Page 16 of Elven Shadow

As Rebecca ran, the little frogmen’s grotesque bodies hurtled through the air away from the form she now recognized as Aldous.

“We gotta go!” she shouted. “If he’s hit—”

“He ain’t!” Diego roared through clenched teeth as he lifted both outstretched arms. “But if we leave him here, we’re fucked.”

The changeling’s hulking mass of mindless, slobbering beast that had fucked their entire mission inside and out rose off the asphalt—arms, legs, and an enormous, overflowing gut wrapped up in the powerful, deadly coils of the Cruorcian’s blood magic.

Rebecca’s eyes widened when she realized Diego was trying to magically lift their leader away from the worst of the danger, but she kept running toward the van.

Leonard voiced her concerns before she’d had the chance to recognize them.

“We can’t fucking get him in the van likethat!” he screamed, tossing shards of golden light at the oncoming griybreki like an endless arsenal of throwing knives.

“No shit, genius,” Diego hollered back. “He won’t be like this much longer.”

Rebecca chucked more hissing, snapping, blazing red battle magic at the enemy still somehow racing after what was left of the team, despite her efforts to blow their heavy-duty firepower in the lobby to smithereens.

She thought for sure that would have been enough to take them down, or at least to distract them from the battle so the Shade team could actually retreat.

Why the hell wasn’t it enough?

Then she couldn’t help it. She had to turn around for a final look at the apartment building. Why hadn’t her attack done anything? It didn’t make sense.

But she didn’t get to study the building’s lobby like she’d wanted.

Because now blocking her view was an intensely concentrating Diego storming diligently across the parking lot, hands outstretched as the tendrils of blood magic lashing from his fingers like writhing, living claws now dragged an unconscious but quickly shrinking changeling with him.

Aldous had lost consciousness, obviously, or he would have been struggling and flailing and threatening Diego with imminent death.

Behind him, Leonard threw spell after spell, knocking back the oncoming rush of enemy targets and snarling at the effort, his trench coat billowing around him, his teeth bared in a rictus of urgency and fury.

The apartment building behind them started humming again, another light growing inside the lobby with that strobing intensity of neon-yellow light.

Rebecca gaped at the whole thing.

Had she seriously fucking missed?

When the low hum of the super-powered magical blast reached another fever pitch, she started to think they were completely out of options.

A hoard of disgusting little frogmen surged across the parking lot from all directions now, and if they didn’t reach the Shade team first, this next blast from their insane magic-cannon would wipe the whole thing out.

With Aldous out of the picture, Nyx and Titus in the van, Maxwell who the hell knew where, Diego and Leonard almost running out of steam, and Rebecca’s own destructive magic clearly fucking useless, they’d never make it in time. The van was just too far away.

An ear-splitting screech rose behind her, drawing closer with impossible speed, and Rebecca spun around to see that very same Volkswagen bus barreling across the parking lot toward her like all their lives depended on it.

Because they did.

The next thing she knew, the bus skidded to a sliding halt, rubber tires squealing furiously across the asphalt with a cloud of dust and acrid smokeleaving stains across the pavement. Through the open driver’s-side window, Maxwell shouted behind the wheel, “Get the fuck inside!”

At the same time, the van’s rear door sheared open to reveal a wide-eyed Nyx inside, beckoning everyone closer.

“Go, go, go. Hurry! Come on!” the katari urged.

Rebecca turned her back on the van to help fight off the surges of enemies gaining on the team despite Leonard’s best efforts to hold them at bay.

With a roar of frustration, Diego swung his whole body toward the van, hauling along his extended coils of blood magic—and Aldous, now fully shrunken down to size—right along with him.

“Whoa, whoa, careful!” Nyx shrieked. “He’s—”

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