peridosh the first time.”
“Oh!”
“Hey.” A mischievous grin crept across the halfling’s mouth as she looked at her fae friend. “Wanna come?”
Chapter Twelve
Ember squinted and turned her head to shoot Cheyenne a skeptical sidelong glance. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah. It’ll be fun. And you’ve never been, right? I get to hand over the marketplace-rookie mantle to you.”
“Um, hello?” The fae gestured at herself. “There’s a reason I’ve never been, and now there are two reasons I shouldn’t go.”
“Oh, come on. Don’t tell me fae aren’t supposed to get injured either.”
“Not if they have magic to keep themselves from getting injured. And I’m way less worried about the wheelchair than I am about looking like a human.”
“Okay.” Cheyenne rubbed her hands together and nodded. “Good thing I have something to take care of that part too.”
Ember’s eyes practically popped out of her head. “You what?”
“I’ll be right back.” The halfling chuckled and hurried across the living room before throwing open her bedroom door. The silver ring she’d cast as her illusion charm was right where she’d left it on top of the black dresser. She grabbed it, held it up to the thin light coming from the upside-down chandelier lamp on the other side of her bed, and grinned.
When she reached the living room again, Ember had grabbed the remote and was waiting for their TV to finish lifting up out of the entryway table. “Seriously? I tell you I have this great way for you to finally take a trip to Peridosh, and the first thing you do is turn the TV back on?”
“My skills in having no expectations whatsoever have been honed over a lifetime,” Ember said blankly, staring at the black screen.
“Wow. Even with me? Thanks.”
The fae turned toward her and smirked. “Doesn’t mean I can’t still get excited. What’s this awesome new way?”
Cheyenne lifted the ring between her thumb and finger and shook it. “Surprise.”
“I’m still waiting.”
“What, you can’t tell what this is?” The halfling chuckled. “I made you your very own fae disguise.”
“Um…”
“Okay, so technically, I cast a personal illusion charm on this ring and was planning on using it for myself. You know, when I had to look like a drow and wear that magic-killing necklace at the same time. But now the pendant’s useless, so those days are over for me.”
“You cast an illusion charm?”
The halfling moved across the living room to sit on the armrest of the recliner beside her friend. “It took me hours. Corian almost ripped me to shreds. Don’t let it go to waste.”
Squinting at the ring, Ember slowly held out her hand. “If you charmed this for yourself, Cheyenne, I don’t think it’s gonna work for me.”
“I mean, I didn’t make it personal with blood or anything. The charm is made for showing the magical side, if you will.” She dropped the ring into her friend’s open palm and shrugged. “And full disclosure, when I managed to do this one the right way, I was planning on making one for you too. Then I got busy.”
“Hey, it’s the afterthought that counts.”
“Don’t make this weird. Just try it. If my old troll neighbors could lend me an illusion charm they didn’t make for a drow halfling, I don’t see why this won’t work for you. That’s the point of a generic charm, right? Covers a wide range of uses?”
“I don’t even have a magical-looking side. I never have.”
Cheyenne scoffed and waved off her friend’s hesitation. “Just shut up and put on the ring. I wanna see what happens.”
“Fine, but don’t blow holes in the wall when this doesn’t work.”
“Maybe I should’ve left you with my mom. You fit right in with the skeptics and pessimists there.”
Ember shot her an exasperated glance, then slipped the ring onto her middle finger in one smooth, swift motion. A soft white glow flashed around the human-looking fae, then Ember’s features shifted. At first, it was almost impossible
