Page 82 of Elven Shadow

She didn’t want to lead Shade in anything. She didn’t want to be the one calling the shots or teaching anyone how to effectively overthrow current leadership.

Even if it meant getting what they wanted and preventing all other operatives from risking their lives during pointless, reckless, tactical ops Aldous had a habit of turning into suicide missions.

The best decision was to stay neutral, stay out of it, and stay alive.

Whoever ended up coming out on top once Leonard and Diego put their mystery plan into action, Rebecca would deal with them then. Most likely, she wouldn’t have todealwith anything. She could go along with the majority, remain a part of the task force, and retain her anonymity.

All it took was for her to do nothing.

Easier said than done.

No, Rebecca would just have to go the extra mile to avoid all of it.

Which meant, at this moment, she was willinglychoosingto lock herself up in her room and do absolutely nothing for the next several hours, because anything more than that was potentially devastating to all her efforts and even to the rest of Shade itself.

Puffing out another sigh through loose lips, she stared blankly up at the ceiling and could hardly believe the situation in which she now found herself.

She was actually doing this. Right here.

Rebecca Knox, the missing Bloodshadow Heir, was choosing to lie on an overstuffed mattress-topper on a tiny bed in her private room at Shadeheadquarters, doing absolutely nothing because every other option would only make things worse for her.

Because the way things stood right now, if Rebecca went down as a result of her own stupid mistakes and letting herself get far too deeply involved—even when she knew she shouldn’t—the rest of this task force was coming down with her.

And if it came to that, none of them could do a damn thing to stop it.

But as she settled onto her bed, the silence around her seemed too heavy, too expectant—like a predator waiting for its prey to slip up.

Was she making a huge mistake?

Rebecca could only hold off until the regular dinner hour.

While separating herself from whatever Shade’s rebels were planning was her top priority today, it seemed silly to do so at the expense of her own physical well-being.

And if she took the time to dive a little deeper past her painfully growling stomach, she might have admitted her curiosity had peaked to the same level as her hunger.

Would Leonard and Diego try to pull her into this rebellion all over again the second they saw her? Would they drag her into the plan against her will?

Had they ignored her last night with the intention of starving her of knowledge just to draw her out at the last second when they needed her most?

That was her old life talking.

Rebecca didn’t think Leonard or Diego or the majority of Shade’s task force were capable of thinking like that. This was Earth, where the political subtleties and manipulations of both adversary and ally had no place in the daily machinations of this world’s citizens. The magical ones, at any rate.

No one in Shade would try to play her the way the Bloodshadow Court had for so long.

No one knew Rebecca Bloodshadow.

The only elf they knew was Rebecca Knox, and she was the kind of person who did what had to be done in sticky situations but who generally stayed out of the thick of things otherwise.

At least, that was who she’d been until recently.

Whatever Shade’s little party of rebels was planning that had nothing to do with her, she certainly couldn’t let it keep her from eating at the very least.

What would they do to her otherwise?ForceRebecca to join the coup?

With a snort, she got dressed, slipped into her canvas jacket, and left her room to head through the compound for dinner chow.

Just to eat, she told herself. She couldn’t afford getting any more involved. Hopefully, she’d made that perfectly clear by disappearing last night and not having made an appearance anywhere today.

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