Fairy Bad Day (14 page)

She had just finished when the minibus pulled into the parking lot. The group of seniors was already inside, looking a bit wet and worse for wear. All Emma longed to do was start reading her mom’s books, but instead she was forced to spend the whole trip back listening to what the older slayers had been through on their selkie patrol. However, the trip was made easier by the comfortable silence that had descended between her and Curtis. It was . . . nice.

Finally, the minibus pulled into Burtonwood and they both made their way back into the dark, silent Academy.

“So what now?” Curtis asked as they came to a halt at the entrance of her dorm.

“Now I go back to my room and start going through these books and hope I can find some mention of the darkhel,” she said as she hitched her slaying kit, weighted down with books, higher over her shoulder.

“Well, I’d offer to come and help you but I guess the last thing you need is to risk being caught with a guy in your room,” he said as he leaned forward on his crutches so that his face was almost level with hers. For a moment Emma found herself staring at his dark, velvety eyes, temporarily mesmerized at the intense swirling colors. She wasn’t sure how long it was before suddenly realizing he was waiting for her to answer. She felt her face start to heat.

“Oh yeah. It’s probably best if you don’t,” she agreed, her voice sounding breathy, even to her own ears. “And, look, I’m sorry I’ve been such a . . . well, less than nice to you. I guess I was so caught up in my own problems I didn’t really think anyone else had any.”

“Hey, Jones, we’ve talked about this. You know it freaks me out when you’re too nice to me. It makes me think you’re going soft,” he teased as he shot her a lopsided grin.

“Hardly.” She found herself grinning back at him, her mood lighter than it had been all day. “As you will discover when we do our virtual tests tomorrow. Because, Mr. Green, I hate to inform you that I plan to whip your dragon-slaying butt.”

“Really?” His lips twitched in amusement. “I’ll have you know that just about the only time this stupid broken leg doesn’t hold me back is when I’m doing a simulation test.”

“Uh-huh. Sure.” Emma smiled and turned to walk away.

“Oh, and Jones?”

“Yes?” She turned back around for a moment to see that he was still grinning.

“Try not to stay up all night reading that stuff, because if you want to beat me, you’re going to need your sleep.”

“In your dreams,” she retorted as she watched him swing his way back toward his dorm. But it wasn’t until he was gone that she realized she was still smiling.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

T
hank God you’re back,” Loni announced fifteen minutes later as she walked into Emma’s room and collapsed on the chair by the window. “I swear I would rather listen to one of Professor Edwards’s boring lectures on why you will no doubt need to use pi every single day when you’re an adult than have to spend one more minute with Brenda. Especially since I just found out she’s a Scorpio.” She gave a dramatic shudder. “Anyway, now I completely understand why you were so upset about getting stuck with Curtis. There is
nothing
worse than working with someone who drives you insane.”

Emma looked up from the book she had been reading and smiled slightly. “Actually, turns out that Curtis isn’t so bad. Did you know that he’s from a sight-blind family and that his dad used to hit him just because he was different? Even worse, his mom left them and his brother died. It’s sort of hard to imagine, isn’t it? I mean, he seems so together, what with the hair and the attitude.”

For a moment Loni didn’t answer as she silently studied Emma’s face. Then she suddenly sat up bolt straight and widened her violet eyes. “Oh my God. You like him again. I knew it. I just knew you would change your mind.
Man, I so should’ve taken that bet with Tyler.
”

“What?” Emma demanded as she tried not to flinch under her friend’s piercing gaze. “Of course I don’t. Why do you think that?”

“Because I’m all-knowing and all-seeing,” Loni retorted. “Plus you’re doing that thing with your fingers which means you’re preoccupied. So what happened to the practice-range fiasco?”

“Don’t laugh, but he thought I was asking him to actually practice fighting demons and the only reason he said no was because he prefers to do his practice in the simulation labs,” Emma explained as she examined her fingers to see what thing she was supposedly doing.

“What?” Loni was momentarily distracted. “Who likes to fight pretend elementals when they can fight real ones?”

“I think you’re missing the point.” Emma coughed as she gave up studying her fingers. “The important thing is that he wasn’t blowing me off.”

