Fairy Bad Day

chapter TWENTY-FIVE

I still can’t believe you did it,” Loni said as they sat in Emma’s dorm room carefully activating the dozens of tiny wards that Loni had attached to the silver knives and carefully coated in salt, while they waited for Tyler and Curtis to come back with some food and the list of potential Pure Ones.

“I know, it’s crazy, isn’t it?” Emma agreed as she used her screwdriver to flip the switch in the ward before adding it to the growing pile. “I mean we actually banished the darkhel. Well, almost banished it,” she corrected while desperately trying to ignore the irony of finding herself in the position of longing for rather than dreading tomorrow’s induction ceremony. Even though she wouldn’t be made a dragon slayer, she would at least know that the darkhel was gone.

“Yeah, that’s great too but I’m actually talking about you and Curtis,” Loni said in a mild voice before she put down the ward she had been working on and grinned. “So seriously, I want all the details.”

“What?” Emma felt her cheeks start to heat up. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I mean, we’re in the middle of a crisis here and I’m not sure that talking about boys is really appropriate.”

“Well, that’s where you’re wrong,” Loni retorted. “Not only is the crisis nearly averted but more importantly you two came back from the mall glowing like you’d been dipped in neon paint and then plugged into a power station. So I want details and I want them now. Was there kissing?”

Emma felt a tingle go through her as she nodded and smiled. “Yes, there was kissing. And even some talking. So do you really want to know what happened?”

“Do ogres like eating the eyeballs of their victims? Of course I do.” Loni eagerly leaned forward. It didn’t take Emma too long to fill her friend in on everything, though she didn’t feel it was her place to mention Curtis’s secret.

“Well, if I’ve said it once to Tyler, I’ve said it a hundred times. You and Curtis are perfect for each other.” Loni let out a dreamy sigh when Emma had finished. “And not just because of the star-sign thing, but just because it makes so much sense. Oh, and it also means that Tyler owes me a hundred bucks.”

“You put a bet on me?” Emma demanded.

“No,” Loni quickly said, then relented. “Well, yes. But only because I’m a hopeless romantic. Plus Tyler, cynic that he is, gave me really great odds. Are you mad?”

“No, I’m not mad,” Emma assured her. “Especially since I know how much you wanted to get those jeans you saw at the mall the other day, so I guess your ill-gotten gains will help pay for them. But, Lon, if you don’t mind, don’t say anything about it just yet. It’s just that until we know for sure that the darkhel is banished, I can’t help but feel uneasy. Like my stomach is all twisted in knots, you know?”

“I know.” Loni nodded just as there was a knock on the door and Tyler and Curtis appeared with a tray of burgers and a piece of paper.

“Well, ladies, I hope those wards are done because we come bearing food,” Tyler announced with a flourish.

“Great.” Loni reached for a burger. “But of course you know that if you ever call us ladies again, you will have to be disposed of in a most despicable manner.”

“I did figure it was a long shot,” Tyler admitted as he sat down on the corner of Emma’s bed and waved a piece of paper in the air. “Anyway, I also have a list. There are thirty-five males who are in the system as having B-negative blood.”

“Thirty-five?” Emma wasn’t a math genius but even she knew that she and Curtis would be stretched trying to keep an eye on them all until tomorrow when the darkhel was banished for good.

She ignored the food and immediately grabbed the paper and started to study the names of the people who were unlucky enough to have the wrong blood. Curtis leaned his crutches against the wall and limped over to join her. Being so close to him made her skin tingle and she shot him a shy smile.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey,” he replied in a murmur as he leaned over her shoulder and studied the list she was holding, his breath tickling her neck. “So who do we have here?”

“Too many people,” Emma retorted while only just resisting the urge to lean back into his chest. “Oh, but we can take Professor Luton off the list because he died the Christmas before last,” she said as she started to look through the names. “And didn’t James Anderson move to England six months ago to work in the London office of the Department? The darkhel definitely said that the Pure One was close by.”

“Well, that’s two less people to worry about,” Curtis said as he drew two neat lines through the names and Loni and Tyler joined them to examine the list. “And that means we need to go through this list and take off anyone who isn’t at Burtonwood anymore or who wasn’t here at least five years ago.”

“I see Chris Tripper,” Tyler said as he joined them. “And I’m sure he’s salamander slaying in Australia right. Seriously, you should see the size of them. I think it’s the heat but they’re twice as large as the North American salamanders.”

