Page 141 of Elven Crown

They also both knew she didn’t want to, and therefore, shewouldn’thurt him. Not physically. Not like this.

Even after all this time, Rowan clearly recognized the display as a warning just to shut him up. A reminder that she was far more capable than she’d let anyone believe in such a long time.

A reminder tohim. A reminder toher.

More than anything else, Rebecca wanted this conversation to be over. She didn’t want to hear any more of his excuses or his alleged justifications. She didn’t want to hear any more of his pleading or his pain.

She couldn’t deal with this right now. He’d brought the absolute worst issue to her, at the absolute worst time, and she had to shut him down.

Not that there everwouldbe a right time for this conversation—for his daring decision to reject everything she had embracedthe day she left Agn’a Tha’ros and the Bloodshadow Court behind forever, and Rowan with them.

This had to stop.

Then the moment of shock and awe passed, and that infuriating expression of unaffected, unconcerned apathy washed over Rowan’s face one more time. It erased the hollows of concern around his eyes and the desperation underlying his creased brow.

All of it was overtaken the next second by a brilliant flash of enthusiastic appreciation in his dangerous hazel eyes as they widened. Then Rowan broke into an awestruck, gleaming grin that made him look as hungry for her and her power as everyone else who’d seen Rebecca for who and what she was.

Seeing that hunger now, withinhimof all people, made Rebecca physically nauseous.

How many lies had the Bloodshadow Court fed him over the last two hundred and seventy years? How many twisted truths had they stuffed into his mind and his own self-perception to make him look at her likethis?

Rowan spread his arms and huffed out an airy laugh dripping with wonder. “That, right there… That’s exactly why I came here for you. That’s exactly why I finally found you. Because the Bloodshadow Court and all the factions are going to need you for what’s coming.”

Blue Hells, they’d completely brainwashed him.

“Lies,” Rebecca hissed, and with a flick of her wrist, she released her Bloodshadow spear and the powerful control she held over the invaluable forces inside her.

Her spear disappeared with a crackling flicker of dark, mercurial silver and a shower of sparks. The residual energy in her room ebbed, bringing all the natural forces of Earth’s physical plane back into alignment with themselves.

Even the wan overhead light seemed to shine brighter, with more space to do so now that her darkest power had been put to rest where it belonged.

She was still breathing heavily, though, and she still felt sick. But at least now she’d gotten it out of her system. She’d said everything she needed to say, but there was still a little more.

“You don’t even know anythingiscoming, Rowan. You can’t know. There’s no proof, and there won’t be until either the moment we do what needs to be done or the moment it’s too late. Nothing’s happened in centuries. You’re grasping at straws.”

He responded with a deepening frown, making her think at first that he might not have thought that one through and now realized she was right.

But Rowan was smarter than that.

He stepped toward her again, his frown blossoming into the kind of smirk that always accompanied some smartass comment about to spew from his mouth.

She still knew him well enough to predict that much.

“You think nothing’s happened in centuries?” he asked, moving closer still. “I foundyou, didn’t I?”

Damn him. Damn the whole Blackmoon Clan, and the Bloodshadow Court, and all the elven factions.

Damn old Theodil, and Bundros, and Sha’alvali.

Damn everyone who ever sought to own her, and manipulate her, and use her.

The Dalu’Rázj could take them all.

As far as Rebecca was concerned, it already had centuries ago.

And yet, even as she cursed them all within the silent privacy of her mind, she couldn’t ignore the weight of what Rowan had just said.

Yes, he’d found her after centuries of nothing. Rebecca’s success in fleeing, and hiding and insulating herself amongstrangers in a strange world had finally failed her. After centuries of the same, somethinghadchanged.

---