“That’s true.” Loni clapped her hands in excitement. “And it also means I was right. There was a simple explanation for it. You know, I just never get sick of feeling right.
Er, so why don’t you look happy?
”

“I am happy,” Emma quickly assured her as she thought of Curtis’s gorgeous face. However, her mood dampened as she recalled the dark shadows that seemed to overtake it from time to time. “But—”

“There’s a ‘but’? Why’s there a ‘but’?”

“I’m not sure.” Emma wrinkled her nose. “When I hated him, I thought his attitude was merely because he didn’t want to hang out with a fairy slayer. Like it was beneath him. But since I’ve gotten to know him, I don’t think it’s that. But there is something. I just can’t put my finger on what.”

“Yes, it’s called a Y chromosome,” Loni retorted. “Guys aren’t supposed to be like girls because otherwise they would take up too much room at the mall and steal our makeup. I think you’re reading too much into this. He explained why he went all weird outside the simulation labs, so now you have nothing to worry about. You like him and I’m sure that he likes you. It’s perfect.”

“Well, except for the invisible fairy who knows my mom,” Emma corrected as she realized that she had let herself get sidetracked, and so she forced herself to push aside the conundrum that was Curtis Green. “How did you and Tyler make out with the wards?”

“Nothing.” Loni’s face instantly dropped and she shook her head in disappointment. “I checked every single one and the voltages were correct on all of them. I can’t believe it. I really thought our problems would be solved. But instead, we’re right back where we started.”

“Yes, but hopefully not for long.” Emma nodded to the heavy, leather-bound volumes that were stacked up on her desk.

“Wow, look at all of these,” Loni said, instantly reaching for a slim book called
Elementals Through the Ages.
“I just know we’re going to find something in one of them.”

“I hope so. And thanks for helping.” Emma shot her friend a grateful smile before turning her attention back to the book in her hands. It was so dumb, but even the sight of something that her mom had once touched made Emma catch her breath.

She’d had five years to get used to the idea that her mom was gone, but it still hadn’t happened, and secretly, in the back of her mind, Emma kept thinking she was just on a really long mission and one day she would walk back through the kitchen door. Of course if she did, the kitchen wouldn’t exactly be empty... it would be filled with Olivia and her giant bump, not to mention all the new furniture—

“Are you okay?” Loni asked, interrupting her thoughts. “Because you’re looking kind of weird.”

“No, I’m fine. I just want to find some answers.” Emma shook her head and forced herself to push her memories away and get back to work.

However, by the time she had gone through three incredibly boring textbooks that had far too much information about how riddick demons liked to relieve back itch in winter, she was starting to wonder if she’d made the whole thing up. After all, the school nurse had mentioned a possible concussion. Maybe the last few days had just been one big crazy dream?

“Found it,” Loni suddenly interrupted, and Emma felt her heart start to pound in excitement.

“What? Really?” She leaned over to see what her friend was reading. “What does it say about the darkhels? What are they? What do they want, and more importantly, how do you kill them?”

“Sorry.” Loni shot her an apologetic look. “I didn’t mean to get your hopes up. I just meant that next to this picture your mom wrote the words
‘found it.’
”

“She did?” Emma said, her disappointment giving way to surprise.

“See.” Loni held up the book so that Emma could clearly see her mom’s loopy writing, and she had even underlined the words three times and then drawn an arrow toward a black-and-white pen sketch of a dragon curled up around a chest full of gems and jewelry that looked like they were glittering and gleaming, judging by the thin pen lines that were radiating out from them. Emma chewed her lip as she studied the picture, but she had no idea why her mom would’ve written
found it
like that.

It wasn’t big news that all dragons liked treasure. Especially since half of their kills were motivated by the wish to steal people’s wealth. And dragons were fire elementals, not air elementals like fairies, so her mom’s words couldn’t have anything to do with the two kinds of creatures being related. Plus she knew dragons and fairies didn’t share the same kill spot.

She turned the page to see if there were any more clues, but the book then went on to discuss things to avoid when dealing with an enraged banshee.

“At least it’s a start.” Loni was trying to sound encouraging.

“But how? I mean, what does a maskret dragon and its hoard have to do with a darkhel? It’s one impossible thing after another and the more I think about it, the less my brain seems to be working. I feel like I’m swimming upstream in a river of mud.”

