by Amanda Ashby
“Okay, so we can just clear a few things up. The whole almost-kissing-me-and-then-fixing-my-tie thing?”
“Not one of my finest moments.” Curtis flushed. “Of course I wanted to kiss you but then it occurred to me that I would be doing so under false pretenses.”
“And that’s why you didn’t want to come down to the practice range with me?” She knew the answer but had to double-check.
“Actually, that was because I didn’t want you to find out that I couldn’t see elementals. It’s all been a lie.” He clenched his jaw and made a hissing noise under his breath. “I screwed everything up. I wish I could fix it but it’s probably too late. I’m sorry.”
Emma stared at him as she let the truth wash over her.
Curtis Green was sight-blind and the guilt had been eating away at him. Well, she had not seen this one coming. Finally, he coughed.
“Okay, so you’re not talking, which usually means bad things, so I’m just going to leave—”
“Wait.” She blinked as she stretched out her hand to him and he looked at it, as if not quite sure if she was going to touch him or hit him. “As much as it hurts to admit, you’re not the reason I lost my spot. I’ve seen you fight and you have everything it takes to make an amazing dragon slayer. Plus, as Loni has been trying to remind me for the last six weeks, I was the one who tested positive for fairies.”
For the first time since he had accidently almost walked through the Gate of Linaria, Curtis lost the haunted expression and was just looking confused. “Er, I’m not sure you understand what I’ve just told you.”
“I understand,” she assured him.
He continued to study her face before blinking. “The thing is I hadn’t really expected our conversation to go quite this way. I had pictured a lot more yelling and maybe a few I-wouldn’t-go-near-you-if-you-were-the-last-guy-on-earth kind of stuff.”
“You must be mistaking me with some other hotheaded Aries who wanted to be a dragon slayer and might’ve mentioned her eternal hatred for the guy who got her spot,” Emma mumbled as she thought of some of her previous behavior.
“Trust me, I could never mistake you for anyone else.” A small smile hovered on his lips. Then, before she could even begin to allow his words sink in, Curtis let his crutches fall with a clatter to the ground and closed the distance between them. “And now there’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while . . . Emma.”
“There is?” she croaked as she realized he had just called her by her first name. She watched in mute fascination as he tilted his head and his perfectly formed lips came crashing down on hers in a way that she had never dreamed possible. The sensation was instant as she felt herself being engulfed by his broad shoulders while her senses were filled with the smell of vanilla cookies.
His arms snaked around her back and his mouth explored hers. Emma pressed into him and felt her whole body start to tingle with the rightness of it all. It was perfect. Curtis was perfect. He was... wait, why was he pulling away . . . and why wasn’t he kissing her anymore?
“Is everything okay?” she asked in a cautious voice. “You’re not going to have another freak-out, are you?”
“There’s something I think you should see.” He gently steered her around so that she was facing the same way he was, his arms still protectively wrapped around her shoulders, as if he was afraid that she would disappear on him.
“What are you—”
But the rest of her words were lost as there, hovering in the air, just behind where she was standing, was an elaborately decorated container about the size of a backpack. The wood was so dark it looked almost black, while deep red gems were studded in the lid and glistened around it like some sort of blood-soaked halo. For an inanimate object it seemed to radiate a lot of evil. Like darkhel, like soul box, she supposed, while not finding the thought remotely comforting.
“You found it,” she croaked. “You really found it.”
“We found it,” he corrected as he stepped back and watched Emma fish the pendant out of the pocket of her shirt. The large circle in the middle of the box was a mirror image of the crystal. “So go on,” he encouraged, and Emma felt her hands start to shake.
Is this what her mom had done when she had banished the darkhel?
The idea of Curtis and her repeating history gave her a small thrill. Of course it wasn’t the same as being a dragon slayer, but at least she was following in her mother’s footsteps in some small way. Even if it had taken Emma four days and a bunch of friends to inadvertently figure out.
She took a deep breath and slipped the pendant into the front of the box. It was a perfect fit and she watched as the top opened up like a flower and a dark wisp of smoke curled out. For a moment it hovered over her head before it formed into a small, tight ball and then it went speeding out of the freezer and off into the food court.
A second later the box itself disappeared and the crystal pendant fell to the floor with a clatter. She bent and picked it up before turning back to Curtis, slipping her hand into his and shooting him a shy smile. He squeezed her hand and gave her a dazzling smile that made her feel short of breath.
There. It was done. The darkhel’s soul had been returned, and in twenty-four hours the vile creature would be banished back to the other side of the gate, where it belonged.
Emma just hoped that things didn’t get worse before they got better.
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 d
on’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 di
stract 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.”
