Nicole was standing behind me, but I didn’t have time to turn around before I felt a hot sting in my side, burning through my ribcage.
I cried out in pain as my world spun. All I saw were a pair of black boots as black spots covered my eyes. I called to my ring, but my hand felt dead. The pain spread numbingly through my whole body as I fought to breathe.
“Cale,” I said desperately, feeling weak. My throat hurt just saying his name.
“Cale,” I said again, but he was still unconscious next to me. I tried to rise, but the numbness prevented me from using my arms.
“Aw, I didn’t realize it would be that easy,” said Nicole, looking down on me. “Don’t feel bad. You weren’t a very good barista anyway.”
I felt Cale move next to me, the only warning I had before he sprang to his feet. Nick was ready for him, but Cale was quicker; his training at the Academy had paid off. The problem was, he was just no match for two darkness mages.
The black arrows came fast and hard, hissing into his body. I realized quickly that he must be wearing some sort of protective armor, because they just melted into him. But wherever they touched skin I saw Cale’s face bloom in pain.
Cale stepped back and wobbled. He stepped back again and fell to his knees. Both Nick and Nicole came on.
“Did you think this was going to be so easy?” Nicole asked Nick.
“I had no idea elementals were so pathetic,” said Nicole. “I guess they really do keep you around only for the Power of Five.”
She stepped away from Cale to aim a sharp kick at my side. I rolled away, barely in time to avoid the blow. As my view changed I saw our darkened house, with Ricky still asleep upstairs. They might be attacking me, but I knew they had come for him. If I hadn’t had a bad feeling. . . .
A slight tingling in my hand let me know that whatever they had done to my body was wearing off, or my powers were fighting it. I took a deep breath and again tried to stand.
“Just. Stay. Down,” Cale gritted out. He looked so weak, I figured he’d fall over if Nick so much as blew on him.
“No,” I said. “Ricky.”
“Oh, yes, your little maybe elemental brother,” said Nicole, her lip curling. “Personally, we’ve been watching him, and we just don’t think he has it in him. Then again, you barely do. Tell me, should we kill you first and then him, or let you watch?”
“You aren’t going near him,” I said, pushing myself to my knees.
“How are you going to stop us?” Nick asked curiously. “You know how to use wind. . . .”
“Maybe wind’s all I need,” I said. I tried again, but there was no wind. I couldn’t feel it. My ring didn’t pulse, my body started to heave, and my stomach rolled. I gasped for breath as Cale looked away.
“Don’t worry about it, Charlotte,” he said. “I didn’t come alone.”
Nicole threw her head back and laughed. “No, but where are they? Do you really think we just let them out of their hotel room?”
Cale tried to hide his dismay, but I saw it. Worse, so did Nick and Nicole.
“Yes, we planned well,” said Nicole with glee. “The premier wants this done properly. Once and for all. We took Locke, but we need the elementals gone, and the objects gone. We want to be the ones to do it properly. We want to be the heroes.”
“Oh, that’s what you call coming to kill a twelve-year-old boy? Because I call it something else,” said Cale.
“He isn’t defenseless if he’s elemental,” said Nicole heatedly. “Even if he hasn’t shown his powers yet. His mother and father were powerful. He would be too. Who knows how it missed that one.” Nicole inclined her head at me.
It struck me that she talked about my parents as if she had known them. But she wasn’t that old, and no one seemed to know who my father was. My mother had kept it a secret, even from her daughter, so how could Nicole know?
Nicole raised her hand again and I saw black fire gather in the center of her palm.
“What are the black rings?” Cale asked me. I knew him well enough to know that he was preparing to make one last stand before we died.
“The rings are for darkness,” I said, pushing myself to my feet as Nicole started to walk toward me. “And they aren’t getting Ricky, no matter what,” I warned him.
“I know that,” Cale said, his eyes locked on Nick.
“That’s a lot of talk,” said Nick. “Why don’t you make the earth shake? We’re ready for that too. How about hail? That might hurt a little, but let me remind you that we are dark fire. We burn black. We will burn any hail you try to throw at us.”
