Elemental Earth (Paranormal Public) (10 page)

“I don’t know that I agree with
his methods,” said Lough, “but we certainly need more light in our lives
instead of darkness.”

After that there were several
more welcoming marches, although no others were gruesome like the bubbles. The
sun was high overhead when Sectar called a halt.

“Come in and feast,” he said,
throwing his arms wide. “It is joyous to have you here at Golden Falls
University.”

And so the night began. It turned
out that when Sectar said come inside, he was inviting us into a courtyard that
at the back of the massive golden castle. I had never seen so many jewels in
one day. There were rubies fixed to wall tiles, massive pearls for doorknobs,
and black jewels interspersed throughout the floor we walked on. I found myself
openly gaping.

First, though, we got to walk through
lavish rooms with gilded framework, far more elaborate than anything at
Paranormal Public, including the Astra ballroom. The floors were all marble or
covered in thick, plush carpets. The windows were massive, so as to take
advantage of the stunning view of the mountain, and trimmed in gold. Adding to
the richness of each room, plush velvet curtains hung thick, tied open with
gold brocade.

All this was to say nothing of
the waterfall or the courtyard itself. It felt like entering another world.

“Wow,” breathed someone behind
me. “Wow.”

Stepping into the courtyard felt
like stepping into a perfume shop. It was filled with flowers and plants, so
fragrant I felt like I was inhaling whole roses, and daisies, and all kinds of
flowers I could not name. I stepped onto the flagstones and looked around.
There were greens and blues, bright yellows and pinks, and every shade of
purple I had ever imagined.

“Why didn’t I apply here for
college?” I breathed.

Sip smiled. “Because that’s not
how it works?”

“Well, it should be,” said Lough
reverently.

“Oh, right,” I said, smiling a
bit myself. “Well, maybe it should.”

None of us bothered to see how
Lisabelle was feeling. Her arms were crossed over her chest and she clearly
didn’t care about the fragrances.

There were cheese platters and
crusty-looking bread. There were chocolate fountains and the most deeply red
strawberries to dip them in that I had ever seen. But that was only the
beginning. There were baked goods, from stuff that was easy to recognize like
mint brownies and chocolate cake, to stuff I had no idea about. There were tiny
bowls of some sort of mousse swirl that was every color of the rainbow. There
were chocolates in the shape of hearts and stars. There was every type of berry
crumble and there were vanilla, chocolate, and sugar cookies. Those were just
the types I could easily see.

I saw punch bowls in crystal and
large bottles of colored liquids, from orange to brown, from magenta to teal.

“Bye,” said Lough, and he hurried
to the nearest stack of pearl-colored plates.

“I’m surprised he even said
that,” I muttered.

We were about to disperse and
find food when Lisabelle held up her hand. “I want to say something to the two
of you first,” she said, tugging us out of the way of stampeding students. As
they passed us on their way into the courtyard, the Golden Falls students
didn’t look anywhere near as impressed as we did by the spread before us, which
told me they were probably used to this sort of thing.

“We need to be careful not to be
deceived, and we need to do something about our own situation even though we’re
not at Public,” said Lisabelle urgently to me out of the side of her mouth as
we walked inside.

I nodded, a little puzzled by
what she was focused on at this moment. “We will.” I tried to be reassuring,
but I really wanted to get over to the cheese platters before Lough finished
them off.

Lisabelle raised a quizzical
eyebrow. “Oh? Like what?”

“We’re going to find the objects
on the Wheel,” I said. “We’re going to find Malle, and we’re going to destroy
her. I don’t want all these pretty things to distract from that.”

“Can’t they distract us a little?”
Sip asked longingly, staring at a silver platter of what could only be cherry
tarts with whipped cream on top.

Lisabelle nodded approvingly.
“How are we going to do that?”

I shook my head. “If we have the
objects, she’ll come to us. It’s too much power for her not to come after it.
All she’s ever been is power-hungry.”

“Why are the demons after the
objects on the Wheel?” asked Lough, who had come over to us holding two plates,
both piled high with food. “I’ve never understood. Why can’t they just let us
have them?”

“Because controlling the Power of
Five is to their benefit as well. If they have it, it’ll be easier for them to
attack us and take down some of our age-old protections, like the ones around
Public. It will also mean that we don’t have them,” said Lisabelle.

“Exactly,” I said. “They might
also just destroy the objects like they’re trying to destroy me.”

“Then all the paranormals will be
unprotected,” said Lough. He had two plates stacked high with goodies. “They’ve
wanted that all along.” He handed me one of the plates and said something about
getting a drink, then disappeared. Lisabelle and I exchanged grins.

“Maybe we can share them,” said
Sip hopefully. “It would be the mature thing to do. Now, I’m going to get some
of this scrumptious-looking food.”

We stayed in the courtyard for
several hours, and many Golden Falls university students came up to us to chat.
One girl introduced herself as Jewel. She had a bright smile and piles of red
hair. Other Golden Falls students wanted to meet the last elemental, and they
seemed to be doing it despite Lisabelle’s presence. Luckily, Lisabelle was too
busy examining a stone sculpture of a goddess to care much.

Finally, Sectar gave all of us
permission to disperse. We were led to our suite by a faery, which was more
than a little shocking. I had had no idea that faeries worked for other
paranormals, and that they were employed at Golden Falls. This particular faery
was dressed simply in white and never made eye contact with us.

At this point I had pretty high
expectations for our suite, and Golden Falls didn’t disappoint. The place was
unbelievable.

When you entered our “digs,” as
Sip affectionately started to call them, there was a sitting room nearly the
size of the Astra ballroom. The shelves were lined with richly bound volumes of
books on either side of floor to ceiling windows that opened on the stunning
view. The velvet drapes were a midnight blue, in perfect contrast to the gold
carpet. The light and mirror fixtures were also gold.

