Page 30 of Elven Prince

She opened and closed all the drawers in the antique desk just to make it sound like she was looking for something instead, then doubled back and shoved the hex doll deep down in the bottom left-hand drawer beneath a stack of signed photographs and an illegally imported humidor still fully stocked with pungent cigars.

No one would be snooping around in here without her knowing about it. And nowno onewould be getting their hands on one seriously powerful old-world artifact, Darkspawn or not.

Fortunately for her, Titus didn’t hover over her in the vault, scrutinizing her every move the way Maxwell had the first and only time she’d brought him here. She might as well seize the opportunity to bury one more liability in her possession amidst all the other valuable junk in this vault and call it a day.

One less thing to keep her up at night, along with everything else, and admittedly the easiest to get off her plate.

When it was done, she left the vault, pulled the door shut behind her, and double-checked that it was locked up tight.

“Let’s get out of here,” she muttered and headed for the golden circle in the center of the level-five lobby floor.

“After you, boss,” Titus rumbled, sweeping a hand out in front of him while holding two giant, ridiculously heavy crates of valuable Shade funds on his other shoulder with one hand.

Their trip out of Nexus and back to Shade Headquarters was calmer and more uneventful than Rebecca had believed was possible.

She wanted to believe it was because her task force had made a dent in all the issues this city’s magical underground faced. Maybe that they finally had some decent luck after everything they’d been through. They sure as shit deserved it.

She wanted to believe all these things, but she couldn’t shake the feeling something horrible was about to fall on their doorstep any second now.

She just had no way to figure out when it would, or where, or who would be behind it. At this point, Shade had several enemies to choose from, and those enemies were now dealing with the new Roth-Da’al.

Most of them knew Rebecca was the one who’d filled the position after Aldous left the game forever.

The closer she and Titus approached the compound, though, the more her expectation grew into certainty.

The other shoewoulddrop. Nothing in this city could stay this quiet for long. Not with so many loose ends and missing pieces still floating around out there, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike back…

Without any more knowledge than that, Rebecca could only hope she and her task force didn’t get completely caught off-guard again. They’d learned their lesson in that sense several times over.

But if just one of those loose ends got the drop on them one more time, she wasn’t nearly as certain that they’d be able to bounce back in quite the same way.

8

The second Rebecca pulled the Honda into the parking garage, her stomach dropped, and every ounce of her awareness drew inward onto one devastating certainty.

Something was wrong.

Very wrong.

The instant niggling in the back of her mind told her it the danger had something to do with Shade’s fairly new semi parked inside, impossible to miss.

“Huh.” Scrutinizing the eighteen-wheeler with a deepening frown as she slowed her own vehicle to a stop in its regular parking spot. “Wasn’t Archie on his way out when we left?”

Crammed into the passenger seat beside her, Titus scratched his nose. “Uh-huh.”

“Looks like he hasn’t even taken off yet.”

He shrugged. “Takes us way longer to get to that vault and back than Archie to get out to make a trip to the warehouse. I even timed it. Once.”

Rebecca killed the engine and turned to look at him. “You’vebeen on kitchen runs?”

He smirked back at her. “Everybody’s got their part to play, Roth-Da’al.”

“Fair enough. I’m popping the trunk. Can you grab those crates and take them up to my office?”

“Scary-lookingandstrong.” Titus wiggled his eyebrows at her. “Now I know why you picked me for thisspecial assignment.”

With a snort, Rebecca popped the trunk and got out of the car, shooting occasional glances at the truck she didn’t know would become such a source of concern.

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