“That’s a nice generic list,” I said casually. “Did you get that from one of Sigil’s books?”
“Who’s Sigil?” Nicole asked with confusion.
“No, of course you didn’t,” I said, trying to smile. My face hurt. It was taking all my energy to stand. I just hoped I had enough strength to do what I needed to.
“Charlotte?” Cale asked. He hadn’t seen me fight recently. He didn’t know how much I’d practiced. Well, hopefully he wouldn’t be too surprised or too close to Nick or Nicole.
“Don’t worry,” I said, wobbling a little. ‘I have a plan.”
Nicole clapped her hands together. “Oh good. I was worried you were going to make this too easy.”
“Don’t you want to shoot more arrows at me?” I asked. “That first one worked so well.”
Nicole’s eyebrows shot up. “Well, I’ll give you one thing. You might be a pathetic excuse for an elemental, but you talk a lot of smack. Maybe not the best combination.”
This time when Nick raised his arms to fire I was ready. I was now able to find some wind, which I used to grab a stick off the ground and slammed it into the head of the arrow as it shot toward me.
The arrow exploded, showering the ground with sparks. The picture might have been beautiful if it hadn’t been so menacing. Cale covered his eyes, while I kept mine on Nick.
Nicole started to walk around us, moving away from Nick and forcing Cale and me to divide our attention.
“I have her,” said Cale, turning until we were back to back.
“So, at the Police Academy,” I said, “what did they teach you to do with darkness mages?”
“Nothing that would work on Lisabelle,” said Cale grimly.
“What are you talking about?” I demanded. “Why would you ever attack Lisabelle?”
“I don’t know if you noticed this,” said Cale without looking at me, “but she’s gone over to darkness.”
I shook my head, knowing he couldn’t see.
“Do you know anything about Lisabelle?” I asked Nick. I knew it was risky, showing I cared, but the Nocturns had to know that. We had been watched all these years, after all. Faci, for instance, had always seen us together. Lisabelle only threatened to pound fellow students into the ground when one of her friends was threatened. Well, that, and if you talked too much.
The Nocturns would know that we’d do anything for each other. Lisabelle had just proved that by ransoming Sip, at whatever cost to herself.
For a second I thought Nick wasn’t going to answer, but eventually he nodded. “We left before she got there,” he said. “It’s above our pay grade.”
“Shut up, Nick,” Nicole hissed. “Whose side are you on?”
“I’m not telling her anything,” said Nick. “Besides, it’s not like we know anything.”
“Shut. Up.”
“Lisabelle Verlans is overrated,” Nicole scoffed. “There’s no way she’s as powerful as all the paranormals think she is. If she were, she’d be a queen.”
“Have you ever seen her fight?” I asked Nicole.
Nicole shook her head. “I don’t need to. That kind of darkness power doesn’t exist. Why would the premier want a darkness mage around who’s stronger than all the rest? Particularly one whose loyalty is in question?”
“I believe she’s that strong,” said Nick. “I believe she’s the strongest, but I’ve never seen h
er fight. Whatever side she’s on is the one with the better chance of winning this war.”
“There is only one winner of this war,” said Nicole. “Darkness.”
Cale didn’t wait for me. He lunged. I saw him dart right at Nicole, reaching for a pouch at his waist which could only be filled with pixie dust. Cale never had a chance. Nicole pulled up a black shield of fire and Cale slammed into it. I watched in horror as my friend slumped to the ground. Worst of all, he was still obviously conscious as Nicole slowly stepped toward him.
I felt sick as I watched, but I couldn’t stand there for long, because Nick was coming toward me with black fire in his hands.
“Enough of this,” I said. Nick paused, but Nicole didn’t. She slapped Cale hard across the face, causing him to fall sideways.
“STOP IT!” I cried this time, anger a welcome fire coursing through my body.
“Or what?” Nicole demanded, staring hard at me.
