Fairy Bad Day (24 page)

“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

E
mma 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.

“How do you know it’ll be okay? I mean, if I was your mom, I could’ve stopped it, but I didn’t do anything. One minute he was there and then he was gone.” Olivia looked like she was going to cry again but instead took a deep breath and clamped down on her lower lip.

“Yeah, well, between you and me, my mom wouldn’t have had the patience to sweet-talk the guard while he checked the car. She totally would’ve floored it and taken down the boom gate. Anyway, we’re here now, but, Olivia, it would be better if you waited outside.”

Olivia nodded. “Emma, please get him back. You and the baby need your dad.”

“I know. I will.” Emma paused for a moment and hugged her stepmother before turning to the backseat, where Loni, Tyler, and Curtis were all crammed in. “Will you guys stay here with Olivia? Make sure she’s okay?”

“Sorry, but you’re not going in there alone,” Loni said in a firm voice as she got out of the car and Curtis followed. “We’re in this together.”

“Touching, really, but maybe we could lose the Three Musketeer stuff and get a move on?” Rupert suddenly dived toward them. After their release from the car, the fairies had chosen to fly on ahead, and judging by the amount of sugar around their mouths, they had been waiting for some time.

“Yes, where have you been?” Gilbert tapped at the tiny watch on his wrist as a worried expression morphed across his face. “Our dark brother has arrived, and if you were any later he would’ve had time to tap all the arteries and drain all the blood that he needs—”

“Okay, enough with the details.” It was actually Tyler who cut them off. “Go and do your thing and I’ll make sure that Olivia is okay.”

“Thanks.” Emma reached out and squeezed his hand.

“Yeah, it’s so touching that I might possibly throw up,” Trevor muttered. “Now come on already. Follow us; we know a shortcut.”

Without another word, the three fairies darted off to the main entrance and into the thick Sunday lunchtime crowd. Thankfully Emma had been chasing fairies through the mall for six weeks now and she had no problem following them as they swooped and swerved their way through like three tiny but very erratic bullets. They turned left into a fire exit, and after going down a flight of stairs, Emma suddenly found herself right outside the burned-out shell that was once Hong Kong Wong. A few seconds later Curtis and Loni joined her, panting as they tried to catch their breath.

The black plastic was still hanging over the entire counter, cutting it off from the rest of the food court, but instead of going straight inside, Gilbert came to a halt and nervously started to wring his tiny hands.

“So what’s the plan?” he demanded, his wings making a whirring sound.

“I kill it. Do you have any tips?” Emma’s voice was flat. The small fairies all gulped at the same time.

“Sorry, I wish we did. We might be family but there are still trust issues, and no darkhel has ever revealed where their point of weakness is. Pity. Isn’t there some sort of Sir Francis hotline you can call?” Gilbert asked.

Emma shook her head. “There’s no hotline.”

“That’s a flaw.” Rupert fluttered his wings. “Definitely. If I were you, I’d be wanting a hotline.”

Emma didn’t bother to respond. Instead she glanced around the half-full food court and made sure no one was looking in their direction. Then she nodded to Curtis and Loni and pushed back the black plastic so that they could slip undetected into the fire-damaged kitchen.

The moment the black plastic fell shut behind them, she dropped her slaying kit and pulled out her sword. Curtis was right beside her, wearing his glasses, unbelievably silent despite his crutches, and then Loni, clutching at her laser like it was a light saber. There was no sign of the darkhel, but over in the far corner Emma caught sight of a group of bodies, all lying limply like rag dolls at a toy hospital, their arms bloodied and bruised. The smell of blood cloyed in her nose until Emma felt like she was choking on it.

Curtis and Loni seemed to be struggling as well as they all hurried over. Among the bodies Emma was able to discern the Lewis twins and Professor Yemin as well as several other people on the list.

“They’re alive.” Loni’s voice was a little above a whisper as she dropped to her knees and started checking everyone out. “They’re all alive.”

Emma let out her breath, but then froze as she caught sight of her father, lying on a countertop in the middle of the room. She only just managed to stifle a scream as she raced over to his limp body. His face was waxen and pale and his arms were covered with deep angry-looking bruises, just like the others, and for one dreadful minute Emma thought she was too late. Then she saw the shallow rise and fall of his chest and she felt a tremendous surge of hope.

“Dad, it’s okay. I’m here,” she said as she tried to drag him up into a sitting position. There was no answer but she didn’t let it put her off. “And everything’s going to be fine. I just need to get you out of here and—”

“I don’t think so . . . ” The darkhel suddenly emerged from the burned-out freezer. It had a large bowl gripped tightly in one talon and a heavy book in the other. Instantly, Emma’s stomach cramped up and she doubled over in pain.

Next to her Curtis stiffened in shock, and as Emma managed to straighten up, she realized why.

Last night at her window, the darkhel had definitely looked larger than before, but nothing could have prepared her for the full reality of what it had become since its soul had been restored.

It was now at least ten feet tall, and its whole body was broader and thicker, with sinewy muscles bulging out from its arms and thighs. The room seemed too small to accommodate its enormity. At the sight of the creature Emma was filled with a sense of dread like she’d never felt before.

Only the red eyes seemed the same, and they were now fastened in on her.

She glanced at her watch and realized there was still another hour before it would be banished. She felt sick at the impossibility of the task that loomed before her.

“We can do this, Emma,” Curtis whispered from next to her as if reading her mind. “Just don’t let it scratch you.”