“The paranormals, including any remaining elementals, were blindsided when they realized there was only a few elementals left. My sister was still in school at Public then, and she’d call home and worry about her elemental classmates.
“My brothers were the same way,” said Sip. She had five older brothers, which according to her meant that she was lucky to have ever had a date in her life, and when she did manage to find a guy who would brave all those brothers she had to keep him away from them for as long as possible, because they would terrorize him. I never said it to her, but I thought she was lucky to have so many family members looking out for her.
“Yeah, our siblings went to school together,” confirmed Lough with a nod. “Your parents probably took one look at you and stopped at one, huh?” Lough said to Lisabelle. When he was met by nothing but a stony expression, he turned back to Sip.
“My brothers talked about it a lot,” Sip offered. “They had friends who were elementals. Lots of them,” she explained. “All their good friends . . . died. The strange part was that no one saw it coming. The ones that no one would miss were killed first, then more just died from old age and natural causes. At least, that’s how the demons made it look. An old man is alone in a cabin and has a heart attack. Who’s going to think twice about that? Did your sister tell you anything else?”
“Just that Charlotte is the biggest target in the paranormal world. President Malle wants her dead and hates herself for failing to kill her while she was President.”
“Why didn’t she?” Lisabelle asked curiously. “I mean, Charlotte was in trouble all the time. That meant defying authority and getting stuck talking to her all alone in her house. Why not just kill her then? Or at least give her over to that hellhound she had here?”
Lisabelle’s voice dropped when she mentioned the hellhound. She had a special grudge against that hound for taking her prisoner and acting as a guard and lookout while President Malle held her captive. Several times since then, Lisabelle had ranted about how that particular hellhound wore a red jeweled collar and if she ever saw it again she would give it a piece of her mind, after she killed it, of course.
“I think because at that point she still didn’t want to get caught,” said Lough. “She wanted the hellhound to roam campus, making the lights flicker and blaming Lisabelle for murder without losing her position as President. She also didn’t think Charlotte was that big a threat. I think she assumed Charlotte was just some scared little teenage elemental.”
But that’s exactly what I am! I didn’t want to say it out loud, because my friends had such faith in me, but I often wondered if I had what it took to be the only living elemental. Sometimes I worried that I didn’t.
“Being the President must have had so many advantages,” Sip mused. “She had the children of all the most powerful paranormals held hostage here if she needed leverage for any of her schemes. For all we know she used that tactic all the time to threaten government officials into doing her bidding.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, she just had to get hold of a government employee who had a kid at Public. She wouldn’t even have to reveal her own identity. Just threaten the kid’s life to get what she wanted. There’s no way she would want to give that up, and if Charlotte went missing while visiting the President’s house everyone would have known.”
“She could have gotten me away,” I said. “It’s not like I have some special security detail.”
“It would be nice if you did,” said Lough. “We’d worry about you less.”
“Was that all your sister told you?” Sip asked.
“Mostly, yeah,” said Lough. “But there was one other thing. In honor of their newly organized group and the most powerful demons, the Demons of Knight, they’ve given themselves a name . . . the new name for the combination of demons, darkness mages, and hellhounds is the Knights of Darkness.”
There was a silence, almost as if the darkness of the name had invaded the room. Then Lisabelle broke the spell.
“So what?” she asked.
“Names have power,” Sip replied. “That’s not good. It means they’re organizing. But at least now we have something to call them, if that’s any consolation.”
“I was fine with demons,” said Lough. “In fact, I think it was an apt description.”
We talked for a while longer, but soon the topic turned back to my meeting with the deans. Lough wanted to hear all about it, so I told my story again. He sat throughout my tale with his mouth open in shock. He was always a fan of rules and deans, and he didn’t like when adults misbehaved, but he looked positively offended at my story.
“How can they tell you not to practice elemental magic?” he sputtered. “You ARE an elemental.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “But they did.”
