All night I had had dark visions of terrible wounds and hoards of demons attacking my friends, just like in the vision I had seen in the mirror my first semester, where the demons swarmed the lone elemental.
Swallowing my fear, I forced myself to wait quietly at the gate. I didn’t care if I was tired for class, and the Museum be damned.
“If you clutch that cup of tea any tighter it will shatter,” Lough observed, not unkindly.
I glanced down at the mug. It was for Sip, and I was keeping it warm with my newfound handle on elemental fire magic.
I chewed my lower lip, unable to keep still. Next to me, Lough shifted nervously.
“What if they’re maimed?” I asked softly. “What if they were attacked and Keller couldn’t heal them all?”
“Keller can’t heal them all. He’s only paranormal, even if a really impressive paranormal,” said Lough with more assurance than I felt. “They’re fine. Lisabelle would never let anything happen to them.”
“It’s not just up to Lisabelle,” I said. “She isn’t all-powerful.”
“Sure I am,” said a dry voice from the mist in front of us. “Where have you been?”
“Lisabelle!” I gasped in relief as the forms of my friends emerged through the mist. They were safe.
Trafton came forward with a blanket and Lisabelle let him drape it around her thin shoulders as he murmured, “Black, just the color you like.” His hands lingered long enough on her that Lough growled, but Lisabelle was too busy talking to Sip about what had happened during the night to notice.
“What was it like?” I asked Lisabelle as Sip walked up to us. At the same moment, I saw Keller coming through toward the end of a line of returning students. He was supporting one of the Starters, an Airlee I didn’t know who looked white and shaky, but was walking out of the woods under his own power. He handed the Starter off to another student and headed in our direction. Our eyes locked and I gave him a small smile. He smiled in return, but before he could get to me Professor Erikson intercepted him. I clenched my teeth in frustration.
He gave me an apologetic look and followed his aunt. I turned back to my friends.
“Sip, are you okay?” I asked. My small friend had obviously spent the night as a werewolf. She looked like her hackles were still raised.
“I like her in werewolf form,” Lisabelle commented. “Quieter.”
“You’re lucky I didn’t bite you,” Sip retorted.
“I’d like to see you try,” said Lisabelle.
Sip turned to me. “I’m fine. It wasn’t that bad. We didn’t even see the demons, so it was mostly just that we were cold and animals were curious. They weren’t used to seeing paranormals in the woods.”
“So, your biggest challenge was a fox?” Trafton asked. “Sounds scary.”
“It wasn’t,” said Lisabelle. “We had plenty of fallen angels and they barely had any work to do.”
“Hopefully we will be so lucky,” said Vanni.
“Since when do you hang out with us?” Lisabelle asked the fallen angel waspishly.
Vanni looked taken aback, but she recovered quickly. “Two of my teammates are here. I’m here in case we need to talk strategy, but I can go. I can see where I’m not welcome.”
“You don’t have to see anything when I tell you flat out that you aren’t welcome,” said Lisabelle. “Shoo.” She made the motion with her hands for emphasis.
Vanni stalked away, but not before giving Lisabelle a venomous look. Ignoring the drama around me I watched Kia hurry up to Cale and Camilla. He had a scrape across his cheek, apparently from running through the woods playing tag football, but Kia acted like they were both near death, clutching at them and cooing.
“Kia goes in tonight,” said Lisabelle. “If we get lucky, maybe the demons will come out for her.”
“Not likely,” said Sip. “They aren’t fans of dealing with pixies.”
“No one is,” said Lisabelle. “Little monsters.”
“Do we have any practice to do for Thursday?” asked Ulrik, strolling up out of the mist.
“We’re going to practice tonight and tomorrow,” Lough confirmed. “In the library. Just because other teams haven’t had problems doesn’t mean we won’t.”
Ulrik’s eyes were serious. He was smart and for all he hated me he worked hard. He had more raw talent than skill at this point, but it was already obvious that he would make a great fighter when he was older. It just stung that he wasn’t a great fighter now, when we needed him to be.
