Page 50 of Elven Shadow

“Could’ve fooled me,” a deep voice boomed.

Then the library fell into chaotic shouting again, this time as the pressure of their shared responsibility made Shade’s gathered rebels turn on each other now.

Fuck.

Rebecca glared at Maxwell’s bitter mask of stony expressionlessness and forced herself to breathe deeply.

He’d just called her out, and now she’d been shoved right into the center of this thing that had nothing more to do with her than what any of Shade’s members got themselves into in their own free time.

What happened to keeping her mouth shut? To staying anonymous? To not making waves?

What happened to avoiding specificity at all costs?

What happened toprotectingherself by staying the fuck away from getting involved?

Maxwell Hannigan had happened.

Shade’s Head of Security had been riding her so hard the last few days, anything he said now made her instantly want to bite back and leave a permanently painful mark.

She’d let her guard down, let herself take his scrutiny personally, and now look what she’d done.

“Hey, hey,hey!” Diego bellowed with a brisk clap of his hands. When that didn’t settle the others back into some semblance of order, the Cruorcian shot Rebecca a scathing glare. Then he rolled his eyes, rolled up the cuffs of his sleeves, and thrust a hand in the air.

A crimson flare exploded from his upstretched fingers, sending a ballooning umbrella of blood-red sparks up toward the ceiling before fanning out around the gathering with startlingly loud cracks and a rippling fizzle that made the insides of Rebecca’s ears itch.

A dangerously thin fae woman clapped her hands over her ears and toppled sideways against the closest bookshelf. Several volumes toppled out of place with a cacophony of thumps and fluttering pages.

Those closest tried to help her back to her feet, and the interruption to the multiple arguments simultaneously taking place gave Diego the opening he needed.

“Don’t make me turn up the pressure!” the Cruorcian boomed over the residual noise.

All mouths fell silent. Balled fists and raised palms lowered slowly before they could be turned on fellow Shade members. Some magicals blushed, their faces taking on darkening shades in various colors, depending on their race’s natural hues.

Silence slithered back in to fill the empty spaces.

Diego clenched his raised hand into a fist to snuff out the lingering effects of his latest spell, pulling the meeting back under control. Then he shot Rebecca another warning look before gesturing toward Leonard. “You were saying?”

“I wasn’t saying shit,” the mage replied with a low chuckle, his focus pinned on Rebecca as well. “Knox made a suggestion. I wanna hear about permanent solutions. So let’s hear it.”

She glared back at him, then tried to dismiss the whole thing with a flippant wave of her hand before folding her arms again. “I’m not the one calling the shots, here.”

“Sure, but if youwere,” Leonard prompted, “how would you call ‘em?”

“That’s not what’s happening,” she snapped back. “This is about what everyone else wants. The greater good, right? I’m not involved.”

“Everyone standing in this room is involved,” Maxwell growled.

“Oh, right.” Rebecca thrust a finger toward the shifter. “Says the guy who disappears in the middle of a firefight.”

A low snarl burst from his lips as his eyes flashed a brighter silver than ever. He looked like he was on the verge of leaving his lofty little perch at the edgeof the meeting, surrounded by his bored-as-shit security team, to bring a new fight right to her.

She would have gladly met him head-on.

“Actually, yeah,” Diego interjected, stepping up between them and wagging a finger at Maxwell. “You know what? I’m still waiting to hear what the hellthatwas about.”

Maxwell sneered back at him and shook his head. “Don’t start with me.”

“Hey, hold up.” Leonard put a hand on Diego’s shoulder to stop him. “We were talking aboutpermanent solutions—”

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