11. Chapter 11

11

R ebecca’s heart skipped a beat when she caught sight of Maxwell and the four other guys making up the brunt of his security team standing around the outer edges of the gathered operatives. If he was here, everything she was planning might already be doomed.

The shock of that possibility wiped her mind clean of literally everything else.

The next second, her self-awareness crashed back into her, and she abruptly snapped her gaping mouth shut with a sharp click of her teeth.

Maxwell’s silver eyes narrowed at her before he inevitably looked away to focus his attention on the matter at hand.

She couldn’t stop staring at him, though.

Dissension in the ranks, huh?

The shifter Head of Security was the absolute last person she would have expected to see present for something like this, whatever this actually was.

To be honest, Rebecca had been counting on Aldous’s predictability and the very high likelihood that he’d ordered Maxwell to be her anonymous shadow—to spy on her, to report literally everything back to the very tippy-top of Shade’s command with unflinching loyalty and without question.

But here he was, already stationed here in the library with the rest of them to begin this thing they’d all gathered to do, and he’d beaten Rebecca to it.

If it were anyone else, she would have scratched them off the list of potential spies, simply because a good shadow stayed on their target from behind.

A truly exceptional spy, however, would have been two steps ahead of her at all times, just to throw her off the scent.

Fair enough. The shifter was obviously capable of that.

But if Maxwell was the one Aldous wanted watching her day in and day out, he ran a hell of a risk by showing his face at this meeting, especially with no guarantee Rebecca would show up after him, seeing as she hadn’t officially been invited.

Shade’s other operatives here didn’t seem to think that was much of an issue.

Rebecca folded her arms and leaned gently sideways against the end of the closest bookcase. This was going to be interesting.

Maxwell’s gaze locked onto hers again, this time lingering longer than a fleeting glance. His eyes, normally cold and unreadable, seemed to hold a challenge now—and something darker. More intense.

A hot flush crept up the sides of Rebecca’s neck, but she refused to look away first. She wouldn’t give him that satisfaction.

“All right. Everyone knows why we’re here. So I’m gonna skip past all the bullshit and just get down to it.”

Rebecca’s gaze was instantly drawn toward the center of the circle and the sound of that new voice.

Not entirely new, though.

She recognized it a second before the crowd of gathered members parted slightly and a short mage shouldered his way through the close quarters to stumble briefly into the open space at the circle’s center.

And he still wore that damn leather trench coat.

She pressed her lips together, fighting back the urge to laugh.

Leonard, of all people, had been the one to set this up.

Surprise, surprise.

Six months definitely hadn’t been long enough to get an accurately detailed read on even the Shade members with whom she’d spent the most time so far, which had been by necessity during all their shared missions. Still, Rebecca never would have pegged the mage as the type to lead a secret meeting in the compound library.

Good for him.

“We have a serious fucking problem,” Leonard continued. “Everybody here knows it. And if you’re here, you also know something needs to be done about it.”

He turned in a slow circle, swapping gazes with each magical gathered around him for half a second before moving on to the next.

Then his gaze landed on Rebecca.

While the guy didn’t exhibit any outward signs of surprise or confusion at seeing her here, he stared at her longer than all the others before he added, “If you’re starting to think you might be here by mistake, or you changed your mind and don’t want anything to do with this, now would be the time to leave… ”

His gaze lingered on her a little longer, and Rebecca tilted her head.

This whole thing was just too fucking good to pass up. No way was she backing out of it now.

Whether or not Leonard understood this, he moved on anyway and continued his slowly shuffling rotation within the center of the meeting. Once he seemed satisfied with having given everyone else sufficient acknowledgment, he cleared his throat and nodded. “All right, then. No turning back now.”

No turning back indeed.

How the hell had Rebecca gotten this lucky?

She’d already prepared herself to immediately start sowing the rumors and doubts and tiny but powerful seeds of fear and dissatisfaction discord among Shade’s easiest-to-target operatives. She’d already prepared to bide her time and wait patiently for those seeds to take root and sprout. No matter how long it took.