“Come on,” Lisabelle said, slinging her arm around Sip. “Let’s go back to Airlee. I’m exhausted and I smell terrible.”
I trailed after my friends, deep in thought. After all that worrying they had come out of the forest completely unscathed. I just hoped that when my group came out Friday morning we could say the same. However, all signs pointed to the likelihood that we weren’t going to be that lucky.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“We need to practice,” Dobrov said to me while I was busy eating my dinner that night.
“Practice what?” Sip asked. I hadn’t told my friend what we were planning to do to stay safe the night of the Tactical Trial, mostly because I felt sure she would try to talk me out of it.
“Okay,” I said. “Meet upstairs in half an hour.” Dobrov gave a curt nod and hurried back to where he sat with his sister. They had a table to themselves. None of the other students at Public had gotten used to their burned skin look.
“Practice what?” Sip asked again.
“We’ll tell you after we pull it off,” said Lough through a mouth full of broccoli. Sip always made him eat his vegetables. He had threatened numerous times not to sit with us anymore, but hadn’t acted on it yet.
“Leave them alone,” said Lisabelle. “Let them plot something.”
“I just can’t believe you had it so easy in the forest,” said Lough. “And if it was that easy, why has Professor Erikson not let Keller out of her sight since?”
It was true. I still hadn’t had a chance to talk to Keller, because he had spent the whole day with his aunt. I was growing more angry by the minute. At least I knew he would come to Astra tonight and we could talk then. But I felt impatient and irritable just the same.
“Are you going to want to visit the Long Building before Thursday?” Sip asked. I was still going to the Long Building whenever I could. Even though it terrified me, I refused to be scared away, either by the Shadow or by whatever inhabited the catacombs.
“Yeah,” I said. “After we meet for Tactical practice.”
“Charlotte and Lisabelle, may I have a word?” Jenkins asked, walking up to our table.
I looked up into the professor’s eyes. He had spent the entire semester teaching A History of Death in place of Risper, and now I exchanged looks with my darkness friend, knowing she’d be wondering, as I was, what he wanted with the two of us in particular. His voice was a little strained, but he had his usual smile firmly in place.
“Sure,” said Lisabelle. “Is my uncle alright?”
“As far as I know,” said Jenkins, nodding.
When Lisabelle, Sip, and I stood up, Professor Jenkins gave us a questioning look. “I do not believe I invited you, Ms. Quest.”
“She thinks her name is Charlotte-Lisabelle,” said Lough. “I’d get used to the three of them running in a pack if I were you.”
Jenkins glanced down at the dream giver but said to me, “I see you have many friends who do not know their place. That might serve you well in the long run—or not,” he mused as the three of us followed him out of the dining hall.
“It’s a pretty nice setup for a place to eat,” Jenkins commented as he led us upstairs. “I hope they keep it.”
I had to agree with him. The library basement was supposed to be a temporary place for our dining hall, but I had grown to like it.
“Just where do you think you’re going?” Zervos sneered, blocking our path toward the second floor of the library, which seeme
d to be where we were heading. Jenkins pulled up short; his eyes were suddenly wary.
“I had something to discuss with my students,” said Jenkins frostily. “What’s it to you?”
“You were going to give them secrets of Tactical,” Zervos spat. “And as the professor in charge of running Tactical, I forbid it.”
Jenkins’s face split into a scowl as he glared at the vampire. “I was about to do no such thing. How dare you accuse me of such a breach of the rules?”
“These three are known troublemakers,” said Zervos, waving his hand to take in all of us.
Lisabelle feigned surprise, then broke into a grin. Sip rolled her eyes and muttered, “If you get us in trouble the day we come out of the woods I’ll turn your bedspread purple.” Lisabelle’s smile disappeared.
“You think because you’re lifelong friends with a dean you don’t have to follow the rules,” Zervos accused, his face turning red as he glared at Jenkins.