“How will they know if you practice it in secret?” Lisabelle asked. She was studiously examining her fingernails, not looking up.
“Powers can be sensed,” I said. “That’s how the demons found me in the first place, and Cale had to come and get me.”
The night Cale had shown up to walk me home, after I had been seeing a massive black dog, wasn’t something I had thought about recently, but now the terror I had felt at the hellhound attack came rushing back to me.
“Ah, so they’re worried about the Map Silver?” asked Lough knowingly.
I shrugged.
“Powers are harder to sense if you shield them,” said Lisabelle.
“Shielding powers hasn’t been explored much,” Sip warned.
“All the more reason for the only elemental to explore it,” Lisabelle argued.
“How do I shield my powers?” I asked.
“Dampening,” said Lisabelle. “The only way to do it is to cast a dampening spell, which still leaves a trace of magic, but way less than if were you doing nothing and just letting your powers course through your ring as usual.”
“No,” said Sip. “None of us know enough to do any of those spells. They’re about canceling magic, which is against everything we’ve ever learned. There needs to be a lot more studying and practice before we perform any of those spells.”
“You can still go to class and finish the assignments,” said Lisabelle. “They just don’t want you haring off on your own performing the more sophisticated elemental stuff that’s also more dangerous. Probably because there’s a very real possibility that someday you might have to hide yourself from the wielder of the Map Silver.”
“But I need to know how to do that dangerous elemental stuff,” I said, frustrated. “How am I supposed to defend everyone if I don’t learn it?” I felt like I was sinking down a dark hole, and even as I dug my fingers into the dirt, I continued to fall.
“My idea,” said Sip through gritted teeth, “is for you to practice in the Long Building. The Museum is there now, so no one would question your spending a lot of time there. And since everyone else is almost never there I don’t think you’d get caught. Some of the rooms have magic canceling spells, so if you did it right, basically if I risked my neck to help you, I think you could get away with practicing elemental magic without the deans or the professors realizing it.”
I chewed on my lower lip, thinking. Finally, I just said: “Sip, I don’t want you to get in trouble over me.”
Sip waved a careless hand. “If I get in trouble over any of my friends it’s definitely going to be Lisabelle. I’ve made my peace with it and I’ve chosen to put up with her anyway.”
“I love you too,” said Lisabelle.
Lough sat there looking like a lost little puppy who needed someone to say “I love you” to him as well. No one did.
“I have the Museum tomorrow afternoon,” I said. “Dacer will work me hard, and I need to spend the evening studying, but after that might be a good time to starts.”
“I’ll meet you there,” said Sip. We both looked at Lisabelle, who shrugged.
“I’m tutoring,” said Lisabelle. “But I can go
afterwards.”
“Really, who lets you near impressionable minds?” Lough asked.
Lisabelle grinned. “I’m very good at what I do.”
“Oh, I know,” he said, his face becoming red and shiny. Sip leaned over to him and I heard her whisper. “Just don’t look directly at her. That might help.”
He gave a brief nod and took in great gulps of air. Time away from Lisabelle had only increased his attraction to her. Maybe by Christmas he would be able to be in the same room with her without hyperventilating.
But at least she didn’t notice; her head was still firmly stuck in the sand. Quicksand, apparently.
“So, wait, let’s review,” said Sip. “Clarity is key.”
Lisabelle rolled her eyes, but she didn’t interrupt.
“The deans don’t want you to use anything beyond basic elemental magic, because if you dampen your magic now, you’ll be able to do so later if necessary. You want to use advanced elemental magic to protect yourself against future demon attacks, so at designated times you will practice forbidden spells in the Long Building. Yes?”
“Right,” I said. “Makes me sound brave somehow, but I’m not.”
“Sure you are,” said Lisabelle.
“I don’t feel brave,” I muttered.
“Don’t worry,” said Sip. “You’ll be fine.”
