she didn’t even know him, yet she had decided he was horrible, when really he was just as much a victim of this crappy situation as she was.
“Jones, are you okay?” Curtis suddenly asked as he studied her face, a bemused smile tugging at his mouth. “You’re pretty quiet. And you’re still holding my hand.”
“What?” Emma could feel the heat rise up in her cheeks as she looked down and realized that she still had his hand in hers. She immediately let it go and busied herself putting everything away while making a mental note to avoid touching Curtis—it seemed to do strange things to her. “Yes, I’m fine. Anyway, your hand should be okay.”
“Thanks.” He gave it a wave in the air as if to check that the gauze would hold before he awkwardly got to his feet while Emma once again tried to ignore the way his blond curls hung over his eyes.
“Don’t mention it.” She shrugged, then took a deep breath. “And look, sorry I was a little rude. I don’t really like talking about family stuff.”
“I understand.” For a moment the smile left his face and he gave a solemn nod, which caused his blond curls to scatter across his forehead in all directions. “So, do you want to look for the fairies one more time? We still have half an hour before we need to leave, and it might help us learn more about this darkhel of yours.”
For the second time in as many minutes, Emma looked at him in surprise. First he seemed to understand her, and now he seemed eager to help her. Unfortunately, it was too late and she reluctantly shook her head.
“They’ll be long gone, not to mention putting the call out to tell all the other fairies in the area to lie low. They make instant messaging look like ancient history.”
“Oh.” Curtis actually looked disappointed. “So we head back to Burtonwood, then?”
“I guess.” Emma nodded. “I’ll just give Kessler a call and let him know what’s happened.”
“You want to call Kessler?” Curtis’s mood instantly changed as a look of concern appeared on his brow. “Are you really sure you want to tell him about this? I mean, he seemed pretty pissed off when you called him last time.”
“That was before I knew what it was. Now I have proof it’s a fairy called a darkhel—”
“An invisible fairy that no one’s ever seen or heard of before,” Curtis reminded her in an enthusiasm-killing voice.
“That’s not the point.” Emma shook her head in frustration. And to think that a couple of minutes ago she thought they had reached some sort of understanding. Yet now he was acting like the arrogant dragon slayer that she had first thought he was. “You were there. You heard the fairies talk about it, and we already know it was hunting on campus. You do the math.”
“I’m just saying it might be better to wait. Especially since Kessler’s out on a code blue.”
Emma folded her arms and glared at him. Why was he doing this? It was almost like he... oh! She widened her eyes. It was almost like he didn’t want her to let Kessler know that she hadn’t been making it all up, in case it meant Kessler changed his mind about the dragon designation. And to think that for one second she had thought Curtis was a nice guy. She narrowed her eyes.
“Really? Because it seems to me you’re worried that he might be impressed with what I’ve found out.”
“Jones, that’s not what I meant,” he said as a flash of annoyance went racing across his face. “Look, if there had been another way, don’t you think I—” He suddenly bit down on his lip.
“Another way?” Emma narrowed her eyes. “Another way for what? What are you talking about?”
“Nothing,” he quickly backtracked as he studied his freshly bandaged hand. “And look, if you want to call Kessler, it’s your decision.”
“Thank you,” Emma said as she moved a few paces away and made the call. She didn’t care what Curtis said, she was doing the right thing. Her mom would’ve done exactly the same. However, after several rings, the call went to voice mail. She hit redial but again there was no answer, so she left a detailed message explaining exactly what the fairies had told her, even going as far as to spell out the word “darkhel” in case the principal misheard. Then she slipped her cell phone back into her pocket.