I don’t remember my dreams.
I woke up on the cold ground. I was definitely in the woods, and they felt familiar, but I wasn’t sure. I looked up at the starry night, such a beautiful darkness.
“Lisabelle?” I asked, sitting up. She was standing with two dragons and a faery. It was a very odd grouping. She glanced over at me. Her face was white against the trees.
“Are we at Public?” My sounded groggy and my mouth was dry and cakey.
“Close,” said the faery. It was the same one who had taken care of Vanni. He came over. “We got you out of Golden Falls. It was our contingency plan all semester. Unfortunately, we underestimated how powerful the Golden Falls hatred for you was. Luckily, we also underestimated how powerful you and your friends are.”
“Where are the rest of us?” I gasped, glancing around. I saw lots of dragons. There were also faeries and Public students. But some important faces were missing.
“Where’s everybody else?” I asked again, when no one answered me. The faery and Lisabelle exchanged glances.
“We all got separated,” said Lisabelle. “Flying together made us a target for demons and we couldn’t have that.”
“We should go,” said the faery. “We aren’t going to find out where the others are by staying here in the woods.”
“I don’t know how to thank you,” said Lisabelle, striding forward. “Thank you.”
“Keeping that one safe is thanks enough,” said the faery. “We know goodness when we see it.” With a slight nod he jumped onto one of the dragons, and they lifted off into the night, leaving us alone near home. We were almost home. I shifted and pushed myself into a standing position. I swayed, but waved Lisabelle off.
“I’m going to walk onto Public grounds with my own two feet,” I said tiredly.
Lisabelle nodded, but she looked upset. “What?” I demanded. “I don’t have the energy to work this out of you. Just tell me.” I felt empty. Splitting up to escape obviously made sense, but I wanted to see my friends. I had to see them to make sure they were okay. “Did the faeries get Sip?”
Lisabelle took a shaky breath, then shook her head once. It was a tiny movement, but it spoke volumes.
“What?” I gasped frantically. “What? What? What?” I felt as if a clap of thunder had burst inside my chest and my body was being pricked a million times over by lightening.
I fell to my knees and stared up at Lisabelle.
“They took Sip. We also got word that a dream giver is dead, but they didn’t know who. They just knew he was around our age and he was dead.” Lisabelle stepped forward. I had never seen that look on her face before. It was beyond pain. It was like she had settled into grief and speaking of it only made it worse. She gripped my shoulders so tightly I closed my eyes.
I felt like I’d been stabbed. Was it Lough? Was Sip alive? In this pronged attack, the demons had left devastation in their wake.
“Do not collapse,” she said, her face white and inches from mine. “Do not. We know where all the objects on the Wheel are, and Risper’s coming back. He’ll help. But this was a multi-pronged attack, obviously long planned. They hit us in every direction they could think of.”
“Lanca?” I asked my mind running through all the paranormals I knew who weren’t at Public. It was a short list.
“What Faci said was true. They attacked Vampire Locke,” said Lisabelle. Her eyes burned with a reddish light. “Vital and Lanca showed them why it’s a bad idea to attack the Blood Throne. At least at first.”
“Good for Lanca,” I whispered. “Wait, is she. . . ?” I couldn’t say it.
“We don’t know where she is now,” said Lisabelle, her lower lip trembling.
“What if it was Lough?” My whole body ached at the thought, and the lightning pinpricks broke into flames. “The dream giver who was killed. . . .”
“It wasn’t,” said Lisabelle fiercely. “It just wasn’t.”
“Now what?” I asked. Questions were jumbling in on themselves.
The paranormals were scattered and broken. They had Keller, they might have Lough, and they had Sip. The dragons had saved us, and every member of Golden Falls had tried to kill us. We were at war, and both our leaders, mere college students, weren’t there. President Caid was useless.
“Now we go back to Public,” said Lisabelle gravely. “We get as many paranormals as we can and we kill them all.”
“Sip isn’t here,” I said, my voice breaking, “so I feel it’s my duty to tell you that you’re a bloodthirsty savage sometimes. And I like it. This particular time I like it a lot.”
“I was sort of hoping that without Sip here I’d get a reprieve from comments like that,” said Lisabelle quietly. There were tears in her eyes. I’d never seen such a thing before.
We headed back. It was slow going. My body felt like it had been pummeled and for all of Lisabelle’s strength she obviously walked under a great burden.
But there was one more ambush.
“Wait,” I said. “Where are we? We are just outside Public, right?” We were in a black forest, in a clearing. Lisabelle hadn’t taken us back to our college. Why? The faeries? The dragons? I turned to my friend. She looked like one big shadow in the darkness. “Lisabelle?” I asked uncertainly.
“You’re safe,” she said, her eyes filled with sadness. “I would never harm you. We are close to Public.”
“I know that,” I said shakily. “But you said we were going to Public, and we aren’t there.”
“We’re in the woods outside it,” she said. “You’re going to go the rest of the way on your own. Just after we finish talking.”
