Page 19 of Elven Prince

Rebecca would take being Roth-Da’al of Shade over Agn’a Tha’ros’s Bloodshadow Heir any damn day.

That didn’t mean she didn’t miss the camaraderie inherently unavailable to those in charge.

In some ways, she now stood a world apart from her entire task force, and she hadn’t expected to care enough about everyone here for that to even make a difference.

It definitely made a difference now.

Including when she stopped behind Titus towering over the over the small group huddled in front of him. His next booming laugh drowned out all other sound in the room.

The others caught sight of Rebecca before he even knew she was there. They smiled and nodded, just like everyone else, but the open comfort they’d just shared now solidified into a quiet, reserved readiness for whatever came next.

There wasn’t a whole lot she could do about that.

So she jumped right in. “Sounds like I missed a hell of a joke. Anyone wanna fill me in?”

The others clamped their mouths shut and shared hesitant looks.

When Rebecca tried to elbow Titus in the ribs—made very awkward by his ribs being at the same height as her shoulder—the big guy started, stepped back, and turned to look at her before breaking into an even larger grin.

“Well hey, Knox. Finally decided to join us down here, huh? Look at that.” He brought a thick, enormous hand down on her shoulder in a perfectly friendly pat, though it knocked the air out of her and made her stagger beneath the weight of it.

“I would’ve gotten here sooner if I’d known what was happening,” she replied. “Nyx had to leave her own party just to tell me about it.”

Titus threw his head back and roared with laughter again. “Aww… You feeling left out?”

A little.

“Not at all,” she said. “But I do want a word with you, if you don’t mind.”

“No problem.” Titus only took one step to pivot toward her with his full attention. The others around him had to shuffle out of the way to accommodate the giant shift of weight and mass to avoid getting bowled over. “What’s up, boss?”

Rebecca wanted to step back so she wouldn’t have to crane her neck to look at him, but there wasn’t any room. “I’m heading back to the Nexus vault to pick up a few things. And I want you to come with me.”

He snorted out another laugh, but when he seemed to realize she was serious, he choked back his amusement and gaped at her instead. “Whyme?”

Yes, indeed. Why him?

“Well, Hannigan’s got a lot on his plate with the new recruits. Apparently, he’s drummed up a special training session for them today. And he can’t do his job when he still refuses to let me go anywhere on my own for Shade business. Help me humor him?”

Titus stared at her, his expression blank and clueless but for the tiniest twitch of a smile at the corner of his mouth. “Still doesn’t answer my question.”

No, it certainly didn’t.

With a wry laugh, Rebecca spread her arms and shrugged. “Fine. You’re the biggest, scariest-looking dude we’ve got. And the most likely to terrify someone out of starting any trouble with us.”

The vuulbor pressed his lips together to keep from laughing. “Are you expecting any?”

“Well Iwasn’t. But now I guess I probably should at any given moment, right? Especially when you’re asking about it.”

Titus’s next thunderous laugh made her blink in surprise and lean away from him. Once again, the noise in the common room momentarily dimmed until everyone else realized it was just the vuulbor and not impending danger.

Then all the conversation started back up again, though now, several more people turned her way to see what was so damn funny.

Honestly, Rebecca would have loved to know that herself. Mostly, she figured it was just Titus being Titus.

“Well okay, then,” he said with a nod. “Just tell me when, and I’ll be there.”

“Great.” She gave him a friendly smack on the arm with the back of her hand, which she imagined affected him as much as a mosquito bite on an elephant. Then she turned toward the hallway leading out of the common room and straight toward the front descending stairwell. “Garage in ten minutes. It’ll be a quick trip in and out. I promise.”

---