Elemental Havoc
(Paranormal Public, Book XI)
by
Maddy Edwards
Copyright © 2016 by Maddy Edwards
Cover Design © K.C. Designs
This novel is a work of fiction in which names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real persons, places, or events is completely coincidental.
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Books by Maddy Edwards
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Chapter One
Sometimes I hated being at Dacer’s. Like, a lot, and mostly because I kept having the same dream over and over again. It wasn’t anything like the nightmares from the Nocturn War. No, this was far worse, this felt like a portent, something that would happen, one way or another; it was only a matter of time.
Every night I saw a coffin. It was brightly colored, out of respect for the occupant. Every night I saw weeping and sadness, and every night I remembered walking up to that coffin to peer inside and say goodbye to the blond-haired friend inside.
Every morning I woke up in a thick sweat.
The summer had gone by fast, and now it wouldn’t be long before I officially started my freshman year of college. I was still staying at Duckleworth Castle, since Duke Dacer had generously given me free use of the room on the second floor that I had stayed in when I first arrived. The room was spare and practical and I left it that way.
He wanted me to make it my own, he said, a home away from home. Charlotte and Keller lived in a small cottage on the Paranormal Public campus, but their spare room would soon be going to the baby that was on the way. So I was grateful to the Duke for giving me some semblance of a home, and making it so I didn’t have to squeeze into a corner of Charlotte and Keller’s place.
Once I was a real student there, maybe I could spend summers at Astra.
I would have expected it to be hard to believe that my sister was married, but it really wasn’t. I had known for a long time that she was planning to marry Keller; in fact, I prided myself on having assumed it from the beginning.
Charlotte had said earlier in the summer that they were planning to hold a small celebration for friends and family after the first semester at Public was out of the way. Keller’s family would have fits if they didn’t, and anyhow, they wanted to give their friends a chance to celebrate with them. Keller had sided entirely with Charlotte and against his family in choosing to marry her, to the point that he and his parents would have a strained relationship forever after. But he and Charlotte had too much respect for his heritage and for the fallen angels as a whole to totally disregard their traditions.
Meanwhile, I was stuck at the castle with Keegan until the start of the fall term, but there was some doubt as to whether that was even going to happen. Dacer told us to be confident that it would, but the reopening of Public was not universally supported among the paranormals. As the summer progressed there was a lot of back and forth in the Tabble and other forums, with paranormals discussing whether it would be better to just let the university die out. Sip was championing the cause of reopening it, and to that end she had been forced to make many promises, some of which I felt sure she wouldn’t want to end up keeping.
Keegan happily spent his days reading and exploring. The tree sprite was also staying at Dacer’s for the remainder of the summer, because his mother had insisted that he acclimate himself to being around other paranormals while the tree sprite community was taken to yet another hidden location.
She expressly told him he’d just have to get used to conflict that he couldn’t solve by biting his opponent.
We were all curious to see how Keegan would do in the wider paranormal world. He had the rare ability to speak with dragons, which made him unusual even among the paranormal strange, though you wouldn’t have known it to look at him. With his black hair, green hands, and stocky build, he looked more like a lumberjack than a paranormal with one of the rarest abilities in the world.
In the mornings we would dine with Dacer and sometimes Zellie, the cousin who lived with him. Zellie had given over to me the care of a family of puppies we had found in an outbuilding, since – as she said – I seemed to enjoy them so much. I informed her that she hadn’t done it for that reason at all, she had done it because Dacer was a lot less likely to get rid of the animals if I liked them too. And boy did I like them! I had named the black puppy I had followed into the catacombs of Duckleworth Crumbly Cheese; I called him Crumple for short. Keegan was appalled.
Zellie, listening to us squabble, just smirked. She said I was a real man for issuing an insult framed as, “Oh, go read about it.” Then she walked away cackling at how funny she was.
I brushed my hair out of my face and glanced down at my feet. My sister had brown hair, but mine was lighter. It always confused people when they met me, because the light hair made it harder for anyone to recognize me as Charlotte’s brother. Then they noticed that we had the same gray eyes and it made more sense. Now, in the woods, it was getting to be dusk, and if I wasn’t careful I might trip on one of the many roots that protruded from the dry ground. After making sure of my footing for the next few steps, I glanced at the stocky paranormal walking next to me, whose idea this excursion into the woods around Duckleworth had been.
Keegan, or Keegie to his good friends as he liked to tell me, did not look like any paranormal I had ever seen before. Because of his faery heritage, he had a slight silver sheen to his skin and a blocky body. Despite his stockiness, though, he wasn’t that big overall, and he could move quickly. But he also looked kind of funny to anyone who wasn’t used to him.
