Page 150 of Elven Shadow

She couldn’t stop them from seeing her let them down eventually, but shecouldstop them from seeing her now.

So she avoided the common room altogether and opted instead to go the long way, where she could avoid everyone.

Not very many people milled around through the labyrinthine corridors of Shade headquarters. Not now that their most pressing issues had already been taken care of.

She had to pause at the end of the last hallway leading to the stairwell into the garage because she’d almost cracked her head open against the wall with her last stumble. Now the corners of her vision had gone past blurry and moved into darkening around the edges.

She wasn’t going to make it much longer before her wake-up juice failed, but as long as she could stay on her feet, she could make it to that stairwell and finally get the hell out of here.

It felt like hours of fumbling in her jacket pocket before Rebecca finally withdrew Zida’s last present and another agonizing eternity just to pull out the stopper, which she had to do with her teeth again.

Immediately, the blinding flash of white light and magic and energy and consciousness overriding her nervous system picked her up like one of those wooden dolls cut into pieces and sewn back together with string—pull the string, and the doll stood at attention again as if it had never taken a break.

Holy shit, that was a rush.

Rebecca tipped her head back and closed her eyes to inhale deeply, feeling the manufactured vitality filling her up again for who knew how long this time. According to Zida, there was a high probability of developing a tolerance to this stuff, which meant she didn’t have a whole lot of time to flush down the toilet.

Rolling back her shoulders, she stuffed the used vial into her pocket and took off at a brisk clip down the hall.

The top of the staircase loomed closer, yawning open wide, inviting her to just slip right through and escape. Not forever, of course. Just to get this fucking homunculus poison out of her system before she could go back to business as usual. Mostly.

Almost there…

“Roth-Da’al!”

By the Blood,no…

Rebecca’s bare feet squeaked across the linoleum floor at the sound of Maxwell’s voice, and she came to a dead stop.

He’d emerged from the last intersecting hallway mere feet in front of her and stepped toward her now, his silver eyes flashing beneath the overhead lights as he looked her up and down.

What was hedoinghere? He was supposed to be out disposing of body parts.

“Where are you going?” he asked with a tilt of his head.

Sure, she looked healthy and full of energynow, but who knew how long the vial’s effects would last this time? And no, she couldn’t just tell him what she meant to do.

Glad she’d already pocketed the vial, Rebecca spread her arms and took off again for the staircase. “Just handling some personal business.”

“Then I’ll come with you.” His footsteps echoed after her.

She could feel his presence behind her now—that warm, tingling weight from the top of her head all the way down her back and into her heels.

A side effect of her emergency energy boost, or was that something else?

“No need for that, Maxie,” she said, hoping to piss him off enough with the nickname he hated to make him give up.

Yes, it was a longshot, and yes, she knew it.

“Shade’s Roth-Da’al carries a high enough profile on the streets,” he said. “Whatever personal business you have, you won’t be doing it alone.”

“You’re Head of Security. Don’t you have plenty of other duties to perform?” She almost ran right into him when he swerved in front of her to cut her off at the top of the stairs.

“More important than ensuring my Roth-Da’al’s safety?” he asked. “No, actually. That’s at the top of the list.”

“I think it’s time we write you a new list.” Rebecca tried to step past him, to slip sideways, maybe even throw herself down the stairwell if she had to. Her energy was up enough that she was more likely to land on her feet than not.

Maxwell slapped a hand against the stairwell’s doorway with a thud, his raised arm now completely blocking her path. A darker silver blaze burned in his eyes, and the tingling rush of his presence now washed over her head to toe from the front this time.

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