Page 31 of Elven Lies

Rebecca dared to hope it meant something to him, which would account for the blank stare Harkennr fixed on her, all expression wiped from his features.

Then he threw his head back to release an explosion of tittering laughter with the same level of etiquette as everything else in his private domain.

“Well,” he said when he finally caught his breath, “I certainly wouldn’t have expectedthatassociation. But no, Roth-Da’al, I can assure you I had nothing to do with any of it. Whatever similarities you may have perceived are purely coincidental.”

His surprise and amusement seemed authentic in the moment, but there was no way to tell how far Harkennr’s truths extended. Especially when he clearly had more information, except where that awful augmented torture-bomb machine wasconcerned. He looked genuinely surprised to hear about that one.

“Not to make myself a broken record,” he continued, grinning as he rubbed his hands together, “but in the event that you and I were to come to an agreement regarding a possible partnership, I’m certain you would confirm that immediately with a more private examination of my technology. I can say with all confidence it isvastlymore superior to anything else you’re likely to find on Earth. Or on Xahar’áhsh, for that matter. Perhaps we ought to discuss the possibilities?”

It was everything Rebecca could do not to lash out at him. She plastered another false smile across her face and still had to act relatively pleasant about it. “For now, I’m not prepared to make any decisions just yet.”

“I understand. Why don’t you take a bit more time to consider my offer and everything else that may be possible when the two of us work together, hmm? I’m sure even you would be surprised by the results, Roth-Da’al.”

Even her.

No doubt about it, he’d referred to when they’d worked together, in a sense, back when Rebecca hadn’t yet learned any better. But since then, she had.

She forced back another shiver and murmured, “I’ll think on it.”

Pushing her chair gently in beneath the table, she nodded. “For now, I’ll thank you for your hospitality. I think it’s time we took her home.”

She nodded toward Nyx lying motionless in the grotesquely cushioned torture chair.

“Absolutely.” Harkennr nodded. “She’s all yours. The three of you are free to take your leave.”

The second the words left his lips, Rebecca hurried toward the far end of the basement, Maxwell close on her heels.The shifter’s roiling fury, barely contained beneath the surface, spurred her on even faster, crashing into Rebecca from behind like a concussive wave of heat and flame and force. As if the basement had exploded and she was barely going to make it out.

In some ways, that still described this situation perfectly.

She leaped over both wide stairs up to the dais and stumbled to a stop at Nyx’s side, hesitating to touch the katari in case that worsened her condition but more than anxious to check her operative for any signs of further abuse.

Rebecca hadn’t seen Nyx once since the katari had popped back into Shade headquarters the night her transport team had been attacked and Diego, Titus, and Burke were abducted and held as bait in the abandoned amusement park. Even forty-eight hours later, though, the katari was still in bad shape.

Bruises covered her otherwise flawless face, as well as her arms and neck. The split in her bottom lip had stopped bleeding, though dried blood still crusted the area. One of her eyes, normally so bright and luminous with intelligence and compassion, would have been swollen shut if she’d been conscious enough to try opening it.

Only now, up close, did Rebecca note Nyx’s chest slowly rising and falling beneath the depth of her unconsciousness. That was the only sign of life.

If Harkennr had done anything to her at all, if Nyx turned out to be worse off now than before he’d abducted her, Rebecca couldn’t even threaten the warlock with the consequences. She couldn’t retaliate. Not yet. That would breach the truce, then all bets were off. She and Maxwell still had to get Nyx safely out of here.

Maxwell appeared on the other side of the chair, his eyes wide with concern as he warily examined Nyx’s state, also without wanting to touch her. A long, drawn-out sigh hissed through his teeth before Rebecca felt his gaze flickering up toward her.

When she looked up at him across the chair, her first thought was that her Head of Security was about to shift right here in front of her, up close and personal. The righteous fury flaring in his silver eyes said far more than words ever could.

“To avoid any potential misunderstanding,” Harkennr called, his voice echoing from much closer after his silent approach to the dais, though he remained behind on the lower level, “she was already in that state when we…recovered her.”

Maxwell growled but didn’t say a word as he slid both arms beneath Nyx’s tiny, limp, frail form and lifted her from the chair like she weighed nothing. For a shifter, that was probably true.

Rebecca turned from Maxwell’s ginger handling of the katari and hoped she’d successfully eliminated all trace of condemnation from her voice when she asked Harkennr, “That first ambush of my people’s transport vehicle the other night. That wasn’t you either?”

Harkennr’s smirk made her feel like a child who’d just expressed her grand plans for changing the world before receiving only condescending amusement from the adults in response.

“Of course not. The katari was simply the most viable target for redirecting your attention. I had already extended my invitation to you at that point, Roth-Dahl. To willfully attack any of your forces without first having had the pleasure of your company would have been most unseemly. I do still make it a habit of avoiding poor form wherever possible.”

It sounded like a genuine admission of his respect for her position and his desire to start off a new relationship in Chicago without any animosity between them. Rebecca did note, however, that Harkennr mentioned nothing about his decision to take Nyx being unprovoked.

Because ithadbeen provoked—the night she’d gone to investigate this same compound on her own, healed herself, and Maxwell’s wolf had shown up to fail at helping her.

She and Maxwell both had provoked Kordus Harkennr into taking more extreme measures to get Rebecca here. Everything else he’d said, though—that he wasn’t involved in the ambush on the transport convoy or any part of that night at the amusement park—seemed genuine, even for him.

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