Page 56 of Elven Crown

“Are we ready to move out?” she asked.

His mouth popped open. He shot Rowan another warning look, then cleared his throat. “We’re ready. Just say the word—”

“Well then, here’s the word. Let’s get out of here.” Rebecca moved past him, just wanting to get into their vehicle as soon as possible so they could all focus on the mission instead of all this useless extra…whatever was going on here.

She didn’t get very far before Rowan’s bitterness made a glorious comeback behind her.

“That’sright. You go do your oh-so-important work, Thon-Da’al. Being leader of a task force like Shade, huh? I get it. You’re busy. Way too busy for me. But don’t worry. You go take care of whatever silly little threat you need to take care of to save the world, or whatever this is. I’ll be here when you get back.”

Rebecca’s hold on her self-control burst open like a leaky pipe. She couldn’t contain herself any longer.

She whirled around to face him. “The fuck you will.”

Maxwell stepped toward Rowan, already lifting a hand in preparation to physically waylay the elf—or carry him away in restraints if necessary.

When Rebecca lifted a hand to stop him, her Head of Security looked more confused than ever. He froze, waiting for her next order, and didn’t seem to know what to do with his hands.

Rowan scoffed. “What happened? Finally had enough of me?”

“Hardly,” she said. “You’re coming with us.”

Seeing Rowan’s jaw drop as all the little turning gears in his devious mind ground to a halt, rendering him genuinely speechless, was more satisfying than she could have possibly imagined.

Then he puffed out a wheezing breath all at once and croaked, “I’mwhat?”

Maxwell turned toward her with almost the same expression. “He is?”

Well that was easy. She’d found the way to stun them both into shutting up. Excellent.

Rebecca pointed at Rowan as she addressed the shifter, fighting back her own grin at this sudden shift between all three of them. “He wasn’t wrong. He passed The Striving, and he swore his oath, just like the rest of us. We’ve been going over all that ad nauseam, so if he wants in so badly, we might as well give him a chance to be useful. If he can’t do that? I don’t know. Bor’s been complaining about needing an assistant.”

Rowan dropped his hands to his sides and groaned.

With a snort, Maxwell gestured toward the elf man and shook his head. “See? He doesn’t even appreciate the offer you’ve made him. This is—”

“No, let me make this clear,” she interrupted, giving each of them a good full two seconds of squirming discomfort under her scathing glare. “This isn’t an offer. This is a direct order. Blackmoon’s joining us on this mission, and we all just have to suck it up and deal. Now move.”

Neither of them leapt into action the way she’d hoped. Instead, they stood there gaping at her like two mind-swept idiots, whichonly grated on her nerves that much more until Rowan finally broke through with a bitter laugh he aimed at the shifter this time.

“So is this one of those ‘get in line by order of rank hierarchy’, or…”

Maxwell snarled and rolled his silver eyes before he took off toward the vehicle.

Rebecca had never seen him respond quite like that before, and she wasn’t sure it did him any favors. Hedidrefrain from saying anything else, though, as he reached the vehicle, where the rest of the team had already taken their seats among their gear and weapons.

Rowan grunted before taking off after the shifter and fortunately kept his mouth shut too.

He’d probably meant to make it sound like another apathetic chuckle, but this one had stuck in his throat, and the intended effect was a genuine failure.

Rolling out a tightening kink in her neck, Rebecca took a deep breath and brought up the rear, watching Maxwell slip behind the wheel of the van.

One of the rear doors was already open and waiting for Rowan, who stopped in front of it and peered around inside. “Where doIsit?”

As she headed for the front passenger-side door, Rebecca caught a glimpse of Leonard in the back, patting a small space beside him on the carpeted floor.

“All right, Blackmoon,” he said. “Come on back. I’m sure we can squeeze you in somewhere between, well, um…”

“You can sit onmylap.” Titus’s growling rumble of a voice filled the parking garage, his natural speaking voice as loud as anyone else’s raised shouts.

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