“You know,” it said in a low, guttural voice, “you really are your mother’s daughter.”
Emma, who had just been about to plunge her sword into its arm, felt her weapon drop away as a sense of disbelief washed over her. “Wh-what did you just say?”
The beast needed only that one second of hesitation to get to its feet, and before Emma could even open her mouth, it had spread out its gigantic wings and lifted off the ground into the air.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Your mother?” Loni shot Emma a blank look half an hour later as she handed her another ice pack. “Are you definitely sure that’s what it said?” Loni asked as she stood up and started to pace the cramped space in her dorm room.
“Absolutely, one hundred percent positive. It said I am my mother’s daughter.” Emma put the pack on her aching arm and tried not to groan out loud from the pain. She and Loni and Tyler had decided to go back to Loni’s room in case anyone had seen Emma’s one-sided fight and told Kessler about it. Of course, if they had, it wouldn’t take long for him to find her. All he needed to do was follow the blood trail. At least they had managed to clean up the cut on her head, but it still throbbed in protest.
“Okay, so we’ve got a creature that no one has ever heard of and no one can see except you,” Tyler said from over by the window as he ticked off the words with his fingers.
“You forgot to add that it fights like a ninja. Honestly, you guys, I feel like my arm is going to fall off. The darkhel’s skin is thicker than a dragon’s. How is that even possible?” Emma asked.
“How is any of this possible?” Loni rubbed her forehead in bewilderment. “I mean, you have no idea how weird it was that I could see you fighting and talking to something but there was nothing there. I don’t know how sight-blind people deal with it.”
“They don’t have to deal with it, because for the most part they don’t even know it’s out there,” Tyler reminded her. “So don’t be feeling sorry for civilians, feel sorry for us. I mean, we know how dangerous elementals are, yet there was nothing we could do to help.”
“Trust me, you helped. And besides, you definitely don’t want to see the darkhel. I’ve fought brentton demons that are better-looking than this thing.” Emma put down the ice pack and rubbed her sore eye. “The problem is that I have no idea where to go from here.”
“I’ll tell you where we go, straight to Kessler.” Loni finally stopped her pacing and sat down on the bed. Emma instantly shook her head (remembering too late that head shaking, along with everything else, hurt).
“I hate to say it, Em, but Miss Zodiac’s right,” Tyler agreed.
“I can’t go to Kessler,” she told her two friends. “I’ve tried that already and managed to get myself stuck with detention. I think I’ve become the girl who cried wolf. Or in this case, the girl who cried invisible fairy. I can’t risk being expelled.”
“Yes, but Emma, I think you’re forgetting something here,” Tyler said.
“What?”
“That thing tried to kill you.” Loni took over, and Emma realized that her two friends were so busy agreeing with each other that they were forgetting to bicker. “I mean, granted I couldn’t see it happening, but I certainly saw you being flung around the quad like you were a rag doll.”
“Yeah, I’ve never seen you have your butt whipped like that since . . . well, never. I mean even when you had to take on that mammoth Department guy who came to teach us some hand-to-hand combat techniques last year, you totally beat him. I actually made a lot of money on that fight,” Tyler reminisced for a second before Loni jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow. “Which is entirely beside the point.” He coughed. “The point is that thing was totally taking you down.”
“I know.” Emma rubbed her bruised arm. “And the worst thing is that so far I have no idea where the kill spot is.”
“Did you try the neck?” Tyler asked, instantly curious, since like dragons, the huge salamanders that he fought were fire elementals and so they shared the same kill spot (not to mention the same love of roasting their victims in flames).