“Well, maybe this can help.” Loni held up the leather-bound book that she was still clutching. “This is the book that Emma gave me before she fought the darkhel. It’s actually written by Sir Francis and there’s a whole section on our invisible friend. Which means we might be able to finally find out something about the darkhel.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
So, what’s the verdict? How are they?” Loni asked Tyler twenty minutes later as they all sat in Emma’s room. She knew she should be grateful that Loni had finally agreed not to drag both her and Curtis to the infirmary, but right now all she really wanted to do was look at the book her dad had brought her. Unfortunately, Loni refused to even open it until she was sure there were no serious injuries. Tyler, who had been in charge of bandaging, looked up and nodded.
“Curtis has some bruising,” he observed, “and Emma’s leg will live to see another long, hot summer wearing those cutoff jeans of hers.”
“In other words we’re fine,” Emma translated as she flexed her leg and sore wrist. “So now can you please tell us what you found out?”
“Besides the fact that for a fairy slayer you’re very stubborn?” Loni arched an eyebrow before relenting and flipping open the book. Then she pointed to an ancient wood-block sketch at the bottom of the page. “So is this your guy?”
Emma and Curtis both leaned over and studied it before they nodded simultaneously.
“That’s him.” Emma shuddered at the blurred image, which still managed to perfectly capture the appearance of the vile creature, from the strong hooked talons to the shimmering narrow eyes. “I can’t believe we’ve finally found a book that even mentions darkhels.”
“Well, you’d better believe it,” Loni assured her as she started to read the text. “‘Darkhels are related to the common fairy but are taller, stronger, and filled with raging evil. Their preferred method of killing is to slash at their victims with their lethal talons, injecting them with a deadly poison.’”
Loni wrinkled her nose as she continued to scan the page. “Okay, so that doesn’t make sense. It says here that when Sir Francis finally shut the Gate of Linaria, the darkhels on our side of the gate died off. Apparently the air on Earth was too wholesome for their corrupted lungs and they could only survive while the gate was open and letting through all their bad, evil air.”
“Well, obviously our guy never got that memo,” Emma said. “Because it was definitely alive and getting bad, evil air from somewhere.” Then she froze and stared at them all. “You don’t think this means that the Gate of Linaria has been opened?”
“No way.” Loni instantly shook her head. “Even though the gate moves around a lot, some science guy from one of the Academies in Europe put a sensor on it so we would instantly know if the gate had been permanently opened. I read an article on how he built the sensor and it was truly remarkable the way he linked up the—”
“Er, Lon.” Tyler coughed as he tapped his watch. “Not that we’re not all interested in how he did it but we’re up against the clock here since we still don’t have any idea how a thing that shouldn’t be here is here.”
“Well, Mr. We’re-Up-Against-the-Clock, I was going to add that from time to time the gate has been temporarily opened but never for more than three seconds,” Loni said. “So even if Emma’s darkhel did manage to temporarily open the Gate of Linaria and get out within three seconds, we still don’t how it is staying alive, or—oh.” Loni’s face turned a pale shade of white as she squinted and moved the book closer to her face. Finally, she pulled it away and looked back up to them. “Well, that can’t be a good thing,” she mumbled.
“What?” Emma demanded. “What does it say?”
“It’s talking about the kill spot,” Loni said in a reluctant voice before she let out a big sigh. “Apparently it doesn’t have one.”
“But that’s impossible.” Curtis shook his head. “All elementals have a kill spot.”
“Not fairies,” Emma amended.
“And especially not this fairy,” Loni said in a hoarse voice. “According to this, the darkhel isn’t just a regular run-of-the-mill garden-variety elemental. It’s the first elemental. It’s also the strongest, rarest, and completely impossible to kill.”
Emma felt her throat tighten as Loni handed her the book so that she could study the page. The blood