She stormed away from our table and back to her own. I watched her go, mostly to see who else was at her table. “I’d be cool even if I wasn’t the last elemental,” I muttered. Sip and Lough grinned at me.
To my intense dismay it was exactly who I thought it would be: Faci, Daisy, and Dobrov.
“Ah, home,” said Sip, taking another bite of eggs. “Lovely to be back.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Our first class of the day was Professor Erikson’s Advanced Spell-Casting. As a fallen angel she was well versed in healing and flying spells. Fallen angels were also known to get along with most paranormal types and had therefore been exposed to many different types of magic. If ever there was a time when this class was appropriate, that time was now, and I was glad we were in it. But I felt the stares of my fellow students as we headed out to the Dash field for this first class session.
“They’ll come around,” said Lough, reading my mind. I wasn’t so sure.
“Caid said the exact same thing Malle wanted them to believe,” I whispered, “that if they just get rid of me they’ll be safe. It’s not true, and I don’t know why they fall for it.”
“They’re scared,” said Sip. “Most of the students are on your side. Remember everyone waiting for you in Astra last spring? If anyone tries anything, we’ll fight, you can count on that.”
Before we reached Professor Erikson, though, Dacer appeared. He slung his arm around me and bent down to whisper in my ear. “We need to speak regularly,” he said softly. “Come to the tea room. We have much to discuss. I just spoke with Risper.”
And with that he released my shoulders and was gone.
After he strode away Lough raised his eyebrows at me. “Did you ask him why he didn’t defend you to Caid?”
I sighed. “Not yet. I’ve barely had time to think, let alone talk with him privately.”
Meanwhile, Professor Erikson stood in the center of the field, her robes whipping around. “Advanced Spell-Casting,” she said, “is serious business. All of you here are seniors, and I expect that by now you know enough to take this seriously. There are many different kinds of spells, but what I find most compelling about this group is that there are two dream givers in it. I heard what you did last semester at Golden Falls, dreaming back to a battle.” She nodded at Lough and Trafton, both of whom were pink with pleasure at being recognized, until she continued with, “If you do anything so reckless and undirected this semester I’ll have you expelled.”
Murmurs went up among the students as my friends’ faces fell.
“In order to use power, you must control it,” Professor Erikson continued. “Without control you have nothing, which is why such unchecked displays of magic will get us all killed. Now, line up across from each other.”
Sip and I moved to stand opposite each other, but Professor Erikson stopped us.
“Do NOT line up across from a friend. In order to use an advanced spell, you must be detached. You cannot expect your friend to be forever bailing you out.”
I couldn’t be sure, but I thought her last remark was a shot at Lisabelle. Keller’s aunt was tough, there was no doubt about it. This was going to be an interesting class.
I lined up across from a student named Darrow, a quiet fallen angel who had always just gone about his work and returned to Aurum without socializing much. He nodded at me once, but otherwise said nothing. Both of our rings were pulsing.
“Now,” said Professor Erikson, her face stern, “I want you to perform a lifting spell. You take turns. I want you to lift nothing but your partner. If your partner gets hurt while you try to perform this spell, you will each owe me a lesson on behaving responsibly, and you will also report to the Long Building for paint duty.
“I’m surprised that whole building hasn’t been painted seven times over, given how often they use it for punishment,” Lough muttered.
I nodded, watching Darrow closely. He was taller than Keller, but thinner and kind of gawky, with tawny hair and wide-set eyes. Sip had once said he was cute in a nerdy sort of way. Regardless of that, I was nervous. It was one thing to throw wind indiscriminately at the huge sails of a ship, but something else entirely to lift a specific object a specific distance, never mind a person.
My other worry was that Faci had lined up across from Trafton and was smiling cruelly, while Daisy had lined up across from Vanni and Rake and Dobrov were paired with each other. Sip was paired with a girl named Tissy, a vampire from Raor.
“Begin,” Professor Erikson cried.
We all failed miserably except for Sip. Then, when Daisy complained that the only reason Sip was able to lift Tissy perfectly into the air was because Tissy was a vampire who could already float, Sip lifted Daisy into the air. The hybrid screamed and cried and Professor Erikson informed Sip that she would spend the coming Saturday painting the Long Building. The werewolf didn’t argue, she just clenched her fists and studied the ground.
After that we kept practicing. By the end of the hour-long class I had managed to make Darrow’s hair stand on end, but that was about it. I felt sweat dripping down the sides of my face as we trudged back toward the main part of campus.
“Don’t feel bad,” said Sip. “What she wants, the specific stuff, is really hard. It’s much easier to just use power as a hammer.”
“That’s what the demons are doing,” I said. “It’s exactly what we don’t want.”
“I’m hungry,” said Lough, rubbing his stomach and keeping his mind on the essentials as always.
“It’s ten o’clock in the morning,” said Sip incredulously. “We just had breakfast!”
“So?” Lough asked. “Come on, let’s go back to the dining hall and get a snack.”
While my two friends did that, I returned to the coffee shop in search of Dacer. I found him sitting in the same chair he had used a couple of months ago, sipping tea from a cup.
