Page 47 of Elven Shadow

“Oh, great. You’d have us go straight for mercenary work…”

“Open your eyes, brother. Aldous alreadymadeus mercenaries. Only we ain’t gettin’ paid shit and he just keeps all the good stuff for himself!”

The arguments and randomly tossed suggestions seemed never-ending.

Rebecca used all her willpower, every trick she’d learned over the centuries, to stay quiet about it. She gritted her teeth and clenched her eyes shut, pressing her knuckles against her lips to keep it all bottled up.

What was wrong with these people?

In under five minutes, Shade’s gathered rebels had touched on literally every possibility and available option except the one perfect solution that would fix their biggest problem forever.

Were they really this ignorant? Or was everybody just too chickenshit to say it out loud?

If the discussion continued like this with no real solution, this entire meeting would end up being nothing but a waste of all their time.

Including Rebecca’s.

And in the scheme of things, Rebecca really didn’t have any time to waste.

The more they stood around at the back of the library bullshitting each other about what really had to be done, the higher they risked everything.

Aldous discovering the brewing rebellion beneath his nose. Enemies closing in on Shade from all sides.

Rebecca’s worst and most powerful enemies lurking through the shadows, inching closer and closer while she stood here trying not to spoon-feed the answer to a bunch of jaded magicals who should’ve known better by now.

Beyond that, she’d only come to the library to start researching supporting evidence to prove the Darkspawn’s existence in Chicago in the first place. What would she have to sacrifice forthatsuicide mission if Aldous didn’t get exactly what was coming to him?

“Maybe some kind of anonymous warning,” a gnome cried out, continuing the explosion of half-cocked ideas thrown around like confetti at a birthday party.

“Screw anonymous! Aldous won’t give a shit if he doesn’t know who it’s coming from.”

“Well, he can’t know it’s coming fromus.”

“Duh.”

“Give him an ultimatum! If he doesn’t start some serious improvements, there’ll be…consequences.”

“Yeah? Like what? You thinkyou’regonna be the consequence?”

“Don’t be an idiot. I’m just saying we need shit to get better—”

“It’s not enough!” Nyx shouted at the top of her lungs. “No matter what we do or what he says, it’llneverjustgetbetter!”

Those standing closest to her shuffled away, elbowing their neighbors to make more room for themselves while violet sparks flared around the katari’s body and her tiny fists trembled at her sides.

Then she froze, her awareness finally catching up to her outburst, and Nyx blinked furiously before lowering her voice and finishing with the best suggestion so far. “We have to go big.”

Finally.

Rebecca could have cheered the katari, but she didn’t want to interrupt Nyx’s momentum.

“Sounds like you’ve been thinking this way for a while,” Diego replied.

When Nyx found the Cruorcian’s face among the crowd, she nodded. “It’s been a long time coming. We all know that. And I don’t think I’ve been more sure of anything in my life. If we let Aldous stay where we is, if we don’t do something massive to change the direction we’re headed, Shade’s fucked. And we all know it.”

The self-conscious silence rising from everyone present added an extra weight of reflection, frustration, and resentment to the already rising tension.

Rebecca puffed out a sigh.

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