“I was doing no such thing,” repeated Jenkins, settling into a calm exterior while his eyes remained steely. “I was simply going to discuss next week’s final with several of my students who had questions.”
I didn’t move, but I could tell Jenkins was lying. All semester he had barely bothered to say anything to us about class, now suddenly he was going to?
Zervos folded his arms over his chest and waited, but Jenkins wasn’t having it.
“I’m very sorry,” said the History of Death teacher, “but I must insist that you allow me to speak to the students in private.”
For a second Zervos merely stood there, his eyes snapping in fury, then, with a scoff, he turned and stormed off.
“What is it you wanted to say?” asked Lisabelle, once we had arrived on the second floor of the library without further incident. Even after the confrontation with Zervos Jenkins looked entirely unruffled. It was like nothing could upset him.
“I have a note from your uncle,” he said. “It addresses Ms. Rollins as well, so I thought she’d better come along to read it too. Ms. Quest was not addressed, so I did not see the need for her to attend. Luckily, Ms. Quest knows better than a professor with years of experience.” He gave a lop-sided smile. “Risper asked me to pass it along.”
“It’s okay,” said Sip, her purple eyes sparkling. “My friends would tell me what it said anyway.”
“Undoubtedly,” said Jenkins dryly. “Here it is. I suggest that once you finish reading it, you burn it. I hear you have an elemental with an increasingly good grasp of fire magic.”
He winked at me and wandered back downstairs.
“Dear Belle,” the letter began.
“I write to you from an undisclosed location. I am hot on Elam’s trail. I believe I am the closest I have ever been to catching him. In the process, I have realized a couple of things that I want to convey to you as quickly as possible. First, Elam is after a series of objects, known as the Wheel of Power. They are hidden in various places around the world. He is slowly collecting them, and once he has them his power will increase exponentially. Charlotte is in possession of one of the objects, whether she knows it or not. The mirror that lies in the ballroom of Astra is the one in the series of six. She must protect it at all costs. I might recommend that she even remove it from Astra to a safer location. Second, Charlotte shouldn’t listen to Mound. It’s all pixie wash, and when she performs the Power of Five during the Tactical Trial she will prove just how capable she is of protecting her fellow paranormals. Lastly, dear niece, we may have had our differences, but I would like to make it clear that no matter what happens to me, no matter what you hear and no matter what has been said in the past, I am always in your corner, fighting for the Verlanses. Give your mother my love, Uncle Risper.”
“Wow,” said Sip. “I think we all know the most fantastical bit of that letter. He calls you BELLE!”
“Yes, well, he’s bigger than I am,” said Lisabelle. “You are not.”
“He thinks the mirror is one of the series of objects that Elam is after? He thinks Elam is coming to Public for it?”
“Maybe the Shadow is Elam,” Lisabelle mused. “It would almost make sense.”
“I don’t want Elam to be the Shadow,” said Sip, frowning.
“Why not?” Lisabelle asked.
“Because we don’t know who either of them are,” said Sip. “It doesn’t get us anywhere.”
“It lessens the number of paranormals we have to find and we know stuff about the Shadow,” I said, getting excited. “We know that he isn’t entirely human and that he is conflicted about whether or not to kill me, which most paranormals can’t say, and he knows his way around Astra.”
“They have similar patterns,” Lisabelle added.
Distantly, I heard the chime of the library clock, telling me how late it was getting.
“I have to get to practice,” I said, frustrated. “We’ll figure out more of this later.”
I left my two friends discussing Elam and the Shadow. I had to see my team and then I had to get to the Long Building. I wanted a little more practice on my suffocating technique before I went into the forest. I had a feeling I might need it.
Practice went better than I could have hoped. We agreed that we shouldn’t try to enact the Power of Five until we were in the woods, because the deans would sense it and get angry with us before we even had a chance to use it to defend ourselves. Besides, lightning doesn’t strike twice and this was definitely lightning. We didn’t dare waste it.
