Elemental Earth (Paranormal Public) (13 page)

“Which is to stay as far away
from me as possible?” I said. “That’s great. They don’t hate other paranormal types
at all.” If I was going to go partway, I thought, I might as well go all the
way.

Nolan pushed away from the gold
wallpaper. “Look, Keller has every right to question what I’m doing here.”

“No, he doesn’t,” I said harshly.
“He has no right at all. He doesn’t trust you, but he should.” I was nearly
shouting now, and I wasn’t even sure why.

Keller took a deep breath, as if
he was about to argue, but instead he just threw up his hands and did something
that I’d never seen him do before.

He walked out on me. He just
walked right past me and didn’t even look at me. I watched him go, fighting
back tears, very aware that Nolan was still standing there.

After the door closed behind
Keller, Nolan said quietly, “You should leave here, Charlotte. I thought you weren’t
supposed to be left alone?”

It was true. “Lough walked me
here, but then when we heard Keller’s voice he went back to eat,” I whispered,
feeling sick. I was lying, but Nolan would never know that.

“Well, thanks for being on my
side,” said Nolan quietly. “I still want the Sign of Six to succeed. I’m just
not sure that it’s in the cards anymore. I didn’t realize what we were really
up against until I came back here.”

I stood staring sadly at the door
that had just closed, but only for a few seconds. Then I heard screaming.

“CHARLOTTE,” Lisabelle’s voice
screamed out to me, nearly making me stumble in its intensity. “CHARLOTTE?” The
panic in her voice was in stark contrast to our beautiful surroundings.

Fear shot through me and I looked
around wildly. Lisabelle sounded like she was in a complete blind panic. Nolan
stood wide-eyed looking at me, his face going paler. We both dashed to the door
and I peered around the door jamb.

Sip and Lisabelle came racing
around the corner. Sip was in werewolf form, her haunches pumping, and
Lisabelle looked like she was about to have a heart attack. Her black hair flew
around her and her eyes were frantic. When she caught sight of me she skidded
to a halt, looking at me as if she was seeing a ghost. Sip halted as well, her
tail starting to wag as Lisabelle bent over and braced her hands on her kneels.

“What is going on?” I demanded,
folding my arms across my chest to keep them from shaking. Dinner seemed to be
over; I could hear other students coming. “You two are frightening me half to
death.”

Lisabelle stood straight, pulling
her hair back into a severe-looking ponytail. Even from where I stood I could
see that her hands were shaking.

“Are you alright?” she asked
through clenched teeth.

I nodded, my chest so tight it was
hard to draw breath. “Explain what’s going on. I need to leave soon.”

Lisabelle looked at me sharply,
her eyes filled with something I couldn’t read. “Where’s Keller?”

“He left,” I gritted out, barely
managing to keep my lip from quivering as I said it.

“So, who are you here with?” she
demanded, her eyes filled with panic. “Charlotte, I’ve told you and told you
not to be alone! It’s not safe.”

I choked, feeling the prick of
tears in my eyes. “Lisabelle, this whole acting like my mother thing is too
much. I’m not alone, so just stop it.” It was the first time I had snapped at
my friend.

Lisabelle gave a sharp, bitter
laugh, but there was no humor in it. “I’d rather act like your mother and have
you be safe than have you dead.”

“She’s here with me,” said Nolan,
coming through the doorway into full view. It took a lot to stand up to
Lisabelle when she was angry, and Nolan looked like he might collapse from the
effort.

Sip, meanwhile, had transformed
back into human form. Her worried eyes were trained on my face.

“He can be trusted,” Sip said to
no one in particular, her voice shaking.

“It certainly seems to be a big
topic of discussion,” said Nolan dryly, glancing at me.

Lisabelle waved him off. “Go
away. Now.”

Nolan didn’t hesitate. He
disappeared back into the guys’ suite and closed the heavy door. Sip and
Lisabelle each came to either side of me.

