Corian glanced at Cheyenne, then walked away to rejoin Maleshi. The general watched the meetup with a small, amused smile and didn’t say a word.
“Some friends,” Rhynehart muttered.
“They could say the same about all of you.” Cheyenne cocked her head. “Already looks like an improvement.”
“Aside from that atomic goblin over there.” He nodded at the standoff between Bhandi and Lumil. The troll agent hadn’t summoned her magic, and so far, Lumil’s spinning runes were for show.
Cheyenne shook her head. “They said this assignment wasn’t in the system.”
“That was the plan, right?”
“Yeah. And I told them you’d explain why.”
Rhynehart scoffed. “Great.”
“Hey, that’s your job. I guess I’m the mediator now or something.”
“Well, as long as that psycho drow playing Buddhist monk over there doesn’t lose his shit on my agents, we’re here.”
Cheyenne turned slowly to look at him. “You know I can’t make any promises.”
“I’m not asking you to.”
She heard the doors of the other FRoE SUVs slam shut, then engines started, and the vehicles carrying the old team crunched down the gravel drive to leave the Summerlin estate, hopefully forever. “This is gonna be a weird night.”
“We already knew that.” Rhynehart watched Jamal and Payton set up their version of a temporary camp beside the Border portal. “I wanna know how the hell you pulled apart a fell pistol like that, Cheyenne. I don’t care if you’re the only one who can use it. You might not be.”
“Trust me, if none of L’zar’s friends from the other side could get it to work, your magicals sure as shit won’t be able to.”
“Not now. But what about that program running those war machines?”
“What?” Cheyenne frowned at him.
“If it’s already been done, halfling, it can be done again, right? Think about it.” Rhynehart marched off toward Jamal and Payton without another word.
Cheyenne stared after him. There was an idea—use Matthew Thomas’ program to get working activators Earthside. Whether or not she was taking on this whole ‘drow royalty on Earth’ thing, there was still a lot of work to be done here. Not like magicals running around all over Earth with activator-synced magic wouldn’t be an adjustment for everyone, especially if humans weren’t supposed to know about it.
She looked at her mom’s rigid form and grimaced. First things first. Get Mom out of this curse, then throw Ba’rael off the throne and finally finish this thing. Then I can work on improvements here. Jesus, I can’t believe I’m considering it.
“Keep running your mouth, dae’bruj,” Lumil shouted.
Bhandi spread her arms. “You know someone’s insane when they start yelling gibberish at you.”
“It’s fucking O’gúleesh, you Earthside moron!” Lumil pounded one fist into the other palm in a flash of red sparks and spinning runes. “Sounds like someone needs to teach you a lesson.”
“Oh, yeah?” Bhandi grinned, her scarlet eyes blazing as she lifted her chin. “That gonna be you?”
“Fuck yeah, it is.” Lumil swung a red fist at Bhandi’s face. The troll ducked and stepped aside before lashing out with a swift kick to Lumil’s hip. “Eat shit, Earthsider!”
“Oh, come on.” Cheyenne headed toward them but stopped when Lumil’s glowing fist landed in Bhandi’s gut.
The troll sailed across the grass with a grunt, and the other tense conversations stopped as both rebels and FRoE agents turned to watch the fight.
Bhandi didn’t bother with the fell weapon holstered at her hip. Her hand shot out, and a red and purple streak of pulsing light burst from her fingers and swept Lumil’s feet out from under her. The goblin crashed to the ground with a growl, and Bhandi scrambled to her feet to rush at her. She tackled Lumil just as the goblin got back on her feet, then they were rolling around in the grass, shouting and hissing and pounding each other with their fists.
“Tate,” Yurik shouted.
“Man, I don’t give a shit right now.” The tattooed troll agent stood ten feet from Corian and Maleshi. “You ever seen one of these things before?”
Maleshi leaned away from the tattooed troll and grinned. “How cute.”
“Dude, for real.” Byrd smacked Yurik on the shoulder, then shook out his hand. “Damn. Like solid rock.”
“You can stop touching me.”
“Hey, what about that thing in your nose, huh?” Byrd pointed at the bullring through Yurik’s septum. “How much did that hurt?”
“Not as much as I’m about to hurt you if you don’t quit asking me stupid questions.” Yurik eyed the other goblin and snorted. “How long have you been on this side of the Border anyway?”
“Shit.” Byrd laughed and studied the other goblin’s muscular physique. “Not long enough, apparently. Never seen a goblin your size, man.”
“Well, now you have. And you can drop it.”
“Sure, sure. Just as soon as you tell me—”
“Fuck!” Bhandi roared when Lumil grabbed a handful of the troll woman’s scarlet braids and jerked them aside. Then she smashed her fist into the side of Lumil’s face.
They stumbled away from each other, breathing heavily, and met each other’s gazes. Lumil slowly looked down at her fists and the thin braid she’d ripped clean off Bhandi’s skull. She dangled it in front of her for a second and chuckled. “Shit. I just pulled your hair out.”
Bhandi lowered her hand from her head and stared at the blood on her fingers. “Fuck.”
“Guess this qualifies as a catfight, huh?”
Wiping her bloody fingers on her black fatigues, Bhandi looked at the goblin woman and sneered. “Only if I call you a bitch.”
“Ha.” Lumil looked at the scarlet braid in her hand again and burst out laughing.
Bhandi shook her head and stared in awe at her hair in the goblin’s hand, then couldn’t help but laugh with her. In seconds, both of them had broken down in hysterics. Lumil tossed the braid into the grass and marched toward the troll agent to clap a hand on Bhandi’s shoulder.
“You’re all right.”
“You’re the craziest goblin fuck I’ve ever met.” Bhandi nodded at Yurik. “And that includes the hulking green mountain over there.”
“You mean, this guy?” Byrd pointed at Yurik, who rolled his eyes but couldn’t
