Page 34 of Elven Crown

Rowan finally broke free of the crowd, stopping for pats on the back and jostling handshakes as he passed the outer stragglers.

Still heading for his new commander.

Rebecca performed a slow sweep of the common room, as if she were looking for something specific instead of vehemently avoiding any further interaction with Rowan.

“The second anything new comes in,” she told Maxwell, “I want an update. And when you have a free block of time, we need to talk about another potential…problem still waiting for us out there.”

From the corner of her eye, she saw Maxwell turning his head toward her for a better view of her face. She could have sworn she felt him raise an eyebrow, which didn’t make any sense. Imagining the whole thing was far more likely.

“You’re referring to our discovery the night you got the slip on me?” he asked.

The tiniest smile flickered across the corner of Rebecca’s mouth as she avoided both Rowan’s and Maxwell’s gazes now.

Our discovery…

The shifter wanted to take credit for what they’d found within the Old Joliet Prison—all those trafficked magicals held against their will and used to fuel Harkennr’s darkening experiments.

At least he’d admitted Rebecca’s previous success that night in escaping his grasp.

“Yep,” she said. “That’s the one.”

“I have time now.”

She forced a cough to cover up her surprise. If he’d been anyone else saying the same thing in that same alluring tone,she would have assumed he was inviting her to his own private quarters.

Like he couldn’t wait to get her alone somewhere else, andnotto discuss the depressing state of wrongly imprisoned magicals inside the Old Joliet Prison.

A hazy mental image overwhelmed her the next second—Maxwell looming over her by at least a foot, his silver eyes flashing, studying her every expression while his hands roamed across her body at will; the strength of that warm, tingling surge of energy bursting through her unwelcome fantasy and her reality now at the same time…

The strength of that vision—or daydream or whatever the hell she wanted to call it—was enough to make her a little woozy before she took a small sideways step away from Maxwell, just for a little breathing room.

It wasn’t much, but it was enough to bring her back to herself for now.

Then she realized she still hadn’t responded to his offer.

“I think this kinda thing would do better as more of a private conversation.” Without thinking, she lifted her gaze toward him, wanting to gauge his expression, hoping it was something else besides his perpetual scowl and the darkening frown of suspicion he shot her way at every occasion.Anyother expression was preferable.

She caught a flash of his silver eyes in her periphery before an explosion of laughter erupted in the center of the common room—much louder and closer than the rest of the party.

Rebecca and Maxwell both turned their attention that way, where Rowan extricated himself from one more knot of Shade members clustering around him. He grinned and clapped Leonard on the back. Clearly, the good-natured jests and budding camaraderie were already underway.

If only the rest of Shade had known what kind of elf Rowan Blackmoon really was, they wouldn’t have been so easily convinced of how well he was settling in here.

Or of how much they could truly depend on him when the time came.

Then again, Rebecca could have said the same of herself when she’d first arrived on Shade’s doorstep.

But who she’d been that day six months ago wasn’t anything like who she had become since. She cared about this task force and every magical in it. She cared about what happened to them from here on out, and she cared about doing everything in her power to ensure Shade didn’t continue along its previous path and fall into ruin anyway, even with Aldous out of the picture.

Rowan had now crossed three-quarters of the common room toward her, which seemed to have happened all at once, and Rebecca realized how badly she needed to get out of here.

“I’ll be upstairs in the office for the rest of the day,” she told Maxwell, who looked down at her again with another small, confused frown. “Meet me up there when you’re ready, and we’ll talk.”

He looked her briefly up and down and dipped his head. “Thon-Da’al.”

She wished he would stop calling her that when it was just the two of them in private conversation. But theywerein a public setting. Of course her Head of security would keep up appearances, if even only for everyone else’s sake.

Rebecca turned away from him to head for the hallway leading to the residential wing. When Rowan called out to her again, and his voice was much closer this time, practically right behind her.

---