Elemental Earth (Paranormal Public) (27 page)

My blood ran cold.

Keller blinked several times, as
if he was unsure what to say. He still held my hand, but he had stopped trying
to tug me out of the room.

“Keller,” I whispered, my blood
pounding in my years. It didn’t matter that Cynthia Malle used to be friends
with Keller’s parents. Some actions were unforgivable.

I knew in that moment that Keller
and I had no future. There was no way I could ask him to choose between his
parents and me; it wouldn’t have been fair. He was his parents’ firstborn
child, and he had to align with the family, even if that meant Cynthia Malle.

“Keller,” I whispered, slowly
prying my hand free. He looked at me frantically, his eyes filled with fear,
and in that moment my heart broke. I turned my head away, but that meant I met
the eyes of my nemesis.

Bracing myself I said, “It
doesn’t matter how many times you come after me.” My voice was soft, but the
words were filled with steel. “It doesn’t matter how many of the things I love
you take away. You will never win. Never ever.”

“Charlotte!” Keller’s voice came
out strangled. With my heart in my mouth I forced myself to look at him.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I’m so
sorry.”

“For what?” he asked desperately.
“There’s nothing to be sorry for.”

I nodded, fighting back the tears
that wanted to spill out.

“Yes, there is,” I said, hanging
my head.

“See, even Charlotte agrees,”
said Mrs. Erikson triumphantly. She was met with a ringing silence. Even Malle
wasn’t going to say anything.

“No,” said Keller firmly. “No,
no, no.”

“It’s your duty,” I said. “You’re
a fallen angel of the House Erikson. You’re a senior in college, and this
semester all you’re doing is chaperoning a bunch of dying Public students.”

“Are you saying I’m a bad
chaperone?” Keller asked. I couldn’t tell if he was kidding. It didn’t matter
anymore.

“You should stay here,” I said
desperately, afraid that if we kept talking about it I would lose my nerve.

“I don’t want to stay here,” he
said firmly. “I want to be where you are. Don’t you get it by now?”

I couldn’t stop the tears from
coming. Keller would be safer here. I mean, come on. If he was with Cynthia
Malle and his parents were happy, who would even try to hurt him? He couldn’t
help me with what I had to do. Only Sip and Lisabelle could, and maybe Lough.

I looked at Mr. Erikson, who,
except for one outburst, had sat quietly watching the proceedings.

“How do I get home?” I whispered.

“I’ll take her,” said Keller,
stepping forward with renewed energy.

“You’ll do no such thing,” his
mother hissed, glaring at him. “You are not leaving. How can I get you to
understand that?”

I looked at Mrs. Erikson. She
might love her son and her family, but she was anything but harmless.

Keller shook his head.

“Fine, mother,” he said. “I’ll do
as you ask. I’ll assume the family responsibilities. I’ll even intern under
Cynthia Malle, or whatever it is she’s doing here. I’ll even give up Charlotte.
But mother, I want you to be very clear -” He met his mother’s eyes for the
first time since Cynthia Malle had appeared and I saw his mother shiver a
little. I had never seen Keller so cold.

“I’m doing it for Charlotte.
Because I love her and she’s asking me. I am not doing it for you. I will
never, ever, for as long as I live, forgive you for this. We will see how comforting
keeping the family titles and place in paranormal society is after that.”

Her lip was trembling, and I
couldn’t believe that Keller had just spoken to his mother that way. His father
was about to say something, but Keller held up his hand. “I want a minute alone
with Charlotte. It is the least you can do. She will have to carry a message
back for me anyway.”

I saw all three paranormal adults
hesitate for a split second, but Mr. Erikson quickly stood up. “As you wish,”
he said, “just don’t take long.”

Keller gave one curt nod.

Slowly, his family filed out of
the room. The pendant Mrs. Keller wore swung loosely around her neck as she
glanced around.

She never looked at me.

I had had dreams of how our
relationship would go, and now they lay in shattered shards on the plush
carpet. I would be returning to Golden Falls and our murder mysteries without
my lifeline, and I wondered if I’d even be able to breathe.

I wanted to throw myself at
Keller, but I didn’t budge. My feet stayed firmly planted as he looked at me,
his eyes filled with loss.

“I’ll see you again,” he croaked.
“I promise I won’t let her change me.”

I smiled sadly, knowing that what
he said very well might not be true.

“Learn her secrets,” I said,
trying to be positive. “Maybe it will help the Sign of Six.”

Keller laughed bitterly. “Maybe.
I’d like to see Sip running paranormal defenses. She’ll strike fear into the
hearts of the fighters.”

“Hey, the Paranormal Police
Academy is doing well,” I whispered. “We might have a chance to hold them off.”

“It won’t matter if we can’t be
together,” said Keller. “What’s the point of fighting if I don’t have you?”

I felt the same way, and I had no
answer for him.

“I’ll dream you,” I said.

“It will be hard to get anything
done when sleeping is better than being awake,” said Keller smiling sadly.

“Keller,” I whispered, rocking a
little with the strong emotions coursing through me. “I’m not sure this is
right. Even if it keeps us both alive. Are you sure?”

Keller swallowed hard. “It’s
okay,” he said hoarsely, “I’ll be sure for the both of us. Trust me.”

I rushed into Keller’s arms and
he closed them around my shaking shoulders. I clung to him, fighting the
thought that this was the last time we’d hold each other. I felt his warm
breath on the back of my neck and I knew that the shakes racking his body were
caused by the same thing that caused mine.

The last thing we would do
together was to say goodbye.

