“I feel really protected,” I said.
“Public is in danger and I have to protect it,” said Martha, with that air she had of implying that everything she said should be obvious. “I am protecting Public. Someday you will understand that.”
“Where’s Lough?” I asked. My eyes scanned the kitchen, but I didn’t see the dream giver.
Martha shrugged. “He was too big for me to move, so I just left him where he fell.”
When she saw me start to struggle she shushed me. “He’ll be fine,” she said without a shred of concern. “I think.”
“You aren’t supposed to be here,” I said. “I don’t have a dorm mother, so who are you and why have you been living in Astra all semester?” Moving my jaw sent pain radiating down my body.
“I am Public’s protector and savior,” said Martha, her eyes grave. “The paranormals need to understand that they’re putting my Public in danger.”
“Your Public?” I said. The cold compress was helping, and it was a little easier to talk, but I was still tied up in my own home while demons attacked my friends. Fear threatened to consume me, but I told myself to keep a clear head and try to find a way out of there.
“Yes, of course. I’ve set explosions up in every dorm and in some of the other key buildings as well. We’re going to start fresh,” she said cheerfully.
“You know that demons are attacking your precious Public even as we sit here and chat?” I asked icily.
“Like I said,” Martha told me, not looking the least bit surprised, “we’re going to start fresh.”
Something in what she had just said gave me pause. “Wait, what explosions? Demons don’t set explosions . . . the library was you, wasn’t it? Not demons?” Fear trickled down my spine and made me shiver.
“It was not demons,” said Martha. “The demons aren’t that talented. But I am.”
I groaned. “Why on earth would you attack the school you supposedly love?”
Martha’s eyes flashed. “Because those stupid paranormal brats weren’t taking care of it. A Nocturn as president, Ultimate Tacticals that weakened the structure of my beloved home, and demons running wild. It’s a shame. Paranormals everywhere should be ashamed.” She drew herself up, glaring furiously at me as if it was all somehow my fault.
“You could’ve killed someone!” I cried, then stopped. My jaw hurt so much I wished it would fall off. In pain, I sucked air in through my teeth and glared at my attacker. She didn’t notice my fury, or she just didn’t care.
Her gaze sharpened. “It was a means to an end. I needed to be in paranormal form so that I could move around the campus and study its inner workings. Astra was the perfect base from which to do that. No other paranormals around, and no supervision.”
“Dacer said you weren’t supposed to be here.”
“I told every paranormal I came across a different story,” Martha bragged. “I told you I was your dorm mother, I told the librarians I worked in the dining hall. . . .”
And Public had been in such an uproar that no one had thought to challenge her.
“And what about the baking?”
“What’s wrong with my baking?” she huffed. She glanced at the fire, her eyes turning orange. “I have to go now,” she said. “Bombs to detonate and buildings to level. My sweet, sweet Public.” She removed the ice pack from my cheek and I flinched.
I had never heard anyone describe buildings as sweet.
“Wait,” I called after her. She was nearly to the door.
She turned halfway around, so that I was looking at her profile. My heart was pounding and I had to think fast.
“The explosions will detonate simultaneously, so I’ll be a busy lady tonight,” she said. Then she smiled at me as if she couldn’t contain her delight, and my heart sank. Whatever Martha was, she had become so twisted that she no longer understood she would hurt paranormals, or even that hurting them was evil.
“You can’t detonate yet,” I said desperately, feeling a bit of blood trickle down the side of my lip. “The demons attacked at Oliva’s gala, and all the students went back to their dorms. You’ll kill everyone if you attack now.”
The glint in her eyes made me go cold, but I waited for her response.
“I know, dear,” she said quietly. “Public needs a fresh start.” She walked out the door, ignoring my cries begging her to stop.
When I heard the front door slam shut I stopped yelling. She wasn’t coming back. She knew she was about to kill hundreds of innocent paranormals and she didn’t care.
My friends.
All my friends.
I couldn’t breathe. I felt my chest tighten as my body stiffened.
Gasping, I again struggled against my bonds.
I pulled and shifted until my skin was raw and bleeding. I called to my ring, but Martha, or Public’s self-appointed last defense mechanism, or whatever she was, must have done something to my powers, or maybe the bonds were magicked. Whatever she had done, my ring stayed dull and useless.
I wanted to scream in frustration, but my jaw hurt too much.
I was just about to give up when I heard a clattering above me. I stopped all movement. If it was a demon, I was dead.
I listened intently.
The clattering came again and I was sure.
Sigil!
“SIGIL,” I yelled, then stopped and listened. I heard nothing. My heart pounding, I yelled again, “SIGIL!”
He came floating through the wall, all wispy whiteness and tilted hat.
“Sigil,” I breathed.
“Why are you yelling?” he asked, pushing up his glasses. “All the cookies gone?”
I laughed, then instantly stopped when my jaw throbbed.
“We have to stop Martha,” I said. “Now.”
“Martha’s scary,” he muttered, shifting nervously.
“We can handle Martha,” I said grimly, with a confidence I didn’t remotely believe in.
Judging from Sigil’s expression, he didn’t believe in it either.