I smiled. “You should have met Sigil,” I said. “He could have told you some of the more creative ways elementals know how to fight.”
“Oh yeah, like what?” Nicole asked, crossing her arms over her chest. She was taking the bait, giving me the time I needed.
“Like lightning,” I said, and raised my hand.
I felt stronger, my stomach had stopped hurting, and the elemental power that coursed through my blood burned away the dark magic Nick had hit me with.
High above I felt a rush and saw a flash that lit the night sky as if the millions of silver stars were gleaming together.
The lightning lanced down, striking the earth right in front of Nick. The darkness mage’s face registered shock as he stumbled backward.
While Nick was on the ground I pointed at Nicole. “Exciting enough for you? Get away from my friend.”
Nicole stood wide-eyed in shock, and that pause gave me another opening. A second lightning bolt lanced down from the sky, striking a mere foot away from her. She cried out and tried to throw black magic at me, but she was in too much of a rush. It came out as a blob and missed me completely.
Cale, who was looking at me as if he’d never seen anything quite like this before, struggled to his feet.
“You okay?” I asked him. He nodded. “Then let’s finish this thing,” I said.
He grabbed a handful of pixie dust and flung it at Nicole. She screamed and dodged, right into another bolt of my lightning. It just missed her, but it came so close I smelled singed hair. With a satisfaction I hadn’t felt since Golden Falls, I turned to attack Nick again. Unlike his wife, he knew when to run.
“Come on,” he yelled to Nicole. “We have to get out of here.”
“I won’t be beaten by two students,” she cried in a fury, desperately trying to cobble together more black magic. But it was no use. Her ring was a dull black, and I had seen in the flashes of lightning that she didn’t have much left. She needed all of it to defend herself from my attacks; she didn’t have enough to attack me back.
They ran, and I just watched them. I didn’t want to kill them; they reminded me too much of Lisabelle, and I hadn’t yet come to terms with taking a life, except for demons. As unrealistic as it was starting to seem, I still hoped I would never have to.
“Hey!” I yelled.
Nicole looked over her shoulder but kept running, while Nick stopped. She glared at him, but he waited to see what I’d say.
“If you ever come near my brother again,” I said, “I’ll stop pretending like I don’t know how to aim that lightning.”
Nicole started to sneer, but Nick pulled her away. I watched them run down the lamp lit street until I couldn’t see them anymore.
“You okay?” Cale asked, staggering up to me and putting his hand on my shoulder.
“Yeah,” I said. “My stepfather’s going to be so mad.”
“Sorry about the banister,” said Cale ruefully.
“Oh,” I waved my hand, “that will be an awkward conversation, but I was thinking he’s going to be mad that I don’t have a summer job anymore.”
Cale chuckled. “You don’t have a summer job anymore, and it’s time for you to get back to Public.”
Instantly I brightened, but then I thought of Ricky. Cale could read the worry on my face like an open book, and he tried to reassure me. “We’re doubling his security. After tonight we have no choice. We’re worried that they’re going to send Lisabelle after him.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it,” I said. “She would find a way to protect him.”
Cale didn’t look so sure.
“Hey,” I said, “this is my best friend we’re talking about. She’ll always be on our side.”
Cale shrugged. “I don’t mean to say anything bad about your friend,” he said, “but she willingly went to darkness. Arguably they never could have gotten her unless she was willing.”
“She did it to save Sip,” I said, throwing up my hands. “That’s hardly willing.”
“Either way, she’s now taken all her power to the Nocturns, and we have to fight her. It’s a fight that we all know we can’t win.”
“If it comes to that,” I said. “But it won’t.”
Light was starting to burst over the tree tops as the sun came up. The rain had stopped long ago, leaving the world drenched in bright colors. It promised to be another beautiful summer day.
“Cale,” I asked tiredly, “how exactly does the Paranormal Police Academy train you?”
“They optimize our natural abilities,” Cale explained. “The Academy doesn’t try to teach us to do anything we weren’t already learning. We learn to use what we have.”
