Page 6 of Elven Crown

He had nothing at stake.

Rebecca did.

“At least you’re curious,” she told him. “You want to know about Shade?”

At the same time, she finally lifted her right hand slightly above her folded arms and sent up another silent prayer to any and all gods of both the old world and the new that Rowan Blackmoon’s knowledge of their silent war-party signaling hadn’t shriveled into non-existence over the centuries.

She stared intently into those hazel eyes of his and mapped out with a quick series of hand signals and gestures the secret message she wanted him to receive beneath the cadence of her words:“Don’t say anything. We’re being watched.”

Another infuriating chuckle escaped him before he glanced at her signaling hand for half a second.

“I wouldloveto know about Shade,” he said, cocking his head as if this were still all part of one giant inside joke of theirs. “Though I have to admit I’m more interested in knowing aboutyou. Specifically how you ended up in a place like—”

“If you want answers,” she interrupted, widening her eyes at him in warning, “if you want access to the information and knowledge this place holds, you have to give something of yourself first. That’s how it works here.”

The constant, irreverent amusement in his expression disappeared, his gaze softening as he stopped swinging his legs and stilled.

Rebecca thought she saw him nod, but it was impossible to tell with him most of the time.

“Anything for you,” he said gently. “You know that.”

Why did he have to be like this?

The tenderness in his voice and the way he gazed at her now made Rebecca want to throw herself toward the table and wrap him up in the tightest hug possible. To feel him in her arms, breathe in his scent of sunshine and leather, tighten her hold around him and confess how much she’d missed him, even when the decision to leave had always been hers.

But she couldn’t act on it. Absolutely not.

Instead, she forced herself to ignore how impossibly hard he was making this right now and focused on getting them both out of this room.

“I’ll make you this offer,” she told him with more command over the levelness of her voice than she would have thought possible. “But I’m only going to make it once. We’ll have our conversation about whatever you want, and I’ll answer all your questions,afteryou complete The Striving. Successfully.

“But if you fail, you’ll no longer be welcome here. Shade’s doors will close to you. You’ll leave, no questions asked, and you and I won’t be talking at all. About anything.”

The way his eyes lit up at that with a flash of their own mischievous excitement made the surge of doubt and trepidation instantly flare again deep in her belly and behind her eyes.

He looked way too excited by this prospect. Not what she’d been going for.

“I do love a challenge,” he crooned. “Can I ask what exactly this Striving entails?”

“You can ask all you want,” she replied. “But until you successfully complete The Striving, none of your questions will be answered. You have to accept, and then you have to succeed. That’s the only way I can tell you anything, and it’s the only way the two of us will be saying anything else to each other after I walk out of this room.”

Rowan lifted a hand to stroke his hairless chin, putting on a show for the sake of the security camera and anyone who might be watching them now, pretending to consider it.

“Well of course I accept,” he said with another chuckle. “This will be fun.”

Before she could do anything else, he hopped off the edge of the table and stepped toward her with a look in his hazel eyes Rebecca recognized only too well—his tenderness toward her, his compassion when he truly cared about something or someone, the hope springing into his brilliant grin. Then that too softened, and he took one more step forward to close the distance between them.

She could see it all right there, written out within the softening lines of his face.

He’d missed her too. Probably just as much as she’d missed him, if not more.

She almost let herself willingly fall right into that trap until Rowan spread his arms and leaned in, looking an awful lot like he meant to pull her into an embrace.

So she spun on her heel and marched across the holding room toward the door, leaving the Blackmoon Elf standing there with his arms open and nothing to show for it.

His surprised laugh followed her out of the room and cut off the second the door clicked shut behind her.

Rowan could laugh all he wanted, though that didn’t mean he didn’t still expect something of her now that he’d found her here.

---