“Emma.” It was Curtis’s voice that finally snapped her out of her daze, and she looked up to see that Loni was escorting a sobbing Olivia toward them. No points for guessing that Loni had given Olivia the Cliff’s Notes version of what was happening. “We decided that the quickest way to get to the mall was to get Olivia to drive. Do you think you can talk her into it?”
For a moment Emma just stared at him blankly, but before she could answer, Olivia finally caught sight of her and flew into her arms.
“Is it true?” she sobbed. “Is something really going to hurt Bill?”
“Absolutely not.” Emma shook her head as she tried to hug Olivia around her pregnant belly.
“Because it’s all my fault. When Bill told me it was Induction, I refused to go to the wedding. I’m so sorry. And then when that thing took him. . . . I couldn’t even see it.” Olivia was becoming hysterical now.
“Olivia,” Emma pleaded. “I know you’re freaked out, but if we have any chance of helping him, we need to get to the mall. Can you take us there? Please, Olivia, we need your help.”
“D-did you say we need to go to the mall?” Olivia stopped crying and ran a hand across one of her watery blue eyes.
“That’s right. The dar—the thing that’s got him has gone there,” Tyler explained. “So we need to get there pronto. By the way, what are your thoughts on busting through the boom gate? Because I have a feeling that’s the only way we’re going to get past security.”
“What?” Olivia looked at them, a horrified expression on her face as she started to sob again. Emma quickly shook her head at Tyler, who immediately mouthed a silent sorry.
“It’s okay. He didn’t mean that; it’s just that technically we’re not supposed to leave campus, but let’s just go to the car and we’ll figure something out,” Emma explained as they led Olivia as quickly as possible toward the parking lot. They finally reached the Volvo and everyone piled in.
At that moment the three fairies came flying into the car window.
“Boy, that was fun. Did you see his face when we picked up his coffee cup and he thought it had disappeared.” Trevor chortled before his face fell. “You know that’s the kind of stuff I will really miss if our dark brother opens the gate.”
“Which is why we’re not going to let him,” Curtis informed them in a tight voice.
“Is Curtis talking to someone?” Olivia put on her seat belt over her swollen belly and looked confused.
“Yes,” Emma said. “It’s just the fairies. And I know it’s weird that you can’t see them, but if it’s any consolation, they’ve put so much glamour powder around Burtonwood today that practically none of the sight-gifted can see them either. Not to mention—” Emma suddenly sat up bolt upright. “Of course—that’s it.”
“What’s it?” Loni looked at her in alarm.
“I think I’ve figured out a way for us to get out of Burtonwood.” She turned to Olivia. “Okay, this is going to sound very weird, but when you drive up to the barrier, we’re not going to be in the car. Well, we will be in the car but you—and more importantly the security guard—won’t be able to see us.”
“What?” Olivia puckered her normally sunny face into a contorted mask. “I don’t understand.”
“Okay, here’s a crash course in fairies. When they sprinkle that powder, it makes them invisible even to most of the sight-gifted. But it also makes anything that they touch invisible as well. That’s why they can eat so much food at the mall. I mean, they wouldn’t get very far if they were invisible but their Starbucks and their Skittle packets weren’t.”
“Trevor, Rupert. I don’t like where she’s going with this.” Gilbert looked like he was going to fly out the window as worry lines puckered up on his tiny face, but Curtis quickly hit the switch and the windows went up.
“Look,” Emma snapped in a curt voice. “If you really want to help, you’re going to need to touch all of us except Olivia so that the guards can’t see us when she goes out of the parking lot. Unless of course you’re looking forward to seeing your dark brothers coming through the Gate of Linaria and ruining all your fun.”
Gilbert swallowed hard. “Slayer-girl’s right. We need to touch the humans and put them under the glamour. And afterward