“Ah, yes,” said Risper. “He is a particular fan of the Long Building, is he not?”
Risper’s mouth quirked a little. He had been the one to convince Dacer not to throw a public fit about the Museum’s relegation. There was really nowhere else for it to go. The masks were still intact, but the building that the Museum had always been housed in had burned to the ground last spring. Dacer had had a choice of the Long Building or former President Malle’s offices, and he had chosen the Long Building.
“He finds it suitable enough,” I tried to say diplomatically.
Risper’s smile only deepened. Like his niece, he had a malicious and sarcastic sense of humor. It made me like him more.
“And you will be continuing to work with him this semester?” Professor Erikson asked, her stony expression still firmly in place.
“Yes,” I said. I wasn’t going to be nice if she wasn’t.
“Excellent,” said Oliva, rubbing his hands together with pleasure. “I shall have to come visit.”
“That would be great,” I managed. “Forgive me, but my friends are waiting outside. What is it you want to see me about?”
“Of course they are,” said Professor Erikson, her eyes instantly flaming.
Risper sat back in his chair. “So, Lisabelle arrived all right?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said. “Of course she did. Whatever lies in her path is always at greater risk than she is.”
Risper’s black eyes twinkled out at me. “True, true.”
“We wanted you here to discuss your activities this semester,” said Dove, ignoring the other deans.
“My activities?” I repeated, confused.
“Yes,” said Dove. “You seem to have a lot of free time.”
“I do?”
“Yes,” Dove gritted out.
“Between Tactical, classes, and being the only elemental on campus, not to mention just learning about all this paranormal stuff a year ago, you think I have a lot of free time?” I asked, shocked.
“Last semester you managed to get yourself, your friends, and half of campus nearly killed,” Dove spat out, his eyes bulging out of his pale face. “How dare you imply that we are wrong!”
“I don’t have free time,” I said. Maybe it was facing demons, or maybe it was something else, but I wasn’t afraid of this man.
“The events of last semester, with your blatant disregard for rules and directions, prove otherwise,” said Dove. Before I could argue he held up a hand for silence. I just stared at him.
“Therefore, we have devised a way to keep you occupied this semester so that you do not put yourself or anyone else at risk. Believe me, Ms. Rollins, I wouldn’t give the remotest shred of a care about you or whether you died or not if you weren’t elemental. I cannot tell you how much it pains me that the last elemental had to be found in such a weak and pathetic individual. If it had only been someone like Professor Erikson’s nephew, I feel certain that we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
My mouth hung open. I was speechless. None of the other deans said anything either. They were just as surprised as I was at Dove’s outburst.
“If you think so poorly of me,” I eventually managed to stammer out, so filled with rage that I was barely coherent, “why not just kick me out?”
“Believe me,” said Dove, “if it were entirely up to me we would be handling this very differently. If it weren’t for the Power of Five you never would have been allowed inside these hallowed walls.”
I met his black eyes with my gray ones and held them. There was a fury there and a hatred that I had never seen before, not even from Camilla. He wanted me gone, and if he could have had his way and still kept the Power of Five he would have succeeded. Apparently, not even the paranormals who were supposed to protect me were happy about that duty. The demons might be my most obvious enemies, but they were not my only ones.
“What do you want me to do?” I finally managed to ask.
“It’s not what we want you to do,” said Oliva kindly. “It’s what we want you not to do. Under no circumstances do we want you to perform elemental magic. Basic spells for class, whatever is required of you, is fine, but nothing more.”
Stunned, I sat there in silence, sure that I must look shocked. The four deans stared back at me. Had I seriously just heard them right? I had spent the entire last year discovering who I was and what I was capable of. Besides my mom’s death it had been the single hardest experience of my life and it wasn’t even over. As the only elemental, I would be hunted for the rest of my days, and here these four deans were, casually telling me to throw it all away without so much as a second thought.
“Sorry,” I said. “I thought this was a paranormal college and I was supposed to perform magic here.” I tried to keep my voice steady, but it shook a little.
I felt like the bottom had just fallen out of my stomach. I desperately needed a better grip on my powers if I was going to stay alive while the demons tried to kill me, but here were the deans, telling me to do the exact opposite. Did they not understand what was at stake? This had to be Dove’s fault. Professor Erikson might not like me, but she cared about Keller, and she would never have done this on her own. But Dove, it appeared, would have no problem setting me up to die.
“You can’t be serious,” I murmured, looking back and forth from Risper to Oliva. Risper might have a gruff exterior, but he had always been on my side and I had once called Lealand a friend.
“I’m afraid we are,” said Dean Erikson, her mouth set in a thin line. “And as it happens, we have several other matters to discuss before we can go to dinner, so if you don’t mind. . . .”
I had been dismissed. As if the start of this semester couldn’t get any worse. I walked back to my friends in a daze.
Outside, Sip, Lisabelle, and Keller were sitting on the porch chatting about their summers. I was instantly jealous. But they stopped as soon as they saw me; all three of them knew me well enough to know when something was wrong.
“You look furious,” said Lisabelle. “Who do I need to punch?”
