Page 17 of Elven Shadow

Their leader’s body thumped violently into the back of the van, followed by Diego hopping up inside and shouting, “Move your asses!”

Rebecca ducked a slobbering creature throwing itself at her. Then she spun on instinct and punched it in the back of the head to send the grotesque critter flying across the pavement.

“Get out of here!” she shouted. “There’s not enough time before—”

“No, no, no, no! Don’t fucking listen toher!” Leonard let off one final blast of magic and spewed out a wide net of thick, glistening golden ropes that acted like an actual net when it landed on a group of three more griybreki scrambling toward them.

The creatures screamed in confusion and pain and rage as they battled with the webbing of magical lines.

Leonard spun toward the van and darted past Rebecca, glaring at her.

“Why the fuck would you say something like that?” he snarled before leaping up into the van.

“Move it, elf,” Maxwell snapped behind the wheel.

No one had to tell her twice, but it still seemed like a complete waste of time, even when Rebecca launched herself toward the van’s open door and dove inside.

As she did, the whine from the enemy’s magical RPG launcher hit its fevered pitch, signaling readiness for one more attack.

“Drive, man, drive!”

“Go, go, go, go!”

“What the fuck are you waiting for? Get us out of here!”

Rebecca heard the team shouting at Maxwell. She felt the van lurch clumsily beneath her to race across the parking lot. She heard the furious howls of the creatures behind them, none of whom wanted their enemy to escape.

And she still couldn’t let herself believe her team could actually get away this time.

As the van hurtled toward the far end of the parking lot, bouncing violently over potholes and lumps in the asphalt, she could only stare at the apartment building’s open front doors, waiting for the inevitable to happen and catch up with them.

“What is your fucking problem?” Diego snarled at her.

Rebecca shook her head. “I don’t get it. That thing should’ve fired by now. It should’ve—”

The air burst with a deafening boom and the explosive force spewing through the front doors of the apartment building. The shockwave spread across the parking lot like wildfire, shaking the foundations of the entire building until it looked like the whole place was about to come down.

Dust and glass shards and plaster and debris careened after the van, blasting against its side as Maxwell drove as fast as he could away from the damage.

The rest of the team inside the vehicle cried out in surprise, holding onto the seats in front of them or the door handles or what little else existed to keep them from tumbling all over each other.

Most of their efforts were unsuccessful.

The blinding neon-yellow explosion of magic strong enough to take them all down at once—the final blast Rebecca had been waiting for—never came.

Instead, crackling red light flashed through the building’s lobby, skewering the flickering, dying glow of the magic cannon and the protective wards before another boom exploded across the parking lot.

The walls of the lobby started to crumble.

The falling debris spilled out of the open doors in a ballooning cloud of dust and smoke, blocking all other visuals.

The team’s getaway ride lurched out of the parking lot, veered around the corner, and continued at ridiculously high speeds, all thanks to the shifter now behind the wheel.

Everyone crammed into the back of the VW bus and currently conscious stared at their target site—the parking lot, the abandoned apartment building, and the surrounding area quickly filling with rubble and thick smoke and what looked a whole lot like flames rising in the distance.

While Maxwell understandably had to focus on the road, he snuck quick glances back at their battleground through the rearview mirror before snarling, “What the hell was that?”

“It worked,” Rebecca muttered.

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