Page 95 of Elven Lies

“Most of it.” Rebecca glanced over her shoulder at the magicals they’d found all crammed together in the back of that single van. “Most of them are still pretty shell-shocked. I don’t know if they really understand yet that we showed up to help.”

“How many did you find?” Hank asked.

“Twenty-two,” Maxwell said.

“Damn. And I thought seven was more than enough,” Diego said.

Rebecca nodded. “Well then there’s plenty of room between four vehicles to get everybody somewhere safe as soon as possible. We’ll head out in a few minutes, once they’ve had a little more time to process what’s going on. The last thing we need is for any of Harkennr’s victims to start feeling like they were saved from one abduction just to be whisked right into another.”

“I’m not sure anyone could confuse rescue with another abduction,” Maxwell murmured.

She looked at him sideways. “You’d be surprised by what people’s brains can come up with. Especially after whatthey’vebeen through.” Then she turned her attention to Diego. “Did you get any other information or intel from the driver?”

The Cruorcian shook his head. “Never even had a chance. Both of Harkennr’s errand boys and that truck back there took something before we could question them.”

“They poisoned themselves?” Rebecca asked.

Both Diego and Hank sent her sharp looks before Hank nodded. “As far as we could tell, that’s what probably happened, yeah. Didn’t exactly stop to run any tests, though, since we had a few extra people to get out of there. Top priority.”

“You made the right call,” Rebecca said. “We came up against the same issue.”

“That was an ancillary directive anyway,” Maxwell said. “What matters is we staked out the right locations and stopped these assholes before they could do any more damage.”

A pained shout came from the much larger group of victims Rebecca’s team had recovered. Then a tall, skinny witch wearing nothing but rags flung herself away from the group, only to be stopped again by Zane for a chat. Every Shade operative had discarded their weapons for the time being, hoping it would make the captives feel a little safer in their rescuers’ midst.

“So where do we go from here?” Hank asked.

“We can’t keep driving these people around with us all night,” Rebecca said, “and I don’t think it’s in anyone’s best interest to take them back home with us.”

Maxwell nodded. “I agree.”

“But where did they all come from?” she asked before turning back toward the other team leaders. “That’s a question we need to answer. We can’t just let them go and hope everybody has a safe journey home on their own.”

“Of course not,” he said. “They’re our responsibility, and we’ll see it through until we know they’re off Harkennr’s radar.”

“Has anybody said anything on your side?” Rebecca asked, nodding toward Bravo Team’s vehicles and the silent, traumatized prisoners staring at everything with wide eyes.

“They really won’t say much,” Diego said. “But I guess if anyone can get anything out of them at this point, it’d be Blackmoon.”

She wasn’t sure, but she could’ve sworn Maxwell choked on something.

“Blackmoon?” the shifter grunted.

“I know,” Diego said. “Wouldn’t have figured him as the best of us to turn to with a bunch of civilian prisoners right after we just changed their fates, but he’s actually done a pretty okay job.”

“He didn’t get in the way during your op?” Rebecca asked.

Hank and Diego both shook their heads before Hank shrugged and replied, “Not really, no.”

Wasn’t that a surprise?

Maybe Rebecca couldn’t predict Rowan’s every move after all. It sounded like he’d behaved himself.

“Where is he now?” she asked.

“Still talking to the prisoners, I think,” Diego said. “I’ll go get him if you want to.”

“Please!” The echoing cry rang across the field. “Please, I just have tosaysomething!”

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