Lumil snorted. “Don’t be dramatic.”
“Hey, that’s rich coming from the goblin who kept screaming about being turned inside out before she fainted.”
“Whatever.”
The front door burst open again, and Byrd barreled inside. “Five minutes! It’s not too much to ask, is it?” He saw Cheyenne standing in the middle of the warehouse and grinned as the door slammed shut behind him. “Ha! The halfling lives!”
“I’m still not sure.” Cheyenne clenched her eyes shut and briefly rubbed her temples. “He opened a portal.”
Corian scratched his head. “I think I said that already.”
“And we went right through. Isn’t that supposed to be impossible? Portals straight from Ambar’ogúl to Earth?”
“Wasn’t impossible for the Crown that one time,” Ember muttered.
“It’s supposed to be, yeah.” Corian stuck his hands in his pockets. “Ba’rael had a lot of stolen magic fueling her portal at your binding ceremony, Cheyenne. And Neros? I think he’s more tapped into olforím magic than we realized.”
“That wasn’t his magic?”
“Well, I’m sure it is now. Spending his entire life in Nor’ieth, it makes sense. But the olforím are allegedly the ones who created the Border portals.”
“Wait, I thought no one knew where they came from or how long they’ve been there?”
The nightstalker shrugged. “No one knows truth from myth, kid. Until you’re staring the myth in the face. Didn’t think you’d put any stock in O’gúl legends anyway.”
“I don’t. But this is real.”
He nodded slowly. “Very.”
“Neros is one of them, then. Right?” Cheyenne asked, “I thought the washed-out drow look was weird, but I guess he’s more olforím than drow at this point.”
“It would seem so.”
“Awesome. We wasted a whole day going after something that was useless all around, huh?”
The door to the square office at the back of the warehouse creaked open and L’zar strolled out, grinning. “Not completely useless.”
“Right. ‘Cause we all got to see that L’zar Verdys isn’t unstoppable.”
“Well, that was a minor irritation, Cheyenne, but not what I meant.” He pulled his hand out of his pocket as he approached her and stopped to open it. Resting in his palm was a small metal four-pointed star, though this one glowed with a bright silver light in a way those formed from Cheyenne’s magic never had.
She stared at the small piece of metal. “I thought that was a nightstalker thing.”
“You learn quite a bit from having a nightstalker for a Nós Aní.” L’zar shot Corian a sharp glance. “Perhaps more than a nightstalker realized.”
Corian’s silver eyes remained fixed on the glowing four-pointed star in the drow’s hand, and he swallowed.
Cheyenne glanced between them, but Corian never looked up from L’zar’s palm. Something’s going on, and no one’s gonna say anything about it. Again. “So, you turned his magic into metal. How’s that supposed to help us?”
“It has its uses.” L’zar stopped glaring at Corian and stuck the small piece of metal back into his pocket before grinning at Cheyenne. “I’m looking forward to telling you all about it. In private.”
Corian cleared his throat, then stepped back and stared at the cement floor.
Not a good sign.
“Where’s Maleshi?”
“She left an hour ago,” Ember said, her eyebrow raised as she studied Corian’s uncharacteristic nervousness. “To go to class, I think.”
“Oh, shit.” Cheyenne reached up for the strap of her backpack, realized it was gone, and searched the warehouse. Her backpack rested against the far wall, and she stalked toward it. “It’s Monday. I have a class too. What time is it?”
“Nine-thirty.”
“Great. That would barely be enough time if I were at my apartment.”
Corian opened a portal right there between them and glanced quickly at her before averting his gaze. “Then I guess you’d better go.”
L’zar chuckled and glared at the nightstalker. “You’d like that very much, wouldn’t you?”
“It’s not about what I want.”
“Oh, no? It looks very much like what you want, vae shra’ni.”
“We can talk about this later, L’zar.”
The drow thief grinned. “Of course we can. When I’m ready. At the very least, you can wait for that.”
With her backpack slung over her shoulder, Cheyenne headed toward the portal. Whatever’s going on, it has to wait ‘til I’m done teaching my students how to break all the rules.
“So. I’m gonna go.”
“Enjoy your academic pursuits, Cheyenne.” L’zar didn’t look away from Corian, who stared intently at the open portal, his jawing clenching and unclenching. “We all know how important that is.”
“Please. You’re the last magical to give a convincing ‘stay in school’ speech.” Cheyenne nodded at Ember, and the fae girl floated across the floor toward the shimmering oval of light leading into their living room. With a final glance at Corian and then her father, Cheyenne added, “I’ll be back after class, so don’t go anywhere. Or kill each other.”
“Don’t worry about us.” L’zar’s gaze flickered toward her. “We’ll find some way to occupy our time.”
“Uh-huh.” This is so not the time. “Come on, Em.”
“Yep.”
They passed through the portal together into the living room of their loft apartment beside the long wall of floor-to-ceiling windows. The portal closed with a soft pop, but not before they heard L’zar’s furious snarl and the beginning of a shouting match on the other side.
Yeah, we’re definitely gonna have a chat about whatever the hell that was.
Cheyenne headed for the front door.
“You okay?” Ember asked.
“Not really.” Cheyenne patted the pockets of her trenchcoat. “And I don’t have my keys.”
“What?”
“Maleshi took my car before our fun inter-world adventure.” Rolling her eyes, the halfling jerked open the door and looked over her shoulder. “You good? Need anything?”
“Got my magic and my own apartment again.” Ember spread her arms. “I’m good.”
“Right.”
“Later.” Ember flicked her fingers toward the door, which shot open before a wall of purple light shoved the halfling into the hall. “You’re gonna be late.”
The door shut quickly in Cheyenne’s face. She stared at it and snorted, then headed quickly down the hall toward the elevators. Fae magic. Looks like she got a little boost.
The elevator
