Page 5 of Elven Shadow

A fringe gang that was supposed to have been easy enough to take down once Shade found their hideout.

Rebecca was almost ready to admit she’d been wrong about yet another mission gone disastrously belly-up under Aldous’ inadequate command.

It looked like he was finally following his own damn plan for once—a serious step up from the last six months.

He might actually pull it off this time.

Then again, Rebecca had always had impeccable intuition. Her biggest mistake here tonight, she would soon realize, was doubting that for even a second.

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She really should’ve trusted her gut.

Even with the best-laid plans and an effective team operating under effective leadership, something could always still go wrong. And nothing Aldous touched was ever effective.

This was exactly why Rebecca made it a point not to trust any plan, or any leader, or any idea a hundred percent.

Especiallythispretentious asshat.

“Four minutes!” Aldous bellowed.

At the same time, Nyx twitched beside Rebecca, the flares of static around her petite frame thickening the air and filling Rebecca’s nose with the scent of ozone.

“Shit,” the katari muttered in her high-pitched voice. “Fourth window from the front. Sixth floor. They’re mobilizing.”

Rebecca tore her gaze away from Aldous and Maxwell—standing like a couple of idiots in front of the apartment building—to search for the designated window.

Muted puce and muddy-brown lights flickered in the window, flashing and strobing while a neon-yellow glow rose from somewhere inside, intensifying and growing brighter by the second.

“Dammit,” Rebecca muttered. “They have wards. Itoldhim they’d have fucking wards.”

“First window, second story,” Nyx said, her voice rising toward a feverish pitch with every word as her violet eyes flickered across the north side of the building. “Ninth window, eight floor. Holy shit, it’s spreading way too fast. We won’t be able to—”

“I don’t need a play-by-play, Nyx.”

The katari blinked furiously, her expression now blank with cluelessness. “But what dowe—”

“Go tellhim.” Rebecca tossed a hand toward Maxwell and Aldous.

“Three minutes!” the changeling shouted. “Now you’re really starting to step in it, douchebag. Get down here! Show your guys what a real standoff looks like!”

“Now,” Rebecca hissed.

Nyx let out a high-pitched squeak of surprise that sounded more like a yelping puppy before the static electricity surrounding her popped and sparked. With a quick flash of violet light, she disappeared.

A second later, she reappeared directly behind Maxwell with another flash.

The shifter didn’t so much as flinch before he slowly, calmly looked over his shoulder at her.

Nyx whispered her warning about the enemy’s mobilizing magic inside the apartment building, and their Head of Security merely flicked his gaze across the side of the parking lot until it landed on Rebecca.

Another illuminating flash of silver crossed his irises, glowing in the darkness.

Likeshewas the one to blame for all this.

At least now he knew what they were up against.

Rebecca returned her attention to the north side of the building, where the neon-yellow lights of some fairly technically complicated wards she didn’t completely recognize were currently being erected around the griybreki private hideout.

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