Fairy Bad Day

chapter TWENTY-SIX

It did what?” Loni screeched in a high-pitched voice the next morning as she and Emma hurried across the quad to the cafeteria. “Why didn’t you come and get me?”

“Because then we both would be exhausted today,” Emma replied as she glanced around. The whole place was buzzing with the excitement that only an induction ceremony could bring. If only Emma could share the feeling. “And again, I’m really sorry about using one of your favorite earrings as a weapon.”

“I don’t care about the earring. I care about the fact that you stayed up all night and didn’t think to come and talk to me.” Loni was looking seriously annoyed now and Emma winced.

“Sorry, and if it’s any consolation I did get a couple hours of sleep and the good news is that it looks like your ward idea would’ve worked if the darkhel hadn’t destroyed them. Yay you,” she added, but Loni remained unimpressed.

“I still don’t like it and next time an invisible fairy comes and knocks on your window in the middle of the night— and tells you that it’s destroyed all the wards—I want you to promise to come and get me.”

“Except there won’t be a next time,” Emma reminded her, but since Loni still looked mutinous, she raised her hands in surrender. “Fine, next time an invisible fairy comes to visit me at night I will definitely tell you. Happy?”

“Hardly,” Loni assured her before taking a grudging gulp of her coffee. “Anyway, what did it want?”

“What do you mean?” Emma wrinkled her nose. “It’s evil. It wanted to freak me out in a devious and cunning way.”

“Yes, but why? Why would it tell you that it had broken the wards?”

“To show that I hadn’t beaten it? You know what alpha males are like. They can’t bear to lose.” Emma shrugged. “Actually, if you ask me, it was because it was pissed off. It didn’t like when I taunted it about not having the Pure One yet. Maybe it was trying to find out what I knew about it.”

Loni didn’t look convinced, but before she could press the matter further, Curtis appeared and Emma felt herself giving him a shy smile.

“Hey,” she said as he leaned his crutches against the table and lowered himself down onto the chair next to her. “So how did it go last night with the twins?”

“Okay. Tyler’s just waiting for them to come out of the bathroom. But there was no sign of trouble all night. What about you guys?”

“I think I’ll let Emma tell you about her night.” Loni glared.

Emma let out a reluctant sigh. “Fine. Okay, so the thing is that the darkhel turned up at my window last night at about one in the morning. I guess it likes making house calls.”

“What?” Curtis instantly lost his easy smile as his jaw tightened and his eyes narrowed. “I can’t believe you didn’t come and get us.”

“Thank you.” Loni nodded in appreciation at his agreement.

“Look, guys, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but let’s not forget that I’m the one who can see it, plus I’ve already fought it twice. I’m not exactly helpless when it comes to this thing.”

“Why didn’t you call me?” Curtis’s face was pale. “That thing opened up your window and destroyed Loni’s wards. It could’ve come back at any time and—”

“I’m okay,” she said in a soft voice as she suddenly felt his fingers grip hers under the table and he shot her a look that was so intense she was pretty sure that the temperature in the cafeteria went up by about ten degrees. “Besides, even though Loni’s wards were destroyed, I still get a static buzz in my ear everytime it’s near. That’s how I knew it hadn’t returned.

“I still don’t like it. Until this thing is banished, we can’t take any chances,” Curtis said as he increased the pressure on her fingers. Emma returned it.

“Okay, so here’s the new plan,” Loni suddenly announced as she got to her feet. “There are still six hours until we know for sure that that giant fairy guy has been banished, so I figure that Tyler can keep following Garry and Glen. I’ll go and rebuild the wards, this time setting the subsonic blast so high that the freaking fairy won’t be able to get anywhere near them much less smash them. I should’ve done this in the first place, but I was worried that the pitch might set off some of the other wards. I’m such an idiot. Anyway, while I do that, Emma and Curtis can split up and hunt down everyone on the list and make sure that they’re all still in one piece. Does that work for everyone?”

Emma felt Curtis squeeze her hand one more time as she got to her feet. She certainly hoped it was going to work.





“Okay. I’ve remade twenty-two wards complete with an ultrasonic and a subsonic pulse, not to mention double the salt, and set them to pump out three hundred volts of positive electrons. I don’t even think Superman could get through them now,” Loni announced from the other end of Emma’s cell phone, two hours later. “So how is it going?”

“Well, it’s been a little crazy trying to hunt everyone down on the list. It was a lot easier yesterday when campus wasn’t so crowded,” Emma said. “I’ve only found two so far, but hopefully Curtis is having better luck. The thing is that... I—” Before she could finish there was a familiar static noise that started to hum in her ears and she looked up to where Rupert, Gilbert, and Trevor were hovering just above her. “Lon, I’ve got to go. The little fairies are here.”

“What? They got through my wards?” Loni sounded dismayed.

“Hey, who are you calling little?” Trevor demanded. “I’ll have you know that I’m actually considered tall.”

“Ask them if they could even feel the effects of the wards,” Loni commanded. “I mean, I’ve just checked them and they’re working.”