I felt sick. It had nothing to do
with the rocking carriage, the sight of Malle, or my dead friends. My world was
falling out from under me and I had no way to stop the descent. I had all the
magic in the world, and the very best friendships, and I felt like a hollowed
out shell.

I tried to tell myself that it
would be okay, that Keller would be okay. He was with his family. How could he
be anything other than safe?

I pounded my fists into my lap
until I caused bruises and my fingers were numb. I screamed and cried, not
caring that the horse pulling my carriage was probably terrified. I slammed my
magic out into the ground and through the air and yanked at the clouds. I heard
a clap of thunder and saw a flash of lightning.

I didn’t even blame Malle. I knew
she was evil. I had seen that she had penetrated to the highest levels of
paranormal government when I saw her talking to Caid.

I wondered what my friends would
say when they heard she’d been spotted at the Eriksons’.

Lisabelle probably wouldn’t be
surprised, but Sip would be furious.

I was glad that Dacer’s mother
was at Golden Falls with us, because now we had lost Keller. If the murderer
lurking there was a Public student - Faci or Daisy, for example - the more
paranormals on our side the better.

I felt lost. It was like reaching
for a beautiful gift and being given coal instead. I just wanted to go back to
Public, crawl into Astra, and sleep until this was all over.

I got out of the fancy fallen
angel carriage long past bedtime. I was a little worried about getting inside,
but at this point I wouldn’t have minded curling up on the steps of the school
and going to sleep.

As I climbed the stairs, though,
the doors swung open. With raised eyebrows I looked at Bartholem.

“How’d you know I’d be coming
back?” I asked, obviously not expecting an answer.

The cat merely turned around and
raised his tail in the air, and I followed him through the quiet corridors of
Golden Falls University.

The semester was almost over and
I still had my exam on Monday. How could I be expected to function normally
after everything that had happened? The test on the dream Lough and Trafton had
woven would be exhausting. I had a feeling we’d be asked difficult questions
about the powers we had seen, powers that hadn’t existed in generations.

“What am I going to do,
Bartholem?” I asked softly as we reached our almost-empty dorm. I slid inside
and glanced at my friends’ beds. Both looked sound asleep, so I went and sat by
the stoked fire. It was the only light in the room, given that dark curtains
were drawn over the windows.

Bartholem wasted no time jumping
up onto my lap as the heat of the flames warmed my crestfallen face.

I sighed and absently petted the
cat. I had to think. Malle was trying to throw me off by taking Keller away from
me, and yes, his parents might think they were doing right by him, but I knew
that Malle was at the heart of this. She always was.

Keller and I would see each other
again.

It might take a long time, but we
would. Meanwhile, I decided I needed to see Vanni. She knew Keller, and she
knew the Eriksons. Maybe she would have some idea of what was going on.

Carefully I placed Bartholem on
the chair and made my way back out of the dorm, glancing at my sleeping friends
as I passed. They wouldn’t like that I was sneaking around Golden Falls without
them, but it couldn’t be helped.

Killing us with kindness, that’s
what the Nocturns were doing by holding off from major attacks all this time. I
just hoped we could figure out their plan before it was too late.

Vanni was no longer in a cell.
After Marcus died and it was clear that she hadn’t been the one killing off
Public students - duh - they had put her in the infirmary.

I slipped downstairs to the blue
door on the first floor and tapped on it once. I didn’t know what sort of
attendants were there.

I held my breath as the door
swung open. To my surprise, the person behind the door wasn’t any of the Golden
Falls professors I had seen and would have to lie to. Instead it was a faery.

He was slight, with large eyes
and short white hair. I couldn’t tell how old he was, but he couldn’t be much
older than we were.

He held his finger to his lips
and looked both ways down the hall.

“Were you followed?” he
whispered, his eyes intense. I shook my head. At least I didn’t think I had
been.

He nodded once and stood back,
opening the door wide. I followed him inside and he quickly closed the door
behind him. This faery was not one of the ones we saw at breakfast, and his
clothes were in a little better condition. Not much, but a little. But I felt
that same twinge of guilt.

Sip, Lisabelle, and I had talked
about it. No matter how the faeries acted in front of Golden Falls students,
when we left we were going to try and take them with us.

The infirmary was very small. We
were in an outer room that was nothing but shelves from floor to ceiling. They
held bottles, vials, and jars of strange-colored liquid. It reminded me of the
hospital wing we had snuck into. But that night, with Keller still at Golden
Falls, now felt like ages ago. I pushed the sadness away and focused on the
faery.

“Where is Vanni?” I asked,
conscious that it was the middle of the night. The faery pointed to the wall
behind me and I spun around.

“I don’t see a door,” I said,
getting frantic. “I thought she was alright.”

I glanced around, but the faery
was already brushing past me. With a small hand, even smaller than Sip’s, he
reached for a black bottle on the third shelf and tugged at it. I heard a
grinding noise and the door swung back. For all that this place was supposed to
be a school instead of a prison, behind the golden surface it was disturbingly
hard to tell the difference.

The faery stood back to reveal
another room. This one had three beds. I glanced at him. “What’s your name?” I
asked, but he just shook his head. My chest felt tight as I stepped past him
and into Vanni’s sick room. She was lying in bed, sound asleep. I felt bad for
waking her up in the middle of the night, but I had to talk to her.

“Vanni,” I whispered, reaching
out and shaking her shoulder. She was much thinner than she had been before she
went to prison. Again I wondered what sort of place this really was.

Vanni’s eyes fluttered open and
she looked at me.

“Hi,” I whispered. “It’s me,
Charlotte.”

She smiled. “I know who you are,”
she said. “Of course.”

“Vanni,” I said, still keeping my
voice low, “how are you doing?”