Elemental Earth (Paranormal Public) (20 page)

None of us slept well. We were
all still thinking of Marcus, and of his death. It was inconceivable that
anyone would have wanted him killed. Who had stabbed him? We brooded about that
question all through the night.

Sip had found several textbooks
on the one bookshelf in the living room, and she was poring over them when I
awoke from a troubled dream in the dawn hours. Lisabelle was in another corner,
practicing spells. I could feel her power breaking throughout the room even as
she pulled it back.

“Lisabelle,” I said, “can I move
the earth?”

Sip looked up. “Of course you
can. You can control lightning. That’s pretty impressive. ‘Don’t make Charlotte
angry or she’ll zap you’ is going to be my motto from now on.”

“Thanks, Sip,” I said dryly.

“Any time,” she said, with an
impressive amount of cheer.

There was a knock on the door,
and for a split second I hoped it was Keller, but at this point I wasn’t sure
Keller was ever going to speak to me again.

Lough stuck his head in.

“Morning,” he said. “Sorry for
barging in like this. I just couldn’t be in the same room as Zervos any
longer.”

“We have a lot to tell you,” I
said. Dacer might not want us to confide in some of our friends, but Lough was
one of us.

“Good,” he said, rubbing his
hands together. His cheeks were brighter than usual from the cold morning.
“Anything to distract us from this field trip.”

He came into the suite and sat
down on the floor with his back to the bookcase.

Before Sip, Lisabelle or I could
explain anything, Bartholem, who had been happily curled up in the bowels of
the sofa nearest the hearth, stood up and stretched, then jumped off the couch
and headed for Lough, purring loudly.

“GAHHRRH,” Lough cried out,
falling over on his side in the direction away from the cat. “What’s HE doing
here?” he said, pointing angrily at Bartholem, who had stopped to wash a paw.

“Chillin’,” said Sip casually as
Lisabelle covered her mouth, trying not to laugh.

I just grinned. “He missed you,
Lough,” I teased.

“Man, we’re in real trouble if
we’re relying on that thing to get us out of danger,” said Lough, shaking his
head forlornly.

“Bartholem’s here to help,” I
said, while the white animal rubbed his head against Lough’s knee. “We talked
to Dacer and he told us not to worry.”

“He knows you don’t like him and
he just enjoys torturing you,” Sip observed, running her fingers through her
hair.

“Sounds like a couple of other
people I know,” said Lough accusingly. “I’ll have you know that I came here to
improve my day,” Lough muttered helplessly. But despite himself, he started to
pet the cat with just his right index finger.

“So, tell me what news Bartholem
brought,” he said.

We did. We explained Dacer and
what he had said and his insistence that we keep quiet about having talked to
him.

“So, Dacer’s mother is coming to
fight darkness? Isn’t she probably like eighty? Is that really a good idea?”
Lough asked. “We have all these Golden Falls professors and students who are
probably younger and much more capable.”

“Don’t let her hear you talking
that way,” Lisabelle warned.

Lough merely shrugged.

Bartholem hissed and turned
around, sticking his tail up at the dream giver.

“Bartholem doesn’t approve,” said
Lisabelle, pointing to her cat.

“You don’t say,” said Lough. “I’m
just trying to be realistic. We can’t pin on an eighty-year-old all our hopes
of living out the semester without the marauder who’s running around Golden
Falls killing us off.”

“If Dacer says we can trust her,
then I think we can trust her,” I said. “We don’t really have a choice.”

“Marcus is dead,” said Lough.
“Keller’s upset. He wants his aunt to come. I think he’s insisted on contacting
his parents.”

“Is Sectar going to let him?” I
asked. Keller’s parents had avoided seeing him when I was also there, a silent indictment
of our relationship.

Lough nodded. “Of course. Golden
Falls doesn’t want it to get out that their university isn’t safe, and no one
says no to an Erikson.”

Soon it was time to leave on our
“field trip.” I was nervous, but I forced myself to grab a jacket and leave the
toasty warmth of the suite.

Before we left, Sip had us read
her latest missive in the Tabble.

It started, “We must bring the
paranormals together to fight darkness, not tear them apart. Pixies, fallen
angles, mages, faeries, vampires, tempests, and all the rest. We must rally
around a single cause, and I know exactly what that is. You have all perhaps
heard of the objects on the Wheel: each paranormal type has an ancient object
that embodies that type’s most closely held powers. If these objects could be
brought together, the Power of Five could be enacted without elementals.”

Her article went on for several
more paragraphs, detailing how we could best utilize the objects on the Wheel
to defeat darkness, if only we could gather them all together.

“My mom says you’re becoming
quite the writer,” said Lough proudly. Sip clutched her Tabble and beamed.

A few minutes later we stepped
out into the bright courtyard. Bartholem had decided to stay behind and cuddle
up in Lisabelle’s blankets, but we had made him promise to move if the faeries
came in to clean. We didn’t think we’d ever get him back, or escape with our
lives, if he was caught.

As usual, the front courtyard was
spotless and washed in gold. The sky was a hazy pinkish gray, with dots of
darker gray clouds. Lisabelle craned her neck upward.

“It’s going to rain,” said
Lisabelle, glancing up.

“Good,” said Sip. “Maybe it will
wash away Marcus’s blood.” We all stayed very far away from that end of the
yard.

Standing there waiting for us
were Daisy and Faci. Near them was a group of Golden Falls students that
included Jewel and Devlin. Professor Ferwick was leading us.

“Where are we going, anyway?” Sip
asked. Daisy, of course, hadn’t told us.

Just then some carriages like the
ones that had come to pick us up at Public came around from the side of Golden
Falls, where it seemed probable that they were stabled when not in use.

