Page 13 of Elven Crown

Calling for more. Pleading with her to keep her hand right there and never remove it, so she might learn exactly what else was possible when all she’d previously thought of that stove was how badly it could hurt her if misused. Howdangerousit was…

The sensation made her freeze, and while she consciously tried not to look at her hand on his shoulder, she suddenly lost the ability to tell whether she’d succeeded.

But when she met Maxwell’s gaze, she found his silver eyes wide and glistening as they settled on her face. She thought she heard him suck in a quick, sharp breath before holding it.

Hehadto feel this too, right?

What else would have possibly made him stop in his tracks? What else would have made him gaze at her like this—in surprise, confusion, and an unwilling anticipation of whatever came next?

Rebecca had no idea what came next, but thisthingshe felt between them couldn’t just be in her mind.

Maxwell was the one to move first.

His step back was small but still forced her hand to slip off his shoulder. The second it did, their little moment was over.

When he cleared his throat, she already knew he was trying to get right back to business.

“It has to be difficult enough that if he’snotworthy and wecan’ttrust him, we’ll know instantly. Because he’ll fail.” Maxwell dipped his head toward her, his frown deepening like he still didn’t know whether she fully understood what was at stake for the entire task force if The Striving didn’t produce the intended results.

Rebecca returned the nod. “I’m counting on it.”

Then she took off again to make her way across the rest of the armory, then across the parking garage toward the enclosed staircase leading up to the compound’s ground-floor level.

This time, Maxwell’s footsteps didn’t follow her.

That realization filled her with both relief and a surprising disappointment, which didn’t even make sense. But she didn’t have time to dwell on what her reactions to or feelings toward the shifter meant right now.

No, she had less than twenty-four hours to focus on making The Striving impossible for Rowan to complete successfully. Only then would she have a viable excuse to throw him out, with an entire privatized task force at her command to back her up.

She couldn’t let herself consider the possibility that she might be wrong or that she might not find the best way to deter Rowan from passing the strenuous test Shade would put him through tomorrow night.

Rebecca’s focus narrowed to a single goal—get Rowan Blackmoon out,beforehe made a single move to shatter her cover and bring everything she’d built here crumbling downaround her. His presence threatened not only her position but the safety of everyone within these walls.

She had twenty-four hours to make sure he failed.

5

Rebecca’s ears rang with all the jumbled excitement, laughter, and eager shouts crashing through the compound everywhere she went. She was so determined to get to her destination, to finish this final crucial task, that she couldn’t have focused on what anyone said even if she’d tried.

But she knew the reason for it.

Shade’s burgeoning excitement and the pressure of expectation building within the compound was all too familiar—like working spells with tainted reagents until the magic blew up in the caster’s face.

The Striving was almost here.

In just half an hour, Rowan Blackmoon would begin The Striving to prove his worthiness to the entire task force.

Which meant Rebecca only had half an hour to make sure she did this right.

The boisterous commotion and frenetic energy filling every space within the compound tonight did nothing to settle heralready fraying nerves or the anxious churning in her belly as she finally reached the double doors to the training gym and slipped inside.

She hadn’t felt this nervous in decades.

She also hadn’t had this much to lose in decades.

Yet here she was, so entrenched in her identity as Rebecca Knox and Shade’s new commander that she was willing to go to these lengths in secret, just to make sure an elf from her past had no more excuses and no further recourse to stick around any longer than necessary.

The more time Rowan spent within these walls, the greater the threat to Rebecca’s secrets—the higher the chances of those secrets being uncovered and tossed around for everyone to see.

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