All color drained from Lough’s face. Not releasing Sip, he sank to the floor, the picture of someone too devastated to cry. “Bailey’s dead?” he croaked. “Are you sure? He might just be sleeping. This is no time for jokes, Charlotte. A lot’s been going on the past couple of weeks.”
I nodded. “I know,” I said. “Lough, I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah, so am I,” said Sip. She pushed herself away from Lough but didn’t try to get up off the floor. She was shaking so badly her legs didn’t look like they would support her.
“I have to see for myself,” he said. He started to get up.
“No, Lough,” I said.
He slipped. And fell. He did not rise again.
“Lough,” I said softly. “I’m sorry.” I knelt on the floor on front of my friends. Slowly, I wrapped my arms around Lough. At my first touch he started, like he was coming out of a trance, but he let me hug him. Sip wrapped her arms around both of us.
“Sip,” Lough said, his voice muffled in my shoulder. “Your crying is getting my shirt wet.”
“Get used to it,” said Sip.
“That’s something Lisabelle would say,” he said. He pulled away and sat back. “Tell me what happened.”
His jaw jutted out and his eyes were hard. He kept an arm around Sip, but his focus was on me. I told him everything.
“Did Lisabelle do it?”
“No,” I said firmly.
“She didn’t,” Sip agreed.
“I saw her a half hour before,” Sip said, snuffling. “There’s no way she did it.”
“Poor Bailey,” Lough said, and his head dropped into his hands. “Poor, poor Bailey.”
Regret and sadness mingled with exhaustion, but I couldn’t think about it now. I looked out the window. In the distance I could see the professors retreating.
“We have to save Lisabelle,” I said, trying to believe we could.
“Well, duh,” said Sip.
“Yeah,” said Lough. “Thank you, queen of the obvious.” He gave a thin smile.
“There’s nothing we can do tonight. We won’t do Lisabelle any favors by being exhausted,” said Sip. Lough nodded numbly.
Sip stood up. “Let’s get some sleep. We have a lot to do in the morning.”
“What do you think they’re going to do with Bailey’s body?” Lough asked. He stood up as well. Slowly, like an old man.
“I think they’re going to call his family, and they’re going to have to make an announcement tomorrow at breakfast,” said Sip.
I wondered if some of the other dorms would clap. The pixies’ hatred of me had spread to the other members of Airlee too; none of them would shed a tear for Bailey. The relationships among the paranormals had deteriorated to such an extent that no one outside of Airlee would care what had happened to him.
In bed, I was too tired to cry. One thing I knew to be true: this had to stop. I was going to find that hellhound, and whoever let him onto Public’s campus. Magic or no, and I was going to make them pay.
Sip and I trudged to breakfast the next morning with Lough beside us. His eyes were bloodshot in a way that I would have expected after a night of hard partying. Sip was quiet and pale. Her lips formed one thin white line.
I stared hard at the spot where Bailey’s body had been. Part of me wondered if it had all been a bad dream. Someday Lough would be good enough with his magic to create living dreams like that, and if there were a really powerful dream giver on campus, maybe they had sent the awful nightmare where one of my friends was dead and another of my friends was blamed.
But Lisabelle’s absence confirmed the horrible truth: Bailey was dead, and Lisabelle was gone. She would never be a student at Public again. There was a good chance they wouldn’t even let her live. A lump formed in my throat.
I had imagined blood-soaked grass, but of course it wasn’t. There were no signs that a body had lain there the night before and that one life had been lost and another ruined.
As we walked in to breakfast, none of the other students acted like anything was wrong. They didn’t know. The pixies were nasty as usual, but it seemed so irrelevant now. I tried to ignore their foolish barbs and their attempts to trip me. Kia came up behind me and stuck her foot out, but she wasn’t subtle enough, and I saw her extended green ankle in time. It was the second time she had tried to trip me this semester. The first time she had succeeded and I had ended up with more Astra work. This time, the spark of fury inside me became an inferno. I flipped my empty tray in my hand. My grip was solid. I checked my stance. Like I was swinging a baseball bat, I brought my other hand up and pivoted. The tray slammed into Kia’s face. It was no longer a time to be passive.
Kia screamed. As blood squirted from her nose in bubbly spurts, Camilla came towards me, yelling. I flipped my tray again, ready for a second swing, and she came to a dead halt. Without ever taking her eyes off me, she went to help her friend. The dining hall had gone silent. Lough was staring at me like he had never seen anything like it before.
“You just reminded me of Lisabelle,” he said. “It was awesome.”
Defiantly I picked up a new tray, and as I did so my eyes met Keller’s. He looked worried. I couldn’t imagine why; he knew I had taken a lot of abuse from the pixies. Maybe he would have thought better of me if I hadn’t snapped, or maybe not. But what was done was done, and I was glad of it.
Once I was seated between Lough and Sip I tried to get a look at the professors, but none of them were there. I was about to take the first bite of my eggs when someone slid into a seat next to me. It was Keller. The tip of his elbow touched the tip of mine.
“What happened?” he asked.
“What makes you think something happened?” I asked as I savaged my eggs. He eyed the mush for a second, then said, “You don’t usually start the morning by taking batting practice at someone’s face.”
