Page 163 of Elven Crown

Coming from the opposite end of the thoroughfare and nowhere close to the direction in which the remaining attacker had fled.

The long rows of buildings on either side of them shook again beneath the growling roar splitting through the night. More floorboards cracked. Wooden frames shuddered and splintered. Whatever remained indoors to be broken did so now, surrendering to the violence of such a sound.

Rebecca had never encountered nor heard tell of any kind of beast or creature that could make a noise likethat. Not even the magical monsters of Xahar’áhsh.

More frightening than the sound itself was the unknown of what could have possibly created something that powerful and destructive.

But it got even worse.

Once the trembling roar died down, a scream followed in its wake.

A curdling wail of consuming agony, all too familiar to those who had heard such tortured screams before.

Rebecca certainly had.

It was the sound of some poor soul being broken beyond their limits to withstand much more, if any at all.

That scream lasted no longer than two seconds, piercing the night with horror and excruciating pain and defeat before it cut off abruptly.

While the scream’s final echoes bounced between the rows of buildings around them, it was immediately clear that whatever had ended such a cry was likely just as terrible, if not worse, than the source of the debilitating growl.

Then the eerie silence of the abandoned park rushed back in around them, making it feel once more as if time stood still, waiting for the team’s next decision.

Someone swallowed audibly before Shell cleared her throat. “Does anyone else think that sounded way too much like Burke?”

“Took the words right out of my mouth,” Whit muttered.

Maxwell’s jaw muscles worked furiously as he eyed each operative in turn. “Would it be great to take all these fuckers out as soon as possible? Absolutely. But Knox is right. This is a rescue op, not an offensive assault.

“Our priority is getting our guys out of there before whatever made Burke scream like that does anything worse to any of them. Now we know where they are. That’s where we’re going. Let’s move.”

The shifter had already taken off in that direction before he’d finished his directive, and the rest of the team fell in line behind him, boots crunching softly across broken cobblestones and unkempt weeds and the scattered debris from their firefight on Main Street.

Rebecca had no problem with him taking the lead. It let her center her focus on searching the darkness for signs of another attack.

They emerged from the far side of the stylized thoroughfare to pass through another open, overgrown area consumed by weeds and thick patches of ivy and wild grasses—not quite another parking lot and not quite another field. Every few yards, they passed the forgotten remains of a small kiddie ride been pulled aside for maintenance and repairs it never received.

Following Maxwell also meant Rebecca had more awareness to allocate toward keeping an eye on Rowan, who meandered aimlessly behind the team’s tight formation like this was a casual nature trek instead.

If he wanted to fall behind and stay out of the team’s way, that was on him.

Until the team passed another outbuilding that had once been a storage shed and a heavy metallic clang rose from that direction. The single remaining door squealed on its hinges before sagging sideways in the crooked door frame with a crunch of splintering wood.

Another humanoid shadow darted out of the shed and around the side of the small outbuilding, footsteps pounding noisily across the wild grasses and kicking another pile of abandoned metal parts.

Rebecca felt Rowan’s reaction, and when she spun around to face him, she found exactly what she’d expected.

“Múrg dah’lás,” Rowan snarled as he spun toward the fleeing enemy, slapped the side of his augmented rifle to up the setting to its fullest deadly power, and took aim.

The growing whine of his firearm flaring to full firing capacity split through the air, joined by the stuttering flash of yellow light from the augmented munitions. The next second, he opened fire.

The sizzle and crack of magitek munitions firing across the open space echoed all around them. Half a dozen bolts of deadly yellow magical energy seared through the darkness, providing just enough light to catch the tail end of the fleeing enemy mid-sprint, his shadow shrinking across the ground toward him before Rowan’s shots whizzed right over his head and disappeared.

Rebecca moved to leap after Rowan and stop him, but once again, she was beaten to it.

A dark blur streaked past her at impossible speed. Then Maxwell appeared beside the Blackmoon Elf with a flash of silver light and a warning snarl.

“Blackmoon, you fucking idiot,” he hissed. His hand came down on the barrel of Rowan’s rifle and smacked it away to capture the elf’s attention and keep him from shooting again.

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