as she realized that she had let herself get sidetracked, and so she forced herself to push aside the conundrum that was Curtis Green. “How did you and Tyler make out with the wards?”
“Nothing.” Loni’s face instantly dropped and she shook her head in disappointment. “I checked every single one and the voltages were correct on all of them. I can’t believe it. I really thought our problems would be solved. But instead, we’re right back where we started.”
“Yes, but hopefully not for long.” Emma nodded to the heavy, leather-bound volumes that were stacked up on her desk.
“Wow, look at all of these,” Loni said, instantly reaching for a slim book called Elementals Through the Ages. “I just know we’re going to find something in one of them.”
“I hope so. And thanks for helping.” Emma shot her friend a grateful smile before turning her attention back to the book in her hands. It was so dumb, but even the sight of something that her mom had once touched made Emma catch her breath.
She’d had five years to get used to the idea that her mom was gone, but it still hadn’t happened, and secretly, in the back of her mind, Emma kept thinking she was just on a really long mission and one day she would walk back through the kitchen door. Of course if she did, the kitchen wouldn’t exactly be empty... it would be filled with Olivia and her giant bump, not to mention all the new furniture—
“Are you okay?” Loni asked, interrupting her thoughts. “Because you’re looking kind of weird.”
“No, I’m fine. I just want to find some answers.” Emma shook her head and forced herself to push her memories away and get back to work.
However, by the time she had gone through three incredibly boring textbooks that had far too much information about how riddick demons liked to relieve back itch in winter, she was starting to wonder if she’d made the whole thing up. After all, the school nurse had mentioned a possible concussion. Maybe the last few days had just been one big crazy dream?
“Found it,” Loni suddenly interrupted, and Emma felt her heart start to pound in excitement.
“What? Really?” She leaned over to see what her friend was reading. “What does it say about the darkhels? What are they? What do they want, and more importantly, how do you kill them?”
“Sorry.” Loni shot her an apologetic look. “I didn’t mean to get your hopes up. I just meant that next to this picture your mom wrote the words ‘found it.’”
“She did?” Emma said, her disappointment giving way to surprise.
“See.” Loni held up the book so that Emma could clearly see her mom’s loopy writing, and she had even underlined the words three times and then drawn an arrow toward a black-and-white pen sketch of a dragon curled up around a chest full of gems and jewelry that looked like they were glittering and gleaming, judging by the thin pen lines that were radiating out from them. Emma chewed her lip as she studied the picture, but she had no idea why her mom would’ve written found it like that.
It wasn’t big news that all dragons liked treasure. Especially since half of their kills were motivated by the wish to steal people’s wealth. And dragons were fire elementals, not air elementals like fairies, so her mom’s words couldn’t have anything to do with the two kinds of creatures being related. Plus she knew dragons and fairies didn’t share the same kill spot.
She turned the page to see if there were any more clues, but the book then went on to discuss things to avoid when dealing with an enraged banshee.
“At least it’s a start.” Loni was trying to sound encouraging.
“But how? I mean, what does a maskret dragon and its hoard have to do with a darkhel? It’s one impossible thing after another and the more I think about it, the less my brain seems to be working. I feel like I’m swimming upstream in a river of mud.”
Loni stifled a yawn and looked at her watch. “That’s probably because it’s almost two in the morning.”
“It is?” Emma yelped. No wonder they were both having problems trying to figure it all out.
“So what do you want to do? Should we reread all of these books now in the hope we’ve missed something or start fresh in the morning?” Loni asked, and Emma reluctantly started to pack away the books.
“We’d better call it a night.