The last thing I need is another detention for falling asleep in class. At least tomorrow’s Friday, so it’s almost the weekend. Then we’ll have more time to try and figure this thing out.”
“Except that it’s induction weekend, which means a dinner tomorrow night, an open day at Burtonwood on Saturday, and the ceremony on Sunday,” Loni reminded her as she got to her feet and headed for the door.
“Induction.” Emma finished stacking the rest of the books onto her desk and followed her friend over. “I can’t believe I forgot. Still, I guess I’ve finally discovered the one thing that is actually worse than being inducted as a fairy slayer—finding out that my mom had some sort of secret that I don’t know anything about.”
“Emma, we will get this figured out,” Loni said in a stern voice as she stepped out into the empty hallway. “And in the meantime, try and get some sleep. This whole thing will make a lot more sense tomorrow.”
Emma shot her friend a doubtful look before closing her door. She was tempted to keep working, but she knew that Loni was right and so she got ready for bed. She took one final look at her mom’s familiar handwriting, then shut the book and climbed into bed. After a few minutes of tossing and turning, she fell into a troubled sleep, which was full of dreams.
This time she was already fighting the darkhel, and after striking it in every kill spot she knew, she was still no closer to destroying the vile thing.
Is that the best you can do? Its voice was a sibilant hiss that made Emma long to fall to her knees and cry. But before she could do so, her mom suddenly wandered over and looked at them with interest.
Unlike in Emma’s last dream, her mom wasn’t dressed in her slaying clothes but in some freaksville 1950s housewife dress. Even her straight brown hair had been piled up in some sort of conservative mom hairstyle. The only thing Emma recognized about the woman in front of her was the familiar crystal necklace clasped around her slender throat.
Mom. Emma raced over to her. I don’t know what’s going on with all your weird clothes and hair, but please, you have to tell me what you know about this thing. I can’t kill it. You have to tell me what to do.
Darling, if you can’t deal with one measly fairy on your own, you don’t deserve my help, her mom said as she idly reached up to the necklace and touched it with her long fingers, callused from years of holding a sword. Then, before Emma even knew what was happening, the creature was on her, its giant talons aimed straight at her heart, slicing their way through her chest before she could even open her mouth to scream, and—
Emma woke up with a start as she realized it was a dream.
Just a dream, she repeated as she sat up in bed and glanced around. But there was no darkhel there, just the morning sunshine filtering in through her half-drawn curtains. She quickly got up and flung them open, eager to push the dream out of her head, but despite her best efforts, the vision of her mom refusing to help her played over and over in her head.
How did she know the darkhel? What was the connection?
Emma felt a lump rise in her throat. When had things gotten so difficult? She thought that nothing could’ve been worse than losing her mom, but these dreams and the discovery that her mom somehow had a secret life was a million times more painful. How many other secrets did she have?
For a moment she toyed with the crystal pendant that was hanging forlornly in the window. She had put it there almost six weeks ago, promising herself that she wouldn’t wear it again until she was inducted as a dragon slayer. The fact that her mom was wearing the necklace in the dream was still disturbing her, and Emma let her fingers run along the smooth, cool surface of the crystal as it threw a weak rainbow of light that radiated out in lines around the room.
Emma froze.
Radiating out in lines? She had thought that same expression last night when she was looking at the drawing of the dragon guarding its hoard. Emma lunged for the textbook and flipped through it until she came to the right place and once again studied the dragon, though