One time a while back when I’d been talking to the darkness premier, she had bemoaned the fact that her own best friend, Sipythia Quest, was much shorter and smaller than she was.
“Sure, it makes for excellent jokes, but then we have to walk at Sip pace, which is short person pace. It’s a waste of time.
”
Sip, not in the mood to be teased or judged for the fact that she was pint-sized, had told Lisabelle that she could take on a paranormal of any size and all they had to do was step outside with her.
As usual, Charlotte had pleaded for calm and sanity. As usual, she had been rebuffed.
I signed at the memory, making Keegan glance my way and demand, “What the hell’s the matter?”
I didn’t want to explain, so I just changed the subject and asked about the woods we were walking through, which felt unfamiliar to me. I had taken to walking in them whenever I got the chance, because soon enough I would be confined to the grounds of Paranormal Public University, where the school year was about to start.
Keegan turned and looked at me curiously. There was nothing like walking in the woods with a tree sprite.
“See those over there?” Keegan pointed to a cluster of trees that on closer examination looked a little different from the ones we’d been passing. Their branches were thinner and darker, with splotches of bark of a deep silvery shade. The silvery surfaces reflected no light back, making the space between trees feel small and close.
“Yeah,” I said. Keegan was very possibly under the mistaken impression that I cared about trees. “What about them?”
“If you get the right thread you can weave them together. The leaves, I mean. But the thread is incredibly difficult to come by. Women of the mountains discovered how to do it a long time ago.” Keegan’s eyes were shining, as they always did when he told me about a paranormal group I had never heard of before, a group that more likely than not was long gone from the world. He loved this stuff.
“For a while they had an alliance with tree sprites, and they taught us, but now the knowledge is dwindling from one generation to the next. My mom is one of the last sprites to have trained with the real mountain women. But yeah, anyway, if you thread the leaves properly, so my mom says, they form a concealing canopy. Another way to disappear, or at least to have the ability to do so.”
One breath we were going along and everything was fine. The next moment there was a snarl, a snap, and a giant mass flying through the air at my head. The distraction of the attack made me stop watching where my feet landed, and as I stumbled, the flying mass slammed into Keegan and rammed him sideways. I caught a glimpse of impossibly sharp teeth and blazing angry eyes. Keegan was neither small nor wilting, but he wasn’t anywhere near as big as the werewolf that was attacking us.
My friend let out a gasp, and an image of him trying to stand his ground flashed through my mind. Keegan stomped his feet once as if he was going to fight, then let his knees buckle beneath him. Taken by surprise at the sudden loss of balance, the werewolf’s jaws released their hold. I wasn’t sure if his maneuver had gotten Keegan more leverage or less, but at least it had gained him the element of surprise.
I watched the enormous beast squirm as Keegan drove his elbow into its neck. My friend had only a split second to make his move, because werewolves are fast and quick and ruthless, especially when they’re crazy, as this one was. But Keegan didn’t look afraid until the werewolf drove forward with the power of its hind haunches and dug its claws into his legs. The sprite let out a cry of pain, and now his eyes closed in fear. Knowing I had only seconds to act before he was gutted in the most awful way imaginable, I cast about for a large branch to use as a weapon. Luckily I found something at hand to grab. I didn’t have time to be surprised that it was slimy; all that mattered was that the grip felt solid in my hands. Keegan opened his eyes just in time to meet mine and nodded once, his hands working frantically to keep the werewolf from killing him.
The forest was suddenly too quiet. I lifted the tree branch and swung it, just when Keegan used one massive shove to put the werewolf’s head and heavily muscled shoulders in the way of my attack. The tree branch thunked into the werewolf. For a split second nothing happened, then the thing shuddered. My shoulders and hands vibrated with the force of the blow, but I made myself cling to the dead wood for dear life and lifted the branch again. While the werewolf was dazed, I swung my makeshift weapon and hit it a second time, so hard that this time the branch flew clear out of my throbbing hands.
The werewolf shuddered and collapsed. Keegan only managed to roll halfway out of the way before it fell heavily on his legs, while I stumbled backward and nearly tripped over another root.
Several seconds passed in which the only sound was of hard breathing.
“How dare there be roots in the forest!” Keegan cried, mocking my annoyed expression.
My skin throbbed and felt raw and cold where I’d clutched my makeshift club, but I was more worried about Keegan. “Get away from that thing,” I gasped.
“No, do you suppose that’s a good idea?” he said, not dropping the sarcasm even now. “I don’t know. I kind of like that my legs are warm,” he grumbled.
