Page 72 of Elven Prince

If Rebecca couldn’t figure out what Rowan was up to out there on his own somewhere, doing ancestors only knew what, she had a few dozen other eyes and ears at her disposal, all very capable of reporting of alerting her if he tried to show his face again.

Most surprising of all, her words seemed to have elicited a calming response in the common room. Her operatives nodded, jaws set in grim determination, stances erect and focused on their Roth-Da’al, not an ounce of resentment or outrage from anyone.

This had gone better than she’d hoped for, and now she had to turn her focus to other things.

“Well.” Rebecca huffed out a wry laugh. “I’ve kept you here long enough already. That’s everything. You’re all dismissed. And again, like Hannigan said, this council is available if you need us. But until then, everybody get back to work.”

There was no ending cheer of support and excitement, but the common room instantly filled with the echoing drone of countless conversations breaking out all at once.

People turned to their neighbors to discuss what they’d heard, filtering out of the common room in small groups to return to their work assignments and previous duties.

No one approached her or Maxwell or anyone on Shade’s ranking council. Not just yet, anyway. She decided to take that as a good sign.

This task force knew they had resources available to them, should the need arise, and she hadn’t scarred any of them so badly that they couldn’t with the rest of their day. Honestly, she couldn’t have hoped for a better outcome.

Even when, as the common room slowly cleared out, Maxwell’s scrutinizing gaze on the side of her face felt like being put under a microscope.

A high-intensity microscope powered by blazing heat that instigated an immediate reaction of that tingling, energetic presence between them. It burst out of its recently dormant shell now with a vengeance.

She could no longer ignore him even if she’d tried.

Swallowing, she turned toward him and met his gaze.

A depth of pervasive suspicion filled Maxwell’s silver eyes in a way she hadn’t seen since before she’d been voted into command. Suspicion and a deep, dark, threatening disapproval, as if she’d labeledhima traitor and defector instead of Rowan.

The Blackmoon Elf Maxwell seemed to have despised above every other living thing.

The realization hit her head-on like a speeding train.

He knows I’m leaving something out.

The certainty of it was unquestionable. Her and Maxwell’s disturbing connection, strengthening by the day, made sure of that.

Rebecca knew that what she felt from the shifter during moments like these wasn’t all in her head. No. It was far worse than that.

It was real.

And if she felt this now, coming from him, it meant Maxwell could feelherawareness of everything else she’d left out of this meeting. Everything she’d held back and hadn’t revealed.

As far as she knew, they couldn’t yet read each other’s minds, but this was just as bad. Maybe even worse.

Once Rebecca left the common room today, she knew without a doubt Maxwell would start hounding her for the rest of the information she hadn’t divulged. He wouldn’t stop until Rebecca finally relented and told him what he thought he wanted to know.

At one point, not too long ago, she might have considered it a good thing that once she finally shared with Maxwell what he’d been so diligent in pursuing—what that gods-be-damned connection between them seemed to want—would be a relief and a benefit to them both. Something to bring them closer together. To solidify their trust in each other.

To make way for the best damn leadership team Shade had ever had, with the potential of becoming something more on a personal level.

There was a time she would have been grateful to relent.

Now, though, Rebecca had become painfully aware of the potential for that same relief of surrender to completely destroy everything.

To destroy them both.

20

Beneath the vicious intensity of Maxwell’s stare—and with her body heat rising dangerously by the minute—Rebecca knew she only had one option.

She needed to nip this in the bud. Now. Before the shifter took the route she had almost taken herself and decided to fill in with blanks on his own about everything he didn’t know.

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