Page 98 of Elven Throne

Leading ever downward into the literal belly of the beast.

Rowan swept a hand toward the opening and pushed himself off the side of the statue. “After you.”

Rebecca and Maxwell didn’t move.

With a giddy chuckle, Maleine skirted right past them, offering Maxwell another blatantly flirting wink along the way. She didn’t stop at the top of the stairwell but surged confidently through that open archway and quickly disappeared. Her voice carried a metallic echo behind her when she called to her brother, “Bring the whiskey.”

Rowan grimaced and clearly went through great effort to wipe it off his face before he raised an eyebrow at Rebecca and Maxwell. “Well?”

“Yeah, you’re definitely going first,” she told him blandly. “For obvious reasons.”

He studied her face, as if searching for the faults in her serious exterior, then the last of his irritating amusement vanished. “Fine.”

Turning toward the archway, he paused to gaze longingly at the bag of liquor he’d just bought, then sneered. “Pshh.Bring the whiskey. Dammit.”

He left the bag there and dipped his head beneath the curving top of the archway, then he too disappeared into the darkness, his aggravated footsteps clomping down each step and echoing back up into the air.

Rebecca waited.

No screams. No blasts of magical light. No traps detonated.

Taking a deep breath, she leaned farther forward for a closer look, but the darkness made it impossible.

“Any idea what lies at the bottom?” Maxwell rumbled.

She couldn’t look away from the black pit yawning beneath them. “Absolutely not. So we better be ready for fucking anything.”

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ThefartherRebeccadescendedthis staircase beneath a ridiculous tourist attraction off the highway, the tighter the knot of apprehension clenched in her belly.

She had no idea what they were walking into. Even worse, she suspectedRowandidn’t have a clue, either.

It definitely didn’t help that she also felt the same thrumming wariness and burrowing distrust rising inside Maxwell too to match her own. He said nothing at first, but the strength of his discomfort and uncertainty made sharing them out loud a moot point.

Even if they hadn’t had their deeply shared mistrust of Rowan peppering these new unknowns, there would have been nothing remotely reassuring about what they did now.

“I do not like this,” Maxwell finally said, the rumbling growl beneath his words echoing around them despite how softly he’d spoken. “Especially without having first been told exactly where we are going. And why.”

“I’m right there with you,” Rebecca replied, carefully choosing her footing and fighting the urge to blindly reach toward the stairwell walls on either side of her so she wouldn’t feel like she was about to walk off the edge and into the abyss at any second. “Full disclosure, this isallnew territory for me. I’ve spent so long running from this fucking prophecy, I never thought I’d beintentionallylooking for it. I promise you I know just as much as you do.”

“I know.”

He meant it.

By the Blood, it felt good to say something and not have it scrutinized and studied and picked apart by the shifter’s constant suspicion at every turn.

If they hadn’t already gotten to that point together, this little venture with Rowan would have turned out very differently. It might not even have been possible at all.

Rebecca’s shoes whispered across the surface of the next few steps. “So whatever happens down here, we need to be careful facing it for the first time. And if there’s an opening, I’ll try to get what I can out of Blackmoon.”

Maxwell grunted. “I won’t hold my breath for that, either.”

The soft laugh shuddering out of her felt outrageously out of place here, but she couldn’t help it.

She’d been about to say the same thing.

When she looked up at the shifter beside her—the semi-darkness lit predominantly by his glowing eyes—Maxwell stared at her, obviously startled by her amusement.

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