“But I want to have finals,” said Sip worriedly. She turned to me. “We will, won’t we?” Over her shoulder Trafton grinned at me.
“They respect me. You cannot be both liked and respected. You have to choose,” said the darkness mage.
“I still don’t understand where the Baxter brothers got lizards,” Trafton complained, trying to change the subject. It was a question we had all wondered about at one point or another over the semester.
“The lizards are demons in disguise,” Vale sniffed. “There’s no such thing as paranormal lizards of darkness.”
“There’s an illusion spell in the fire,” Sip confirmed. “They’ve been drugging us all along to think they’re lizards, which never made sense, but really they aren’t. They’re demons.”
Before Lisabelle could ask how she had figured that out Sip shrugged. “Researched.”
“So, I was put in a glass box filled with demons?” I sputtered. “High in the air?”
“Yup, and you’re not dead. You might be more competent than I give you credit for,” said Lisabelle.
We could have stayed like that all night arguing, but Dobrov seemed to want to get his mother home. She had started to sob, and when he walked over to her she met his eyes with her own watery ones.
“Son,” she murmured. “I’m so sorry.”
Dobrov didn’t say a word. He just offered her his arm. Mother and son led the way out, while Sip and Lisabelle came to either side of Keller and me.
“You know what that is?” Lisabelle murmured to us, pointing at the hybrid.
“Loyalty,” Sip breathed, beaming. “It is one thing we are very good at. Now, let’s go take a shower.”
In the hallway the fighting had stopped. Professor Korba stooped in a corner, leaning over his knees, while many of the other paranormal professors looked exhausted. The walls were charred and smoking. A couple of the holes were still framed in burning embers. Through an opening in the roof I could see that it was almost daylight. I had an almost overwhelming desire to turn my face to the sun.
When we finally got outside the spring breeze was cool, but even that couldn’t refresh my tired body. I barely registered details, except that there were a lot of paranormals milling around. Some were even students. I saw Cale fade into the background after giving me a slight nod.
I covered a big yawn with my free hand. Keller held my other one. Not for the world would I let him go.
As we left the Long Building I saw, standing across the open space in front of the entrance, a particularly tall Fire Whip. Lisabelle clearly took exception to him, and by the look on her face I figured he must be the one who had lashed her under Vale’s orders. But when Sip put a hand on her roommate’s arm, the darkness mage changed course. “Another time,” she muttered. I noticed that the Fire Whip sagged a little in relief when Lisabelle’s attention was diverted.
Later, I wouldn’t remember the rest of the walk home. My friends departed at some point, returning to rest in Airlee. The professors wanted to talk to us, but they said it could wait until I didn’t look like a ghost. I wanted to tell them that I knew a ghost and I didn’t look anything like Sigil, but I decided against it. Sigil wouldn’t want to talk to Dove or the other committee members anyway.
Everything was going to be okay. The Baxter brothers had been defeated. All we had to do was finish the last Tactical and be done with this terrible semester. And I understood some things I hadn’t grasped before. I didn’t know where the Mirror Arcane was, but I was only nineteen. Why did I have to solve every problem? It wasn’t my fault that it had been taken, or that it wasn’t still safe in Astra. I felt like the paranormals were finally realizing how much trouble we were in. Caid understood, but he hadn’t seemed sure what he could do about it. It was difficult to order paranormals who didn’t get along to act as a cohesive unit.
I climbed the stairs to Astra. All semester it had felt like something was missing and he had been, but now Keller was climbing the stairs behind me. As it should be. There wasn’t much talk of destiny in the paranormal world; we didn’t really believe in it, we believed in power and loyalty. But I had been raised as a human. Destiny was a part of me. At least now I could go home and sleep.
I gasped and sat bolt upright in bed, dislodging Keller’s arm. We had both slept until the next night. Keller had worked tirelessly to find me, and he was just as exhausted as I was. Despite the heavy velvet drapes covering my windows I knew it was night again.
Next to me Keller grumbled, but stayed asleep. I glanced over at him to make sure I hadn’t awakened him, then shifted carefully. I was not used to getting out of a bed that I slept in with someone else.
I was still bone tired, and I wondered how much sleep it would take before I was fully recovered. My head felt foggy and my eyes just wanted to close. My ring felt heavy on my finger, the metal cold. It would be a long time before I felt like I was at full strength again to use it. I sat up and let my body adjust to the fact that it now had to hold me upright. Like my sleeping boyfriend next to me, it grumbled.
But I couldn’t stay asleep. I had realized something vital. I had given up hope of finding the Mirror Arcane, but Sip and Lisabelle were adamant that it must still be on campus. I had thought that was because Vale had it, but she had obviously been nothing but a pawn. The Baxter brothers were the next most obvious culprits, but that had also turned out to be a blind alley.
