Elven Lies (Court of Rebellion #3)

15. Chapter 15

15

R ebecca’s head pounded with the effort of trying to maintain her composure. She wanted to give Maxwell and Rowan space and time to solve their own issues, but both of those were currently in short supply.

“Say that again, elf,” Maxwell growled, cocking back a fist as he loomed over Rowan.

“You didn’t hear me the first time?” Rowan tilted his head and wiggled a finger in his ear. “I thought shifters heard everything the first time. But sure, pal. If you wanna dance, let’s dance.”

Rebecca caught the concerned glance in Zida’s beady black eyes and didn’t need more than that. No one in this room wanted this to go any further, but it was about to. Especially when Rowan started poking Maxwell in the shoulder to get even more of a rise out of him.

“Blackmoon!” she shouted. “Hannigan!”

When neither of them stopped their snarling and bickering, she grabbed the closest thing at hand—pens inside the pen- holder resting on the desk—and chucked one at each of their heads.

“Ow!” Rowan hissed and ducked too late.

Maxwell snarled and whirled toward her with murder in his eyes before he registered what had happened. Then he lifted a hand to his temple to rub the new red dot there.

Rebecca snatched up two more pens, just in case. “Get a hold of yourselves. This is an official meeting, not a circus.”

“At this point,” Zida murmured, “I’m having a hard time seeing where one ends and the other begins.”

Rebecca ignored her and stepped around her desk while Rowan and Maxwell watched her, each with their own variation of sheepish remorse.

If they didn’t want to be embarrassed, they shouldn’t do embarrassing things. That was on them.

“This constant bickering stops now,” she told them. “I mean it. Because I made a decision, and we all need to move forward. I’ll go with Blackmoon alone, on the very small chance his information actually helps us and we get something out of the deal.”

Maxwell looked like he’d just swallowed a whole frog.

Rowan turned toward him with a smug grin.

“But Blackmoon,” Rebecca added, pointing at him, “I swear, if you’re screwing with me…”

He didn’t even try to reassure her but broke into more laughter.

Did he think her position here was funny, or just the fact that she was willing to let him help? Or did he just find Maxwell’s bafflement that amusing?

“Roth-Da’al,” Maxwell started with more than a little concern etched into his features. “I don’t think—”

“I said I’ve made my decision. That’s final.” She didn’t give him an opportunity to try changing her mind before she addressed everyone else. “This meeting is dismissed. Thank you for coming up here again. I don’t plan on having two of these every day from here on out, but I appreciate what we’ve managed to do so far.”

“If anything …” Zida muttered under her breath as she pushed herself out of her chair.

“Whatever the Roth-Da’al requires,” Bor added, pushing his chair in beneath the table. “We’re at your command.”

Rebecca dipped her head. “I’m not commanding anyone regarding this just yet, but if anyone thinks of any other leads that can help us find new resources, tell me. Anything goes at this point. We just need somewhere to start.”

Whit and Rick stood as well to follow the two aged old-worlders out of the room. Then Rebecca turned toward Maxwell because she couldn’t bring herself to look at Rowan. “Blackmoon, wait for me in the hall.”

“As the Roth-Da’al commands.”

From the corner of her eye, she noted Rowan’s low, mocking bow before he spun away with a spring in his step and left the office.

Then it was just Rebecca and Maxwell once again. Alone.

He closed the door with a soft click, then headed toward her. “This is a terrible idea.”

“You’re entitled to your opinion,” she replied, watching him warily as he crossed the office toward her. “And I’m more likely to agree with your opinion now anyway. But this is the only option we have right now. Unless you know someone who can tell me about this key and just didn’t want to say anything in front of the others.”

“Believe me, if I had another option, I would have brought it forward.”

He slowed on his way toward her, and once again, with no other distractions to keep the sensation at bay, Rebecca was consumed by that growing tingle between them as it intensified with every slow step he took toward her. Pulling at her core. Beckoning her to take the final leap into…what?

She didn’t know, but it felt like a gaping abyss.

Even then, she couldn’t be sure she wouldn’t take the leap anyway.

