She grimaced. “Dude.”
“I’ll show up wherever you are, Cheyenne.” Something clattered across the cement floor of the warehouse, followed by a hissing string of curses as Corian cleaned up whatever mess he’d made. “Just wait for me, all right? Don’t go anywhere, and don’t touch whatever parts you brought back with you.”
“Well, one’s in my pocket, and I carried the other one home with me like a baton.”
The nightstalker growled in frustration. “Well, don’t pick it up again, got it? I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“Okay. Is this gonna be a long wait?
“Persh’al, turn that off.”
“You sure?”
“End the fell-damn call, troll!”
“Well, fuck the Crown sideways, man. Chill out. I’m just trying to help.”
The line disconnected, and Cheyenne stared at her phone, gritting her teeth.
“Not a good call, I take it?”
Looking up at Ember, the halfling shook her head. “No, not really. I might’ve stepped in it by taking down that fire-breathing machine-bug and saving hundreds of lives. But of course, none of that matters because I’m the chosen one who can’t be left alone or trusted to take care of anything on my own. Which is pretty hard to do when not one goddamn person does what they say they’re gonna do!”
The heat of her drow magic flared up her spine without being summoned, and a drow with purple-gray skin and bone-white hair now fumed on the black leather recliner.
Ember bit her bottom lip and folded her arms. “You might wanna take it easy on your phone, though. I mean, not like you couldn’t afford a new one, but personally, I hate having to get new phones.”
Cheyenne dropped her phone into her lap and made a noise that landed somewhere between a snort and a growl, then looked at her friend. Ember raised her eyebrows and slowly nodded. “Awesome. I just threw a tantrum.”
“A minor tantrum, yeah.” The fae’s smile bloomed on her lips, and she shrugged. “I will say a full-drow tantrum is a lot cooler than you running away to hide what you can’t keep down.”
“At least I’ve got that behind me.”
“No more covering your ears.”
“No more crushing beer bottles with my bare hands.” They smirked at each other, and Cheyenne had to pull her gaze away. That was the night everything changed. That’s how I got here, and the only part I regret is not stepping into who I am sooner. She glanced briefly at Ember’s wheelchair. “Okay, so Corian will be here in who knows how long. Don’t feel like you have to wait around with me.”
“Oh, trust me. I don’t.” The fae yawned and smacked her lips. “I wasn’t kidding when I said I was tired. That orc’s fae juice hit me hard, and now it’s starting to fade. Just like me.”
“I noticed.”
Ember reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out the silver illusion-charm ring. Grinning, she wiggled it and raised an eyebrow. “I’m assuming I can keep this.”
“It’s all yours, Em. That pendant’s magic dried out, and I don’t have anything to hide anymore.”
“Sounds very freeing.”
Cheyenne snorted.
“Seriously, thanks for this. And for taking me out with your weird friends tonight.”
“So weird. They were a lot less tense when they took me out, but I can’t blame them. Lotta shit goin’ on for everybody.”
Ember leaned forward to peel off her purple jacket. “Still, I had fun. Something else we have in common, right? Took twenty-one years and a whole world of hurt for either of us to finally get out into the world of magicals as ourselves.”
“Glad I could help you with that.” Cheyenne took a deep breath and slipped back into her human form. “I think those agents liked you.”
“As long as they know I won’t be anyone’s token fae friend.” They shared a small, tired laugh. “Seriously, though. I’ll take being a part of that whole world, even underground and with a giant machine-bug thing attacking everyone, over watching you almost die fighting portal monsters any day of the week.”
“Don’t get sappy on me, Em. It might ruin our friendship.”
Scoffing, Ember tossed her jacket over the back of the couch and pointed at it. “Hang that up for me, will ya? I’m gonna go pass out.”
“‘Night.”
“I hope so.”
Cheyenne couldn’t help the hint of a smile as she watched her friend wheel quickly across their wide-open loft apartment. The fae didn’t hit any doorways or corners on the way into her bedroom, and the door closed softly behind her.
The halfling blew out a long, slow sigh and scratched her head. Then she looked over her shoulder at the iron rail around her mini-loft office. Looks like I have some digging to do and a few minutes to kill. Time to figure out what Mr. Nice Guy Neighbor is up to.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Although she didn’t hop on the dark web, at least not to start, Cheyenne ran a double-encryption through her regular server and then powered up her VPN as a bonus. I’m not gonna let Glen run so much as a Google search on this guy without extra protection. Not that he could be better than me anyway. Dude probably has a whole team of cybernerds working for him and never touched a piece of code in his life. Money’ll do that. Just not to me.
She did run another Google search on Matthew Thomas, and her browsing wasn’t interrupted this time.
Cybersecurity, market trading, and advanced prosthetics were just the tip of the iceberg for their weirdly calm neighbor. As far as the rest of the world could see, Matthew was also on the board, if not the founder, of several international non-profits and global charities providing educational funding, support, and school supplies for grade-school kids in underprivileged communities.
This guy’s reputation rivals Bianca Summerlin’s, only he’s not hiding a bastard halfling in that loft apartment.
Cheyenne wrinkled her nose.
Nobody’s this altruistic just because. Cheap shot, trying to hide whatever else he’s doing behind helping kids learn and sending them books they’ll never have
