Fairy Bad Day(49)

“Oh, did Mommy forget to mention that while she managed to inconvenience me for a while, I’m not that easy to kill?” It grinned to reveal a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth.

“How do you know my mother?” Emma demanded as she wiped the sweat away from her brow and tried not to panic.

The creature didn’t bother to answer. Instead, it stepped toward her again, this time raising a giant talon. Emma only just managed to avoid it, her whole body burning up despite the cold, overcast weather.

“The pendant,” Loni yelled from somewhere in the distance, and Emma immediately dug into her skirt pocket and pulled it out. She had no idea what she was supposed to do with it, but it had to be worth a try. The minute she held it up, the darkhel took a step back, which gave her a moment to collect her thoughts. Maybe it was like darkhel kryptonite? She held it toward the beast, but the fear had gone from its eyes and it started to laugh at her again.

“You don’t have any idea what that thing is, do you?”

“I know you don’t like it,” Emma bluffed as the creature once again stalked toward her. Okay, so there went the kryptonite theory. She felt some of her confidence shrivel up and go racing back across the quad. The creature struck out at her again, and she went tumbling. She winced as her body jolted harshly against the ground. Pain lashed through her and her sword went flying out of her hand.

“Now,” the creature continued, its mouth contorted as if it wasn’t big enough to hold all of its teeth. “Time to die.”

“I don’t think so.” A voice suddenly came from somewhere in the distance, and the creature swung around just in time to witness the brunt of Curtis’s sword crashing into its skull. Never had Emma been more pleased to see anyone in her whole life. Even if the someone did have a broken leg, a burned hand, and was wearing the dreadful white sunglasses.

“You can see it?” Emma tried to drag herself up, but her leg refused to work, so instead she crawled over to retrieve her weapon. The pain threatened to overcome her, but she bit it back. She was her mother’s daughter. Pain would not defeat her.

Before Curtis could answer, the darkhel steadied itself as it reached out and slashed at him. Curtis blocked the move with his sword before sending a second thrust into the creature’s shoulder. He pressed forward once again, but as he did so, the single crutch he had been leaning on fell away, and Emma gasped as the darkhel delivered a blow that sent Curtis sprawling across the ground.

Emma was still trying to drag herself into a sitting position as the creature spun toward her, its red eyes full of fire and hate.

This time there were no fancy speeches or small talk; it simply lifted its giant arm, the sinewy muscles outlined against the leather sleeve. As she tried to roll out of the darkhel’s reach, she considered trying the pendant again but then remembered the nail files in her other pocket and she let her fingers curl around one of them. It felt flimsy and inadequate, but as the creature brought its hand crashing down toward her, she used all her might to thrust the file deep into the fleshy palm before quickly rolling out of the way.

The darkhel let out a howl before opening up its gigantic wings and flying up into the gray early-evening sky.

Emma blinked and for a second was tempted to check to see if someone was holding a remote control and they’d fast-forwarded through half the movie, because seriously it didn’t make any sense that a simple little nail file could chase off the darkhel.

“What’s happening?” Loni screamed out. “Is it still there?”

“No, it’s gone,” Curtis said.

Emma looked up to see him reach out for his single crutch and swing his way toward her, concern written all over his face.

“Jones, are you okay?” he asked.

“I think so,” Emma said as Curtis stretched out his hand and she found herself clasping it as she struggled to her feet, her legs still wobbly. “Well, I don’t think anything’s broken, though it might’ve been different if you hadn’t turned up. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t winning the fight. I can’t believe your Unseen glasses actually worked.”

At the mention of the glasses, Curtis suddenly reached up, took them off, and shoved them into his pocket. “Yeah, lucky. The thing is—” Before he could finish the sentence, Loni and Tyler came racing over.

“Okay, so is it definitely gone? And more importantly how come Curtis could fight it?” Tyler instantly demanded.

“It’s the glasses,” Loni exclaimed in a fascinated voice. “Emma said that they worked after the little fairies had glamour-powdered him and they obviously worked with the darkhel as well.”

“Seriously?” Tyler ran a hand through his red hair and looked perplexed. “Are you saying that if we all get some glasses like that, we can see this thing as well?”

“Actually.” Curtis coughed uncomfortably. “As far as I know, this is the only pair. They were made by some German dude. I think his name is Waffle. Apparently they’re a prototype. But right now the most important thing is—”

“Wenshaffle?” Loni widened her eyes. “Your glasses are made by Wenshaffle?” Suddenly realizing that everyone was looking at her blankly, she elaborated. “He’s an über-designer. He mainly works with recoding existing wards so that they can monitor just how many elementals are in a given area, but he’s obviously branching out into lenses. I thought it was weird that some glasses would work on glamour powder, but this explains everything.” She turned to Curtis. “May I?”