Elemental Shining (Paranormal Public Series)

by Maddy Edwards

  “What is that?” I managed to ask as my eyes started to water. I reached up to rub them and realized that my hands were covered in cold black dirt. I must have been digging my hands into the earth.

  “It’s Lough’s dream,” Dobrov said. “It’s the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.” I thought that was stretching it a bit, but I was too cold and stiff to care. Someone, probably Dobrov, had covered me with a blanket.

  “Lough, it’s amazing, and I’ll be fine. Just a little lightheaded.”

  “That’s what happens when you empty your mind of power,” said Dobrov. “Have you not practiced this?”

  I shook my head. “I didn’t want the senior paranormals to notice that I was messing with my signal since they told me not to. They just ordered me not to use magic and didn’t bother to explain anything. Besides, I like having my power on hand.”

  Lough got up to examine his creation. He moved slowly, but at least he could move. I pulled the blanket more tightly around myself. I wasn’t sure I could withstand not having my power coursing through me much longer.

  “I did pretty well, huh?” he said proudly, his nose so close to the bubble he had created over us that his hair was starting to stand on end.

  “Now what do we do?” I asked. My voice echoed through the small clearing, reminding me how alone we were.

  “Now we wait,” said Lough, “and hope they don’t find us.”

  “Excellent plan,” said Ulrik dryly. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

  “Do you have a better suggestion?” Lough demanded. Ulrik didn’t.

  By now the wind had started to pick up, throwing the tree branches around violently. Lough came and crouched next to me, putting his arm across my shaking shoulders as I fought to stay warm. Neither of us said a word. We merely sat there and for once prayed for time to speed up. The minutes dragged into an hour and my eyes started to close.

  I had never been one to stay up all night. I preferred to get my school work done during the day, and since parties at Public were strictly regulated, fun didn’t often get in the way of sleeping. Besides, not much could get past Mrs. Swan. I knew, because Lisabelle had tried; only Keller had occasionally managed it. So now, without any practice at staying awake through the night, I was having a hard time.

  Vanni was huddled next to Ulrik. His giving her a blanket had totally endeared him to the frightened fallen angel.

  Dobrov stood alone. His hands were in his pockets as he faced away from us and toward the woods, just close enough to Lough’s dream that it cast shadows over his shoulders and neck.

  “Lough,” I whispered. “I’m tired.”

  He nodded. His eyes were drooping. “I am too,” he said, yawning. “It must be all the stress of getting us out here.”

  “Maybe we could just sleep for a few minutes,” I murmured. Already my head was resting on his shoulder, too heavy to lift.

  “Don’t you DARE,” said Vanni, her eyes sparking.

  “Oh, so you are alive,” said Dobrov dryly. “Who knew.”

  “Listen Mr. I Just Decided To Talk Now That We’re Stuck in the Wilderness Together,” Vanni seethed. “Shut up.”

  “Kind of childish,” said Dobrov, “but I’d rather have you not scared and talking than scared and not talking. Hard as that might be to believe.”

  Vanni picked up a pebble and threw it at the vampire. He didn’t have to dodge, it missed by such a wide margin.

  “Enough,” said Ulrik. “You want the demons to hear you?”

  “Vanni’s not exactly strong enough to attract demon attention,” said Dobrov.

  Since he was in the mood to talk for once, I decided to go for it. “What do you mean ‘strong enough’?”

  Dobrov fixed me with an unreadable look. “It amazes me that you haven’t seen it before or that no one has told you before, although I would imagine that your friends must have noticed.”

  “Noticed what?” Lough asked drowsily. He covered a yawn with the back of his hand.

  “That she is strong,” said Dobrov, pointing to me.

  I stared at him, huddling further into myself as the cold bit into my skin. “I don’t get it. I am not.”

  Dobrov sighed gustily, like he was talking to idiots. “It isn’t JUST that you’re elemental. Yes, obviously that’s the basis of it. But they aren’t going after Keller, and he is head and shoulders more powerful than the other paranormals here.”

