Elemental Earth (Paranormal Public)

by Edwards, Maddy

“Lisabelle is right,” he said. “Someone stabbed him in the heart. Not a demon’s style.”

  Sectar flung the door open, his eyes fiery. The tall man looked half crazy, his whole body shaking.

  “What is the meaning of this?” he demanded. “How could you bring a battle to our very home?”

  Zervos hobbled forward, his face ashen. “My apologies,” he said. “It is not as if we called the demons.”

  Sectar pointed a shaking hand at us. “Yes, you did. You have darkness mages and the only elemental. I was assured we’d have no problems this semester, and we’ve already had battles and murders. I had no idea what savages Public students are.” He glared around at all of us with huge eyes.

  “You didn’t just have to leave us out here to die,” said Lisabelle, stepping forward.

  Sectar’s eyes stabbed into us. He hadn’t budged from the entrance to Golden Falls. He was physically standing between us and safety.

  “You think we came out here by choice?” Rake moved forward as the rest of us parted to make way for him and the body of Marcus. He held the dead fallen angel aloft, much like you’d hold a toy. Sectar’s facial expression didn’t change, but his mouth twitched. With what? Satisfaction? Contempt? I look away so that I wouldn’t be tempted to strike him.

  “I think you disobeyed a direct order,” Sectar hissed, “and I’m sick and tired of Public students flouting the conventions of safety.”

  “Well, we’re sick and tired of dying, so we can all be sick and tired together,” said Rake angrily.

  “That’s enough,” Zervos barked. He was swaying from side to side as he spoke. “We’re going to come in now,” he said to Sectar. “Or are you going to bar our entrance?”

  Sectar hesitated for a split second, seemingly contemplating what refusal would mean.

  When he stepped aside we poured in. I didn’t even think about the danger we had probably just walked into. I no longer wanted the sky hanging over me, threatening to pour more demons down on us. Lots of Golden Falls students crowded around the hall, all watching us.

  Pearl rushed over to Lough and started to whisper to him. I saw the dream giver blush.

  “Let’s go to the suite,” said Lisabelle out of the side of her mouth. Her eyes were darting in every direction and I could see that she was ready to push up her sleeve and use her wand.

  Fear gripped my heart as I agreed. Keller was going to take Zervos to be properly healed, while Sectar offered to show Rake where to take Marcus.

  The Golden Falls representative had calmed considerably since we had filed into the castle and closed the doors. He was now breathing normally, instead of furiously sucking in air through his nostrils.

  “He’s coming back to our dormitory with us,” said the burly vampire, not releasing his hold on the dead body.

  Sectar paused, his calm threatened. “Oh?”

  “Yes,” said Rake stoutly, “we don’t leave our dead alone.”

  “He wouldn’t be alone,” said Sectar, “he would be in our medical wing.”

  We hadn’t yet had the chance to tell Rake about what we’d seen in the so-called medical wing, but we didn’t need to. Rake was having none of what Sectar was saying.

  For a second the two paranormals faced each other, and as I watched, my heart leapt into my throat. Rake would be no match for a senior paranormal in a fight.

  The waiting Golden Falls students looked on silently, their eyes trained on their master.

  Sectar sighed. “The fruits of progress do not lie in battle.”

  Rake said, “We honor our friends.”

  “Do Golden Falls students even care about that?” Sip muttered.

  “We care about darkness,” said one Golden Falls students, a young man with chestnut-colored hair whom I sometimes saw with Jewel. “We care to minimize it.”

  Lisabelle smiled coldly. “Sorry.”

  “It’s alright,” said the guy, “you don’t really know what you’re talking about anyway.”

  “One other thing,” said Sectar, his eyes cold as he raised his hand. “We will not tolerate a slip in coursework over this event. You will not use your friend’s mistake and the consequence of that mistake as a reason to slack off.”

  I was almost blind with rage. He was saying this was Marcus’s own fault? At least I wasn’t alone in my fury.

  I watched Lisabelle carefully. She looked angry. The onslaught of hellhounds so soon after Kia’s murder was too much for her. Eyes blazing, she turned and called me over. Unsure what she wanted, I did as she ordered.

