Fairy Bad Day(54)

“I know. I’m sorry,” he said in a low voice as his broad shoulder grazed hers. “It sucks when things don’t turn out the way you want.”

“Thanks,” she mumbled, the warmth of his shoulder making her feel at ease. “And by the way, don’t get all gloaty, but I did that thing you suggested. You know, the talking thing.”

“With your dad?” He sounded surprised.

“Yeah, and it was... okay. He said my mom had never mentioned the darkhel, but he told me some other stuff. Just dumb family stuff. Nothing big or world changing, but it was nice to hear it all the same.” Then she flushed as she realized what she was saying. She never told anyone how she felt, not even Loni, because she knew it didn’t make sense. After all, her mom was dead. She wasn’t coming back, but even though Emma knew that, accepting it seemed to be another thing entirely.

Suddenly, she was aware of the silence between them, and after the embarrassing misunderstanding of the tie incident, she decided that she had better stand up before she made another stupid mistake. She started to get to her feet, but before she could, she felt his fingers reach out for her hand.

“Jones . . . ” His voice was low and raspy and sent a delicious shudder racing through her as his fingers curled possessively around hers and he pulled her back down to the bench. She looked up to see him staring right at her, and she swallowed. Last time this had happened he had fixed her tie, but tonight she didn’t have her uniform on.

“Yes?” Her voice was croaky, even to her own ears, but instead of answering, he lowered his mouth to hers, and before she knew what was happening, Curtis was kissing her. The feel of his lips on hers, his skin touching hers, his fingers entwined in hers . . . it all made her feel something that she hadn’t felt in a very long time. Happy. He deepened the kiss, and Emma felt her whole body start to tingle. However, too soon it was over, and Curtis suddenly pulled away and leaned back against the bench, shaking his head as he looked up into the night sky.

“I shouldn’t have done that.” He groaned, still not looking at her. “I’m sorry.”

Emma felt her cheeks start to burn. She might not be an A student when it came to guys, but she was pretty sure they didn’t normally apologize for kissing. And unlike the tie incident, where she had given him the benefit of the doubt, this time there was no mistaking the pained expression on his face.

“Curtis, what’s going on?” she whispered.

“Nothing.” He gave an angry shake of his head as he refused to meet her gaze. “Look, can we just forget it ever happened? It was nothing.”

“Nothing?” Emma blinked at him, the crazy emotions of the day starting to overwhelm her, and she heard her voice start to go squeaky. “How can this be nothing? I mean, first you’re all nice and try and stand up to Kessler for me and say that we’re friends with the whole big because-that’s-the-kind-of-slayer-I-am speech. Then you almost kissed me outside the simulation labs. And then, when I asked you to come to the practice range—which, for your information, is code for kissing—you assured me that the only reason you didn’t come was because you didn’t like fighting live elementals for your training. And now this? I don’t understand.”

For a moment Curtis was silent, then he rubbed his hands across his eyes. Finally, he spoke. “I know you’re really pissed off at me and I don’t blame you. I’m pissed off at me as well. It’s just there’s stuff about me that you don’t know—”

“So tell me,” she pleaded while trying to avoid feeling like the biggest idiot in the world. “I want to understand, Curtis. I really do. Because this thing you’re doing is driving me crazy.”

“This thing?”

“Yes, this thing. I mean, sometimes you’re so sweet and kind to me that I could almost cry, and then other times you get this look on your face like you can’t bear to be near me. Is it because I was so horrible to you about the dragon designation? Because if so, then I want you to know that—”

“Jones, please. Can we just not do this?” Curtis looked pained as he avoiding making eye contact with her. “It’s just something I need to deal with on my own. You can’t help me.”

Emma put her hand up to her still-swollen mouth, but before she could even think of what to say, there was a noise from behind them and Loni and Tyler suddenly came bursting out of the darkness, racing toward them.

“Man, there you guys are,” Loni announced. “We’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

“What is it, did you find something?” Emma composed herself and quickly scrambled to her feet, despite her aching limbs. How could she be kissing Curtis when they were in the middle of a crisis? Not to mention the fact that Curtis had pretty much told her that the whole thing had been a big fat mistake. Then she realized that Loni was looking at her oddly. “So, what have you got?”

“Well, at first we thought it was going to be useless,” Tyler admitted. “Because everything we read only talked about how great the blood of the Pure One was. That it was untainted. That it had healing properties. That some people even thought it had magical protective qualities as well.”

“What?” Emma looked confused.

“I know, right,” Loni cut in as she rolled her eyes. “It was starting to sound like some new health drink or something. But then Tyler had the genius idea of not looking up the Pure One himself, but rather the spell that Sir Francis cast. You know, the one where he used the Pure One’s blood to seal the Gate of Linaria.”