Page 66 of Elven Shadow

Then she gestured toward the human woman still hanging three feet in the air, who now clawed at the non-existent grip tightening around her throat. “Thisis the kinda thing that should be consistently more important. Across the board.”

“What do you know about it, huh?” The sniveling, deathly skinny troll wearing a newsboy cap in garish plaid of burnt-orange and puce over a legit three-piece suit jerked his head up at her.

From where she stood, Rebecca could have sworn that suit was corduroy. “Not a whole lot, honestly. Maybe you didn’t hear me when I said this was new, but hey. I wouldloveto hear what the hell’s going on.”

“None of your fucking business, elf,” Boyd snapped, to which his goons responded with a volley of slightly louder laughter than before.

Like they were trying to convince themselvesshedidn’t want to mess withthem.

“Right. I see where you’re going here with this one.” Rebecca nodded slowly. “You’re trying something out for fun. Different type of mugging scenario. Hell, maybe you just wanna play with a human for a bit before you dump her body in a ditch somewhere. I get it.

“They really don’t ever find the bodies. Because no one goes looking for magical suspects responsible for magically perpetrated crimes.”

Boyd’s incredibly thick eyebrows bunched even closer together to make him look like someone had slapped an enormous furry caterpillar across the bottom of his forehead. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Now normally,” she continued, “I wouldn’t give a shit about whatever you guys do in your spare time for fun. Seriously. The only reason I’m out here is to literally go looking for trouble, and you guys are making that super fucking easy. To be fair, I can’t let this one go just yet. I gotta know what this is first.”

She pointed at the misty cloud of illuminated magic shaped like a see-through clown, which hadn’t stopped swiping at the terrified woman, cackling soundlessly and shoving its illusionary face right up into hers before starting all over again.

The head idiot of this five-guy team hissed, then glanced at his yes-men—either for backup or some kind of explanation—but they all returned his gaze with blank cluelessness before he spun back toward Rebecca. “I told you it was none of your business. What part of that don’t you fucking understand?”

“Oh no, I understand just fine.” She brushed off his comment with a wave of her hand. “I know what you said. What Idon’tknow is what that clown-thing’s doing over there. So you can either explain to me what that thingis,because I aminsanelycurious.”

After holding his gaze a moment longer, Rebecca shrugged and glanced across the parking lot. “Or I can just, you know, drop all five of you right here and then figure it out for myself. Up to you guys, really. I’m game either way.”

Boyd blinked rapidly, then shook his head and snorted like a dog shaking cold water off its coat. “Yeah, okay. Fuck off.”

Turning back toward his goons, the guy nodded in Rebecca’s direction. “Get rid of her.”

Then he pulled his other hand from the pocket of his baggy jeans, his fist clenched tightly around something Rebecca couldn’t quite make out.

Bingo.

When none of his buddies moved, Boyd the Cruorcian snarled at them. “What did I say? Go!”

Without explicitly being singled out, two of his witless thugs, a giant and a blackhorn, stepped toward Rebecca, sneering and snarling and chuckling in a way that was probably supposed to intimidate her.

The guy on the right even pounded a fist into his own hand, like he really thought that would work.

Someone had been watching way too many old gangster movies.

“Come on, fellas.” Rebecca cocked her head and took a step forward. “How hard is it just to tell a girl what kinda special toys you’re using, huh? It’s a simple question.”

“You couldn’t handle this one, sweetheart,” Gresh growled. His low chuckle ended in a particularly unflattering snort.

“Well shit.” Rolling her eyes, Rebecca headed toward them, her heels clicking across the asphalt. “I didn’t wanna have to go about it this way, but everyone’s being so fucking stubborn and playing hard to get tonight,and I just—”

Gresh conjured a spell in one hand and tossed it at her before she’d even finished.

The sizzling crackle of magic hissed through the air, joined by a brilliant flare of brilliant orange light and an admittedly impressive heat level.

But Rebecca was faster.

She jerked her head to the side and took one pivoting step away from these back-alley mutts, and the spell sailed past her face with less than an inch of room to spare before it exploded against the corner of the alley wall behind her.

The magical blast erupted against the brick, cracking off huge chunks and sending them scattering across the empty parking lot.

Rebecca slowly turned back toward this group of geniuses and clicked her tongue. “You really haven’t gone up against a lot of people with actual reflexes, have you?”

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