“Your uncle,” I growled.
Lisabelle raised her black eyebrows. “Explain.”
“Can we head to the dining hall? I don’t think I can stay near this house for another second,” I seethed.
I felt my fingernails digging into the palms of my hands and tried to calm down. Keller, his bright blue eyes shadowed by darkness, looked worried. Gently, he ran his hand down my wrist, lacing his fingers with mine as we walked. I knew he was trying to give me comfort, but I wasn’t having it. The situation was devastating.
At first, when I tried to explain, I could barely get the words out. I was just that angry. After several false starts I was able to spit out the deans’ orders as the cool night air flowed into my hot face. My friends listened silently. They knew that if they stopped me I might be unable to continue until I had calmed down again.
“That,” Sip declared when she heard what the deans wanted from me, “is called sending a mixed message. Guys are very good at it.” She glanced apologetically at Keller, who only shrugged and smiled ruefully.
“What are you going to do?” Lisabelle asked.
“What can I do?” I demanded. “Not practice my birthright, apparently.”
“That’s hardly a good plan,” said Sip, her face lighted by the pale moon. “Let’s go back to Airlee after dinner and talk about it. Hopefully Lough will be here by then.”
“Right,” I said. “Let’s talk about how the deans are trying to get me killed. That sounds wonderful.”
“I’m sure that’s not their intention,” said Keller. “My aunt. . . .”
“Your aunt hates the very sight of me,” I cut him off, instantly feeling bad for my outburst, but I couldn’t take the words back. They had to be said.
Keller fell into a dark silence. His hand still held mine, but I felt him pulling away.
“Maybe this has something to do with the Map Silver,” Sip murmured thoughtfu
lly.
“What is that?” I asked, almost too angry to speak.
My three friends stared at me. “You’ve never heard of it?”
“Nope,” I said, forgetting about Keller for a minute.
“It’s a paranormal artifact,” said Lisabelle. “One of the most famous. It’s been missing for centuries, but it was just found in the back of the storage area in some museum in New York City. They think it was intentionally hidden there when the demons were looking for it. Now it’s come into the light.”
“Is that a good thing?” I asked.
“Depends on who has it,” said Lisabelle. “Right now the paranormal government does, so it’s fine, but if it were to fall into the wrong hands. . . .”
“Why is it so important?” I asked, curious now.
“It’s a tracking map,” Lisabelle said. “It can lead its owner to anything, including other artifacts, places, people. Whatever you want. But, say they were looking for a paranormal, if that paranormal could dampen her powers, it would go a long way to confusing the Map as to that paranormal’s location.”
“What does that have to do with me?” I wanted to know, trying hard to see my friends’ faces in the darkness.
“Because you can’t hide from whoever has the Map,” said Sip quietly. “They will always be able to find you. So if it’s the demons who have the Map, the demons will always be able to find you. There is nowhere you can hide.”
Chapter Eight
“We’ll figure this out,” Sip promised, as the four stories of the library came into view. After the Tower’s collapse last semester, Public had been left scrambling to house all the events that took place in that great building. There were many classes, several offices, the Museum of Masks, and the dining all, all left homeless when the Tower was destroyed. The classes had been moved to some of the dorms, including Astra, the Long Building, and several of the houses. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. I missed the Tower, but we had no choice. The dining hall had been the hardest thing to move. It required space for a kitchen and something resembling a central location on campus. No one wanted to anger one of the dorms by putting the dining hall very far from where a group of paranormals slept. That left only one option: the library.
At first the librarians were very reluctant. Understandably, they didn’t want a bunch of students who never spent any time in the building anyway to be traipsing through their doors. Yes, there were a lot of students on campus who only knew where the library was because the campus wasn’t big enough for them not to.
The basement of the library housed archived collections, and since those were easier to split up and move around campus than an entire dining hall, it was agreed that the new dining hall would be in the basement of the library, at least until something else could be figured out.
We had known the outline of the plan since last spring, and since almost no one was on campus during the summer and there was no need for the big hall to be open, I hadn’t paid much attention to what was actually going on in the building. What we didn’t learn until we set foot on the massive winding staircase that led down to the basement was that not all the books had found new homes. Funny enough. Thousands had been stacked in the basement, with tabletops set on them and seats for chairs. The books had been turned into dining room furniture.
They were under magical protections, of course, as a final touch.
“Have you ever seen anything so cool?” Lough asked, appearing at my elbow.
“Not since I looked in a mirror,” Lisabelle said.
“Lough!” I cried with joy, throwing my arms around the dream giver’s neck and hugging him for all I was worth. He was the last dear friend I hadn’t seen yet, and here he was.
“I know, I know, it’s wonderful to see me and you can’t imagine how you survived without me,” said Lough, pulling back enough to beam at me. “Must say I agree with you. It’s a mystery.”
Sip gave Lisabelle a good kick to the shin.
“Ouch, Sip, even tiny werewolves hurt,” Lisabelle complained, rubbing the black stocking that covered her leg. “What was that for?”
“Pre-emptive strike,” Sip explained.
“What’s to keep you from kicking me all the time, then?” Lisabelle grumbled.
