Page 101 of Elven Shadow

As she staggered blindly, her other foot came down something relatively cylindrical in her path that wobbled beneath her step. Her foot slipped, the rest of her weight slid out from under her, and she dropped.

This had to be the end. Right here, right now, about to eat cement in Shade’s underground parking garage before she could do a damn thing.

But she didn’t hit the ground.

She didn’t even crack her knees on the floor—unless she’d now lost feeling in her extremities, which was just as likely as all the other unexplained ailments turning her body against her right now.

But no, she definitely felt the firm, searing tightness clenched around her upper arm to keep her from smacking her face on the ground. Then that grip tightened, and she was being lifted upward again.

“On your feet, elf.”

The low growl was right in her ear. A voice she should have recognized, surely.

But her failing body made mental processing far too difficult, and she couldn’t see a damn thing with all the thick, acrid black smoke swirling around her where she’d tripped over those black lumps scattered across the floor.

What kind of asshole had leftthosethere?

And hadn’t the smoke just been white, like, five seconds ago?

Somehow she got her feet under her again with the help of that heated grip on her arm, and the choking coughs finally let up long enough for Rebecca to slowly look up.

Her blurry vision settled on the large, strong hand clamped around her upper arm. Her gaze traveled up the attached forearm—revealed by crumpled shirt cuffs rolled up to the elbow—and then eventually the face staring down at her.

The first thing she registered was a pair of glowing silver eyes trained directly on her before another growl proceeded his next words.

“And you’ve got a hell of a lot of explaining to do.”

Maxwell. It was Maxwell. Of course it was.

The shifter stared down at her, his silver eyes pulsing with dark warning and his jaw muscles clenching over and over as his firm grip felt like he meant to break her arm in two just with a squeeze.

AndRebeccahad explaining to do? She couldn’t even account for the last several minutes before reaching the bottom of the stairs, apparently. Maybe even more.

Trying harder than she ever had in her life to keep her eyes open and focus on Maxwell’s face, she blurted the first thing that popped into her mind.

“You have the worst timing,” she croaked.

Maxwell’s eyes widened, then he stooped to support her with his other hand as well just so she could stand.

If he let her go now, Rebecca was certain she’d drop to the concrete and never move again.

If she hadn’t known better, she also would have said she’d just caught a hint of concern in the shifter’s silver eyes when he seemed to realize how not okay she was.

Then again, she could have simply been seeing things. That was what happened on the verge of death, wasn’t it?

“Shit, Knox,” Maxwell murmured over the rising shouts and confused conversation bursting to life again from the rest of Shade’s members. “What happened to you?”

“If you figure that one out,” she replied, still panting and gasping for breath as her legs wobbled, “I’d really love to know.”

Rebecca’s eyelids fluttered shut, and she only realized she’d swung toward Maxwell’s chest when her cheek hit something soft and the scent of musk and sandalwood overwhelmed her.

His heart was racing. Suddenly, it was the loudest sound in her awareness.

Joined by an instant blaze of warm, tingling energy flaring between his chest and her face—racing through her core, calling her closer, tugging her toward him even when there was nowhere else to go.

A rightness that felt like everything Rebecca had ever been searching for, every other shape of darkness that fit her own so perfectly, right here in this…shifter?

That wasn’t right. She was losing her mind.

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