air and it will appear. It’s not usually visible to the human eye but the key will reveal it. You do have a key, don’t you?”
“Yes, we have the key,” Emma confirmed, still trying to get her mind around the fact that they were about to go and see the Gate of Linaria.
“Good. Oh, and there’s one more thing. Once you release the darkhel’s soul, it will still take another twenty-four hours before he’s banished back to the other side of the gate.”
“What?” Curtis didn’t look impressed. “Who makes up these ridiculous rules? Why won’t it just be banished right away?”
“Okay, do you really want a lecture on elemental banishing or do you just want to accept that what I’m telling you is true?” Gilbert had lost his worried look as he fluttered his wings in an annoyed fashion and folded his tiny arms in front of him. “Because if you want a lecture, I can give you a lecture.”
“We don’t want the lecture.” Emma quickly put up her hands to stop him from talking any more than was strictly necessary. “Besides, we’ve already fought this creature twice. I’m sure we can contain it for one more day,” she said, but the fairy made a clicking noise with his tongue.
“Slayer-girl,” Gilbert said with dead seriousness, “what you fought was a shadow. A creature that was only at half strength. When his soul returns, he’ll be like nothing you’ve ever fought before. Besides, before he couldn’t fight for very long without having to go off and restore his power, but now, let’s just say that having his soul back is like giving him a turbo-powered booster to work with.”
Emma felt her eyes widen. “Please tell me that you’re joking.”
Rupert and Trevor shook their heads. “Gilbert is a darkhel expert. If he is says our dark brother will come back stronger once it regains its soul, then that’s what will happen.”
“It’s true,” Gilbert acknowledged, puffing out his chest.
Emma tried to contain her panic. Her two meetings with the giant fairy had been the toughest fights of her life, and the thought of having to face it again, when it was supersized with soul-induced über-powers, was hardly something to look forward to. Especially since the creature couldn’t be killed.
However, if the darkhel did manage to find the Pure One in the next twenty-four hours, then it would create a future that wasn’t even worth thinking about, and so she bit back her fear as she and Curtis walked toward the Chinese-food counter, which, since the explosion, was covered in heavy black plastic to hide it from the rest of the food court.
Besides, the darkhel would only be at its full strength for a day. What was some lost sleep and potential fighting compared to saving the world from being overrun by elemental fairies?
“So can we go now?” Trevor wanted to know as he pretended to skateboard across the air.
“Not yet,” Emma suddenly said. “We have a few more questions. Do you know who the Pure One is? Does the darkhel know? It’s just that if the creature’s going to be superstrong for the next twenty-four hours, knowing who the Pure One was would make our job so much easier.”
“Sorry.” Gilbert shook his head. “Pure Ones don’t tend to come well labeled. Our dark brother has spent most of his time on the other side of the gate researching who it is and now I guess he’s just working through a list. Anyway, can we go now? We’re missing our movie.”
“Fine, go. But seriously, once this is over, if I catch you guys trying to help any more evil elementals sneak into this world through the Gate of Linaria, then so help me, I really will slay you.”
The fairies laughed. “I love how you can keep a sense of humor even when you’re in the middle of a crisis,” Trevor observed as he abandoned his imaginary air skateboard in favor of doing a somersault and flipping Emma the bird. Then, without another word, the three fairies disappeared back in the direction of the movie theater.
“Okay, so it’s not just me, but they’re weird, right?” Curtis double-checked, and Emma nodded.
“Oh yeah. They’re weird. But at least they helped us find the soul box. So let’s go and do this thing. The sooner we find it, the sooner it will all be over.”
“You know I still can’t believe the Gate of Linaria is behind a place called Hong Kong Wong,” Curtis admitted. “I thought it would