Page 69 of Elven Lies

Rowan wrinkled his nose at the pitiful creature. “Oh, come on… What’s he doing?”

“We c-came here to get a job done,” Tusks grumbled. He seemed unable to decide on glowering at his interrogators or joining his buddy in freaking out. “Gotta come up withsomethingfor the boss, so we came here for Aldous. Now you’re…you’re telling us we can’t even dothat.”

Rebecca didn’t have a chance to reply. The smaller orc howled in terror, the sound made all the more pitiful by his fitful struggling against his bonds as he rocked on the floor.

This wasn’t good at all.

If someone Rebecca didn’t know and hadn’t even heard of before wasthisterrified and upset about the death of Aldous Corriger, they must have been more involved with the guy than anyone should ever have been.

Either that, or whoever they worked for was such a cruel and vicious master, their failure would mean a whole lot worse for them than lying on the marble floor of Chicago’s Nexus building to be questioned by Rebecca and Rowan.

Whatever terrified these orcs so much now that they knew the truth, it couldn’t possibly mean anything good for Shade.

And Rebecca and Rowan had just inserted themselves right into the middle of it.

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“Aw,man! Aw,no… You can’tdothis to us,” Shorty blubbered, rocking on his belly on the floor while beside him, Tusks started to hyperventilate too now, spittle stringing from his mouth and spattering across the polished floor. “It can’t be true! You’re lying. You’re liars. Both of you.”

“Trust me, it’s not something I’d joke about,” Rebecca said flatly. “Though I’d never be as upset about the news asyouare.”

“Ah,shit…” Shorty’s rocking intensified. “We’re screwed. We’re done for. It’s all over! We’re—”

“It ain’t our fault!” Tusks snapped at him. “Just gotta set it right is all.”

“Set what right?” Rebecca asked, trying not to cringe at the sight of two grown, admittedly intimidating-looking orcs falling apart at her feet.

“None of your business, lady,” the bigger guy spat. “But now I got a question foryou.”

“Wonderful,” Rowan added flatly. “How the tides have turned…”

Tusks’s orange eyes narrowed as his breathing calmed. “If Aldous is really gone, then who’s on the hook for handing over what our boss is owed?”

“Oh, Blue Hells,” Rebecca muttered.

Of course Aldous had gotten himself involved in something that would eventually show up to fall on his successor’s head when he couldn’t deliver. It was a miracle it had taken eventhislong.

“No one’s on the hook,” she said. “The changeling made his own choices, and those are his alone.”

“Nah, that ain’t how it works,” Tusks barked. “I mean who took over? Who’s next in line?”

Before Rebecca could even open her mouth for a reply, Rowan pointed at her and sniggered. “Sheis. New Roth-Da’al and all that.”

She glared at him. That wasn’t his information to give away, and definitely not so freely like this. He had no idea what he was volunteering her for in the first place, but any of Aldous’s unfulfilled debts were sure to be a complete nightmare.

Whose side was he on, anyway?

For a long moment, she stared at the side of Rowan’s face and waited. When he finally looked at her, she nodded toward the other side of the room. “I’d like a word with you.”

“Don’t you wanna hear what these guys are looking for?” he asked.

“Now.” She headed away from the orcs, who were now painfully desperate to salvage their own secret mission.

“Wait, wait, wait!” Tusks shouted. “We can fix this! All you gotta do is come back with us. We’ll say we captured you, tell our boss what’s up, and you can hand over what Aldous was supposed to.”

“Hey,yeah!” Shorty exclaimed. “That’s it! We’ll captureyouinstead. Then everything’s taken care of!”

Rebecca turned around to stare at them in disbelief.

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