“I followed you,” said Torace. “I wander around at night sometimes when the vampires won’t see, and I followed you.”
Keegan looked flummoxed.
“Why?” he demanded.
Torace kicked the ground. “You guys seem cool.”
“We aren’t,” said Eighellie.
“Speak for yourself,” said Keegan.
“I wanted to make friends,” said Torace.
“Stalking people isn’t a good way to start,” Eighellie pointed out.
“I know,” said Torace. “That’s why I didn’t say anything.”
Eighellie pulled back a bit and rolled her eyes.
“What did you want?” I asked.
“I wanted you to know that the pond is glowing,” said Torace. “Like I said, I wander around at night, so I see lots of stuff that other students don’t. They think sleeping is more interesting, but it isn’t.”
“I never thought sleeping was interesting, more like necessary and wonderful,” Keegan muttered.
I decided to go with Torace to the pond, while Eighellie went back to Airlee. Keegan turned around at the last minute and went back up the ladder, deciding to stay in the treehouse for the night. He wasn’t a very big fan of Torace in the first place, and I was pretty sure he was angry that Torace knew where the treehouse was. I also suspected that once he had seen how nice Lisabelle’s message looked on the wall, he was excited to add other “art” to the decorations. Staying alone on into the night was a perfect chance to do that.
Torace talked all the way to the pond. He told me about his family and how proud they were that he was attending Public. They all loved elementals, he wanted me to know, and they thought that all darkness contained some light. They wanted him to do some good in the world, and he really hoped he wasn’t annoying me. Through gritted teeth I told him he wasn’t, and gave him a pat on the back.
“Just over here,” he said as we neared the pond, as if I didn’t know where it was. His pale skin reflected the moon and made him look almost ghostlike on the quiet grounds, and when we rounded the last house and the pond was in view he let out a strange noise. It was a little eerie, and anyhow I wasn’t thrilled to be out there in case Fallgrabber or Professor Heather was patrolling. I saw neither of them, but I was so busy looking for other paranormals that I at first I missed the fact that Torace had stopped walking for a split second. When I looked at him, and then at the pond, I realized what was wrong immediately.
“Oh, sorry,” he said. “I guess . . . I don’t know.” The pond wasn’t lit up after all, it was dark like the rest of the landscape. I wasn’t too disappointed; I hadn’t been sure I believed Torace’s story in the first place.
“It’s okay,” I said. “Let’s both go home, okay?”
“Yeah, okay,” he said, hanging his head. “Sorry about that. I was trying to help.”
“Yeah, I know,” I said. There was no way the pond had been lit up. It had sounded silly from the beginning. “No harm done.”
The semester was basically over. The last Cornerstone had been a resounding success, and despite lots of accusations of cheating, our team had won. The Razorhawks had challenged us to a runoff, but President Valedication had declared that time had run out. It was on one of our last mornings at Public before the summer break that everything changed.
Ever since that night at the treehouse, Torace had taken to waving at me, Eighellie, or Keegan whenever he saw us.
“Honestly, why do these students keep thinking we’re friends?” said Keegan.
“I certainly can’t think of a reason,” said Eighellie.
I had gotten accustomed to the fact that the Tabble sometimes printed ridiculous information, but by the end of the semester I thought it could no longer blindside me.
I was wrong.
One day at the end of the semester I came in to breakfast early after not being able to sleep. An unease had settled in my stomach and shoulders, and I was hoping to get rid of it. But when I sat down to read, I was totally unprepared for what I was about to learn.
Death Notice:
It is with profound sadness that we bring you the latest news.
President Sipythia Quest has died. President Quest took over in a tumultuous time for the paranormals. After the Nocturn War was her official start date as president, but long before that she had worked with the Sign of Six to right the wrongs of darkness.
Therefore, it is with deep misgivings that we question her choices in maintaining her closest friendships.
Still, today is not for that. Today is to mourn the loss of a leader, one who sometimes erred, but always believed she was right.
President Quest is survived by five brothers and her parents, as well as various aunts, uncles, and cousins. A state service will be held for her at Paranormal Public in conjunction with the swearing-in ceremony for new professors.
President Quest left no will. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the Paranormal Public Emergency Relief Fund.
My jaw worked, but nothing came out. I couldn’t breathe. I was reading the announcement even while I was convinced that it couldn’t possibly be true. It had to be some kind of nasty joke. Maybe a decoy or a prank.
It hadn’t been written by the Tabble staff, merely reprinted by them. It had been written by the government to announce the death of my sister’s best friend. I felt the world tilting, and I wondered how any other paranormal remained upright.
My thoughts ran the gamut, but kept coming back to Lisabelle. What would she do now?
“I’m sorry,” Keegan said, resting a warm hand on my shoulder. I could feel murmurs throughout the dining hall, and some students were even crying. Others sat quietly, and many faces were closed off. I imagined that those were supporters of Judge Yeast. My eyes flicked to Dobrov, who sat unmoving. Trafton was much the same, except that when my eyes met his he didn’t look away. Instead he slowly stood up and walked over to Dobrov, bending down to say something to the hybrid. Dobrov’s expression didn’t change, but I could tell that what Trafton was saying was important.
