Page 130 of Elven Crown

Maxwell’s frown only deepened.

If nothing else, Rebecca needed him to get out of here so he wouldn’t get in the way. She could have definitely healed herself by now.

Maybe a different tactic would help him on his way?

“You trust Zida, don’t you?” she asked.

“Of course I do.” The way he said it made it sound more like a question. Not very convincing.

“Then let that be enough, okay? Let her do her job so—” A cough bubbled up inside her, sounding grotesquely wet andsticky and most likely the cause of the remaining color draining from Maxwell’s face. “—so we can get back to doing ours.”

He said nothing, his jaw clenching over and over at a steadily increasing rate.

Something about the way he stared at her made Rebecca wonder if he was about to change his mind and steal her away from the infirmary bed to take her somewhere else. As if anywhere else would have been safer or better than this room.

She was vaguely aware of the door in the back opening again before the clink of glass jars and vials joined the urgent shuffling of the healer’s footsteps. Then Zida’s face popped up in her vision on the opposite side of the bed.

The old healer leered down at her patient. “Aw… Well isn’tthatjust so damn cute?”

Rebecca had no idea whatthatmeant, but a second later, the warm pressure around her fingers released and disappeared.

As soon as he’d released her hand, a horrid, debilitating, almost painful grief swept through Rebecca, overwhelming her. As if an integral part of her had just been severed, never to return.

The seeping cold ripping through her core almost made her cry out. Instantly longing for that warmth—that piece of her—to return, she barely stifled the urge to beg for his hand around hers again.

Then she made a mental note to never let Maxwell take her hand again. The sensation of him letting go was almost more than she could bear.

What in the Blue Hells waswrongwith her?

She made the mistake of looking up at Maxwell and hoping to see his stoic mask of stony apathy returned, so she could be sure that what she’d felt was some unknown fluke.

She shouldn’t have looked at him at all.

Maxwell’s scowl returned as he backed away from the bed, no longer gazing desperately down at Rebecca but refusing to look anywhere but at the edge of the crumpled, blood-smeared sheets. His silver eyes flashed so intently, she thought she saw tears there.

Now more than ever, it looked likehewas the one fighting not to succumb to the agony of being skewered by flying target shrapnel.

Whatever was happening here, Rebecca wanted no part of it.

But she wasn’t in any position to remove herself from the intensely strange situation, and that made it even worse.

“Stop squirming,” Zida hissed, though Rebecca wasn’t aware of having moved on the bed. “Do you wanna lose what little blood you have left?”

Maxwell took another step back and cleared his throat. “I can help.”

“Help?” the healer barked before whirling on him. “You listen to me right now. This is the only place where you can’t pull rank on me, Hannigan. Now get out. And no loitering! I’ve got enough wolfsbane back here to smoke you to kingdom come if you don’t do as you’re told. Just try me, huh? I dare you.”

He glowered back at her as she shooed him with violent waves of her hand toward the door, but he had no choice but to relent. “The second she recovers, I want to hear about it—”

“Yeah, yeah, we all want our favorite Thon-Da’al back on her feet. Get out.” The healer waved her claw-like hand toward the door.

Rebecca could have sworn the door swung open all on its own before an invisible force shoved Maxwell the rest of the way across the infirmary, through the open doorway, and stumbling into the hall before it slammed shut again in his face.

Then Zida thrust her wrinkled face right into Rebecca’s line of sight to inspect her wound again, taking over what littleremained of the conversation. “How exactly did you come by this fun little party favor? Because ‘training mishap’ doesn’t check any of the right boxes, does it? Plus, I don’t like vague and mysterious answers.”

Fighting to speak through a raw and scratchy throat, Rebecca relayed the main points of said training mishap exactly as she remembered them. “Then Hannigan got me up and hauled me to your door. End of story.”

Zida leaned closer and squinted with only one eye before she barked out a harsh laugh. “Vrestí!”

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