Buried Embers (Elemental Seekers Book 3)

by H. M. Sandlin

  “Who was that?” I asked Mrs. Newton.

  “That was one of the council members. She has been with the council for over twenty years. Mrs. Sullivan trusts her. It looks like she hasn’t been corrupted yet, but I wouldn’t guarantee that the council is going to see things her way, especially if Mr. Mitchel wakes up. He has managed to fool them for so long that I doubt the word of a student will stop most of them from believing his lies. You need to prepare yourself to leave this school. It is no longer safe if he wakes up.”

  “What should I do?”

  “For now rest. We will find out immediately if he wakes up. The healer for the council is a good friend of mine, and she has already promised to let me know the second he awakens. That will give you the time you need to do whatever you have planned. Talk to your friends, and I will contact Mrs. Sullivan. I’m sure you will all come up with something.”

  “What was that thing Mr. Mitchel attacked me with?”

  “I’m pretty sure it was a magicus. A creature created by dark magic to steal another’s magic. The stolen magic would be returned to the creator, and they could use it whenever they wanted. I’ve never dealt with this type of magic before, but what you are describing makes me think that’s what Mr. Mitchel created.”

  Before I could ask more questions, Abby burst into the room. “Sally, are you ok?” she asked, running over to me.

  “Relax, Abby,” Mrs. Newton said. “Sally should be fine with a little rest. She has a lot to tell you, so I will leave you alone. I will be back in an hour to check on you, Sally. Make sure you stay in the cot until then so your wounds can heal more. After I check on you, you will be allowed to get up and go to your room.”

  Mrs. Newton walked out of the room, leaving me alone with Abby.

  “Are you sure you’re ok?” she asked. “Richard, Tider, and Adam are freaking out right now.”

  “I’m fine. Really sore, but fine. Where are they at?”

  “They are busy trying to get in contact with Chet and Mrs. Sullivan. Your parents have already been moved. Gary wouldn’t say where they are. He only said that they are safe, and no one will find them until this is all cleared up.” I felt a weight lift off my shoulders. I knew Gary would find a way to protect them.

  “Why are they trying to get in contact with Chet?”

  “We need to find somewhere to go. The school isn’t safe anymore. Richard doesn’t think the council will believe a group of kids over Mr. Mitchel. He’s probably right, and now Mr. Mitchel knows you have way more power than he thought. They are going to come after you with everything they have. We can’t be here when that happens.”

  “If that happens,” I said. “Maybe he won’t wake up from his coma until after we defeat the darkness and the Pulhu.”

  “I hope he doesn’t wake up, but we better be prepared for the worst-case scenario. Adam said Chet has somewhere safe for us, but we need to know where it is. Chet will tell us when he gets here. No one trusts the phones anymore.”

  “So, what happened after I passed out?”

  “I’m not sure. Richard told me Mr. Burwel grabbed you and came running to the school, shouting for Mrs. Newton to heal you. He couldn’t get you to drink the healing potion. You almost died.” Abby started to cry, and I reached up to give her a hug.

  “I’m ok now, Abby. Mrs. Newton healed me.”

  “I could have healed you if I was there.”

  “I know, but at least Mr. Mitchel doesn’t know about your healing abilities.”

  “You aren’t allowed to go anywhere without me anymore,” Abby said.

  “Ok, Abby.” I smiled at her. “Now, tell me what else happened.”

  “Mr. Mitchel passed out, and the councilmen tried to revive him but couldn’t. I guess one of them tried to grab him but burned their hands. Some kind of magic was covering Mr. Mitchel, so he couldn’t be touched. It took a while for the magic to disappear. Once it did, they transported him back to the council. No one has said anything else about him.”

  “What about Sean and Sasha?”

  “They are still here. They aren’t saying much though. Everyone knows you beat Sasha, and Tider beat Sean. Sean tried to say he beat Richard, but Tider laughed about it and said Richard let him win. Half of the school believes Tider and half believe Sean. The school has really started to split.”

