Fairy Bad Day(59)

Finally have way. Darkhel won’t win.

I know how to banish it.

Emma turned the page to find the rest of the entry—especially the part where her mom explained in full detail (with perhaps some diagrams thrown in for good measure) exactly what she had discovered. But there was nothing except three words scrawled at the bottom of the back cover: It is done.

How was that possible? Emma rubbed her sore eye before carefully rereading Sir Francis’s text in case she had missed something that her mom had discovered, but she came up blank. For a moment she just stared at her mom’s writing. I know how to banish it.

“This is useless.” She snapped the book shut as frustration gnawed at her. “We might as well go and help Loni make wards. At least they might have a chance of working.”

Curtis looked up. “Jones, it’s okay, we’ll find something. I’ve still got a whole pile here that we haven’t considered yet,” he said in a level voice that just made Emma more annoyed. After all, it was okay for him to blow hot and cold and look all gorgeous and make her wish that he liked her, but he wasn’t the one who had just discovered that his mom was keeping secrets from them. Lifesaving, elemental-banishing secrets.

“No, Curtis, it’s not okay. There’s nothing in any of these books.”

“Well, what about a Reversal Banishment?” He studied the heavy book in front of him before looking up at her, a hopeful expression plastered on his face.

“Sure, I’ll just go and get my crushed diamonds and pint of darkhel blood and we’ll get started,” she snapped, her annoyance at him getting the better of her.

“Okay.” The skin tightened slightly around Curtis’s jawline as he turned a page. “Well, there’s always the Lindal Banishment. Professor Vanderbilt swears by that one. In fact, I don’t know why we didn’t think of it first.”

“Maybe because it’s another three weeks until it’s a crescent moon,” Emma pointed out. “So what next, Curtis, the Death Curse?”

“Hey, I’m trying to help here, remember?” Curtis flinched as if she had just hit him. Not that she could really blame him since the Death Curse wasn’t normally something that was even mentioned. It had been discovered by one of Sir Francis’s students, way back when, as a way to banish creatures back beyond the Gate of Linaria. Unfortunately, it had a nasty side effect. The person who did the curse would die, which was why it wasn’t exactly popular.

In fact, a few years ago there was some talk that all the Academies would remove the Death Curse from the main curriculum, but they had worried that by outlawing it, they might somehow glamorize it. Because really, killing yourself to get rid of an elemental was so glamorous. For whatever reason, it was still listed as a legitimate way to banish elementals, just not a frequently used one.

Emma let out a groan. “Curtis, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. Just ignore me. I’m tired and stressed.”

“Tired?” He suddenly looked concerned as he studied her face. “Actually, now that you mention it, you don’t look like you’ve slept in days. Please tell me that you didn’t go back out last night looking for that thing last night. Alone.”

“Of course I didn’t,” she said, mainly because if she had found it, she doubted she would’ve been able to do much against it.

“So why are you so tired, then?”

“It’s nothing,” she started to say, but somehow, under Curtis’s unrelenting gaze, she found the words tumbling out. “Okay, so I haven’t been sleeping that well... I’ve been having dreams. About my mom. I keep asking her for help to fight the darkhel, and she keeps ignoring me.” Emma paused and studied the table before she finally looked back up at him. “Curtis, they felt so real.”

“Yeah, but the thing with dreams is they’re not always literal. Sometimes they mean the exact opposite of what you think they do. Maybe your mom is trying to tell you something and you’re just getting the message muddled. And the reason it seems like a nightmare is because your subconscious is trying to tell you it’s important.”

“You think so?” Emma chewed her lip as she considered it. Then, almost despite herself, she looked at him. “Do you ever dream of your mom?”

For a moment he was silent, then he nodded. “I used to dream she would come back and my dad would be so happy that he’d get a brain transplant. She never did, though, which just proves my theory about opposites happening. Maybe if I dreamed that she would stay away or had turned into a twenty-foot monster with razor blades for teeth, things might’ve worked out better.”

Emma ignored his weak smile. “Was it horrible that she never came back?”

“I guess. I mean it’s hard to say since I don’t have anything to compare it to.” Curtis started to draw invisible shapes on the tabletop with his finger. “To be honest, I’m not sure it would’ve really changed anything.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. You deserve better,” Emma said in a soft voice before the situation overcame her again. “But what if this isn’t okay? What if we can’t stop it?”

“We will,” he said in a firm voice.

“But how do you know?” she persisted.

“I know because you deserve better as well,” he said, his gaze unflinching. “You’re doing a good job, you know.”