Page 100 of Elven Lies

“You think it’ll be necessary?” he asked.

“Honestly, no. But I don’t wanna give him the opportunity to screw anything up. It’s better to keep him out of the way this time, and there are still a lot of civilians in there. We both know he wouldn’t have just gone straight back to headquarters if I’d ordered it. I had to give himsomething.”

By the Blood, the lie set her throat on fire on its way out. She almost hadn’t managed to pull it off. It hurt so badly, almost as much as feeling distance between her and Maxwell. Now she’d finally tested her theory of how physically difficult it would be to lie to him.

But she’d done it.

She didn’t have any other choice.

If she’d told him the truth, he would have fought her every step of the way, and she couldn’t let that happen.

There was so much more riding on this breach op tonight, and even her Head of Security was aware she couldn’t let him jeopardize it all because of how deeply he mistrusted Rowan Blackmoon.

If everything went the way she expected it to, tonight’s final mission would bring down two birds with one stone.

A massive hit to Harkennr’s operation through his supply chain, and a way to finally get rid of Rowan for good.

Not once had Rowan gone with the program and done exactly as he was told. Tonight, for the first time, that would no longer be a liability.

Tonight, she was counting on it.

29

Rebecca had every faith in her team’s ability to tackle Harkennr’s victim-storing warehouse. But now that they were here, about to launch the first attack, she had second thoughts about the six rescued prisoners who’d agreed to fight with them.

Beside her, the witch Maddie focused on the front of the warehouse, her wide brown eyes welling with tears. The augmented rifle Shade had given her trembled in her hands.

While they had only a few seconds left before the breach team got into position and signaled it was time to move in, Rebecca couldn’t help but sidle up beside the witch and whisper, “You’ve already gotten us this far. You don’t have to move in on this with us. It’s okay to sit this one out, if you want.”

The witch clenched her jaw, clearly trying to steel herself even just to offer a reply, then turned toward Rebecca with grim determination despite the tears shimmering in her eyes. “I’m fine. There’s no way I’m sitting this one out. My sister’s in there,and everyone else who wasn’t lucky enough to get out tonight like I was. I have to do this, Roth-Da’al.”

Rebecca admired the witch’s conviction. She hadn’t expected the woman to take her up on the offer now that they were so close to executing this last-minute addition to their operation tonight.

But the smart thing would have been to order Maddie to stand down and hang back until the Shade teams got the full measure of how this would pan out once they engaged.

She could have made the order, and it would have been obeyed.

Whether Maddie or any of the other rescued prisoners recognized the history of the Roth-Da’al title, though, she’d clearly used it on purpose. She meant to follow Rebecca and her teams into this battle, no matter what. She meant to free her sister and as many of the others as possible, because sitting out and waiting for someone else to get the job done would have been far more excruciating.

Against her better judgment, Rebecca nodded and left it at that. They were already here. It was too late to change anyone’s mind.

“Just stay close,” she whispered. “The breach team goes in first to give your sister and the others a fighting chance before we can get them out of there. We’re staying out front to buy them time. Understand?”

“I won’t let you down,” Maddie replied with a curt nod. Her voice had stopped trembling, but it didn’t mean much.

No, Rebecca didn’t expect the witch to let her down at all tonight. Fortunately, she wasn’t counting on these battered, malnourished, terrified, and infuriated victims of Harkennr’s mad plans for anything beyond seizing their chance.

A few more decent fighters were welcome, but Rebecca knew the only things they wanted were to see their friends and lovedones and all the other prisoners liberated while seizing their own opportunity to exact revenge. The best that could come out of this was that none of these six extra last-minute fighters would jeopardize this much larger rescue mission and that they wouldn’t do anything to make it even more difficult than it was already going to be.

Rebecca hadn’t had the heart to tell them no when they were ready, willing, and mostly capable of joining in. She recognized all too well their anger and their need to regain their own power through action.

Though Maxwell hadn’t said a thing since they’d taken their positions in the woods along the warehouse’s west side, she still felt his apprehension and wariness battling with his compassion for these victims as fiercely as her own.

When had doing the right thing become such an undeniable risk?

Rebecca met his silver gaze in the darkness. Maxwell dipped his head in acknowledgement.

They were in this together—all three Shade teams, the six prisoners rescued from Harkennr’s transport vehicles, Rebecca, and Maxwell.

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