Page 84 of Elven Throne

Still frowning, Rebecca absently offered the phone back to Maxwell. “That was…odd.”

“It doesn’t sound like anything happened at the compound,” he muttered.

“No, it sounded like everyone’s still having a big old time.” Rebecca pushed herself out of the armchair and onto her feet. “ButNyxsounded really worried. More than usual.”

“More or less than the last time you spoke with her under the dome?” he asked.

She slowly paced the small room. “More. By enough to notice.”

“Do you think it’s related?” he asked. “She hasn’t seemed herself since she fainted.”

“I don’t know. But thereissomething I didn’t tell you.”

Maxwell’s eyebrows shot straight up. “Oh?”

“I didn’t think it was that important, honestly. And we got just alittledistracted pretty much right afterward. Plus, I don’t even think I was supposed to have overheard any of it at all.”

His silver eyes followed her as she walked back and forth. “I don’t follow.”

“The first night under the dome,” she said, “or what we thought was the first night, when I was heading into the woods, I passed Nyx and Leonard and overheard their conversation. Something about visions but not quite visions. Something Nyxsaw…

“She clammed up pretty quick when she realized I was walking past, so whatever it was, I guess she only wanted Leonard to hear. But she sounded really worried about whatever it was, just like on that call. Definitely more concerned than when she passed out and said she just hadn’t eaten enough.”

For a long moment, the shifter scowled across the room at nothing in particular, then grumbled, “That probably would have been good to know before now.”

“Hey, I’m right there with you.” Rebecca spun toward him and spread her arms. “But then I walked into the woods, you had your little meet-and-greet with four other shifters who somehow slipped through the dome, then the Azyyt Ra’al showed up and the dome came down, and it’s kinda been non-stop since.”

“I understand.”

Whether he’d simply stated the obvious or had remarked in disappointment that she hadn’t shared with him some crucial piece of Nyx’s puzzle—which Rebecca had no other knowledge of and no reason to understand—she didn’t really care. Something about Nyx’s call had sparked the feeling of familiarity in the back of her mind. Some piece of knowledge she knew was there but just couldn’t put her finger on…

Now that that topic had been brought to her attention again, she couldn’t help feeling like that connection she couldn’t quite make was particularly important.

And concerning.

She picked up her pacing again, recalling every moment of that night beneath the dome as she remembered it.

Then she stopped and turned back toward the shifter, who still hadn’t moved. “By the way, you didn’t happen to slip through the dome as a wolf before the attack brought it down, by any chance, did you?”

Maxwell cocked his head. “As a matter of fact, I did.”

“So it worked, then. Animals and shifters weren’t affected at all by the spell.”

“As far as I am aware.”

“That probably would have been good to know before now,” she quipped.

Maxwell spread his arms with a tiny flicker of a smile breaking through his deadpan expression. “We got just alittledistracted right afterward.”

Rebecca snorted. “Fair enough.”

Then the question of why this issue with Nyx and what was worrying the katari so much returned to her mind, and Rebecca followed the feeling.

The same feeling of knowing she had at least two pieces of information that would make so much more sense, and maybe even a world of difference, once she put them together, but she just couldn’t find that other piece.

“Did you notice anything odd about Nyx?” she asked. “Beyond what we’ve already covered?”

“No. I maintain my previous stance that even if she does not remember it, her time inside Harkennr’s prison may still present unexpected and unpredictable side effects.”

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