The last to enter the galley that night was Bartholem. He had disappeared as soon as Lough let him out of his carrier earlier in the day, but now he came into the galley and wound his way silently around the sleeping bodies. I watched him come, his purple eyes burning brightly.
“Hiya, Bartholem,” I whispered. The cat crawled into my sleeping bag and promptly curled up against my side. I felt better having him there and having the support of my fellow Public students, despite what I had done to them at the end of last semester to save Sip from the demons.
But I knew it wasn’t enough.
Caid’s judgment was damning, and the loss of Dacer’s support was worse. My head filled with dark thoughts as I finally fell asleep.
Chapter Twenty
I was in an inky black tunnel, running. Ahead of me I could see Lisabelle, but she was running faster and faster. There was someone with her, someone I knew. He was a small figure, but no matter how fast I ran I couldn’t run fast enough to catch them. “Lisabelle!” I yelled. “Lisabelle! Stop! We need to talk to you. Where are you taking him? Stop! Please stop.” She just kept running.
“Charlotte!”
A hand on my shoulder was shaking me awake. “Charlotte, wake up. You’re scaring me.”
With a start I came awake. Sip was kneeling next to me, her purple eyes filled with worry. Next to her Bartholem sat on his rump, his eyes unblinking. Lough was looking at me with concern, and as I dragged myself up from a deep sleep and a dark dream, I realized that all the students still left in the galley were doing the same thing.
“Sorry,” I said, wiping wet hair off my forehead. “Was I dreaming?”
“I guess,” said Sip worriedly. “You were screaming in your sleep.”
I shook my head. “Sometimes having dream giver capabilities is not the best.”
“Tell me about it,” said Lough dryly.
I smiled sympathetically at him.
“What did you dream?” Sip asked curiously.
I frowned as I tried to remember, but all I could see was an inky darkness.
“You were dreaming of Lisabelle,” Sip asked eagerly. “Did she say anything this time?”
I shook my head, hating the way Sip’s face fell.
It felt like I had barely fallen back to sleep when an insistent voice woke me.
“Come on,” said Lough gruffly. He was already dressed. “All paranormals on deck.”
“What’s it going to be this time?” I asked. There was only a little light coming in through the windows; I wondered why we were all up so early.
Lough’s face was white. “We’re under attack. We’re trying to outrun demons, and it’s not working.”
I threw my covers off. It took me about thirty seconds to pull on jeans, grab a hoodie, stuff my feet into sneakers, and run after my friends.
“Why didn’t you wake me up?” I demanded.
“We’ve been trying for about ten minutes,” said Sip as we ran. I could now feel the rocking of the ship.
“We’re going faster than we were last night?” I whispered.
“Yup,” said Lough, “thus the running away.”
Sip sped up. “They’re fighting, but I don’t know how long we can defend ourselves. This ship doesn’t go fast enough.”
“I thought it was the safest place to be,” I said breathlessly. My ring was pulsing so strongly on my finger that it was starting to burn. Fear gripped my heart. All the paranormals were on this ship.
Lough opened the door that led onto the deck. As he started to rush through it, he was slammed backward by a deadly wind. It was all Sip and I could do to get out of his way as he stumbled down the stairs and the door slammed shut again.
“Lough!” Sip cried. We waited for the tumbling sound to stop.
“I’m fine,” came his strangled voice. “Don’t worry about me.”
Sip and I exchanged terrified glances.
“That wind!” I gasped. “It’s filled with darkness magic.”
Sip rubbed her hands together. “Excellent.”
“How’s that excellent?” I demanded. “We’re under attack, and they shouldn’t even have been able to find us.”
Sip shrugged. “Obviously we have a traitor among us. Given that Professor Zervos and Dobrov are both here, that’s not really surprising, is it?”
Heavy footsteps sounded from the stairs, and finally Lough reappeared, looking tousled but otherwise unharmed. “I hate the wind,” he said. “No offense, Charlotte. Shall we?”
He went back to the door and again wrenched it open. This time we were ready as its deadly forced slammed into us. Sip grabbed the back of Lough’s sweater and I grabbed the back of Sip. We ducked low and formed a train as we made our way out into the gale. The rain poured down so hard we were instantly drenched, and it also added a layer of difficulty to the task of seeing what exactly we were fighting.
I heard Sip’s voice, pitched high as if she was trying to yell something to me, but the noise of the storm was too loud. I quickly looked around, but I couldn’t keep my eyes open for very long at a time. The wind felt like it had icy daggers in it, but I had to see what we were up against, and where the other paranormals were.
In the front of our little line Lough stumbled, and I felt Sip go down with him. If I wanted to stay connected to my friends I had no choice but to go down as well.
What I saw when I was a little below the worst of the wind-driven, icy rain staggered me.
The demons were in swarming formations, intense clusters of black that moved around like beehives. Some were definitely hybrids, no longer just demons, but something more awful and more deadly. The people on this deck, mostly senior paranormals, were clinging to the railings for dear life. As I watched, at least two lost their grip and slipped away. The water below was choppy with white caps. It seemed to me that the demons shouldn’t be winning; there just weren’t that many of them. But they were. What was going on?
