Page 18 of Elven Prince

Shade was definitely starting to look like the kind of organization they could all be proud of. The kind of organization that made others want to join because it meant something more than free room and board at Headquarters and the chance of a little fighting action now and then.

Bit by bit, Shade was improving.

Rebecca couldn’t take the credit for it on her own, nor did she want to.

Then an unnerving new thought wormed its way into her mind.

Shade was improving and would continue on the right path to even greater heights…

As long as Rebecca didn’t drive it straight into the ground by making the wrong move at the absolutely wrong time.

That was exactly what she’d tried to avoid, and with Rowan Blackmoon gone, it seemed infinitely more possible.

With the exception of one major potentiality still entirely out of her control.

She still didn’t know where Rowan was. If he’d left for good, never to return to Shade or into Rebecca’s life.

She had no idea if he was still out there somewhere in Chicago, plotting either Rebecca’s demise or her forced return to Xahar’áhsh.

Anything was possible, including the worst possible scenario. Without more information, she simply couldn’t prepare enough for all possible eventualities.

But she hoped he stayed away, for her own good and for his.

Until she had reason to believe otherwise, he was gone. And she still had a job to do.

Titus was the easiest to find among the celebrating crowd. At just over seven feet tall, the hulkingly muscular vuulbor towered over every other member, including Maxwell, by nearly a foot. The guy’s freakishly large size and mottled gray flesh, his bald head covered in crisscrossing scars like the rest of him, made him stand out in any situation. Even at a party.

When his bellowing laughter thundered across the common room, Rebecca wouldn’t have had to spot him first. She would only have had to follow the sound.

The gathered operatives parted quickly and respectfully for her as she crossed the room toward him, smiling and nodding at their Roth-Da’al when she passed.

Rebecca returned the greetings with smiles and nods of her own, all of which felt natural and genuine.

She couldn’t help but notice, though, how the conversation ebbed at her approach. That the jokes and animated stories her operatives told each other were automatically put on hold until Shade’s commander had moved past and beyond hearing range. Only then did they pick up again in hushed tones.

The feeling in the air shifted palpably around Rebecca’s presence—still jovial and celebratory, but now with an added air of deference.

Deference, respect, and anticipation.

No one wanted to say or do anything to garner their Roth-Da’al’s attention. That didn’t stop the whispered comments, the speculations of why she was here or whether something had happened. The uncertainty of whether they were to cut the party short because it must have been somethingelsethat had brought the Roth-Da’al down here.

She tried to ignore that, too, but couldn’t help noting one more difference throughout Shade since she’d taken command.

As Rebecca Knox, Shade’s only elf and just another operative fighting the good fight with those beside her—or trying to—she’d taken great pains to remain mostly invisible within the task force. To not make waves and not draw attention to herself.

Now, as Roth-Da’al, she had everyone’s attention, constantly and without hesitation.

But sometimes, like now, where her presence came with the automatic expectation that she was here as commander and nothing else, she stillfeltinvisible.

This was just a different kind.

The kind brought on by those around her automatically erecting their own walls whenever she appeared, so as not to say the wrong thing, or make a mistake in front of her, or let their guard down in case their Roth-Da’al required something different of them.

Every member of this task force would put their lives on the line for her, and she for them. She believed that. But Rebecca wasn’t just another part of the team anymore.

She was its head. Their leader. The very top of the pyramid calling all the shots. Separated from each of them by the simplicity of her elevated position.

Such was the burden of leadership, with which she’d become acquainted a long time ago. Just one of the many things she’d foresworn when leaving behind the status and position and duties expected of her in the Bloodshadow Court.

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