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Abruptly, the light vanished, leaving me blinking away spots in my vision. And staring through them to where Dimitri groaned on the floor, grabbing his arm and looking like he’d fallen twenty feet instead oftwo.
I jogged forward and knelt beside him as I pointed Fezzik toward the door. “Are you allright?”
Sindari stood near the exit, gazing out into the yard, his ears twitching and his tailrigid.
“I think so.” Dimitri winced and grabbed his head. “I’m not sure what happened. I was checking out that toy train, and then it went all dark, and I felt this stabbing pain and this sense of being lifted and… I’m not sure after that. Until I dropped out of, uhm.” He looked up at theceiling.
“I’ll explain it later. Or maybe I won’t. It’s time to go. Can you standup?”
“I thinkso.”
They’re in the yard out there,Sindari told me.All five of them. Looking toward us. Your charm can’t hide anyone else, right? They’ll see Dimitri. I don’t think we’ll be able to get back to the van without afight.
Thinking of the dead security guard, I replied,I wouldn’t mind afight.
Dark elves are strong and agile. And what about Dimitri? He has no magical weapons with which to defendhimself.
That was the problem. Belatedly, it occurred to me that we should have fought the dark elves andthengotten Dimitri out of the house’s weird alterdimension.
I almost called 911 to report the dead security guard—that ought to have police milling all over the property, and if the dark elves were as dedicated to not being seen as Willard had said, they would disappear. But I was a wanted woman. Calling the police would get me in more trouble than the darkelves.
They’re by the playhouse again,Sindari reported.I can hear them talking. They feel the magic of this carriage house, and that’s the only reason they haven’t made their move, but they’re thinking about charging in to look forus.
I eyed a handful of lawn-maintenance tools inside the door. I doubted a weed whacker and a leaf blower would scare the elves away, but perhaps they could be deterred by another distraction. Or athreat.
A rusty five-gallon can tucked behind the yard tools caught my eye—was that gasoline for the weedwhacker?
“Dimitri,” I whispered. “Do you have alighter?”
“No.”
“I should have broughtMom.”
“Hey, I’m useful. I can make things with my hands and imbue them withmagic.”
“Yeah?” I grabbed the canister, opened it, and sniffed, confirming that it was gasoline. Possibly gasoline that had been there for decades—I hadn’t seen a tin like that for ages. “Can you turn this gas can into a Molotovcocktail?”
I was being sarcastic, but he shrugged and said, “Easy. Are we burning down the carriagehouse?”
“No.” I pointed toward the dark elves—I couldn’t see them, but I trusted Sindari’ssenses.
“Themainhouse?” Dimitri threw me a shocked looked. Perhaps for an obvious reason, he hadn’t sounded disagreeable about burning the haunted carriage house, but someone’s estate was anothermatter.
“Just the playhouse. We’ll be doing the next owners a favor. You wouldn’t want your kids playing next to this evil carriage house, would you?” I shoved the gas can toward him. “Also, the playhouse is full of dark elves getting ready to storm in and slayus.”
His grunt didn’t sound that agreeable, but he went hunting for a rag and went towork.
Something clanked onto the roof. I leaned out the door, ready to shoot if the dark elves were charging us. Something cylindrical—a homemade grenade?—bounced off the roof.Faroff. As if it had been launched from a trampoline rather than simply hitting wood boards. Was the house defendingitself?
The grenade flew up more than a hundred feet before exploding with a fiery orange boom. If anyone in the neighborhood had been asleep, they were awakenow.
A faint twang reached my ears, and I ducked back inside. A crossbow quarrel slammed into the door where my head hadbeen.
“I don’t think we have much time,” Imuttered.
“This won’t take long,” Dimitrisaid.
What’s behind this property, Sindari? Do you know?On the way to the carriage house, I’d seen the back fence, tall grass beyond it, and houselights in the distance, but they’d been a good hundred yards away.Is there another way to get to the road if we sneak out theback?
