“Shh.” Ember glanced down the hall at their neighbor’s front door and shook her head. “Didn’t our suspicions start in the hall anyway?”
“Hey, if he doesn’t like what he sees and hears, assuming he’s watching and listening, that’s his problem.” The doors opened, and Cheyenne waited for her friend to roll inside first. A flash of purple light helped Ember across the ribbed strip of metal and the space between the hallway and the elevator. The halfling stepped in behind her. “He shouldn’t be surprised by anyone who has an issue with being watched.”
Ember pressed her lips together and didn’t say anything until the elevator started its descent. “Maybe he’s just trying to keep his apartment safe, you know?”
“What?” Cheyenne laughed. “Are you really trying to come up with excuses for a guy who seems to be keeping tabs on when we leave and come home?”
Shrugging, Ember scrunched her face and smiled sheepishly. “He’s just so nice.”
“Oh, man.”
“It’s true. You know it’s true.”
“Yeah, and that’s creepy.”
“Why? Because nobody can be completely nice at their core?”
“Most people aren’t.”
Ember snorted. “I didn’t know you were that jaded about everyone in general.”
“I don’t care about ‘everyone in general’ or if they’re one-hundred-percent nice. I just think it’s pretty suspicious that this super-nice guy who’s obsessed with you happens to own a bunch of companies in industries not known for being nice.”
Ember frowned. “How much did you dig into him?”
“Enough to know it’ll be pretty hard to prove he’s not just a nice guy.”
The fae threw her head back and filled the elevator with an unabashed cackle. Cheyenne smirked and stared at the black space between the doors. “We’ll keep looking, I guess. Either we find a purple speck or you find some kinda dirt on him, and then I’ll buy into your theory. But until then, I feel a lot better about my life when I’m not assuming the worst of everyone.”
“You were pretty creeped out last night.”
“I’d just spent my first night out in a magical marketplace with some nutjob friends of yours and got attacked by a giant digging-machine thing that isn’t supposed to exist. My head wasn’t in the right place.”
“Okay, Em.” The elevator doors opened, and Cheyenne gestured for her friend to exit first. “I’ll play along and go with innocent until proven guilty, but I have a feeling I’m gonna end up proving him guilty.”
“Then I’ll change my stance.” They moved through the empty, sprawling lobby of their building. “I gotta say, though, I didn’t expect you to be so gung-ho about law and order.”
“Only when it messes with my personal life.”
When they were settled in the Porsche with Ember’s chair tucked in the trunk, Cheyenne started the engine and paused. “Crap. I didn’t call Corian.”
“He’s coming with us, right?”
“He’d better be. That was the plan.” Cheyenne pulled out her phone to call him. He answered almost immediately.
“Ready?”
“Wow. Was your hand just hovering over the phone, or what?”
“I assumed you’d still be taking Ember to the clinic for her twelve-thirty appointment. It’s twelve-ten, so yes, I was expecting your call.”
Cheyenne fought back a smile. “Yeah, we’re ready. We’re already in my car, though.”
“That’s fine. Hard to trace a portal when the remnants are driving around the city. I’ll be right there.”
“Wait, can’t you just meet us at the—”
He hung up before she could finish, and Cheyenne tossed her phone into the cubby under the dashboard.
“He is still coming, right?”
“Yeah, Em.” Cheyenne twisted partially around and eyed the back seat. “Apparently he’s just gonna—”
The black light of Corian’s portal ballooned over the black leather seats in the back, and the nightstalker stepped through, ducking before sliding over to the other side. “Hey.”
“Oh!” Ember jumped and spun around to glare at him over her shoulder.
“Open a portal in my car.” Cheyenne raised her eyebrows.
“What the hell?” Ember scowled at him. “You should really warn people before you do that.”
With his illusion charm in full effect, Corian looked like the average, upstanding Richmond resident with his light-brown hair, blue eyes, and open smile.
At least he’s not still wearing that stupid red hat.
The nightstalker glanced at the magicals in the front. “I told Cheyenne I was coming.”
“I didn’t have enough time to explain that part before you popped into my car.”
“Which is very nice, by the way.” Corian spread his hands on the leather seats and sat back, adjusting comfortably. “I could get used to this.”
Cheyenne shot him a quick glance in the rearview mirror. “Taking up my back seat, or just riding in a car, period?”
“Just because I don’t have a car, it doesn’t mean I’ve never been in one.”
“I know. That fun little road trip out to the first new portal wasn’t that long ago.”
He strapped on his seatbelt and dipped his chin, staring at her reflection in the mirror. “You’re just being a smartass, then.”
“Right now? Yeah.”
As she pulled out of the parking lot, Corian stared out the back window and nodded slowly. “When we get there, kid, Ember and I will stay in the car.”
“And I’ll go have a little chat with Marsil ‘George’ Keldryk.” Cheyenne’s grip on the wheel tightened with a creak of leather.
“Only a chat,” Corian warned. “We have to be careful with how we approach this. If this Marsil is who he says he is, Ember can go in for her appointment, and nothing’s changed. Then we’ll shift our focus and look for another lead. But if he’s only pretending?”
“I know exactly what to do with him if that’s the case.”
“Easy.”
“It will be, yeah.” Cheyenne rolled her shoulders back as she turned onto the next side street to head toward the physical therapy building.
“Don’t go in there with magic blazing, kid. That’s the most important part of this whole thing.”
“Really? I thought the most important part was finding the assholes who stole Ember’s blood to get to me and who keep sending their creepy war bugs