  “Take my hand,” she said, extending her pale one. It was not the hand that bore her tattoo and thus her wand.

  I took it and felt her clasp my fingertips tightly.

  “Move,” she muttered. She drew me over to the window, where in the distance we could still see hellhounds waiting. Everyone fell silent.

  “Huh?” I had no idea what she was doing until I felt the blaze of my ring and the pull of my powers. I gasped as my powers rolled and shifted through me in a way I had never felt before. It was almost like falling rock, a collapsing cliff, the rush of waves. The earth was moving within me.

  I felt power blossom through me, a million times stronger than I ever had before. I felt heat pulse out of my body that I was sure would melt the skin from my bones and leave it in a dripping heap on the ground. It was too much. I couldn’t take it anymore.

  Just when I thought our combined powers would split me apart, there was a gentling. Hands touched my hips lightly, so lightly I barely felt them through my clothing. I wasn’t being healed, because I had yet to be injured, but Keller’s power kept me as one instead of letting me be ripped into tiny shards and blasted around the hallway.

  At least we wouldn’t have to worry about hellhounds anymore.

  “They’re retreating,” Sip cried. “Victory!”

  My eyes, which I’d been squeezing so tightly shut that they’d started to hurt, flew open. In the sea of confusion in front of me I saw running hellhounds, who were somehow a magical brown, and who moved as if they were unsteady on their feet. The air seemed smoky, probably from Lisabelle and because of my own blurry vision.

  Lisabelle turned to the chestnut-haired guy. “Think I’m capable now?”

  I saw Sectar’s eyes as he stared at Lisabelle.

  He hated her. He really hated her.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Surprisingly, Sectar suggested that the Public students should take that day off. Golden Falls students would also rest and review what they had just seen. Many had only ever read about demons before and some were in shock.

  We headed back to our suite to shower and rest, but I felt jittery all day. Problems were coming to a head at Golden Falls. Sectar clearly didn’t know what to do with us, and maybe he had started out with the best of intentions, but the medical wing raised questions I couldn’t answer.

  It was clear that we needed help, which meant that it was time I got in touch with Dacer. Little did I know, Sip already had it in hand.

  “I sent a message to Public,” said Sip. “Help should arrive tonight.”

  I was relieved. The timing couldn’t be any better.

  “Is it Dacer?” I asked, hoping that the curator of the Museum of Masks would arrive and set everything right.

  Sip shook her head. “No, there was no way Dacer could get in without drawing attention to the situation and insulting our hosts. We can’t communicate openly with him either, because it seems pretty clear that they’re monitoring any communications we can get out,” Sip said.

  That at least, seemed obvious. Lough had messaged his sister, Kair, to tell her about all the food, and had received a gold-sealed letter in return asking him not to share his impressions with “others.”

  “So who’s coming, then?” I asked,

  Sip beamed at us. “Bartholem!” she squealed.

  I glanced at Lisabelle, who looked just as nonplussed as I felt.

  “I love my cat,” said Lisabelle, “but. . .
.” She frowned at her roommate, like she’d never seen anything quite like her before.

  “What if he can’t get in?” Lisabelle worried. She was sitting crossed legged on one of the couches, examining her wand.

  “I’ve never known anyone to spend so much time studying her own accomplishments,” said Sip hotly, glaring as Lisabelle gently traced around the intricate design that wound up her arm. The darkness mage grinned.

  “I do like to be one of a kind,” she said.

  Sip snorted and made no answer.

  “I’m sure Bartholem will have no trouble getting in,” I said. “He’ll find a way.”

  “Even if he does have trouble, he’ll still get in,” said Sip confidently.

  A little later we were still sitting quietly. I was reading, Lisabelle was doing something with her wand, and Sip was studying ancient maps when we were interrupted.

  The doors flew open and we all jumped. Daisy stood there, her eyes gleaning in the dark.

  “She might not even be paranormal anymore,” said Sip, glaring at the other girl. “Is crazy a paranormal type?”

  “I’m sure they’d change the laws around if only you asked nicely,” said Lisabelle. Sip straightened.