What had been clear all along was that it had been taken by someone who knew where it was and had access to Astra. Well, with Mrs. Swan “missing,” that just left me with access to my dorm. True, my friends came over from Airlee, or snuck in through the basement - I was really getting tired of the role basements played in my life - but that was when I was there to let them in. Lough would never steal from me. There was a small chance another paranormal, like Caid, had snuck in, but I didn’t think that was the explanation either.
I took a deep breath, preparing for what I had to do, where I had to go, and who I had to confront to get my ancestors’ Mirror back.
In the dead of night, I finally knew who had the Mirror Arcane, but as it turned out I didn’t even have to go looking for him. Sigil was floating at the end of my bed when I struggled up, and he held the Mirror in his hands.
“Hi,” he murmured. “I have something for you.”
I gave him my best ferocious glare.
“Sigil,” I hissed. “How could you! I asked you to protect it.”
“I did,” he argued. “But I did.”
Our argument had awakened the sleeping fallen angel next to me. He sat up and looked at me questioningly, then at Sigil.
“Is that a ghost?” he asked in wonder. “Cool.”
Sigil pushed at his hat nervously. “Is that a fallen angel?” he said. “Haven’t seen one of those in a long time.”
“Why did you take the Mirror?” I demanded, my eyes locked on it, checking for damage. It looked well enough, but who knows what he’d been doing to it.
“You told me to keep it safe,” Sigil pointed out. “This is me keeping it safe.”
“This is you stealing what doesn’t belong to you,” I shot back.
Sigil shook his head sadly, coming only slightly closer.
“No,” he said. “You told me to keep it safe. I tried to keep you away from Public, but you were determined. How could I know that you were such a powerful elemental?”
I exchanged looks with Keller.
“What do you mean ‘tried to keep me away?’”
Sigil sighed and handed me the Mirror. It was cold and solid in my hands. I grasped it tightly. I would not be letting it out of my sight again any time soon.
“The fire when you and your friends snuck in was me,” Sigil explained. “I wanted to discourage you from coming for the semester.”
My mind worked frantically. I had thought it was a defense built into Public, but Sigil was saying that it hadn’t been. Sigil had known all along that I would come.
“But why?” I
whispered. “I can protect the Mirror.”
“I know that now,” said Sigil. “I know that now, but I didn’t then. I thought you would take it and ruin it. You are friends with a darkness mage, for paranormal’s sake.”
“Lisabelle?” I gasped.
“See here,” said Keller coldly. “Lisabelle would never.”
“As I said,” Sigil answered, “I know that now.”
“What was the point of taking it?” I asked tiredly.
“I knew I could keep it as safe as anyone, any trustworthy elemental.”
“You didn’t think I was trustworthy?”
“No,” said Sigil. “Elementals can be bad. Your mother was killed by elementals, your own kin killed her, because she wouldn’t do it their way. They thought she was endangering you, and with your father no longer there to protect you. . . .”
I felt like a very big paranormal had come and punched me in the gut. I had lifted my eyes off the Mirror now and was staring wide-eyed at Sigil. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Keller looking at me sympathetically, but I had no words.
“No,” I managed to finally whisper. “No, it’s not true. I didn’t come to you to have you tell me that.”
Sigil handed me the book of names. It was the one he had insisted on looking through instead of letting me see.
My hands trembled as I handed the Mirror Arcane to Keller. He held it gingerly, like he was afraid he would break it. My bedroom was still mostly dark, but Sigil, sensing what I wanted, ordered small flames into the candles all around. With my bedroom thrown into light I opened to the bookmarked page.
I scanned down, but what I looked for was immediately clear. Grace Lancing was listed as married to a Gregory Hail. I had never heard the name before, but that wasn’t what made my blood run cold. What made my blood run cold was that Grace Lancing’s name was crossed out. It was done to shame paranormals. If you were killed in battle your name received a star next to it. Only if you were considered a traitor was your name crossed out of your house’s, or your husband’s house’s, ledger.
My tears quickly started to fall. I don’t know how long I sat there, gently rocking back and forth as Keller held me, the Mirror Arcane safe in his lap. I lost track of time as I gave in to the pain, but when I looked up again, Sigil was gone.
I had finally answered some of the questions about my mother that had always bothered me, but instead of making me feel better, the answers had only made everything worse. And now there were even more questions. The sweet release I had always wanted from knowing what had happened might not come from knowledge, it might only come from vengeance.