“Can you get these off?” I asked, nodding to my handcuffs. Sigil gasped and drew himself up. “I’m a master of pyrotechnics,” he said. “Of course.”
In seconds Sigil was at the fireplace, lighting a long thin stick. Once it was burning he rushed back to me.
“Hurry,” I begged.
I had no idea how long we had. Images of my friends, all sitting in their dorms thinking they were safe, flashed through my mind. They had no idea they were sitting on ticking time bombs. Literally.
And their time was almost up.
I felt the heat bite into my skin and flinched, but it was almost a relief from the pain of the bonds, and it worked, because after a few seconds of Sigil’s treatment the ropes that had bound me just fell away.
Once I was free I tried to stand - and stumbled. I hadn’t realized how weak my legs would be from being tied up. Sigil eased me back into the chair.
His trick of becoming solid enough to touch stuff was turning out to be useful in unexpected ways.
“Rest,” he cautioned.
“I can’t,” I said, looking at him in desperation. “My friends. I have to get to them.”
Sigil got me a glass of water and I guzzled it. Feeling stronger, I tried to stand again, and this time my legs held.
I took a deep breath, then another, and moved toward the door. Sigil started to follow me and I skidded to a halt and stopped him with a shake of my head.
“Stay here,” I said. “See if she’s done anything to Astra. For all we know she has a bomb in the basement where the stream flows under us, or she’s put one in the oven with her baking.
Sigil gave me a curt nod and straightened his hat again. His eyes glinted in the firelight. “I won’t let Astra fall,” he said seriously.
I nodded. “But Sigil, if it looks like something bad’s going to happen here. . . .”
Sigil shook his head. “I’m a ghost, remember?” he said. “I can’t be hurt.”
; “Right,” I said, grinning.
“Go,” Sigil told me. “Just go.”
I ran into the hall.
And there was Lough, still lying in a pool of his own blood. I knelt down next to him.
“Lough?” I whispered. “Are you okay?”
The dream giver’s eyes fluttered, but stayed closed. At least he was alive.
I ran back through the kitchen. Sigil wasn’t there, but that was good. Hopefully he was looking for bombs. I grabbed some healing salve from my room, and the Alixar mask for good measure.
Racing back to Lough, I cradled his head in my lap and applied some salve to the cut on his head. It wasn’t a great solution, because there could be internal damage that I wasn’t seeing. But the fallen angel powers that flowed through him would know very well what needed to be healed.
Accepting that the salve was all I give Lough right now, I shifted him enough so that his head was no longer in his own blood, and called for a pillow for him to rest on. The pillow came, somewhat to my surprise, but I was relieved to see that whatever Martha had done to suppress my powers was no longer operating.
Once I had finished those tasks for my friend, I ran out the front door, tumbled down the path, and raced away from Astra.
My eyes scanned the horizon, trying to pick up anything whatsoever that would guide me as to what to do next.
Where was I going? I wasn’t even sure where to start.
Martha was long gone, and I had friends in all the dorms except Volans. How could I choose which ones to save? She had said there would be simultaneous detonations, so there was no use trying to set priorities.
I knew I could never make it to all the dorms in time, and yet I couldn’t leave any of them behind. Even the pixies didn’t deserve to be blown to smithereens.
Already knowing it wasn’t going to work, I tried my Contact Stone. As I feared, Martha or the demons were jamming the lines, which meant I couldn’t tell my friends to get out. If Martha controlled all of Public, there was a chance I wasn’t going to be able to use any of my magic at all. The pillow in Astra might have been a fluke, or it might have been Astra itself rising up to take a side: the last elemental versus . . . whom? I had no idea.
I felt indescribable relief when my ring started to light up. So, the binding powers she had used on me had been in my bonds and not in the very air of Public. I was pretty sure that the Power of Five protections would have fought any efforts on her part to commandeer the very air, and apparently I was right. At least about that.
Before I could take another step I was thrown backward by an explosion, and the night sky was lit up in a million colors.
It was good I had gotten out in the open, because if I’d still been standing in front of Astra when the blast went off, I would have been thrown against the walls of the building, and I’d probably have died. As it was, I landed on my back. I could see the skid mark I’d made as I was pushed through the grass for several feet by the force of the explosion.
I pushed myself into a sitting position. Now at least my entire body throbbed equally, instead of a couple of places singling themselves out by hurting more than the rest.
Frantically I scanned the skyline of the campus buildings. What had just blown up? What else was about to be destroyed? Were my friends okay?
I remembered what Korba had said in our first class that semester about blasts and using natural materials for defense. Well, I was an elemental mage, so that shouldn’t be too difficult.
Ice closed around my heart when I saw fire in the direction of Airlee.
No, no, no!!
I picked myself up and put Alixar on. Instantly I felt the power of the mask flow through me, lifting me off the ground without even having to be told. I flashed forward, the wind in my face. Hopefully I wouldn’t run into any demons on the way, but this was probably the one time I could handle lots of foes without a second thought. I was furious, scared, and yes, furious. Demons would stay out of my way if they knew what was good for them.
