Page 29 of Elven Lies

“I appreciate your consideration,” she replied cautiously, “but for now, the only thing I can tell you is that I’m not ready to make any decisions on this.”

She wanted to tell him to go fuck himself, but choosing to leave a few possibilities open was probably more than he’d hoped to get from her.

It was more than she wanted to give, but he’d walked her into a corner with invitations and old laws and a kingly feast, not to mention the fact that he still held Nyx hostage somewhere and still hadn’t told Rebecca where that was.

“I completely understand,” Harkennr added with a gracious dip of his head. “And I commend your caution, Roth-Da’al. Truly, I do. Your predecessor didn’t possess the same presence of mind, to say nothing for his strength of character. I’ll only say one more thing, and then I’ll let you take your time to think things over.”

Onlyonemore thing?

“Yes, I did make certain arrangements with Aldous in the past. This is true. I also understand how a change in leadership can affect those kinds of agreements. I do not wish to hold you to another’s standards, nor do I expect you to be anything like Aldous Corriger as Shade’s new Roth-Da’al. I imagine any similarities the two of you shared would have prevented your being recommended for the position in the first place.

“You must make your own decisions, of course. Do remember I eagerly await your response while you take the necessary time to decide. Not too much time, though, I hope.”

Rebecca shouldn’t have eaten that grape.

Now it threatened to fly back up, though vomiting on every other dish on the table hardly fell under the umbrella of proper etiquette in civilized gatherings.

“I’ll—” Her throat felt like it was closing, and she snatched up Maxwell’s water glass before draining the rest of it in one breath and trying her damnedest not to shatter that glass when she set it back down on his place setting.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” she finally said with a surprisingly level confidence she absolutely did not feel.

“Wonderful.” Harkennr spread his arms and sat back in his chair again, like a lunatic king on his imaginary throne. “It would delight me to know I may have you come aboard. But I am content to hear you’ll consider it. That’s all I’m asking for now.”

Bullshit. He was asking her to swallow more than one bitter pill as she sat here listening to him rattle on about his past and future plans and how valuable he thought she could be, either as a test subject or as a fucking partner in torture and mad-magitek science.

There was nothing Rebecca could do about it now. Harkennr hadn’t just abducted Nyx to get Rebecca’s attention. He’d taken one ofheroperatives, a member ofhertask force underhercommand andherprotection, and had used the katari as a hostage to keep both Rebecca and Maxwell in line while he spouted insanity at them.

He had to know most sane people on Earth, old-worlders or Earthborn, would have been appalled by his work and subsequent propositions. That most would have left in an outrage, abandoning their airs of formal civility before trying to wring Harkennr’s neck in his own house.

Rebecca wanted to.

So did Maxwell.

His breathing had quickened to an alarming rate, his silver eyes strobing violently beneath the strain of holding himself in check.

From somewhere beneath the table, Rebecca heard the grinding slice of fingernails cutting into wood.

If he kept this up much longer, he’d pull the chair apart with his bare hands while still sitting in it.

Please,By the Blood,let this sadistic bastard be finished with his side of the story.

If they didn’t get Nyx out of here soon, their window of opportunity would likely close, and that moment now felt dangerously close.

“How exciting.” Harkennr simpered in his chair, then looked at Maxwell for the first time in the last twenty minutes of the warlock’s babbling about his torturous, illegal, unethical, but staggeringly beneficial work. “Before we move on to other things, I would love to answer any questions either of you may have.”

“Enough of this!” With a snarl, Maxwell leaped to his feet. His chair slid out behind him across the rug with hardly a sound, then stuck fast. “You told us once you finished, you would give us the information about Nyx we requested. So where is she? What have you done to her?”

“Oh…” An eerily girlish chuckle erupted from Harkennr’s open mouth as he reached into the inside breast pocket of his dinner jacket. “I do admire such unrestrained passion, though it’s more helpful for everyone if you learn how to focus it.”

Every muscle in Rebecca’s body tensed and thrummed with awareness before that blazing, fiery burn shot straight through to her bones again.

No, not her bones. Not even her muscles. She was feelingMaxwellagain.

Not the best timing, but she couldn’t blame him for reacting like this when a lunatic like Harkennr reached into his pocket with a predatory grin that now made him look like a shark in a dinner jacket.

It was slightly harder to reach him—and vastly more obvious when Rebecca remained in her chair and Maxwell had already stood—but she leaned toward him far enough to grab his wrist again and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

No shifting. No fighting. Those were the rules. They had to put up with Harkennr only until the second they left his base. After that, everything was back on the table again. But not just yet.

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