Page 155 of Elven Shadow

The waves of energy, focus, and vitality from Zida’s vials lasted shorter and shorter periods while the effects drastically lessened.

She had to find a way out of here as soon as possible before the likelihood of Shade needing to elect a new commander again morphed from a high probability to little more than a certainty. She couldn’t keep this up forever.

When she glanced up at the open office door where Maxwell had taken up his post just inside with his hands clasped behind his back again, she thought she saw the shifter wrinkle his nose and sniff at the air, but he didn’t say anything.

Figures. If he’d smelled poison gas seeping into the room, he probably wouldn’t have said a thing to warn her. Why bother when his silence would wipe her out just as quickly?

Snorting at the thought, Rebecca focused on the desk in front of her. There had to besomethinghere to help spark a few new ideas. Maybe an old mission report, or some overlooked intel everyone had missed.

Crafting a false emergency out of something that already existed would be the easiest way to get Maxwell off her case.Ifshe could make it convincing enough…

At the sound of the heavy wooden drawers rumbling open and shut, Maxwell looked sharply up at her to watch, his silver eyes flashing.

Despite specifically refusing to look at him, Rebecca still felt his gaze as if he’d thrown something across the room at her instead.

With her failing strength and inability to tune out such a strong, confusing sensation, another flush crept up her neck and into her cheeks, threatening toburst right through the top of her head while she perused the desk drawers’ contents.

Great. Just what she needed—to start blushing in her office before she started sweating. That would only convince Maxwell there reallywassomething wrong with her, far more than she’d let on.

He really needed to stop staring at her like that.

Refusing to let him see how much his gaze affected her, she found herself unable to focus entirely on searching through the desk. But when she opened the center drawer to peer inside, the gentle clinking of glass against glass made her pay attention.

A dozen clear glass vials sitting in a plastic caddy inside the desk’s center drawer, all of them tightly stoppered and all of them completely empty.

Then she found the note beside the caddy and pulled it out to read the short message left behind.

‘These are yours. Do whatever you want with them, I guess. It’syournervous system. I’m leaving it up to you because I’ve got other shit to do with my time. Just be careful.’

Rebecca almost laughed at the note, then instantly wiped her expression clean and shoved the paper back into the desk drawer when Maxwell cleared his throat.

“Something on your mind?” she asked, running her fingers along the row of a dozen additional vials of Zida’s emergency go-potion.

Maxwell stared straight ahead, “Just my own opinions. Which have no place here, I know that.”

Oh, he hadopinions, did he? Imagine that.

“I won’t argue with you there,” she muttered before selecting a new vial from the drawer and attempting to open it with the weak fingers of her right hand and the completely numb fingers of her left. Already she wasn’t off to a good start.

“But for the sake of entertainment,” she added, “why don’t you go ahead and share your opinions with me anyway.”

Maxwell watched her before his scowl deepened further. “It’s really not necessary.”

“Not foryou.” Her face felt tight and dangerously hot, even when she tried to smile at him, which was supposed to be a distraction from her efforts to open a new vial. Because yes, it felt like she definitely needed another one. “Your Roth-Da’al, on the other hand, is particularly interested, so…”

When the stopper refused to come out between her fingers, she sighed and lifted the vial to her mouth to pull the thing out with her teeth again.

“I have my concerns,” Maxwell grumbled.

She looked up at him and raised an eyebrow, replying around the stopper between her teeth, “Oh?”

“About your current drug use.”

The sharp pop of the stopper finally pulling free filled the office, followed by a tiny piece of rubber rolling across the surface of her desk when Rebecca’s mouth went slack under the Zida’s magic gas instantly doing its thing.

There was no more brilliant flash of bright white light, no more surge of energy like she’d just plugged herself into the greatest lifeforce generator in existence, but her physical symptoms definitely improved. Her hands didn’t shake anymore, either. Even the numb one.

Once the immediate effects sank in, Rebecca opened her eyes again and looked directly at Maxwell this time with a crooked smile. “I wouldn’t call it drug use when it’s prescribed and approved by our resident healer.”

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