Page 65 of Elven Lies

The seconds passed in tense awareness as she scrutinized the level-five lobby. It wasn’t big enough to hide anyone else in here with them, but she could have sworn she’d felt something…

No one revealed themselves. She didn’t hear a thing.

So she slowly removed her hand from Rowan’s mouth and absently wiped her palm on the leg of her jeans.

He grinned at her. “I wouldloveto know what that was about.”

“I thought I heard something.”

“Oh, yeah?” He turned casually around to survey the luxuriously furnished lobby, his grin unchanged. “Well did you, or didn’t you?”

“I guess not.” Rebecca’s gaze flickered back and forth between every piece of tastefully matching furniture and toward every other door on level five. “Could just be something in the building.”

“Oryou’re just so tightly wound, even an empty room feels like a threat. Seriously,Kilda’ari, when was the last time you took a vacation?”

Rebecca’s frown darkened. “What?”

“Avacation. You know… A day off? A chance to chill out and leave all your worries and responsibilities behind? I mean arealone too. Not just literally running away and never coming back. I’m talking room service, a day at the spa, elite-status treatment…”

With a wry chuckle, she approached the door again. Once more, the blue glow around it intensified with every step closer. “That hasn’t been on my priority list for a while.”

“That’s exactly my point. Here you are, following leads and questioning key-makers and hunting down private storagevaults in the middle of human cities. Now you’re hearing things when there’s nothing there. Hell, don’t tell me the Roth-Da’al doesn’t deserve a little me-time now and then. I know I haven’t been around that long, but evenIcan see you’ve earned it.”

Rebecca paused with her hand in her jacket pocket and smirked at him over her shoulder. “That was a rather selfless suggestion.”

Rowan shrugged. “Just a thought. One that clearly hasn’t occurred to you.”

“And I suppose next you’re gonna tell me the perfect me-time vacation would be a glorious getaway to Agn’a Tha’ros?”

“Ha. No way. You and I both know how brutal things are there.Notrelaxing-vacation material.”

With her smiles coming a little easier now and her tension releasing enough for her to appreciate his recommendation, Rebecca began to pull the key from her jacket pocket. “Does this mean you’ve given up on convincing me to go back?”

“Nope. I’ve just switched to convincing you you need a vacation.” He spread his arms. “Those are two totally different things. One has nothing to do with the other.”

“Silly me.” Rebecca almost let herself laugh, but she stopped when the key snagged on something in her pocket. Frowning, she gave it a gentle tug, but it wouldn’t come out.

Rowan leaned toward her, peering at her jacket pocket. “You forget why we’re here?”

“No. It’s just caught on…” She tugged harder, the snag broke free, then she had the key in her hand, its intense blue glow matching the door and filling her entire line of vision. Something else toppled to the floor beside her—a soft weight dropping against the side of her boot before it hit the marble.

“What’s that?” Rowan pointed toward the ground at her feet, then Rebecca huffed out a laugh when she found what he was talking about.

“Whoops. I forgot I still had this with me.”

Only then did it occur to her that she didn’t remember feeling the magical burlap-sack doll filled with old-world magic in her jacket pocket for some time. As it now lay on the floor at her feet, though, she’d obviously been walking around with it in her pocket for days.

After using it the night she and Maxwell had infiltrated the prison yard at Harkennr’s compound before the whole thing went belly-up in a chaotic firefight.

Had it really been that long?

“That’s not an answer, though,” Rowan said, his gaze glued to the doll. “Whatisit?”

“I honestly don’t know yet. But I’m sure I’ll figure it out eventually.” She bent forward, reaching for the hex doll with her free hand while the key in her other hand glowed even brighter beside the door to which it belonged.

She couldn’t have known that hex doll sticking in her pocket and falling to the floor would end up saving her ass seconds later.

As soon as Rebecca’s fingers closed around the rough, scratchy weight of the hex doll, she once again heard the sound that had previously made her pause in the level-five lobby.

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