Page 91 of Elven Crown

“I’m so glad you asked.” Rowan’s grin intensified before he finally broke away from her gaze to address the rest of the room.

Rebecca felt sick.

He was about to make a Rowan Blackmoon speech. She could feel it in the air. Every bit of power was now in his hands. He had the whole room’s attention. He could say whatever he wanted, and everyone would listen.

He could accuse her of any manner of things, or explain who he was and how he knew Shade’s Thon-Da’al, or expose her for who and what she was.

Rebecca had no viable way to stop him.

Everyone loved Shade’s newest member. Charming. Skilled in the field. Personable to everyone.

He was about to ruin everything for her, wasn’t he?

“Don’t keep us waiting!” Hank shouted through more laughter.

“Nothing you haven’t heard before,” Rowan called back, turning in a slow circle as he addressed the entire task force.

He’d just stolen Rebecca’s announcement time right out from under her, and no one even thought twice about it.

“Weearnedthose weapons,” Rowan said. “We should keep them. And you know what? Yeah, I guess Iamturning this into another toast to the Thon-Da’al.”

He thrust his drink in the air and spun around to face Rebecca again. “For leading such an elegant mission and acquiring top-of-the-line new assets for the rest of us. Honestly, I’m really looking forward to training with those things in the future. To the Thon-Da’al!”

“To the Thon-Da’al!”

The response echoed around the room before everyone with a drink in their hand finished the toast with a drink to Rebecca. And to Rowan’s toast. And to the new black-market magitek weapons they’d acquired by intercepting Eduardo’s latest shipment.

Rebecca couldn’t let her guard down yet. Rowan was planning something else just around the corner. He had to be. No way would he finish with a simple toast like that and nothing more.

It wasn’t Rowan’s voice reaching her next, though. It was everyone else shouting out at her all at once.

Rowan seemed the only one among them who had nothing left to say.

“Yo, Knox, is that true?”

“For real? We’re gonna keep those weapons for training?”

“It’s about damn time! I was wondering when we’d update the damn armory.”

“Finally catching up with the twenty-first century, huh? Hell yes!”

And just like that, Rowan had Rebecca backed into another corner. He’d put the words in her mouth. He’d distracted the entire task force with something of his own design. And he’d forced Rebecca to play along if she didn’t want to lose her credibility or give herself away.

No, she hadn’t actually said they were going to keep the weapons, or that she had any special plans to employ them in new training exercises. But now she didn’t have a choice.

Plus, she couldn’t deny that keeping the weapons as part of Shade’s new armament stores was a good idea. She just hadn’t thought about it yet. Now, the decision had been made for her.

All she wanted was to storm through the crowd and strangle Rowan for manipulating her like this. They both knew what he was doing. But acting on the urge, no matter how strong, would only make it worse.

So she sucked it up and raised a hand to signal for everyone to quiet down.

“That’s right,” she said with a firm nod, her voice flat with tension and making her sound abnormally tired. “That’s exactly what we’re going to do. Those new weapons areoursnow. It’s about time we started working with updated tech. Have a good night.”

She didn’t give anyone another chance to wrangle her into further conversation she didn’t want.

Rebecca had to get out.

An uproarious cheer broke out behind her as she stormed down the hall. Fortunately, no one seemed to think her abrupt departure signaled something amiss. She’d played off Rowan’smanipulation so perfectly, the whole thing had seemed likeheridea.

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