Page 96 of Elven Throne

Rebecca had caught a glimpse of the garish human landmark on Maxwell’s furious, skidding serve off the highway and into the parking lot, but she hadn’t thought anything of it at the time.

Why would she? Humans had their own landmarks here—annoying at worst, entertaining at best, and entirely useless to magicals.

When it became clear Rowan headed for the dragon statue on purpose, Rebecca shared a concerned look with the shifter walking sternly beside her.

Maxwell didn’t look any more reassured by the evidence.

Just as she’d feared, the Blackmoon Elf stopped at the base of the statue, set his plastic bag down in the dying grass at his feet, and pulled out one of the two liquor bottles nestled inside. The surrounding area filled with the telltale squeak and pop of him opening up one of those bottles right there in front of them, the sound barely audible over the light rush of highway traffic whizzing past them an hour before the worst of rush-hour traffic.

Without a word, Rowan sighed, then threw his head back and upended the open bottle into his mouth for two massive swigs in quick succession.

Maxwell’s eyes widened, but he remained perfectly silent.

Maleine chuckled.

Rebecca remained thoroughly unimpressed.

“That’swhy we stopped at the liquor store?” she asked. “So you can get your drink on?”

Rowan’s only reaction to chugging from a fresh bottle of 40-proof liquor was to smack his lips and blink. “Notentirelyfor booze. And I wasn’t planning on having any myself, but, you know. Plans can change on a dime…”

He stepped toward her to offer Rebecca the bottle.

She folded her arms and glanced at the plastic bag in the grass. “Aren’t those supposed to come in paper bags?”

“Not when you ask for plastic and the store clerk thinks you’re the coolest guy ever. His words, not mine.” Rowan swung the bottle toward Maxwell next with a prompting nod.

The shifter merely glared at him.

With a shrug, Rowan took one more swig, then jammed the lid back into the bottle with another squeak, very poignantly refusing to make a similar offer to his sister.

Maleine let out a low, smoldering chuckle, grinning as she watched Rowan putter about with his things while actively trying to ignore her. She seemed to find particular enjoyment in the simple fact that her mere presence was already driving him fucking insane.

Rebecca had a hunch that played a major part in why Maleine had shown up in the first place.

Then the Blackmoon Elf made an enormous production of returning the liquor bottle to the bag before patting down the numerous pockets of his light canvas jacket and jeans.

They’d be here forever, at this rate. And with one new additional member unexpectedly added to his audience, Rowan was taking even longer than usual to get to the point.

Or he was stalling.

Neither was a good sign.

“Ah. Yep. Just a little…” With his hand wedged into the front pocket of his jeans, which didn’t seem nearly large enough to fit his whole hand, Rowan scrunched up his face and struggled to remove his hand. When he finally did, he chuckled and held the retrieved item up to the sunlight.

The large coin shimmered under the single stream of direct light cutting through the outline of the metal dragon towering over them, very clearlynotany form of real currency. Even in this world.

“Neat right?” He studied the coin, then asked no one in particular, “Anybody know what this is?”

“Yes,” Maxwell replied, fixing the elf with a deadpan stare before offering further explanation in the driest, dullest voice possible. “Andthisis the Kaskaskia Dragon tourist attraction. Put a token in the slot, and the metal eyesore breathes fire for ten seconds while its eyes glow red. I remain unimpressed.”

“Oh, listen to Mr. Know-It-All Wolf Boy over here.” Rowan exaggerated a pout in the shifter’s direction as he lowered the token. “Sorry, pal, but again, I seem to have run out of good-boy treats.”

“That’s why we’re here?” Rebecca asked, fighting against the urge to pummel Rowan into the ground for wasting their time. “Yousaid we were running out of time, but you dragged us out to a liquor store so you could catch a buzz and fuck around withtourist attractions?”

“You know what?” He looked her up and down and scoffed. “How about everybody just gives me alittlemore credit, huh? I’ve got aspecialtoken…”

“One that looks exactly like all the others,” Maxwell grumbles.

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