Page 4 of Elven Shadow

“I know you’re in there!” Aldous shouted at the front doors, spreading his arms wide. “You think you’ve been real sneaky, don’t you? Real fucking smart about all the heavy-hitting firepower you dragged back into your little hidey-hole out here like the fucking cockroach you are!”

Rebecca gritted her teeth, nostrils flaring.

Shit like that came tumbling out of Aldous’s mouth like water over the edge of a cliff.

And heseriouslywanted the team to let him do all the talking?

Nyx sucked in a sharp, hissing breath through her teeth. The intensity of static electricity crackling around her kicked up a few notches.

Still, the team had their orders to wait for the changeling’s signal.

“Well I found you dickbags anyway!” Aldous shouted. “You got the slip on the MJC, but not me. Oh no. I’m smarter than every head of every Council branch, I can tell you that! And I found youhere. They’ll be singing my praises after this one. Maybe even make a statue of me, if I feel like allowing it. To be honest, I’d rather watch every Council head abdicate and hand over that cold iron crown they like to hold over all of us in this world. Hell, I’ll wear ’em all at the same time!”

Holy shit, he was really pouring it on thick.

“Just get to the point,” Rebecca muttered through clenched teeth.

Nyx’s nervous, high-pitched giggle made Rebecca want to toss the katari to the other side of the parking lot, but that wouldn’t have helped them, either.

“But enough about me,” Aldous continued, shifting his weight onto the opposite foot as he flipped a fist over to inspect his own nails at the ends of curled fingers. “I’m here for all of you. But IwantEdwardo, specifically. That’s the moron leading this epic failure of a rebellion attempt, isn’t it?”

No surprise that the griybreki who’d barricaded themselves physically and magically inside the apartment complex offered no response to Aldous’ heckling.

Somehow, he still thought talking to them like this was actually going to work.

“Come on, Edwardo! If you know what’s good for ya, you’ll come on out. Talk to me mano-a-mano. Test your mettle against mine and see what happens! I might even let some of your pathetic underlings live afterwards, but Iamgonna take your shit. And you’renotgonna be happy about what happens next.”

Still no response from inside.

Though unlikely and rare, Rebecca was starting to feel the smallest drop of hope about this whole thing. Which was definitely new.

Three minutes into this mission after Aldous had indirectly threatened Leonard’s physical safety for questioning this absurd excuse for a plan, and so far, the changelinghadn’tmanaged to screw it up.

Three minutes had to be a record.

And now Aldous was getting antsy.

He cleared his throat, sliding the sole of one dress shoe back and forth across the asphalt like he’d stepped in shit and was trying to scrape it off. His scowl aimed at the entrance rose up the front of the building and all the east-facing windows stacked ten stories high before he spread his arms again.

“Or did you just leave your balls somewhere back in Xahar’áhsh?” he shouted. “Because as far as I can tell, only the most pitiful fucking coward would hide inside a flimsy building like this one instead of coming to face me like a real chief.”

The changeling paused only for a second before huffing out a laugh. “You make your griybreki wipe your ass for you too, Edwardo?”

Maxwell visibly shifted his stance and tightly clasped his hands behind his back.

Probably to keep himself from strangling the idiot right there with his bare hands.

Rebecca would’ve preferredsomeattempt on the shifter’s part to talk Aldous down from his preening pedestal. If she were in Maxwell’s place, she would’ve warned Aldousawayfrom further poking this griybreki-gang bear two minutes ago.

This path of least resistance was absolutely going to bite them all in the ass. It was only a matter ofwhen.

Aldous lifted his left wrist to check a watch he wasn’t wearing, nodded, then folded his arms. “You got five minutes, Edwardo! Now’s your chance to keep a little dignity. Or I can tear you apart without ever lifting a finger, and everyone who answers to you is gonna see what a pathetic fucking joke you really are. It’s up to you, shithead! Your move!”

It should have ended there.

Aldous’s terrible plan might have actually been enough.

If the griybreki didn’t come down from their apartment tower to try to talk shit out, the changeling would give the signal, and his team would move in. Breach the apartment building. Engage any and all resistance they encountered on the way to the head-honcho griybreki calling himself Edwardo while also calling the shots for this little fringe gang.

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