Page 153 of Elven Crown

The area lit up with blinding crimson light and strobing flashes before the entire carousel succumbed to the debilitating force.

The ride was blown from its stabilizing base. Metal parts screamed as they tore from their settings. Wood cracked and splintered, throwing thousands of shards in all directions. The brass poles holding the manufactured animals in place buckled and ripped free with loud clangs and pops.

The molded animals ruptured and flew across the open ground while the chipped and dented domed roof of the carousel lurched free and flew several feet in the air. It clanged back down against what little remained of the carousel and snapped into several large pieces before toppling haphazardly toward the team.

The deadly echo of such a powerful detonation didn’t stop at the carousel. The explosion launched Rebecca off her feet and sent her flying backward. She crashed into the dirt again and slid farther by several more feet while giant chunks of destroyed carousel rained down all around her, thumping into the dirt and bouncing chaotically in all directions.

Dust, dirt, metal, and wood rained down behind the larger chunks, adding a hint of charred wood and rust to the pervading scent of turpentine in the air from the detonated wards.

Rebecca flung both arms up over her head to shield herself through the worst of the debris.

In five eternally long seconds, it was over.

Then she coughed through a mouthful of dust in the air and blinked furiously before opening her eyes.

To find herself lying face to face with a decapitated horse head, its chipped and dully painted eye staring back at her in accusation.

Groans and coughing from the rest of the team rose around her as the last of the dirt and floating sawdust finally sifted down out of the air.

“Whit?” Rebecca called, wanting to shout above the hollow ringing in her ears but holding back so as not to risk giving away their position.

Until it occurred to her that the detonated defensive ward and its ensuing explosion had already done that for them.

If the assholes who’d captured Diego, Titus, and the half-changeling Burke were still here in the abandoned theme park, there was no way they hadn’t heard the explosion.

“I’m here,” Whit shouted much louder than necessary. “All good. I think.”

When Rebecca finished picking herself up off the ground, she saw Maxwell doing the same before he offered Whit a hand up as well.

“Everyone all right?” the shifter called as he turned to search the wreckage for the rest of the team.

Through several more groans and grunting coughs, everyone else confirmed they’d made it through in one piece, for the most part unharmed beyond sore muscles and ringing ears and a few bruises.

Rowan chuckled. “Blue Hells. Did anyone else not see that coming?”

No one answered as they dusted themselves off and recovered their weapons to check them for broken parts or obvious malfunctions.

Maxwell gave them another minute to recover before he scanned the area and cleared his throat.

“What do we do now?” Jay asked.

“We keep moving,” Maxwell declared. “And we watch for bomb circles drawn in the dirt.”

“Keep moving where?” asked the other mage on their team; Rebecca thought his name was Murray.

When their Head of Security turned toward Whit, the warlock glanced at the ground where his tracking device had landed during the explosion, his lips pressed together in a grimace of uncertainty before he shook his head.

“We were tracking the signal from their phones, but those are gone. And we obviously weren’t even tracking our people. They could be anywhere.”

“They’re still here,” Rebecca said. She’d meant it as a reassurance and had voiced it without considering the fact that as far as anyone else knew, there was no reason to sound so certain of anything.

But now every member of the team turned toward her with questioning looks, waiting for further explanation of how she knew something they’d found zero evidence to support.

Rowan was the only one who seemed amused by the whole thing, but that was par for the course with him.

“Whoever went through the trouble of setting up such an elaborate trap like this,” Rebecca clarified, “they knew we’d come. And they want us to think we still have a chance at staging a rescue.”

“Do we?” Murray asked.

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