Page 35 of Elven Lies

“I totally understand. She needs you too. I’ll make sure someone fills you in on what you missed, so you won’t have to miss any ofthis.” She nodded toward Nyx, who now stirred beneath the sheets with a small, croaking moan.

The katari’s good eyelid fluttered open, the other still too bruised and swollen to move, before a glimmer of violet light shone from beneath.

“Oh shit.” The mage shifted in his chair to get as close as possible without climbing up into the bed with her. “Nyx. Hey. I got you.”

“Leonard?” she asked groggily. Her split lip cracked open again when she gifted him with the widest beaming smile possible in her condition.

“Yeah, I’m here. And everything’s gonna be okay. I’m not going anywhere.”

“I’m…so happy to see you—” When Nyx’s voice broke and Leonard dipped his head to hide what little emotion hadn’t yet bullied itself to the surface, Rebecca felt it was a good time to make her exit.

“Zida?” she said, reaching for the doorknob.

“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” the healer grumbled from the far side of the room, rummaging through tools and medicinal supplies in her drawers before dismissing Rebecca with a flippant wave. “I know exactly what applies to me, kid. I’ll be there.”

“Just as long as you don’t make us wait forever,” Rebecca reminded her. “You said ninety minutes tops.”

“Don’t quote me at myself, elf. Now get out of here before I kick you out.”

Now that Rebecca had officially called for another meeting so soon after Nyx’s safe return, she found herself mulling over what felt like too many things at once as she made her way across the compound.

She did want the others’ opinions as to how Shade ought to respond to Nyx’s abduction and to Harkennr’s terrifying goals he’d finally made a reality with his experiments, not to mention the fact that they still had another unknown player in the game—whoever had ambushed Nyx’s convoy and taken the rest of her team that night.

With the new knowledge she’d gained of what Harkennr was up to, the next steps should have been easy. In reality, they were anything but.

Every response she considered came with its own concerning risks and a far smaller likelihood of success than she could accept when sending her operatives into battle. No matter what Shade did next, every option still came with unavoidable cost.

Mainly that, no matter what they did, there was no easy way out of this. They would make more enemies than friends, but that was worth it to stop someone like Harkennr, wasn’t it? To shut him down and keep his monstrous technology from hitting the streets. To keep the magicals of Chicago and probably even its humans safe from whatever the warlock set his sights on next.

And everyone expected the Roth-Da’al to know what to do, to choose for them, no matter where it led.

It felt impossible, and that only made her more confident that the combined wisdom and experience of the individuals she’dasked to join her in these meetings would clear a few things up for her, if not everything. This was getting too big for Rebecca to make all the decisions on her own whileknowingthey were the right ones.

She was so caught up in the dizzyingly endless list of possibilities, she didn’t hear her name being called from down the hall until it came again from right behind her.

“Rebecca! Hello? Hey, is the Roth-Da’al even in? Because I sure would like a little chat.”

She whirled around and pushed back the immediate flare of disappointment and frustration when she realized it was Rowan hurrying after her.

“Yeah, I’m here,” she said absently and picked up her pace. “What’s up?”

“How’s the girl?” Rowan fell in step beside her.

“Nyx? She’s fine, as far as we know. More than a little confused, probably, but she’s safe. She’ll pull through this.”

“So you and the big bad wolfie actually stole her back, huh? What kinda tricks did you have to pull to getthatdone?”

“No tricks, Rowan. It was all above board.”

“Really? Well isn’tthata happy ending. Listen, I wanted to ask you—”

“Knox!”

Rebecca paused again to look behind her one more time as Whit emerged from the closest intersecting hallway and raised a hand to catch her attention.

By the Blood, could she not get even two seconds of peace?

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