“Good question,” said Sip loftily. “Maybe you should think about that.”
“How are you, Lough?” Keller asked. The three of us went down the staircase first, with plenty of room still left on either side of us, while Sip and Lisabelle followed behind, arguing quietly with each other.
“Great,” said Lough. “A summer with my family was just what I needed. My sister was home on weekends, even though her government job keeps her hopping. We got to spend a lot of time together, and we talked about Public whenever we got a chance. Turns out she loved it here just as much as I do. She has a new boyfriend, but she won’t say who. I gave her crap about her new guy all summer, but she was keeping so quiet about it that Mom and Dad don’t even know. Not that they’d have time to disapprove, but she’s really happy and it was great being home. I mostly worked on my dreams for people. It was strange, but I definitely improved my control. It makes me almost want to see Trafton so we can discuss methods. Almost. I’m also hopeful that we’ll have another dream giver on campus this semester.”
“Lough?” Lisabelle cut in, putting a pale hand on Lough’s beefy shoulder.
“Huh?” Lough asked, going bright red at Lisabelle’s touch.
“Breathe.”
“Oh, ah, yes,” said Lough, the color staining his face deepening. “Yeah. Sorry. Good call.”
“This is amazing,” said Sip, looking around in wonder as we entered the new dining room. We all agreed. The basement of the library was windowless, but somehow light poured in. There were multi-colored chandeliers and the floor was far enough below ground that the ceilings were very high, reminding me of the ballroom in Astra. The thought of the ballroom made me stiffen, but only for a moment. I didn’t want to think about the elemental trapped in the vision.
Everywhere I looked I saw my classmates. Just like in the old dining hall, there were many circular tables, only instead of being propped up on thin legs each table was propped up on a pile of books. Pixies, vampires, and fallen angels were everywhere.
The stairs came down into the middle of the room, and the buffet style serving area was behind them. The smells wafted together, creating a wonderful scent in the air that caused my mouth to water. After my ordeal a little while ago I was hungry. Only the smell of food banished my anger at the deans.
Suddenly, a very pretty blond girl with delicate features materialized in front of us. She was perfectly dressed, without so much as a crease in her button down white shirt. She wore a plaid skirt and shoes, like the perfect private school girl. Her honey-colored hair fell in ringlets over her shoulders to fan perfectly around her face.
“Keller!” she cried, throwing her arms around his neck.
Keller looked surprised for a second, then returned the hug, grinning. “Hey Vanni,” he said, smiling. “I knew you’d get here eventually.”
Playfully she swatted his shoulder. “Don’t tease,” she said. “Daddy would have killed me if I didn’t get in.” She stuck her lower lip out in a pout.
“I’m going to go get food,” said Lisabelle more loudly than was necessary. Keller glanced at her, and then at me.
“Yeah, alright,” he said. “I’m going to catch up with Vanni for a few minutes. Then I’ll find you guys.”
Hurt, I started to turn and walk away, but Keller caught my arm. “First, Vanni, I want you to meet Charlotte.”
My friends had already left. I stood there feeling nervous.
“Oh, the famous Charlotte Rollins, who’s going to save us all. That’s awesome! We learned about you in Paranormal Civics last night,” Vanni gushed, rushing up to grab my hand and shake it, giggling as she wrung my hand.
“Um, oh, really,” I said, feeling awkward. I had no idea I was being discussed b
y paranormals far and wide. And civics class?
“It’s the biggest, most awesome pleasure to meet you,” Vanni continued, beaming. “It really is.”
“Thanks,” I said.
Looking over Keller’s shoulder, I saw Sip motioning for me.
“I should go,” I said reluctantly. I didn’t want to leave Keller alone with this girl, but I didn’t really have a choice.
“Sure, of course. We’ll be seeing tons of each other now,” said Vanni, with more giggles. “And it will be awesome. Because I totally go here now. Awesome.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Awesome.” I hurried away.
“Since when do we let Barbies into this school?” Lisabelle asked when I joined my friends.
“Since they’re super-accomplished fallen angels,” Sip explained. “That girl right there grew up with Keller. Her family is more purely fallen angel even than his. She’s basically royalty.”
“She’s pretty,” said Lough. I made a strangled noise. “What?” he asked. “Wrong thing to say? I always say the wrong thing.” He sighed heavily. “My sister told me so this summer.”
“Let’s eat,” said Sip. “Classes haven’t even started yet and we already have a lot to do.”
I piled my plate with spaghetti, salad, and a piece of chocolate cake for dessert. It wasn’t any easier than it normally was to find a seat, but at least none of the professors or deans were there. An announcement had been sent out that the Demonstration had been moved outside and would take place first thing in the morning, because there wasn’t room in the basement to hold it. I was relieved. I liked that we could eat in peace.
For a while after we sat down there was nothing but quiet chewing. When Keller joined us he shot me a questioning look, but I didn’t say anything. Lough was happy enough to chat away to Sip and Keller, while Lisabelle, as usual, sat in a dark silence. Soon, though, the discussion turned to classes.
Elemental Shining (Paranormal Public Series) Page 5