  “I think Mrs. Newton is right. We need to make a plan to get out of here. This school isn’t going to be safe for us much longer, even if Mr. Mitchel doesn’t wake up.”

  “Yeah, about that. The kids all know that you beat Mr. Mitchel. They think you are super powerful now. Some have even mentioned the prophecy. We weren’t able to stop people from talking about it.”

  “It’s ok,” I sighed. “We knew it would eventually get out. It just happened sooner than I would have liked.”

  “So far, it is only rumors. No one actually knows about all your power or that you have more elements,” Abby said quietly.

  “Good. We don’t need them knowing,” I said.

  Abby sat with me for the rest of the hour. She wanted to know all about the fight with Mr. Mitchel since she wasn’t there. By the time Mrs. Newton got back, I was starting to fall asleep. She checked the wounds and said I could go get something to eat and go to my room to sleep.

  I would have to meet her in the morning to recheck the wounds to make sure they were still healing. They were so bad that it would take multiple healings. She didn’t let me see them when she took the bandages off, and I didn’t try to. I saw Abby’s face pale and decided I didn’t need to see how bad they looked.

  As I walked through the school, kids stopped to whisper. Some came up and said good job, but some glared at me as I walked past. Sean and Sasha were in the common room as I walked through and glared before turning to their friends. They whispered something that caused them all to laugh. I shook my head and turned into the cafeteria. I didn’t need to get involved with anything they were doing.

  A young kid walked up to me as I left the cafeteria to go to my room. I waited for him to talk.

  “You did a good job, and I hope you defeat the Pulhu,” he said quietly. I had seen this kid before. He waved to me on the school trip to the mountains, but his brother pulled him away. His brother was part of Sean’s crew. This kid was too sweet to be involved with them.

  I leaned down and whispered, “Thank you. I’m going to do my best to win.” His eyes went wide as he realized I was confirming that I was going to fight the darkness. He smiled and closed his lips, acting like he wouldn’t tell anyone.

  I knew his brother would ask him about our conversation later, and I didn’t want him to get in trouble for trying to keep secrets, so I shook my head. “It’s ok if they know. Don’t get in trouble for me. Keep your head down until this fight is over and don’t use dark magic,” I whispered. He smiled again as I walked toward my room to get some rest.

  The next morning, Abby met me as I was getting ready to go down for breakfast.

  “We need to go see Mr. Burwel when you finish eating. He will be in Mrs. Sullivan’s office. He’s taking over until the council decides what to do.”

  We ate quickly. Too many of the students were watching me and sharing whispered words. It made me uncomfortable. Richard and Tider were both absent from breakfast. When I connected with them, they told me they were working on plans to get me out of the school and somewhere safe.

  Adam let me know his grandfather would be in town over the weekend for someone to meet. I didn’t say anything, but I was planning on going to meet him. Now that Mr. Mitchel wasn’t here, I could sneak out and see what Chet had to say for myself. I would let everyone know later when we had more privacy. They wouldn’t be happy about it, and I didn’t want anyone overhearing them when they tried to yell at me.

  We headed down to see Mr. Burwel, Adam tagging along to make sure I was ok. I walked slowly. My side was starting to hurt. Each breath felt like a knife was digging into my ribs.

  Mr. Burwel was waiting and
ushered us into the room. As soon as I sat down, Abby stood in front of me.

  “Let me see,” she said, trying to put her hands over my wound.

  I pushed her hands away, not wanting Mr. Burwel to see Abby healing me.

  “Sally, knock it off. You need more healing, or you are going to undo all the progress Mrs. Newton made.”

  “What’s going on?” Mr. Burwel asked. “Sally, aren’t you fully healed yet?”

  “I can heal her, but she doesn’t want me doing it in front of you,” Abby said. “She is in a lot of pain, and it’s getting worse the more she moves around.” She looked over at me. “You forget I can tell you are in pain. I’m a healer, Sally. I know it’s bad.”

  “If she needs to be healed, we can call Mrs. Newton,” Mr. Burwel said.

