Page 79 of Elven Shadow

With a curt nod, Rebecca slipped quickly past him, lifting her chin again and turning slightly so she could at least watch his reaction. “I know exactly what my business is, Max. Thanks. Feel free to stay out of it from here on out.”

She got two more steps down the alley, the click of her heels echoing between the walls, before he called after her.

“As long as you don’t give me a reason to think someone needs to stop you. Don’t give me a reason, elf.”

Ooh, so scary… She was shivering in her stilettos.

He’dsmelledsmoke?

Please.

If that were true, Rebecca would’ve had a much bigger audience than just the shifter inserting himself into her business. Maybe hehadsmelled something. Fine.

She might have believed him if the guy hadn’t spent the last twenty-four hours now shooting her dirty looks and following her literally everywhere.

He onlythoughtshe was up to something, but Maxwell Hannigan couldn’t prove a thing. He also couldn’t let himself trust her because of it.

The feeling was mutual.

As long ashedidn’t givehera reason to clean up a mess that included one infuriatingly nosey shifter, they’d be fine.

As long as he hadn’t seen any of her Bloodshadow magic tonight or the way it transformed her.

As long he kept his mouth shut about all of this and didn’t get in her way.

Those were a lot of conditions, but Rebecca couldn’t justaskthe guy what he thought he knew. That would only make him double down on his efforts to figure her out.

If he ever succeeded, they’d both have way bigger problems than a few oversized rats.

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If Maxwell figured her out, if he realized he was messing with a completely different kind of elf he couldn’t take on his own, Rebecca would be forced to flee.

And she was running out of places to hide.

She took the quickest route back through the city toward Shade’s compound, sticking to the shadows and the darkness.

Rebecca didn’t want trouble, and she didn’t want attention.

She had to figure out how to deal with it. How to deal withhim. And she had to do it now, before Maxwell had a chance to make it worse.

Fortunately, no one was waiting for her when she slipped back through the compound’s underground parking garage and made her way back through headquarters toward the residential wing.

Either Maxwell hadn’t told anyone where he was going, which meant he didn’t want anyone to know about his interest in her, or he’d given orders not to ask.

Rebecca wasn’t particularly certain which one of those was better. But now that she was back at the compound, with her pent-up frustration released just enough to hear herself think clearly again, she had better things to worry about.

More important things.

Like why the Azyyt Ra’al thralls had made their way into Chicago. And why they were running around the city, terrorizing humans with magical artifacts.

And exactly what kind of artifact she’d taken from Boyd the Cruorcian—a voodoo-esque hex doll with very clear origins right here on Earth, even after it had been modified as a vessel to compel some seriously strong Xaharí magic.

The old-school kind few Earthborn magicals had ever seen and even fewer could ever hope to control.

The thought made her grit her teeth with a snarl as she barreled through the compound’s ground floor, ignoring the odd looks and wide-eyed stares of other Shade members catching sight of her in the hallway.

Twenty-four hours. That was how long it had taken for everything to unravel.

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