Page 108 of Elven Lies

The scent of charred flesh and singed hair and burning fabric filled the air around all three of them like a smoky shroud.

The worst of Maxwell’s injuries burned away, sloughing off his body in dry and blackened flakes, already having singed clean through his shirt to leave behind nothing but charred, tattered rags.

She thought she heard the shifter screaming beneath her magic. Then again, it could have been Rebecca screaming. Or Rowan.

It didn’t matter now, anyway. There was no stopping until this was finished. Until she knew she’d done whatever it took to save him.

Then, as suddenly and surely as she’d known Rowan’s power was there to help her begin, she knew now that it was over. That it was finished. She’d done all she could, and there was nothing more.

The golden glow in her palms winked out like a burnt-out light bulb, bringing with it the return of her awareness.

Maxwell cried out, though whether in pain or relief was unclear. It didn’t matter.

Rebecca might have cried out too before she dropped her hands into her lap, her muscles trembling from fingertip to shoulder blade.

Rowan gasped and fell away from her, scrambling off to the side as if he could no longer bear to be so close to her after such a thing.

The last few wisps of acrid smoke tinged with the horrifying scent of cooking meat rose from Maxwell’s chest before dispersing into the air.

When Rebecca came back to herself enough to realize it was over, that she’d done everything she could, she nearly threw herself at the shifter lying there motionless, his eyes closed and his shirt nearly burned away. Only new pink, healthy flesh exposed. No more gaping wounds. No more blood. No more deadly injuries she hadn’t seen before and couldn’t see now.

“Hannigan?” she panted before reaching out to gently take his face in both hands. “Come on, talk to me. I know you’re there. Come on… This isn’t it.”

He didn’t move, but Rebecca couldn’t accept that was all she would get for her efforts. That this was the end for him. Forthem.

“I know you’re in there,” she whispered, leaning over him with his face in her hands until their noses were inches apart. As if she could see through his body andintohim. “I know you’re fighting it. You’re not done. I won’t let you be done. Maxwell,please…”

The raw, desperate gasp when he finally drew breath—his chest expanding fully without the gurgle of punctured lungs and internal bleeding—almost made her cry out in relief.

“Thank you,” she murmured breathlessly, then finally lowered her hands from his face.

When his eyes fluttered open, the silver glow within them was brighter and more full of life than she’d ever seen. His gaze settled on her and captured her all over again in their intensity.

A sharp laugh escaped her when she reached toward him, meaning to examine him not for signs of what she’d missed but for proof that she’d succeeded, then immediately thought better of it.

They weren’t alone. Rowan was still here, and there were surely others watching by now too.

Why did it even matter what anyone else saw right now, when, if she and Rowan had been a second slower to act, Maxwell Hannigan probably wouldn’t still be here at all?

She couldn’t answer that question, but she was more than content to accept this major win despite how close they’d just come to utter defeat.

“That was…different,” Maxwell said through a grunt.

More tears burned behind her eyes, threatening to well up. For a moment, Rebecca was tempted to let them, but they weren’t completely in the clear. Not yet.

She was still Shade’s Roth-Da’al. They were still on mission, and there was still plenty more to do before the night was over.

Still, she couldn’t help a wry, exhausted smile. “If anything still hurts, you better tell me what it is right now.”

Maxwell licked the blood from his lips and looked surprised to taste it there.

“Everything still hurts,” he croaked, “but whatever you did…”

“It was worth it. And I’d do it all again.”

The corner of his mouth twitched, and that was when she knew—with more certainty than the sensation of her magic healing him from the inside out could ever give her—that he would be okay. Eventually. Given time.

She’d pulled him back from the brink, at the last second, and hewouldbe okay.

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