  Dobrov paused to consider his words carefully, then continued. “But it isn’t just that. You are STRONG. That’s why they fear you. Other elementals they could have given up. They could have gone into hiding or run crying to their mommies and daddies and whoever else they thought would protect them. If they thought their lives were at risk they would run away.

  “But then there’s you. Your life IS at risk. Not only that, but the deans charged with protecting you are doing a pretty terrible job. The best they can do is tell you not to use magic and then send you into the middle of a pack of demons? And yet, what do you do? You sit there and you glare and you wait for the demons. You sneak away whenever you get the chance to practice how to fight. You don’t want the battle, but if it wants you, you’ll make damn sure you win it. What is that other than strength?”

  “That’s all very well and good,” I said, yawning. “But what does that have to do with anything?”

  “What I’m saying is that the demons wouldn’t care so much if you had just submitted to fear. If they were dealing with an elemental who didn’t dare act against them, then, well, whoopie.” His voice lowered, grew more intense. “You, though, come to Public and spend your life studying and it’s for one purpose, to make them pay. Strong.”

  His eyes were shining now, as he looked at me with satisfaction. It amazed me to know that they were shining because of me.

  Too tired to sort it through very carefully, all I could say was, “Thanks Dobrov. I guess that’s a compliment. I am reckless with my own life and can’t think of anything better to do than kill. Awesome.”

  “You don’t choose to kill,” Dobrov corrected. “You are forced into it.”

  I nodded, too tired to say anything more, and a snore next to me drew my attention to Lough. “You’re sleeping?” I murmured, as if it weren’t obvious.

  My head felt funny and heavy, like it was a great weight on top of my shoulders. I didn’t realize until it was too late that I, and obviously Lough, had been drugged. My head was already falling toward my chest; I was unable to hold it up any longer. I tried to cry out to Dobrov, to tell him to do something, but I my eyes were closed and I couldn’t stay awake anymore.

  I heard more than saw Dobrov dart forward, letting out a panicked cry, as I fell into an unnatural sleep.

  Clever demons.

  Chapter Thirty

  The sun was shining in my eyes. Flinching away, I lifted my hand to shield myself from the glare, but the sun was too bright. Focusing on the light burned away the cobwebs in my mind, and suddenly there was my magic, greeting the light like an old friend. I felt for my ring and was relieved at the warm pulse under my fingertips.

  Calm down, I thought. This won’t get us anywhere.

  “Charlotte?” a female voice asked me. The voice wasn’t warm. It was shaking and scared and very familiar.

  “Vanni? What are you doing in my dream?”

  “You aren’t dreaming,” she sobbed. “You have to open your eyes.”

  “But it’s cold in the woods,” I murmured. “And it’s warm here.”

  “It’s warm everywhere now,” said Vanni. She took my hand in hers and the sunlight intensified. “Believe me.”

  Vanni was the sunlight, or rather the sunlight was Vanni’s magic. She had been forced to save me, but from what I didn’t know. I opened my eyes and gasped. Lough’s dream, that had floated around us like a protective shell, was now blazing with gold.

  Next to me, Lough still slept, while Vanni continued to hold onto my hand.

  “Wake him up!” I cried, scramblin
g into a sitting position.

  “I can’t!” Vanni said, patting my hand pathetically. “I’m not strong enough to do both of you and Dobrov said I had to help you.”

  “Where is Dobrov?” I asked, looking around. I didn’t see either him or Ulrik in the light cast by Vanni’s magic running through Lough’s.

  “They went outside the shell,” she said. “They heard yelling and went to see what was happening. They wanted to find the source of whatever put you and Lough to sleep.”

  I went cold. “But if they leave we can’t enact the Power of Five!”

  “It’s okay,” said Vanni. “I’m sure they’ll be right back.”

  “Not if they’re dead,” I said frantically. “Vanni, you have to wake him up.” I pointed to Lough, who was slumped over on his side. He had curled his hands under his head and appeared to be sleeping soundly.

  “I CAN’T,” she cried, pushing away from me and getting to her feet. “I’m not strong enough.”