“Okay, he’s gone too,” Curtis said as they went through the list one by one. Then he frowned and turned to Emma. “William Jones? Emma, what’s your dad’s name doing on the list?”

“Is it?” Tyler looked alarmed, but Emma just shook her head.

“He used to do some contract work for the IT department but he gave up the contract when my mom died. I guess that’s why he got included.” She shrugged. Tyler obviously hadn’t been joking about how thorough Burtonwood was with physicals.

“Aren’t you worried?” Loni looked at her.

“Of course not. Besides, he’s in New York. The darkhel could never get him. You can take him and Ryan Gibson, his business partner, off the list. Now, who is . . . oh my God. I can’t believe this.” Emma suddenly yelped as she caught sight of two names farther down the page. Then she let out a groan as she realized how obvious it was. How could she have not figured it out sooner?

“Emma? What’s wrong?” Loni demanded as she started to glance around the room. “The darkhel isn’t here, is it?”

“What?” Emma looked at Loni blankly for a moment before suddenly shaking her head. “Oh, no, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you, it’s just I’ve figured out who the Pure One is.”

“Who?” Loni, Tyler, and Curtis all asked at once.

“Well,” she amended. “I should say that I’ve narrowed it down to two people. It’s either Garry or Glen Lewis. It’s just so obvious.”

“It is?” Tyler looked at her blankly. “What makes them more likely than anyone else on this list?”

“The fact that when I saw the darkhel on Friday afternoon on the playing fields, it was heading directly to where Glen and Garry were playing Frisbee. Anyway, the darkhel was really pissed at me for getting in the way. It even said that I couldn’t protect ‘him’ forever. Don’t you see? It could tell the Pure One was close by, but I stopped it from getting to him.”

“Who stopped it?” Tyler coughed.

“Okay, fine, it was Tyler and his completely brilliant bet that saved either Garry or Glen from having their throat slit and their blood dripped over the Gate of Linaria in a grizzly ritual. Happy?” Emma corrected.

Tyler grinned and nodded. “Very, and can I just say that you have a very nice way with words. And you know, it does make sense. The Lewis twins have been at Burtonwood for seven years, so that fits in with when Emma’s mom was still alive.”

“But what if you’re wrong?” Curtis didn’t look convinced. “If we do a twenty-four-hour bodyguard on Garry and Glen, then we’re leaving a lot of other people unprotected.”

“Actually, not that many,” Loni said as she looked up from Emma’s laptop, where she had been Googling. “I’ve got four more deaths, five relocations, and three other people who I’ve never heard of, which leaves us with eighteen possibilities besides the Lewis twins. Ten students, seven teachers, and one support staff.”

“So we protect them all but we keep an extra eye on Garry and Glen as well,” Tyler reasoned.

“Yes, but how?” Curtis tightened his jaw.

“Don’t forget that we’ve got wards up,” Loni reminded them. “So there’s a good chance that we won’t even be seeing Mr. Ultimate Elemental Evil again. But as an extra precaution, I do happen to have these as well. Ta-da.”

“Er, what are they?” Tyler was the first to speak as he stared at the small round metal balls that were in the bag Loni was holding out. “Because they look like marbles.”

“Actually, they are. Well, they’re ball bearings rubbed in salt. They’re not as powerful as the wards, but I figured that if we could slip them into people’s bags and pockets, it might give them a bit of extra protection. It was actually after Emma suggested I use the cutlery for the wards that I realized that ball bearings might be good for personal protection.”

“Please, if you ever decide to become a world-famous inventor, don’t mention my contribution to anyone,” Emma begged.

“Okay, the weird thing is that after everything that’s been happening lately, that plan sort of makes sense,” Tyler admitted as he got to his feet. “So how about Curtis and I start trailing the Lewis twins and Emma and Loni can start putting up the wards and slipping these bad boys onto some unsuspecting potential Pure Ones.”

“Shouldn’t I go with Curtis to help check on the twins?” Emma asked, but Curtis and Tyler instantly shook their heads.

“Trust me.” Tyler spoke first. “You don’t want to witness some of the things that those guys say or do. Plus, if you’re both trailing them, then there are a lot of other potential Pure Ones who are vulnerable.”

“I know.” Emma frowned. “But I’m sure that it’s one of the twins, and if the darkhel is going to be stronger than ever, then isn’t it better for us to both be there?”

“Yes, but you’re forgetting that the chances of it turning up are slim to none,” Loni reminded her as she held up her wards. “And by this time tomorrow we won’t even need to worry about it. So really all we’re doing is taking precautions.”

