Emma instantly felt the blood drain from her face. “Tell me what? Stop talking about my mother as if you know her. You don’t know her. You don’t know anything.”
“Really?” the creature snapped, and she watched in horror as the window started to push open, and too late she realized that the darkhel’s giant talons had been creeping under the aluminum frame and slowly edging it open the whole time they’d been talking. Emma’s heart started to pound.
“Shut up,” she yelled as she thrust her sword and used all of her strength to send it plunging into the creature’s talon. “Just shut up and go away.”
The creature didn’t even flinch and Emma realized that Gilbert had been right when he’d said that the darkhel with a soul was even harder to fight. She was just about to stab it again when she caught sight of Loni’s silver hooped earrings that were lying on the desk. Her friend had taken them off earlier and had obviously forgotten to take them with her.
Silver.
She dove for one just as the darkhel finished lifting the window open so that the glass was no longer separating them. For a moment it looked like it was going to speak again, but before it could open its hideous mouth, Emma stabbed the pointed silver end of an earring into the darkhel’s neck and then watched in relief as the creature instantly fell back into the night sky, its whole body seeming to shake with pain. Then it stared at her for a moment, its red eyes full of hate and agony, and without another word it disappeared into the night. Emma slumped back in relief as the sharp static buzz in her ear abruptly stopped, letting her know the darkhel had left Burtonwood. All she could guess was that despite all of its boasting, the combined efforts of the wards and being stabbed by a silver earring had taken its toll.
So the campus was still safe for now, but she had plenty of other things to worry about.
Like what did it mean about her mom?
What else hadn’t her mom told her? Were there more secrets she needed to know? Emma paced the room, longing for this all to be over so that her life could go back to normal. Even the thought of being stuck hunting tiny fairies for the rest of her life was more appealing than trying to untangle what the darkhel’s words had meant.
She picked up the small leather-bound book again and frantically flipped through the pages looking for something. Anything.
But no matter how many times she read through it, there were no hidden clues buried in its chapters. Just her mom’s loopy writing saying “I know how to banish it” and then, on the final page, “It is done.”
Emma wanted to scream in frustration, but instead she pushed the book away as the curling tension she had been feeling all day threatened to explode in her stomach. Why hadn’t her mom been scared as she waited for the countdown until the darkhel was banished? Did she go around putting pieces of silver cutlery around Burtonwood and slip ball bearings in people’s bags and clothing?
But even as she thought it Emma knew it was a stupid question. Of course her mom hadn’t done any of those things. Louisa Jones had been a dragon slayer, so dealing with this darkhel was all in a day’s work for her. She probably figured out a way to banish it instantly so that she could go home, cook dinner, and no doubt get up the next day and go back to her real job of killing dragons.
Unlike Emma, who was barely managing to hold it together.
No wonder Principal Kessler hadn’t assigned her dragons. Even though Curtis was sight-blind, he was still a thousand times better than she was. He could kill things that he couldn’t even see. Whereas Emma had seen the darkhel three times and hadn’t even come close to killing it. Hurting it maybe, but not killing it.
As she closed her eyes she willed herself to dream about her mom and then look for the hidden message or meaning that might be buried deep within the book.
But this time there were no dreams, and when Emma woke up two hours later to the sound of the alarm, she didn’t feel relieved at all. She just felt abandoned and not looking forward to what the new day was going to bring.