“I can’t believe they found out she died and aren’t giving us any information,” said Keegan. “The least they could do is say when.”
I stood up and slowly gathered my tray. I was aware that many of the students in the hall were turning to look at me, but I wasn’t paying them any heed. Charlotte was at home, and I hoped that’s where she had found out about this. I hoped that Lisabelle had told her first. I just wished I had been there.
“Want us to come with you?” Eighellie asked, but I shook my head. This was something I needed to do alone.
“We’ll see you at Astra,” said Keegan.
I knocked on the door to the cottage, but there was no answer. I knocked again, and then I knocked one more time. When there was still no answer, I went around to look in one of the windows, but the curtains were drawn and it didn’t look like there were any lights on.
“She’s not here,” said a voice behind me.
I turned around to find Trafton. He must have finished his conversation with Dobrov and followed right behind me.
“I can see that,” I said. “Where is she?”
Trafton shrugged. “She left. Dobrov said he was taking over her class for the rest of the semester. This was something that was planned, so I would have thought that she had told you.” He was looking at me hard, like I should realize something that I was too dense to know.
“She wouldn’t leave without telling me,” I said.
“Sure she would,” said Trafton. When I started to argue, the dream giver cut me off. “You seem to have forgotten how important you and she are to the paranormals as a whole. Just because you enacted the Power of Five and the Nocturns are defeated doesn’t mean that elementals are in great supply.”
“What does that have to do with this?” I demanded.
“Look, Ricky,” said Trafton, “the fact that the general paranormal population may be confused about how important elementals are
does not mean that all paranormals are confused. The Hunters certainly aren’t.”
“Sip was important too,” I said quietly. “Charlotte knows, right?” I had the horrible thought that she didn’t. When Trafton had first appeared, what went through my mind was that Charlotte had known that Sip was dead and there’d be a big processional here and she’d left anyway. But now I wasn’t so sure.
“She knows,” said Trafton. “And she had her reasons. That, at least, I would think you can appreciate.”
“Wait,” I gasped. “It’s time . . . that’s why she left?” Vaguely, I now remembered Charlotte saying something to me about not finishing out the semester because of timing, but in my selfishness I had brushed it off. Trafton nodded. Oh, boy. Or girl.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
I wanted to be near family, so I went to sit by the pond. Hopefully it wasn’t one of the nights when Torace was wandering around, because I was pretty sure his nervous energy would grate on me, and who knew what I was liable to do in the condition I was in. Options included ignoring him, yelling at him, or dunking his head in the pond. That last one was just a fantasy, of course; I didn’t think I’d actually do it. Then again, there’d never been a death notice about Sip before.
Now that I had read the words, ones I had been half expecting to see for a while, I didn’t know what I should feel. Sip was family. Charlotte was family. And they were both gone. What was I going to do now?
I got comfortable on one of the rocks where the Lightmares had sat to plan out our first Cornerstone. At first it felt cold, but I soon forgot all about my surroundings and lost myself in my thoughts.
The surface of the pond was unmoving. A slight breeze blew, just enough to tease my hair, but the grass and the water stayed motionless.
I don’t know how long I sat there. My mind wandered, but it didn’t settle on anything specific or concrete. Many of the important fights I’d been having that semester, especially the effort to win at Cornerstone, faded into insignificance. What did any of it matter? Somehow Sip, Charlotte, and Lisabelle were desperately important to the paranormal world, and the Hunters had taken a massive hammer and shattered them.
While I stared at the unmoving water, pictures started to form in my mind’s eye: flashes of Lough’s face when he found out about Sip, and thoughts of what he had asked me to do. I imagined Sip’s grieving family reading that Death Notice. I could only hope they’d been warned and hadn’t looked at the Tabble that morning.
Lough hadn’t given me a way to contact him, which was probably smart, but I had wondered what I was going to do if a miracle occurred and I found any of the objects on the Counter Wheel
“Hey!” A voice from behind startled me so much that I nearly toppled over. I glanced over my shoulder to see Averett floating toward me, dressed in her usual black, though with her well-muscled arms covered. For a split second I just saw her as a girl, not as a fighter or a vampire. Suddenly, I liked her immensely.
“How are you?” she asked, settling nearby and giving me a small smile.
“Oh, fine,” I said. “I’m good.”
She looked out over the pond for so long, I wondered if she was ever going to speak. When she did, it wasn’t what I expected.
“Lanca shouldn’t have treated you that way,” she said. “She should know better.”
“She’s upset,” I said, wondering what Averett was getting at. Was she there to ask me about Lough too? I bristled at the thought. I wasn’t going to tell her anything!
“She’s worried about her friend,” I said.
“That’s a constant state for all of us,” she said, sounding a little heartless. “She should get used to it.”
Looking at Averett, all I could think about was Keegan. He had never asked me about her, not once. He hadn’t asked if I liked her or thought she was cute. He hadn’t asked if I would date her if given the chance. I wasn’t sure if it was because Eighellie was wrong (unusual) or if he just didn’t want to know.