That was only the first room.
There were many others, mostly bedrooms. Sip, Lisabelle, and I had decided to
share one. The place was so big you could start to feel lonely otherwise.

“Who cleans this place?” Sip had
wondered.

“They probably need a small
army,” Lisabelle mused. “Servants? Those faeries?”

Sip grimaced at the mention of
faeries, but didn’t say anything.

“Think we could live here
forever?” Vanni asked in wonder.

“You can,” Lisabelle generously
offered. “I’ve heard the academics here are tough, though. Not for the faint of
heart.”

“I don’t care if I can sleep in a
bed the size of a lake,” said Vanni.

“Why is Nolan staying with the
Public students?” I asked Keller, who had come with us to check out our rooms.
He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and I lay my head on his chest.

“They wanted to have one of them
with us at all times to make sure we were comfortable,” Keller explained.
“We’re already comfortable with Nolan, so that made sense.”

Sip rubbed her hands together.
“Good. It will be easier for us to discuss the Sign of Six that way. That
should help make me feel better.”

Last semester, when Nolan had
been at Public, he and Sip had started what they affectionately called the Sign
of Six. Since Caid was not fighting the demons, as far as we could tell, Sip
had thought it was important to have an organization that would stand against
darkness. She had told me to keep me out of danger, but now she was
spearheading the fight against the Nocturns. She showed no sign of slowing
down, having written a long missive about paranormals coming together and
battling as one combined force instead of as uncooperating, separate parts.
Lisabelle had helped her.

Sip sighed and plopped onto one
of the blue couches. Keller and I sat together on another.

“Sip, are you okay?” Keller
asked. He too had noticed that she’d been acting strangely on and off since we
escaped the latest demon attack.

She shook her head. “No, I’m not
okay, not really. I watched a committee member die, then had a bubble shoved in
my face about it. That doesn’t qualify as okay. Not all the good food in the
world will make that loss of life alright.”

Keller nodded sympathetically. I
could see he was quietly trying to check her vitals. When he was satisfied, he
sat back on the couch and wrapped an arm around my shoulders.

“Classes start for us tomorrow,”
said Lisabelle quietly. “We can’t have a meeting of the Sign of Six before
then. In fact, we might want to keep that organization under wraps this
semester.”

Sip looked aghast. “It’s the one
thing that will help me heal,” she protested, glaring at Lisabelle, who leaned
against one of three mantels in the room. “I’m not going to keep my head down
and hide like I’m afraid. The Nocturns would love that.”

“Do you think Faci will try to
attack us this semester, with Golden Falls being so opposed to violence?” I
asked.

“I think Faci will get someone
else to do his dirty work if possible. Isn’t that the Nocturn way?” said
Lisabelle bitterly. “If that doesn’t work, then maybe he will. I think Golden
Falls will have to kill him to keep him from doing violence, and since they
aren’t willing to use violence, well, it gets complicated.”

“He’s perfectly happy to hurt
innocent creatures in the shadows. Let’s see how he feels about fighting
something that knows how to fight back in the light.”

“Are you going to be okay here?”
I asked. It was something I’d been worrying about since we arrived. I hadn’t
realized how much Falls disliked darkness, and Lisabelle was chock-full of it.

Lisabelle looked at me sharply,
her face taking on the now familiar unreadable mask. “What do you mean?”

I looked away, around the
beautiful suite we’d be calling home for the next few months.

“Darkness calls to darkness,” I
said. “Golden Falls hates darkness. I’m just worried that they’ll try to trap
you, or something will happen with the little darkness around us.”

Lisabelle nodded. “You’re right
to be worried about it.” Her concession surprised me. “Golden Falls is a
dangerous place for any darkness mage. My plan is to just keep my head down and
not draw attention to myself.”

“My plan is to be five feet
taller by Friday,” Sip muttered. “You know what they say about the best laid
plans. . . .”

Despite our worries, we all went
to sleep with high hopes for Golden Falls.

Our first day at Golden Falls
wasn’t an unmixed pleasure.

First, I didn’t see Keller at
all, not once, not even at meals. He had said they would keep him busy learning
the ropes, but I hadn’t realized that he would be so busy he wouldn’t have time
for lunch. Second, all the students stared at me. I had forgotten that that was
likely to happen. Third, Faci. Enough said. Fourth, Golden Falls was like the
twilight zone. I had seen incredible things since magic became a part of my
daily life, but nothing like the splendid castle of Golden Falls. It wasn’t
bad, but it was an adjustment. And lastly, something very strange happened with
Kia.

As we headed to breakfast, the
small pixie was nowhere to be seen. The rest of us filed quietly out of our
suite, having bathed (no showers, just, yes, you guessed it, gold bathtubs) in
piping hot rose water. Both she and Camilla had been gone when we got up in the
morning.

“Can you believe we’re sharing a
suite with Camilla?” I muttered, glad that Cale’s former girlfriend was nowhere
to be seen.

“I’m just impressed she lasted
the night,” said Lisabelle. “All this happiness must really get under her green
skin.”

“What, were you going to kill
her?” Sip demanded. “She’s just a poor, innocent, crazy pixie.”

Lisabelle and I exchanged worried
glances. Then Sip guffawed. “Gotcha there, didn’t I? I’m not completely crazy!”

Lisabelle rolled her eyes. “If
she talks crazy and she acts crazy. . . .”

“Although if you keep hanging out
with those two you might be,” said Nolan smiling, joining us in the walk down
the plushly carpeted halls. His hands were tucked into his pockets and he
whistled while he walked. “I thought I’d help you find your way to breakfast.”