Page 97 of Elven Prince

“Gazen’sbattalion?” Rowan threw his head back and filled the air with his dangerous laugh. The laugh of a jester. Of a performer. The laugh of a traitor who still thought he walked his own path.

When his laughter died down, he sighed and tilted his head at her. “Wow… That’s actually pretty cute. No, theHakalini’irareminenow. And they’ve been in this world almost as long as I have. A lot has changed while you’ve been away,Kilda’ari. But, of course, you wouldn’t have known about any of it. So how about we have ourselves a chat and I bring you up to speed? I’d hate to see your little toy soldiers go to waste because theirRoth-Da’alcouldn’t swallow her pride…”

There was no mistaking that as a threat. They both knew the He's threatening all her operatives out here right now, because they both know theHakalini’ircould destroy her operatives in minutes, just like they’d wiped out Big Boss, Suit, and both their gangs.

With the evidence smirking right in front of her, Rebecca knew that was what had happened. He’d led both criminal factions into this meeting, somehow, and then he and his precious battalion had ended them all. With nothing more than a snap of his fingers.

Then the terrifying certainty of everything else seeped through her veins, crystallizing her strength, pounding her resolve into dust.

ItwasRowan.

This whole time, while Shade scurried to find those responsible for attacking individual operatives and murdering their contacts, Rebecca had thought so many times how easily Rowan Blackmoon could have been behind the atrocities. And every time, she’d convinced herself that wasn’t the truth. That he would never go tothoselengths to make a statement.

She’d been wrong.

Rowan had killed off their entire magical network in Chicago. He already knew everyone Shade dealt with on a regular basis. He’d infiltrated the compound and their daily lives so he could betray them like this, and for what?

This moment, right here.

He’d done it all just to get Rebecca standing right here, inches away. So close, she could have speared him through with her magic and ended it all. But she wouldn’t get out of it alive after that.

Rebecca had never felt so furious—not since those final days, centuries ago, when her wrath had propelled her to new heights and she’d made the first purely free decision of her life to leave all of it behind forever.

She’d never felt this way aboutRowan, but now he’d moved beyond annoying and potentially dangerous.

He’d betrayed her. He’d played the long game, luring her to this very moment, and now he had the upper hand.

There was nothing she could do, because all the consequences were unthinkable.

“So what do you say?” he asked again, wiggling his eyebrows. “I’m sure we can clear this up in no time.”

She wanted to tell him to go fuck himself before she ripped out his heart, but even then, her operatives would still be dead. Most likely, so would she.

Though it seemed impossible, she managed to swallow enough of her venomous anger to give him a reply that didn’t make her sound insane. “Only with an assurance that your men will stand down and allow my teams to fall back.”

“Well that’s very valiant of you,” he said. “But I’m afraid no one’s leaving until we’ve come to an agreement. Though in the interest of mitigating any potential interruptions, I say webothstand down. I will assure your toy soldiers’ safety as long as everyone behaves themselves.”

How could hedothis to her? How could he betray her like this?

He had them all here now, dangling at the end of his puppetmaster’s strings, and she had no choice.

Rebecca drew her shoulders back with far more dignity than she felt and nodded.

Rowan broke into another grin, his hazel eyes shimmering madly beneath the night sky. Like this was everything he’d ever wanted. Like he’d just won the lottery.

Stepping back, he turned to shout up into the darkness. “Hakalini’ir! The grownups are stepping away for a moment for a private conversation. Unless something drastic happens, we’re all allies. For now. The soldiers of Shade are our honored guests.”

Nothing but silence greeted him, but the Blackmoon Elf began to stroll away as if everyone had replied in perfectly cheery agreement. Then he stopped, turned slightly back toward the bridge, and added, “To be clear, this is an official call for a ceasefire. As long as everyone behaves themselves while Mommy and Daddy are away, I’m sure you’ll all get along just fine.”

The elven soldiers didn’t move a muscle. They could have been stone dressed in shimmering elven steel.

Rebecca’s teams weren’t nearly as stoic.

“Knox? Knox! You’re not just gonnagowith him, are you?”

“Don’t trust him, boss. That bastard’ll say anything!”

“If you’re going, we’re going. This is bullshit.”

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