Page 112 of Elven Shadow

Maxwell still hadn’t moved. He remained where he’d stopped, slightly turned away from Aldous against the wall, his open hand still outstretched even after he’d pulled it from the center of Hector’s torso.

The shape of his hand now resembled more of a claw—his shifter’s fingertips were as rounded and dull as any human’s despite being covered in nurúzhe gore halfway up his forearm.

Rebecca liked to think the shifter had also added a handful of lupine claws to that one-handed attack, though the idea of Maxwell piercing through an entire living body like thatwithoutusing a shifter’s inherent blades at his fingertips was equally impressive.

No one in the garage moved a muscle, save Zida, who had taken all this time to shuffle forward toward the far wall to finally reach Aldous so she could make him her next patient.

The changeling blubbered and choked, repeatedly and unsuccessfully pushing himself to his feet before his weak limbs gave out and sent him crashing back to the floor. He stabbed a finger at Hector, his green eyes wide and blazing.

“Get him!” he shrieked. “Now! Put him down! Stop him! This…this fucking traitor! I want himfinished!”

Maxwell shook out his hand, spraying chunks of Hector across the cement before wiping most of it off on the leg of his jeans. “Already taken care of.”

“Get him!Destroyhim!” Aldous screamed. “Put him down like the fucking animal he—”

The changeling collapsed on himself again, babbling incoherencies now as Zida hovered over him, poking and prodding with one clawed hand while the other rummaged around in her fanny pack for whatever the hell a throttled but otherwise unharmed changeling might have needed.

Aldous had to be more in shock than physically maimed. Unfortunately, the healer did her job anyway and tended to his physical well-being as her profession dictated.

Rebecca couldn’t stop staring at the enormous hole ripping through Hector’s guts and then his hoodie, the whole thing perfectly visible where he now lay motionless on his back.

Better yet, when her eyes finally shifted a few inches, she found Hector’s face fully exposed for the first time, his hood having been knocked back with his dying gasp to reveal something not dissimilar from what she’d imagined his face to be.

The guy was entirely bald—whether naturally or by choice was anyone’s guess. A dark spot stood out on the center of his shaved head. Some kind of marking or tattoo, probably.

The rest of his head and face all the way down his neck was a dull, lifeless cement-gray, eerily similar to the Shade of the still-darkening handprint around Rebecca’s left wrist.

Those had definitely beenhishomunculi.

At least Hector was out of the picture now. The pitch-black orbs of his eyes remained wide open where he’d collapsed, and the obsidian black they’d held in life had now washed out to the same monochromatic gray as his flesh.

A wave of dizziness crashed over her. Rebecca swayed on her feet, trying to steady herself.

Damn. The sight of blood and guts like this didn’t normally make her woozy. She’d seen way worse than this before.

Then again, Zida had said the effects of that special empty vial wouldn’t last forever. This could have been the start of it wearing off.

Sucking in a /deep breath, Rebecca took a lurching step forward and lifted a hand.

“Not that I want to ruin the mood,” she croaked, “but I think—”

“You!” Aldous screamed, shoving a finger toward her before the healer knocked it aside to keep tending to his quickly bruising throat in incredibly varied shades of green now. “Youdid this!”

“Not even a little,” she said, then had to stop to catch her breath.

This was really fucking bad. If she couldn’t control her body, stay on her own two feet, or even stay conscious long enough to have a full conversation, there was no telling how this night would end up.

Most likely, it would be terrible for her whenever she came to afterward.

“I just…need a quick word with the daraku.”

“You’ll be fine awhile yet,” Zida barked without looking away from Aldous. “It comes in waves, elf. Just suck it up.”

Rebecca let out a weak, shuddering snort and finally regained her balance long enough to hold perfectly still and let the rest of the vertigo fade.

Very rough waves, clearly.

“I want her seized!” Aldous screeched from the ground, still thrusting a finger in Rebecca’s general direction. “Now! Take her! We should never have let this elf bitch through our doors. This is all her fault!”

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