Elven Lies (Court of Rebellion #3)

14. Chapter 14

14

T he thick silence in her office seemed to last an eternity. Even with no immediate physical threat incoming, Rebecca’s pulse quickened in an almost desperate hope as she scanned the faces of her council around the table.

Everyone stared at the key in her hand, and everyone exhibited the same blank, clueless expression.

Of course no one wanted to be the first to shoot down their Roth-Da’al’s first and only lead.

“Maybe a little more context,” she said. “This fell out of the desk earlier this morning. A desk that used to belong to Aldous. I haven’t seen it before, but it has to open something .”

Bor’s scarred face darkened with a deeper scowl than usual. Zida snorted and seemed on the verge of bursting into laughter. Whit and Rick shook their heads.

Maxwell stared at the side of Rebecca’s face again, which now felt like an undeserved accusation.

“Okay, let me rephrase,” she added. “This is still a brainstorming session, people. Whatever pops into your head, feel free to lay it out here for the rest of us. I’m trying.”

“One hell of a joke, kid,” Zida blurted with a chuckle. “ That’s the first thought in my head. You thinking any of us know anything about keys in the changeling’s desk.”

“Aldous never told anyone what he was up to,” Whit said. “Ever. If our Head of Security can’t tell you what that key opens, I don’t think anyone can.”

Rebecca looked to Maxwell next, who scowled at the key in her hand as if it were a ticking time bomb.

“It could be literally anything,” he muttered. “If he didn’t tell me about it, Aldous meant it to be a secret.”

“So nothing, then.” Rebecca gazed around the table one more time. “Not even an inkling? Just a guess? Come on. Everyone in this room has been here longer than I have. Just think about it. Anything that might be remotely related. There’s no such thing as a bad idea in a brainstorming session.”

Once again, the silence was deafening, and Rebecca couldn’t decide whether it was more humiliating to face the extent of Aldous’s manipulative control over Shade or to have thought this might be a lead.

Had the changeling really left this task force in such an awful state that even their most experienced members had no idea how to access the resources required to do their actual job?

“All right, forget what this key opens. Does anyone know how to find out?”

A soft thump rose from across the room before the office door burst open with a bang against the adjacent wall. Then Rowan Blackmoon barged right in, his arms spread wide, that idiot’s grin plastered across his face. “If you need to see a guy about a key, I know exactly where to go.”

Maxwell was out of his chair in the blink of an eye, snarling as he thrust a warning finger at the Blackmoon Elf. “Out!”

Rowan gestured toward Rebecca. “She did say there’s no such thing as a bad idea, wolfie.”

“You can’t just barge in here whenever you want, elf,” Maxwell snapped. “This is a closed meeting. Get. Out.”

“Blackmoon,” Rebecca cut in, widening her eyes at Rowan, “where’s Carl?”

“Who? Oh, you mean the guy Rick set me up with on the buddy system?”

Rick’s eyes bulged; he looked horrified to have been mentioned by name, especially when everyone turned to look at him. \

Everyone except Rebecca. She kept her gaze centered on Rowan’s face.

Whatever he said next couldn’t possibly be good.

“Yes,” she said. “ That Carl. Where is he?”

Rowan glanced at the ceiling like he’d find the answer there, then shrugged.

Blue Hells, how long had he been standing outside the office door, listening in again?

The chair banged violently against the table before Maxwell stormed across the room toward the Blackmoon Elf. “You were given orders to stay away. If I learn anyone has been harmed because you decided to call the shots yourself—”

“Whoa, hey.” Rowan chuckled and lifted both hands. “Who said anything about harm? She asked where he was. He could be anywhere.”

Maxwell moved at impossible speed. The next second, he had a fistful of the Blackmoon Elf’s shirt collar in his hand, jostling Rowan toward the door.

“If you don’t leave in the next three seconds,” he growled, “harm will be part of the conversation. Your harm.”

“Hannigan,” Rebecca called firmly. “Wait.”

The shifter paused, snarling in Rowan’s face with his fist still buried in the elf’s shirt collar, but that was as far as he went for now.

Now that she’d had a few seconds to consider Rowan’s announcement after the disappointing surprise of his entrance, she couldn’t help but wonder what he’d meant.

If they needed to see a guy about a key?

“I have no issue with throwing him out this second, Roth-Da’al,” Maxwell growled.

“Maybe later,” she said. “But right now, I wonder if Blackmoon might not have a sliver of valuable information. Let’s hear him out first. Then you can employ disciplinary action.”

Her Head of Security shot her a look of wide-eyed disbelief but recovered quickly. Then he shoved Rowan by the shirt collar toward the center of the office before releasing him. “Speak.”

Rowan straightened out his shirt and grinned at the shifter. “Do I get a treat after?”

“Here’s what I can’t figure out,” Rebecca began, hoping a bit more conversation would keep these two from going at each other’s throats. “How do you know anyone in Chicago, Blackmoon? As I understand it, you haven’t been here long.”