Just not now. Not when so much was at stake for Shade with Harkennr right on their doorstep.

But after?

Maxwell stopped so close in front of her, it took her a few more seconds to remember their conversation while the air seemed to crackle between them. He hovered over her, his silver gaze sweeping across her face.

She barely succeeded in forcing back a trembling shiver.

“I can tell you have something else to say, Maxie,” she murmured. Part of her hoped using the nickname he hated one more time would make him back off. The other part of her wanted to know how far he would let her go while she tested him.

Honestly, Rebecca didn’t even know herself how far she might push him.

It took a horrendous amount of concentration to get out the rest of her words. Their form and meaning kept blurring and disappearing in her mind as she swam in his silver eyes. The flaring pull toward him only strengthened before she finally managed to blurt out the rest of it.

“Whatever it is, just say it so we can move on.”

Maxwell swallowed, still searching her face before a low growl reverberated between them. Rebecca swore she could feel it in her own chest.

“You shouldn’t be going anywhere with him,” he said. “Not alone.”

“I shouldn’t. But I have to. He made that one condition perfectly clear.”

“That elf is false, Knox. Dangerous. He’s too eager to get you alone, and I don’t like any of it.”

“I know,” Rebecca breathed, vaguely aware of her own words even as she felt like her own identity was about to get swallowed up within the glow of the shifter’s silver eyes and the heat radiating off him. The scent of moonlight and dewy grass and sandalwood and all the other things she thought she recognized but couldn’t name.

By the Blood, this thing was getting stronger, making it impossible to think around him. Impossible to focus.

“But this is more important than just me,” she finally added. “I can handle myself with Blackmoon. You don’t need to worry about that.”

Maxwell growled again and leaned even closer. “But I do.”

Rebecca’s lips parted at the rushing surge of so much more tingling warmth and that physical pull toward him within her core. Like some invisible fishhook had caught through the center of her being and she couldn’t get free, no matter how fiercely she struggled.

Was he doing this on purpose?

There was no way. Shifters didn’t have the kind of magic that could make this happen, and Maxwell didn’t exhibit an ounce of manipulation or deceit. Not anymore, anyway.

In fact, he looked just as caught on the same hook. Two unknowing worms wriggling on the line together.

Even then, she still didn’t want it to stop.

She still had so many other things to do.

“I promise,” she whispered, “I can handle it. You believe me, don’t you?”

His eyebrows twitched together as he slowly tilted his head, and his gaze dropped to her lips. “I believe that you believe it. But I can’t let you go.”

Well that would certainly throw a wrench in her plans, wouldn’t it?

“You can’t stop me, Hannigan.”

“I can’t let you go unprotected,” he clarified, then blinked and straightened away from her, as if finally realizing what was happening. Even if he didn’t know any more than she did about what the Blue Hells was happening to them.

“I do know this much,” Rebecca added breathlessly, her voice sounding and feeling strangely detached from the rest of her. “Blackmoon’s not taking me anywhere if you insist on tagging along. Honestly, I think that would be an even worse idea than me going alone with him. But we have to move on this.”

“If you must.” Maxwell dipped his head, then stepped away again with great effort and reached into the front pocket of his jeans.

If she must?

Had he really just given in that easily?

Had she missed something?

Then he withdrew his hand and extended his fist toward her before unfurling his fingers. The long, oblong stone in his palm was perfectly smooth, its surface polished to a fine sheen. A complicated symbol carved in its center marked a similarly carved depression, like a thumbprint. The other symbols carved around the perimeter and pulsing with inner light in varying colors connected the magic of this old-world device to its twin.

These were rare enough on their own to begin with, but to see one in the hands of a shifter? How did Maxwell even know what this was, let alone how to get ahold of one?

She was about to ask him but stopped when he grabbed her other hand and lifted it to settle the Mindstone onto her palm.

“Take this with you.”

The electrifying jolt of his hand cupped around hers made Rebecca’s head spin. The contact felt like fire and ice. Like all the energy in the world and everything consumed by the void. It felt like such a simple touch would unravel her completely, and Rebecca was powerless to stop it.

She wasn’t, however, powerless to still voice her thoughts. Not yet.

