Fairy Bad Day(34)
“It’s not that.” Loni reached over and picked up a hand mirror that had been sitting on a pile of astrology books. “But you might want to have a look at yourself before you think of going out.”
Emma held up the small mirror and flinched as she realized what her friend meant. Her bottom lip was puffed up like Angelina Jolie’s, while the rest of her face was a picture of cuts and bruises. Not that it was uncommon for Burtonwood students to walk around sporting worse injuries, but right now, after everything that had happened, she didn’t really want to draw too much attention to herself.
“Look,” Loni said in a diplomatic voice. “How about Tyler and I head over to the library and see what we can find on darkhels while you have an early night and try and stop looking like you’ve just gone ten rounds with some unknown elemental. Deal?”
Emma wanted to say no, but she recognized the determined gleam in Loni’s eyes. Besides, normally after a fight, she either felt exhilarated or despondent, depending on the outcome, but right now all she felt was numb. So maybe, she decided, having some time to herself would help her process what had just happened.
An hour later she was back in her own room and she had extracted a promise from Loni and Tyler that they would call if they found anything. “And I mean anything,” she had repeated to ensure that her friends understood how important it was. After they left, Emma sat down and started to methodically clean her sword. It wasn’t her favorite part of being a slayer, but there was something strangely soothing about falling into a routine that her mom had first taught her almost seven years ago.
She carefully put some oil on a soft cloth and ran it along the smooth surface, determined to remove all of the dark black blood that was smeared along on it. As she cleaned she tried to figure out what was going on.
What was the darkhel?
How did it know who she was?
How did it know who her mom was?
And finally, what did it want?
However, the more she thought about it, the more it felt like she was doing one of Professor Edwards’s pop quizzes, where the questions all swirled into one and there was more chance of her growing horns and a tail than there was of figuring out the answers.
She finished with her sword and carefully slipped it back into its sheath; then she went through and checked that all her other weapons were in order. Finally, after sending both Loni and Tyler yet another text to see if they’d found anything (no and no were the synchronized replies), Emma reluctantly got ready for bed and turned off the light.
She half expected to have problems keeping her eyes shut, after everything that had happened, but instead, the minute her head touched the pillow, she fell asleep.
Unfortunately, with sleep did not come peace, and her dreams were dotted with visions of her mom. Her long brown hair, so like Emma’s own, was dragged away from her forehead, while her lips were pursed in concentration as she showed Emma the best way to hamstring a dragon. Emma’s own attempts were clumsy and ineffective, and she was just about to ask her mom to show her again, but before she could, the injured dragon suddenly morphed into a darkhel.
In her sleep Emma jumped at the sight of the dark, vile creature, and she turned to her mom for help. But instead of fighting it, her mom just shrugged her shoulders and put down her sword so she could walk over to where the creature was standing.
What are you doing? Emma screamed. Get away from it!
It’s fine, darling. I just need to talk to it for a moment. If it hurts me, then you can just kill it.
What? But I don’t know how to kill it. Where’s the kill spot? Why do you need to talk to it? Mom, what’s going on?
But her mom didn’t answer. Instead she stretched out her hand toward the darkhel, and Emma watched in horror as the creature opened its hideous misshapen mouth to reveal its sharp white teeth. Emma tried to race toward them, but she suddenly felt like the weight of a hundred bricks was pressing down on her limbs and her chest, pushing her deep into the bed and—
But whatever was about to happen next suddenly dissolved in her mind like the tide washing away a sandcastle as the sound of the alarm rang in her ear. For a moment she just lay there in a tangle of sheets and sweat. The alarm rang again and this time she jumped out of bed, eager to push away any remnants of the dream. The dream where her mom seemed to be hiding something from her. She quickly got dressed so that she could join Loni and Tyler and see if they’d had success in finding answers to the question that had been going around in her mind like a carousel. What exactly was a darkhel?
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
For the first time since the explosion in the food court, Emma realized that all eyes weren’t on her as she hurried across to the cafeteria to where her friends were both sitting. Which in turn meant that her fight last night must’ve gone by undetected. Thank goodness for Northern California’s early-evening fog and gloom.
Tyler shook his head so that his red hair scattered in all directions. “Well?” she demanded the minute she sat down. “Did you find anything out?”
“Sorry, Em. There was nothing. I even tried sweet-talking Gretchen, but unfortunately she appears to be completely unbribable.”
“You tried to bribe Gretchen the librarian?” Emma said.
“‘Tried’ being the operative word.” Tyler let out a disappointed sigh. “I figured since Brenda is always walking around with old-fashioned-looking leather books, there must be some secret stash that was reserved for really brainy people, or really sneaky ones. But apparently not.”