“It’s magicked,” Sip yelled. “They put magic in the wind. We can’t fight and we can’t run.”
Indeed, a quick glance at the sails showed that we were barely moving. The wind was whipping around us, but it was more of a weapon than anything natural. I saw Dacer and Risper, Zervos and Oliva. I saw Saferous and several others. Caid was nowhere to be seen. Neither was Gussy.
“What do we do?” Rake had crawled over to us, his pale skin covered in a sheen of sweat mixed with rainwater. “I’m better when I can get my hands on one of those demons.” He made a strangling motion with his massive hands.
“Can you fly or float at all?”
Rake shook his head. “Not in this wind. You’d think we’d be able to run.”
“Look!” Sip pointed. “That’s where the magic’s coming from.” Through the sheets of rain I saw another ship. It looked black and tattered, as if the wood was barely holding together.
“So, they don’t like the sea, huh?” I yelled over the noise. “Why aren’t the water spirits helping? Why didn’t they warn us?”
“They’re probably under attack too,” said Rake, his eyes on the ship. “By the paranormals, I’d like for that thing to get closer.”
Sip shook her head. “No way. If they get closer we’re done for.”
“But as it is right now, you can’t fight,” Lough yelled. “You’re a werewolf. Don’t you want to sink your teeth into something?”
“All I’ve wanted to do for weeks is fight,” Sip growled. Her eyes were scanning the clusters of demons, and now I could see that their movement in formation was smart, smarter than anything I had seen from them in any of our other battles. I wished Lisabelle were there. She would know immediately what was happening and what to do about it.
“They’re protecting the ship,” said Lough, pointing to how the clusters would attack and then dive backward.
“I don’t see why,” I said. “It’s not like any of our senior paranormals can reach that far anyway.”
“They could,” said Sip, her voice nearly taken away
by the wind, “if they weren’t busy keeping us from sinking.”
I felt water trickling down my cheeks and nose and rubbed it away, trying to get a clear view.
“I have to talk to Dacer,” I yelled. Rake shook his head. “He’s another vampire. There’s not much he can do.”
“There might be,” I said. Vampires had magic that mostly dealt with darkness and sleep, and I was frantically trying to think how we might put it to good use in this situation.
“Queen Lanca?” Lanca hadn’t been at the dinner the night before; she and Vital had gone back to assist in the siege at Vampire Locke. But I remembered her calling to the power of the Blood Throne when she was under attack at her coronation, and I wondered if there was anything similar that the vampires could do here.
Before I could even ask the question, though, I saw Saferous stand up. He was a fallen angel, so he could fly, and given his age and standing he was surely very powerful.
“There’s no way I could stand up in the wind like that,” said Lough, shocked.
As we watched, Saferous launched himself into the air. Followed by several other senior paranormals, he shot like an arrow right at the nearest cluster of hybrids. They must not have been expecting any of the paranormals to do something like that, because they instantly scattered. All around the deck I heard pockets of applause, quickly followed by silence. Any paranormal who let go of the railing for longer than a moment was sure to go over the edge and into the water.
“Let’s get closer to Dacer,” I said. Sip nodded, and the four of us, Rake now bringing up the rear, made our way over to the Museum of Masks curator.
It was slow going. Dacer wasn’t very far away, but in this storm it felt like miles. Lough led the charge, trying to block most of the wind from striking us. Every time Saferous and those helping him attacked another group of demons there was a smattering of applause, barely audible above the noise of the storm.
“How long do you think they can keep that up?” Sip asked from in front of me, sounding breathless.
“Not long,” I said grimly. I knew that the black ship, still trailing us but getting slightly closer by the minute, was eventually going to strike back at the senior paranormals who were trying to defend us. I had a bad feeling about what would happen to the paranormals when it did.
“I still don’t understand how they found us,” Rake muttered, just as we reached Dacer. My mentor glanced at us and nodded.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” he yelled.
“You don’t say,” said Sip, without a trace of humor. Dacer made a face.
“We can’t stop them,” he said. “This has been going on for an hour and the ship just keeps getting closer.”
“Do you think Malle’s on that ship?” I asked, worried for Keller.
But Dacer shook his head. “I don’t think we would recognize any of the paranormals on that ship. Malle finished her obvious attacks at Queen Lanca’s coronation. She’s now working from behind the scenes to destroy us, letting other people do the hands-on dirty work.”
“And Caid’s letting her,” I said bitterly. Dacer looked sad, but he didn’t argue with me.
“We have to stop the ship,” said Sip. “At least get away from it.”
“We’ve been trying,” said Dacer breathlessly. “Every time we create any separation the wind pushes us back against them. We can’t do anything unless they stop controlling the wind.”
“I can help with that,” I said. “I am an elemental mage, after all.”
Dacer vigorously shook his head. “Out of the question. It’s far too dangerous for you.”