We mostly practiced other defensive moves in the quiet room, our feet padding softly on the heavy green carpet. Ulrik was the most worried about pulling it off. He wasn’t confident in anything I was involved in. Dobrov finally put his hands on Ulrik and told him to shut up. Ulrik was so disturbed that Dobrov had touched him that he complied with the command.
Ulrik barely spoke to me and never looked at me. It made me nervous. We needed him if we were going to enact the Powers, and I had a feeling he was going to be difficult about it. Then, right before we finished practicing for the night the thick door to the library study room banged open and Daisy stood there, glaring at each of us in turn except her brother, who studied the floor as usual. Her red skin had a shiny look under the glare of the library lights.
She marched up to Ulrik, and in the only move she would ever make that reminded me of Lisabelle she stood on tiptoe and said, “You will enact The Power or I will know why, and trust me, pixie, you do not want me to have to ask why.”
She spat out the word pixie as her eyes shot flames at the small, green guy in front of her. He tried to stare her down, but it was hard to be more intimidating than someone with boiled skin. He quickly realized that it was a losing cause and gave an audible swallow.
“Fine,” he gritted, taking a step back. “Whatever. I don’t want to die either.”
“Yeah,” said Daisy quietly. “You would do well to remember that.”
After practice I went back to Astra and tried to decide where to hide the mirror. If Risper said I should move it, then I was obviously going to move it. At first I thought to put it in the Long Building, but I decided against that pretty quickly. There was a very real possibility that the Shadow lived in the Long Building and I would be taking the mirror right to him. Then I decided to hide the mirror in plain sight. I almost took it out of Astra, but when it came right down to it I realized I couldn’t. The mirror belonged in the ballroom and I was going to leave it there.
Steeling myself to touch it, I picked it up—and nothing happened. No plume of smoke burst before my eyes, and I was able to carry it to the opposite wall as if it was the most ordinary of objects. I almost couldn’t contain my relief.
I went to one of the great pictures hanging on the wall, behind which was just enough space to stash the mirror. Now, to anyone looking for it, it would appear that I had moved it, but it was in actual fact only feet from where it had lain for years.
My task accomplished, the usual questions danced once more through my mind
. Who was Elam? Who was the Shadow? Where was the Map? Was it all connected or were there totally separate stories getting all mixed together here?
I had no answers.
Wednesday I spent the day with Keller. He met me after my Museum class, in which Dacer spent most of the morning ranting about Dove and how dare he put me at risk by sending me outside the walls. Dacer also offered to fight a duel for me, swallow fire (not sure how that applied), and sneak into the woods to rescue me. I wanted to tell him that I would be alright, that my group had a plan, but in the end I didn’t say anything. The fewer paranormals who knew what we were going to try, the better.
“How are you holding up?” Keller asked as we left the Long Building. There were dark circles under his eyes and I knew he hadn’t slept well. He claimed it was because he was worried about finals, but at practice Vanni had said that he was worried about our group. Every time he saw her around Aurum, apparently, he wanted to talk about healing spells and medicines. He gave her jars and herbs and anything else he thought she might need. He wanted to make sure that if one of our team got hurt she could heal us. He drilled it into her head that there was no one else to do it until she yelled at him. She told me all of this in a small voice. I knew it bothered her that we were together, but I couldn’t imagine my life any other way.
“I’m good,” I said, shrugging. “I have no choice but to be good, right?”
Keller made a face. He reached across his body with his right hand, until he held my right hand in his. He slung his left arm over my shoulders and smiled reassuringly. “With me you can be whatever you need to be,” he murmured. “That’s what I’m here for. I don’t want you to pretend to be strong for me. I can take the burden for both of us. LET me take the burden for both of us.”
Normally I hated doing that, but I was too tired. I dropped my head onto his shoulder and gave a long sigh.
“Where do you want to go?” he murmured, rubbing his fingers over my hand.
Elemental Shining (Paranormal Public Series) Page 22
