Page 90 of Elven Shadow

Rebecca could have used those seconds to try sneaking past the thing, sure, but something told her the creature wouldn’t have hesitated to reach out and snatch her right off the hallway floor. The perks of not being fully alive, with a complete lack of pain receptors, fear, or any sense of self-preservation.

This wasn’t a normal enemy target.

It wasn’t normal, period.

Now fully restored, the homunculus took another slow, lumbering step toward her as if she’d never attacked it in the first place.

"Shit,” she muttered. “That doesn’t make for a very fair fight, does it?”

It was just a force of habit, talking to her opponents. Rebecca didn't know whether this faceless creature agreed or even had any opinions of its own.

But shedidknow there was no chance of reasoning with it. Nor could she take it down by any normal means.

That was going to be a problem.

More explosions ripped through the compound. The busted pipe above just kept spraying cold water down through the gaping hole in the ceiling, coating every surface with a slick sheen reflecting the consistent flash of the red security lights at either end of the hallway.

The homunculus trudged forward and had almost reached the bottom of the debris pile when it lifted both pitch-black hands toward her. As if the thing intended to catch her by the throat and strangle the life out of her right then and there.

Most likely, that wasn’t too far off from the homunculus’s intended purpose in the first place.

Gritting her teeth, Rebecca had to quickly weigh her options. Again.

She could turn back and waste even more precious time, leaving those in the infirmary to their own devices and risking Shade’s suspicion when they realized she was the only one of themnotto show up in the garage during an assault on the compound.

Or she could stay here and fight this thing the only way she knew for certain would stop it long enough for her to get past. Maybe even rip it apart completely and put it down for good—if she was lucky.

But not once in the last fifty years had Rebecca used her Bloodshadow magic indoors, in a building full of other magicals, where the chances of someone stumbling upon this fight while Shade scattered through the compound to defend against such an attack and someone saw her were infinitely higher.

Even if a witness didn’t immediately recognize her for who and what she was, watching a Bloodshadow Elf be a Bloodshadow Elf wasn’t one of those things most magicals could witness and just walk away from after the fact. It wasn’t something easily forgotten, either.

Behind the oncoming homunculus and the mound of debris was the door to the infirmary.

No way to tell if anyone remained inside, but if they did, there was nothing to stop them from opening the door, noticing a close-quarters battle raging just beyond it, and catching a front-row view of Rebecca fighting off the lifeless creature with a kind of magic no one knew she had.

She glanced over her shoulder to see nothing but an empty hallway and the obnoxiously flashing red security light.

Orshe could just not do either of those things, turn around in this hallway, and bolt out of the compound, out of Shade, and probably out of Chicago for good. Then she’d have to keep running when Aldous eventually discovered what she’d done.

Because in this hypothetical scenario, Shade’s one and only elf would be the only member of this task force to run away. In their minds, that wouldmake her uniquely responsible for the final outcome of this assault on their headquarters.

Then Rebecca would be a dead elf walking either way, no matter where she went.

All fantastic choices.

Not.

Another explosion racked the compound, this one sounding much closer and on the ground floor this time. Maybe even coming from the end of this very hallway.

The homunculus skidded toward her down what remained of the debris pile, and Rebecca summoned a dark, swirling cloud of mercurial silver in her hand, its darkest whorls mirroring the pitch black of the homunculus’ hands all the way up to its elbows.

She gritted her teeth and steeled herself for the worst of it still yet to come. But it had to be done. “Fuck it. Let’s go.”

Who cared if anyone saw her now, right? Using Bloodshadow magic here, against her own rules, was better in the moment than dying right here in a pile of sopping-debris sludge from the caved-in ceiling.

Right?

But she’d already made her decision, so it really didn’t matter.

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