“Good morning,” he said as I slid into my seat. “How was your first class?”
“Professor Erikson is teaching us control for advanced spells,” I said. “It’s hard.”
Dacer nodded approvingly. “Yes,” he said. “I can see how it might be, but it will prove useful in the end.”
“What do you want to talk to me about?” I asked. Dacer glanced over his shoulder. Sabel had come out to give me coffee, then disappeared into the back.
“I spoke with Risper,” he said quietly. “He told me you’ll be spending some time in the archives and that he knew where the Globe White was.”
I nodded.
“This is good,” said Dacer, leaning back. “This is very good.”
“Can you help with the archives?” I asked.
Dacer shook his head. “I’m afraid not. I can help if it comes to masks, but otherwise I don’t think it would be wise for us to draw attention to our mentoring relationship.”
He was probably right there. The very fact that Lisabelle and I were friends had gotten us all in trouble already.
“So, what else did you want to talk to me about?” I asked.
Dacer bit down on his lip. “First, I want to apologize. I want you to know that despite public appearances, I am always on your side.”
I nodded slowly. I had felt a little lost without Dacer recently, and his affirmation that he believed in me felt good.
“Thank you,” I said quietly. “I know it must be hard, with Caid such a close friend.”
“And I have a request for you,” he said, “but it’s dangerous. Under no circumstances do you have to accept if you don’t want to.”
“Alright,” I said hesitantly. I wanted to help, but I had no idea what Dacer could be talking about.
“The Power of Five is still a force,” said Dacer. “Caid and Oliva don’t believe that you should be used to strengthen the old protections we used to have, but the dynamic of the power is all that has ever stopped the demons. As the protections lapse. . . .”
“More die,” I murmured, my heart wrenching.
“Exactly,” said Dacer. “I propose that you leave campus on weekends, preferably with Ms. Quest and Mr. Loughphton. You go to places where the power is weakening and there are still paranormals who need to be protected.”
“And I strengthen the power?” I said eagerly. It was something I had been wanting to do, but I hadn’t thought I’d be allowed. Dacer’s admission that Oliva and Caid didn’t want me to do it only confirmed my suspicions.
Dacer smiled a little at my excitement. “I had worried that it wouldn’t be something you’d be interested in. This power, Charlotte, your uniqueness, was thrust upon you, it’s not like you chose it.”
“I came to terms with that a while ago,” I said. “I want to help, especially now that Caid’s accusing Lisabelle of being complicit in the ongoing destruction.”
Dacer gave me a sharp look. “This will not help clear Ms. Verlans’s name,” he said warningly. “This is for the sake of the paranormals who are trapped in zones that aren’t as safe as Public.”
“Surely there must be other protective spells they can use,” I said. I hated to think of paranormals outside our safe walls, defenseless against demon attacks.
“There are,” Dacer reassured me. “Most of them have worked well, but nothing works as well as the Power of Five. That’s why, so long as you are alive, we have a chance.”
I appreciated Dacer’s confidence, even if I wasn’t sure it was justified. I also didn’t want this to interfere with my other mission of finding out how Grecko’s death was linked to what had happened to my parents.
“Do you think Ms. Quest will want to accompany you?” Dacer asked. “To be honest, I trust your safety to her as much as I trust it to any senior paranormal.”
“Of course,” I said. “She’d be insulted if she weren’t invited.”
Dacer chuckled. “I believe it.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
It took nearly a week for us to get into the archive. By the time we did I was nearly frantic with impatience. I had told Sip and Lough what Dacer wanted us to do, and they were both eager to help. Sip had beamed, clapped her hands together, and said, “I’ve always wanted to go on a quest. Now my last name will come in handy.”
As Dacer had pointed out before we concluded our tea, the task he had set for me would also give me a chance to see other paranormals firsthand, and vice versa. Dacer thought part of the problem with the Tabble was that everyone was reading the articles as if they were all true, when in reality most of them were distortions of the truth. He assured me that once paranormals were able to meet me in person, things would change.
I wasn’t so sure about that part of it, but I still wanted to help protect paranormals.
We spent an agonizing week during which we tried several times to go to the archive but kept being foiled. First we had to figure out how to get me in, and that’s where Alixar came in handy. Sip would go inside and switch the protective spells on the windows, then she’d leave one open for me to fly into. Lough had no way to join us, so he’d act as lookout.
We continued to read the Tabble every day, and it wasn’t uncommon for Sip to spend her evenings writing her own responses to Mound’s continued attacks on Lisabelle’s character and the character of her friends. Every time we heard of another darkness attack we held our breath, worried that Lisabelle’s name would be mentioned. But there was nothing.
“What sort of coward fights from the peace and quiet of his living room?” Sip demanded one night in frustration, after a particularly mean-spirited piece by Mound.
I went to sleep every night hoping to dream of Keller or Lisabelle, but instead I dreamed of hardly anything at all. I would wake up in the mornings feeling weak and crabby and tired.