“You better be prepared to stay
up late,” I warned tiredly. My fight with Keller had taken a lot out of me.
It’s hard to move around normally when your heart isn’t in it, because it’s
with someone else. “I have a meeting, and if you aren’t going to leave me alone
you’re going to have to come with me.”

“Meeting with who?” Lisabelle’s
eyes narrowed as we started back to our suite.

“Kia asked to meet with me,” I
said, throwing my hands up in the air. More mothering talk, just after I had
told her to leave me alone. “I told her I would tell you two about it, and she
said she’d be glad if you two came along. What’s it to you?”

“Oh, I’m sure she won’t mind at
all,” said Lisabelle casually. Something was obviously very wrong. I halted.

“What are you talking about?” I
demanded.

“Kia,” said Lisabelle, turning to
face me, “is dead. Murdered.”

After that we went back to our
suite. I nearly ran. The only problem was that there was no privacy there. You
couldn’t really have a conversation about darkness when you lived with Camilla
Van Rothson. We had already made an agreement not to say anything in front of
the blond pixie, not even so much as “How was your day?”

“They’re going to have a
school-wide meeting about it soon,” said Sip quietly. “It’s just awful. Golden
Falls doesn’t do murders.”

“How was she killed?” I asked, my
heart clenching. I had spent years not even liking Kia, but she had saved
Lisabelle when we were attacked, and I had been changing my mind about her as
she moved away from her old associations. I had started to feel sick because of
my fight with Keller, but now I really felt like my stomach might get rid of
everything I had eaten recently. Kia was just my age, and now she was dead.

“You have to tell us what she
wanted,” said Lisabelle fiercely. “It could mean the difference between life
and death.”

“I didn’t know,” I said, despair
choking me. “She was going to tell me tonight.”

When we reached our suite we were
in luck; it was empty. Sip and Lisabelle had rushed to find me, but no one else
was around.

“They don’t know how she was
killed,” said Sip breathlessly, “or they aren’t saying.”

I frowned. “They don’t know?”

“That’s what Camilla was screaming,”
said Lisabelle. “She came into the courtyard and just started screaming.
According to Lough she ruined a perfectly good dinner.”

“There weren’t a lot of
paranormals there,” said Sip, her voice still hushed. “Most of us were in our
rooms or just getting out of class.”

Cold and sadness washed over me
in waves. “Poor Kia.”

“She was really afraid of
something,” said Sip, her brow puckered. “Whatever that something was is
probably what killed her.”

“Now you really can’t be alone,”
said Lisabelle warningly. “We’ve been gone from Public for a week and we’re
down two.”

With both Dove and Kia dead I
wondered if they’d recall us to Public. I voiced the thought to my friends, but
Lisabelle didn’t think so.

“Do you think the rest of us are
in danger?” Sip asked.

“We’ve always been in danger,” I
pointed out.

Sip nodded, glancing out the
window at the stunning view of the mountain and waterfall. “I mean, do you
think what happened to Kia could happen to us?”

“I think we have to act like it
could,” said Lisabelle. The door to our suite banged open, making us all jump.
Vanni came rushing in. Her eyes were wide and terrified.

“Kia’s dead?” she cried, her eyes
frantically darting around to each of us. “I want to go home. Like now. How
awful! I miss my mom and dad.”

She disappeared into the bedroom
she’d claimed as her own, the only one that had a private bathroom. She
reappeared a few moments later.

“I’m leaving,” she said
hurriedly, breathing like she’d just run from a demon. “I can’t take this
anymore. I don’t care if I don’t graduate from college. Charlotte, tell Keller
I’m sorry.” She was shaking so badly she could barely talk.

“You think if you leave you’re
safe?” Lisabelle demanded, hands on hips. “You think that demons can’t get you
outside Golden Falls?”

“You think demons did this?”
Vanni asked, at least showing a little fight. “I don’t care what did it. I want
to go home!”