  “She already healed her yesterday, and she is going to look at her again today, but she used a lot of energy, saving Sally’s life. It is going to take her a few days to be able to do another big healing.”

  “If you can help her,” Mr. Burwel said, “please do. I know you don’t trust me after how things started when I came to the school, but I really only want what is best for the students.”

  “Fine, Abby, you can heal me.” I closed my eyes and watched as her magic moved to my side. I loved the color of Abby’s magic. It was a shimmery yellow color, and as soon as it touched me, I felt it begin to work, taking the pain away that was giving me difficulty breathing. Her magic worked further inside me, trying to heal the wound, but it hit a block.

  Abby’s eyes opened. “Do you feel that, Sally?”

  “Yes. I can see it too.” There was a smudge of dark magic still clinging to the deepest part of the wound in my side. It wouldn’t allow Abby to fully heal me. “This is why I’m feeling worse. We can’t heal this until the dark magic is gone.”

  Abby explained what was going on to Adam and Mr. Burwel while I focused on the magic, trying to dispel it from my body. I couldn’t move it. It was firmly attached to me. Every time I tried, it ripped the wound apart farther. I wasn’t strong enough to destroy the dark magic without possibly killing myself. It would tear the wound open worse than before, and I might bleed out before I could destroy it and let Abby heal me.

  “How are we going to heal you?” Abby asked after I told them how bad it was.

  “You can do it if we all join together,” Adam said. “With the extra power, we might be able to destroy it.” This time I explained to Mr. Burwel that I could connect with certain people and boost our powers.

  “What is the downside of doing this?” he asked.

  “When we stop touching, we no longer have the boost. If we use too much energy, it could cause us to pass out or possibly worse.”

  “We won’t use that much power,” Abby said. “Only enough to save you.”

  Mr. Burwel looked unsure until Adam spoke.

  “We will need a strong healer here to help heal Sally in case Abby can’t do it. Mrs. Newton should be able to handle healing the rest of us if we use too much energy. We need to talk to Mrs. Sullivan. She will know a healer we can trust to help Sally.”

  “I know a few healers we can call,” Mr. Burwel said.

  “Are they part of the council?” I asked. When he nodded, I shook my head. “No, we can’t use them. We don’t know who we can trust on the council.” I interrupted him when he started to talk. “You trusted Mr. Mitchel and those two councilmen that allowed this. As you can see, the council has been compromised. We don’t know who can be trusted anymore. We are taking a big enough risk trusting you.”

  Mr. Burwel nodded and took his phone out to call Mrs. Sullivan. When he got off the phone, he was grimacing. We all heard Mrs. Sullivan yelling at him when she found out what happened.

  “She will be here soon with a healer. I need to go meet her at the gates so she can get in. Stay here.”

  Mr. Burwel left, and we waited for everyone to arrive. Adam let Richard and Tider know I needed them. It didn’t take long for them to get to Mrs. Sullivan’s office. When they heard everything going on, their powers started swirling around them.

  “Calm down,” I said. “We will need that power soon.” I was gasping for breath by the time I finished the sentence. They both calmed immediately, coming to stand by me. I felt Richard slip into my mind and check how I was really feeling. I tried to block him, but it was no use. Our connection had grown to the point that we couldn’t keep each other out anymore.

  “We are going to need to hurry. She isn’t going to be able to hold on much longer. She’s in a lot more pain than she’s letting on.”

  I glared at him but didn’t say anything. He was right. The pain was becoming unbearable again. By the time Mr. Burwel got back with Mrs. Sullivan and another woman, I was barely hanging onto consciousness. Mrs. Sullivan rushed over. I smiled weakly at her.

  “Do it now, Sally. We will protect you and your friends. Use all the power you need. You can trust everyone here.” I felt her throw a protection spell around all of us. As soon as she did, Mauevene appeared to the surprise of everyone in the room.

  “Sally, you need to use true elemental power to get rid of this. We will help you. Call to the true elementals after you connect to your friends.”

