“I don’t want to stay here,” he said firmly. “I want to be where you are. Don’t you get it by now?”
I couldn’t stop the tears from coming. Keller would be safer here. I mean, come on. If he was with Cynthia Malle and his parents were happy, who would even try to hurt him? He couldn’t help me with what I had to do. Only Sip and Lisabelle could, and maybe Lough.
I looked at Mr. Erikson, who, except for one outburst, had sat quietly watching the proceedings.
“How do I get home?” I whispered.
“I’ll take her,” said Keller, stepping forward with renewed energy.
“You’ll do no such thing,” his mother hissed, glaring at him. “You are not leaving. How can I get you to understand that?”
I looked at Mrs. Erikson. She might love her son and her family, but she was anything but harmless.
Keller shook his head.
“Fine, mother,” he said. “I’ll do as you ask. I’ll assume the family responsibilities. I’ll even intern under Cynthia Malle, or whatever it is she’s doing here. I’ll even give up Charlotte. But mother, I want you to be very clear -” He met his mother’s eyes for the first time since Cynthia Malle had appeared and I saw his mother shiver a little. I had never seen Keller so cold.
“I’m doing it for Charlotte. Because I love her and she’s asking me. I am not doing it for you. I will never, ever, for as long as I live, forgive you for this. We will see how comforting keeping the family titles and place in paranormal society is after that.”
Her lip was trembling, and I couldn’t believe that Keller had just spoken to his mother that way. His father was about to say something, but Keller held up his hand. “I want a minute alone with Charlotte. It is the least you can do. She will have to carry a message back for me anyway.”
I saw all three paranormal adults hesitate for a split second, but Mr. Erikson quickly stood up. “As you wish,” he said, “just don’t take long.”
Keller gave one curt nod.
Slowly, his family filed out of the room. The pendant Mrs. Keller wore swung loosely around her neck as she glanced around.
She never looked at me.
I had had dreams of how our relationship would go, and now they lay in shattered shards on the plush carpet. I would be returning to Golden Falls and our murder mysteries without my lifeline, and I wondered if I’d even be able to breathe.
I wanted to throw myself at Keller, but I didn’t budge. My feet stayed firmly planted as he looked at me, his eyes filled with loss.
“I’ll see you again,” he croaked. “I promise I won’t let her change me.”
I smiled sadly, knowing that what he said very well might not be true.
“Learn her secrets,” I said, trying to be positive. “Maybe it will help the Sign of Six.”
Keller laughed bitterly. “Maybe. I’d like to see Sip running paranormal defenses. She’ll strike fear into the hearts of the fighters.”
“Hey, the Paranormal Police Academy is doing well,” I whispered. “We might have a chance to hold them off.”
“It won’t matter if we can’t be together,” said Keller. “What’s the point of fighting if I don’t have you?”
I felt the same way, and I had no answer for him.
“I’ll dream you,” I said.
“It will be hard to get anything done when sleeping is better than being awake,” said Keller smiling sadly.
“Keller,” I whispered, rocking a little with the strong emotions coursing through me. “I’m not sure this is right. Even if it keeps us both alive. Are you sure?”
Keller swallowed hard. “It’s okay,” he said hoarsely, “I’ll be sure for the both of us. Trust me.”
I rushed into Keller’s arms and he closed them around my shaking shoulders. I clung to him, fighting the thought that this was the last time we’d hold each other. I felt his warm breath on the back of my neck and I knew that the shakes racking his body were caused by the same thing that caused mine.
The last thing we would do together was to say goodbye.
Chapter Thirty-Four
I felt sick. It had nothing to do with the rocking carriage, the sight of Malle, or my dead friends. My world was falling out from under me and I had no way to stop the descent. I had all the magic in the world, and the very best friendships, and I felt like a hollowed out shell.
I tried to tell myself that it would be okay, that Keller would be okay. He was with his family. How could he be anything other than safe?
