“Yes, because apparently she couldn’t figure out the signs on her own,” Trevor muttered before Gilbert nudged him in the ribs. Emma ignored them both as she turned to Curtis and she felt his fingers weave into his. Immediately, her panic lessened.
“So how many on the list did you look for?”
“I looked for all of them, Emma. When I couldn’t find the first person, I went to the next, asking anyone I could think of, but the answer was all the same.”
“But”—Emma pointed to the list—“I saw Ian Wishart and Scott Atkinson.”
“You might’ve seen them this morning, but they’re not here now.”
“You think he’s taken all of the potential Pure Ones?” The words choked in her throat as she looked up to where the three fairies were all fluttering impatiently in the air. “So what’s he going to do to them? Has he . . . has he killed them?”
“Normally I would’ve said yes since our dark brother isn’t really one for houseguests, but since the blood he spills on the Gate of Linaria needs to be fresh, I would say that until he starts the ritual, they will still be alive.”
“But why take all of them? Why not just take the right one?”
“Because he’s probably too stupid to figure out which one is the right one,” Rupert informed her while pretending to do some air-surfing. “Well, stupid or lazy. Knowing him, he’ll just go through them one by one until the Gate of Linaria opens. Which, slayer-girl, is why we need to get moving.”
Emma hitched her slaying kit higher up her shoulder. “We need to get to the food court right now and pray that we’re not too late.”
“Okay, so this is not good,” Tyler suddenly announced in a hoarse voice. “I mean, I’m a betting guy but I really, really don’t like these odds. For a start we don’t even have pass-outs. And how are we going to get there?”
“We’ll figure it out,” Curtis said in a tight voice, his jaw clenched. But before they could move, Loni suddenly came hurtling toward them, her heart-shaped face unnaturally pale.
“Emma, we’ve got trouble—big, big trouble. Oh, hey, the fairies are still here. Don’t tell me that they’re going to glamour me again.”
“They’d better not.” Emma shot Rupert a stern look and he sulkily put away his bag. Then she turned back to Loni. “They’re actually here to help. And we know all about the darkhel. He’s managed to get everyone on the list. He probably took half of them last night after I thought I had injured him. It was a ruse. You were right when you said there was a reason that he came to tell me about the wards he’d destroyed. It was to distract me. He totally played me and I fell for it.”
“What?” Loni’s voice was barely above a whisper.
“You didn’t know?” Emma said in alarm. “I thought that’s why you were here looking so freaked out?”
“No.” Loni shook her short spiked hair. “I was actually here to tell you that your dad and Olivia are here.”
“What! My dad? But that’s not possible. He’s at a wedding in New York.”
“He changed his plans,” Loni informed her, her voice still shaking. “But, Emma, here’s the thing: I’ve just been talking to Olivia and she’s starting to freak out. One minute your dad was standing next to her and then he just suddenly disappeared. Right into thin air... and we can’t find him anywhere.”
The world went quiet and a tingly sensation went racing up and down Emma’s leg until soon the only thing she could hear was her heart pounding as she realized that there was one question she had never bothered to ask herself.
Why had her mom been caught up in this whole thing in the first place?
After all, she was a dragon slayer, so fighting darkhels wasn’t part of her job, unless . . .
She felt the color drain away from her face.
“Emma, are you okay?” Curtis asked from beside her, but she hardly heard.
Unless she had a very good reason.
Like protecting her husband from being killed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Emma felt sick. How had she been so stupid? In the distance, Loni, Tyler, and Curtis were arguing over the best and fastest way to get to the mall, but Emma hardly heard them as the truth hit her like a sledgehammer. The darkhel was going to kill her father. The thought was unbearable. She had already lost her mom, and now she was