  “I’ll give you some of my power,” I said. “I did it with Lisabelle last semester.” I reached for her pale hands, but she shrank away from me like I was diseased. “No, that’s not how magic works. You and Lisabelle shouldn’t have been able to do that. It’s deranged.”

  I glared at the Starter, trying to have sympathy for how scared she must be, but I was all too aware of what was going on around me.

  “Just let me try,” I said, holding out my hands and pleading. She stared at my hands as long seconds ticked past. I wanted to grab her and shake her and make her understand that this was our lives, definitely Lough’s life, but I didn’t. She had to come to that realization herself or the transfer of power would never work.

  “Okay,” she said at last, swiping at a tear that was trickling down her cheek. “I’ll try.”

  Without giving her a chance to change her mind, I scooted forward and clasped her clammy hands in mine. The metal of our rings shone as I held on tightly, and I was comforted merely by seeing the rainbow of colors flaring in mine.

  Vanni closed her eyes. “What do I do?” she asked.

  “Nothing,” I said. “I’ll do it.”

  I tried to remember what I had done with Lisabelle last semester. She had needed power and I had taken her hand and given it to her. At least, that’s what I had thought I had done. Dacer had said he wanted to talk about it at some point, but we had not gotten around to it yet.

  This time, no matter how hard I tried, by either just relaxing back and trying to let the magic flow or by ordering it to travel into Vanni, it wouldn’t work. No magic moved between us. Finally, after several attempts, I gave up. Opening my eyes I stared at Vanni. She was sweating, and if anything she looked more upset than before.

  “I told you,” she said. “The idea of magical transference is insane.”

  “It wasn’t when Lough’s life was in danger and Lisabelle was there,” I said, flinching the second it was out of my mouth and I saw pain flash through the young fallen angel’s eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply that you weren’t a good fallen angel.”

  Vanni shrugged. “I’m not worried. I know Lisabelle is an exceptional mage. Everyone says so.”

  I nodded in agreement. She was, and at this moment I wished she were here. Even if she couldn’t heal, I had come to rely on the crackle of power that her presence always brought with it. Having a freaked out Starter was just not the same.

  “Now what?” Vanni asked quietly.

  “How is Lough keeping his dream going if he’s really asleep?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” said Vanni, looking at the ground.

  I frowned. I was missing something here. Surely I should be able to awaken Lough; he wasn’t injured and he didn’t need to be healed. Whatever had put him to sleep hadn’t harmed him. Yet.

  I started to push myself to my feet and felt my hands creak and start to ache. They felt stiff and brittle, as if I had been clutching something too tightly for too long. If I had thought I was in pain before, when I had dampened my magic, it was nothing to the throbbing that now coursed through my body.

  “What are you going to do?” Vanni asked in a shaky voice.

  “I’m going to wake him up,” I said grimly. For some reason, what Dobrov had just said flashed through my mind. “You’re strong. That’s why the demons are afraid of you and want you dead. You’re strong.”

  I had never thought of myself as strong. Or brave. But I wanted to be. And maybe that was all that mattered.

  Gritting my teeth, I did exactly what I had done last semester, I shoved my hands into the shell around us. Unlike when I gave my power to the force field around Public, this time I was trying to connect with Lough’s magic, asking him to wake up, to show him the way back to us from whatever dark place he had gone to.

  “No, don’t, you might break the spell,” Vanni yelled when she realized what I was going to do.

  “Vanni,” I spun around, losing patience. “Do you not see what’s around us? We are screwed. We can’t enact the Power of Five and this place is lit up like high noon. The demons, if they’re going to come, are going to come soon. I’m surprised they aren’t here already! And here I am with a crying Starter who doesn’t yet know what she’s doing. Our only chance is to WAKE LOUGH UP! Besides, he’d be really mad if he missed a good fight.”

  Vanni was so taken aback that she closed her mouth and sank down to sit on her heels, watching me. “Do what you have to do,” she murmured.

