“Do you trust me?” Lisabelle asked, her eyes dark. “I know you’ve taken a lot of grief this semester for being my friend.”
I might have been imagining it, but I was pretty sure I saw Lisabelle’s lower lip tremble just a little.
To Sip’s undying credit, she never hesitated. She flung herself at Lisabelle and wrapped her arms tightly around the taller girl. Lisabelle was unused to displays of affection, and it was very clear that for a split second she thought she was supposed to blast Sip away, because another paranormal was running toward her at high speed. But finally she gave in and hugged her back.
As Sip reached Lisabelle I thought I heard her say, “You didn’t say bye.”
“Girls,” Ricky muttered, throwing up his hands. “At a time like this, no less.”
“I like him,” said Lough, although I could see the happiness shining in his eyes. He had tried to keep it contained, but he’d been desperate and miserable without Lisabelle.
“Hey,” said Ricky, looking at the dream giver. “I like you, too.”
Lisabelle put us in the basement. We protested, because it felt like running away from a fight, but she insisted.
“I don’t like that you’re taking all the risks,” Lough said to her. “Why didn’t you show yourself sooner?”
“It’s not a risk,” said Lisabelle calmly. “They’re just demons. They are no match for me. As for that, I was hoping you could fight your way out. If I hadn’t had to help, all the better.”
“But of course we couldn’t,” I said, “not with so many demons.”
Lisabelle shrugged. “I’m just glad I got here in time.”
“It was amazing,” said Ricky excitedly, turning to me, “I’ll tell you all about it. She controls fire.”
“So does she,” said Lisabelle, pointing at me.
Ricky looked at me in shock. “No way,” he breathed. “You can’t even light our fireplace in the winter.”
“Thanks for that, Ricky,” I said dryly.
He shrugged. “Just telling the truth.”
Our basement wasn’t much to speak of. It had a dirt floor, and Carl used it mostly to keep old boxes in storage. My mom had refused to go down there entirely.
Ricky waved goodbye to Lisabelle, obviously already knowing better than to try and hug her at this moment. It astounded me how much raw power was coursing through her veins. I couldn’t see her wand, but I had a feeling it covered her whole arm by now.
“Do the demons know about your arm?” I asked.
Lisabelle shook her head. “I carry a wand and wave it around like an idiot to throw them off.”
“I wish I could see that,” said Sip wistfully.
Lisabelle rolled her eyes. “Of course you do.” She pointed at the werewolf. “You better not have ‘redecorated’ our room.”
“I haven’t touched it,” said Sip, her voice breaking a little.
“I have to go,” said Lisabelle, her eyes softening a little. We could all hear the demons outside. They were growing impatient.
“Wait, Lisabelle,” said Sip, her purple eyes filled with worry. “Are you okay?”
At first I had thought that Lisabelle looked fine, but on closer examination I could see that she didn’t. She looked tired. The circles under her eyes were darker and she was thinner.
She sighed. “It’s the Black Ring. I made promises when I put it on. I didn’t have a choice, but they are promises I have no intention of keeping. Fighting saps my strength every day.”
Sip merely nodded, her eyes bright. Lough cleared his throat. “Dreams help,” he said quietly. “Dream yourself not wearing the Black Ring. When you return to wakefulness it’ll be hard for a minute, but overall it should be easier.”
For a second Lisabelle didn’t say anything, then she nodded. “I didn’t know that. I’ll do it.”
Lough nodded, unable to speak.
I gave Lisabelle a hug. It felt good to know she was alive and fighting.
“I can’t thank you enough,” I whispered. “For Ricky. If you hadn’t. . . .”
Lisabelle’s black eyes met my gray ones. She nodded once.
“Loyalty. Always.”
“You go far beyond that,” I told my friend.
We all watched as she closed the door behind her.
After Lisabelle was gone we sat in silence. There were several heart-stopping minutes when we heard the patter of countless feet slamming overhead while Demons of Knight and hellhounds tore our home apart and we sat in the basement, hoping that Lisabelle’s spells were strong enough to protect us.
“What if they find us?” Ricky whispered to me. He was glued to my side and staring with wide eyes at the ceiling of the basement.
“Then Lisabelle will come back,” said Lough. “I’d kind of like that,” he finished wistfully. “For a minute we were all together again, and wasn’t it grand.”
