Page 53 of Elven Crown

And historically, Shade’s Commander usually did.

Rowan Blackmoon would never seize the opportunity to get Rebecca Bloodshadow alone for anything.

Even as her heels clicked across that tile floor, Rowan’s dark, dangerous laughter echoed behind her, drowning out the sound of her own steady footsteps.

She clenched her fists to hold herself together. At this point, she wasn’t sure which annoyed her more–that push-pull tingle and dark, luring pull beckoning her closer to Maxwell despitehis constant suspicions of her, or Rowan Blackmoon’s fucking laugh.

If she had to deal with both of them, fine. But if they pushed her to her last nerve, she already knew she was going to lose it.

When that happened, she might just end up murdering both of them herself.

17

“Our priority objective is to intercept this shipment of weapons before it leaves the Port of Chicago tonight. We’ve confirmed a scheduled departure on an unregistered freighter at one hundred hours. Most likely, that’s how they’ll try to get the shipment off their hands.”

While Maxwell briefed their assembled team for their upcoming mission, Rebecca scanned the faces of every Shade operative standing with them inside the main armory at the rear of the compound’s underground parking garage.

This was the only team on the task force with any experience against Eduardo and his griybreki, which made them perfectly suited for this follow-up op. Though tonight, they would already go in with a much higher likelihood of success.

Simply because Aldous wouldn’t be with them. On this mission or any other.

Despite their striking failure against Eduardo’s forces the last time, no one in this briefing looked remotely hesitant to engage in this mission or concerned about a repeat failure.

In fact, Rebecca realized, they all seemed surprisingly excited by the prospect of getting out and doing something, finally putting their experience and knowledge to use for an opportunity to succeed where they’d previously failed.

She liked to think this team was just as ready to do things the right way as Rebecca was herself—the way Shade had been founded to operate from the start, Aldous’s reign of errors notwithstanding.

The energy that used to fill mission briefings with Aldous at the helm was vastly different from what Rebecca saw in the rest of her small team now. A swell of pride buoyed her at the thought.

Not pride in herself but in these other magicals standing here, ready and willing to do what was necessary to ensure scumbags like Eduardo didn’t get such dangerous weapons into the hands of all the wrong kinds of people.

To ensure the innocents in Chicago and beyond, magical and human, would never know how close they might have come to being caught in the crosshairs of greedy criminal assholes trying to make something of themselves in this world.

A world like Earth, which hadn’t been created for magic at all but which had, over centuries of connection and travel between this human world and the birthplace of magic no human would ever get to see, still withstood the constant flux within its growing magical communities.

Shewasproud of them. For the first time in a long time, she was proud to be a part of this task force.

Maybe shecoulddo some real good here, in this world, with these magicals on her side and her on theirs.

It was a new sensation, something she hadn’t come remotely close to experiencing in Xahar’áhsh, trapped within her old life there and the Bloodshadow Court’s domain. Their plans for her, their insistence that her destiny was one thing and one thing only, over which she had no say whatsoever and never would.

Rebecca was a pawn in that world, but in this one?

In this one, she could do so much more. Maybe, after enough time and dedication, she might end up doing just that.

“That’s why we’re moving in now,” Maxwell finished. “We hit the docks before they do and intercept the shipment, plus whatever else Eduardo’s trying to get out on the water. Any questions?”

Rebecca blinked, and she was back in the here and now, part of the present moment, ready to field whatever questions came her way.

At first, the team was silent. Then Leonard cleared his throat and hesitantly raised his hand.

Rebecca snorted. “This isn’t a classroom, Leonard. Just ask.”

“Right.” Trying to hold back a smile, the mage nodded and folded his arms, his leather trench coat creaking as it creased at the elbows. “So that’s our plan, yeah? Just roll in, intercept the shipment, roll out.”

“Wouldn’t it be great if anything was ever that cut and dry?” she replied with a smirk.

The rest of the team sniggered before Rebecca added, “We’re always looking for minimal casualties. You know that. But yeah, as far as this mission is concerned, that’s the plan.”

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