Emma, who quite frankly had much better things to ask the fairies about than the wards, knew that Loni wouldn’t be satisfied until she got an answer.

“Okay, so did you guys notice any wards as you flew in here?”

“Oh, is that what that weird feeling was. I thought it was just my new shoes pinching. Why? Don’t tell me you thought those things would actually work?” Trevor wanted to know.

“That’s it?” Loni wailed. “Some foot tingling? I can’t believe they didn’t work.”

“But they did work,” Emma insisted. “The darkhel showed me his burned hand where he had crushed them. It was blistered and hideous.”

“Our dark brother is blistered and hideous. That’s probably just a paper cut or something because I can assure you those wards wouldn’t have even made him blink.”

Loni made a strangled groaning noise but Emma ignored it as she started to get an uncomfortable feeling in her stomach.

“Look, Lon, let me deal with this and I’ll call you back.”

“Sure,” Loni muttered before hanging up. Emma put her cell phone away. As she did, she noticed there was a text message from her dad, but since she didn’t want to miss any calls if Curtis or the others needed to reach her, she ignored it. Once this was all over she would call him.

She caught sight of Rupert hovering over by a group of sophomores who were eating donuts. He was just above their heads and was holding a small silver bag in his hand. Then he casually flew down and plucked a donut out of the nearby box, the oblivious sophomores not even blinking.

“Did you just use glamour powder on them?” Emma raised an eyebrow at him.

“What? They had jelly donuts and I’m hungry, what else was I supposed to do? Besides, we’re in enemy territory. Someone might want to kill us.” Rupert gave an unrepentant shrug as he took another bite of the donut.

“Can’t think why,” Emma muttered. “So, what are you doing here? I’m sure it’s not to see me get inducted.”

“As thrilling as the idea of seeing you officially turned into a fairy murderer is, we’re actually here about our dark brother.”

“So far he’s been a no-show, and if you were right about how long it would take before he’s banished, there’s only two hours left. I think we might be safe.”

“Well, that’s what happens when you think, slayer-girl, because it gets you into all kinds of trouble.” Rupert finished his donut and did three aerial somersaults before ending up hovering just inches from her nose, his tiny face a mosaic of sugar and jelly.

“What do you mean?” Emma suddenly felt a familiar nervousness bunch up in her stomach. “Is he here? Have you seen him?”

“We don’t need to see him to know he’s here.” Trevor looked like he was riding an invisible skateboard as he too suddenly flew down in front of her. “Every air elemental in a twenty-mile radius can feel his presence.”

“And we can also tell that he’s almost found the Pure One.” Gilbert joined the other two just as they all suddenly clutched at their stomachs.

“What? How? Are you sure?” Emma said in alarm as her stomach muscles tightened. She winced in pain.

“Oh, we’re sure all right. Though I don’t know why you’re asking us when it’s obvious that you can feel his presence too. And that you understand how close he is to succeeding.”

“What?” Emma stared at them all like they were certifiably crazy. “What are you talking about?”

“The sore stomach?” Gilbert hinted.

“The anxiety?” Rupert added.

“The unbearable pain and general feeling of unease that you can’t quite put your finger on?” Trevor finished off. “It’s been building for the last twenty-four hours. How could you not have noticed?”

“I—I’ve had a lot on my mind.” Emma frowned as she thought back to the growing anxiety she’d been feeling. And she did have an upset stomach as well; she just hadn’t paid enough attention to it. “So are you telling me that it’s all some sort of darkhel radar?”

“Were you not just listening?” Trevor growled.

“But normally it’s just a static sound in my ear,” Emma protested as she rubbed her ears, as if to check they were working. “And it’s been static-free all night and this morning until you guys turned up.”

“Hello, static doesn’t mean anything. It’s just a little electric-charged buzz we put out into the air—you know, like a jazzy little theme song. It hardly means danger. Not like the danger that’s coming. You know you really are very ill-informed.”

“Enough,” Gilbert growled at them all. “Because while you might not be worried about what could happen if our dark brother finds the Pure One before he is banished, that’s okay because I’m worried enough for all us. Especially since it’s almost time.”

“How do you know?” Emma started to ask just as a violent spasm went shooting through her stomach and left her doubled over in pain. Okay, scrap that question. As she watched the three fairies also clutch their torsos, she reached into her pocket and fumbled for her cell phone. Then she took a deep breath and tried to compose herself as she called Curtis. There was no answer and so she quickly dialed Tyler. But before she could even hit send, Tyler came racing toward her, his face the color of snow.

“Em, it’s not good,” he panted, wringing his hands in an agitated manner. “It’s Garry and Glen. They’re gone.”

“Gone?” Emma felt the noise around her suddenly fade away as she stared at him. “But how?”

“I don’t know.” Tyler shook his head. “I mean one minute they were in the bathroom trying to make a baking-soda-and-white-vinegar bomb—please don’t ask—and the next thing they just weren’t there. And hey, are those fairies?”

