THE ELF QUEEN (excerpt)

CHAPTER 1 (excerpt):

“YOU’VE got to be kidding me!”
     Jelani Marsh bit her tongue as she nearly tripped, running for the uniformed Missoula police officer beckoning a tow truck toward her seven-year-old Toyota.
     “No, wait!” She lunged for the car door, the taste of blood in her mouth. “I’ve got to get to work! Hey!”
     The tall officer grabbed her wrist and pulled her back. “Miss Marsh, I’m sorry. Laws are meant to be enforced.”
     She peered up through long dark bangs. “Richard?”
     He at least had the decency to look sheepish. “You’ve got half a dozen unpaid tickets. I’m within my rights—”
     “This doesn’t have anything to do with tickets, you jerk! This is because I quit going out with you! Bite me!.” Embarrassed as her neighbors slowed to stare at the patrol car and flashing lights, she leveled a kick at him which he barely avoided.
     He waved the tow truck on its way. Her silver sedan with its faded multi-colored bumper sticker reading ‘Mother Earth: the original uppity woman’ disappeared down Rattlesnake Drive.
     I can’t give him the satisfaction of telling him what I really think. I just can’t.
     Swallowing the rest of the bad language that came to her tongue, she started walking, feeling his disappointed gaze burn into the back of her head. Fabulous. It would take her twenty-five minutes to get to the coffee shop now. She’d be late. And late for the fundraiser for the Wildlife House after that.
     As she reached Broadway, a worn blue bicycle pulled up next to her, horn screeching over its rider’s distinctive squeal.
     “Where is your car, woman?”
     Jelani eyed her best friend, Iris Pallaton, who blonde hair swirled above the bright cloud of a magenta blouse. “Richard had it towed.”
     “Jackass!”
     “Tell me about it. I’m late.” Jelani headed off again.
     Iris pedaled along the curb beside her. “You should call his supervisor and complain.”
     “And what? Humiliate myself because he’s a jerk? Screw him!”
     “Maybe you should.” Iris laughed. “Then he’d be too awed to bother you again.”
     Jelani glared as they crossed the street. “Funny.”
     On the far side, she caught the glint of glass in the middle of the sidewalk. “What idiot would drop a bottle when there’s a trash can right there?” she grumbled. “I’ll get it. First karma points of the day.”
     Iris climbed off the bike and put down the kickstand. “What is that?” She bent down near the object. “Oh, sweet Gaia! It’s a glass slipper!”
     No kidding. It really appeared to be a shoe made out of glass. A large one.
     “Who would have left this here?” Jelani picked it up, looking around for a prankster camera team. Something kept her from tossing the shoe.
     “Try it on,” Iris whispered. “It would get Richard Snyder off your mind.”
     “Richard is not on my mind. He’s on my shit list.”
     “Oooh. Sorry.” Iris ran her finger over the shoe. “You’re chicken anyway.”
     “Don’t even go there.”
     “Chicken. Bawk-bawk.” Iris giggled.
     “Fine! If it means I can get to work.” Reaching down with her right hand, she unzipped her boot and kicked it off. “Ready? You want a picture?”
     Iris dug for her cellphone and raised it, ready to take a shot. “Just in case your prince shows up right then.”
     Unbelievable. “I don’t need a prince. I don’t need a man. I need a new life.”
     Jelani set the shoe on the ground and slipped her foot in it. She gently stepped down, not sure what she expected.
     The slipper shattered, slicing into the sole of her foot.
     Nauseous, Jelani screamed and could only watch in disbelief as tiny men sprang from the blood trickling under the broken shoe. She lost track of how many.
     With the biggest maybe two inches high, the men scattered into the shadows around the nearest building and disappeared.
     She lifted her foot, shaking off the blood, and examined her sole to see if glass remained buried in her skin.
     “Did you see that?” Iris gasped, nearly breathless. She grabbed at the wall, eyes closed for a moment.
     Jelani felt faint, too, suddenly washed out. “I—I don’t know.”
     There were no glass fragments in her foot or anywhere. The shoe had vanished. The only trace of the whole incident was dark blood, slowly drying in the sun on the sidewalk. As she watched, the cuts in her foot healed.
     What the hell?
     Iris knelt down to peer at Jelani’s foot. “There were little…people. Naked little people. They ran away. I swear they did.”
     “Did you get pictures?”
     “I almost forgot!” Iris got up and activated the screen on her cellphone, pressed the arrow. Jelani leaned close to watch the whole thing replay in living color. “Oh. Bless. My. God,” Iris said, in her shock reverting to the male deity.
     Jelani nodded. “And the horse He rode in on.”