“Do you know anyone else here?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Many of the vampires I’ve grown up with. A few of my friends are here, but I’d like to be making new ones. The paranormals would be better off if we could all get along, that’s what I believe,” she said.
“Easier said than done,” I muttered.
“We’re getting along. I’m sure it’s improving,” she said.
“I’m an elemental, so it’s easier for me. Everyone knows I don’t have other elementals around to even talk to, never mind be friends with,” I said.
Our conversation was short, because getting back to my dorm was a short walk.
Ostelle and Averett were waiting together on the steps of Astra.
“You’re so popular,” said Beatrice when she noticed them.
I couldn’t help but note that her eyes skated over Averett quickly. Even if the vampire wasn’t one of her friends, they might still have known each other for a long time. I’d have to ask Averett.
“This is Astra, anyway. It was nice to meet you,” I told her, squinting up at my imposing dorm with the five towers.
Ostelle and Averett were coming toward us, Ostelle actually looking more wary than Averett, probably because the darkness mage didn’t know Beatrice.
And didn’t like anyone.
“I must be off. More exploring to do while the weather’s still good,” said Beatrice in a cheery voice.
I glanced around at the darkness and the rain. The vampire started to float away, but not before waving at Averett.
The Rapier vampire simply glared in her direction.
When my two friends reached me, Beatrice was already gone down the path.
“Don’t you have enough female friends?” Ostelle demanded.
“Clearly,” I said.
“Right. You’re our friend. And don’t you forget it,” said Averett.
“How could I possibly be so lucky?” I said.
“We’re still trying to figure that out too,” said Ostelle.
As they walked me to the door of Astra, I had the distinct impression that they were determined not to let me out of view until I was safely inside.
Maybe someday they’d realize that I could take care of myself.
Then again, maybe not.
Light rain had turned into a gray morning, with thick fog sweeping over campus. The buildings I had been walking amidst the night before were visible only as hazy black lines. From the Astra kitchen I considered just staying in today. We’d be getting our class schedules, but I wasn’t sure there was anything useful to do after that.
Tomorrow, classes would begin.
I had yet to see Keegan, since he hadn’t managed to join Lisabelle and me.
Probably just as well given how bloodthirsty the darkness premier was these days.
The Tabble had appeared on the island overnight. It sported a headline about President Yeast, who was almost finished forming a new High Council. Queen Lanca was on it, and President Yeast was looking forward to working with other paranormal types toward a better future. The usual nonsense, I supposed.
The only other interesting article was about pixies in the forest. It reminded me that there had been no sign of Camilla Van Rothson since she’d disappeared from her sentencing. She wasn’t mentioned in the article, but as I often did, I wondered if she’d found her way to the Hunters by now.
Maybe Cale was still looking for her too. Either way, I had a feeling we hadn’t seen the last of her. She was biding her time until she had a chance to do something nasty, of that much I was certain.
A pounding knock on the door of Astra startled me, but before I could even set my coffee down the door swung open and Keegan yelled, “Ricky?”
“Kitchen!” I yelled back, smiling at the clomping step of my friend.
“There you are. How was the crazy princess known as Lisabelle?” Keegan asked, grabbing a scone from the plate on the counter.
“She’s trying to find out what happened to Sip. Her grief has changed to rage. I guess it’s a new stage,” I said.
“How long do you think it’ll last?” Keegan asked.
“It’ll probably be the longest stage,” I said.
“Years, then,” Keegan confirmed.
“She’s going to a Hunter party. I don’t know where or when. She didn’t want me to know about it,” I said.
“They have parties?” Keegan’s brow furrowed. “Why don’t we have parties? We’re the good paranormals.”
“Maybe we’ll have a party someday,” I said.
“I could host something at the tree house,” said Keegan. “Might not be the best time of year to climb up a steep ladder, but oh well.”
Another knock took me to the front hall, but all I found when I opened the door was a pair of drifting sheets of paper, one for me and one for Keegan. Eighellie showed up not long after clutching her own class schedule as if it were gold.
“This will help prepare me to kill my enemies,” she explained when I raised my eyebrows.
“Also help you keep busy with all the busywork,” Keegan added.
We sat in the fire lounge and read our schedules. Classes for the semester were as follows:
Advanced Pixie Trajectory, with Korba;
Death-Defying and Deadly Webs of Curses, with Zervos;
Reading Terrain: the Lost Art of Actually Being Capable, by Professor Penny;
Murderous Artifacts, with Rake.
We were all happy about the classes with Rake and Korba, but otherwise I wasn’t certain what to make of the schedule.
Trafton was gone, and we were mercifully spared Professor Heather this semester. If we had any luck, she’d follow Trafton and leave campus before we actually had to deal with her again.
“This is going to be interesting,” said Keegan. “What do you think Korba is doing trying to teach us about pixie fighting?”