I pounded my fists into my lap until I caused bruises and my fingers were numb. I screamed and cried, not caring that the horse pulling my carriage was probably terrified. I slammed my magic out into the ground and through the air and yanked at the clouds. I heard a clap of thunder and saw a flash of lightning.
I didn’t even blame Malle. I knew she was evil. I had seen that she had penetrated to the highest levels of paranormal government when I saw her talking to Caid.
I wondered what my friends would say when they heard she’d been spotted at the Eriksons’.
Lisabelle probably wouldn’t be surprised, but Sip would be furious.
I was glad that Dacer’s mother was at Golden Falls with us, because now we had lost Keller. If the murderer lurking there was a Public student - Faci or Daisy, for example - the more paranormals on our side the better.
I felt lost. It was like reaching for a beautiful gift and being given coal instead. I just wanted to go back to Public, crawl into Astra, and sleep until this was all over.
I got out of the fancy fallen angel carriage long past bedtime. I was a little worried about getting inside, but at this point I wouldn’t have minded curling up on the steps of the school and going to sleep.
As I climbed the stairs, though, the doors swung open. With raised eyebrows I looked at Bartholem.
“How’d you know I’d be coming back?” I asked, obviously not expecting an answer.
The cat merely turned around and raised his tail in the air, and I followed him through the quiet corridors of Golden Falls University.
The semester was almost over and I still had my exam on Monday. How could I be expected to function normally after everything that had happened? The test on the dream Lough and Trafton had woven would be exhausting. I had a feeling we’d be asked difficult questions about the powers we had seen, powers that hadn’t existed in generations.
“What am I going to do, Bartholem?” I asked softly as we reached our almost-empty dorm. I slid inside and glanced at my friends’ beds. Both looked sound asleep, so I went and sat by the stoked fire. It was the only light in the room, given that dark curtains were drawn over the windows.
Bartholem wasted no time jumping up onto my lap as the heat of the flames warmed my crestfallen face.
I sighed and absently petted the cat. I had to think. Malle was trying to throw me off by taking Keller away from me, and yes, his parents might think they were doing right by him, but I knew that Malle was at the heart of this. She always was.
Keller and I would see each other again.
It might take a long time, but we would. Meanwhile, I decided I needed to see Vanni. She knew Keller, and she knew the Eriksons. Maybe she would have some idea of what was going on.
Carefully I placed Bartholem on the chair and made my way back out of the dorm, glancing at my sleeping friends as I passed. They wouldn’t like that I was sneaking around Golden Falls without them, but it couldn’t be helped.
Killing us with kindness, that’s what the Nocturns were doing by holding off from major attacks all this time. I just hoped we could figure out their plan before it was too late.
Vanni was no longer in a cell. After Marcus died and it was clear that she hadn’t been the one killing off Public students - duh - they had put her in the infirmary.
I slipped downstairs to the blue door on the first floor and tapped on it once. I didn’t know what sort of attendants were there.
I held my breath as the door swung open. To my surprise, t
he person behind the door wasn’t any of the Golden Falls professors I had seen and would have to lie to. Instead it was a faery.
He was slight, with large eyes and short white hair. I couldn’t tell how old he was, but he couldn’t be much older than we were.
He held his finger to his lips and looked both ways down the hall.
“Were you followed?” he whispered, his eyes intense. I shook my head. At least I didn’t think I had been.
He nodded once and stood back, opening the door wide. I followed him inside and he quickly closed the door behind him. This faery was not one of the ones we saw at breakfast, and his clothes were in a little better condition. Not much, but a little. But I felt that same twinge of guilt.
Sip, Lisabelle, and I had talked about it. No matter how the faeries acted in front of Golden Falls students, when we left we were going to try and take them with us.
The infirmary was very small. We were in an outer room that was nothing but shelves from floor to ceiling. They held bottles, vials, and jars of strange-colored liquid. It reminded me of the hospital wing we had snuck into. But that night, with Keller still at Golden Falls, now felt like ages ago. I pushed the sadness away and focused on the faery.
