Page 120 of Elven Shadow

In the end, the greatest bit of strength and courage this moron had probably ever exhibited in his life culminated in an effort to lift one hand in front of his face, as if he could ward off the elf hurtling toward him the way she’d kept him at bay.

She saw the light fade from his eyes and the spark of life wink out of him before she ever reached him, but it wasn’t like she could stop.

Rebecca came down on top of him with all her frustration and rage buoyed by how close she’d just come to this very same end.

Almost the same.

Her legs crashed down onto Aldous’s torso before the rest of her immediately followed through, bringing his own blade slicing down through the air with enough momentum to bring down a beast ten times his size.

The air filled with a thump and sickening crunch as the dagger and both her hands pierced through the guy’s chest, ripping flesh, splintering bone, slicing through such flimsy membranes into a heart that had already stopped beating.

Then it was finished.

Only when silence filled the garage after that did Rebecca realize she’d let out a battle cry of her own; the last residual echoes of it still floated around herbefore she finally released her grip on Aldous’s dagger and toppled sideways off him.

She rolled to the side, gasping for breath, and wondered if she’d be able to pick herself off the ground again after the most recent wave of magically induced adrenaline had run its course.

All she wanted right now was to close her eyes and drift off—assuming that the next time she did, she would actually wake up again. Right now, that didn’t necessarily come with a guarantee.

But she’d gotten rid of one massive problem, both for herself and for Shade as a whole. The corpse was lying there beside her on the concrete in a quickly growing pool of its own blood.

Her only stroke of luck at this point—the only thing that might stave off more questions than she could convincingly answer—was that she’d thought to also leave proof of a killing blow.

Hopefully, no one else had been paying too much attention to her seemingly useless hand pinned at her side. For all intents and purposes, she’d ended Aldous with his own blade through the heart, and that was all anyone else had to know.

Despite wanting to drift back into unconsciousness, despite knowing it was probably the most dangerous thing she could do right now, given her current state, it wouldn’t have been possible anyway. Her heart leapt and danced with every new shout and cheer rising from multiple dozens of Shade members all around her.

The next thing Rebecca knew, she was sitting upright on the floor, almost able to support herself in that position but not quite.

A million hands fondled her all over, it seemed, and the next image to darken her vision, though not particularly pleasant, reminded her that she was still alive and kicking.

For now.

Zida’s puckered scowl protruded from her heavily wrinkled face. She looked Rebecca over, her dark eyes flickering across her current patient’s face. “Cutting that one a little close, wouldn’t you say?”

Rebecca let out a weak snort. “You mean onlymostlyreviving someone with your special kinda happy gas that only works in waves?”

“I did say it was a band-aid, didn’t I?” The old woman’s clawed hands tugged at Rebecca’s limbs with surprising strength.

Then Rebecca was on her feet, one arm wrapped around the healer’s shoulders as she stumbled across the garage.

She couldn’t focus on any one thing in her vision. Magicals hustled back and forth, shouting and jostling each other and cheering amidst so many simultaneous conversations impossible for her to decipher.

Rebecca had just thrust herself far more into the spotlight than she’d planned or even wanted, but that spotlight had now been smashed to pieces. Maybe this meant she could finally catch a break for a little bit.

“We’re going back up to the infirmary now, right?” she murmured, focusing most of her attention on not letting her legs give out. “Because I can tell you right now, even a bed underyourcare sounds like the perfect thing.”

“I’m gonna call that your attempt at a compliment.” Zida grunted and gauged the activity in the garage as she led Rebecca toward the foot of the stairs. “But that’s not where I’m taking you. Not now, anyway.”

“What?” Rebecca tried to look up at the old woman leading her along, but that break in her concentration made her wobble before another coughing fit seized her. “Why wouldn’t I—”

“You really stepped in it now, didn’t you? There’s no rest until this thing gets seen through to the end. Not for any of us, and certainly not for you. You won’t be free of this until a decision’s been made.”

“What decision?” Rebecca cleared her throat and tried not to lean too heavily on Zida as she concentrated far too hard on lifting her leg to step onto the first stair. “The threat’s over. Aldous is gone.”

“Oh, sure,” Zida replied, her head bobbing on her wiry neck enshrouded in more wrinkles and folds of drooping skin. “Theimmediatethreat. You get credit for that one, kiddo. No doubt about it. But every closed door opens a new one in a different direction. Shade can only have one door open at a time, if you catch my drift.”

They made their slow, laborious way up the stairs while the echoes of excitement and eagerness and celebratory disbelief faded behind them.

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