“Who the fuck else fits that description, asshole?”
Lumil flung her arm around Bhandi’s shoulders and jostled her roughly. “You know what? I like you.”
Bhandi laughed. “Kiss my ass.”
“Ha! Damn, this is the time for a drink!”
When Lumil shot Cheyenne a questioning glance, the halfling shook her head. “No. No one’s going inside that house, Lumil. I don’t care how thirsty you think you are.”
“Yeah. Worth a shot, though, right?”
“Tate,” Bhandi shouted. “This psycho wants a drink.”
“Good for her.” Tate stared at Corian and Maleshi.
“Come on, man. Go grab it.”
He ignored Bhandi and nodded at Corian. “I thought you guys had claws or something.”
Maleshi raised a hand and extended four-inch silver blades from all five fingertips. “Like this?”
“Holy shit!” He laughed. “No one’s gonna believe me when I tell them.”
“She’s used to being a myth,” Corian muttered. Maleshi rolled her eyes at him and retracted her claws before folding her arms.
“Tate, I’m serious.”
He whirled and shot Bhandi the middle finger. “Get it yourself!”
“Man, fuck you.”
Jamal grunted and stormed across the lawn toward the front of the house. “Now I need a drink.”
Rhynehart stared after him as the ogre marched past, then turned to Yurik and spread his arms. “You brought booze on an assignment?”
“Hey, you told us to gear up for a campout, man.” Yurik shrugged. “Nothing else.”
“You’re on duty.”
“Yeah, and you’re standing there doing nothing when L’zar Verdys is sitting there like a statue.”
Rhynehart glanced briefly at L’zar’s back, then raised an eyebrow. “Watch it.”
Yurik gave him a crooked smile. “You gonna join us?”
“No.”
“Suit yourself.”
“Lumil, I’m serious.” Byrd pointed at Yurik as the two groups of magicals went from wary judgment to mingling in Bianca Summerlin’s backyard. “Just look at the size of him.”
“Man, shut up about it already.” Lumil glared at him. “Big fucking deal.”
“Yeah, real big.”
Bhandi stared at Persh’al as everyone gathered by Payton, who sat beside their gear and glared at every magical, FRoE agent and rebel alike, with her good eye. “For real. Why the hell are you blue?”
Persh’al shook his head.
“You know what?” Lumil pointed at him. “You never told us why either.”
“All of a sudden you give a shit?” Persh’al spread his arms. “It’s not like I did it to myself.”
“Yeah, but something had to make that happen.”
Cheyenne closed her eyes. They figured it out. I don’t have it in me to deal with anything else right now.
She headed toward the nightstalkers, who were slowly making their way over to the others. “I’m turning in.”
“All right.” Corian looked her over. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” She glanced at the group of agents and rebels laughing and talking like they’d known each other forever. “Now that no one’s trying to kill each other, I’m done. Keep an eye on my mom, huh?”
“You got it, kid.” Maleshi gave her a small smile.
“And him.” Cheyenne nodded at L’zar.
“He’ll be sitting there all night, Cheyenne. Trust me.” Corian stuck his hands in his pockets. “Whatever he’s looking for, it’s gonna take him a while to find it.”
“Hopefully not too long. Let me know if anything changes, okay?”
“Of course.”
“Thanks.” With one more glance at the magicals throwing their own unlikely party behind the Summerlin estate, Cheyenne took off toward the house. She passed Rhynehart and shrugged. “Better than drawing guns on each other, right?”
“I have no fucking clue.”
“No one goes into the house, got it?”
Rhynehart shook his head and stared at the magical party. “Don’t get used to this, halfling. I still don’t take orders from you.”
“No. I guess you can call that a favor for a friend.” She shrugged. “’Cause you owe me a lot of those at this point.”
“Whatever.” He shot her a sidelong glance and waited until the halfling was yards behind him before chuckling softly.
Chapter Sixty-Three
When Cheyenne rejoined Ember and Eleanor inside the house, she stopped beside the stairs and stared at the sitting area. The housekeeper sat on the chaise again, both legs propped up on the cushion and a fresh drink in her hand. Ember hovered in front of her, her fingers flashing with violet light as she spun some kind of magical design in the air between them. “And that’s basically it.”
The light fizzled out again. Eleanor grinned. “Well, isn’t that something?” She tried to clap but spilled some of her drink, then took a long sip as if that would keep the rest of it from flowing out of her glass. She looked up and found Cheyenne watching them. “Cheyenne! Can you believe this? I’ve never—” She hiccupped and almost spilled her drink again. “I’ve never seen this kind of magic. Ember can…well, I have no—hic—no idea what she’s doing, but it’s—hic—beautiful!”
“Yep.” Cheyenne raised an eyebrow at Ember. “Glad you two are enjoying yourselves.”
The fae shrugged. “She wanted to see some magic, Cheyenne. I couldn’t tell her no.”
Cheyenne chuckled. “Yeah, that gets harder and harder to do.”
“It’s incredible!” Eleanor shouted. Her head thumped heavily back against the chaise’s cushion. “All this time—hic—sweetheart. All this time, we never knew about anyone else.” Eleanor lowered her gaze to her glass, and her lower lip trembled. “I wish your mother were here to see this, and then I remember it would only anger her.”
“I know.” Cheyenne sat on the loveseat again. “Probably a good thing she can’t see what’s happening right now.”
“She would come undone!” Eleanor took a heaving breath. Another wail escaped her, and she broke down into sobs again.
“Oh.” Ember frowned at her. “I thought we’d moved past that.”
“I mean, it could be the booze.”
“Yeah.” Ember shrugged. “I wasn’t about to stop her.”
“Don’t worry about it, Em. Not your job to babysit anyone.”
Eleanor sniffled and took another drink. “I used to call myself a babysitter once upon a time, Cheyenne. When you were small and your mother—” Another sob escaped the woman.
“Okay.” The halfling stood and gently approached Bianca’s housekeeper. “I think it’s time to get you into bed, huh? Maybe set down the drink.”
“Cheyenne, I’m a grown-ass woman. I don’t need you to coddle me.”
Cheyenne stopped and raised