Lough stood up and grinned. “Bring on the fall semester.”
“Yeah,” I said glumly, all my excitement from earlier having drained away. “Can’t wait.”
It was getting late. Soon I would need to head back to Astra, so that I wasn’t caught out past curfew.
“Excuse me,” I said, taking a deep breath. “I have to go defy authority. Again.”
“That’s the spirit,” said Lisabelle, pumping her fist in the air.
Lough just looked confused, while Sip said, “Lisabelle, don’t encourage her. I can’t deal with two people who behave like you.”
“Oh please,” said Lisabelle. “There will never be two of me.”
“Life’s little blessings,” Sip murmured.
I glanced outside. There was a clear night sky, with a million stars twinkling against a black backdrop. It was stunningly beautiful, but I couldn’t help but think that somewhere, maybe not very far away, were the Knights of Darkness, drawing ever closer.
Chapter Ten
When I returned to Astra after saying goodnight to my friends, Mrs. Swan greeted me with a cup of hot chocolate to celebrate everyone’s first night back on campus. After that I fell asleep almost instantly and woke up the next morning feeling nothing but excitement at the prospect of my first day of classes as a sophomore at Paranormal Public.
Of all my classes, I was sure that the History of Death with Risper would be the most fascinating, and after that I had the Museum in the afternoon. I hardly had time to worry that Keller had spent his first evening back showing a perky and perfect fallen angel girl around campus while I had plotted ways to break the rules. Nope, I didn’t think about that at all, not even a little bit.
Before classes could even get started, though, the entire school had to meet on the Dash field.
“At least they’re giving us breakfast first,” grumbled Sip. “I get cranky without breakfast.”
We had decided to grab breakfast before the ceremony, though I knew a lot of other students would just roll out of bed and go.
“Why couldn’t they just do this last night?” Lisabelle asked. “It’s too early in the morning to be sitting outside watching poor Starters be nervous.”
“What are you talking about? You love watching people squirm,” accused Sip.
“Tired and hungry and still sharp,” said Lisabelle, condescendingly patting her roommate on the back. “Good for you.”
Sip rolled her eyes. “Someone give me tea. And a mallet.”
After breakfast we made our way to the Dash field. It was definitely the start of fall. The leaves blew across campus in sheets, tumbling end over golden brown end. It felt a little sad to be going back there when there was no more Dash, even though I agreed with the decision to spend the extra time on Tactical. Besides, it was a foregone conclusion that Keller would win Dash if they had it, so who cared anyway, I wondered. Speaking of Keller, I hadn’t seen him in the basement of the library, but he wasn’t much of a morning person so that didn’t necessarily mean anything.
Unlike the new dining hall, the Dash bleachers were filled with students.
“How did they get so many students to turn out for this?” Lough asked, yawning gustily.
“They did what any mature and intelligent adult would do when they wanted something from a bunch of college students that they knew would be unpopular,” said Sip. “They threatened us.”
I saw Vampire Princess Dirr sitting far at the top of the bleachers. She looked a lot like Lanca, small, pale, and stunning, with black hair that cascaded to her waist. She was surrounded by vampires. As a princess she had several bodyguards, and I was glad to see that, even if the image of Lisabelle killing everyone had only been a dream. Lough would say that dreams for paranormals had strange grains of truth to them.
I scanned the rest of the bleachers. It was comforting to see all the familiar faces, bundled up against the chilly fall morning. I saw Keller sitting with his fallen angel friends and waved, glad that Vanni was stuck down on the Dash pitch waiting to be introduced as a Starter. I figured she probably had something impressive planned for her debut, but at least she wasn’t with Keller.
The group of Starters looked a little different this year. There was a high proportion of vampires this semester, because word had spread that after last semester’s attack Public had done everything possible to protect its vampires, and that had led to an influx of applications. There were only a few fallen angels and a handful of Airlee students, but there were a lot of new pixie faces.
