Free Give the Devil His Due (The Sanheim Chronicles, Book Three) by Rob Blackwell Page B

She seemed to realize for the first time that she was no longer suspended as target practice.
    “Where am I?” she asked him, her blue eyes still wild.
    “Halloweenland,” Janus replied. “Whatever the hell that is.”
    “It’s hell, Elyssa,” Quinn said. “We’re…”
    At the sound of his voice, Elyssa’s head jerked around to face Quinn. When she saw him, she let out a scream and began pushing frantically away from them. When Quinn tried to stop her, she scratched at him and he let her go. Elyssa fell to the ground and started scrambling backwards without taking her eyes off Quinn.
    “Get away from me!” Elyssa said.
    “You know her name?” Janus said.
    “Janus, this is Elyssa, one half of the other Prince of Sanheim I was talking about,” he said.
    “Why is she acting like you’re Freddy Krueger? Look at her, she’s terrified, mate,” Janus said.
    “Because,” Quinn said, “I killed her.”
    “Oh,” Janus said. “That’s a pretty good reason.”
    Elyssa was still backing up, looking back and forth between Janus and Quinn.
    “Elyssa, we need to talk,” Quinn said.
    “Stay away from me,” she said. “He told me you would come, that you’d be back to finish the job.”
    “I don’t know who you’re talking about,” Quinn replied, “but I don’t want to hurt you. I just saved you, remember?”
    “It’s a trick,” she said, her eyes darting. “He said you were coming with your sword. He showed me in my dreams.”
    Quinn held up his hands to show her they were empty.
    “He was lying, Elyssa,” Quinn said. “I didn’t even know you were here.”
    “Was there a particular reason you killed her?” Janus asked. “Cause she’s really hot.”
    Quinn turned to him with an exasperated look.
    “You would be okay with it if she weren’t attractive?”
    “No, but look at her. She’s supermodel hot.”
    “If it helps, she was trying to kill me at the time,” he said. “Well, technically, at that exact moment, she was trying to kill Kieran.”
    “Who’s Kieran?”
    “The guy who ended up killing me.”
    Janus scratched his head and looked confused.
    “Could you write this down for me? It’s getting hard to follow.”
    “Kieran killed you?” Elyssa asked.
    She had stopped backing away, but still lay on the ground watching them warily.
    “I killed you, Kate killed Sawyer, and then Kieran stabbed me in the back,” Quinn said.
    “Why?” Elyssa asked, her tone echoing with disbelief.
    “I’m not sure, but it seemed to be Sanheim’s orders,” Quinn replied. “I didn’t have much time to ask him about it.”
    “But if you’re dead…”
    “We’re in hell, Elyssa,” Quinn said. “I was trying to…”
    Their conversation was interrupted by the strange music starting up again over the loudspeaker. Quinn watched as the flock of crows suddenly descended on the body of the scarecrow. For a moment, all he could see was a mass of black feathers obscuring the body. Then they flew away again, leaving nothing — not so much as one straw — behind.
    “Halloweenland would like to extend a hearty congratulations to our recent winners at Crossbow Junction,” the voice on the loudspeaker said.
    “That’s him,” Elyssa said, her voice sounding near panic again. “That’s the man who was telling me about you.”
    “Interesting,” Quinn said. “I’m not sure who he is, but he’s the puppeteer here, Elyssa. I wouldn’t trust a thing he says.”
    “Sanheim,” she said. “It has to be.”
    “No,” both Janus and Quinn said at the same time. Quinn raised his eyebrow at Janus.
    “I’ve talked with him a fair bit over the past several weeks,” Janus said. “He’s the one that sent me to find you, remember? Whoever this is might work for Sanheim, but it’s not the same person. I’m sure of it.”
    “We can talk about it later,” Quinn said. “For now…”
    “As a token of our appreciation, we’d like to invite our winners to our original haunted house,” the