Fairy Bad Day(83)

“I didn’t save you, though, did I?” she asked in a desolate voice just as a dull sound of static rang in her ears. She glanced up to see Rupert, Gilbert, and Trevor darting into the ward with what looked liked bunches of plastic flowers in their tiny hands. She hated to think what LEGO set or Barbie doll they’d stolen them from.

She ignored them as the guilt continued to well up in her like a fountain.

“Emma—”

“No, Curtis.” She folded her arms to let him know that he couldn’t dismiss her so easily. “You might not want to talk about it, but I do. I just want you to know that I’ll do whatever it takes to convince Principal Kessler not to send you home.” As she spoke the fairies continued to hover around the ceiling, shooting her impatient glares.

“Emma—”

“I’m serious. Maybe I could go out with you and be your eyes or something? We worked pretty well together, so he might go for it. Or—”

Rupert let out a small cough, and Emma turned her attention toward the ceiling.

“Yes?” she said in a testy voice. It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate their help, but their timing right now wasn’t the best.

“We just wanted to check that you were okay.” Trevor flew toward her, holding out the bright pink plastic flowers. “And to say thank you for everything you did for us.”

“Speak for yourself.” Rupert poked his chin into the air and didn’t move from his spot by the ceiling. He looked very rock-and-roll. “I’m not saying thank you. Did you see how liberal she was with those Sour Skittles? Powder was flying everywhere. I could’ve been killed!”

“And you would’ve been if our dark brother had had his way.” Gilbert flew back up to his friend, his wings flapping in an angry whirl around his neat plaid shirt. “We’ve discussed this. The slayer-girl actually saved your life, remember? And if Trevor and I can forgive her for the Sour Skittle incident, you can as well.”

“Okay, so I guess technically you’re right,” Rupert reluctantly acknowledged before darting down and hovering just in front of Emma’s face. “Well done, slayer. Though next time just be a little more careful with where you spray the candy. That stuff’s dangerous.”

“She’ll try and keep it in mind.” Curtis cut them both off in an impatient voice. “And now, if you want to leave the flowers and get going, that would be great because we’re sort of in the middle of something.”

“Ooh, touchy,” Trevor retorted before he swooped down and deposited the flowers in Emma’s lap and winked. “Anyway, we’ve got a new bookstore to try out. Apparently they put real chocolate flakes in their cappuccinos,” he said, and without saying another word, the three of them disappeared out the door.

“Okay, so that was weird. Since when do fairies make house calls?” Emma said as she absentmindedly picked up a tiny plastic bouquet of flowers. She was just about to push it behind her ear when she suddenly frowned and turned back to Curtis. “How did you know they had flowers with them?”

“What?”

“How did you know?” she repeated. “You’re sight-blind, remember, and while you told me you could still hear and sense their presence, it doesn’t explain how you knew about the flowers. They were holding them when you said it, which means you couldn’t see them, right?”

Curtis grinned as he reached over to the small cabinet that was between their two beds and handed her a small flat canister. Her dad used something similar for his contact lenses and Emma studied it for a moment before glancing back up at him.

“Oh my God—” She turned toward him, her cheeks flushed with hope. “Don’t tell me that you’ve got special contact lenses to let you see dragons?”

“Not just dragons.” He unleashed his trademark smile and Emma felt her toes curl. “Pretty much everything. Apparently Principal Kessler’s been in touch with the guy who invented those glasses that I was wearing. Anyway, it turned out he’d moved onto smaller and more specific lenses. They still can’t work on regular sight-blind people, but apparently because I can hear and feel the presence of elementals, they can work on me.”

“Curtis, that’s so wonderful. I can hardly believe it.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty co—” he started to say, but was cut off as Principal Kessler and Nurse Reynes walked into the room.

“I thought I told you to let her sleep,” the nurse chided.

“I’m starting to think I should’ve woken her up ten minutes earlier,” Curtis mumbled as a frustrated expression crossed his face, which only made Emma grin even more. However, she tried her hardest to bite back her smile as Principal Kessler took a seat next to her bed.

“So, Emma Jones, it appears you’ve had a busy week, what with finding an unknown fairy elemental. The oldest and most dangerous one to boot. Not to mention the fact that you’ve turned into an über-slayer.”

“I’d hardly call it über-slaying. I used candy to kill an invisible fairy,” she protested as she wondered how long Principal Kessler planned to stay in the room. While it was nice to know she wasn’t going to get another detention, she would really much prefer to talk to Curtis.

Unfortunately, Principal Kessler didn’t seem to be in any hurry to leave. He turned to Curtis and shot him a surprised look.