“Where is Vanni?” I asked, conscious that it was the middle of the night. The faery pointed to the wall behind me and I spun around.
“I don’t see a door,” I said, getting frantic. “I thought she was alright.”
I glanced around, but the faery was already brushing past me. With a small hand, even smaller than Sip’s, he reached for a black bottle on the third shelf and tugged at it. I heard a grinding noise and the door swung back. For all that this place was supposed to be a school instead of a prison, behind the golden surface it was disturbingly hard to tell the difference.
The faery stood back to reveal another room. This one had three beds. I glanced at him. “What’s your name?” I asked, but he just shook his head. My chest felt tight as I stepped past him and into Vanni’s sick room. She was lying in bed, sound asleep. I felt bad for waking her up in the middle of the night, but I had to talk to her.
“Vanni,” I whispered, reaching out and shaking her shoulder. She was much thinner than she had been before she went to prison. Again I wondered what sort of place this really was.
Vanni’s eyes fluttered open and she looked at me.
“Hi,” I whispered. “It’s me, Charlotte.”
She smiled. “I know who you are,” she said. “Of course.”
“Vanni,” I said, still keeping my voice low, “how are you doing?”
She lifted her shoulders in a small shrug. “I want to come back to my friends, but at least they let me out of the cell. They couldn’t keep me there, thinking that I had actually killed Kia. I mean, it’s crazy.”
“Why did you want to leave so badly?”
Vanni hung her head. Her golden hair was thinner than it had been and there were dark circles under her eyes. Golden Falls didn’t take kindly to violence, that was for sure.
“I want to be at Public,” she said softly. “I don’t care if Golden Falls is this beautiful place where nothing bad ever happens. It’s obviously not even true anyway. One of my friends died and I wanted to go home.” Her lower lip trembled and I instinctively reached out to take her hand.
My heart was aching, and I just kept adding more reasons to be sad.
“We’re all going home soon,” I murmured.
She looked at me hopefully. “Not the ones who died,” she said. Tears spilled out of her eyes. “It took Marcus’s death for them to let me out.”
“They’re getting angry with us,” I said. “They say there has never been so much death in this place before.”
Vanni snorted. She was a frail girl, and her imprisonment had only made that worse. “They think it’s our fault, but it isn’t.” She twisted a frayed end of the blanket between her fingers. “What does Keller say?”
I took a deep breath. She could read in my face that there was something wrong, and she clutched my hand. “Tell me,” she whispered. “I can take it.”
I wasn’t sure that was true, but I admired her bravery.
I told her everything about my encounter with Keller’s parents: how we had thought we were going there to have a nice dinner, where the girlfriend would finally meet the Eriksons, and instead we were ambushed by Malle. I told her how I had left Keller behind.
She reached over and gave me a hug. She could see that I needed it. With my shoulders shaking, I hugged her back.
As it turned out, we had both lost something this semester.
“What do you need from me?” she asked. It surprised me that she was so willing to help.
“I need to know all you can tell me about the Eriksons’ relationship with Malle,” I said. “What are they going to do with Keller?”
Vanni opened and closed her mouth several times before she spoke. “I think Keller will be fine,” she explained. “Mrs. Erikson was always close with Malle, or so my mom said, and Keller is her pride and joy. Malle would never hurt her godson.”
“But where will he be going?” I asked desperately.
“Ah, that I don’t know,” she said. “I suppose if Caid knew where Malle hung out he would have attacked her by now.”
I couldn’t bring myself to tell Vanni that that probably wasn’t true. She would find out soon enough when more paranormals died.
“Won’t this hurt Keller’s reputation?” I asked. “At least among the fallen angels? He’s interning for darkness.”
Vanni gave me a sad look.
“To be honest, Charlotte,” she said, choosing her words carefully, “being with you was probably worse for his reputation.”