“Exactly,” said Sip, “Do you
really think they’re going to let you leave? It would show that Golden Falls
can’t enforce peace.”

“If you have to enforce peace you
already have a problem,” I murmured.

Vanni only paused for a second.
“I’m going,” she stammered. “If anyone tries to stop me I’ll Contact my dad.”

Sip groaned.

“If you can get to a Stone,” said
Lisabelle quietly.

But Vanni was past the point if
listening. “I’m going back to Public, where things make sense,” she said. “I’ll
tell them what’s going on. At least Professor Erikson will help.”

The door closed quietly behind
her. Sip glowered.

Lisabelle rubbed her temples.
“We’re dropping like flies.”

“Should we go back to the guys’
suite?” I asked, thinking I wanted to make sure our friends were alright.

Lisabelle shook her head. “We
aren’t allowed to leave here, according to Zervos. The place is on lockdown.
Besides, he’s with them. They should be fine. They don’t want girls coming to
their rescue anyway.”

“Come on. We should get some
sleep. Tomorrow Sectar’s going to speak to all of us. I want to be
well-rested,” Sip said tiredly.

I barely slept that night; I just
kept tossing and turning. It was hard to imagine that I would never see Kia
alive again and that I was the last paranormal she had wanted to talk to.

The next morning dawned gray and
cloudy. The brightness of Golden Falls felt subdued, and all the Public
students moved around quietly. It was as if we were afraid that if we made too
much noise, we’d disrupt a giant, sleeping serpent. By that time news of Kia
had spread, and we were all in mourning. We might not all get along when we
were at Public, but being away had brought us closer together.

“What are we doing here?” Lough
wailed as we fell into step with the rest of the Public students. Sectar had
called us all out to the front gate, and it was a relief to get outside. Golden
Falls had felt claustrophobic since Kia’s death.

“We’re learning and growing,”
said Lisabelle, with an edge to her voice.

“Learning how to die and growing
in fear?” Lough sputtered. “It’s ridiculous. Kia just died. We should be in
mourning and in class. If this place is so filled with light, how could they let
this happen?”

“Can you get in touch with
Dacer?” Sip whispered to me. It was something that had been on my mind. I
wondered if Keller had been in touch with his aunt. He was her favorite, and I
had a hard time believing she would accept not talking to him for months on
end.

“I don’t know,” I whispered back.
“I can try.”

“You should,” said Sip nervously.
“I mean, I’m sure Golden Falls has Contacted him, but it would still be nice to
know what he thinks.”

I agreed with her. “Ouch!” I
cried, grabbing my hand and holding it to my chest. All of a sudden my ring was
pulsing frantically.

Sip and Lisabelle both looked at
their own rings.

“Oww,” said Sip, glaring at her
finger.

“It’s a warning,” said Trafton
thoughtfully, coming up to us, his light blue eyes filled with concern.

“What’s it warning us of?” I
asked.

Trafton didn’t know.

We all came to a halt, but
Zervos, who was leading us, did not. When he reached the double doors he turned
around to glare at us.

“Are those made of solid gold?” I
asked in wonder.

“Do you want me to answer
honestly?” Trafton asked with a little smile on his lips.

Zervos marched back to us, fists
clenched at his sides.

“You will move,” he muttered.
“Let me be very clear. We are all walking through those doors, together. We
will not disrespect our hosts or their ways. If your rings are pulsing, Golden
Falls has a good reason for it.”

At first no one moved, then
someone tapped me on the shoulder. I knew it was Keller, because I could sense
his presence and I recognized his touch.

“I’ll go,” he said without
looking at me. Marcus was following him. Once our two student chaperones were
standing next to Zervos, the rest of us reluctantly followed. I could see
Keller’s ring pulsing and wondered why he was agreeing to walk out into the courtyard.
My blood had started to fizz as my ring grew hotter on my finger.