Fairy Bad Day(26)

“Yes, sir,” she forced herself to answer.

“There is a reason that we follow rules and regulations, and believe it or not, it has nothing to do with trying to ruin your life,” he continued, as if warming to his task. “For example, yesterday we had a code-blue situation—something that I expect all the Academy students to treat seriously. Instead, what do I get? Someone who first insists that she’s seen a dragon flying over campus, which I am compelled to take seriously, only to waste valuable time doing an EMR scan and double-checking all the wards. And then, she calls me again to say that the dragon wasn’t a dragon after all but an invisible fairy called a darkhel. Can you see what I’m getting at here?”

Emma nodded as she tightened her grip on the arms of her chair, still refusing to look up in case she accidentally caught sight of just how annoyed Kessler really was. Besides, when he said it like that, it really did sound crazy. Ridiculous. Especially since, judging by his tone, he’d been doing some fruitless research on darkhels as well.

“Even worse, then I get a visit from another one of my students to confirm that what you had told me was true.”

What? Emma’s eyes widened. “Curtis came to see you?”

Kessler gave a sharp nod to let her know he hadn’t appreciated the visit, and suddenly Emma felt a stab of guilt that Curtis had put himself in the line of fire on her behalf. She really had misjudged him.

“So if you were me, what would you suggest I do with you?” Kessler finally spoke in a subarctic voice.

Realize that I wasn’t meant to be a fairy slayer and give me dragons instead? Emma longed to say in a hopeful voice, though she wisely realized that it probably wouldn’t go over that well right about now.

“Well?” he prompted, but before she was forced to answer (what was clearly the trick question to end all trick questions), Barney poked her head around the door and gave a polite cough and then pushed her bright green glasses up onto her head, in what was obviously some sort of code. Principal Kessler got to his feet and made his way over to her.

“Excuse me for a moment, Emma.”

“Of course,” she said as he and Barney had a fast and furious conversation. She leaned forward to try to listen, but unfortunately they excelled at talking at subhuman levels.

“Right,” he said as Barney left, and he walked back to his desk and picked up his phone. “Something’s come up, so we’re going to have to cut this short. But Emma, you’re on detention for the next two weeks, and the only time you will be permitted to leave the grounds is when you’re doing your assignment. And if I’m not fully satisfied with your behavior, I will have no choice but to expel you from Burtonwood Academy. Are we clear?”

Emma felt her throat tighten and her mouth go dry as she realized that Kessler had threatened her with the one thing worse than being a fairy slayer. Being a civilian who had to go and live at home. Surrounded by people who seemed to have forgotten that her mom had ever existed. Suddenly she felt sick as it sank in that this invisible fairy could’ve cost her everything that she held dear. What had she done?





CHAPTER TEN





Twenty minutes later Emma finished changing into her navy sweats and paused outside the simulation labs to press a hand to her burning cheeks. She’d known Kessler would be mad, but she had no idea he would be that mad. She couldn’t even think of anyone who had ever been expelled from Burtonwood. Sight-gifted people were too few and far between to be treated like that. And yet he had said it. If she didn’t get her act together, he would expel her.

It was unthinkable.

Unbearable.

And so not going to happen.

From now on she was going to do everything by the book. Not that there was a book for being a fairy slayer, but that was beside the point. She wasn’t going to be expelled. Then she took a deep breath and pushed open the lab door.

The room itself looked more like a large warehouse than a classroom, with a giant projection screen at one end and a bank of computers at the other so that the teachers could control the virtual fights that students were put through to help train their mental and physical reactions. There were also a variety of fake elemental carcasses, tree stumps, and a clutter of other props that were sometimes used to help create the different battle environments.

However, today the students weren’t going into a fully simulated combat, just a simple, virtual hand-to-hand battle. They would see their virtual opponent through their goggles, and during the fight, their endurance, agility, and stamina could be monitored by the specially designed equipment that they would be wearing. Personally, Emma would rather be fighting real elementals in real conditions, but at least it was better than doing math.

She scanned the room until she finally caught sight of Loni and Tyler over on a low bench against the wall. They both already had their gear on and were gesturing for Emma to join them. She hurried over.

“So?” Loni instantly demanded as she tossed Emma a large equipment bag. “Tell me everything now because I can’t stand the suspense. Especially since your star sign said that today wasn’t a good day for conflict.”

“Well, I guess it was lucky that I didn’t talk back to Kessler when he gave me a two-week detention,” Emma said as she quickly slipped a vest over her head. Loni immediately leaned over and made sure that the wireless connection was switched on so that everything from Emma’s heartbeat to her cholesterol level would be relayed back to the central computer. Once she was satisfied it was working properly, she handed Emma her goggles.