  She flew over to Mrs. Sullivan, landing on her shoulder. I looked at my friends and watched as they all grabbed hands. As soon as we were linked, I felt strength pouring into me from them. They were giving me everything they had. I opened my magic up, and let the true elemental powers flow through me. I could feel the water elemental king and the air elemental queen connect to my mind and send more power to me.

  I sent all the magic in one concentrated burst toward the dark magic. I screamed as it hit and would have fallen if not for my friend’s support. The dark magic was still there. My burst of magic wasn’t enough, and the pain intensified.

  “You can do it,” I heard coming from my friends and the true elementals. Suddenly I felt a new presence in my mind. I heard a loud roar and yelling coming from the adults before fire magic poured into me.

  I recognized Sievroth’s voice as he told me to try again and use his magic to burn the dark magic. I pulled all the magic together and sent a burst of light at the dark magic. This time the pain caused me and my friends to fall, but we never let go of each other. When the stream of magic disappeared, the dark magic was gone. I looked closely, searching for any tiny speck of dark magic, but there was nothing.

  “You are safe now,” Sievroth said.

  “Be safe,” the water elemental king said.

  “We will see you soon,” the air elemental queen said, and then their presence was gone. I told my friends to let go slowly. I could feel as each person let go. I got weaker and weaker.

  Only Richard kept ahold of my hand. Someone was healing me, and Richard knew the second he let go, both of us would be dangerously low on energy. He shifted next to me, and I let my head fall on his shoulder. The wound finally closed up all the way, and the healer moved away from me. I opened my eyes to see everyone staring.

  I realized they weren’t staring at me but behind me, and I turned my head to see what they were looking at. I hadn’t seen Sievroth since Mr. Mitchel came to the school. He stayed invisible, but now he was showing himself off proudly. He stood behind me with his wings out. His wingspan was easily six feet already, and his body had grown to a few feet long. No wonder he couldn’t stay on my shoulders anymore. He had grown so much.

  He leaned forward and head-butted me gently. “I’ve missed seeing you,” I told him.

  He made the grumbling noise that reminded me of laughter before giving me one last head butt and turning his head toward everyone else. He growled once before disappearing again. I knew he was still behind me, curling up to keep an eye on me, but everyone else thought he was gone except Richard. He was still connected to me, so he knew Sievroth was hanging around.

  Mauevene flew up to me, and I put my hand out for her to land on. “You need to stop getting into these close calls,” sh
e scolded me in ancient.

  “It’s not my fault. I told everyone I’m a magnet for trouble,” I responded in the ancient language. She laughed and disappeared, saying she would see me later.

  “What just happened?” Mr. Burwel asked. “That was a dragon and a water sprite. Why were they here? And they were helping. How do you know a dragon and a water sprite and the ancient language?” he sputtered.

  I felt bad for him. It was a lot to take in. I looked at the healer, but she just winked at me. She looked a lot like Mrs. Sullivan, and I wondered if they were sisters. It would explain why she wasn’t more surprised by everything. Mrs. Sullivan probably told her a lot about the situation.

  Everyone ignored Mr. Burwel and peppered me with questions. When they finally calmed down, I explained that I was ok, and the dark magic was gone. Mrs. Sullivan told me to go get some food and relax for the rest of the day. There wouldn’t be any classes for us. We were all grateful as we slowly left her office. They could sort things out with Mr. Burwel. I was sure Mrs. Sullivan would let me know if I needed to worry about anything. While she was here, I could relax.

  Chapter Ten

  Mrs. Sullivan was waiting for us later that day in her office. Mr. Burwel was there too. He looked better than a few hours ago and didn’t seem nearly as confused.

  “Sally, we need to discuss what your next step is,” she said.

  “What about him?” I asked, nodding at Mr. Burwel.

  “It’s ok, Sally, we can trust him. He even had me put a block on his mind to keep him from being able to tell the council about you.”

  “What do you think our next step should be?” I asked her.

  “You need to get to the fire elementals before the Pulhu do. They are still on Mount Etna, and I think they are getting close. There has been more activity there lately.”