Page 52 of Elven Lies

“I do. Memorized the whole thing. My mind’s a steel trap. You know that.”

Sure. For useless information, not anything that might actually help them.

When still nothing happened, Rowan gave it another try and knocked again.

And still no sign of movement or anyone else’s presence.

Why would knocking on bricks in the middle of an alley bring them straight to this alleged key-maker?

Then it hit her.

Either Rowan had been duped by this magical calling himself a key-maker and claiming he could be found in Chicago, or Rowan had lost his mind.

He repeatedly tapped his foot beside one especially slimy puddle and folded his arms.

“Did he happen to mention how long this was supposed to take?” she asked.

“Just give it a bit longer. Patience as a virtue and all that.”

Oh, sure. He could throw that line in her face all he wanted, but if Rowan was ever dependably anything, it wasimpatient.

“I think your key-maker pulled a fast one on you,” she muttered, scanning the rest of the alley.

“Really,Kilda’ari?” He looked over his shoulder at her with another vicious grin. “After all this time, you still have so little faith in me?”

She scrunched up her face. “It doesn’t even make sense.”

“It will if you just give it a minute and quit complaining.”

“Rowan, this is a massive waste of time. I only came with you because you said you’d show me where to find the key-maker, but this—”

A deep, resounding boom shuddered through the alley, making the stone tremble beneath her feet while all the little grimy puddles rippled with the vibrations.

Several more echoing clicks and rumbles filled the air, bouncing back and forth between the brick walls. Then, to Rebecca’s utter surprise, those brick walls of this nondescript alley in the middle of downtown Chicago started to move.

17

Rebecca tensed and waited, expecting the entire space between buildings to come crashing down around them at any second.

The echoing rumble filling the alley was so loud, it was amazing no civilians heard it on their way past and stopped to check the alley. The ground trembled. The brick walls pulled away from each other to reveal a section not remotely visible until this whole thing started.

Rowan looked over his shoulder at her again with a beaming grin before wiggling his eyebrows.

What the hell had he gotten them into now?

The second Rebecca realized it was time to prepare for the worst, the walls stopped moving and the ominous rumbling cut off. Then, from within the darkness between the separated alley walls, a head appeared.

A very old head belonging to a very old elf, from the looks of him.

He was incredibly tall and had to stoop to look through the door. The stiff, equally tall top hat resting snugly over his short brown hair probably didn’t help.

At first, it seemed the elf’s head had appeared out of nowhere, but then Rebecca recognized the strangely camouflaged door opening just a little wider to reveal nothing but thick blackness on the other side.

The elf peered farther out, squinting dubiously. When he saw Rebecca standing there a few yards away, he opened his mouth as if to question her before his gaze fell on Rowan. What had first seemed like curiosity morphed in an instant into sheer terror when the older elf gentleman recognized the much younger Blackmoon Elf before him.

Rowan grinned.

The old man’s eyes widened, and he stuttered several times before finally managing to spit out his words. “Oh no, no, no. Absolutely not. Not now, not ever! I amnottalking to you!”

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