All except for Keller.
“We’d all like that,” said Sip softly.
Finally, the noise stopped. We stayed still for several more minutes.
“Ouch,” I muttered, glaring at my arm, momentarily distracted.
I was just about to stand up when my elbow bumped into a box. It was hot to the touch.
“What is this?” I whispered. “Sip, demon magic?”
She came over to examine the box. “No traces of it,” she said, her voice filled with as much confusion as I felt. “Hum.”
She reached out, but she didn’t even get near it.
“That’s my stuff,” said Ricky, his voice rising. He’d been through a lot that evening. “Don’t touch it.”
“We can’t,” I said honestly. “It’s burning up.”
“I thought it was just some stuff I used to play with,” he said. He came over to the box and reached out to open it. Sip and I both cried out in alarm, but he ignored us. He touched the box without screaming, and his hands didn’t burst into flames.
“See?” he said. “There’s nothing.”
Inside the box was something wrapped in old brown paper. It felt heavy, and I could feel the cold even through the wrapping. When I touched it, though, it started to hum with warmth and life.
“What is it?” Ricky asked me eagerly.
I wasn’t sure. “Lets go upstairs and find out.”
“Okay,” said Ricky, “but maybe in the kitchen?”
I swallowed hard as I walked past Carl. I hadn’t liked him, I hadn’t thought well of him, but that didn’t mean I thought he deserved to die, especially not when he died protecting Ricky.
My brother averted his eyes from his stepdad. I knew he’d have to grieve, I knew I had a lifetime’s worth of explaining to do, but right now, just like me, his heart was too full.
The kitchen was relatively unharmed. A chair was turned over, but otherwise there was no sign that a demon battle had just taken place in the house.
Gently I laid the brown paper on the counter. It was so hot now that I could hear it humming. As my friends and Ricky gathered around, I carefully unwrapped what my mom had hidden for so many years.
But I could already feel what it was.
“Wow,” Sip breathed, when I had finally finished uncovering the Crown of Nascaro.
Well, half of it anyway.
“That’ll set you back,” said Lough.
I snorted. “I’m pretty sure it’s priceless,” I said. I couldn’t take my eyes off it.
The half crown was a delicate metal frame, around which were fixed delicate white pearls in the shapes of things that were important to elementals. I could see thistles and clovers mixed in with other flowers. There was even a vapor rock, which water elementals use to focus power.
“Oh, Charlotte,” Sip breathed.
I swallowed hard, staring at the crown of my family.
“So, Mom kept half a crown in the basement. Our family is so weird,” said Ricky, shaking his head disapprovingly.
I glanced at my brother and then at my two friends, but I could find nothing to say.
“Good
thing the kids at school don’t know. Although I suppose I’m not going back to school,” my little brother said wistfully.
My mom had kept the crown all those years, hidden downstairs in some dusty box.
“You know, Charlotte,” said Sip slowly, “the crown might offer an explanation of why elementals killed your mom.”
I nodded slowly. “It was a rogue band, but they wanted the crown, because whoever possessed the crown would technically be the ruler of the elementals,” I said. “They wanted it and they knew my mom had it. Maybe they killed her when she wouldn’t talk.”
“Why’d she have it in the first place, though?” Lough breathed. “I mean, it’s awesome that it isn’t in the wrong hands, but not so much if it got her killed.”
“She was probably keeping it for my dad,” I said softly. “He was king, after all.”
Ricky held up a hand. “What are you talking about?” he asked. “Mom being killed by whats-its, and your dad, our dad, a king of huh?”
“I’m sorry,” I said to my little brother. “I owe you an explanation.”
Ricky snorted. “You owe me like a hundred of them. Or, you know, more than that. I’ll tell you when you’ve explained enough, but basically for the rest of your life, any time I want you to explain something you better do it on the spot.”
I nodded. “Sure. That can’t possibly go badly.”
“Let’s get out of here,” said Lough. He pointed to the crown. “But you should probably wrap that up first.”
I nodded and did as he suggested. It wouldn’t be healthy to be seen with the crown of the elementals, or even half of it.
“But where’s the other half?” Ricky asked.
“Charlotte,” said Sip slowly, “I bet I know where the other half of the crown is. If your mom had it, that is.”