“Just what we need,” said Lisabelle, “more pixies.”
I nodded in agreement. Cale, my friend from home, was dating the queen bee of crazy pixies, Camilla Van Rothson. They had been together much longer than any of us had thought they would last, but she had sunk her claws into him and there was no way she was going to let him go without a fight. Now that she was back on campus, I knew he wouldn’t be allowed to even talk to me. I could see him sitting close to the pitch with Camilla and a bunch of other pixies surrounding him. His red hair was windblown and his head was tilted down so that he could listen to his girlfriend chatting into his ear.
The Starters were lined up in a row at one end of the massive field, while the deans and professors sat in a row in front of one set of bleachers. I hadn’t yet seen Professor Korba, the pixie professor, but now I picked him out as he sat sandwiched between the much larger Professor Lambros, also a pixie, and Professor Zervos. Our run-in with him the night before was still fresh in my mind, and being reminded of it cast a shadow over the morning.
Just as we were walking to our seats Professor Zervos turned around. His eyes caught and held mine instantly, burning through me like fire. I didn’t look away and neither did he. Our locked gazes were only broken when Professor Lambros leaned over Professor Korba to say something to Zervos and he was forced to bend his salt and pepper hair to listen to what she said.
So, he still hates me, I thought. At least I can count on some things. Then, catching Professor Dacer’s gaze, I grinned. He had seen the exchange between Professor Zervos and me and was giving me a sympathetic look, and just the sight of him cleared away the shadows again. Today his outfit looked like a painting, as if someone had literally painted a watercolor of a lake with lilies floating on it and printed it onto a suit, right down to his shoes. His hair was styled in an elaborate coif on the top of his head, in an eye-smarting shade of yellow.
“Wow, Dacer has cool hair today, huh?” Sip gushed, plucking thoughtfully at her own short and spiky locks. She was so blond her hair looked almost white. She always talked about dying it crazy colors, but she hadn’t done it yet. Lisabelle h
ad told her that if she didn’t stop talking about it she would do it for her one night while Sip slept, and the werewolf wouldn’t like the results. Sip had countered that if Lisabelle did that she’d dye all Lisabelle’s black dresses pink. Stalemate.
To get to our seats we had to pass the pixies. The second Camilla’s eyes fell on me I knew I was in trouble. She’d gone a whole summer without being able to harass me, so the joy she must have felt at having me back in her clutches must have been overwhelming. Of course, Cale was nowhere to be seen. Camilla was only passive aggressive in front of Cale, instead of just plain nasty and evil.
“Excited for classes to start?” she called out as we got closer. “Lisabelle, planning on killing anyone this semester?”
“Maybe,” said Lisabelle sweetly. “I have a paranormal in mind already.”
“Just take your friends out past the protections. The demons will deal with you worthless lot pretty quickly,” Camilla sneered.
Camilla’s best friend Kia, who sat next to her, gave Lisabelle an innocent look. She said, “I really wouldn’t be surprised if she does kill someone this semester. She has no control. Just a menace, that’s what I say.”
“Thanks for chiming in,” said Sip. “I feel better already.”
Kia’s eyes turned cold and hard. She was small and greener than most pixies, with dark green eyes to match. “I’d be careful if I were you, little werewolf,” said Kia. “You have a lot of promise, but if you let the other Airlees drag you down . . . who knows what will happen.”
Sip stuck her chin out and glared. Through a clenched jaw she said, “Who do you think you’re calling little?”
“Pixies are supposed to be small,” said Camilla smoothly. “Unlike werewolves.” She raked her eyes up and down’s Sip’s short figure. “It’s really sad.”
The only seats left were at the very top of the bleachers, where no one else wanted to climb, and that’s where we headed. I was interested to see the Demonstrations this year. I had a feeling that after everything that had happened with the demons the previous year, all the Starters would be really good.
Elemental Shining (Paranormal Public Series) Page 7