I sighed. “I don’t like that she and my sister fight.”
“Of course you don’t,” she acknowledged with a nod of her head. “Who would want the most powerful vampire queen and the last elemental fighting?” I glanced up, ready to correct her on that last elemental part, but she was grinning at me.
“You’re teasing me!” I said accusingly.
“Yes,” she said. “It’s funny. Everyone around here walks around fighting and bickering, and here in our midst is a freaking elemental. They should all have more appreciation, but they don’t.”
“You’re defending me?” I laughed. “We’re college students, cold and calculating every one of us.”
“Actually, for the most part I rather think we’re ruled by our emotions. Did you see the face Candace made when Greek jumped into the pond to help Eighellie?”
To be honest, I hadn’t, and I told her as much. “I was kind of busy looking stupid.”
“True enough,” said Averett. “She looked at Eighellie like she wanted to rip her eyes out and feed them to birds.”
It took me a split second too long to figure out what Averett was getting at, long enough that it annoyed the vampire. She shook her head. “Guys are so dense.”
“Candace has a thing for Greek, sure, every girl does,” I said.
Averett’s face settled into a serious mask, her eyes never leaving my face.
“Not every girl,” she said quietly.
Realization, or what I thought was realization, hit me like a lightning clap. “Greek has a thing for Eighellie?”
Averett shrugged. “That isn’t what I meant. I don’t know who Greek has a thing for. Unlike cool fallen angels who have gone before him, I don’t really believe he’s going to marry outside his type.”
“You think he’s going to marry another fallen angel?” I translated. This relationship stuff was really confusing.
“Yeah, that’s what I think. He's a good boy, and there are none of those reckless undertones that Keller exhibits.”
“He’s not reckless,” I said with feeling. “Did you come out here just to argue with me? It was so peaceful a minute ago.”
I wasn’t trying to be mean, but she should have known better than to insult my family.
Averett gave a gusty sigh and looked out at the water. When she looked back at me her face was closed, like she had decided something, but she couldn’t tell me.
“Sorry, no, that’s not why I came. I don’t think why I came matters so much,” she said.
“Okay,” I said, unsure what else to say.
“It was awfully brave of Keller and your sister to marry each other,” she said with a note of something that sounded a lot like longing.
“They couldn’t not,” I explained.
“Yeah, it was still brave,” she said. “We aren’t all that brave.”
“I’m going to have to be,” I said, shocking myself. It wasn’t as if I spent a lot of time thinking about marriage, especially my own, but then again in the back of my mind I knew there weren’t any more elementals for me to choose from.
Now Averett was grimacing, like she didn't want to say what she had come to say.
She started to float away, a gesture that meant the same as when other paranormals stood up to leave. “Never mind,” she said, her eyes pools of darkness in the night. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Okay,” I said, sad that she was leaving. Her presence was comforting, but I knew I wouldn't miss her terribly. Isn’t that what you needed to say yes to someone? She hadn’t even asked me a question. Confused, I looked out over the water.
“Ricky, when you say that you could end up with anyone, because there aren’t others of your type, do you really mean anyone?” she said.
“I never really thought about limiting myself,” I said. “My sister and Keller found each other. I always just figured I would love someone and it would work.”
“The only thing in this crazy paranormal world that would work easily?” Averett smiled sadly and wave
d goodbye, leaving me deep in thought. She had a point. It had become increasingly clear to me over the semester that Eighellie liked Keegan, and that he had no idea. Eighellie tried to restrain herself, but I could tell that their not being in the relationship she wanted wore on her sometimes, especially when he looked at Averett.
Eventually, coming back to the present, I took in a great gulp of air and released it slowly. Even the vampires weren’t out tonight. Most types had been afraid of reprisals since the attack on Sip, and the vampires were no exception. I had a feeling that the violence was only going to increase around campus for the little time that remained before summer break. Many students were upset and angry, and others liked to place blame. The vampires were an easy target, given all the darkness they carried. They were at Cruor tonight, but their absence made the nighttime campus feel all the more desolate.
The breeze blew again, harder this time. The water started to look a little ruffled, and as I gazed out at it I wished I could see Mom. Yet knew I never would. I wondered what she would think of the essence I had found, a power not even Charlotte possessed. I wondered what it meant for my future, which was still so unclear.
Then my mind went back to the night when Torace had come to find us in Keegan’s tree house, which obviously wasn’t as secret and hidden as we had thought. When Torace said he had seen something glowing in the pond, I rushed to investigate, harboring a vague hope that it would turn out to be some sort of family ghost. When we arrived, there was nothing.
Suddenly, triggered by the memory of that night, a new set of images tumbled though my mind: the photograph that Eighellie had showed me of the designers of the old buildings. They had all been holding cups, but now I realized that they weren’t cups. They were mugs. And now that I thought about it – why I was thinking about it I had no idea – I realized that I had seen that kind of mug somewhere before.
It had been when, at Trafton’s order, we had dredged the pond. Having dug deep in the muck at the bottom of this very pond, Keegan and I had told Trafton that there was nothing of interest down there.
Elemental Fate (Paranormal Public Book 12) Page 20