Precautions with cutlery and ball bearings. Somehow Emma couldn’t imagine that her mom had gone through all of this. However, she reluctantly realized her friends were right. As much as she longed to stick close to the Lewis twins (now, there was a phrase she didn’t think she would ever be saying), she knew that it made more sense if she and Curtis split up. She shot him a final parting glance, and she and Loni got to work.

After they had set the wards around the Burtonwood perimeter, one by one they searched out everyone on the list. To distract them from her real purpose, Loni asked them if they’d had a safety check on their lasers lately. And while she bandied around a lot of technical terms, Emma managed to slip salt-covered ball bearings into bags, jackets—and, in Trevor Mitchell’s case, the side pockets of his cargo trousers (that was a little awkward). It was slightly harder to pull off the stunt with the adults who were on the list, but Emma came to the rescue by asking them what their thoughts were about the Department of Paranormal Containment’s new human resources policy, with particular reference to scheduled breaks while on a covert slaying mission—who knew that having a detention and having to write out the policy brochure five times would come in so handy?

By ten o’clock that night, it was all done and it proved easier to do than Emma had thought. Of course, they would probably have to do it all over again tomorrow morning when everyone changed their clothes and bags, which was a bit depressing, but Emma tried not to think about it as she and Loni hurried back to the sophomore lounge, where they had arranged to meet the guys. She shivered in the cool night air as they hurried to the meeting.

At the other end of the lounge Garry and Glen were having a noisy conversation about just how many demons they had killed on the code-blue mission the other day. Emma immediately shot Curtis a look of sympathy for being stuck with the job of keeping them in his sight until tomorrow afternoon.

“So?” Tyler immediately asked. “Did you get everyone?”

“Almost,” Loni said as she held up the neat list she had been using to keep track of it all. “There was no sign of Professor Yemin, though apparently even though he stays on campus, he has a house in town as well, so he might be there. And there are also two students, one other professor, and the support staff who aren’t here, but we’re hoping that means we can just cross them off the list. Even better, so far Emma hasn’t had any sightings of the darkhel. Unless she’s just not letting on.”

“Trust me, you’d know if I’d seen it,” Emma said in a dry voice as she dropped down into the chair farthest away and tried to ignore the bad feeling she had in the pit of her stomach.

“So maybe it means my wards have worked?” Loni said in a hopeful voice.

“Maybe, though the little fairies had said that the darkhel found it hard to maintain its strength while the gate was shut, so maybe’s just taking a breather.” As Emma spoke, she restlessly got to her feet. “Actually, I might go and do a patrol, just to make sure it’s not lurking anywhere.”

“Emma, relax. We were just out there two seconds ago,” Loni reminded her. “And there was no sign of it anywhere.”

“I know, but I don’t want to take any chances. Until three o’clock tomorrow no one on that list is safe.”

“Do you want me to come with you?” Curtis started to get to his feet, but before Emma could say yes, Tyler started to cough.

“Actually, buddy, I think our guys are leaving, which means it’s probably our cue to go as well,” Tyler said, and for a moment Curtis paused as if racked by indecision, but Emma gave a slight nod.

“I’ll be okay. You go, but make sure you call me if there is anything unusual.”

“Ditto.” Curtis caught her hand for a second and lowered his mouth to hers. It was just a fleeting kiss, which no one but Loni seemed to notice, but it was enough to help calm Emma’s rising anxiety. “And please, be careful.”

“I will,” she promised as she watched him make his way out of the lounge, his crutches swinging back and forth in a soft rhythm.

“Oh my God,” Loni squealed the minute the guys were out of earshot. “That was the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen in my life. And weird. I still can’t get over the fact that you two—”

“I know.” Emma allowed herself one short smile before a more somber mood overtook her. “But I really can’t think about it. Not yet. Not until this is over. And speaking of which, I’d better get back out there.”

“Well, I’m coming with you,” Loni said in a firm voice that Emma didn’t dare argue with.





By midnight there was still no sign of the darkhel and Emma felt exhausted, so when Loni finally insisted that she call it a night, she reluctantly agreed.

But it wasn’t until her friend left and she was in her room alone that she let out a sigh. She had a bad feeling that tomorrow was going to be even worse than today. And not just because of the induction ceremony (which had actually been pushed so far down on her “suck list” that it wasn’t funny) but because until they knew the darkhel had been banished, they were going to need to be on full alert.