Then, after that, she would have been content to let the process run its course while she rooted out her newly assigned anonymous shadow, simultaneously pretending to pull off this impossible solo mission for Aldous until all the right cards stacked up in all the right places.

But if this secret library meeting was what she thought it was—and it looked exactly like the start of a magical mutiny—Rebecca would hardly have to lift a finger.

She’d thought she would have to subtly groom the organization for what came next, but Shade was already more than ready for it.

This was excellent.

“I know I’m not alone in this,” Leonard continued. “Something’s gotta give. When Aldous first showed up and Command changed hands, I was willing to give the guy the benefit of the doubt, sure. Bigwigs put him in charge, right? All his special contacts and secret friends in the underground.

“Chicago and Manhattan. Detroit. Apparently, he’s even got a few friends in St. Louis, last I heard. And for whatever reason, those higher-ups who don’t have shit to do with this task force wanted to see the guy sitting right at the top of our fucking pyramid.

“Since then, the shit’s been trickling down onto the rest of us for almost a decade.”

Leonard pointed across the group and nodded. “Earl. You remember what this place was like before. Even with Holden Striker behind the wheel.”

The wizened old gnome slowly nodded and let out a low, thoughtful grumble. “Remember it like yesterday. We actually got shit done. Shade meant something back then. ”

“And now it’s a fucking joke,” someone else called from the opposite side of the gathering.

Spinning toward the new voice, Leonard pointed in that direction this time. “Exactly. And you know what? We all went through hell just to make it past initiation. Passed the tests so we could put our skills to good use in this place.

“I don’t know about the rest of you, but when I started, Shade was the one place where I could be something more than what anyone else anywhere else would ever have let me become on my own.

“I walked into this wanting to find the shithead who killed my sister. Yeah, we found him, all right. After Aldous had plenty of time to get nice and comfy on his throne.

“And guess who’s still out there right now, running around like he owns the whole fucking world. Because there wasn’t enough in it for Aldous to expend his precious resources. I wanted justice, and the changeling gave me fuck-all.

“But it’s not just about me. I know that. I was willing to swallow my pride, because this whole thing was supposed to be something more .”

Murmurs of assent and approving nods made their way around the gathered circle, all eyes fixed on the mage at the center voicing the sentiment every single Shade member had felt themselves at one time or another.

With everyone’s attention focused elsewhere, Rebecca let herself smirk at this unexpectedly fortuitous turn of events.

Now they were really getting somewhere.

“It was supposed to be more,” Leonard repeated, shaking a finger at no one in particular. “But it’s just not , and that’s the honest truth. Not since Aldous clawed his way to the top and took the reins. He’s been running this place into the ground almost from the beginning.

“I know it. All of you know it. And I’m really fucking sick of watching everything we do, everything we put on the line out there in the field, turn to shit before we even get a chance to do what we’re actually good at.

“All because the guy in charge shouldn’t’ve ever been put there in the first place. I’m done. Something tells me the rest of you are too, or you wouldn’t be here right now.”

The library fell silent again as the gathered members considered the mage’s words and their own feelings on the matter.

Rebecca could hardly wait to see who spoke next. Judging by that little speech, the wide range of potentially suggested next steps was sure to provide a plethora of entertainment. And she didn’t have to lift a finger.

No matter how excited she was to watch this fledgling mutiny bloom into something truly epic, however, the continued silence among the other members didn’t contain nearly as much enthusiasm .

There had to be more ideas floating around inside all those minds. Otherwise, the vast majority of Shade members living and working out of their headquarters compound in Chicago wouldn’t have filed into this library in the first place.

Someone had to keep the conversation going. Someone had to suggest specific and actionable steps to move them forward from here. Without a game plan, what was the point?

Rebecca was tempted to provide that answer for them as the seconds ticked by in endless silence and rising tension.

It definitely shouldn’t have taken this long for all the possible proposals to start flying through the air. Especially with this much disapproval and frustration all aimed at the Shade’s changeling in Command.