Loni stifled a yawn and looked at her watch. “That’s probably because it’s almost two in the morning.”

“It is?” Emma yelped. No wonder they were both having problems trying to figure it all out.

“So what do you want to do? Should we reread all of these books now in the hope we’ve missed something or start fresh in the morning?” Loni asked, and Emma reluctantly started to pack away the books.

“We’d better call it a night. The last thing I need is another detention for falling asleep in class. At least tomorrow’s Friday, so it’s almost the weekend. Then we’ll have more time to try and figure this thing out.”

“Except that it’s induction weekend, which means a dinner tomorrow night, an open day at Burtonwood on Saturday, and the ceremony on Sunday,” Loni reminded her as she got to her feet and headed for the door.

“Induction.” Emma finished stacking the rest of the books onto her desk and followed her friend over. “I can’t believe I forgot. Still, I guess I’ve finally discovered the one thing that is actually worse than being inducted as a fairy slayer—finding out that my mom had some sort of secret that I don’t know anything about.”

“Emma, we
will
get this figured out,” Loni said in a stern voice as she stepped out into the empty hallway. “And in the meantime, try and get some sleep. This whole thing will make a lot more sense tomorrow.”

Emma shot her friend a doubtful look before closing her door. She was tempted to keep working, but she knew that Loni was right and so she got ready for bed. She took one final look at her mom’s familiar handwriting, then shut the book and climbed into bed. After a few minutes of tossing and turning, she fell into a troubled sleep, which was full of dreams.

This time she was already fighting the darkhel, and after striking it in every kill spot she knew, she was still no closer to destroying the vile thing.

Is that the best you can do?
Its voice was a sibilant hiss that made Emma long to fall to her knees and cry. But before she could do so, her mom suddenly wandered over and looked at them with interest.

Unlike in Emma’s last dream, her mom wasn’t dressed in her slaying clothes but in some freaksville 1950s housewife dress. Even her straight brown hair had been piled up in some sort of conservative mom hairstyle. The only thing Emma recognized about the woman in front of her was the familiar crystal necklace clasped around her slender throat.

Mom
. Emma raced over to her.
I don’t know what’s going on with all your weird clothes and hair, but please, you have to tell me what you know about this thing. I can’t kill it. You have to tell me what to do.

Darling, if you can’t deal with one measly fairy on your own, you don’t deserve my help,
her mom said as she idly reached up to the necklace and touched it with her long fingers, callused from years of holding a sword. Then, before Emma even knew what was happening, the creature was on her, its giant talons aimed straight at her heart, slicing their way through her chest before she could even open her mouth to scream, and—

Emma woke up with a start as she realized it was a dream.

Just a dream,
she repeated as she sat up in bed and glanced around. But there was no darkhel there, just the morning sunshine filtering in through her half-drawn curtains. She quickly got up and flung them open, eager to push the dream out of her head, but despite her best efforts, the vision of her mom refusing to help her played over and over in her head.

How did she know the darkhel? What was the connection?

Emma felt a lump rise in her throat. When had things gotten so difficult? She thought that nothing could’ve been worse than losing her mom, but these dreams and the discovery that her mom somehow had a secret life was a million times more painful. How many other secrets did she have?

For a moment she toyed with the crystal pendant that was hanging forlornly in the window. She had put it there almost six weeks ago, promising herself that she wouldn’t wear it again until she was inducted as a dragon slayer. The fact that her mom was wearing the necklace in the dream was still disturbing her, and Emma let her fingers run along the smooth, cool surface of the crystal as it threw a weak rainbow of light that radiated out in lines around the room.

Emma froze.

Radiating out in lines?
She had thought that same expression last night when she was looking at the drawing of the dragon guarding its hoard. Emma lunged for the textbook and flipped through it until she came to the right place and once again studied the dragon, though this time she wasn’t looking at the beast itself, she was looking at the jewelry hoard that was spilling out of the chest at its scaly feet. Then she held the crystal up next to the picture and studied one of the necklaces that was in the far corner. They were identical. It couldn’t be a coincidence. Her mom had given her the necklace for a reason. Now she just had to figure out what the reason was.