I’m sure he’s salamander slaying in Australia right. Seriously, you should see the size of them. I think it’s the heat but they’re twice as large as the North American salamanders.”
“Okay, he’s gone too,” Curtis said as they went through the list one by one. Then he frowned and turned to Emma. “William Jones? Emma, what’s your dad’s name doing on the list?”
“Is it?” Tyler looked alarmed, but Emma just shook her head.
“He used to do some contract work for the IT department but he gave up the contract when my mom died. I guess that’s why he got included.” She shrugged. Tyler obviously hadn’t been joking about how thorough Burtonwood was with physicals.
“Aren’t you worried?” Loni looked at her.
“Of course not. Besides, he’s in New York. The darkhel could never get him. You can take him and Ryan Gibson, his business partner, off the list. Now, who is . . . oh my God. I can’t believe this.” Emma suddenly yelped as she caught sight of two names farther down the page. Then she let out a groan as she realized how obvious it was. How could she have not figured it out sooner?
“Emma? What’s wrong?” Loni demanded as she started to glance around the room. “The darkhel isn’t here, is it?”
“What?” Emma looked at Loni blankly for a moment before suddenly shaking her head. “Oh, no, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you, it’s just I’ve figured out who the Pure One is.”
“Who?” Loni, Tyler, and Curtis all asked at once.
“Well,” she amended. “I should say that I’ve narrowed it down to two people. It’s either Garry or Glen Lewis. It’s just so obvious.”
“It is?” Tyler looked at her blankly. “What makes them more likely than anyone else on this list?”
“The fact that when I saw the darkhel on Friday afternoon on the playing fields, it was heading directly to where Glen and Garry were playing Frisbee. Anyway, the darkhel was really pissed at me for getting in the way. It even said that I couldn’t protect ‘him’ forever. Don’t you see? It could tell the Pure One was close by, but I stopped it from getting to him.”
“Who stopped it?” Tyler coughed.
“Okay, fine, it was Tyler and his completely brilliant bet that saved either Garry or Glen from having their throat slit and their blood dripped over the Gate of Linaria in a grizzly ritual. Happy?” Emma corrected.
Tyler grinned and nodded. “Very, and can I just say that you have a very nice way with words. And you know, it does make sense. The Lewis twins have been at Burtonwood for seven years, so that fits in with when Emma’s mom was still alive.”
“But what if you’re wrong?” Curtis didn’t look convinced. “If we do a twenty-four-hour bodyguard on Garry and Glen, then we’re leaving a lot of other people unprotected.”
“Actually, not that many,” Loni said as she looked up from Emma’s laptop, where she had been Googling. “I’ve got four more deaths, five relocations, and three other people who I’ve never heard of, which leaves us with eighteen possibilities besides the Lewis twins. Ten students, seven teachers, and one support staff.”
“So we protect them all but we keep an extra eye on Garry and Glen as well,” Tyler reasoned.
“Yes, but how?” Curtis tightened his jaw.
“Don’t forget that we’ve got wards up,” Loni reminded them. “So there’s a good chance that we won’t even be seeing Mr. Ultimate Elemental Evil again. But as an extra precaution, I do happen to have these as well. Ta-da.”
“Er, what are they?” Tyler was the first to speak as he stared at the small round metal balls that were in the bag Loni was holding out. “Because they look like marbles.”
“Actually, they are. Well, they’re ball bearings rubbed in salt. They’re not as powerful as the wards, but I figured that if we could slip them into people’s bags and pockets, it might give them a bit of extra protection. It was actually after Emma suggested I use the cutlery for the wards that I realized that ball bearings might be good for personal protection.”
“Please, if you ever decide to become a world-famous inventor, don’t mention my contribution to anyone,” Emma begged.
“Okay, the weird thing is that after everything that’s been happening lately, that plan sort of makes sense,” Tyler admitted as he got to his feet. “So how about Curtis and I start trailing the Lewis twins and Emma and Loni can start putting up the wards and slipping