Page 171 of Elven Crown

He’d also been trying, Rebecca realized, to goad his captors into climbing onto the stage to make him shut up, hoping they’d be annoyed by his antics and on edge just enough to make one fatal misstep and blow this whole theater hall to Xahar’áhsh and back.

She was especially grateful that he’d recognized his rescue team before that happened, and she had to give the Cruorcian points for serious guts.

He’d rather pull the enemy into their own trap and blow up with them than continue to suffer whatever tortures they’d been throwing at him.

Judging by the screams her team had heard from halfway across the park and the state of the theater hall—magitek bomb and all—she couldn’t blame him.

“Yeah, that’s it,” Diego continued, sounding a lot more lucid now as his memory and awareness seemed to return in full. “Disarm the casting circles first. And no joke, you guys. It’s some seriously complex magical shit, so just be careful, yeah? If anyone sets this thing off and kills us all, there won’t be a damn thing to stop me from coming back to haunt your ass forever.”

“If anyone could do that,” Jay muttered, “it’d be you.”

“What’sthatsupposed to mean?”

“Never mind.”

This was one more serious problem the team hadn’t anticipated—magical booby traps set all around their veryalluring prize sitting center stage. The magicals they’d come here to rescue.

“Okay,” Rebecca called out. “I’m gonna take a closer look at these wards around the stage. I want everyone else to fan out, sweep the place, find out if we’re actually alone here. We’ll go from there.”

With nods of assent from all around, the team broke off to follow her orders.

Rebecca headed toward the side of the stage and the set of stairs ascending from the end of the far-left aisle. She expected to see the first glimmer of a casting circle begin to illuminate and grow brighter as she approached the base of that short staircase.

She didn’t expect Maxwell to appear there by her side in an instant.

Maybe she should have specified that ‘break and scan the premises’ orders also applied to him.

When the tingling warmth of his presence rushed across her skin and raised goosebumps beneath her jeans and light jacket became far too distracting twenty seconds in, she turned toward him with a sigh. “I need to take a look at this on my own. It won’t do us any good if this thing goes off at the last second and Shade loses both its commander and Head of Security in the same go.”

His frown deepened as he studied the glowing casting circle on the floor, which grew brighter when he leaned slightly forward and faded again when he straightened. “That’s not the most important thing right now.”

What wasthatsupposed to mean?

Was he referring to her personal safety and his self-proclaimed mission to protect her at all costs, or was this about saving those three captured operatives strapped to a magical bomb on the stage?

As if he’d read her thoughts, Maxwell’s silver gaze flickered away from the casting-circle trap to settle on her face, and his frown darkened.

It didn’t matter what he’d meant. Not now. She just had to get him away from these traps.

“Seriously, Hannigan,” she said. “Go with the rest of the team. Secure a perimeter here. If we’re not alone, we need to know about it. If we are, we need to keep it that way.”

“I won’t leave you.”

“Listen, if something goes wrong, you’re the obvious best choice for handling the aftermath. I might be able to reverse this”—she gestured toward the half-shimmering casting circle—“but I’ve got to do it alone.”

They stared each other down until it almost looked like he was about to give in.

Then he opened his mouth. “Can you give me a good reason why doing this alone increases the chances of you successfully diffusing these bombs?”

Dammit, why wouldn’t he just listen to her?

Yes, she had one fantastic reason. Her Bloodshadow magic. But it wasn’t a good reason she could give him.

She sighed and held his gaze. “Besides the other reasons I just gave you? No. I can’t. I just need you to leave.”

Maxwell folded his arms and leaned toward her, tilting his head as he brought his face so incredibly close that the electrifying tingle between them almost became a burning flush across her cheeks. She hoped to hell he couldn’t see it.

“Fat chance, Thon-Da’al,” he murmured. “I’m staying.”

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