I could see Airlee burning on the horizon, and I smelled smoke as I got closer. A large chunk had been blown out of one side of the building, and I could see crying students everywhere. I landed a few feet away and darted forward.
Nolan, who was standing off to one side, grabbed me and held on.
“Let me go!” I screamed, fighting him wildly. I didn’t realize that the mask was still on my face.
Nolan pulled me away.
“They aren’t there,” he said in my ear, his arms tightening around me. “What’s going on?”
I just looked at the dreadlocked werewolf without saying a word. Trafton was coming toward us and I shoved away from Nolan and raced to him.
“Are you okay?” I asked. Trafton sat down. His arm was bleeding, but he was alive. He nodded.
I turned back to Nolan. “Where are my friends?”
“They headed for Caid,” he said. “I don’t know why.”
“What about the other dorms?” I asked frantically. “Are there students in the other dorms?”
Nolan nodded. “Tell me what’s going on,” he said, his eyes glinting. “There are still demons attacking everywhere. It’s not safe for you to be alone.”
“It’s not safe for me with other paranormals either,” I said grimly, and with that I was flying, hoping I’d make it in time.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
No sooner was I in the air than I went tumbling right back down again. A large gust of wind - not the black wind I might expect from darkness, but a wind of every color - slammed into me, forcing me to stop flying. I fought and fought, but it was useless; the wind was too powerful. I came tumbling down only halfway to Oliva’s.
I glared upward.
Martha was attacking me on every front. I made a mental note to ask Dacer how this was possible, someday when peace had been restored. If it ever was.
“Fine,” I muttered, and pulled off my mask. I didn’t want to keep going anyway. I wanted to save my friends. I sat cross-legged on the grass, leaning my back against one of the trees I had landed near.
My body was glad for the rest, but it wouldn’t be once I had finished doing what I had to.
I couldn’t fight Martha, not if she was Public itself, which was the conclusion I was coming to in the midst of the chaos. The very ground could rise up and swallow me for all I knew, but I could still try to find the bombs before they went off. If I was careful and good, I should be able to get them away from the dorms, or neutralize them somehow, before she realized what I was up to. Then would be the time to figure out what to do next.
I called to my powers and they flowed to me eagerly. They hadn’t liked being locked away any more than I had liked not being able to reach them. I called to all the wind that wasn’t being used by Martha. Luckily, there was a lot of it.
I put myself in the wind around each dorm, searching for the bombs. They had to be large and outside. She might have been able to get inside the dorms if she was careful, but she needed bombs that would destroy the physical part of the dorms, like the walls and floors, while bypassing their very old and powerful protections: spells that she herself had probably helped create.
Destroying her own solid work, I thought. Something had really made Martha snap.
I felt vibrations from a massive surge in power and sent my wings rushing to find the source. At the base of a wall next to each dorm I felt a pulsing heat, which I was sure was the bombs about to go off. Keeping my eyes closed and focusing all the power I could grasp, I gathered as many of the winds as possible. I felt like a conductor for power. Magic flowed through me, to my ring and out, pulling air together.
I ordered the winds to cover the pulses, hoping to smother the power of the bombs. But something slammed into me, both my physical body and the winds I was controlling. Martha had realized what I was doing and was trying to stop me.
But she was too late.
I felt the explosions detonate, heat piling in on itself and rushing outward, upward, eat
ing everything in its path. Maybe if my winds had been any normal air they would have assisted the blast instead of smothering it, but I had ordered layers of layers of wind on each top of other, creating a thick blanket that covered everything within reach.
The pulsing went on and on. I felt the heat and the burning. I felt the explosions tear into the ground and devour the earth. I felt the walls of the dorms shudder and hold. I heard screams and yells and I knew that the students were still inside their buildings. And I started to hope that they would survive.
I don’t know how long it went on. I just kept calling winds. Every time it looked like a fire was about to escape I layered more air over the blast, protecting what was most important to me.
After a long time I stopped feeling new heat. I stopped feeling the ground shudder and cry.
I still kept calling winds until I felt my powers starting to wane, then I let myself come back to my senses slowly. I had pressed my hands, palms downward, into the ground, as if they were pressing the winds down onto the fires.
I wasn’t sure what Martha had attacked me with, but I saw no evidence of damage around me. To my relief, I also didn’t see any demons. Carefully I tried to stand, but for the second time tonight my legs wouldn’t take my weight. I sat back down and looked around. I had landed in a part of campus that didn’t have a very good view of the other dorms, but I couldn’t smell smoke and there were no fires lighting the night sky. Far away somewhere I still heard the sounds of battle, which meant that the professors hadn’t entirely dealt with the demons, but at least the dorms were safe.
My back also hurt from where I had pressed it so hard back into the tree. Before I could try to stand again I heard the flapping of winds. I slumped back against the tree. I had stopped the bombs from detonating and killing everyone, but now there was no way I had the energy to defend myself if what I heard approaching was a demon. My friends were safe, and that was all I had it in me to accomplish for the time being.
“Charlotte?” Keller’s frantic voice reached my ears.
I sat up and winced. “Keller!” I cried. “You’re alive?”
Elemental Air (Paranormal Public Series) Page 24