Page 30 of Elven Throne

But it was the exact opposite for him too, wasn’t it? Fightingagainstthe same invisible force tostayawayfrom her. Just as Rebecca fought it within herself.

Clearly, neither one of them had had much success. Yet.

His silver eyes pulsed in a single burst when he finally met her gaze, and he sucked in a shuddering breath.

She hadn’t just imagined it, then. Something was definitely wrong.

Something had shaken him to the point of visibly imprinting its existence across his features, and he’d forced himself to wait until they were relatively alone, because he didn’t want anyone else to know.

What else had happened to him in the woods while he’d hunted Eduardo?

What else had heseen?

Rebecca cleared her throat. “Hannigan?”

“Will you walk with me?” The gruffness in his voice and the audible effort he expended confirmed what she’d already felt.

Something was definitely wrong.

“Just a little stroll for fun, then?” she asked.

Maxwell nodded toward the northeastern corner of the destroyed compound building. “Not far. Simply for a bit more privacy than the parking lot currently affords.”

She clicked her tongue at him. “You tossed a severed head my way for everyone to see. “Privacy kinda feels like a moot point now.”

“That was for them.” His silver eyes flickered toward the operatives slowly picking themselves up in the aftermath. “This is forme.”

Rebecca couldn’t help but shoot another look at the incredibly large grimbúl head lying mere feet away on the asphalt. Without context, it didn’t even seem real.

“Looks like the head was for you too, though,” she muttered. “Just a little.”

She wasn’t trying to be funny, but a smile cracked her lips anyway. When she looked back up at him, though, Maxwell had spread his arms slightly and now looked down at himself, as if noticing for the first time what he’d done and that he’d returned to her with all the evidence of it still spattered across his body.

He hastily wiped the back of a hand across his mouth in a failed attempt to remove the blood still smeared across his face. Then he stepped closer and leaned down, as if he meant to whisper in her ear. But he stopped to meet her gaze, like something physically kept him from looking away.

“There’s more,” he growled. “But I would rather discuss it away from the others. They have enough to worry them. Please.”

No argument there. Plenty of concern and worry for everyone, with more than enough to go around.

She was out of excuses to hold off this private chat any longer. Now that he’d brought it up first, she probably couldn’t have focused on anything else anyway before discovering what had rattled her Head of Security this much. If it couldn’t’ be shared with everyone else, it had to be important.

“Let’s walk, then,” she replied and headed toward the building corner he’d indicated. “But we don’t have a whole lot of time for—”

“I know. I won’t take any more of it than necessary.”

Fair enough.

She thought the sight of their Roth-Da’al and Head of Security half-slinking, half-marching across the destroyed battlefield of their home would have garnered more negative attention—mostly curiosity and concern—than Rebecca had the energy to reassure right now. But the others hardly seemed to notice.

They were too busy helping Zida with the wounded, or salvaging what little they could from the wreckage, or they were simply too exhausted to notice much of anything.

Which was just as dangerous, should anyone else on their enemy list feel like the wee hours of the morning just before dawn made for the perfect time to pay Shade a violent visit of their own.

The heat and tingling, vibrating energy emanating off Maxwell as they headed for the building soon made it far too difficult to think of anything else.

Rebecca forced herself to remember where she was, what she needed to do, and what was still most important.

Everything was gone. Shade had nowhere to go and no plan B’s left…

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