“All the more reason to score this easy coin,” Cha declared, snagging one more rosemary twist and swinging her leg around to straddle a chair backwards.
Phinny groaned.“Why did I let her in?”
Dy gave Cha a dry, warning look.“This coin is so very far from ‘easy,’ you’d be better off calling it impossible.”
“Not impossible,” Cha argued.“This is nothing we haven’t done before.Just faster and in different territory.”
“Calling Moonstone ‘different’ is an understatement, even for you,” Phinny noted, head tipped back and face suffused with pleasure.
“Aside from the dangers we know about and the ones we can only guess at from rumor, they have ley lines we’ve never mapped, much less ridden,” Dy pointed out relentlessly.“I hear the lines move around like they’re alive with minds of their own.Something to do with the high energy of the white dust.Even away from the main ley lines and tourist areas in Obsidian it gets wonky.You know that.”
“That’s why we have you,” Cha replied.“You can create, alter, or control any ley line on the fly and you know it.You’ve worked with Moonstone dust countless times.”
“First, I don’t know ley lines as they exist in any fae realm but Obsidian,” Dy argued.“And pixie dust in its native environment moves differently.Even black dust inside Obsidian is whoa more powerful—it moves like lightning.Who can say what white dust would be like inside of the Moonstone realm?”
By the tone of Dy’s voice, Cha knew Dy was intrigued.This was the sort of professional challenge her sorceress partner never had been able to resist.Phin heard it, too, rolling her head to give Cha a resigned glare, her expression no longer at all pleased.
“Do we even know who our point of contact will be inside Moonstone?”Dy asked, frowning.“It won’t be any operative we’ve worked with before.”
“Otto promised details after he’s assured you’re in.He might be a money-grubbing ass, but he wants this shipment.His contact will be solid.”Even if they couldn’t trust him past that…
Dy only grunted in disgust.“Add in an unknown supplier.Plus, we’d have no local support.”Dy ticked the points off on her fingers.“We don’t know the populace; they don’t know us.Worse, theyaren’tus, as most fae ignore humans at best and would rather swat us like gnats than deal with us.Obsidian is one thing, with all the human commerce and tourists, but we’d stand out like sore thumbs inside Moonstone, which means we’d beluckyif they only ignored us.We’ve got no idea where the ambrosia stations are for the carriage-beasts, or if there are any kind of pit stops for the humans.Can we even find human food in Moonstone?”
“We’ll be in and out so fast, we won’t need to eat.We take our own food and ambrosia.We won’t even encounter any fae.”
“You hope,” Dy replied darkly.“What if we have an emergency?”
“That’s where your sorcery comes in,” Cha countered, then pretended to scrutinize Dy.“Unless you’ve gotten rusty, working the commercial grind for the powers that be and changing nappies.”
“I know what you’re doing and it won’t work,” Dy replied placidly, but Cha caught Phinny’s quickly disguised wince as Dy dug her thumbs into a sore spot with more strength than necessary.
“Dealing with Moonstone ley lines will be tricky, I’m sure,” Cha acknowledged with extra sympathy.“I don’t blame you for being afraid to test your ability.Your aim was way off with that fireball, too,” she added as a devious afterthought.
“It wasnotoff.”Dy tossed her hair back over one shoulder, glaring at Cha, her pretty blue eyes sparking.“I deliberately missed you, out of some misguided sense of nostalgia for someone whousedto be a friend.”
Cha snorted in derision, ignoring the pang that there might be truth buried in the sally.“You had no idea it was me.I could’ve been a fae law-hound coming to drag your petite ass off to jail for all you knew.”
“I am not so rusty as all that,” Dy snarled, leaving off her task to a whimper of protest from Phinny.“You think I don’t recognize your stink by now?”
Cha spread her hands.“I’m just saying that, if you think you can’t do it, just say so.I’ll find someone else.”
“Like you could find anyone better than me!”
“No way,” Cha replied with perfect sincerity.“You’re the best there is, Goldilocks, and all the world knows it.”
“Do you two need a moment alone?”Phinny asked wearily and Dy shot her an apologetic glance.
“You know it’s never been like that with Dy and me,” Cha put in.
“I know.”Phin tugged one of Dy’s curls.“Cha is so not your type.”
“And not only because she’s incomprehensibly straight,” Dy noted wryly.
“Hey,” Cha protested, “I happen to like men.”
“Like she said: incomprehensible,” Phin replied, Dy chiming in on the last word—and they exchanged another of those soft-hearted looks.
Cha rolled her eyes.“Are we discussing my questionable sexual preferences or planning how we’re going to become filthy rich?”
