Fairy Bad Day(11)

“You know this isn’t going to work, don’t you?” Loni asked rhetorically as she pushed away the rest of her meal and Tyler instantly fell on it with a zeal she and Emma both ignored. “I mean, it’s not like we even go to a regular school where you can miss a few classes. This is Burtonwood, Emma, and that means you can’t run away from him forever.”

“I can while he has his leg in a cast,” Emma reminded her. “Anyway, until I change Kessler’s mind, there’s no way I’m going near Curtis in case he figures out my plan and tries to stop me.”

“You have a plan?” Tyler finished the rest of Loni’s dinner and looked up with interest.

“Well, it was to talk to Kessler, but since I can’t find him, I might have to come up with something else, and when I do, I don’t want Curtis nearby sticking his nose in it.”

“That’s it? Ruby, my five-legged pet cockroach has better plans than that.” Tyler raised an eyebrow, but before he could say anything else, Ryan Duncan came up to him and they started talking about some football game that they’d been betting on. Loni and Emma rolled their eyes and both stood up.

“So do you want to go to the gym?” Loni asked, but Emma shook her head and yawned.

“Actually, I might make it an early night.”

“Okay, well, I’ll see you in the morning. And Emma, try to remember that, according to your horoscope, you’re actually supposed to be having a good week.”

“Remind me to take cover when my stars say I’m going to have a bad week.” Emma only just resisted the urge to laugh as she said good night to her friend.

She jogged back toward her dorm. Normally she would’ve stopped and talked to the group of sophomores who were all sitting under an oak tree, but tonight she didn’t bother since they were probably talking about her. Instead, she hurried back to her room and halfheartedly pulled out her homework.

An hour later she decided to call it a night since apparently staring aimlessly at her homework wasn’t enough to get it finished. She was just about to turn off her laptop when her dad pinged her on IM.

She considered answering it for a moment before deciding to just call him in the morning. She’d promised after her accident that she’d update him every day about how she was doing, but she just didn’t feel up to it. Especially since, no matter how much he tried, it was impossible for him to understand what she was going through. Not just about her sore eye or even getting stuck with fairies, but because he was sight-blind.

As a rule sight-gifted people tended to stick together mainly because it was frowned upon to talk about elementals with civilians. However, it wasn’t actually illegal, and so when Emma’s parents had met and fallen in love, there was nothing to stop them from getting married. Plus, her dad had briefly worked at Burtonwood, which had made any explaining her mom had to do a little bit easier.

The other reason that most slayers tended to stick together was that the children of mixed marriages were nearly always sight-blind. In fact, until she turned eight, Emma’s biggest fear was that she would be as well and that all the amazing stories her mom had told her would just be that... stories.

But then it had happened.

On her eighth birthday, her parents had taken her out to the beach. It was April and the spring air had been warm and fresh, and the smell of salt had been dancing in her nostrils before it was suddenly replaced by something else. Something evil. Then, without even knowing why, Emma had dropped to all fours just before a large phoenix went swooping over her, missing her by mere inches.

In a second Emma took it all in: The heavy torrents of wind that gushed up as the creature went past her, its dark red feathers that almost seemed to blaze like fire against the blue spring sky. The small orange eyes that were filled with malice. And most noticeably the large beak, curved and deadly.

A second later her mom appeared with a crossbow in her hands and killed the creature before it could turn and dive a second time. Emma had instantly burst into tears, which her mom had mistaken for fear rather than joy. But how could she be scared when her mom was there to help her? And even better, now that she had the sight, she would be able to go to Burtonwood. It had truly been a perfect day, and together she and her mom spent the next two hours planting a series of tiny electromagnetic wards to stop any more phoenixes from returning to the area.

With that thought she shut her laptop and went to bed. Thinking of her mom just reminded her of how much was at stake. And as she drifted off to sleep, she desperately tried to come up with the perfect Plan C so that she could convince Kessler to change his mind. Her future depended on it.





CHAPTER FIVE





So how much sleep did you get?” Tyler asked the next morning as he carefully studied her face. “I bet it was six hours. No, actually, make that five hours. Am I right? I bet I’m right.”

“Shut up, Tyler.” Loni cut him off with a glare as Professor Vanderbilt started to hand out a photocopied article on how to dismantle a hand grenade. “But seriously, Emma, are you okay? You do look a little tired. Maybe you should go and get checked out again by the nurse.”

“I’m fine.” Emma yawned as she took one of the copies and passed the rest of the pile just as Professor Vanderbilt held up a hand grenade.

“Okay, everybody. I want you tell me three situations when you might possibly need to use this weapon.”