“So you were about to use your pixie dust to . . . what?” I asked.
“It reacts with darkness,” he said. “They’re Nocturns, and all the power around them is dark. My pixie dust would have created little balls of fire.”
“When it touched them?”
“Yeah, or their magic,” said Cale. “I just didn’t get the chance, because you control the sky.”
I smiled. “I’m surprised they didn’t hear the story from Golden Falls about what happened when the demons attacked us.”
“They may not have believed it,” said Cale. “I didn’t. Anyway, the real reason I came here is that Caid called a Conclave. All paranormals - except a skeleton force assigned to protect vital paranormal interests, like Ricky - are required to attend.”
At first I didn’t understand what he was saying, but when he continued to look at me it finally sank in. “I’m leaving?” I asked.
Cale nodded. “Summer’s over.”
Chapter Fifteen
I left Ricky a note. I felt sick about it, but I didn’t know what else to do. Cale had planned to tell me earlier, but when he realized that Nick and Nicole were darkness mages he hadn’t had a chance. I demanded to know why he hadn’t shared that little bit of information with me, and he said that he had wanted to deal with it on his own. I told him that was entirely unacceptable.
He shrugged. I was starting to wonder if the Police Academy was really a good thing or not. But either way, I had to leave for the Conclave immediately.
Most paranormals, including the unusual and rare Strange, were being required to attend. Mound would be there. Sip’s parents, Lough’s parents. Probably not Lisabelle’s parents, because no one was sure where they were. Sip had also sent me a message to say that she was on her way. The thought that we would finally be together again was inexpressibly comforting. I couldn’t wait.
Typically a paranormal Conclave would have taken place at Vampire Locke, but since that was now impossible, we were meeting in Sip’s parents’ town, in the middle of nowhere in New Hampshire. I thought of the barren fields and Sip’s house and wondered where exactly all of us would stay.
Instead of flying I took a human route: I hopped on a bus. Sip would have thought I was crazy, but as I explained to her later, the less attention I drew to myself the fewer problems we would have.
I reached Sip’s home town in ea
rly afternoon. Several times I’d tried to sleep on the bus without success, so I was tired. Since Sip was already there, she was able to meet me at the bus station. We hugged, but we didn’t say a word to each other until we were safely at Sip’s parents’ home.
“Where are Hyder and Helen?” I asked.
“They’re out to dinner with a few other senior paranormals,” Sip explained. “My brothers are with them.”
Sip was the youngest of six. She had five older brothers. Poor girl.
“I think they wanted to give us come privacy since we haven’t seen each other all summer,” she said. I was relieved that she sounded just as bitter as I felt.
“Any news of Lisabelle?” I asked.
Sip shook her head. “Caid told my parents he’s been getting reports of a very strong darkness mage fighting with paranormals, pixies mostly. He thinks it’s Lisabelle.”
“They’re setting her up to be blamed,” I said, fear gripping my heart.
“Yup,” said Sip, nodding grimly. “They sure are.”
I didn’t want to think about what that meant. Obviously Lisabelle would never go over to darkness; she was only there because she had to be. We knew that, but no one else seemed to believe it.
“You know,” said Sip thoughtfully, “Lisabelle once said that the only way she could live with me was because I was more pleasant when I was sleeping.” She gave me a half-hearted smile.
“That sounds like Lisabelle,” I said softly. Sip nodded, her eyes bright.
We both let a few minutes of silence pass. Then, knowing it was better to get our minds off our friend, I started talking again. Anything to forget, if only temporarily.
“What about the secret messages you’ve been putting in Tabble?” I asked. “Any response from that?”
Sip shook her head again. Sadness was like a weight on her shoulders. “No,” she whispered. “I keep hoping. I keep signing them neon, but there’s nothing. She might not be able to write.” She paused, then brightened a little. “Have you dreamed her?”
“Not since that first night,” I said. “I wondered if the darkness premier or Malle might have figured out what was happening.”
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