“What can I say?” He took several small steps forward, still readjusting his shirt, and spread his arms again. “I’m generally a friendly guy.”

Zida snorted and muttered, “I bet he’s made loads of friends.”

Beside her, Bor grunted and raised a gnarled hand to his forehead in exasperation.

“Then let me narrow this down,” Rebecca added. “How do you know key-makers in Chicago?”

“Oh, he’s not just a key-maker in Chicago ,” Rowan replied, putting on all the charm as he started about the room like it was a stage. “This guy goes everywhere. And I do mean everywhere . On this world, at least. Trust me, he really gets around.”

“Just what we need,” Maxwell grumbled, folding his arms beside the office door and refusing to budge. “Another traveling salesman with cheap tricks and too much to say.”

Rebecca assumed he stayed there to guard the only exit in case Rowan tried to make a run for it after this, and she had no reason to call him away from that post.

“Hannigan has a point,” she said. “You seem overly confident about a key-maker’s ability to help us, but if this person doesn’t have any real roots in Chicago, how do we know we can trust him? Or that he would even know what we need? That he’d know anything about Aldous to help us with this key?”

Rowan smirked at her, his hazel eyes glinting in the light. “Spoken like a true local, Roth-Da’al.”

Damn, she’d set herself up for that one. Shade new Rebecca wasn’t from Chicago, either. Most of the task force wasn’t, but now she’d inadvertently discredited herself with that logic.

Not that anyone in this room would fault her for it.

Rowan didn’t fault her for it, either; he was just having a blast exploiting it.

“We don’t have to listen to this,” Maxwell said. “It’s a long shot.”

“Isn’t everything?” Rowan asked before winking at the shifter.

Maxwell’s body tensed, like he was about to surge toward the elf, but he froze when Rebecca asked her next question.

“Well, how about this, then? Does anyone have any better ideas than hunting down this alleged key-maker?”

The four members of her council still in their seats either shook their heads or stared at the table. Bor dipped his head with a sigh and started massaging both temples.

No better options than jumping on this long shot Rowan had suggested, and now she couldn’t even punish him for literally spying on this meeting right outside the door, because he was the only one here with an idea.

It was a long shot, but it was better than nothing.

Setting her jaw, she returned her attention to Rowan and nodded. “Fine. Where do we find this key-maker, Blackmoon?”

A tittering laugh escaped him. “I can’t tell you. I have to take you there myself and show you.”

“Out of the question,” Maxwell growled.

“Hold on.” Rebecca lifted a hand to stop him. “If there’s a chance this key opens something beneficial to us, that’s a chance I’m willing to take. So if you have to show us, Blackmoon, then take us there and show us.”

“Absolutely.” Rowan took several more steps toward her, strutting around again like he still in the middle of a performance. “I would love to. On one condition.”

By the Blood, it never stopped with him.

“Which is?” Rebecca prompted.

“I’ll take you there, Roth-Da’al,” he said, pointing at her. “And only you.”

“You are in no position to make any demands at all, elf!” Maxwell shouted. “Certainly not like this.”

Rowan shrugged. “Those are my terms. Take ’em or leave ’em.”

“Why would anyone agree to let you do anything alone with the Roth-Da’al?” Maxwell argued. “After everything you’ve already compromised since the moment you arrived? You can’t laugh your way out of this one. It won’t happen.”

“I’ll laugh as much as I like, thank you very much.” The Blackmoon Elf spun around, this time to face the shifter head-on. “And correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought the Roth-Da’al called the shots. You can grumble and complain all you want, but it won’t make a difference.”

“No one trusts you enough to allow this.”

“Oh, and I suppose you’re about to tell me they trust you , is that it?” Rowan spat. “The lone wolf heading the charge. When was the last time you got friendly with anyone in the city, wolf? Or any city? Plus, I’ve got contacts. What do you have? Targets? Lunch?”

“Keep running your mouth, elf,” Maxwell snarled, “and you won’t be using it much longer.”

While they bickered away and postulated, trying to one-up each other for no reason Rebecca could discern other than this had become their new pastime, Maxwell and Rowan had drawn steadily toward each other and the center of her office, giving everyone else in the room quite the show.

Even when it looked like they were about to come to physical blows again, right here in front of everyone, no one moved to intervene.

Rebecca couldn’t blame the others for not wanting to put themselves between their Head of Security and their newest operative. But if someone didn’t do something, this meeting would stop being a brainstorming session on how to find Shade more resources and would turn into something else altogether.

Like an emergency response situation when these two hurt each other and themselves because they couldn’t figure out how to play nice.

There was already one banged-up katari in the infirmary. Rebecca couldn’t afford to lose anyone else. Not with everything Shade faced now.

But these two were bound to explode eventually. If they didn’t shape up fast, the collateral damage would cost everyone more than they could afford. And now Rebecca was starting to worry her already precarious hold over Rowan teetered on the edge of failing entirely.