Page 116 of Elven Crown

Before she realized it, Rowan had already made his way across the gym toward her, and now Rebecca had zero viable means of escape.

“This place was downright creepy for that mystery initiation,” he murmured, “andnowlook at it. I mean, granted, you guys clearly have to improvise with most things, right? It’s not every day a secret military base comes with its own old-world ritual cave, you know? You’re just working with what you’ve got. It’s commendable.”

Rebecca stared straight ahead, pretending to watch the other operatives taking their places around the gym. All while fighting the urge to punch him in the face and send him flying out of her personal space and across the room.

“Any chance you wanna fill me in on what I’m looking at, here?” Rowan asked.

She gritted her teeth, then finally muttered, “Nope.”

“Hey, now that we’re here, though, no one’s actually told me what this whole Shade thing really is. I remember specifically being promised all the answers I could possibly want after hanging out in that casting circle and successfullynot dying. So how about it, huh?”

By the Blood, she wasthis closeto putting him on his ass but successfully held her tongue and her composure.

“Nothing?” Rowan whined. “Come on. Not even just a general synopsis, like what you guys do here and what the point of all this evenis? Enlighten me. Whatever you wanna share, I promise I’ll listen closely, boss.”

“There’s no intro course on this one,” she told him flatly, surprised by how level and even her voice sounded. “You’ll have to figure it out as you go. Just like the rest of us had to when we first got here.”

He leaned away to gape at her in mock surprise. “Evenyou?”

Yes, even her. Because as far as Shade knew, Rebecca Knox was just another magical with nowhere else to go and a decent amount of knowledge and experience to offer a place like this. She intended to keep it that way, no matter how hard Rowan tried to break her resolve. Or how damn annoying it was.

She didn’t take the bait but stepped away from him instead. Once she reached the center of the gym, she stopped to address the entire task force.

She hadn’t noticed Maxwell entering again, but when his low growl rose somewhere behind her, she appreciated his presence here with her.

“Fall in line, elf.”

Rebecca smirked.

Points to her Head of Security for getting up in Rowan’s face so she wouldn’t have to.

Rowan eventually conceded, walking away from the shifter and chuckling to himself. He didn’t have to like it, but he wassmart enough not to pick another fight with Maxwell. Not with everyone in the same room to see it.

She hoped.

Time to get this show on the road before she had the chance to find out.

“All right, listen up!” As soon as her voice echoed through the gym, the other side conversations petered out, replaced by focus and eager anticipation coming from every member as they settled their gazes on her.

“These, as you know, are the weapons our team confiscated from Eduardo’s convoy last night. Weapons Eduardo was intent on shipping off to someone else, which means they’re most likely also on the market and out there on the streets already. We can’t assume this was the first time he tried to get this stuff out into other magical hands.

“In these crates are some of the same weapons his forces used against us when we went up against Eduardo and his griybreki the first time at their base.”

“Even the RPG cannon Aldous wanted?”

Whispers circulated until Rebecca found the speaker in the room.

“Not quite, Hank,” she replied to the dwarf still sporting multiple bruises on his face, neck, and arms from his last mission weeks ago. He grinned back at her in excitement. “That one was—”

“Unfortunately,” Maxwell cut in beside her, “the only weapon of that type we’re aware of was destroyed before we could acquire it.”

Huffing out a laugh, Rebecca turned toward her Head of Security. Hewasstill sore about that one, wasn’t he?

As if he’d read her mind, Maxwell leaned slightly toward her without taking his eyes off the gathered task force and muttered, “Yeah, I still blame you for it.”

Well at least now he was getting that out into the open.

Rebecca had destroyed that insanely powerful magical RPG launcher inside the lobby of Eduardo’s abandoned apartment building, but she’d also saved Maxwell’s life and the lives of everyone else on their team that night. Not to mention keeping a weapon like that out of Aldous’s hands, which were essentially the same type of hands out of which Shade wanted to keep these new weapons.

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