Page 186 of Elven Crown

“What happened?” Maxwell growled.

Rebecca took a deep breath, let it out in another sigh, and gestured toward the corpse on the balcony with her none of them could see. “Necromancer…”

“Seriously?” Whit asked.

She nodded. “I noticed him when that damn bomb started going nuts again.”

“And you went after a necromancer on your own?” Maxwell asked. “Without telling anyone?”

“Just seemed easier at the time,” she replied with a shrug.

“No shit.” Jay chuckled and shook his head. “Easier.”

“Tell me you’ve never been on a mission with Knox without saying you’ve never been on a mission with Knox.” Titus’s booming voice, though weakened after he’d spent so much time unconscious, still filled the entire auditorium with its thunderous, gravelly rumble.

A shocked silence followed as everyone gaped at him next. Then Diego threw his head back and roared with laughter, his chest and shoulders heaving as they strained against the ropes and iron chains still binding him to the harmless mechanical monstrosity at his back.

The tension amongst the team shattered, giving way to breathless chuckles and crooked, weary smiles—the product of everyone realizing simultaneously how close they’d been to mission failure tonight and, now that it was all over, how miraculous it was that they were all still alive.

The only person not visibly relieved or remotely amused was Rowan. He glared up at Rebecca instead, his arms folded, and shook his head. “About fucking time, don’t you think?”

Diego’s laughter cut off. “Whoa. What crawled upyourbutt?”

“Yeah, how about a little gratitude, elf?” Shell added as she gestured up toward the balcony. “Knox just saved all our lives up there. If that doesn’t earn a little gratitude, I don’t know what does.”

“Or at least a little more respect,” Whit said with a grunt.

Rowan eyed them both, and his smirk returned. “You know what? You’re right.”

Then he looked up at Rebecca again with visibly forced humility. “Wow. Thank you so much for running right into even more alleged danger and taking care of something no one else even noticed.”

Rebecca didn’t encourage his attitude with a response beyond glowering back and down at him.

Was he really still pissed at her for not blowing her cover and unleashing her darkest abilities out in the open for everyone to see, just to avoid the entire battle they’d already won?

She never expected a thank you, but the least he could have done was to not be an ass about it.

“Boy,” Titus said, his booming chuckle still startlingly loud and deep despite how tired he sounded. “Can’t say I’m upset I missed all the action, but I sure as hell am glad to see you guys here now.”

“Speaking of action,” Diego said, “how much longer are you guys gonna wait before getting us the hell out of here?”

So the rest of the team approached the stage to get their captured operatives out of their bonds and off the dead magitek bomb.

When a preliminarily cautious approach to the stage revealed no residual magic where the booby-trap wards and casting circles had once been, the team moved that much faster, their task unburdened by relief now that accidentally blowing themselves to bits was no longer a risk.

Rebecca picked that moment to take her leave of the balcony. The rest of her energy and strength returned as she slipped back through the door into the stairwell.

When she entered the auditorium again, casually stepping over enemy corpses before heading down the sloped floor, Diego, Titus, Burke had been released from their bonds, though Burke lay where the others had set him on the edge of the stage, breathing but still unconscious.

Then she noticed the conversation had inevitably turned towardhowthey’d gotten out of such a close call, which Rebecca had hoped they could all skip.

She’d known better.

“That’s insane, man. I don’t even know how it happened.”

“Maybe the thing just shot itself. You know, like a blown circuit or something. Too much energy plugged into it, andpop.”

“Yeah, I think that’s called a bomb exploding,.Thisone just went dead, and no one even touched it.”

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