by Amanda Ashby
“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.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Emma felt sick. How had she been so stupid? In the distance, Loni, Tyler, and Curtis were arguing over the best and fastest way to get to the mall, but Emma hardly heard them as the truth hit her like a sledgehammer. The darkhel was going to kill her father. The thought was unbearable. She had already lost her mom, and now she was going to lose her dad too?
“Emma.” It was Curtis’s voice that finally snapped her out of her daze, and she looked up to see that Loni was escorting a sobbing Olivia toward them. No points for guessing that Loni had given Olivia the Cliff’s Notes version of what was happening. “We decided that the quickest way to get to the mall was to get Olivia to drive. Do you think you can talk her into it?”
For a moment Emma just stared at him blankly, but before she could answer, Olivia finally caught sight of her and flew into her arms.
“Is it true?” she sobbed. “Is something really going to hurt Bill?”
“Absolutely not.” Emma shook her head as she tried to hug Olivia around her pregnant belly.
“Because it’s all my fault. When Bill told me it was Induction, I refused to go to the wedding. I’m so sorry. And then when that thing took him. . . . I couldn’t even see it.” Olivia was becoming hysterical now.
“Olivia,” Emma pleaded. “I know you’re freaked out, but if we have any chance of helping him, we need to get to the mall. Can you take us there? Please, Olivia, we need your help.”
“D-did you say we need to go to the mall?” Olivia stopped crying and ran a hand across one of her watery blue eyes.
“That’s right. The dar—the thing that’s got him has gone there,” Tyler explained. “So we need to get there pronto. By the way, what are your thoughts on busting through the boom gate? Because I have a feeling that’s the only way we’re going to get past security.”
“What?” Olivia looked at them, a horrified expression on her face as she started to sob again. Emma quickly shook her head at Tyler, who immediately mouthed a silent sorry.
“It’s okay. He didn’t mean that; it’s just that technically we’re not supposed to leave campus, but let’s just go to the car and we’ll figure something out,” Emma explained as they led Olivia as quickly as possible toward the parking lot. They finally reached the Volvo and everyone piled in.
At that moment the three fairies came flying into the car window.
“Boy, that was fun. Did you see his face when we picked up his coffee cup and he thought it had disappeared.” Trevor chortled before his face fell. “You know that’s the kind of stuff I will really miss if our dark brother opens the gate.”
“Which is why we’re not going to let him,” Curtis informed them in a tight voice.
“Is Curtis talking to someone?” Olivia put on her seat belt over her swollen belly and looked confused.
“Yes,” Emma said. “It’s just the fairies. And I know it’s weird that you can’t see them, but if it’s any consolation, they’ve put so much glamour powder around Burtonwood today that practically none of the sight-gifted can see them either. Not to mention—” Emma suddenly sat up bolt upright. “Of course—that’s it.”
“What’s it?” Loni looked at her in alarm.
“I think I’ve figured out a way for us to get out of Burtonwood.” She turned to Olivia. “Okay, this is going to sound very weird, but when you drive up to the barrier, we’re not going to be in the car. Well, we will be in the car but you—and more importantly the security guard—won’t be able to see us.”
“What?” Olivia puckered her normally sunny face into a contorted mask. “I don’t understand.”
“Okay, here’s a crash course in fairies. When they sprinkle that powder, it makes them
invisible even to most of the sight-gifted. But it also makes anything that they touch invisible as well. That’s why they can eat so much food at the mall. I mean, they wouldn’t get very far if they were invisible but their Starbucks and their Skittle packets weren’t.”
“Trevor, Rupert. I don’t like where she’s going with this.” Gilbert looked like he was going to fly out the window as worry lines puckered up on his tiny face, but Curtis quickly hit the switch and the windows went up.
“Look,” Emma snapped in a curt voice. “If you really want to help, you’re going to need to touch all of us except Olivia so that the guards can’t see us when she goes out of the parking lot. Unless of course you’re looking forward to seeing your dark brothers coming through the Gate of Linaria and ruining all your fun.”
Gilbert swallowed hard. “Slayer-girl’s right. We need to touch the humans and put them under the glamour. And afterward we need to wash our hands. Really, really well.”
Half an hour later Olivia pulled the Volvo up to the entrance of the mall. The glamour had worked perfectly, and the moment the fairies touched Emma, Curtis, Tyler, and Loni as they sat in the car, they had become invisible to the outside world. However, despite Olivia’s assurance that she couldn’t see any of them, Emma still held her breath as they passed the guard station. Thankfully, the guard had taken one look at Olivia’s pregnant belly and waved her on.
As soon as they were clear, the fairies had insisted on being let out of the car, and the minute they were gone, Emma and her friends became visible again. Olivia didn’t say anything, but it was obvious by the way she gripped the steering wheel that the whole experience had unnerved her, and they had made the rest of the trip in silence.
As soon as the car stopped, Emma went to jump out before she suddenly turned back around and lightly touched Olivia on the arm.
“It’s going to be okay, you know,” she said in much the same way everyone had been saying to her all week, and as inane as she knew it was, she suddenly understood why they had been saying it. Not because it was true, but because it let people know that you wanted it to be true. Then she pushed her emotions down. If she thought too much about what the darkhel might do to her dad, there was a good chance she would collapse in a heap and never get up again. And at this particular moment that wasn’t something she could afford to do.