With my help, Keegan shoved himself free of the beast and scrambled to his feet. We stared at each other, wide-eyed, then down at the creature lying prone on the ground.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Keegan asked.
“I was thinking that I need to shower before dinner,” I said, glaring at Keegan, whose face split in a grin. It wasn’t until I looked at him for the second time that I saw the fear etched around his eyes, despite the grin. “Just kidding, yeah, I was thinking we should run back to the castle and find Dacer and bring him out here so he can see this before we’re attacked by more of them. I don’t suppose you brought your Contact Stone?” I asked.
Keegan shook his head. I hadn’t brought mine, either. And even if we’d had one, Dacer didn’t always keep his handy.
I looked around at the thick forest. I knew that if I needed to I could find my way back to Duckleworth alone, but it would have been more difficult without Keegan. He was the tree sprite, and he was the one who had brought us wandering out here. “Are you going to be able to remember the spot we need to come back to?” he asked.
I nodded. “The silver tree, right?”
“Oh yeah,” Keegan sounded relieved. “Now let’s get out of here. And be careful.”
“You too,” I said.
We both took off sprinting through the woods. All I could think of was the warmth of the castle and how I couldn’t wait to get there where it was safe. We had stayed on the Duke’s grounds, so this shouldn’t have happened; we should never have been attacked here. Sure, Dacer’s old friend Charles had been following us when we first arrived, and though we hadn’t realized it at the time, his intention had been to murder me. He had been forced to make his attempt elsewhere, because Dacer’s castle was a refuge.
Or should have been.
This attack could easily have killed Keegan, and I was now in a blazing hurry to get back and tell Dacer about it. Instead of worrying any further about roots beneath my feet, I commanded them to move away. Since Dacer’s grounds were so heavily spelled to respond to light magic, my command worked better than usual; typically I wouldn’t have been strong enough to make so many roots and trees scram.
“Impressive,” Keegan called out from behind me. I wanted to turn around and thank him, but I didn’t dare. Instead, I kept right on pelting through the forest.
“Not far now,” I called over my shoulder. Keegan wasn’t built for running, and his breathing was getting heavier, but soon I could see the lights from the castle outbuildings ahead of us. All the while I’d been listening to the sounds of the forest, wondering if there were more crazed werewolves out there, but it seemed like we were going to make it back without another incident.
The second we broke through the trees, both Keegan and I started to yell.
“DACER!” I screamed as I ran. “DACER!”
It didn’t take long for my sister’s former tutor to come running. He looked ridiculous. He still wore sparkles, though not as many as he had on the night when I met him at the theater. He streamed black and midnight blue twinkles and his eyes were frantic.
Right behind him was Ze
llie, looking like she’d rolled out of bed, thrown on a black robe, and grabbed an axe. She floated toward us almost faster than we were running. As we emerged into the open grounds at the back of the castle, I could sense from the gathering winds and the lack of stars in the sky that a storm was brewing.
“What?” the professor demanded when he reached us. When he saw that neither of us could speak he said, “Breathe, just breathe.” I nodded once, choking.
After a moment Dacer tried again. “What’s all this then?” he asked, taking in Keegan’s mud-covered clothing with raised eyebrows.
Keegan looked down at himself as if he’d forgotten what he was wearing and how we must look.
“Alright, spit it out,” said Zellie when we still didn’t speak. She was circling us now, her black eyes scanning the trees in the spot where we had emerged from the forest.
“We were attacked,” I said. I took one last great gulp of air as Dacer’s eyes snapped toward the trees.
“By what?” he demanded. It looked like he was biting the inside of his lip to keep from yelling.
“By a werewolf,” said Keegan. “It came out of the trees. I think it was going for Ricky, but then he tripped, the klutz.”
Zellie’s movements had started to zip faster, and I could tell she didn’t want to be caged here on the open ground waiting for us to finish our story. She wanted to act, to attack.
Her cousin was calmer, but only by the smallest margin. One of his eyes started to twitch uncontrollably and his fist kept clenching, but he let Keegan finish.
“Describe it to me,” he said. “In detail. How are you so sure it wasn’t a hellhound?”
“One of Lisabelle’s?” I said, shocked. The idea that we had been attacked by one of Lisabelle’s hellhounds (they were all hers now that she was the all-commanding boss of darkness; those were her words, not mine) was preposterous.
“You realize that the alternative is that they’re Sip’s?” Dacer asked, quirking one of his perfectly manicured eyebrows. If the situation hadn’t been so serious I would have had the sneaking suspicion that he was amused.
Elemental Havoc (Paranormal Public Book 11) Page 1