She probably should have phrased it with a little more tact, but her focus for such a thing was obliterated by the warmth of Maxwell’s hand around the back of her own. “How did you get this? That’s impossible…”

The corner of his mouth twitched before he let out a heavy sigh and still didn’t release her hand. “I’ve had this job for a long time. I’ve met countless different people along the way. And I’ve learned a few things. All you have to do is press this bit here, and it’ll send a signal back to me wherever you—”

“I know how a Mindstone works,” she said. “But…thanks.”

He nodded, then closed her fingers around the Mindstone, his expression taking on a different level of seriousness than she thought the situation warranted. “If anything goes wrong, if you even suspect something might start to go wrong, activate it. I’ll know. No matter what, I will find you.”

Like she couldn’t handle this on her own. Like Maxwell expected her to need finding and protecting.

What could Rowan possibly do to her while they went after a key-maker that might justify summoning her Head of Security with a Mindstone?

But that was the point, wasn’t it? Maxwell had no idea what Rowan might attempt. The Blackmoon Elf would never hurt Rebecca. Not intentionally. But the shifter didn’t know that.

Which made this gift of a Mindstone and his urgency for her to accept it that much more protective. Possessive, even.

She might have gone as far as to say he was acting territorial about it, and what was she supposed to do? She couldn’t just hand it back and say no thank you. She didn’t want to.

Maxwell was overly concerned, maybe even a little too much. At the same time, she found it impossibly endearing.

This shifter—who’d started off as the biggest pain in her ass and deterrent to all Rebecca’s goals, back when they were so much smaller than they were now—was trying to keep her safe with a magical spell reagent a shifter didn’t have any cause to carry around with him in the first place. How long had he anticipated the need to give it to her?

“Everything will be fine,” she said, her words thin and blurring as if in a dream. “It’s just a chat with a key-maker. But it’s…always good to have backup. I guess.”

He leaned in even closer, holding her fingers down around the Mindstone with both hands now, his eyes wide and urgent. Like there was a deadly time limit on this thing. “You know how I feel about him. And I swear, if anything happens to you…”

“I’ll be fine, Hannigan,” she assured him. That was all she could do.

“Use it.” Maxwell glanced down at his hands holding hers closed around the Mindstone. “Promise me.”

“All right,” she murmured, on the verge of losing herself in the intensity of his gaze again. “I promise. If anything happens, I’ll use it, and you’ll know.”

Maxwell swallowed thickly, then took forever to pull his hands away from hers. “Then I suppose I have no choice but to let you go.”

Even as he said it, the act of removing his hands from around hers seemed to cause him physical pain.

At this point, maybe it was better to head out for this small side mission with Rowan and not Maxwell. Something told her the more time she and the shifter spent together, the harder it would be for either of them to focus on anything else.

R ebecca couldn’t stop thinking about the tortured look in Maxwell’s eyes, even as she and Rowan walked across the compound’s underground parking garage together, finally on their way to go see a guy about a key.

Mostly, she just hoped Rowan wouldn’t give her any reason to regret this little outing. And that he wouldn’t do anything to prove Maxwell right.

Halfway across the garage, Rowan stopped and extended his arm toward her. “All right, go ahead. Take it.”

She stopped beside him and looked him over with a frown. “Take what?”

“My arm. I’ll just pop us over there, right to the guy’s doorstep, and save us a whole bunch of time.”

“Nice try.” She stared at his extended arm, then shook her head. “But I’m not gonna bite on that one.”

“Oh, come on. It’s perfectly harmless. You know that.”

“It’s not the physical risks I’m worried about, actually.”

“Well good. You never used to have a problem with it.”

Rebecca resumed her path across the garage, fighting back the tightness in her stomach at the thought. “I’m not willingly going anywhere with you that way. I’m still not sure you’re taking any of this seriously.”

Let him teleport her all the way to their destination with no way to track where they were when they got there?

Absolutely not.

More than ever now, she suspected this was another of Rowan’s tricks to get her where he wanted her. First, the caveat of the two of them having to go alone, and now he offered instant travel?

