Page 77 of Elven Lies

“It’s not important.” She refused to look at him, even while her hand slipped absently into her jacket pocket.

“Yeah, see, I don’t believe that, either. And now I can’t help but wonder if—”

“Rowan, please. Just drop it.”

He studied the side of her face as they continued their casually brisk pace back across the city. “Well now I’m evenmoreintrigued.”

Rebecca heard the smirk in his voice. Playing even more games. Always.

She didn’t want to discuss the burlap doll with insanely powerful old-world magic buried deep inside, mostly because she still had no idea what this artifact was or the full extent of what it could do. Plus, every time she’d used it had been by accident.

So she kept her silence, which seemed enough to stop Rowan from questioning her further.

“Oh, hey. Look atthat.” He pointed to their left, leaning toward her. “What’s that all the way out there?”

“What?”

“What do you mean, what? Come on. That thing. The big, giant, shiny silver…bean-thingy.”

“What, The Bean?” she asked with a wry laugh. “You’ve been here how long?”

“Don’t be like that. I’m still a tourist. You’re not gonna explain it to—whoa!” He stumbled forward and sideways, knocking into Rebecca to send her almost stumbling off the curb.

“What are you doing?”

“Sorry. Just not watching my feet. I think I tripped over something.” Rowan looked over his shoulder at the sidewalk behind them and chuckled. “My bad.”

“You sure you’re okay?” Rebecca looked him up and down. Had one of the orcs hit him with their attacks inside Nexus and she just hadn’t noticed?

She’d never known Rowan to be even a little clumsy, even under the worst circumstances.

Not unless he was doing it on purpose.

Like bumping into someone…

Her hand went instantly to the outside of her jacket pocket, but when she patted it, there was nothing there beneath her hand. No solid weight of the hex doll she’d been keeping there.

“Hey!” she shouted. “You—”

“Just couldn’t help myself,” he finished for her and leaped nimbly away toward the opposite side of the sidewalk. “And justlookat this thing!”

He lifted his hand to study the burlap-covered hex doll he’d just pick-pocketed from her and grinned. “Holy shit.”

“You can’t just reach into my pockets whenever you want.” Rebecca extended an open hand toward him.

“Oh, really?” Chuckling, Rowan twirled the hex doll back and forth between his fingers by one of its narrow arms. “The evidence begs to differ.”

“Give it back.”

This was ridiculous. Why did she feel like she was talking to a child?

“Yeah. Sure,” he said. “I just wanna check it out. You know what this is, don’t you?”

“Not yours.” Rebecca swiped at the doll, but he whisked it out of her reach at the last second.

“This is the Darkspawn,” Rowan declared.

She fixed him with a deadpan stare, then burst out laughing. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

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