“Talking about what?” I asked. I felt sick. “Lisabelle, I really need to see Oliva and Dacer. We really need to see them. Caid should be there by now. For all he doesn’t do anything he’s still the president. All the senior paranormals are probably gathering at Public. It’s the safest place. How are we going to get Sip back if we aren’t there?”
Lisabelle slowly shook her head. “They can’t get Sip back. They don’t have the power to get hostages back from the demons.”
I took a step forward. Lisabelle took a step back. I halted.
“You’re scaring me,” I whispered.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. I had never seen Lisabelle beaten down before. I desperately wanted to help her, but I didn’t know how. “This is about Sip.”
“What do you mean?” My voice was breaking as I stared at my friend. I didn’t want her to continue. I was afraid of what she might say, but then again she had to. She had to finish what she had started.
She let out a long sigh. “I mean that you’ll be okay. I promise you’ll be okay. You’re the strongest elemental I’ve ever known.”
“Lisabelle, I’m the only elemental you’ve ever known,” I said desperately.
Lisabelle waved her hand. “Take care of Sip, okay?” I knew she was crying. I just couldn’t see it, but I knew she was.
“Why don’t you take care of her?” I cried, frantically reaching for her. “What have you done?”
“I’m doing what I can,” she said, her voice breaking. “Right here and right now I’m doing what I can. I have my limitations, Charlotte. This is what I can do, so I’m doing it. Please understand.”
Lisabelle stopped. Her right hand, her wand arm, gripped into a fist. I held my breath. “Charlotte?” her voice was very quiet and I couldn’t read the expression on her face. “You know that saying? Darkness calls to darkness?” Everyone knew that saying. Lisabelle knew I had heard it at least a hundred times.
“Why Lisabelle?” I sobbed. “Why?”
Lisabelle’s eyes were black pools I couldn’t read.
“They agreed to let Sip go,” she said quietly. “Sip had to be safe. I couldn’t do this if you weren’t both safe. They promised they wouldn’t kill you tonight, so I said okay. There was no other way to get her back. I know she thinks she can take care of herself, and normally she can, but they weren’t going to let
her go. They were going to kill her.”
“SAID OKAY TO WHAT?” I screamed and stamped my foot. I wanted to grab ahold of Lisabelle and never let her. “What did you agree to?”
“A trade,” said Lisabelle. “They let Sip go. They take me instead. You would do it for Ricky. Sip is like my sister. She’s like my Ricky. I can’t let them have her, not if there’s another way. It kills me that she’s even been in there clutches for a few hours. I won’t stay in the light without her anyway. So there wasn’t even really a choice.”
I stared at my best friend.
Darkness calls to darkness and Lisabelle had been called home. Now I was truly alone.
I stumbled into Public, having no idea what to expect and headed for Oliva’s small house on the outskirts of campus. It was bathed in light and I was relieved beyond words when Dacer rushed out of the front door to meet me. He wore less makeup than usual and was dressed in a dark blue shirt and gray slacks, like the grandness of the evil that had just taken place made him tamper down his wardrobe.
“I hear your name’s Luc,” my voice held no emotion. I didn’t know what else to say. I had nothing left. Keller and Lisabelle were gone. Marcus and Kia, not to mention Dove, were dead. I was left breathless by the destruction of this semester.
Dacer’s face was lined with pain. “You’d better come inside,” he said. “Unfortunately, there’s more you need to hear.”
Vital was there, along with Queen Lanca. I was horrified at how beaten up both my friends looked. Oliva sat in a chair, his head in his hands. I nearly collapsed in relief at the fact that Lough and Trafton were sitting on a couch near the fire, sipping what I knew would be a vile concoction that Dacer had made to help them feel better.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered to the room at large. I felt like I had failed. We had all failed. In that moment I hated President Caid, I hated Mound, I hated any paranormal who hadn’t helped us, more than I’d ever be able to put into words. But one thing was sure. I would make them pay.
Instead of successfully fighting darkness we had handed them everything. Absolutely everything.
I knew what had happened. There was only one reason Queen Lanca would be here and not at Vampire Locke. The Nocturns now had a home, they had a place to focus their power and become stronger. They had overtaken the Blood Throne. My eyes met Lanca’s. She was sitting in a finely carved chair, her back razor straight and her mouth set in a determined line.
“Do you hear the name of that mountain?” Lanca whispered dangerously. “Vampire.” It is mine. I will get it back.”
“No,” said Dacer firmly, “we will get it back. Together.”
“Together,” everyone chorused in unison.
I wasn’t sure I could stand anymore heartbreak. Let the summer begin.
The End
~
Also by Maddy Edwards:
One Black Rose Series
One Black Rose
August
Autumn
Susan’s Summer
Paranormal Public Series
Paranormal Public
Elemental Rising
Elemental Shining
Elemental Dawn
Elemental Fire
Elemental Air
Spiral Series
Spiral
Elemental Earth (Paranormal Public) Page 24