Chapter Eighty-Four
The bright lights mounted on the exterior walls of the black metal outbuildings on Rez 38 took some adjusting to. Cheyenne blinked against the glaring halos and stepped lightly away from the portal inside Q1.
“We are going to the cliff,” she whispered, slowly raising her hand to point at the massive portal tower of black stone at the back of the reservation. “And then we cross.”
“Let’s be quick about it.” Corian crouched beyond the pools of light, and the group of magicals snuck through Rez 38 without a sound.
The instant Cheyenne’s foot pressed down on the trampled dirt two feet away from the base of the portal tower, a crack like a snapping tree trunk split the air, and three massive floodlights illuminated Q1. An alarm siren blared from the gate tower by the reservation’s entrance, followed by shouted commands and footsteps thudding across the ground toward them. Doors slammed, fell weapons withdrew from holsters and clicked into place, and the first floodlight swept across Cheyenne and the rebel magicals sneaking onto the rez.
“Breach!” a guard roared. “By the tower!”
“Shit.” Cheyenne broke into a jog and snarled, “Guess a quick, quiet crossing was too much to ask.”
“Get to the cliffs,” Corian growled as the guards’ rising shouts grew louder and closer. “We’re not here to hurt anyone.”
A fell charge crackled through the air just in front of the nightstalker’s face before crashing into a stunted tree on the other side of Q1. The bark exploded in a burst of green light, and Corian rolled his eyes.
“But if we have to, we will.” Lumil smacked her fists together and summoned the swirling red runes around them both as they ran. More fell weapons fire filled Q1 with green light, and the magicals darted between buildings and away from rez guards trying to stop them.
“Just keep moving!” Cheyenne ducked a spray of fell shots and raised a shield in front of Persh’al and Ember as they ran behind her. The green fell shots ricocheted off it, and a guard somewhere screamed.
Lumil threw her head back and cackled when two guards cut them off at the opening between two outbuildings.
“Hands up where we can see ‘em!”
“You mean these?” The goblin woman raised both fists in the air and dove across the dirt, sliding toward the guards like a batter sliding into first base. Her right fist cracked into the first guard’s ribs and sent him flying into his fellow. Without missing a beat, Lumil leaped to her feet and kept going. “I’ve been wanting to do that for decades!”
Maleshi and Corian darted across the dirt in flashes of silver light, tossing startled guards aside to give the rest of their party a clear shot to the cliff. Cheyenne raised another shield beneath a heavy spray of fell shots and shoved aside a stack of metal crates with a toss of her other hand. The crates flew out of their path and cracked open against an outbuilding, spilling FRoE weapons and dampening gear across the dirt.
Ember stopped when a guard jumped out at her from behind the next outbuilding and trained his fell rifle at her chest. The goblin guard snarled when he saw a fae hovering two inches above the ground.
“It’s not that weird!” She flicked her fingers at him with a flash of violet light, and the guard’s yellow eyes rolled back into his head before he dropped. “We should all be used to magic by now. Fuck.”
The siren blared louder as the rebels fled to the edge of the cliff.
“Stop them!”
“Bring ‘em down!”
“They’re going for the portal!”
Green fell fire whizzed through the air. Cheyenne raised a shield behind her, stretching it as wide as she thought was necessary for all eight of them. Her feet skidded to a stop at the edge of the rugged ledge of gray stone jutting past the portal tower and over the crashing waves of the Atlantic Ocean below.
Ember stopped beside her, breathing heavily. “So, where’s the portal?”
“Down there.” Cheyenne grinned at her friend and shrugged. “Leap of faith, right?”
“Kowabunga!” Byrd leaped off the cliff, his arms flailing as he vanished into the darkness.
“The fuck?” Lumil slowly shook her head and jumped off after him.
“This is it, kid.” Maleshi winked at Cheyenne and stepped nimbly over the side.
Persh’al snorted. “I hate heights.”
He disappeared just as Corian jumped into the Border portal.
Venga roared with maniacal laughter and shook all four fists at the star-studded sky. “Blood and honor, or the deathflame take us all!”
Grinning, he slapped Ember’s back and sent her tumbling off the edge of the cliff with a yelp. Then he flicked his forked tongue at Cheyenne and jumped.
“Don’t move,” a guard shouted behind Cheyenne. “You don’t have permission to step through that portal!”
“Yeah, you’ve never seen a drow before.” That’ll change. Cheyenne flipped the guard the middle finger as she spun to face the blinding lights and green fellfire. Grinning, she leaned back and let herself fall off the cliff toward the crashing waves.
She never hit the water. All the breath was squeezed agonizingly out of her lungs, and her awareness returned with the feeling of both knees pressed against something hard and her hands buried in a substance half sponge, half cold mist. Choking for breath, she snatched her hands away from the invisible ground of the in-between, focusing only on that first raw, searing inhale. Then she looked up at the place between worlds she barely recognized. “Holy shit.”
“See this?” Ember offered Cheyenne a hand up but glared at Venga. “This is what happens when you screw around with too much magic and not enough magical space!”
“Incredible.” Venga gazed around them, taking it all in. Not that there was much of anything to take in. The entire in-between was now coated with thick black smoke.
Or maybe all the light’s gone, and this isn’t smoke. Cheyenne let Ember help her to her feet as she caught her breath. Maybe it’s absolute nothing.
“There.” Persh’al pointed at the