As her mind continued to churn, she spread her slaying kit out on her bed and methodically started to clean and check everything, just like her mom had taught her. But just as she was putting away her sword there was a loud banging on her door and she jumped in surprise.

“Emma, are you there?”

“Curtis?” Emma put down her sword and hurried over to see Curtis cautiously peering up and down the hallway to check that no warden was around. “What are you doing here?”

“Hoping I don’t get caught. Can I come in?”

“Of course.” She quickly ushered him in and shut the door. Then she frowned as a surge of panic went racing through her. “Has something happened? Are Garry and Glen okay?”

“Well, I wouldn’t say they were okay, since I’m fairly sure they’re demented. Thankfully they’re currently snoring like fifty-year-old men—it’s the only thing they don’t seem to do in tandem. Anyway, Tyler’s camped outside their room and so far the wards all seem to have held. That or the darkhel has decided Earth sucks and has gone back to the other side of the gate of its own accord.”

“I wish,” Emma said quietly as he reached and wove his fingers through hers. “So what are you doing here?”

“I came to see how you were holding up,” he said as his grip tightened, and for a moment Emma felt the stress of the day fade away. Then he glanced over to the small leather book that was lying open on her bed. “Are you still freaked out about your mom being mixed up in all of this?”

“No,” Emma said before letting out a reluctant sigh. “Maybe. I just wish that it didn’t seem so much like a big secret part of her life that I didn’t know about. I want to find out how it all fits together and then I want it to all be over. Plus, I can’t help it, I feel so inadequate. I mean, it probably took my mom two seconds to figure out about the soul box, and if we’d been faster, it would all be over now and we wouldn’t be trying to protect people with cutlery and salt.”

“You can’t know that, so don’t beat yourself up over it. If anyone can figure this out, you can, Emma.”

“I wish I had your faith.” She gulped, but instead of answering, he leaned forward on his crutches and gently kissed her, his mouth soft against hers. Emma felt some of the tension that had been mounting ease as the kiss deepened and his crutches fell to the floor. Finally, he pulled away and blinked as if he’d forgotten where he was for a moment.

“Wow, okay. Well, I guess I’d better go, because if I don’t let you get some sleep soon, Loni will kill me.”

“You’re scared of Loni?” She arched her brow.

“Hell yeah.” He gave an emphatic nod of his head, causing his curls to splay out across his brow. Emma couldn’t help but reach up and push them out of his eyes. He let out a little moan and kissed her again. This time it was Emma who eventually pulled away.

“Actually,” she confessed, “I’m a little scared of her too. Sometimes I think she likes to channel her inner Mrs. Barnes. But, Curtis—” She suddenly felt shy as she wove her fingers through his and peered up into his eyes. “I’m glad you came around.”

“Me too.” He shot her a lopsided grin before he awkwardly bent down to retrieve his crutches and headed for the door. “Good night... Emma.”

Emma waited until she could no longer hear his crutches swinging back down the corridor to hop into bed and turn off the light.

She touched her lips, which were still tingling from where Curtis’s mouth had been. After everything that had happened in the last six weeks, she didn’t really think that too many things could surprise her anymore, but she had obviously been wro—

She sat up abruptly as she glanced around the room. A low, scraping noise was coming from over by the window and for one crazy minute the grin on her face increased as she wondered if it was Curtis climbing up to her window. Then she realized that he had a broken leg and she was on the third floor. Suddenly, as a familiar static sound hummed in her ear, all the happiness that she had been feeling disappeared in an instant.

She jumped to her feet and instantly reached for her sword. The room was dark except for the faint glow of her digital alarm clock and she cautiously made her way over to the window, clutching the sword as she went. The drapes were closed, and she used the point of her weapon to push one back slightly.

The minute she did, she caught sight of the darkhel’s face pressed up against her window and her heart started to hammer in her chest as she realized that she had never bothered to put up any wards in her own room. Could she be any more stupid? She shuddered as she realized that not only did the darkhel look bigger as the faint moonlight outlined its giant shoulders and wings, but it seemed to have an extra glow around it that sent ice-cold stabs of panic racing around her body. The creature’s red eyes were like two pinpoints in the dark, and then it opened its barbaric, misshapen mouth and bared its teeth.

It focused in on her as she quickly closed the drapes. “What? Did you think your puny wards could stop me from coming in?” it said in a low, guttural voice as its giant wings batted the air and kept it hovering up by her window. “Well, actually, they would have if I hadn’t destroyed them all.”