Yes, of course. We both knew: the thistle box I had hidden in Astra, which I needed the Key of Light to open.
“What does this mean?” Sip whispered.
“It means I have the elemental crown,” I said.
“And are the rightful heir,” Lough added.
“If you think I’m bowing, you have another thing coming,” said Sip warningly.
“Let’s get back to Public,” I said. “I need to tell Dacer and I need to get to the box.”
“What’s Public?” Ricky asked. Seeing the looks on our faces, Ricky threw up his hands. “Why do I bother.”
“Oh, Ricky,” said Lough, clapping the younger elemental on the back, “Paranormal Public is just the tip of the iceberg.”
Before any of us moved I remembered something and smacked my hand against my forehead. “I meant to ask Lisabelle about Risper,” I said, frustrated that I could have forgotten. He had disappeared at the start of the semester and nothing had been heard of him since.
“Oh,” said Ricky, his gray eyes lighting up. “She gave me this when she thought she had saved me and was leaving the first time.” He pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket. “She looked sad when she did it, but I didn’t know why.”
My hands were full with half a crown, so I motioned for Sip to take the note. With trembling hands she opened it and read:
Risper failed. The Globe White was with the Eriksons. It is now with the Darkness Premier. They’ve also found the Fang First, and thanks to Paranormal President Caid, they know where to look for the Mirror Arcane.
My heart stopped for what felt like the millionth time that night as I threw the note down and headed toward the front door.
Sip, Ricky, and Lough hurried after me.
But I knew we were already too late.
“CHARLOTTE, SIP, LOUGH?” The frantic voice calling for us was Rake’s.
I crashed through the door, the force of my blow throwing it off its last hinge so that it clattered to the ground and slid down the steps. I was forced to stop while it fell, so while I waited, I looked around frantically for my vampire friend.
Rake was standing on the lawn amidst the chaos of the demon attack on my childhood home. His shirt was tattered and there was a bruise blooming on his cheek. He’d been in a fight. He was breathing hard, and his eyes were filled with pain.
“Public,” he panted. “Public was overrun.”
I fell to my knees. After all that, they’d gone after Ricky so that I wouldn’t be there. They hadn’t found out that I snuck away on weekends, but they had lured me away by going after the one thing they knew I couldn’t resist. And now all the paranormals would pay the price.
“What now?” Lough asked softly.
Sip had pulled a first aid kit out of the backpack she’d tied to the broom, and now she started to tend to Rake’s wounds. He tried to protest, insisting that he wasn’t that badly hurt, but she quelled him with a purple-eyed look.
“We have to go to Public,” I said. “Everything is there.”
“We can’t go,” Lough argued, “not if Malle’s taken it back over.”
“I thought she was on the side of the paranormals, or at least that’s what she’s been pretending,” I whispered.
I glanced around. It was cold. There was no snow on the ground, but a sheen of frost gave the world a silver tint, and the horizon was just beginning to welcome dawn. The sky was thick and gray with streaks of rain. Even the clouds looked like they were crying.
“I don’t know,” said Rake. “All I know is that I was sitting in Cruor and a black wave came toward me. It was demons. Thousands of them. They had already overrun the grounds.”
“If we can’t go back to Public,” said Sip, “where do we go?”
“We could go to my parents’ place, or yours,” said Lough.
They both glanced at me, waiting to see what I’d say. Ricky and Rake also waited. I thought for a moment, tugging on my lower lip with a dirty finger.
“No,” I said slowly, as ice flowed through my veins. “They aren’t the only ones who can attack something that doesn’t belong to them. We don’t go to Public and we don’t go to your parents’ places.”
I looked at each of them in turn. “We go to Vampire Locke and we finish this.”
The Nocturns had taken my peace and quiet. They had taken Keller and they had tried to take Ricky. I was done being nice. The winds had changed. It was time for them to pay.
The End
~
By Maddy Edwards:
One Black Rose Series
One Black Rose
August
Autumn
Susan’s Summer
Paranormal Public Series
Paranormal Public
Elemental Rising
Elemental Shining
Elemental Dawn
Elemental Fire
Elemental Air
Elemental Earth
Elemental Darkness
Spiral Series
Spiral
Elemental Darkness (Paranormal Public Series) Page 26
