Suzanne Johnson - Elysian Fields

Jean’s body had already begun to fade into the Beyond when the lights went out. The music from the carousel died with the tortured whine of a dying animal. Only then did the sound of shouting voices filter through the rain.

Clutching my right arm against my body to keep from jostling my shoulder, I struggled to my knees, and finally got to my feet. Taking a final look into the shadows where Jean had died, I began to run toward the voices. I had a bill to settle.

A glow emanated from inside the storefront where everyone had taken refuge after I collapsed their first hangout. I limped toward it like a crippled homing pigeon. Jonas would know Jean was gone, which made him impotent and shifted the bulk of the danger to Terri and Lily.

Adrian was too big a coward for me to consider him a threat. He’d done something boneheaded, gotten caught, and let things spiral out of control.

Grateful for the sound-muffling effects of the rain, I stopped outside the east wall of the building to catch my breath, and hazarded a quick look into the open storefront. I wasn’t sure how much of my serious case of the shivers came from the cold, from fear, or from injury.

Add hallucinations to the shivers. There seemed to be a hell of a lot more people in that open storefront than there should have been. I held my left hand over my eyes like an awning to keep the rain out of them, squinting to try and figure out who’d joined the party and forgot to invite me.

Alex. Unless I was really hallucinating, he was here. His right leg was red from blood but he was upright, looked pretty well healed, and I’d never been happier to see him. The adrenaline drain of knowing he was nearby almost sent me to the ground again. He stood behind Terri, an arm clamped around her waist and a gun to her right temple, yelling at Adrian, who sat on the ground with his head in his hands. There was no sign of Jonas.

I couldn’t understand what Alex was saying because Rand, Lily, Betony, and Mace were all standing a few feet away, shouting at each other. The whole freaking Elven Synod was at Six Flags.

The situation looked well in hand, so I stepped into the open storefront. It took a few seconds, but eventually all eyes turned to me and all talking stopped. Did I know how to make an entrance, or what? I still held the staff in my left hand in case the elves decided to resort to violence in front of Alex, but I thought Rand’s presence would be enough to keep them in check.

“DJ. Thank God.” Alex pulled the gun away from Terri’s head and shoved her toward Adrian, then came to me. He started to hug me, but stopped when he saw my right shoulder. “You’ve been shot. Where’s Lafitte?”

He’d stood in front of me and let me kill him, that’s where. “He’s . . .” I stared at Alex’s hand. “Is that a nail gun ?” Why the hell was the king-of-all-weaponry, badass enforcer using a nail gun?

“Wooden nails.” He shook it in Terri’s direction. “Got her attention.”

Terri was whispering to Adrian, but I couldn’t summon the energy to deal with them yet. “How’d you know to come here?”

“Rand got your mental SOS and came to L’Amour Sauvage. He found me in that room off the office. He could trace you here through your bond.”

Thank God. “What’s up with our pointy-eared friends?” Elves didn’t have pointy ears, but I figured it would annoy them. Judging by the seething looks from Lily and Mace, it had. Betony looked stunned, and Rand was headed my way. Awesome.

“What do you know of elven involvement in the attempts to kill you?” Rand glowed a little from within, as if the scene needed any more weirdness. His words were formal, but the eyes that raked me from head to mud-covered boots, pausing on my blood-soaked shoulder, were lit with blue flames.

Leaning on Alex, I filled him in on Lily’s involvement, and Etienne’s, and Terri’s, and Adrian’s. And lest I forget, the absent Jonas Adamson, who was probably trying to figure out a way to escape both the wizards and elves with his life.

I dropped my voice. “Here’s what I could piece together. At first, they wanted the staff destroyed, just to ensure I wasn’t able to use it to help the Elders if the truce was ever broken. Etienne was going to help Lily overthrow Mace for control of the Synod, then form some kind of super-alliance against the wizards to take over the Interspecies Council. When Lily saw how much magic I could do through the regression, and then we bonded, destroying the staff wasn’t enough. They had to destroy me to neutralize you and carry out their plans to take down Mace.”

“Then Lily has incurred the penalty of my choice, including death if I so wish it.” Rand was shouting again, this time at Mace.

“Not here.” Mace gave him granite-face, but he’d been listening and was clearly shaken. “We deal with our own, and you’ll have your wish. But it will be after a formal meeting of the Synod at our Place of Counsel. Tonight. She can’t come.” The latter reference to me. Like I wanted to go anywhere near Elfheim.

Grabbing Lily’s hand and dragging her roughly behind him, Mace pounded past me, going out of his way to brush my injured shoulder. The room turned gray, and I ground my upper teeth deep enough into my lower lip hard enough to draw blood. I would not faint in front of those freak-show elves even if I had to stay alert by chewing my own lips off.

“You going to be okay?” Rand’s voice was soft. “I’ll be back as soon as I can. We need to talk.”

I leaned against Alex, reminding Rand where my allegiances lay. “You know where to find me.” Besides that, every time Rand said we need to talk, something horrific happened.

Only after Rand left did I notice that Terri and Adrian had disappeared. We weren’t far from the open transport. Oh no, he didn’t. “Take me to L’Amour Sauvage. Adrian’s not getting away with this.”

“You’re not going anywhere but to . . .” Alex paused, the pounding of the rain outside filling up the space while he went through the same mental litany as me. I couldn’t go to a human hospital. I needed to be treated by a wizard. My house was in ruins. I couldn’t even sleep in my car under the Claiborne Avenue overpass because my rental car had been hauled away after the house burned. It would be too easy to find me at his house, just in case some of the elves decided to drop in for a chat.

“You can take me back to the Monteleone afterward and we can call a doctor on retainer for the Elders, but first, Sauvage. And before that, we need to talk to Zrakovi. He needs to deal with Adrian and issue a warrant for Jonas Adamson.” I gave Alex a short, garbled version of everything I’d overheard. “He needs to know that Adrian’s up to his neck in this and I’m not letting him sweep it under the First Elder’s rug.”

Alex clipped the nail gun onto his belt and pulled out his cell phone. While he talked—he was really much better than me at reports, even verbal ones—I finally let myself thump to the floor, propping against the wall. It hurt to breathe. On the positive side, my shoulder hurt so badly, my bruised ribs and possible concussion felt almost normal.

“DJ?” Alex touched my good shoulder, startling me awake. Had I fallen asleep or passed out?

“Help me up.” My words slurred but I couldn’t seem to straighten out my tongue.

Alex ignored my outstretched left hand, leaned over, and picked me up, careful not to jar my shoulder. “You aren’t in any shape to go anywhere. I’m taking you to my house. Zrakovi’s sending a doctor.”

“Have the doctor go to L’Amour Sauvage. I need to see this through.” This was personal; Adrian had sold out one of his own. “Please.”