Page 104 of Elven Shadow

By the Blood, she’d never livethatone down after this.

She couldn’t help but scan Shade’s ranks for their shifter Head of Security, part of her hoping he’d disappeared so she wouldn’t have to deal with him and part of her hoping to find him, because…

What? Because he hadn’t let her fall on her face? Because for a moment, he’d actually looked concerned for her? Because she couldn’t be within ten feet of him without feeling that irresistible pull toward him she’d never felt for anyone, even people she’d actuallyliked?

Who was she kidding? She’d been delirious.

“I swear to the fucking Hakali,” Aldous bellowed, “if someone doesn’t tell merightnowwhat all this is about…”

A rustle of movement came from behind Rebecca and to the left. Before she could turn around to see who’d caused it, a warm, sturdy weight settled at the back of her elbow.

A passing reassurance—or a warning.

It was just her elbow, sure, but her elbow was inconveniently close to her forearm and that blueish-gray handprint left from the homunculus.

Rebecca started to jerk away and snap at whoever couldn’t keep their hands to themselves. But then another burst of that warm, tingling rush flared up from her elbow, and she looked up to find Maxwell stepping past her instead. “What are you—”

“Don’t get involved,” he growled without looking at her. Then the warm pressure of his hand slid away from her as he stepped past and out of the gathered crowd toward Aldous.

Don’t get involved? Because he was trying to protect her, or because he didn’t trust her to handle whatever came next?

Neither option was any of his business, either way.

If it had been anyone else, she would have called him on it and refused to be told what to do. But the feeling of his hand on her—even a split second after it had disappeared—filled her with an insanely strong urge to take off after him just so they wouldn’t have to be apart.

The fact that she was having these thoughts at all, especially about Maxwell, made Rebecca force herself to stay put and watch the rest of this play out.

She couldn’t start following this shifter around like some clueless, doe-eyed little girl. What waswrongwith her?

Or better yet, what had been in those magical, invisible smelling salts Zida had given her?

The crowded task force parted for Maxwell, then the Head of Security stepped into the center of the garage to face a howling, flailing Aldous demanding to know what the hell had happened to his Headquarters building.

After a few seconds, the seething changeling whirled around again and found his trusty second-in-command right in front of him. “Finally! What’s going on, Hannigan? I should’ve had a report on this the second it started!”

Maxwell stood rigidly at attention, looking straightforward without meeting Aldous’s gaze. “The compounds under attack.”

“No shit!”

Maxwell’s lips pressed tightly together in a grim line as Aldous furiously paced back and forth in front of him.

From where she stood, Rebecca could only see Maxwell’s profile, but he really didn’t look like he had anything under control at the moment. Another softer, smaller explosion above in the compound only accentuated that point.

But if she’d stood in the shifter’s shoes, she wouldn’t have wanted to converse with Aldous, either. Especially in front of the entire task force, most of whom had recently been plotting to overthrow their Commander barely twenty-four hours ago.

Wasthatwhy he’d told her not to get involved? He thought Rebecca was about to execute Operation Overthrow Aldous without even knowing what the plan was?

He must have purposefully missed that second secret meeting earlier too.

“Well?” Aldous whirled on Maxwell again, as if he’d already asked another question, gaping like an idiot. “Who’s behind it?”

“We haven’t figured that out yet,” Maxwell grumbled.

“Unacceptable!” Aldous barked. “You have your team for areason, Hannigan. You have this job for a reason. And if there’s someone here in my house, sitting on bombs, I expect you to be the first person who knows what the fuck’s going on!”

Maxwell dipped his head in a curt nod. “My team’s stationed around the building’s perimeter. No sign of an external breach, no sign of enemy combatants, no trail to follow. Meaning, at the moment, no assailant to apprehend.”

Aldous stopped pacing and glared at the shifter, his green-tinted skin starting to show through in splotchy patches again as his emotions grew stronger than his rational thinking—not that much of a stretch. “Andthen?”

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