Page 96 of Elven Lies

“Just wait a minute—”

“No, you don’t understand! Let me go!”

Rebecca and Maxwell turned around toward the screaming to see the same thin witch who’d been talking with Zane now tear away from him before she barreled straight toward the team leaders holding their unofficial meeting in the center of both teams’ recovered convoys.

“Knox!” Zane shouted before spreading his arms. “She won’t—”

“That’s all right,” Rebecca called back, then walked away from the huddle to meet the witch halfway.

The other woman was so malnourished and off balance, she could hardly stand. She’d clearly pushed herself to her ownphysical limits to get to the team leaders that much faster and could hardly hobble in a straight line.

Rebecca caught up to her and reached for the witch’s shoulders just as the poor thing stumbled over her own feet and practically tripped right into Rebecca’s arms. “Whoa, it’s okay. Hey. Everyone’s safe now.”

“No, they’re not!” the witch cried, righting herself and clasping Rebecca’s forearms before meeting her gaze with wide, desperate brown eyes. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell him, but he won’tlisten.”

“Okay. Okay. Let’s just get you sitting down, then you can tellme, all right?” Rebecca tried to guide the witch toward the rear of one of their open vehicles, but the other woman wouldn’t budge.

“No, I have to tell you now,” she panted. “We have to go back.”

“Back?” Rebecca paused to search the woman’s face. “We’re trying to help you get home.”

“No, back to where they’re keeping all the others,” the witch blurted. “You have to help them too. You have to get everyone else out of there. Please!”

“Slow down a second. Get who out of where?”

“The other prisoners like us,” the witch panted. “The ones they didn’t take out tonight to drive us wherever we were going. They’re still all back there right now, and if we don’t do something, they’ll just send more men back there and take them anyway. Please.”

Rebecca studied the witch’s desperate, terrified face, then looked up toward Maxwell, Diego, and Hank, in case any of them had a clue as to what the witch was talking about.

Maxwell was already on his way toward them, and when he reached them, his voice was surprisingly gentle. “Where is there?”

“Th-the warehouse. The men who took us, they were keeping us all in a warehouse. There are so many more of us still in there now. Youhaveto help them too. Mysister’sthere. Please. Please, you have to—”

She burst into breathless sobs and sagged against Rebecca for support.

“What’s your name?” Rebecca finally asked after the worst of it seemed to have passed.

The witch sniffled. “Maddie.”

“Okay, Maddie. Where is this warehouse?”

“I…I don’t know any of the street names around here. We’re from Boise. But I can show you exactly where it is. I can take you there. I promise I can. Just please don’t leave them behind. Please.”

That hadn’t been part of their plan tonight.

Intercepting these van-loads of Harkennr’s newest experiment subjects had felt surprisingly easy from the start. Rebecca should have known there would be more to it.

When she looked up at Maxwell, meaning to ask for his opinion, the pain and fury mingling in his expression told her everything she needed to know.

He wouldn’t be able to let this go, knowing there was an entire separate facility out there, away from the prison, holding even more of Harkennr’s future victims.

Rebecca couldn’t let it go, either, regardless of whether she held a sobbing young witch in her arms literally begging Shade for their help.

The rendezvous point had fallen disturbingly silent, and as Rebecca scanned the faces of every operative she and Maxwell had assigned to what was supposed to be a simple ambush on Harkennr’s prisoner transport, each of their faces reflected the same decision both teams seemed to have already made.

They had to help these magicals however possible. Which now meant looking for this warehouse to get the others out before it was too late for all of them.

Even if it took these teams wildly off course before they had any idea what the fuck they were getting into next.

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