“He knows that a lot of pixies are opposed to the paranormals,” said Eighellie, flipping her straight blond hair over her shoulder. “They’re on the Hunters’ side, at least most of them are. He’s been a professor here for a long time. I’m not surprised he’s trying to teach us something useful instead of some boring theory or something having nothing to do with battle or fighting. The trouble is, we spend all of our time with battles and fighting.”
“Maybe Murderous Artifacts will lead us to new ways to fight Hunters. Do you think that’s what Rake wants?” said Keegan.
“He wants us to know what the Hunters have against us. They’re the ones with all the artifact power,” I said.
“And the objects on the Wheel?” Keegan asked.
“Still looking. That’s what’s going to happen this semester,” I said.
“You actually think you’ll be able to find them?” said Eighellie.
“We have to. These classes might prove useful, but if I had my way I’d spend all my time searching for the Golden Rod until I found it. Classes with Zervos aren’t going to do me any good,” I said.
Lisabelle was scouring the world in search of clues to the attack on Sip. She was doing something useful. Did she have to sit and feel suffocated every moment she was in class? No indeed, because if someone tried to make her sit and teach something for a set amount of time she’d burn whatever building they were in to the ground.
If she were in a good mood, she’d let them leave first.
Eighellie rubbed her temples and glanced ruefully at me. “We have a lot to do.”
“Let’s get to it!” said Keegan enthusiastically. Then he leaned back in his chair and picked up his video games.
Eighellie glared at him for a few moments. I tried to smother a laugh with my hand so that her wrath wouldn’t be directed my way.
“Sometimes,” she said to the room at large, “I can’t figure out why I bother with you two.”
“Because we’re great,” said Keegan. He looked back at his game and pressed play.
Chapter Nine
As far as the start of seco
nd semesters went, January wasn’t exactly a welcoming month. Gray days and cold air swept around us. Sometimes the forest provided shelter, but more often than not it only served to insulate dark days and shadowed nights.
The vampires patrolled at night, floating around campus and through the mist. But even they were less inclined to be out and about in the winter.
After what had happened the previous semester there was less trust among students than ever before. The appearance of attacking elemental magic and an attack on the White Light Society gathering had changed how students went about campus. Even during the short time I’d been back on campus I had gotten several mistrusting looks. To be fair, because I was an elemental, other paranormals had always wondered exactly where I stood on matters of importance, like the choice between battling Hunters or joining them. So I couldn’t entirely blame them for being suspicious.
In order to avoid beginning-of-semester chaos and new students who didn’t know their way around the dining hall, I decided to eat breakfast in Astra. Eighellie and Keegan had spent the night at Astra, Keegan saying that new students gave him the creeps, Eighellie that she had an easier time studying in Astra than she did in her own dorm, and she wanted to get in practice.
Still, I was the first to come downstairs the next morning, making sweeping gestures with my hand to light the fires as I went. Soon the place would be warm enough that I could breathe without a cloud appearing in front of my face.
I got three bowls and the milk out for cereal, then sat down at the island. I hadn’t been there ten minutes, staring blearily at the tiles, when there was a knock at the door.
I went to answer it and found a staff member holding three letters, one addressed to each of us.
“Glad to know there’s some privacy around here,” I muttered as I closed the door. Sometimes official school correspondence appeared in front of us, often in the dining hall. That didn’t seem to be the direction they were going in this semester.
“Did someone knock?” Eighellie said, coming down the stairs in her jeans. Her blond hair was still wet, making dark, damp patches on the shoulders of her sweater. She had her backpack slung over her shoulder. It looked like it held a ton of bricks.
“Yeah, we got these.” I showed her the messages. Now that I looked at them more closely I could see that they carried Dobrov’s official seal. He often welcomed students to a new semester, so that was no surprise.
Eighellie took hers and led me into the kitchen as if this was her dorm, not mine. Just as we were about to settle down to our bowls, a crash sounded from upstairs, followed by a few yelled curses.
“Keegan’s awake,” Eighellie said, sliding into one of the seats at the island. She turned her letter over casually, then set it down and got her breakfast and Keegan’s ready.
When he stumbled in at last, he sat down at the island without even opening his eyes. His hair was sticking out at all angles, probably even some newly-invented ones.
“Nobody say a word to me,” he mumbled.
When Eighellie and I actually did as he requested and stayed silent, he glanced at us again and said, “I’ll get my own coffee.”
“Good idea,” said Eighellie. “I’ll have a cup too. Thanks for offering.”
Keegan didn’t notice the letters until we were all settled over our breakfasts and he had fueled himself with some caffeine.
“Oh, more news,” he said. “What do you think Dobrov has to say this semester?” He reached out and tore open his envelope.
Eighellie had been waiting patiently. Now she rolled her eyes and did the same.
The message was short and terrifying. Dobrov was not one for dramatics. With the crazy sister he’d had, you wouldn’t think he would be. It was one of the things that helped make him a good president of public.
The letter went as follows:
Welcome back to Paranormal Public for the January semester. We are proud to be welcoming all of our young minds for another term of classes and higher learning. Given the turmoil and the times, it is all the more impressive that students arrive and prioritize learning. Even in the best of times, studying and test-taking are not easy.