  “Really? Do you think so?”

  “No,” said Lisabelle.

  Daisy marched toward us. Her black clothing, like Lisabelle’s, was in stark contrast to the deep splendor of the room. I saw her white teeth flash.

  “Who were you talking to?” she demanded, stopping about ten paces away from us and crossing her thin arms. This was the first time all semester that I had seen her without Dobrov. Knowing Daisy, she had probably beaten him up and locked him in a trunk for the night. Her hair hung limply around her shoulders and had the faint look of needing a good scrubbing. Now that I thought of it, all of Daisy looked like she could use a good scrubbing. If only personality was something you could wash away and start fresh with.

  “How goes it?” Lisabelle asked. Never in my life had I heard the darkness mage sound so pleasant. She must be furious.

  Daisy didn’t move. Her eyes searched each of us. She looked as though she had all the time in the world.

  “I said,” she repeated, “who were you talking to?”

  “See, when I ignored you it was my polite way of . . . ignoring you,” said Lisabelle.

  Daisy’s face pinched together and her eyes became slits. She and Lisabelle had no tolerance for each other.

  “Why are you here?” I asked Daisy, trying to take some of the pressure off my friend. I was sitting straighter on the couch now, trying to smooth out some of the wrinkles I had created, as though Daisy would be angry and I would care.

  “Finding out who you are communicating with through the Contact Stone and delivering a message,” she said icily. “Now, tell me.”

  “My dear girl,” said Sip, standing up. Daisy took an involuntary step back and I saw the corner of Lisabelle’s mouth turn up ever so slightly.

  “We were communicating with each other. It is what friends do, and we are the very best of friends. Since you do not have friends I cannot expect you to understand. My apologies. However -”

  “Enough,” Daisy hissed. “I will not be spoken to like this. How dare you?”

  “I dare rather a lot since all my friends started dying,” said Sip coldly. “Dove, Kia, and now Marcus.”

  Daisy gave a bitter laugh. “Oh, so now the pixie is your friend? You’ve had nothing but bad words and bad blood with the Volans from the beginning.”

  “How do you know that?” Sip asked quietly. “I do, in fact, have Volans friends.”

  “Are you referring to Cale?” Daisy’s voice had gone low and deadly. Her eyes, far from being slits, were open wide, daring Sip to do something stupid.

  When Sip didn’t say anything, Daisy’s face broke into what I could only assume passed as a smile for her.

  “Yes, you are referring to Cale. He won’t be a problem much longer. He might even go the way of Marcus if he doesn’t shape up and come into line.”

  I jumped off the couch before Lisabelle could stop me. My feet landing on the carpet was the only sound in the room as I balled my hands into fists.

  “If you or any Nocturn, hellhound, or demon hurts one hair on his head. . .” I said, glaring at the hybrid.

  Daisy gave a twitter of laughter. “Threats, is it?” she said softly. “Ah, I like threats. It means I’m getting somewhere. Don’t worry. Cale is protected. For now. But not by you.”

  She saw the confusion in my eyes and pressed on. “Oh, you don’t get it? There are others whom we respect and respect well. When they ask for a favor or need a wish granted, we are only too happy to oblige. For all the world you might want to consider joining us. There is safety and there are benefits of which you can only dream.”

  “Oh, so if I joined you then you wouldn’t kill Sip and Lisabelle?” I demanded. Sip gasped while Lisabelle said nothing, but she had come to stand next to me.

  Daisy’s smile was razor sharp. She was fiddling with something, and I saw now that it was her ring. Black.

  “No,” she said. “I’m afraid they’re beyond saving. What the Darkness Premier wants, the Darkness Premier gets.”

  “You mean what Malle wants?” I demanded.

  Daisy’s face, which had held an amused contempt until now, took on another look, one of supreme satisfaction, and maybe even of victory.

  She stepped toward me. Lisabelle started, but then stopped; she was going to let me handle this. The room had grown colder since Daisy entered, and it took every ounce of strength I had not to shiver. Daisy’s eyes bore into mine and I met their fury as calmly as I could. Dobrov had proven that an angry hybrid was not a paranormal to mess with, and I had a sickening feeling that Daisy was far more dangerous than her brother.