“Yeah, and what about it, pal?” Trevor demanded as he started to open up the small bag that held his glamour powder.

“No.” Emma quickly shook her head. “Don’t do it. He’s with me.”

“Well, tell Mr. He’s-with-Me that right now we don’t have time for his petty worries because we’ve got bigger fish to fry. And by ‘fish,’ I mean our dark brother, and by ‘fry,’ I mean that you need to figure out a way to stop him,” Gilbert informed her as his wings fluttered in a blurry motion.

“Yes, well, the two guys that Tyler just said are missing are two of the potential Pure Ones. We’ve been following them since yesterday. It’s just that I thought... I hoped that between the lack of static in my ears and the fact that I stabbed it last night, they were—”

“Safe?” Rupert swooped down in front of her and raised a mocking eyebrow. “Well, slayer-girl, I think we can assume that you were wrong.”

Emma tried to regulate her breathing as she lifted a hand to her head and pushed back her bangs as if the gesture would somehow help everything make sense. It didn’t. She turned back to Tyler.

“We need to call Curtis and see how it went finding everyone on the list.”

“Speak and he will appear.” Tyler pointed to where Curtis was speeding toward them, faster than Emma would’ve thought possible on a pair of crutches.

“Okay, I can’t find anyone on the list,” he said as he came to a halt, his ugly white glasses perched on his nose. Then he looked up and frowned. “Why are the little fairies here?”

“If one more person calls me little, I’m out of here.” Trevor folded his arms and pushed out his bottom lip in a sullen pout.

“They’re here because the darkhel’s getting close to finding the Pure One,” Emma quickly explained.

“Yes, because apparently she couldn’t figure out the signs on her own,” Trevor muttered before Gilbert nudged him in the ribs. Emma ignored them both as she turned to Curtis and she felt his fingers weave into his. Immediately, her panic lessened.

“So how many on the list did you look for?”

“I looked for all of them, Emma. When I couldn’t find the first person, I went to the next, asking anyone I could think of, but the answer was all the same.”

“But”—Emma pointed to the list—“I saw Ian Wishart and Scott Atkinson.”

“You might’ve seen them this morning, but they’re not here now.”

“You think he’s taken all of the potential Pure Ones?” The words choked in her throat as she looked up to where the three fairies were all fluttering impatiently in the air. “So what’s he going to do to them? Has he . . . has he killed them?”

“Normally I would’ve said yes since our dark brother isn’t really one for houseguests, but since the blood he spills on the Gate of Linaria needs to be fresh, I would say that until he starts the ritual, they will still be alive.”

“But why take all of them? Why not just take the right one?”

“Because he’s probably too stupid to figure out which one is the right one,” Rupert informed her while pretending to do some air-surfing. “Well, stupid or lazy. Knowing him, he’ll just go through them one by one until the Gate of Linaria opens. Which, slayer-girl, is why we need to get moving.”

Emma hitched her slaying kit higher up her shoulder. “We need to get to the food court right now and pray that we’re not too late.”

“Okay, so this is not good,” Tyler suddenly announced in a hoarse voice. “I mean, I’m a betting guy but I really, really don’t like these odds. For a start we don’t even have pass-outs. And how are we going to get there?”

“We’ll figure it out,” Curtis said in a tight voice, his jaw clenched. But before they could move, Loni suddenly came hurtling toward them, her heart-shaped face unnaturally pale.

“Emma, we’ve got trouble—big, big trouble. Oh, hey, the fairies are still here. Don’t tell me that they’re going to glamour me again.”

“They’d better not.” Emma shot Rupert a stern look and he sulkily put away his bag. Then she turned back to Loni. “They’re actually here to help. And we know all about the darkhel. He’s managed to get everyone on the list. He probably took half of them last night after I thought I had injured him. It was a ruse. You were right when you said there was a reason that he came to tell me about the wards he’d destroyed. It was to distract me. He totally played me and I fell for it.”

“What?” Loni’s voice was barely above a whisper.

“You didn’t know?” Emma said in alarm. “I thought that’s why you were here looking so freaked out?”

“No.” Loni shook her short spiked hair. “I was actually here to tell you that your dad and Olivia are here.”

“What! My dad? But that’s not possible. He’s at a wedding in New York.”

“He changed his plans,” Loni informed her, her voice still shaking. “But, Emma, here’s the thing: I’ve just been talking to Olivia and she’s starting to freak out. One minute your dad was standing next to her and then he just suddenly disappeared. Right into thin air... and we can’t find him anywhere.”

The world went quiet and a tingly sensation went racing up and down Emma’s leg until soon the only thing she could hear was her heart pounding as she realized that there was one question she had never bothered to ask herself.

Why had her mom been caught up in this whole thing in the first place?

After all, she was a dragon slayer, so fighting darkhels wasn’t part of her job, unless . . .

She felt the color drain away from her face.

“Emma, are you okay?” Curtis asked from beside her, but she hardly heard.

Unless she had a very good reason.

Like protecting her husband from being killed.