  I nodded curtly and turned back to Lough’s dream. Reaching out, I carefully touched the dark patterns with my fingertips.

  Without warning, Keller’s face appeared before my eyes. Remembering him caused an ache in the pit of my stomach and made me even more determined to make it through tonight, not just because of Ricky but because of Keller, too.

  A conversation we had had the night before flashed in my mind. I had been worried that I wouldn’t come out of this night in the woods alive, and he had pulled me close and said something I was sure I would never forget:

  “You remember how you said you don’t know what you would do without me?” he asked quietly. I tried to smile through the tears, but it was hard.

  “Yes,” I murmured.

  “Well,” he said, “I feel the same way about you. It doesn’t matter if we’ve hung out all day and then you leave to hang out with your two crazy friends, or if we’ve been busy and haven’t had a chance to hang out until evening. It doesn’t matter. The second I see you I smile. I relax. I’m better knowing you’re with me. Simple as that. When I do something good it’s because I want to impress you and I want you to be proud to be with me. When I do something stupid I think about how you—and Lisabelle and Sip—would tell me how stupid it is and to stop it. It’s always you.

  “My aunt wants me to break up with you, because of the family’s position and honor. She thinks my choosing to be with you shames the name of Erikson in the house of the Silver Angels. What she doesn’t understand is that it’s not a choice. I’m not ashamed of you in the first place, but it’s more than that. If I weren’t with you I wouldn’t be as good as I am, and that too would shame the family. We all need our support systems, our motivation for getting up every day and trying our best. You are mine. Always.”

  “Wake up, Lough,” I murmured, coming back to the present and feeling his dream sink into my skin. Lough had decided we were on a sunny beach, basking in the glow of the sun and away from the winter cold, next to water so clear I could count the pebbles in the ocean, which sparkled in the bright light of day. I was reminded of Vanni’s magic and how warm it was. Lough had masked us with a beautiful dream, but unfortunately that’s all it was. Reality is always harder than imagination. Luckily, no one says we have to pay rent to one and not the other.

  “Wake up, Lough,” I commanded again, this time putting my elemental force behind the order. Raging fire, rolling earth, raining water, and roaring wind.

  “Wake up, Lough. Wake up, Lough. Wake up, Lough.” I could feel h
is dream shake and hold. “Wake up, Lough. Wake up.” I had to collapse the dream. We had gone to sleep when he wove it. “Wake up.”

  “Charlotte?” I heard his voice behind me and pulled my hand away. Now all I saw was Vanni’s healing power woven around us. Lough’s dream was gone.

  “I failed,” said Lough miserably, sitting up and rubbing his head. His voice was thick and slow, like he had not used it in a long time.

  “No,” I said, going to him. “The demons were simply ready for you. We are only students, after all, and they were prepared. Don’t feel bad.”

  Lough didn’t have a chance to respond, because at that moment I felt the rushing of stench-filled air on my face and heard the thick crashing of branches through the woods as someone, or several someones, ran toward us.

  At first I couldn’t see anything, but Vanni’s healing spell, which had only been there to help Lough’s dream, was dissolving quickly. I yelled at her to keep it up, even if it would only hide us a little bit, but she was so petrified she wasn’t even moving, let alone performing magic. Her ring, shining a moment before, started to dim.

  Without a barrier between us it was easy to see Ulrik and Dobrov running for their lives. Ulrik was graceful, most pixies were, and he almost flew through the air toward us as if he had been born to it. Dobrov was a different story. He clearly did not run much, and now he hurried forward clumsily. Amazingly, though, he wasn’t slow. In fact, he was ahead of the pixie.

  “Get your back to the rock,” Lough ordered, suddenly taking charge. Lough was surprisingly good in a crisis; his calm and kind exterior belied a will of steel.

  I did as he ordered, knowing it would make almost no difference. Chasing behind the two boys was a sea of black.

  The demons had found us.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  “Well, that’s bad,” said Lough, his eyes bulging. Demons were everywhere, coming in one massive wave behind my teammates. We didn’t stand a chance.