Page 128 of Elven Shadow

“It’s just hard to get a word in edgewise, you know?” Nyx looked her in the eye and swallowed. “While we’re all waiting for the final word.”

Rebecca pinched the bridge of her nose and inhaled deeply to hopefully soothe a fraction of her pounding migraine.

The squeak of Nyx’s sneakers shuffling closer across the linoleum floor made her pause.

“Do you think you can stand?” Nyx asked.

“Currently?” Rebecca asked. “I haven’t even tried. Waking up in the infirmary kinda left me with the impression that I probablyshouldn’ttry.”

“I get that. But still, it’s probably best if you make an appearance, at the very least. Just, you know…so at least everybody knows you’re alive.”

“Did someone specifically claim that I’m dead?”

Nyx froze before a tiny gasp escaped her. “Um…”

“Well I’m not.” Rebecca gestured toward herself with both hands. “Obviously.”

“Which is great! Because now we can go show everyone, and you can start making all the hard decisions—”

“Wait. No.I’mnot making any decisions.”

“Yes, you are.” The katari’s confused frown sent a twisted knot of dread tightening deep in Rebecca’s gut. “You have to. Because of the huur-akíl.”

Then it hit her—why any of this had anything to do with Rebecca specifically. Why Nyx had come to check if she was conscious yet so all those hard decisions could finally be made. Why the timid katari had looked so nervous about asking for directions inwhat to do next.

“Because of thehuur-akíl.”

A decision had already been made, without Rebecca’s presence or her consent, and while she’d been lying unconscious in this infirmary bed for the last two days, she’d been forced into the very center of Shade’s rebellion once again.

Only this time, getting out of it would be practically impossible.

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The bottomof Rebecca’s gut sank into a pit of dread peppered with refusal and resentment. Even before Nyx offered a verbal confirmation, Rebecca already knew what the katari hadn’t yet said.

Shade had held a huur-akíl, and for some reason, the entire task force had decided to makeRebeccaAldous’s replacement.

Groaning, she slumped all the way back against the pillows. “This can’t be happening right now.”

“Oh yes it is!” Nyx squealed in delight as she clapped her hands together. “Because guess who Shade’s new commander is!”

Rebecca didn’t have to guess. Not anymore.

How had everything so terribly wrong in such a short amount of time?

“It’s you!” Nyx exclaimed. Another squeak of rubber soles across the floor filled Rebecca’s mind with an instant image of Nyx doing a little dance right there beside the bed.

“I never put my name in the hat,” Rebecca muttered.

“Doesn’t matter now, though, does it?” Nyx said. “We had a huur-akíl. And those are binding.”

“I know what a huur-akíl is, Nyx.”

“You do? Honestly, I’ve never seen one in action before. Not up close. It was pretty incredible, actually. I mean, Bor was missing a few ingredients, but he made it work. Some kinda substitution clause.”

“Hold on.” Rebecca fought the urge to peel her eyelids open with her fingers before she could finally focus her gaze on Nyx again. “Bor led the huur-akíl?”

“Well, yeah. He’s the only one of us who had any experience with that kinda thing back in the old world.” Nyx leaned forward over the bed to add in a whisper, “And the only one who wasn’t terrified of attempting it in this world. But I don’t think any of the other old-timers would ever say it out loud.”

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