It was as if she had slapped me.
“Wh-what do you mean?” I asked, staring at her.
“I mean,” she said, still speaking carefully, “that you’re an elemental who has routinely flouted authority. You hang out with Lisabelle Verlans, who everyone thinks is already on the side of darkness. You’ve seen how the Golden Falls students have treated her.”
“I knew Keller’s parents didn’t want me to date him, but I didn’t know all the fallen angels thought badly of him for it,” I said, my stomach churning. I clutched at it, trying to stop a sick feeling that was buried far deeper than I had known.
Vanni looked at me sadly. “I’m sorry, Charlotte. I know it’s hard, but the fallen angels are prideful. We are filled with the most light.”
“You have a funny way of using it,” I said bitterly.
“War does that to people,” she said. She paused before continuing, then said eagerly, “Do you think I can get out of here soon?”
I gave her a sympathetic look. “Dacer’s mom says tomorrow.”
Vanni noticeably brightened.
“The Unforgiver is here?”
“The huh?” I asked.
Vanni grinned at me. “That’s the first good news I’ve heard since they let me out of prison. Of course, no one has come to talk to me, but that’s still great news.”
I gave her an apologetic look.
“The Unforgiver?” I said skeptically.
Vanni was still grinning. “Maybe the rest of this semester won’t be so bad after all. I’ll let you find out for yourself. Professor Dacer’s mother . . . she’s one of a kind. There are stories of when she was younger. Professor Dacer hasn’t told you any of them?”
“He’s never mentioned her,” I said. Now that Vanni had said it, “The Unforgiver” sounded familiar, but I wasn’t sure from where. Vanni must still be a little addled and she obviously hadn’t seen Dacer’s frail mother.
Vanni lay back on her pillows. She looked even more tired than she had before.
“I’ll get out, and then we can go home,” she murmured. “I can’t wait.”
I forced myself to smile, and then I left to let Vanni sleep, and to get some myself. I had a lot to think about, and I had a bad feeling that in the weeks ahead I would need all the rest I could g
et.
The same sentence just kept playing over and over in my head.
Keller was gone. Keller was gone. Keller was gone.
The faery let me out, giving me a nod. I nodded back. I wanted to tell him that we would try to free him, to get word to his king and queen. I wanted him to know that we didn’t buy into the hype of Golden Falls anymore.
Keller’s gone.
Chapter Thirty-Five
My exam on Monday didn’t go well. I had been paying too much attention to the faeries and the elemental and not enough attention to anything else that was happening in the dream. I could see even as Ferwick looked at our collected exams that he was disappointed.
“How is it that Golden Falls students are so superior to those from Public?” he murmured wonderingly.
I tried not to worry about it. I had decided weeks ago that I wouldn’t agree to become a Golden Falls student for any amount of money. On top of everything else, how they treated Lisabelle was atrocious.
Both my friends hugged me when I told my them about Keller. It was ridiculous that after a weekend like that I had been expected to take an exam. I could barely think straight. When I had been with Keller there was always a sense of calm, as if I could get through my day no matter what because he’d be at the end of it. I didn’t feel that way anymore. I just felt sick and sad and lonely.
After the exam we went back to our dormitory. A couple of the Falls students had tried to talk to me, to give me encouragement, but I didn’t have the energy to talk to them.
Sip and Lisabelle were still furious on my behalf about Keller, and I appreciated their support. In fact, Sip looked like she was going to cry. Lough burst into our room to tell us that Keller hadn’t come back, but when he saw my face he knew I already knew it.
The four of us sat by the fire, with Bartholem to keep us company. His white tail swished calmly back and forth as the light faded over the golden mountain, creating beautiful long shadows.
“I swear, under no circumstances am I leaving Public during our senior year,” said Sip, shaking her head. “No good ever comes of it.”
Elemental Earth (Paranormal Public) Page 21
