Page 1 of Elven Shadow

1

As Aldouslaid out one of the best plans she’d ever heard for getting them all killed, Rebecca Bloodshadow could hardly force herself to listen.

Despising the guy was so much easier. It felt a hell of a lot better too—a sensation generally lacking within this magical task force Aldous seemed perpetually intent on running into the ground, with no regard for any of their lives.

If they gave out awards for Biggest Magical Vigilante Dumbass, this guy would win all of them. Every single time.

“Once I’m in,” Aldous continued, “we shouldn’t have any problems. Stand aside, leave the rest of it to me. I’ll do the talking. Make ’em see they have no choice but to work with us on this, and they’ll come around. Any questions?”

The humid air soaked with the tang of spices from The Curry House five blocks over almost made Rebecca gag—or maybe it was just the sound of Aldous’s voice. Either way, no one on the small team he’d dragged out to this empty parking lot in the middle of the night for their so-called mission said a word.

Aldous barely gave them time to respond, anyway. “No? Great. Let’s move—”

“What about a Plan B?” Leonard asked. The short, skittish mage practically shrank into the shoulders of his leather trench coat two sizes too big when Aldous’s bright-green eyes settled on him.

“Plan B? Did that literally just come out of your mouth right now?”

Leonard blinked furiously, glancing at each of the five other Shade members huddling in the group with him and finding himself entirely alone in this. “I…I j-just mean…j-just in case, you know? Like, if s-something goes wrong—”

Aldous moved in the blink of an eye. His skin took on a greenish hue as one arm reached toward Leonard, growing impossibly long across the team’slittle huddle until he’d clenched one dark-green fist around the collar of that overlarge trench coat and practically lifted the mage off his feet.

“If something goes wrong?” he snarled. “You think something’s gonna go wrong?”

“N-no,” Leonard stammered. His terrified gulp probably could’ve been heard from miles away.

Rebecca wouldn’t have been surprised if that was what gave away their position to the gang of griybreki holing up in this abandoned apartment building on Chicago’s east side before they ever even got started.

“I j-just meant—”

“It won’t go wrong!” Aldous snapped. “It’smyjob to plan this shit andyourjob to carry it out. Are we clear?”

“Yep,” the mage squeaked.

Aldous shook him again with his impossibly long arm before releasing the collar of Leonard’s trench coat.

The mage crumpled to the floor in a pile of worn dark leather and scuffling boots, then desperately tried to pull himself back together.

Before the mage finished clambering back to his feet, Aldous’s arm retracted to its original size, his green skin returning to the flesh-colored tone he preferred to adopt in a world overrun by humans. Then he inhaled deeply through his nose, smoothed his greasy green-black hair away from his forehead with both hands, and grinned. “That’s what I thought.”

Rebecca fixed him with a deadpan stare.

Fucking changeling.

Aldous readjusted his light-gray suit jacket, jerking his wrists below the cuffs and straightening himself out before he turned his back on the entire team he was supposed to lead. “You all know what to do and how this plays out. Try not to fuck it up.”

Then he took off across the parking lot, away from his team and the butter-yellow 1972 Volkswagen Bus currently serving as their getaway car.

Leonard finally finished dusting himself off, wobbled on his feet, then stared at the ground, his cheeks blooming with a hot, angry-red flush.

“You good?” Nyx asked, reaching toward him.

He brushed the katari’s hand away with a grunt. “Just forget it.”

Rebecca would’ve loved to pounce on Aldous now instead of the griybreki gang they were allegedly here to challenge and conquer the way their leader had planned.

She still didn’t know Shade’s other members all that well—on purpose—but she did know none of them deserved to be dragged through themud like this over and over again, all so some changeling asshole could get his rocks off with another impossible power grab.

It certainly wasn’t what she’d signed up for.

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