Page 3 of Elven Shadow

Even when the shit hit the fan like she knew it was going to tonight.

She could practically taste it in the air at this point.

And here they were, this five-person team plus Maxwell and Aldous, rolling up to their target site and hoping to hell their leader had finally figured out how to stick to a plan.

Any plan at all, beginning to end. Even a terrible plan, followed through and executed as intended, would’ve been a major improvement.

But Shade already knew Aldous wouldn’t stick to it. He never did.

How they’d managed to do this for the last six months alone without dropping dead, Rebecca couldn’t fathom.

How Shade as a relatively successful underground organization had survived Aldous’s stupidity evenbeforeshe’d joined them last winter was beyond comprehension.

Almost as if the katari beside her had read her mind, Nyx murmured, “There’s always a chance he could actually pull through with this one, right?”

Rebecca studied the front of the apartment building, where Aldous and Maxwell now slowed to a stop before the entrance. “You’re sounding abnormally confident about that right now.”

Nyx shrugged, her short violet hair fluttering in the next warm, muggy breeze. “I mean, last time wasn’t nearly as bad. Maybe his ideas are getting better?”

Rebecca couldn’t help but raise a dubious eyebrow at the katari—which brought a quickly darkening blush of violet to the human illusion across Nyx’s cheeks—before returning her deadpan stare to the front of the building.

“Better? Last time, his bullshit put Hank out of commission for at least two weeks, broke both Burke’s legs, and River’s still keeping us all up at night with her screams because she can’t stop relivingthatnightmare. What part of that looks like he’s getting better, exactly?”

Frowning, Nyx swiped at the bottom hem of her dark-green velvet hoodie above matching joggers and cleared her throat.

Rebecca almost commented on the katari’s inability to explain or even support with a sliver of evidence her half-assed belief in this guy.

But then Nyx surprised them both when she finally found a response.

“You don’t just become the big boss by random accident.Someonewanted him there for a reason.”

Rebecca snorted. “When you figure out what that is, I wouldloveto hear it.”

A crackle of static energy fizzled around Nyx’s form. She did an admirable job of making it look like it was all just part of her own personal prep for moving in on their target.

Rebecca had a hunch it was Nyx’s way of bristling in discomfort, the way a Boldrak snorted flames or a wolf’s thick hackles rose along its spine.

That thought made her return her full attention to the front of the building and the shifter standing a foot behind Aldous and slightly to the right.

Even if Maxwell didn’t have a military background before all this, like Rebecca and the rest of Shade assumed he did, their Head of Security was still a shifter. It was literally in his blood and the magic coursing through him to submit to the given hierarchy. To remain loyal at all costs. To put his life on the line for his pack.

Except Shade was the farthest thing from an actual shifter pack as a single group could get, and Maxwell’s loyalty had been handed over to a green-skinned fraud who couldn’t tell efficient tactical strategy from his own asshole.

Still, Maxwell stood at Aldous’s side, their leader’s literal right-hand man.

Though Rebecca didn’t see either of them move, she imagined the shifter stood there muttering updates in their leader’s ear, telling him everyone was in position.

Something Aldous could never have discerned on his own.

At least, shehopedtheir Head of Security had given Aldous the go-ahead instead of the changeling deciding to act now just because he felt like it.

“Knock,knock…” Aldous’s booming voice echoed far more loudly across the parking lot than any natural voice could. He’d changed the makeup of his vocal cords and added a nice round bullhorn shape around his mouth for extra effect.

Not a new trick. They’d all seen it before.

“Here we go…” Nyx whispered, bouncing on the toes of her neon-pink sneakers and shaking out both hands at her sides. Her glowing violet eyes flickered back and forth as she systematically scanned every visible inch of the apartment building’s north-facing wall.

Rebecca sighed heavily through her nose, watching and waiting.

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