“That’s a baseball term,” said Lough to Sip.
She glared at him. He took a big bite of toast.
I leaned closer; I didn’t want to be overheard. “Lisabelle was arrested last night. Another hellhound attack.”
Keller didn’t react. “Are you alright?”
Why was he asking if I was alright when Lisabelle was the one who had been arrested? I told him, “I don’t think I am.” But before he could ask anything else, the professors, led by the President, swept in. Until that point I had liked the President. She had treated me with respect, if not kindness, which was a lot better than Professor Zervos had ever done. But now I looked at her differently. Last night she had led Lisabelle away in chains. I would never forgive her for that.
She didn’t bother to sit down. Instead, she walked straight to the podium. I was flooded with memories of my first night, when everything was bright with possibility and the idea of my friend being arrested would have seemed laughable. Ruthlessly I pushed the memories away. I had to concentrate.
The President rested her hands on the podium. The room fell silent. She’d never addressed the students at breakfast before.
“Good morning,” she said. I thought she trembled a little. Good. Serves her right.
“We have some distressing news. First, I would like to make clear that everyone here is safe. We are doing our very best to protect students. The perpetrator has been captured.”
Murmurs rippled around me.
I looked at the rows of professors as she talked. One was missing: Zervos. I wondered where he was now. I hoped he wasn’t with Lisabelle.
“Last night, a hellhound attacked a student at the direction of another student. It pains me beyond measure that we were betrayed by one of our own.” Her shaking hand adjusted the collar around her neck. “With great sadness, I must announce that the dream giver Bailey was killed.” She paused as murmurs subsided into disbelief. A couple of students cried out. The vampires were stone-faced, so were the fallen angels. The pixies didn’t have any expression on their faces at all.
I was aware of Keller’s weight at my side like
the sun blazing next to me. He covered his mouth with his fist. He glanced at me, but I couldn’t read his expression.
The President continued. “The guilty student was caught not long after the dreadful and vicious attack. I believe that the threat has been neutralized. Therefore, students no longer need to worry.”
Students, from vampires to werewolves, were looking around the room. Several called out, “Who was it?”
The President, with a deep sigh, said, “It is no surprise that the guilty student was Lisabelle Verlans. We regret that fellow students were put in a position where we allowed a dangerous killer in your midst. We regret that you were tainted with her presence. Of course, letters will be sent home to your parents with our sincerest apologies.”
Now the students were really talking. The pixies looked smug. Everyone believed the President. They all thought Lisabelle was guilty.
“This is the last time a darkness mage will be allowed within these walls,” said the President. “I take full responsibility. It was a mistake.”
“Serves her right,” called one of the pixies. “She should never have been here in the first place. None of the Airlee students should be here.”
That set off an explosion of noise. Lough stood up and started yelling. Sip forced him back into his chair.
“Now, now,” said the President. “Enough.”
Kevin, the senior pixie, stood up. “But why would Lisabelle attack someone from her own dorm?” I was so grateful I could have kissed him. Maybe they will listen to him, I thought.
“We believe,” said the President, “that Lisabelle did not view herself as loyal to any dorm. Every student was at risk. We do not know why Bailey was targeted, but perhaps he found out something he shouldn’t have.”
That was the last straw for me. If Bailey had found out something, it hadn’t been about Lisabelle.
I pushed my chair back and stood up. Into the silence I said, “Lisabelle is innocent. She’s been falsely accused.”
Everyone in the hall stared at me. Then a pixie started to laugh.
“She’s a darkness mage,” the girl scoffed. “They cannot be trusted. Most of them are already on the side of the demons. And now we know why Lisabelle hated all of us. And you befriended that thing.”
I was so angry I couldn’t think straight. Here was someone acting like Lisabelle was some conniving, evil mage, instead of a person, while the true villain was still at large and no one wanted to do anything about it. I was about to shoot a reply back when Keller stood up. The pixie shut up instantly. Challenging a probationer was one thing, challenging Keller was another. He took hold of my arm and propelled me away. I fought him; I didn’t want to go. I had to defend Lisabelle. But he was stronger than I was.
“Come on,” he said in a low voice, “or do you want everyone in the school thinking you are a threat too?”
That shut me up. What did Keller mean? Did he believe me that it wasn’t Lisabelle? I allowed him to take me out of the hall. I didn’t look back. He led me towards the door.
“Are you trying to get yourself killed? For once in your life act cowed,” he whispered furiously. “At the moment it is more important for your enemies to think you are scared than for you to defend your friend.”
At the door we passed Professor Zervos, who went frantically by us without seeming to see us at all. Keller and I both stopped to stare at him. Once inside the hall he skidded to a stop. His robes were flapping and untied and his hair was sticking out at odd angles.
“President,” he cried, “she’s gone. Lisabelle Verlans has escaped.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Cries erupted around the room. The President, looking stricken, waved her hands for order. “Allow me to confer for a moment with my colleagues,” she ordered. Professor Zervos darted to her.
I yanked out of Keller’s grasp.
