Page 74 of Elven Throne

“Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

The ensuing silence felt like a wall between them. Not one they had aggressively erected in defense but as if one of them had stepped into an adjacent room. Temporary, but no less real.

It was one more agreement between them, but this one didn’t seem nearly as complex, as if it loomed over them somewhere in the future.

When the time came, when Rebecca held the Bloodshadow prophecy in her own hands, she’d let Maxwell decide how far he wanted to take their search for his answers. And she would follow his lead.

But first things first.

They kept walking, eventually doubling back through the woods to make their way toward where they’d entered it. The soft laughter and spirited conversations drifting toward them from behind the farmhouse grew louder until it was no longer possible to forget where they were or why.

Or what waited for them when they left the cover of the trees.

But Rebecca still had one more decision to make.

“I really don’t think we should stay much longer. If it made sense, I’d suggest heading out now, for both our sakes. In this case, though, I think as soon as possible means before sunrise. When no one else is awake.”

He studied her a moment longer, as if wanting to make sure this was truly what she wanted. And how could it be anything else?

Then Maxwell nodded. “Sunrise, then. “

“That’s not too long for you?” she asked.

The shifter’s lips twitched in a smile that looked a hell of a lot like relief as they emerged from the trees. “Now that I expect to be gone from here in less than ten hours? No. Not too long at all. I think I’ll live.”

A sarcastic joke from the shifter now about something that had nearly whittled him down to nothing just an hour before? That felt like progress.

As long as he didn’t look anywhere nearly as terrified of the experience as he had before arriving at the compound, and as long as Rebecca didn’t feel him spiraling into a broken version of himself she hardly recognized, it was worth it.

She even thought he walked a little taller as they crossed the open land beside the crop fields on their way back toward the gathering, and that made all the difference.

But in that time, Rebecca found herself acknowledging yet another looming possibility hanging over her head, with no knowledge of if or when it would descend upon her and wreak havoc.

Of course she wanted to know what the elven ruin on Maxwell’s chest really meant. Why it was there. How a shifter could have anything to do with ancient elven symbols. How it related to their odd connection.

And she was certain it did in some way.

But if learning the full truth and answering all those questions changed things between her and Maxwell…

What would Rebecca have left?

Since the night he’d blown her cover at the Old Joliet Prison and they’d agreed to work together to get the job done the right way, she had always had the shifter at her side. Granted, Shade’s successes since then had also beenRebecca’ssuccesses, but they never would have turned out that way without the effective though admittedly tense and sometimes distracted team they’d become.

And he’d been on her side ever since.

She knew that now. The rune wasn’t some mark from her enemies. The shifter wasn’t a spy sent to tear down her defenses. He had always been what she knew him to be, and that was enough.

They had grown even closer, benefiting them both. And Shade. It didn’t matterhowthey’d grown closer. Their intensely strange connection hadn’t offered them anything false, just aggravatingly tempting.

So did she really want to know the answers to his questions about that mark?

Was there any way to avoid stumbling upon it unexpectedly while he helped her find the Bloodshadow prophecy and whatever came with it after that?

Something told her those answers might end up being more difficult to avoid than they would be to find by actively searching, and she hoped the answers wouldn’t change a thing.

Because now, a new question had risen and taken shape to affect and even dictate every decision she made from this point forward.

Without Maxwell, what the hell was she evendoing, anymore?

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