They might end up anywhere. Hell, he might even try to take her directly back to the Gateway itself, or somewhere else she’d never agreed to go, and use that as the basis for his argument that they might as well head back home to the Bloodshadow Court now that they’d already left Shade.

If she took his arm, she couldn’t control a single bit of where they ended up.

Rowan shrugged it off casually, as if he’d already expected her response but still had to give it a try. “Fine. Then I’ll drive. Where do we keep the keys?”

Rebecca barked out a laugh. “In your dreams.”

“What, you don’t think I can drive?”

“Even if you think you can, I don’t trust you behind the wheel of anything. Not in this world.”

He puffed out a sigh through loose lips and spread his arms. “Then I’m at a loss here. No teleporting and no driving. So how do you propose we get to where we’re going?”

With a smirk, Rebecca gestured toward the open end of the garage.

“Oh no,” he whined, scrunching up his face. “No, that’s not how this was supposed to go. It was supposed to be fast. To help you get this over with quickly.”

“Hardly anything done right can be done quickly,” she said. “We might’ve driven with someone else, but you made it very clear you wanted this to be just you and the Roth-Da’al, all alone.”

He groaned again. “Not to walk …”

“Well this way, you get a walking tour of the city. And I get to keep an eye on you personally. You’re not slipping out of this one, Rowan.”

With an overly exasperated huff, he rolled his eyes and quickened his pace toward the garage exit. “Then hurry up.”

Rebecca forced back a smile, which still felt out of place given how much was currently at stake for Shade. But it sure did feel good to have even a small reason to smile, especially now.

This wasn’t the ideal scenario for her, either—just the two of them out in the city on their own. Granted, that meant fewer Shade members for Rowan to mess with on their way to find this key-maker, but it also meant Rebecca would take the full brunt of any shenanigans he tried to pull.

And she knew he would. This was Rowan.

Walking was the only way to ensure she kept an eye on their surroundings in case the need to retrace her steps ever arose. It eliminated most possibilities for the Blackmoon Elf to pull the wool over her eyes and lead her into something she wouldn’t have agreed to willingly. She still wanted to believe he wouldn’t endanger her on purpose, but being overly prepared was far better than to go in blindly trusting anyone.

Even someone she once would have trusted blindly with her life and without a second thought.

Rowan moped silently about it the whole time.

Once they’d made it out of the compound’s surrounding area on foot, now heading toward downtown Chicago, Rebecca couldn’t hold her silence any longer. Her curiosity had grown too great, and with no one else around, neither of them had to mask their answers anymore. Or their questions.

“You didn’t actually answer me in my office earlier,” she began.

“I remember giving perfectly acceptable answers to everything,” he muttered, still annoyed enough to stare straight ahead and reply as if she weren’t right beside him.

“When I asked you how you know anyone in Chicago, including a key-maker. You didn’t actually answer. You just gave me more vague details about the key-maker.”

“Oh.” He chuckled. “That.”

“So now I’d like an answer.”

“I bet you would.”

She rolled her eyes and overcame the urge to throw him into the middle of the street. “I’m being serious. I wish you would be too. There’s no one around in need of a performance, okay? It’s just me.”

“Oh, now it is, huh?”

When she shot him a warning look, the frustration she thought she’d seen beneath his expression disappeared before Rowan replaced it with another carefree chuckle.

“I’m sure you’ve already noticed,” he said, “but I’ve been on the road for a long time. I’ve been lots of places in my travels, and believe it or not, Chicago’s only one of them.”

“Your travels, huh? All those fun and games in a new world? All those tricks waiting to be played?”

“In my search for you , actually.”

Rebecca’s mouth snapped shut as they continued together down the sidewalks lining semi-busy streets. She didn’t like being reminded of that at all—that Rowan was here only because he’d been searching for her to bring her home.

In fact, that was a topic she’d hoped to avoid forever, if she could.

Now she had no way to avoid the topic, nowhere to go to get away from him, and only her constant rage simmering just beneath the surface to protect her from the horrors of the life she’d left behind.

The life to which Rowan insisted on returning her.

Was this his plan all along? To get her alone like this so he could make his move before she ever saw it coming?