Page 192 of Elven Crown

She couldn’t have made up a completely false answer to save her life.

She couldn’t even try.

So she went with what had so far served as the next best thing with the shifter. She gave him as much of the truth as she could afford while still holding back all the most dangerous parts. For now.

“Because Blackmoon stepped through Shade’s front door,” she said and defiantly lifted her chin toward him.

“He what?” Maxwell growled.

“Okay, I know. It wasn’t in the traditional way. He broke in. But proverbially speaking, it’s all the same. He found us. He came to us, and he asked for me specifically. When I made him the offer, he agreed to The Striving and everything else that comes with it. And hepassed.”

The shifter gawked at her as if she’d answered him in gibberish before another growl escaped him. “That’s not even a real answer.”

“Well that’s the one you’re getting.”

“No, that’s whatyouwant it to be!” He thrust a finger in her face before she smacked it away. “Blackmoon never said a thing about wanting to join. He didn’t ask for any of this.”

“You know what, Hannigan? Neither did I, but here we are.”

He glared at her and said nothing else.

They were getting nowhere with this, going around and around in the same circle while they each wanted something entirely different but for the same reasons.

Then an instant realization flickered across the shifter’s face. When he took a slow, hesitant step back, Rebecca feared the worst.

That maybe all of Maxwell’s well-founded suspicions had finally led him to the conclusion she’d been trying to keep beyond his reach. That there was something else between her and Rowan Blackmoon, beyond Shade’s commander simply trying to give another elf the opportunity to prove himself.

What the shifter said next didn’t reassure her in any way that he hadn’t figured it all out.

“Now that you mention it,” he said, his voice lowered again beneath a facade of calm and control she didn’t believe, “and since you brought it up, we might as well take another look at it now. Hedidask for you. When my team had him in that holding room, Blackmoon asked specifically for ‘the elf.’ How did he even know Shade had an elf at all?”

“How is this remotely relevant?” Rebecca asked, hoping her expression didn’t give her away as her stomach sank.

“Answer the question, Knox.”

“I don’t know,Max,” she quipped, tilting her head and refusing to back down. “How did Harkennr know Shade had a new commander almost before I did?”

Her deflection aggravated him that much more. “We agreed to work together, you and I. Not against each other. But you’re still acting like it doesn’t go both ways. Refusing to answer my questions only makes it worse.”

Spreading her arms, Rebecca leaned away from him, because if she didn’t, she had a feeling she would only start leaningintohim. Something told her the closer she got to him physically, the harder it would be to not answer his every question with the fulltruth. No matter how strange or inexplicable that might have been, it was the last thing she could let happen.

“You know what?” she replied, “This isn’t anywhere close to the most important issue on our plate right now. So I’m gonna cut through all the bullshit you and I just can’t seem to get past, either and get straight to the point.

“It’s really simple. I need you to stand down and give Blackmoon some air.”

Sneering at her with a barely audible growl rumbling deep in his throat, Maxwell leaned in closer than ever until their noses practically touched and whispered, “Or what?”

By the Blood, with him this up close and personal, she was legitimately afraid her knees might buckle at any second and send her dropping to the floor backstage.

Somehow, Rebecca kept that from happening, though she was positive that tingling rush flooding through her at his closeness—while the scent of dew-laden grass and moonlight beneath all that sandalwood wafted off him—was making her blush like a flower right now, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

“Or you can face the consequences of disobeying a direct order from your Thon-Da’al, Hannigan,” she whispered back. “Because that’s what this is.”

“Careful with how often you abuse that power,” Maxwell muttered even as he stepped back. “Or one day, it might not pack as hard of a punch as you expect it to.”

He could be pissed about her ordering him all he wanted. What mattered was that he’d backed down, even if it came with a healthy dose of shifter attitude.

Rebecca hardened her expression and held his gaze. “Fine.”

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