Emma opened the curtain again and saw that the creature was holding out one of Loni’s modified knives so that she could see that the circuit board was completely crushed. Its hand itself was a hideous mound of weeping, blistered skin. “Of course I’m not going to pretend it didn’t hurt. But I was really missing this place. There’s something about it that I just like.”

“I don’t know why you’re acting so smug,” she forced herself to reply. Her mom had taught her long ago that it was one thing to feel afraid; it was another thing to show that fear to your enemy. Suddenly, the advice didn’t seem as easy as it sounded as she gripped the hilt of her sword and returned the beast’s glare. “Since by this time tomorrow you will be long banished.”

“I have enough time.”

“No you don’t. If you knew who the Pure One was, you would’ve already opened the gate by now. Face it, you’re clueless. And you failed. In fact, it must piss you off that first my mom banished you and now I’ve done it as well.”

“Can it be?” For a moment the darkhel paused before a hideous smile spread out across its misshapen mouth. “Oh, how precious. Mommy didn’t tell you.”

Emma instantly felt the blood drain from her face. “Tell me what? Stop talking about my mother as if you know her. You don’t know her. You don’t know anything.”

“Really?” the creature snapped, and she watched in horror as the window started to push open, and too late she realized that the darkhel’s giant talons had been creeping under the aluminum frame and slowly edging it open the whole time they’d been talking. Emma’s heart started to pound.

“Shut up,” she yelled as she thrust her sword and used all of her strength to send it plunging into the creature’s talon. “Just shut up and go away.”

The creature didn’t even flinch and Emma realized that Gilbert had been right when he’d said that the darkhel with a soul was even harder to fight. She was just about to stab it again when she caught sight of Loni’s silver hooped earrings that were lying on the desk. Her friend had taken them off earlier and had obviously forgotten to take them with her.

Silver.

She dove for one just as the darkhel finished lifting the window open so that the glass was no longer separating them. For a moment it looked like it was going to speak again, but before it could open its hideous mouth, Emma stabbed the pointed silver end of an earring into the darkhel’s neck and then watched in relief as the creature instantly fell back into the night sky, its whole body seeming to shake with pain. Then it stared at her for a moment, its red eyes full of hate and agony, and without another word it disappeared into the night. Emma slumped back in relief as the sharp static buzz in her ear abruptly stopped, letting her know the darkhel had left Burtonwood. All she could guess was that despite all of its boasting, the combined efforts of the wards and being stabbed by a silver earring had taken its toll.

So the campus was still safe for now, but she had plenty of other things to worry about.

Like what did it mean about her mom?

What else hadn’t her mom told her? Were there more secrets she needed to know? Emma paced the room, longing for this all to be over so that her life could go back to normal. Even the thought of being stuck hunting tiny fairies for the rest of her life was more appealing than trying to untangle what the darkhel’s words had meant.

She picked up the small leather-bound book again and frantically flipped through the pages looking for something. Anything.

But no matter how many times she read through it, there were no hidden clues buried in its chapters. Just her mom’s loopy writing saying “I know how to banish it” and then, on the final page, “It is done.”

Emma wanted to scream in frustration, but instead she pushed the book away as the curling tension she had been feeling all day threatened to explode in her stomach. Why hadn’t her mom been scared as she waited for the countdown until the darkhel was banished? Did she go around putting pieces of silver cutlery around Burtonwood and slip ball bearings in people’s bags and clothing?

But even as she thought it Emma knew it was a stupid question. Of course her mom hadn’t done any of those things. Louisa Jones had been a dragon slayer, so dealing with this darkhel was all in a day’s work for her. She probably figured out a way to banish it instantly so that she could go home, cook dinner, and no doubt get up the next day and go back to her real job of killing dragons.

Unlike Emma, who was barely managing to hold it together.

No wonder Principal Kessler hadn’t assigned her dragons. Even though Curtis was sight-blind, he was still a thousand times better than she was. He could kill things that he couldn’t even see. Whereas Emma had seen the darkhel three times and hadn’t even come close to killing it. Hurting it maybe, but not killing it.

As she closed her eyes she willed herself to dream about her mom and then look for the hidden message or meaning that might be buried deep within the book.

But this time there were no dreams, and when Emma woke up two hours later to the sound of the alarm, she didn’t feel relieved at all. She just felt abandoned and not looking forward to what the new day was going to bring.