Page 39 of Elven Prince

The witch sisters from Boise, Maddie and Lacey, were as eager as anyone else to help in the investigation, though they refused to be questioned alone.

“We’re a package deal, the two of us,” Lacey said, smiling sweetly despite the defensive warning in her voice.

Maddie put an arm around her sister’s shoulders and nodded. “We spent a lot of time apart in that warehouse. We’d been together our whole lives before that. It won’t happen again. But that doesn’t change how we feel about what happened. Whatever we can do to help, Roth-Da’al, we will.”

Whether the sisters’ insistence was genuine or they merely played to Rebecca’s compassion—which admittedly had grown immensely during her time in command—she didn’t care. They’d requested a shared room within the compound despite how tiny the rooms were; they might as well have been a single entity anyway.

But neither of them had any information about the attack on Archie, nor did harbor so much as an inkling of suspicion as to who might have wanted to do this.

Rebecca already knew full well who would want to hurtherthrough hurting her task force, and the list just kept growing. None of her operatives gave her anything she didn’t already know, none of them looked guilty, and no one acted differently when she spoke with them.

She would have otherwise called the last two hours of private questioning in the common room a complete waste of time if it hadn’t been her only option.

The security footage Whit pulled from outside the compound and the perimeter of the parking lot had revealed nothing but Rebecca and Titus leaving, Archie pulling out in the semi, then that same truck pulling back in less than an hour later before Rebecca and Titus also returned.

Unfortunately, the footage from various angles only captured a decent view of the semi’s front passenger window upon its return, and Rebecca’s initial lead was torn to shreds.

She’d hoped they’d capture an image of the driver on the way back, assuming it hadn’t been Archie because he’d been attackedbeforethe shipment’s return.

Now, at mid-afternoon, they still had nothing but an unconscious ogre laid up in the infirmary and the Security team desperately scouring footage for anything they might have missed—plus radio channels, media, and satellite images between Headquarters and their supplier—and an entire task force of magicals ready and willing to do whatever necessary in response.

All while their Roth-Da’al tried not to lose her shit in the process.

Every passing minute without an answer brought them all that much closer to losing everything. So far, the attack on Archie was the perfectly committed crime.

Without solving it, there was nothing to stop that same crime from wiping out the entire task force, and they’d be powerless to stop it.

10

For the first time since taking command, Rebecca felt completely hopeless in her ability to protect this organization. Or even to take action when action was needed.

For the first time, she had zero leads, no shred of evidence left behind, and a slew of potential culprits among Shade’s list of enemies to suspect. Without being able to pin this on any one of them, she also had zero opportunity to retaliate.

Shade couldn’t pick a war with anyone before they knew for certain who was responsible. And they certainly couldn’t afford a war witheveryenemy all at once.

After dismissing the witch sisters as the final operatives on her list to question, Rebecca wove her way through the crowded common room, avoiding as many gazes as possible so she could focus instead on maintaining an air of confidence and certainty she didn’t feel.

It was one thing for her task force to know their Roth-Da’al cared about them and had their backs.

It was an entirely different thing to let them see the frustration of helplessness sinking in, only a few hours after some sneakily anonymous bastard attacked one of their own and left him on Shade’s doorstep.

If Rebecca hadn’t noticed the semi’s front passenger door hanging open, if her instincts had been any less honed in recognizing potential dangers and minute shifts in the natural order of things, they might not have found Archie on time at all…

She couldn’t think like that. It didn’t help anyone.

She’d almost made her way through the thickest part of the crowd in the common room when she looked up at the branching hallway leading to the second-story stairwell. There, she found another surprise.

This one felt worse than all the others today.

A flare of tingling heat pulsed from Rebecca’s core to race down her shoulders and arms, pins and needles biting at her fingertips and palms.

Of course it was Maxwell.

She’d tried to ignore the strengthening sensation of his presence while she questioned the task force, but now it blazed with new strength inside her, even before the shifter’s sweeping gaze settled on her face.

When it did, he pinned her in that gaze and stiffened with his arms hanging straight against his sides, his silver eyes flashing once before he got a hold of his emotions again. Or tried to.

The sight almost stopped her in her tracks, but she pushed herself forward against the discomforting sensation. Why give him the satisfaction of witnessing its effect on her? Especially after the intensity of his emotional roller coaster today.

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