“Oh, no,” Sip groaned as she
caught the side of demons pulling them. “Not this again. Someone should tell
Sectar that it really doesn’t improve my opinion of Golden Falls,” the werewolf
muttered.

“I’m sure he’d be devastated to
hear it,” Lisabelle drawled.

Trafton and Rake joined us just
as the carriages arrived. There was something different about Rake now. His jaw
was set in a hard line and his eyes searched the courtyard endlessly.

I guess carrying your dead friend
changes you. I hoped I would never have to find out, but sometimes my mind did
return to the dream I had had of Lisabelle killing our friends. Every time, I
reminded myself sternly that it was just a dream. Just a dream. Just a dream.

“Zervos isn’t here,” Trafton
said. “He and Keller are staying behind today. They have to Contact Marcus’s
family.”

“I thought we weren’t allowed to
Contact,” I said carefully, knowing full well that what we had done last night
would get us in massive trouble if anyone found out.

No one answered my comment.

“Why are you coming with us?” I
demanded of Faci. The vampire smiled.

Faci smiled. “I told my father
about the field trip and he thought my presence would be educational.”

“I feel more educated,” said
Lisabelle. “I feel educated in disloyalty and lies. It’s quite the learning
experience.”

Faci’s face contorted. “Don’t
talk to me, traitor,” he spat out.

“Excuse me?” said Lisabelle.

“It’s funny,” Lough whispered to
me. “Lisabelle doesn’t want to talk to him. The only way he could get her to
would be by telling her not to.”

“You heard me,” said Faci. “The
other darkness mages have come over to the right side, but there you stay,
firmly on the side of the paranormals.”

He stepped forward, his misshapen
face lit by fury. “You will come into line with darkness. After all, darkness
calls to darkness. In the end, you will not be able to resist.”

Lisabelle was examining her
knuckles in what most paranormals would have taken as a threatening gesture.

“I would hit you,” she said, “but
your face already couldn’t get any worse.” She clasped her hands in front of
her, but I was sure that was more to hide her tattoo than to keep her hands in
check. By now, many of the paranormals around us had figured out that Lisabelle
could use her powers without a wand, and that there was a very large mark on
her arm, but she still didn’t want any of them to get a good look at it.

Daisy stalked up to stand next to
Faci. “See,” she hissed. “We’re just standing here trying to mind our own
business and you start a fight. We are blamed for your poor behavior far too
often.”

“Is everyone ready?” Professor
Ferwick called out nervously. We were only taking three carriages, and he was
standing next to the one in front.

Daisy and Lisabelle were engaged
in a glaring contest, but miraculously Faci wasn’t having it. He grabbed
Daisy’s arm and pulled her away. “Later,” he muttered. “She’ll get what’s
coming to her.”

“I’m just worried that I won’t be
the one to give it to her,” said Daisy bitterly.

Lisabelle stepped back into line
with me and Lough. Sip was standing a little to the side, examining one of the
carriages.

“I don’t like this,” said the werewolf
nervously. “Ever since the trip from Public, and Dove -”

“Want me to dream you somewhere
else?” Lough offered. “I mean, I can try.”

Sip smiled sadly. “That’s very
nice of you,” she murmured, running her hand slowly over the black wood, “but I
need to do this on my own.”

I glanced back at Golden Falls
once, thinking of Keller. I had hoped he would be there today, and my heart
ached at not being able to talk to him. Now his family was probably coming, and
he hadn’t even told me. I didn’t know what to do, but I did know there was
someone I needed to talk to. I just had to figure out how.

Sip was the last to climb into
the carriage. She obviously didn’t want to get in, but she had no choice. When
Daisy stuck her head out of the front carriage, where she sat with Faci,
Camilla, Ferwick, and the Golden Falls students, Sip hurriedly got in with us.

Rake put a comforting arm around
her shoulders. “It’s okay,” he said. “We’ll be there before you know it.”

“I know it now,” she muttered,
her face white.

My stomach flipped as we were
raised into the air. Sip gripped Rake’s knee and I could see her small fingers
digging into his flesh. He didn’t flinch. He was a massive vampire, after all.
Sip would probably have had trouble hurting him even if she tried.

Right before the carriage took
off, the door burst open and in popped Pearl. She gave Lough a shy smile as she
rushed in and sat across from him. I saw his ears turn pink.

Rake turned out to be more right
than any of us thought. It felt like we were hardly in the air before we were
descending. This created another moment of panic with Sip, who was obviously
miserable. She kept her eyes squeezed tightly shut for the whole ride, and
refused to respond to our attempts to speak with her.

“Where on earth are we?” Lisabelle
asked. When no one answered she looked at me. “Well?”

Pearl shrugged. She was still
staring at Lough.

“What are you asking me for?” I
sputtered. I was sitting next to the window, but there was a curtain covering
it on the outside of the carriage, and I couldn’t see anything down below.

“Earth, air, fire, water,”
Lisabelle explained, as if she was talking to a five-year-old. “You should be
able to sense the earth.” Lisabelle gave a cold sideways look at the Golden
Falls student.

Pearl took her eyes away from
Lough for the first time to look at me. In my reading of elemental history I
had learned some things about earth elementals, including the fact that they
were once used in battle to study unfamiliar terrain. Elemental earth mages
were sent in front to call out potential hazards or advantages. I hadn’t tried
to find out whether I had that power, but Lisabelle seemed to be implying that
I should try.

I closed my eyes and found my
powers, flinging them wide, noticing again that every time I searched for my
powers, it became easier to find them. The start of that process had been a
conversation with Keller.

“Magic is part of you. There’s no
searching for it. You don’t have to think about your hand before you use it, or
your mouth or your eyes. They’re just there.”