Unfortunately, Rebecca just couldn’t afford to speak up the way her impatience to finally put Aldous back in his place demanded. Taking part in a mutiny was one thing, sure.

But leading it? Willingly stepping into the spotlight to provide the necessary spark into action where no one else could?

No, that would only put her on a pedestal in the others’ minds. It would make her stand out, capture more attention, bring Rebecca Knox to the forefront of this rebellion from the beginning.

And being at the forefront of anything was more dangerous than continuing to serve under Aldous’s incompetence.

Not necessarily for Shade’s disgruntled members, no, but for her? Absolutely.

Those silent seconds ticked by with such aggravating slowness, part of her wanted to scream out the perfect answer for solving all their combined problems.

Shade wasn’t made of idiots. Clearly, they understood the implications of a meeting like this, and they were smart enough to keep it a secret—mostly from Aldous.

So if they were smart enough to have gotten themselves this far, why was it taking them so long to come up with the right plan?

Still fighting her desire to put everyone else out of their misery and just give them one clear-cut answer, Rebecca slowly searched the expressions and postures of the others around her, reading body language and facial tics and muscular tension—all as parts of the greater whole.

Then her gaze landed on Maxwell again.

He was already watching her .

The look he gave her now reminded her of the look he’d given her through the getaway van’s rearview mirror while making their escape from the team’s most recent failure of a mission.

Rebecca hadn’t caused that failure then, and she certainly hadn’t had anything to do with this secret gathering now beyond stumbling into it purely by accident.

The shifter wouldn’t have shown his face at this meeting if he’d been overly concerned by what his presence here might or might not do to his reputation as Head of Security.

He wouldn’t have come if he thought it held any danger of threatening his standing with Aldous, either. Plus, he’d already been here when Rebecca showed up.

Why the hell was he looking at her like this was all her fault?

Especially when she consistently chose to keep her mouth shut.

She already knew Shade’s best next steps. She already knew what they’d have to do as an organization if they wanted to fix the giant shitstorm into which Aldous had so un-gallantly dragged them.

But it wasn’t Rebecca’s place to lay out new plans for this group, even when all her training and knowledge and experience literally made her the perfect candidate.

Keeping her mouth shut kept her in the background. Under the radar.

Opening it would only bring the spotlight swinging in her direction, and once that spotlight illuminated Rebecca’s identity and her current whereabouts enough that anyone looking for her could actually find her, that would only make things worse for all of them.

“So then, what are we supposed to do about it, huh?” someone asked, tearing her out of her thoughts.

The question came from somewhere along the outskirts of the gathered circle, the voice gruff and tired. Many faces around the group twisted, brows and noses wrinkled, or eyes lit up in recognition.

Rebecca definitely recognized the voice as well, though bringing to mind a matching face felt harder than it should have been.

Leonard squinted into the gathered circle like everyone else, then waved both toward the newest speaker. “If that’s who I think it is… Come on, people. Get out of the way. I can’t see. I said move it!”

Amidst incomprehensible grumbling and the slow, steady shifting of feet, those around the newest speaker leaned toward their neighbors, nudging each other aside until a path opened and revealed the mystery magical in question.

To Leonard, anyway .

Rebecca had to lean forward to peer past all the other bodies crushed together in the back of the library before she finally caught a glimpse of him.

“Well, holy shit…” Leonard huffed out a wry laugh, his mouth hanging open as he stared at the newcomer. “Look who didn’t pass through the fucking veil after all. You look like shit, Hank. Just saying.”

“I feel like shit. Guess that means I’m still breathing. For now.” The dwarf had joined this meeting with a wooden crutch under one arm, his opposite foot barely touching the floor as he hobbled forward. Fresh bandages wrapped around his head, his other arm had been bound in a sling, and eighty percent of his face was still swollen and bruised from his last mission with Aldous. Under Aldous’s direct leadership, of course.

