“Well, tonight’s the night we get to use it.” He set the leather gently down on the table beside the box and stepped back. “Don’t touch it.”
“Do I at least get to learn how to put up wards?”
“We don’t have time for that either.” Corian shot her a sharp glance and dipped his head. “Before you call me out on it, I know I said I’d teach you, and you’d have to figure the rest of it out on your own.”
“A lot’s changed since then. Yeah, I get it.”
“I thought so.” The nightstalker opened another portal between the recliners and the northern wall of windows. When it grew to its full oval height, he nodded and stepped aside.
Persh’al came through first, a massive black duffel bag in one hand and an energy drink in the other. He nodded slowly and scanned the apartment. “Nice digs, kid.”
“Thanks.”
Lumil stomped after him with a scowl, but it faded quickly when she took in her new surroundings, and she let out a low whistle. “Not too shabby, halfling. Not as many rooms as I expected, but I’m sure you’ll find something bigger eventually.”
Cheyenne sat back on the couch. “Excellent backhanded compliment.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Okay.” Persh’al dropped the heavy duffel bag with a thump and took a huge gulp of his energy drink. “What are we lookin’ at?”
“Bedroom on the other side of the kitchen.” Corian nodded that way, and the blue troll took off toward the open door.
“Now, this is what you guys need in the warehouse.” Lumil slumped into the closest recliner, stacked both booted feet on the coffee table beside Corian’s box, and jerked the lever up so fast, the chair rocked backward when the footrest snapped up. “Oh, yeah. I mean, how hard is it to buy new furniture in a place with almost no furniture? That couch lasted, what? Thirty years?”
Corian frowned at her as he crossed in front of the recliners to take the other one. “What’s up with the couch?”
“L’zar smashed it right after you left.”
Ember’s bedroom light switched on. “Deathflame on a fucking cracker.”
Lumil craned her neck to peer over Ember’s head. “That sounds fun.”
“You said it was taken care of, Corian,” Persh’al called from the bedroom. “Not obliterated.”
Cheyenne looked over the back of the couch. “I thought that was the same thing.”
Shaking his head, the troll rejoined them in the living room and unzipped the duffel bag. “I’m gonna need a second to find the entry point and whatever extra little tricks they used to get in. How big were these things?”
Corian held up his forefinger and thumb with two inches of space between.
Persh’al wrinkled his nose. “Too big for holes in the insulation. Small enough to tunnel in.”
“Oh, great.” Ember sat upright in her chair and gripped the armrests, nodding slowly. “Tiny digging beetles that came to kill me in my sleep.”
Persh’al leaned forward to catch her attention. “Who are you?”
She slowly turned her head to shoot him a blank, shocked stare. “Ember.”
“Huh.” He sniffed and nodded. “Yeah, I thought I smelled fae. Nice to meet you. Glad you weren’t killed in your sleep.”
Ember let out a hesitant chuckle as the troll took a small black drawstring bag and something that looked like a telescope with him to her room.
“You sure he knows what he’s doing in there?” Cheyenne asked.
Corian crossed one leg over the other and sat back in the recliner. “I’m sure. I’ll join him when he’s figured out what kind of wards will be the most effective. Until then, we need to talk about something else. All three of us.” He gazed between Cheyenne and Ember with raised eyebrows.
They stared right back.
Ember leaned toward the couch but didn’t bother to lower her voice. “Does this feel like getting called into the principal’s office to you?”
“I never got called to the principal’s office, Em. Never had a principal.” Cheyenne squinted at the nightstalker. “But hypothetically, yeah. It kinda does.” Then she laughed. “How many times did you get called in?”
Ember shrugged. “I’ll tell you about it later. I’m more interested in why that nightstalker’s giving us a creepy stare.”
“Uh-huh.” Cheyenne folded her arms. “I hope you’re gonna try to make this interesting.”
Corian blinked slowly. “Well, this is about how the two of you are gonna have to navigate things from here on out if you want to make it out of this nightmare alive. That interesting enough for you?”
Cheyenne waved her hand in a slow, sweeping motion, perfectly mimicking Bianca Summerlin’s hospitable gesture of granting permission. “By all means. Continue.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Yeesh.” Rolling her eyes, Lumil grunted and heaved herself out of the recliner. “You guys go ahead and get all serious. I gotta hit the can.”
Cheyenne jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “Right under the loft. Which is off-limits.”
The goblin scoffed and headed that way. “You nerds and your fancy private systems. Don’t worry, kid. I’m not even a little interested.”
Corian stared after her as she sidled between him and the coffee table before heading straight for the door beneath the mini-loft. Once it closed behind her, he returned his attention to Cheyenne and Ember. “Have either of you heard the term Nós Aní?”
Ember cocked her head. “I’m a third-generation Earthside fae. All I heard was gibberish, and anyone in my family who might know what that means wouldn’t tell me if you held a knife to their throat.”
The nightstalker glanced at her legs and nodded. “Because they think you’re useless.”
“Pretty much. But that was true a long time before this chair came along.”
“They’re wrong.”
Ember glanced at Cheyenne and pointed at Corian. “Did you tell him?”
“Nope.”
“I’ll take a wild guess and assume that for the first time in your life, you can finally tap into your magic.”
Ember cleared her throat. “You’re really creepy, you know that?”
“Must be my nature.” Corian’s tight smile bristled into a