We all can agree that recently has been far from the best of times.
That we all still strive to better ourselves is a testament to what we can do if we put our minds to it. I am proud of the work we have all accomplished as well as the work yet to be done.
Despite our best efforts, Paranormal Public is not the safe haven it once was. These troubling times make it impossible for Public to be entirely free of danger.
To that end I must warn the student body of reports we have received in the past few weeks. There are those, specifically Hunters, who seek to use the grounds of Public for their own ends. Students are in danger, and knowing whom to trust will be difficult.
Keep your friends close this semester.
Paranormals’ enemies are now very close as well.
Happy studying,
Dobrov Valedication, President of Paranormal Public
“Well, that’s downright chilling,” Keegan muttered into his coffee. His eyes were still mostly closed, so Eighellie had read the letter out loud.
“They tried to keep them out with the TP stations, but those didn’t work. They probably didn’t make sense anyhow. I wonder what else they’ve tried that we don’t know about,” I said.
The TP station had been set up in Surround to serve as an official entry point and identify students. It hadn’t exactly gone well, and now it was closed.
“It’s a losing battle,” said Eighellie. “Hunters have family members who are students. There’s no way they can all be identified and prevented from coming here, especially with the government being so unhelpful.”
“The government has its own agenda,” I said.
“Yeah, and it runs counter to Lisabelle’s,” said Keegan. He shivered just saying her name.
“Do you really think there are Hunters on campus?” Eighellie asked.
“Yes,” said Keegan and I together.
She gave a thin smile. “At least the semester won’t be dull.”
“You’d hate that, wouldn’t you,” said Keegan.
Eighellie defended herself. “Hey. I’m the only one of the three of us who actually studies.”
“Just so you can become an assassin,” Keegan argued.
Eighellie shrugged. “Never said it was so my professors would like me.”
There was more to read that morning before we headed to classes. The Tabble had appeared and it included this brief note:
Hunters have detonated their long-standing plan. The President of Paranormal Public has announced that there is clearly a concerted effort by the artifact gatherers to infiltrate his school. He says that the school has safety measures in place, but it’s still entirely possible that many students’ lives are at risk and that a few will die before all of this is over.
“Well, that’s as callous as anything I’ve ever seen,” I muttered into my cereal.
“Let’s get to class. We wouldn’t want to miss anything,” said Eighellie, getting up from the island, taking her bowl and cup to the sink, and slinging her backpack over her shoulder.
To my delight, our first class was with Rake. He had insisted on teaching in the Long Building this semester, and I remembered him telling me once that it had always been a goal of his to teach there. Now, since Dobrov was desperate to keep him on as a teacher after Trafton’s departure, Rake had demanded a classroom in the Long Building in return for staying on, and Dobrov had given in.
Except for my closest friends, I hadn’t seen any of my classmates since last semester. I tended to count Ostelle among my friends even if she didn’t see it that way. She had greeted me at the door of Astra when I first returned to campus, and though it might be too a bridge too far to call that a sign of affection, it certainly wasn’t indifference.
At least I hoped it wasn’t.
The problem with Ostelle was that she was keepin
g secrets. Her only loyalty lay in revenge, and unlike Eighellie, Ostelle trusted no one. I knew perfectly well that she would do anything to get payback for what had happened to the darkness mages. She was the one who had shone the white light into the sky, and I still didn’t know why she had revealed such a secret to me. She had told me that she was the one behind it, but left me wondering what signal she was sending and to whom. Either because the signal had been read or because she’d revealed her secret to me I couldn’t be certain, but there had been no sign of the white light so far this semester. Of course, that was not to say it wouldn’t return, but so far it seemed that she wasn’t taking the risk this semester.
Eighellie and Keegan flanked me as we walked to class together. I hoped we’d see at least some of our other Cornerstone teammates as well. If it was simply a class of the Burble siblings and Hannah’s cronies, it was going to be a long semester.
After Dobrov’s dire message, you could feel the tension on campus as students walked to their first classes.
People looked at each other as if they expected an attack at any moment. Mistrust shone on closed-off faces. Whatever gains had been made in the last few years in paranormal relations had evaporated like snow off the ground in the spring.
There was about as much trust as there might be between a werewolf and its prey.
When Keegan noticed the uncomfortable stares, instead of hiding from them he did the only thing he knew how to do. He talked about them openly, much to Eighellie’s dismay.
“This is ridiculous. How could they possibly suspect us of being Hunters?” he demanded. “Did you see that girl? She took a different path to avoid walking next to us. What does she think is going to happen? Does she think we’re going to pull out some artifact right now and start a fight right here in bright daylight? How would that help if we were actually Hunters?”
“You’re acting as if fear is always rational,” said Eighellie. “It isn’t. She might just think that walking near you could get her into trouble. The three of us are known for always being at the center of trouble.”
Elemental Unity Page 6