Turning back towards the room the President said, “Classes are canceled, and the school is on lockdown until this mad woman is caught. I realize that you are all young adults, but we still must consider your safety, and with Lisabelle Verlans on the loose no one is safe.”
At that Lough got up and stormed out. Keller grabbed my arm again and hauled me out the door. His fingers felt like steel rods biting into my skin.
The fact that everything had been going well for the past month made it even harder than it might have been otherwise to accept what was happening. I’d been looking forward to the end of the semester. The change in weather, as it started to get colder, didn’t bother me. I had been working hard with Keller, and even though I hadn’t produced the kind of magic had I managed at midterms, I had been improving. Keller had started to seem slightly withdrawn, and that had been worrying me, but I had told myself that it was just stress from finals and from Dash.
The finals at Dash were for individuals, and Keller was one of them. He would be competing against Tale and Cale for the trophy. Lisabelle was supposed to be the fourth finalist, but given that she had been arrested, a senior mage named Nancy, who had been fifth in the individual standings, would compete in her place. Everyone would be there to watch.
Keller deposited me at Airlee and ordered me to stay there. I informed him that he had no right to tell me what to do, but he ignored me. After he left I examined my arm; bruises were already starting to form where his fingers had dug into my flesh.
A knock on the door startled me out of my anger. I yanked it open to find Cale standing there, hands shoved into his pockets, red hair flopping over his forehead.
“Hey Charlotte,” he said. “Can I have a word?”
My heart thumped in my chest. “Okay.” In an instant I made a mental checklist of anything visible in my room that might be embarrassing. Sip liked everything clean, so there wasn’t much. Relieved, I invited him to sit.
“How’s it going?” he asked.
“Fine.” It wasn’t, of course, but what was I supposed to say?
He cleared his throat. “Sorry about Lisabelle.”
“Me too.”
He fiddled with papers on the desk, neatening a pile that was already neat.
“Charlotte,” he said. “I like you. A lot. Always have.”
Why, given that Camilla hardly let us spend time together.
“And, well, I was hoping we could be...something...at the dance, but....”
If I breathed he might go poof. What was he talking about?
“But you’re a mage,” he said. He wasn’t looking at me. “I just thought I should explain why....”
I was sick of this. Maybe a little part of me had liked Cale and I hadn’t admitted it to myself, but Camilla had always been there. And after what had happened to Lisabelle the night before, I had a hard time caring in the slightest about what he was saying. And besides worrying about Lisabelle, I was having a hard time keeping my mind from drifting to Keller.
“Why what?”
“You’re in Airlee,” he said.
“That’s your problem?” I demanded.
“Charlotte, you can’t date someone in another dorm,” Cale said. “People would be so mad.”
“Cale, that’s just a stupid idea people have. The demons tried to drive a wedge between paranormals during the wars and we let them.”
Cale sighed. “I just wanted to come here and I explain why I treated you the way I did and why...I’m back with Camilla.”
Ah, there it was. I expected myself to feel some sadness, but I didn’t. I just felt a little sorry for him. He had just assumed I was interested in him, too, which I never really had been. Not seriously, anyhow. It would have been nice to have a friend from home, but at this point it was long beyond mattering.
“Thanks for that, Cale,” I said. “Really appreciate it.” I got up and opened the door for him. He looked at me incredulously.
“Are you mad?”
“No,” I said. “I just have bigger things to worry about.”
For the rest of that week Sip, Lough, and I spent every free moment trying to fig
ure out what could have happened to Lisabelle, where she might be, and if she would come back. I didn’t even bother telling them about Cale. He had loomed large for me at the beginning of the semester, but I had found my own group of friends. After what had happened at the dance, I couldn’t really look at him the same way again. I hadn’t seen Keller since that day at breakfast.
“If Lisabelle ran away, where would she go?” Sip demanded late Thursday night.
“I don’t know,” said Lough for the millionth time. “But why would she run away?” The three of us were sitting in our common room.
After Lisabelle had escaped, the library had been closed during the evening. The only other place we saw Lough besides class was at meals, but we were afraid to talk there. Professors now walked us back and forth from class, in case the dangerous fugitive Lisabelle jumped out of the bushes and attacked us. Even the students who believed she was guilty thought it was silly.
Around us we heard whispers of what Lisabelle must have done. Professors condemned her. Part of me understood it, the President had decided she was guilty after all, but another part of me, the larger part that had spent all semester with Lisabelle, never would. If she had wanted to be on the side of the demons she would never have bothered coming to Public. A nasty part of me pointed out that her goal all along might have been to infiltrate Public and do what no demon could, but I pushed that thought away.
As the three of us sat in Airlee, Mike, Sip’s date to the homecoming dance, came in.
“Did you hear?” he asked us.
“Hear what?” asked Sip, blushing slightly. She had developed a huge crush on Mike. He was oblivious to it.
“The President called an Assembly for first thing tomorrow morning.”
“What’s an Assembly?” I asked.
Mike shrugged. “It’s just that she’s going to talk to us at breakfast again, only she’s letting us know ahead of time.”
Wonderful, I thought. What other bile could she spew about Lisabelle?
Paranormal Public (Paranormal Public Series) Page 21
