Page 127 of Elven Shadow

“That’s not the full story, though,” Rebecca added, beckoning Nyx closer one more time and trying to keep her movements calm and relatively unthreatening. “Let’s hear the rest of it.”

Nyx’s violent gaze darted all over the infirmary. A quick flush of brilliant pink colored her cheeks before it faded into an even more alarming paleness, washing out some of the vivid violet hue of her hair. “Actually…I think it’s probably better if someone else explained to you what—”

“Not interested in somebody else,” Rebecca interrupted. “You were the one hovering over me in bed. You’re the one who’s here now. You’re the one who’s gonna tell me what else happened.”

Nyx’s heavy gulp was the only sound in the infirmary for a moment before she sighed. “Well, after that, no one else really wanted to wait anymore. So then, you know, everybody decided to hold a huur-akíl. And, well…I mean, we did.”

“A huur-akíl.” Rebecca blinked. “Here in the compound.”

“Um, yeah?” Nyx shrugged again. “It was Earl’s idea.”

Of course it was. The one Shade operative who was older than either Bor or Zida. Probably even older than both of them combined, which would have still made Rebecca the oldest magical here, but she wasn’t counting herself.

The ancient gnome had suggested they hold a huur-akíl right here on their own turf, according to however many old laws of Xahar’áhsh they could accurately follow in this world without the usual ritual requirements of the birthplace of magic.

Essentially, in Rebecca’s absence, Shade had decided to take an incredibly official, incredibly binding vote without her. A vote that, given the circumstances, had dictated Shade’s new active leader of their ranks, plus however many other decisions had been proposed as add-ons before the huur-akíl officially begun.

Two days was fairly fast for that kind of ceremony. But this was Earth. No matter how desperately some magicals still clung to the old ways, there wasn’t a whole lot that could be done when those old ways didn’t exactly mesh with the resources of an entirely different world.

Nyx took another steady step closer. “Like I said, I wasreallyhoping you’d wake up soon. Which you did. And that’s great! Because, well…I mean, the others are kinda running out of patience at this point.”

Rebecca flicked her gaze sharply back up at the katari and frowned. “Patience for what?”

Nyx grimaced again and glanced at the closed infirmary door. “I think the top of the list right now is mostly what to do with the bodies…”

The bodies. Hector’s, which Rebecca didn’t want to think about because she had no idea what kind of reaction the corpse of a former nurúzhe might have produced, especially one who’d dabbled in death magic as much as Hector had.

Then there was Aldous. Definitely dead. Definitely gone. Out of the picture entirely, because Rebecca had ruptured his very existence with her Bloodshadow magic and left the body behind, and no one had any idea what she’d truly done to him. She hoped.

An unexpected pang of regret surged through her at the thought of Aldous. She truly had hoped Aldous would have taken the easy way out—easy in the short term for him but admittedly far more difficult in the long run. She’d hoped he would live past his overthrow as Shade’s leader, spending an appropriate stint of time in the stockade before the task force as a whole figured out what to do with him.

Just so he might have eventually come to understand exactly how much he’d screwed up in his tenure with the organization and maybe even just how much he owed them all for wanting to spare his life in the first place.

But the moment he’d opted for physical violence and revenge by trying to stab a knife through Rebecca’s throat while pinning her to the floor, all those possibilities had disappeared.

She regretted his terrible decision-making skills, and she regretted having to end him, but in no way did she regret protecting herself.

And the rest of Shade wanted to know what to do with thebodies?

“Are…are you okay?” Nyx asked, leaning forward as if she meant to step closer but then clearly deciding against it.

“Nope.” Rebecca grunted. “Honestly, I almost feel worse than when I came in here.”

“Oh. Oh, no. Should we…” Nyx’s handwringing intensified as she cast nervous glances over her shoulder at the rest of the infirmary’s recovery room. “Do you want me to find Zida? Maybe we should—”

“No.” Shaking her head and closing her eyes against the next wave of dizziness, even while sitting in bed, Rebecca tried to swallow down the brewing nausea that came with it. “Just, uh…tell me about the bodies.”

“What do you mean?”

“As in you’re going to have to be a little more specific. It’s usually a pretty straightforward process…”

“Oh. Mostly, people are wondering about Hector. Specifically. You know, because he was one of us. But not really, I guess. Because he went all traitor and everything…” Nyx raised one shoulder in a self-conscious shrug. “And, you know, then all those weird little creature things he was controlling. The ones you…deactivated, I guess.”

“The homunculi,” Rebecca corrected blandly. “Listen, Nyx, right now, I’m nursing a serious lack of brainpower, okay? So if you came to ask me what to do with the bodies, just tell everyone they’re gonna have to figure it out themselves.”

“Totally. Yeah. I mean, Iwould, except… It’s been a pretty tense few days around here. The whole task force just keeps arguing about what to do, and I don’t really think anyone’s in the mood to figure out their own solution that works for everyone.”

“For everyone?”

---