Rebecca already knew exactly where and how he’d sustained those injuries. They all did.

“Thought you were supposed to be laid up in bed for a couple more days,” Diego called out from somewhere else in the crowd.

Hank swept his gaze in Diego’s direction and shrugged. “By Zida’s decree only. I’m not out -out. No way in hell am I jumping back in the field the way Aldous wants, but I managed to get a little…field trip approved.

“Zida’s keepin’ an eye on the clock, though. Gave me an hour before she starts hunting me down, so… We gonna wrap this up with an actual plan, or what?”

Leonard folded his arms and lifted his chin. “You got something in mind?”

Hank slowly looked around the secret meeting, his gaze hopping from one face to the next before he slowly shook his head. “Not me, no. But I did come here to say two things.

“First, I wanna see that motherfucker burn for what he put me through, and if nobody else wants to say it first, I’m happy to be that guy who breaks the ice. And second…”

The dwarf inhaled deeply through his nose, took another step toward Leonard in the center of the circle, and nodded.

“Whatever you plan to do after this, Leonard, whatever the whole damn organization wants to do after this, you can count me in. I might not be able to walk on my own just now, but I’ll damn well offer support and intel and maybe a few extra tools if that’s what you need.”

Another ripple of murmuring voices spread through the library as the others contemplated his words.

With a single firm nod, Hank signaled the end of his impromptu speech. Anyone else might have disappeared into the background again, but the guy had a pass this time—physical, visible proof of the threat they all faced should Shade’s complacency continue and Aldous’s shaky control of the entire task force remain in place.

Rebecca studied Leonard intently. The firm set of the mage’s jaw as he returned Hank’s nod. The sparkle in his eyes when he met the gazes of other Shade members he knew well, those who trusted him and each other enough to endanger themselves with an unsanctioned brainstorming session like this one.

If she hadn’t known better, she would’ve said she was staring at Shade’s new leader. The mage who would take Aldous’s place.

Especially after the way Aldous had treated Leonard specifically during their last mission.

The mage could hold his own in a magical firefight. That was obvious. He cared about what happened to Shade and its members—the quiet, solitary, dejected magicals looking to utilize their talents and bring a little more law and order to the greater Chicago area than the MJC were capable of enforcing on their own.

All while staying below the Council’s radar.

Vigilantism wasn’t necessarily legally approved, even for non-humans.

But as the side chatter continued all around him, Leonard remained still in the center of it all.

He was waiting too, Rebecca knew, hoping someone else would step up to deliver a set of concrete plans for fixing their serious problem—the changeling leader who’d slipped in years ago and had since run his own operation into the ground.

Leonard had never looked the part of a patient rebel leader who organized these meetings with the intention of nominating himself as Aldous’s replacement. That hadn’t changed today.

Just like Rebecca, he was watching and waiting, providing an opportunity for the person who actually wanted the job to step forward and volunteer.

The unanswered question hung over the secret meeting like a storm cloud.

If it wasn’t going to be Leonard, who would step up to fill Aldous’s seat once the rest of Shade ensured it was swiftly and efficiently emptied?

Everything up to this point had convinced Rebecca that planning Aldous’s downfall before nominating Shade’s new commander was the sole purpose of this secret meeting. The certainty of it was almost a tangible presence in the air. They’d made it this far, and now it was time to bring a specific plan of action to fruition.

Finally, Shade was taking back the reins of its own future. Whoever this group of gathered insurgents elected as the changeling’s replacement—and at this point, anyone would’ve been better than Aldous—Rebecca would have to keep a close eye on them.

Closer than ever, in fact.

Because no matter who it was, Shade’s new commander would have the power to either help her along in her own endeavors or rip her silent anonymity to shreds before endangering them all.

She had to prepare for both outcomes. All she needed now was a name.

When she swept her gaze across the gathering one more time and stopped at Maxwell, his cold smile sent a chill racing down her spine.

He knew something, and an instant certainty filled her that, whatever it was, it could destroy everything she’d fought to protect.