Page 37 of Elven Lies

She finally looked directly at him for the first time and raised an eyebrow, a new foreboding tightness settling in her gut. “Then how the hell did you hear about Harkennr?”

He broke into an idiot’s grin, his hazel eyes glinting. “Through the door. When you shut me out of your last meeting.”

“Rowan…”

“What? No one said I couldn’t listen through the door.”

“Well that stops now.” She continued up the stairs in more of a frustrated march than she wanted him to see, but that couldn’t be helped now. “For the record, you arenotallowed to stand by the door during meetings. Especially when you weren’t asked to sit in on them.”

“Okay. Well now we’ve coveredthatground. So let’s rewind a little to my actual question. Thatisthe Harkennr you’re talking about, is it not?”

“I really don’t have time for this right now.”

“Not like there’s any other Harkennr I know of, per se. I mean, surely the guy had parents. He didn’t just spring up from the bowels of Ryngivát like some devil’s spawn. Although, now that I mention it, I wouldn’t put that entirely past him, if we’re talking about the Kordus HarkennrI’mthinking of…”

They reached the top of the stairs, and Rebecca booked it for her office door. “I have another meeting to start up here. Why don’t you go think on it, and you can bother me about it later.”

“Rebecca.”

He sounded particularly disappointed—a little hurt, even—and she stopped in the middle of the room with a massive sigh before turning to face him. “What?”

Rowan had already leaned casually against the office wall beside the door, his arms folded, with that mischievous smirk on his lips. His hazel eyes blazed with amusement. “Just give me a little morsel. I’m right, aren’t I? Because if I’m right, that meansa whole lot of different things for a whole lot of different people, and I thought—”

“Rowan, please.” She stopped at the sound of approaching footsteps. “I really don’t wanna talk about this right now.”

“You don’t, huh? Interesting. BecauseIheard you just called a whole meeting on it.”

“Yeah. Aclosedmeeting reserved for specific individuals. Who will be here any minute now.”

He spread his arms. “So put me on the list.”

“I don’t think that would go over very well with the select few individuals already on that list.”

Like Maxwell.

“Well then just look the other way, and I’ll hear everything I wanna know anyway.”

“No,” she said. “I mean it. That’s not an option for you anymore.”

Mostly because if Rowan heard anything in any meeting that sparked his interest, he’d involve himself in it anyway. So far, he’d proven how dangerous he could be if he hadn’t reined himself in at the last second every time. She still didn’t want to take those chances.

He was still pouting against the wall when the footsteps stopped in front of her open office door and the person they belonged to came into view.

“Rick!” she shouted a little too enthusiastically. “Right on time.”

“Really?” The blackhorn checked his watch, frowned, and murmured, “I thought I was early.”

“We won’t start for a few more minutes,” Rebecca said. “But I’m glad you stopped by now. Please escort Blackmoon out of here and find a way to keep him busy. Maybe have him help out with security and intel until we’re finished. Make sure whoever’soverseeing things in the meantime knows not to let him out of their sight.”

With a curt nod, Rick looked only too pleased to help. He stepped through the door, found Rowan standing against the wall, and beckoned him closer. “You heard her, Blackmoon. Let’s go. Carl’s testing out a new update to the surveillance system. I know he’d love to tell you all about it.”

Rowan shot Rebecca a curious look, and she responded with a wiggle of her fingers to send him on his way.

Then he finally pushed away from the wall and stepped out with Rick, laughing.

“If I’m not back in time,” Rick called over his shoulder, “please start without me.”

“We’ll wait.” Rebecca couldn’t help smiling despite the ever-present frustration Rowan posed at what felt like all the worst times. She would have loved to experience less of it.

---