Page 42 of Elven Crown

The next time he found her alone, without Maxwell to act as her buffer against him, nothing else would stop him from getting from Rebecca what he’d come here to get from her.

She didn’t intend to give it to him, but now she couldn’t help wondering what she might have to do to ensure she never was alone after this.

If she made that request of Maxwell, would he agree to help her? Or would he think his new commander had started walking in Aldous’s footsteps now and was truly starting to lose her mind?

Most frustrating of all was the realization that she still couldn’t predict how the shifter would react to anything, including her.

Just like Rebecca had known he would, Rowan drew her attention at the worst times and in the most inconvenient places.

He happened to be sitting in the common room later that day, engaged in animated conversation with other Shade members at one of the tables.

The second Rebecca heard his dark, dangerous laugh and realized he was there, she abandoned her desire for a cup ofcoffee from Bor’s refreshments table and avoided Rowan’s gaze until she was well down another intersecting hallway.

Later that evening, Rebecca stopped by the secondary armory on the compound’s ground floor. Tonight, the operatives assigned to inspect and clean overflow weaponry included the majority of her regular mission team—the magicals with whom she’d spent the most time in the field under Aldous’s leadership.

The sight of Leonard and Nyx sitting at one small table in front of the locked weapons cages, Titus and Diego working together at another, and three other operatives all concentrating on their work together in the same room brought an easy, gentle smile to her face.

Felt just like old times.

Until a bumbling clatter of steel firearm components and toppled springs rose to her immediate left, followed by an exasperated sigh.

Rebecca turned that way to investigate the problem and realized too late what it was—Rowan, sitting alone, attempting to dismantle and clean the weapon assigned to him.

She should have known. Since the day he’d arrived, Rowan had been the only problem.

No one had told herRowanwould be in the secondary armory.

Rebecca’s neck flushed as she fought the urge to spin on her heels and storm back into the hall. Once she conquered that response, her next challenge was to avoid clenching her hand into a fist and socking him in the mouth with it just to keep him from talking.

Either of those top reactions would have been a major problem. Rowan wasn’t alone in the armory. The other magicals assigned to weapons maintenance and repairs today had already noticed Rebecca’s entrance. They would definitely notice if she disappeared without a word or attacked their newest member seemingly unprovoked.

Still, it took an impressive amount of her willpower to stand there and maintain her composure, especially without looking at the Blackmoon Elf sitting at the table closest to the armory door.

“Geez…” Struggling to gather all the weapons components he’d scattered across the table into a semblance of a neat pile, Rowan clearly had no idea what he was doing. He scooped the pieces into a pile, then slid them back across the table toward himself as a mound of disconnected parts.

“This is just too much,” he grumbled. “All this? It’s just so much work. Completely unnecessary.”

Another wayward part fell from his hand to clatter onto the table. This time, he looked straight up at Rebecca. “Wouldn’t it be so much easier to ditch all this and go with straight magic? You know, the kind we were allborn with? I’m pretty sure that was for a reason.”

Rebecca wanted nothing more than to keep ignoring him, but it was no longer an option. There wasn’t enough activity in the secondary armory to justify not having heard him, and the members of her old team were already sneaking her not-so-covert looks to see how she handled Rowan’s firearm inefficiencies.

The poorly concealed volley of light chuckles and snickering from the other tables only confirmed how closely she was being watched. Continuing to ignore Rowan now wouldn’t be a very good look for Shade’s Commander.

So she bit the bullet and turned to look down at him and his chaotic, messy station. Compared to the other tables, it looked like a child had been sitting here, playing unsupervised with weapons components.

“A lot of magicals here don’t have their own inherent magic,” Rebecca replied with a raised eyebrow. “Defensive or offensive. Or they’re still working on their own proficiency levels.”

“But not everyone,” Rowan grumbled.

“There’s always someone in the field bigger and stronger and more dangerous than you. Even if these firearms are a last resort, it’s always a good idea to have access to a weapon you can rely on.”

“A weapon you can rely on…” When he looked slowly up at her again, he’d adopted a knowing grin that made her want to slap the back of his head. “Funny how you say that like it’s such a casual thing. Just common knowledge. You of all people would knowexactlyhow valuable a reliable weapon is in the field.”

Rebecca narrowed her eyes at him and didn’t respond.

She knew what he was referring to with this little game. He was talking abouther, the weapon she had been born and trained and molded to become.

She just wasn’t reliable anymore. Not the way her trainers or handlers had expected her to be.

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