Page 26 of Elven Lies

They were all already on thin ice, sitting together around this table. A single wrong move could crack their unsteady foundation before the whole thing gave way and they plunged into the abyss. With no one else around to pull them back out.

“This concept of magitek,” Harkennr continued as he delicately cut a piece of herb-flecked white fish, slid it onto his fork, and held it in front of his mouth as he spoke, “magicand technology combined to create something entirely new and different… It’s rather ingenious. Something I do believe only Earthside magicals could have dreamed up, let alone produce with any level of viable success.

“Don’t misunderstand me. I was more than skeptical at first. I thought it an abomination against the very origins of magic and its purpose. But when I saw what it could do…” He chuckled, popped the forkful into his mouth, and chewed, raising his eyebrows at Rebecca as if he expected her to finish the sentence for him.

She refused to involve herself in this one-sided conversation the way he wanted, so she kept the tight smile plastered on her lips and waited for him to keep talking.

He always did, eventually.

Harkennr sighed, summoned a decanter of deep-purple wine and a crystal drinking glass, and gave himself a healthy pour before moving the conversation right along as comfortably and pleasantly as if all three of them were already thoroughly engaged in it.

“I have come to believe the restrictive and astoundingly outdated taboos that still govern the decisions and overall outlook of those running the show on Xahar’áhsh are nothing more than another attempt to exact control and dominance over those who have never andwillnever be given a say in the matter. If leaders and societies are outraged enough over a certain concept to outlaw the very discovery of it, let alone exploration and curiosity, I say that is exactly where the minds brilliant enough to understand why ought to center the entirety of their focus.

Soifa law forbade something unequivocally, those with enough intelligence to recognize it also had a duty to break those laws, huh?

Rebecca felt sick all over again.

This exact ideology had drawn her to Harkennr in the first place, back when she’d just recently left the Bloodshadow Court. Back when she’d still been so naïve and hungry for all the knowledge and experience that would inevitably change that.

Even now, she didn’t completely disagree with him. The principle behind it was sound, especially when dissected by someone like her, who’d been bred and trained and molded for one purpose, forbidden to question any of it or to even consider seeking more.

She might have even said she agreed with some of his broader points, in theory, but not likethis.

Never like this.

Abducting powerless innocents and forcing them to act as unwilling subjects of his experiments—to perfect the process of stealing their inherent magic so it could be used for any number of other horrendous things? No. That took it much too far.

The instant Rebecca had seen where Harkennr’s curiosity had become obsession and where it would inevitably lead him, she’d left him and all his crackpot theories in Ryngivát behind less than twelve hours later.

Now, he’d kidnapped one of her operatives just to bring Rebecca back so he could show her how much he’d succeeded in her absence.

How wrong she’d been to leave him.

He wanted her to see that he’d done it all without her anyway.

The warlock droned on and on about his various projects, but Rebecca couldn’t bring herself to listen or engage. Knowing how to look like she was listening would have to be enough.

It was the only thing keeping her from lunging across the table, grabbing Kordus Harkennr by the throat, and demanding he turn Nyx over to them now before she ordered all of Shade back here with her to bring the bastard’s empire crumbling down around him where it belonged.

The next time he paused, Rebecca felt again the minutest change in his energy before she caught him subtly watching her again, though he didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to when his gaze flickered toward the still-empty plate in front of her before he went right back to eating his own meal.

Dammit. She’d forgotten that part too.

She absently reached for the closest platter, grabbed a small portion of cheese, and set it gently on her plate. Then she cut it with her fork until her first and only bite was hardly a morsel. She couldn’t stomach anything else.

That seemed to satisfy Harkennr, though, because he returned to tucking into his food now that he’d taken a break from talking. He paused now and then to dab at his mouth with one of the gold-embroidered cloth napkins set out for just that purpose.

“What are youdoing?” Maxwell whispered under his breath.

Pretending to focus on her plate, Rebecca grabbed the closest dish and slid it in front of him. “One bite.”

“Actually, I believe I left my appetite back at headquarters.”

“Just do it,” she said, surprising herself with a little growl in her own voice, but it was the next best thing to snapping at him. That would only ruin the ambiance. Then she took a steadying breath and tried again. “I need you to trust me. This is how we get Nyx back. I promise.”

When she finally met his gaze, the shifter looked more confused than ever.

Of course he didn’t understand how breaking bread at their host’s table, beneath their host’s roof, and in their host’s company would act as a second barrier against deceit and betrayal—most importantly against violence.

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