seriously it didn’t make any sense that a simple little nail file could chase off the darkhel.
“What’s happening?” Loni screamed out. “Is it still there?”
“No, it’s gone,” Curtis said.
Emma looked up to see him reach out for his single crutch and swing his way toward her, concern written all over his face.
“Jones, are you okay?” he asked.
“I think so,” Emma said as Curtis stretched out his hand and she found herself clasping it as she struggled to her feet, her legs still wobbly. “Well, I don’t think anything’s broken, though it might’ve been different if you hadn’t turned up. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t winning the fight. I can’t believe your Unseen glasses actually worked.”
At the mention of the glasses, Curtis suddenly reached up, took them off, and shoved them into his pocket. “Yeah, lucky. The thing is—” Before he could finish the sentence, Loni and Tyler came racing over.
“Okay, so is it definitely gone? And more importantly how come Curtis could fight it?” Tyler instantly demanded.
“It’s the glasses,” Loni exclaimed in a fascinated voice. “Emma said that they worked after the little fairies had glamour-powdered him and they obviously worked with the darkhel as well.”
“Seriously?” Tyler ran a hand through his red hair and looked perplexed. “Are you saying that if we all get some glasses like that, we can see this thing as well?”
“Actually.” Curtis coughed uncomfortably. “As far as I know, this is the only pair. They were made by some German dude. I think his name is Waffle. Apparently they’re a prototype. But right now the most important thing is—”
“Wenshaffle?” Loni widened her eyes. “Your glasses are made by Wenshaffle?” Suddenly realizing that everyone was looking at her blankly, she elaborated. “He’s an über-designer. He mainly works with recoding existing wards so that they can monitor just how many elementals are in a given area, but he’s obviously branching out into lenses. I thought it was weird that some glasses would work on glamour powder, but this explains everything.” She turned to Curtis. “May I?”
For a moment Curtis tightened his jaw and Emma widened her eyes. There was that weird look again, but before she could nudge Loni, the look had gone and Curtis was handing the glasses over.
“Incredible. I still have no idea how he did it.” Loni reverently examined the glasses, making a low whistling noise every now and then before she finally handed them back. “But the main thing is that they worked and that you could help Emma. It’s amazing.”
“It’s not amazing,” Curtis corrected in a tight voice. “It was just a fluke.”
“An amazing fluke,” Loni added as she looked at Curtis with interest, but instead of answering, he just shrugged and slipped the glasses back into his pocket before turning to Emma.
“So how did you manage to fight that thing? It’s so freaking strong. I feel like my arm is about to fall off.”
“Probably the adrenaline rush from discovering that it wanted to kill me,” Emma retorted in a dry voice. “Or the fact that I’m still not any closer to knowing how to kill it. I tried the pendant and for a moment it looked scared, but then it just laughed. In fact, the only thing that worked was the nail file that I use for the regular fairies.”
“Okay, are you telling me that you made it go away with a nail file?” Tyler choked in surprise. “Because even though I couldn’t see the fight, it didn’t seem like the type of thing that would be stopped by a wooden nail file.”
“Not wood, steel,” Emma corrected. “But Tyler’s right. I mean, the second I stabbed it with the nail file, the darkhel disappeared faster than Garry Lewis after he blew up the science lab last year. Yet my sword’s steel as well, which means they are essentially the same thing. It doesn’t make sense.”
“Except for the salt,” Loni added, and Curtis looked confused.
“What.”
“Salt,” Loni repeated. “Emma read on some Web site that fairies really hate salt as well as steel.”
“Loni’s right,” Emma said. “I rub each nail file with salt. To be honest I’ve never really been able to figure out if it makes a difference or not, but guessing by the fact that my nail file did what my sword couldn’t, it must be true.”
“Okay.” Tyler composed himself. “So we don’t know how to kill this creature, but a combination of salt and steel will slow it down. I guess it’s a start, but we still need to figure