Page 135 of Elven Crown

So the next item on her last-minute to-do list was to get herself the hell out of here.

That was also insanely easy with no one around to stop her.

She slipped off the bed, strong enough once more to land without a sound, before heading for the door.

The silent, empty hallway made her short walk to her private room a massive relief. If her watch still worked, then it was just after midnight. As far as she could tell, the entire compound was asleep.

Zida wouldn’t be happy to wake up and find her patient gone, but Rebecca figured she could ease the old healer’s irritation by lauding Zida’s unmatched skills and leaving it at that.

No more infirmary beds. No more twenty-four-hour observation. No more being stuck anywhere, under anyone’s watch, against her will.

Rebecca had her health back, joined by an increasingly rare moment of complete solitude.

In the middle of the night, no one was looking for her. No one was trying to protect her or standing constant guard duty. No one wanted to inspect her or ask questions or receive permission or approval for anything.

Just for tonight, she could pretend the craziness her life had become didn’t exist.

Rebecca could justbe.

With a flash of yellow light bursting from her fingertip, her locking spell opened her bedroom door, then she slipped into her room and heaved the sigh she hadn’t been willing to release in the hallway, just in case.

By the Blood, when had stealing off to be alone in her own personal space become such a valued commodity?

Looking forward to the next few hours on her own, she turned back toward the door and reached for the light switch on the wall.

The second her overhead light clicked on, she realized her mistake.

Her relief had overpowered everything else at first, and she hadn’t registered the extra presence in this room the moment she’d entered. She felt it now.

Someone else was here. She could feel them with her in her room, along the far wall.

Dammit, how could she have let that slip?

She whirled to face the intruder, summoning an enormous orb of red battle magic in one palm.

Her attack flew from her outstretched hand before she’d turned, filling her small room with a blaze of crimson light before it crashed into the far wall instead of the dark form leaping nimbly out of the way.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Rowan shouted, lifting both hands in concession before shooting her a thin smile. It was probably supposed to make him look sheepish but only made him that much more obnoxious.. “I didn’t evendoanything.”

Ignoring the crater she’d blown into her wall and the chunks of plaster scattered across the floor around him, Rebecca summoned another crackling red orb and let it hover in her hand as a warning.

“You broke into my room,” she hissed. “Myroom.”

He looked around, then shrugged. “Eh…it’s not exactly a maximum-security prison.”

“It’s my room, and I didn’t invite you. Get out.”

With another chuckle, Rowan stepped toward her, his boots crunching across the chunks of exploded wall as he eyed her battle magic still sizzling and sparking in her open palm. “All right. Point taken. You can at least put that away.”

“Why would I do that?”

“Um…because it’s me?”

Rebecca’s nostrils flared as she stared him down. “Which isexactlywhy I’m keeping it.”

His carefree chuckle filled her room, but when she didn’t laugh with him or lower her defenses, his smile disappeared. “Okay, I get it. No one likes a surprise. No one likesthiskind of surprise, and it wasn’t my first choice—”

“Great. So get out.”

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