Page 185 of Elven Crown

How odd that she would feel so opposed to the use of an outdated phrase like that, especially now. Because wasn’t she dying?

And Rowan still had no idea what he was talking about.

The stinging tears welling in her eyes—from the dizziness swimming through her head, and the pain in her lungs—squeezed out beneath her lashes when she clenched her eyes shut tight and waited for the end.

Drawing slow, labored, wheezing breaths she was sure would be her last.

How long did this dying process have to take?

Apparently, it included another round of raspy coughing to join the sounds of weary, labored movement on the ground floorbefore the single question from below almost made Rebecca wish she’d already given up the damn ghost.

Then she wouldn’t have to deal with what came next.

“Where’s Knox?” Maxwell asked.

Of course he would notice her absence before anyone else. Before even Rowan.

And she was up here, lying uselessly on the balcony, fighting alone to hang on just a little longer until her final breath.

“Oh shit,. I don’t see her.”

“Knox? Has anyone seen Knox?”

“She was just right here, I swear.”

“Knox!”

As her team’s voices echoed around the auditorium, Rebecca pushed herself off the balcony floor to sit upright, still barely breathing and somehow more capable now of processing what she’d heard despite knowing the end was near.

Hearing them shout her name as they searched for her made it impossible to just keep lying there without at least trying to communicate.

Great. If she was still capable of moving on her own and standing and responding, that meant she’d have to get up and show them all the unequivocal proof that the battle had rendered her terminally damaged. Again.

She dragged herself several inches toward the balcony’s railing and reached up to grab it for support. As soon as she did, she drew her next breath with far more ease and less rattling than those immediately before it.

Her head still swam, but her energy now flooded back into her in record time, as if it had never left.

With that energy and breath and the steadily increasing calm running through her came an overwhelming relief.

She wasn’t dying, after all. The poison didn’t still exist. She’d overloaded her system without sufficiently preparing for it first,but her system was fully capable of correcting itself. She’d just needed a little time.

By the Blood, that was all this was! Shehadn’truined everything…

“Knox? Can you hear me? Knox!”

“Shit. You don’t think she—”

“No!” Maxwell snapped. “Find her. Now!”

“Wait,” Rebecca croaked, sounding plenty weakened even as she found the strength to haul herself to her feet by the balcony railing. “I’m here. I’m here! All good. Everything’s…cool.”

Puffing out a sigh, she leaned forward against the balcony and offered a perfunctory wave. Then she swiped loose strands of hair away from her cheeks and neck, the cold sweat of what she’d thought was impending death drying quickly now.

Every magical in the auditorium turned toward her and craned their necks to gawk at their Thon-Da’al appearing up in the wings.

“How the hell did you get upthere?” Diego asked, his head twisted toward her from where he still sat strapped to the deactivated bomb.

“The stairs,” she said.

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