She flipped back to the gold channel, as Katu purred to a halt, mentally unsheathing impatient claws.“Bandit here.On the Thirteen near the big black line—what’s the hold up?”
Several voices chimed in with the unhelpful information that traffic had stopped moving.Azul gave her a smug smile.“We don’t have time for this,” she muttered, glancing at the timekeeper.It was one thing for her to fall behind, but Big Betty had to be on schedule if they were to make their payday.
Cha stood in the driver’s seat, shading her eyes in an attempt to see ahead.Big Betty’s bulk obscured a great deal, but it was obvious traffic was stopped ahead of her.No doubt this was what had Dy so riled.
“Sit tight,” she told Azul.“I’ll be right back.”
“You’ll what?But what if—”
“Katu knows what to do if traffic starts moving.”She left him eyeing Katu’s dash with decided suspicion, leapt to the safe margin, and made her way on foot past the stopped carriages, waving absently as ley riders called out to her.Reaching the passenger side of Big Betty, she hopped up and climbed in.Warg tried to lick her face with his big, decidedly slimy tongue, and she ducked with the agility of long practice.“Ugh, no,” she told him.
Dy gave her a long, cool look.“Well, look what the cat dragged in.”She tapped the timer, showing them now less than two hours ahead of schedule.“We’re losing our margin.”
“Like that’s my fault?”
“I don’t know,” Dy answered, sounding just like when she caught one of the kids screwing up and was just waiting for them to fess up.“Is it?”
Cha leashed her temper.Dy had a right to be annoyed with her.Jerking her head outside, she said, “Step into my office.”She hopped out again and walked over to a tree with leaves a normal green on one side and all black facing the Obsidian side.Dy followed a moment later, folding her arms and tapping a foot expectantly.
“I’m sorry I was radio silent,” Cha said.“Prince Charming agreed to answer my questions if no one could overhear.He put a whammy on the path-box so it wouldn’t send or receive.”
Her eyes widening, Dy canted her head as if trying to hear better.“He’s a sorcerer?”
“Apparently, and with a big dollop of fae blood, too.”She wanted to tell Dy more, but thought better of it.If it so happened to be the case that her hitchhikerwasfull fae, however impossible that might be, then Dy would not take that news well.She would call a halt to Cha’s association with Prince Charming, probably enforcing her edict with sorcery.
It did occur to Cha that keeping her suspicions secret and going against what she knew would be her best friend’s better judgment might not be the wisest course, but she felt oddly protective of Azul.Probably all of this pointed to bad decisions on Cha’s part, but—hey—she’d never been known for her good ones, especially where pretty boys were concerned.
Dy pursed her lips in a soundless whistle at the news of fae blood.“Are you sure it was a good idea to go back for this guy?”Dy looked Cha over, radiating maternal concern.“Especially as you apparently suffered a fair amount of damage in the process—are you all right?”
“I’m fine.”Cha waved that off.“He healed me,” she added with a lift of her brows.
Dy didn’t like that at all.She stared bleakly ahead at the stopped traffic.“Cha, sweetheart, this sounds like another of your—”
“Did you know that fae-realm magic could be blended?”Cha interrupted.“Giant Jo gave me a magic wand—it’s pink—and Prince Charming says it’s a combination of Moonstone and Ruby magic.”
“I’ve read some treatises theorizing that was possible, but…” Dy shook her head.“That’s beside the point.How did Giant Jo happen to have something like that?”
“Dunno.I didn’t really have time to ask a lot of questions.There was an iron demon and—”
“What?”Dy broke in, aghast.
“I tell you, I’ve been through a lot,” Cha said mournfully, not above milking it for sympathy.
Dy wasn’t moved—or fooled in the least.“This is all going south already and we haven’t even crossed into Obsidian.I don’t like the omens on this.”
Okay, this wasn’t going the direction Cha wanted.“They’re good omens,” she insisted.“Giant Jo gave me a powerful magic artifact and I defeated an iron demon and a bevy of fell wolves!”She had no idea how many counted as a bevy, so that seemed like a reasonable vague number to pick.
“Cha, have you looked around you?”Dy shot an impatient finger ahead.“The border to Obsidian is closed.We’re dead in the water before we’ve even begun.”
“A small obstacle, easily overcome.”
“What if someone knows what we’re trying to pull off?They could have been listening in on the path channels, like you heard was possible.”
“This situation is exactly why we have bribes,” Cha pointed out.“Do you want to go back to Phin and the kids and tell them we have to give the coin back?That we gave up before we even crossed into Obsidian, a realm we’ve been in and out of hundreds of times?That people take theirkidsto for holidays and to play fairy?”When Dy’s brow wrinkled into uncertainty, Cha pressed on ruthlessly.“Will you look into Phin Jr’s face and tell him you hit a little traffic jam and bailed?Tell Zazu you got scared?Leave the twins to eat mud the rest of their lives?”
“You might be fancy free, but that family you’re trying to use as leverage against me are people who love and depend on me.”Dy retorted and Cha winced, knowing she’d pressed it too far.And she’d been doing so well, too.Dy raked her blonde curls back from her forehead, glaring at the traffic.“I will be missed if I don’t return,” she added so pointedly that it was clear they both knew no one but the crowds would notice if the Bandit disappeared, and they’d quickly forget her for the next racer.
What was this, pile on Cha for being an asshole day?“There are people who’d miss me,” she said, sounding a little too defensive.
