Page 65 of Elven Crown

“Naw. ’Course I don’t.”

“Then frackin’ burn it and quit yipin’!”

It was a pointless conversation to overhear, but at least she knew wherenotto look for that damn Blackmoon Elf before he ruined all their chances.

The second two vehicles,’ rear doors were finally unlocked and pulled up to reveal unmarked metal crates stacked three and four high. Definitely big enough to carry magitek weaponry, but also big enough to carry anything else.

Rebecca and her team had to make sure these were the weapons they’d come for if they were going to risk their lives to get their hands on them.

One especially squat griybreki climbed up the loading ramp of the third vehicle, his webbed feet slapping on the wobbling metal with a tinny echo. Then he flashed a light inside the trailer and let out a comically high-pitched squeak of surprise.

Rebecca’s attention narrowed in on it.

“What the fucker we got ridin’ backhere?” the griybreki exclaimed.

A second frog-like creature rounded the back of the same vehicle to peer into the open trailer. His glowing green eyes widened.

“Oh, hey there, fellas.” Rowan’s voice rose from inside the rear of the vehicle, loud and crystal-clear. “Got some real nice toys in here. Tell me, what’s the plan with all these babies?”

Shit. Rebecca was too late.

The griybreki inspecting their vehicle’s contents hissed and warbled at the unexpected stowaway among their cargo, who hadn’t technically been a stowaway at all.

Buttheydidn’t know that.

Rebecca spun back toward Maxwell still hidden behind the line of stacked shipping crates and signaled for him to be ready.

For once, it seemed to benefit her that Maxwell was always already looking her way.

Still, she didn’t think he’d figured out where Rowan was. That would change pretty damn quick.

The two griybreki whohadfound him started yammering, hopping up and down, their webbed feet slapping again and again onto the concrete as they pointed clawed fingers and babbled away in their guttural language.

Rowan’s laughter echoed out of the semi-trailer. “It’d be such a shame for these to go to waste, don’t you think?”

After that came a heavy squeal of metallic hinges and the clunk of something falling open, followed by more metallic thunks and clatters.

“And just look at allthese. Shiny mama right here. Ooh, what’s this one? This is how you catch your new friends I bet, huh? Magical Crossbow 3000?”

Another loud thump and the clink of chains dropping to the floor.

“Well, I’ll be…” Rowan just wouldn’t shut up. “One blast from this puppy, and you’re ridin’ the one-way train, am I right?”

Rebecca wanted to strangle him for his idiocy, but she couldn’t deny what he’d just given them, either. He didn’t have any working knowledge of what Earthside weapons were even called—magically augmented or otherwise—but he’d delivered a verbal list of what was inside those crates.

Meaning this was what her team had been hoping to find.

Despite the utter frustration of Rowan’s methods, she couldn’t help recognizing just how much she’d missed his constant antics. Though she could have done without them currently.

A low snarl rose behind her, joined by that overwhelming tingling warmth intensifying by the second. She knew it was Maxwell even before he growled in her ear.

“What the fuck is he doing?”

“Giving us a confirmation.”

“I don’t see shit.”

“Yeah, well, it’s audio-only this time.” Rebecca knew without a doubt that Rowan had just named the cargo, so it didn’t matter that the idiot griybreki behind the wheel of this third and closest semi had parked like a total moron.

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