I glared at him. “When are you people going to stop using that as an excuse and accept that I’ve been in danger my whole life? And not only in danger, but in danger because of who my father was, which you can’t even be bothered to know!”
It was the first time Dacer had ever actually looked hurt by my words, but he held firm. “I will not watch you risk your life,” he said. Then, leaning closer and speaking so that only I could hear, he added, “Especially after what happened at dinner last night.”
“If you don’t let me risk my life now, pretty soon none of us will have lives left,” I said, trying to make Dacer understand.
We were interrupted by a series of cries, quickly followed by a ripping sound. We all looked to the sky and saw, hurtling toward us, something that looked a lot like the black power Nick and Nicole had attacked me with. It was a massive black fireball, and it was heading right for us.
My mind went blank with terror and my magic did the work for me. I didn’t even have time to think, and if Rake hadn’t been hanging onto my upper arm I surely would have tilted over the side of the ship.
I felt the ship rock precariously as other paranormals scrambled to defend us.
“It’s gaining speed,” Lough cried frantically, as our defenses tried and failed to stop the ball of fire hurtling at us.
I closed my eyes and sank deep into my magic. I forgot about Caid’s accusations and plans for Lisabelle, I forgot how excited I was to return to Public and how much I missed Ricky. I even forgot that Rake was desperately hanging onto me, and that without his strong hands clutching me I would surely slip overboard.
I slammed my magic through all the resistance outside me, forcing it outward in every direction. I demanded the wind’s attention and filled it with lightning. I took a breath and breathed as the wind. I pushed the ocean back. No, I ordered it back, mine to command. I felt its pain at its fiery shackles and encouraged it to break free. All around us was wind that wasn’t controlled by the Nocturns, and that wind I swept toward us, through us, clearing the air, tossing out the Nocturns’ spells like I would toss an empty milk carton into the trash.
I was so lost in my magic that I barely noticed that the rain wasn’t pounding so hard on my face and the screams of my fellow paranormals had died down.
“Can you direct some of that wind to the sails?”
Dacer’s voice broke into the magical trance I had entered, and I tried to do what he asked. I searched for the sails with my eyes still closed and found them easily enough, because the wind was pushing against them, still using the sails to drive us closer to the black ship.
With one massive push I used the wind to direct us away. I didn’t care where we went, so long as we got no closer to the Nocturns. High overhead, I heard cheering. When I opened my eyes and looked up I saw that Saferous and the other paranormals had stopped fighting the demons, because the demons were scurrying back to their masters. I had used the wind to knock them off course, disrupting their battle, but I had avoided doing anything to interfere with the paranormals.
I didn’t acknowledge the cheering. I was too angry.
“That’s enough,” Dacer called, his voice filled with just a touch of wonder.
I took a deep breath and gently let the winds go. Now that I had released them from the darkness magic, they freely flowed into their normal patterns. I nudged them just a bit to get them to carry us in the direction where Dacer wanted us to go.
“We must hurry and get to Public,” Dacer said. “We will be safer there.”
“That’s funny,” said Sip tiredly. “I thought we were safer here.”
Chapter Twenty-One
I had thought we’d get yelled at, or Caid would come out and make a speech, but neither of those things happened. All the paranormals were too shocked. Saferous landed on the deck and clapped me once on the shoulder, then wearily followed his companions inside. Dacer and I continued to sit on the deck with Sip, Lough, and Rake, watching the sky clear and the clouds form. The wind had propelled us far out of the black ship’s reach. To Sip’s glee, it just couldn’t keep up with us.
“Take that, you nasty Nocturns,” she yelled, jumping to her feet.
Despite the battle there was still a hum of activity around us. I would have been happy to simply sit there and stare around in shock, but other paranormals were rushing around busily.
Soon D
acer excused himself, muttering something about talking to Caid. We spent a brief time talking to the Quests, and I met the rest of Sip’s brothers. They all told me not to worry and assured me that they were on my side.
But the problem, as I saw it, was that there were sides at all.
“We should get our sleeping bags rolled up,” said Sip, when the crier up above finally gave notice of land. “We don’t want to be stuck on this thing while everyone else is headed to Public.”
We made our way down to the galley, and as we went I quietly asked Sip, “Who do you think was on that ship?”
“Honestly,” said Sip quietly, “I don’t think it was anyone important. Like, not the premier or anything. I have a feeling these groups of demons are just going around and attacking paranormals. It’s not very elegant, and Malle definitely likes elegant, so it doesn’t seem like she would have been the one in charge.”
“That’s probably why they want all the objects on the Wheel,” said Lough thoughtfully. “If they get them, they’ll have a better handle on controlling the demons, and all the rest of darkness for that matter.”
“While simultaneously destroying any chance we have to fight back,” I said.
“That’s not true,” said Sip, turning to look at me. “You were brilliant today. We still have you.” I gave a small smile, but I didn’t feel very good about it.
Before we could reach the galley, Risper intercepted us. He was standing in a corner, off to the side, as if trying to blend with the wall. He motioned to me and I nodded.
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