  “Yes,” she said silkily, nearly purring with glee. “Whatever you say, dear elemental.”

  A tense silence followed, in which I couldn’t even hear the sound of the breath going in and out of our lungs.

  The tension was only broken when Daisy stepped back. “Anyway, you can have your little secrets. They won’t help you now. It is far too late. I am, however, here to say that tomorrow we are going on a field trip, and all three of you are expected to attend.”

  “All I hear is blah blah noise blah blah,” said Lisabelle coldly.

  With that Daisy swept out of the suite. Her feet didn’t make a sound as she moved slowly away, and I wondered if they even touched the floor.

  It was a long time after she had gone before any of us moved.

  I sat heavily down on the couch while Sip did the same. Lisabelle strode to the door and locked it.

  “But how will Bartholem get in?” I asked quietly.

  Lisabelle shrugged. “He wasn’t going to come in through the front door anyway.”

  “In other news, was she saying what I think she was saying?” Sip asked, her eyes fretful.

  “If you think she was saying that Malle is not the leader of the Nocturns and does not rule the darkness, then yes,” said Lisabelle. “I do believe that’s what she was saying.”

  “Oh good,” said Sip faintly. “I was worried that it was bad news.”

  “Only if you’re a paranormal not beholden to the demons,” said Lisabelle, sitting down at the foot of one of the floor-to-ceiling bookcases and leaning her head back against the wood.

  “I really hope he gets in,” said Sip.

  “Bartholem?” Lisabelle asked. “Yes, well, there he is now.” She pointed under our couch. The werewolf flung herself sideways and peered under the hanging cloth flaps. There, a pair of purple eyes were staring out of a white face. The cat’s body blended into the background so well that his eyes didn’t look like they were attached to his head.

  “I can hear him purring,” I said, grinning. I hadn’t known until just that second how much I had missed the sound. The cat took three steps and jumped gracefully, making for Lisabelle.

  “Hello, dear one,” s
aid Lisabelle happily, opening her arms to the white fluffy animal.

  Bartholem was purring so loudly that the noise was creating echoes. He rubbed affectionately against Lisabelle’s outstretched hand before starting to walk in tiny circles on her lap, looking for a comfortable place to sit.

  “Hiya, Bartholem,” said Sip solemnly, as if he could actually understand her. “Thanks for coming.”

  The cat acknowledged her with a look, about all you could expect from that animal, before returning to being petted.

  “It’s nice to see you,” I said, feeling very strange myself for talking to an animal, even though I’m a paranormal and one of my best friends is a werewolf. “But I don’t see how this helps us contact Dacer.”

  “I think the answer can be found here,” said Lisabelle, her hand carefully winding itself around Bartholem’s throat. “He’s wearing a collar.”

  I moved closer to examine what the cat brought in.

  “I wish he’d brought us a bomb,” said Lisabelle. “I want a quick end to all this, not some drawn-out nonsense where we keep having to pretend to be nice.”

  “All you ever do is pretend to be nice,” said Sip.

  “We still don’t know who killed our friends,” I pointed out.

  Sip gave a heavy sigh.

  “He’s wearing a Contact Stone,” said Lisabelle breathlessly, fishing through the cat’s fur.

  I took Bartholem from Lisabelle and for once the cat didn’t protest. The Contact Stone was already flaring to life.

  This particular Stone was green with silver and white flecks. I had never seen anything like it before, and although it was large for a cat’s collar, I had to assume that Dacer had fixed it there as a way to disguise its real use. If I hadn’t known what it really was I would never have guessed.

  “Dacer?” I asked, as my professor’s face flickered over the stone’s surface. Bartholem hung limp in my arms. He was still purring, but more quietly.

  “Charlotte,” said Dacer, smiling broadly. “Wonderful to see you.” His eyes were bright, but his face was thinner than I remembered. He wore lots of white paint and had dark pink-tinted eyelashes. I could see he was also wearing a nightcap that appeared to be a light purple.