Fairy Bad Day(21)

“Emma?” Olivia’s voice rang out from across the marblefloored court, and Emma reluctantly looked over to where the blonde woman was now waving at her.

Great.

Emma groaned as she watched Olivia make her way toward them. At the same time the fairy they had just seen flew over to the elevator and shot her a smug wink before melting away into the crowd.

“Do you know her?” Curtis sounded surprised.

“She’s married to my dad, and I don’t want to talk about it.” Emma folded her arms and once again edged away from him. Why was it that everywhere she turned, she seemed to be touching his arm?

“She’s your stepmom?” Curtis sounded like he was about to choke. “It’s just, she looks so—”

If he said “young,” Emma was going to kill him. She might have only a nail file and hairspray in her immediate possession, but she was sure she could figure out a way to make it slow and painful. She hadn’t topped her class in Inventive Death for nothing.

“So pregnant,” he said instead, which didn’t remotely improve her mood. “I didn’t know you were going to be a big sister.”

“Still not wanting to talk about it,” Emma muttered as Olivia made her way toward them, her blonde hair bouncing in a shampoo-commercial sort of way. Emma wasn’t fond of having conversations with her stepmom at the best of times, but during the potentially worst week of her life, the possibility was even less welcome than normal. Especially since, despite Olivia’s bulging stomach, her dad had only told Emma about the pregnancy when he’d come to Burtonwood and given her her mother’s crystal necklace.

Now that Emma looked back on it, she shouldn’t really have been surprised to receive fairies as her designation the following day. It had obviously been a sign of the impending apocalypse, and she just hadn’t realized it at the time. Especially since her dad hardly ever visited Burtonwood anymore. Emma secretly wondered if it was because he was sight-blind and didn’t like to be reminded of his old life with his slayer wife, which was the exact same reason why Emma didn’t like going home much. And she doubted that would be changing anytime soon, especially if there was going to be a gross baby boy crawling all over the place.

“Emma, I thought that was you.” Olivia beamed as she got closer to them, her giant belly poking out underneath a pale pink linen shirt. “What a lovely surprise.”

“Hey, Olivia, nice to see you.”

“You too. How are you feeling? I know your dad’s been worried about you. He’ll be happy to hear you’ve got your eye patch off now.” Olivia continued to smile in an overly sunny way.

“Oh, yeah. I haven’t had a chance to call him back yet. School’s been pretty busy.” What with being humiliated and left behind for the most exciting mission of the year, not to mention being forced to spend time with a guy she hated more than life itself.

“Of course, I totally understand,” Olivia quickly agreed as she unconsciously rubbed her stomach before she turned to Curtis and gave him an open smile. “So do you go to Burtonwood as well?”

“Yes, I’m Curtis.”

“Nice to meet you, Curtis. I’m Olivia. So what do you specialize in?”

“What?” Curtis coughed.

“Oh, did I say the wrong word?” Olivia blushed as she shot Emma an embarrassed look. “I’ve always been hopeless with lingo. I just wondered if you’re a fairy slayer like Emma.”

“Oh, right. Sorry. I just didn’t realize you knew what we did.” Curtis pushed a blond curl out of his eyes and looked apologetic. Not that Emma could really blame him, since it wasn’t often that a slayer came across a sight-blind civilian who not only knew what an elemental was, but talked about them (especially in the middle of the mall while holding her pregnant stomach). “Anyway, I’m with dragons,” he said as he rubbed his hand.

“Oh, just like Emma’s mom was; that’s so nice. No wonder you two are friends. By the way, is your hand okay?” Olivia’s perpetual smile disappeared for a moment as she glanced at Curtis’s hand, which was looking red and swollen from where his laser had backfired on him.

“Oh, this?” Curtis gave it a dismissive wave. “It’s fine.”

“Well, you should really get it checked out. You don’t want it to get infected,” Olivia persisted, and Emma looked at Curtis in annoyance. Why hadn’t he said that his hand was injured? It wasn’t like she wouldn’t have bandaged it for him. She wasn’t a monster. “In fact, I used to be a nurse. If you like, I could look at it now—”

“Actually, Olivia, we’d better get going. I’ll make sure Curtis gets his hand checked,” Emma interrupted as she tried to keep the impatience out of her voice.

“Oh, right.” Olivia flushed as she glanced around. “Of course. I hope I didn’t blow your cover. Anyway, I’d better go pick up the dry cleaning. I need it for Serena’s wedding, and I meant to do it yesterday but forgot. I swear these baby hormones are turning me into a crazy person. Oh, but Emma, speaking of the wedding, I know Serena would love to have you there if you wanted to change your mind. I asked your dad to book you a ticket on our flight. Just in case.”

“Well, I sort of have a lot of stuff going on. But I’ll think about it.” Emma plastered a smile onto her face.