My biggest worry was Risper. He had disappeared, just like I thought he would, and we hadn’t heard from him since. I wondered whether they’d kill him if he were caught trying to get the Globe White from wherever he knew it to be, and I wondered, in that case, if we’d ever know what had happened. But I held out hope for Lisabelle’s uncle, and at worst, for being able to use the powers of the Mirror Arcane.
Something else we weren’t expecting was to have President Caid on campus. Apparently the paranormal government, led by Saferous, had decided that Caid would be safest at Public. The Paranormal Police Academy, run by Caid’s cousin Goffer, was another option, but according to Dacer it had been decided that it would be more difficult for Caid to run the government from an Academy that cut off all contact with the outside world. Sip had snorted when she heard that Caid was still running the government.
Worried for Ricky’s safety even though Cale had assured me that he would be alright, I checked in with my brother more often than I had during any other semester. Ricky still hadn’t forgiven me for leaving without saying goodbye, but he was slowly coming around.
At first when I’d e-mail he would send something back that said he was sorry, but he didn’t know a Charlotte. After that I was upgraded to having him inform me that he used to have a sister named Charlotte, but he’d no idea what had happened to her. I just kept e-mailing.
On top of the personal stress, senior classes were exhausting. Zervos was working us to the bone, and the only one who didn’t seem to have a problem keeping up was Sip. But Zervos was still nasty, even to Sip. The one time she messed up on an answer, Zervos sneered, “If you spent half as much time doing your homework as you do writing Tabble nonsense, you’d be an excellent student indeed.”
Sip hadn’t said anything. Her anger seemed mostly reserved for those who spoke against Lisabelle. When that happened, she would release her full fury.
Finally, after a difficult week, we saw our chance to go to the archives. Sip disappeared from the dinner table with a mumbled, “I’m going to do thesis research.” Not long after she left, I followed, racing back to Astra to grab Alixar. Lough met me outside the archive building, which was somewhat behind the library and built of dull stone. Since it wasn’t really visible to the rest of campus, and only a select few students were allowed inside, no one had felt the need to make it pretty, according to Dacer.
“Let’s do this,” said Lough. He ducked under the nearest tree and waited for me to use Alixar. As soon as the mask had covered my face, I felt weightless. We had agreed that if Sip accomplished her end of the mission, she would leave one candle burning for me to see by, and that candle was winking from the room furthest away from campus and closest to the forest.
“Be careful,” Lough said in a whisper shout. I could barely see his face, but I could tell it was filled with worry.
I nodded and took off, flying toward the top of the archive. I quickly found the window Sip had left open and flew through.
The archive smelled of old books and dust. I coughed as my feet kicked up more dust when I landed. It felt like no one had been in there for years.
“Charlotte?” Sip’s voice came from the darkness.
“Can we have any light?” I asked, my eyes watering.
“Yes,” said Sip. I felt something brush past me and then heard the scrape of the old window as Sip closed it. “I just need to close this so no one sees the lights.”
“But you’re allowed to be here,” I said. “They won’t care.”
“They will if they see two forms in here instead of one,” I said.
I waited quietly until Sip had lit several candles, then I was able to see that the archive was one long room filled with stacks and stacks of shelves, every one of them piled high with manuscripts and countless leather-bound volumes. The room was so long I couldn’t see to the other end.
“Wow,” I said. “So much information!”
“Yes,” said Sip. “We’re going to have trouble sorting through all of it.”
“Can’t we use magic?” I asked, wondering if there was a spell to search for my father’s name, or my mother’s.”
“I already tried searching your mother’s name,” said Sip worriedly. “Even that was a risk, because the spell leaves a residue, and if an
yone looked they would know what I had done. Bad, because that’s not what I’m supposed to be doing here.”
I nodded. “Thanks for trying. And we don’t know my dad’s name, presuming my mom kept her maiden name and didn’t take his.”
“Exactly,” said Sip, sighing. “There’s nothing to search. I wish your mom had given us something; anything at all would help. Without his name it’s going to be difficult.”
“I just wish I could get her box open,” I said. “I have a feeling there’s stuff in there that would help.”
“Until then,” said Sip, “let’s start looking.”
We spent the night searching. I started by checking all the volumes marked “e.” There was a ton of information on elementals, but it was mostly property records, birth records - again unhelpful without my father’s name - and spell records. We did find one interesting item, though, about elemental artifacts. Along the lines of the Mirror Arcane and Alixar, there were many magical artifacts that were filled with the essence of the paranormals’ power, and the elementals were no different. The ring I wore was one of those artifacts. I had taken it from the Astra ballroom, where it had been left in a glass case with the Mirror Arcane.
“This is interesting,” said Sip, holding up an old sheet of paper to her button nose and examining it.
“Is it about my parents?” I asked hopefully.
“No,” said Sip, “it’s about your ring.”
I glanced down at the blue stone; the tiny diamonds were winking in the light.
“It says that elementals, more than other paranormals, value a ring’s power to recognize its true owner. There’s a ring out there that’s perfect for you and will make you more powerful.”
“How do we know this isn’t it?” I asked.
“That ring is for a man,” said Sip, pointing. “That’s why it’s so big. You aren’t a man, are you?”
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