The President of the Paranormals had told me to get all six artifacts. I was glad he had. Now I felt like I had a purpose and a goal, instead of just “Learn how to be an elemental,” or “Avenge my mother’s death.” Lough was spending his summer at the paranormal Police Academy. Ricky wanted me home and I had promised I would visit. He had tried to tell me that he would never turn into a fine young man without his big sister’s good example, knowing full well that between the two of us he was the one who set the example. It had at least served to make us both laugh. Vale was really okay; she had been more or less brainwashed and ruthlessly threatened, and she had just wanted to be around her kids because she hadn’t thought they were being treated well. But she would never spend another semester as President of Public.
It was now summer break. The last Tactical had been canceled, as were finals (no one thought Korba would give a good Decorating 101 final anyway), and I was waiting with Dacer, who had agreed to accompany me for the summer. The summer between my freshman and sophomore years at Public I had been on campus, working for Dacer, but this year he was taking me to a library in Vermont. He said it was the oldest paranormal library in the country, and a good place to start our search for the Globe White.
I looked back at Astra. My packs were at my feet, ready to go. My dorm stood silently, with most of the curtains drawn. Sigil was still in his library, since I couldn’t very well kick him out. He had promised to look after the place while I was gone and to let me know if Mrs. Swan returned.
Next to me my mentor sighed. He had arrived with twice as many bags as I had. I didn’t know anything about expensive luggage, but I was pretty sure Dacer’s was just that. He was busy filing his nails as he waited for our car to arrive. As a vampire he could fly, but it was hard in daylight and would have been even harder with all that luggage.
“Are you moving or something?” I teased him. He glanced at me and then returned to examining his hands. “A paranormal must always be prepared.”
I laughed and looked to the sky. We would be leaving any minute. I did want to go to Vermont with Dacer, but Keller had a major hold on me and I didn’t want to be away from him. He had wanted to protect me, but he couldn’t. I wished he could, but what I knew now was that no one could protect me, and that was how my life was going to be from now on.
Just as Dacer and I saw the car in the distance I a heard a rustling overhead, then came the sweet smell of roses. I turned my face upward and saw one wing, dark but somehow transparent, swoop over us, then another.
“Mr. Erikson,” said Dacer dryly. He wore a new rainbow-colored button down shirt and a navy blue velvet overcoat with shining silver buttons. He jeans were dark and his shoes had silver buckles. It was the most casual look I had ever seen on him. He stuck his thumbs into the loops of his pants and said, “I don’t recall inviting you.”
Keller landed in front of us and inclined his head. It was a sign of respect that he really didn’t owe, but Dacer seemed to appreciate the gesture. “I want to go with her. May I?”
“Here I was thinking you wanted to go with me,” said Dacer dryly. I grinned and stuck my face into the wind. The colors of the sky were stunning, as if someone had plopped purple and yellow down on a palette, then mixed them up and swirled them around.
My friends knew where I was. They had offered to come with me, but I hadn’t wanted that. I just wanted Keller to come and he was. I glanced down at our linked fingers, wanting a vision to go along with the tingling feeling all up my arm.
Sip had taken my refusal to let her come worse than Lisabelle had. I had braced for the darkness mage to yell, but she had merely shrugged. She planned on spending her summer near Maine, where she promised to look in on Ricky from time to time.
“I’m sure he will grow out of whatever phase he’s in,” she said agreeably.
“You mean the phase where he isn’t afraid of you?” Sip said. “I hope not.”
I saw Keller looking at me and smiled warmly at him. The feeling I had when we were together was not something I ever wanted to fade away or change. Now that he was back, I knew that. I knew I would always love him.
“Your friends were pretty worried about you,” he said, reaching his arm around my shoulders to pull me close. “Something I realized this semester. . . .” He stopped, and frowned. “Loyalty. It’s going to be important in the months and years to come. For both of us.”
I nodded. “Dacer said that our best defense against darkness is loyalty.”
Keller laughed softly. “Not love?”
“Dacer says that love can blind you.”
“What else does Dacer say?”
I started to list stuff off on my fingers, then realized he was teasing me. I stopped making my list and gave his shoulder a playful shove.
Dacer turned around and quirked an eyebrow at us. “We have the Globe White to find, do we not?” he said, smiling. “And only a couple more years to find it in.”
Now I knew why I had to go on an adventure. At some point, I would like to stop having an exciting life. I know it sounds strange, but as I keep saying, I’m not special. Not everyone has to be special. Sometimes it’s more important to just be happy. The things that make me happy, I realized - Ricky, Keller, reading - those things don’t require an exceptional life. They just require a little peace and quiet.
The End
~
One Black Rose Series
One Black Rose
August
Autumn
Susan’s Summer
Paranormal Public Series
Paranormal Public
Elemental Rising
Elemental Shining
Elemental Dawn
Spiral Series
Spiral
Elemental Fire (Paranormal Public Series) Page 25