Page 25 of Elven Throne

“No sign of even a single griybreki anywhere. Even out in the woods. No sign the swarms were ever even here in the first place.”

Plus the disheartening news that there was no sign of Eduardo, either.

Rebecca hadn’t needed visual confirmation of the grimbúl behind this attack. The asshole was definitely here. He wouldn’t have passed up the opportunity to witness what he had to have assumed was his own assured victory.

Two of the augmented magitek portal machines were recovered from the woods and brought to the parking lot. Shade’s resident civilian in protective custody couldn’t have picked a more perfect time to find Rebecca, just as the shredded, half-melted jump-point mechanisms were laid at Rebecca’s feet.

“Oh good. Finally decided to show up.”

Rebecca almost laughed at the shrill cynicism in Bruce Urholder’s voice but didn’t quite have the mental strength for it.

She turned toward him anyway and found the gnome huffing and puffing across the wreckage-strewn asphalt toward her.

“I’m still waiting for someone to tell me what the fuck happened to those comms while the whole lot of you were running around the city like lunatics.Withoutthe rest of us.”

“Apparently, there’s at least one spell that disables even the most advanced comms systems,” she replied, trying not to smirk. “And no,weweren’t the ones who cast it.”

Bruce scoffed as he stopped in front of her, unfolded his arms, and looked her up and down a few times. Then his gaze settled on her right ear where her earpiece would have been, had any of the comms tech still functioned. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you just got reckless with your new toys.”

Beside her, Lerrick dumped the last few recovered pieces from one of the jump-point machines in a haphazard pile on the asphalt. Then he removed his own earpiece and held it out toward Bruce. “It worked just fine when we got here. But that blast fried everything.”

The gnome let out a choking squeak when he realized the shriveled, twisted bit of unrecognizable technology in Lerrick’s hand was one of his advanced comms-unit earpieces.

When he couldn’t seem to find the right words for an appropriate response, the gnome’s gaze dropped to the remains of the portal machinery lying in a heap of equally destroyed parts and gestured toward it. “What’s this, huh? What, you figured you’d just made some kinda peace offering? You think this makes up for everything else you’vedestroyed?”

Lerrick sighed heavily and stepped back to let his Roth-Da’al answer that one.

“These were how Eduardo got his griybreki out here so quickly,” Rebecca replied. “And easily. There were twelve of them placed out in the woods. This is all that’s left. Some kinda portal technology the bastard somehow got his hands on.”

Bruce’s gaze darted back and forth between Rebecca and the melted remains of someone else’s tech. “Okay…And?”

“And I’d like you to take a closer look at this when you have the time. If anyone can pick this apart and find whatever’s left that might point us to who’s really behind this technology and gave it to Eduardo…it’s you.”

“Jesus, I just don’t get it.” Bruce snorted. “Is this Eduardo guy some kind of idiot, or what? Because, I mean… Well, he did allthis.”

“Only in some ways,” Rebecca answered grimly.

Admittedly, she hadn’t thought Eduardo was capable of staging this level of assault on anyone, not to mention her task force at their own Headquarters compound. But the guy had clearly possessed enough craft and cunning to put the whole thing together.

“But there’s no way he did it all on his own,” she added. “Eduardo didn’t manufacture magitek weapons or anything else. He’s a dealer. Which means he gotthistechnology from someone else too.”

Bruce scrunched up his face and let out a long whine of indecision. Then he shrugged, still grimacing at the melted lump of portal machinery. “Yeah, all right. Fine. If there’s anything left, I’ll find it. But I can’t promise you shit, okay? This is…primitive. At best.”

“As long as you try. That’s all I expect.”

The gnome puffed out a sigh through lips, then waddled toward the melted hunk machinery, inspecting it first through a narrow squint as he bent over, propping his hands on his thighs, and apparently refused to touch his new pet project.

“Well at least let me look at them so I know what I’m dealing with!” Zida’s stark shout echoed across the parking lot, followed by the old woman shuffling toward the fortunately small group of Shade members with injuries.

Though the healer had recovered enough to stand on her own, Bor still scurried after her, his staff clicking and scraping across the asphalt over the constant murmur of his aggravated grumbling.

Rebecca almost headed toward the injured next, to see for herself that the injuries really were as minor as she’d been told. That they really had sustained zero casualties during all this.

But then the insane rush of Maxwell’s approaching presence—much closer than ever and closing quickly in—crashing right into Rebecca pulled her attention from everything else.

And with his approaching presence came all the relief and yearning and a sense of rightness rushing through their connection.

The shifter’s return demanded every ounce of her attention with its intensity. She spun away from her operatives and all the wreckage of the compound to face Maxwell’s return. He was almost at her side again. She felt it.

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