Page 60 of Elven Shadow

Whatever that magical RPG launcher had been created or even programmed to do—before Rebecca’s systematic destruction of it to save her team’s asses—the griybreki had nearly perfected their protection wards to double as a last-minute offensive strategy. The shock of touching live magic like that was undoubtedly meant to kill on contact.

If it had been anyone but Titus stumbling backward into the wards, those wardswouldhave killed. And everyone in Shade knew it.

Which made everyone here really fucking happy to see the vuulbor alive and kicking.

Feeling Maxwell’s gaze on her as she moved through the press of bodies, Rebecca plastered a smile onto her face, gaping like an idiot at the side of Titus’s head as if she meant to make her way toward him to celebrate the guy’s return with everyone else.

To anyone else watching her—like the shifter—she made it look like she just couldn’t wait to clap a hand down on Titus’s shoulder and congratulate him for surviving.

As soon as his enormous body blocked her view of Maxwell, though—and his view ofher—Rebecca veered off the hallway leading to the common roomat the last second and headed instead for the narrow staircase at the back of the building.

Only when she reached the door into that stairwell did she dare look over her shoulder, but there was no sign of Maxwell.

Hopefully, she’d lost him in the confusion. That was the goal.

Frustrating him and his attempts to spy on her simply weren’t Rebecca’s problem.

She grimaced when the door into that stairwell let out a raucous squeal of protest as she opened it. But knowing how disturbingly loud the common room got when everyone gathered there for a meal, she was counting on no one being able to hear the sounds of her quick getaway.

It wasn’t like they weren’t allowed to leave the premises when they weren’t on an active mission.

It wasn’t like she was breaking any rules.

After the way she’d been singled out in the library, though, the idea of capturing anyone else’s attention tonight almost made her nauseous.

No. It pissed her right off.

It made her resent everything she’d done to get to where she was and everyone who’d forced her hand to this point.

The point where sneaking out of a magical-vigilante headquarters compound just after dark was something she actually had to deal with now.

That was what made her nauseous. The frustration and disappointment and a dash of helplessness thrown in for fun.

It wasn’t supposed to have turned out this way. Yet here she was, unable to steer the direction of her current ship.

Living the last six months as Rebecca Knox of Shade had already garnered her way too much attention. A dangerous amount.

That shouldn’t have happened, but circumstances had stacked up against her until she’d given herself no other choice.

Now she couldn’t affordanymore attention. This was her max. The threshold.

She was teetering on the edge.

But that didn’t mean she couldn’t still blow off some steam where nobody else was looking.

And if some random stranger happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time to catch the brunt of Rebecca’s vented magical frustration, well…

That was a risk she was willing to take.

Random strangers were harmless. It was the monsters she knew that gave her the most trouble. The monster every member currently believed her to be within the underground vigilante task force.

The monster shewas, though?

That was far worse than anything Shade had ever seen and anything else Shade had yet to see within their blinded future.

The monster Rebecca Bloodshadow had spent a seeming eternity being crafted and molded and tortured into becominghadno team. She was alone.

She had to keep it that way, or everyone currently in her life—whether they knew her or only thought they did—was entirely screwed.

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