Page 189 of Elven Shadow

They both turned toward the rear of the garage before Rick appeared from within the chaos of scurrying bodies.

Maxwell took off toward the blackhorn Rebecca could only assume he’d left in charge of the security team in his absence.

She raced off after him, not liking the wide-eyed look of concern on the face of a well-trained operative like Rick.

“Update,” Maxwell snapped when they converged at the back of the garage. “Now.”

Rick’s eyes widened when he saw Rebecca right behind Shade’s Head of Security, then he nodded at her and muttered, “Roth-Da’al.”

She returned the nod. “Please tell meyouknow what’s going on right now.”

Maxwell shot her a dirty look at that, but Rick didn’t seem to notice.

“Rising activity in the streets,” the blackhorn reported, sounding a little breathless. “Might need an immediate response, so everyone’s been…preparing.”

“What kind of rising activity?” Maxwell asked.

“That’s…” Rick scanned the bustling garage around the, with an urgent weariness, then nodded toward the very back of the garage and the armory’s open gates. “It’s a little complicated. Probably best to brief you…somewhere else. Follow me.”

That didn’t sound good.

Rebecca and Maxwell stayed on Rick’s heels as they crossed the garage, weaving in and out of more groups of magicals arming themselves, shouting instructions, occasionally nodding or even saluting the pair of them along the way.

“The whole force is mobilizing,” Maxwell grumbled. “But I’m wondering why no one can actually report directly.”

“Well, that’s more of a coincidence, sir,” Rick said over his shoulder. “Honestly, I think it’s better that everybody has something else to focus on. It’ll keep them busy until we have a better handle on what to do next. More precise orders.”

He nodded ahead of them again, as if this something else existed separately from the growing excitement and urgency filling the compound.

“As in there’s a different problem that’s got nothing to do with this…movementon the streets?”Rebecca asked.

Rick paused at the entrance to the armory gates and turned around to look her in the eye. But then he dropped his gaze to the floor before he replied. “That’s something best left up to you to decide, Roth-Da’al. But now that you’re here, I recommend you see it for yourself first.”

Instead of stepping into the open armory, Rick veered sharply to the right toward the reinforced steel door marking the entrance to another part of the facility with a convenient location beside the armory.

Convenient for any operatives stationed down here on guard duty, but Rick clearly wasn’t taking them to the armory.

This door led to Shade’s in-house holding area—their version of a stockade.

The blackhorn led them through the heavy door, which clanged shut behind them with a metallic echo before Rebecca just couldn’t keep it to herself anymore.

“Okay, let’s just get it all out there, Rick.” She stopped in the narrow, dimly lit hallway and spread her arms. “I’m gonna need more information than just ‘follow me’ before I actually follow you. What are we looking at, here?”

She felt Maxwell’s gaze on her again and might have thought he was surprised by her handling of the situation—maybe even impressed by it. She didn’t want to look at him to confirm whether thefeelingof his looks matched what they actually meant.

With a sigh, Rick peered around her to reassure himself they were alone in the hallway, then cleared his throat. “There’s been a breach.”

“Again?” Rebecca asked. “What happened?”

“What happened to the security alarms?” Maxwell added. “The wards? Our active defenses?”

Rick shook his head. “They, uh…they were somehow circumnavigated.”

“Then how do we even know it’s a breach?” Rebecca asked.

“We know, Roth-Da’al.”

That response definitely didn’t leave room for asking more questions about the security team’s individualized protocol for something like this, so she went with a different tactic. “Fine. How many of them are there?”

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