Elemental Fate (Paranormal Public Book 12) (19 page)

“She’s insane,” Eighellie declared, wiping dirt off my face. The explosion hadn’t been very powerful, but it had packed enough punch to knock me backwards. I suspected that some magic from my ring had reached out and stopped the worst of it from taking my face off, a fact that I thought Professor Heather regretted. Once she “realized” how “dangerous” her idea was, she didn’t have any of the other students explode their objects.

Just me.

The end of the semester couldn’t come fast enough.

After classes that day we decided to go out to the tree house. Keegan was worrying about it, since he’d had to spend the night after Cornerstone at Airlee, and his worry turned out to be justified. As soon as his massive tree came into view he broke into a run.

“Someone’s been up there!” he cried. Racing forward, he seized the ladder and started to climb.

I followed him as fast as I could, which wasn’t as fast as I would have liked because the ladder was swaying with the desperation of his climb. Poor Eighellie was forced to wait, given how much trouble she had climbing even when the ladder was still.

When we made it to the top, Keegan stumbled off the ladder and I was right behind him.

“Who would have known about this!” he yelled. “I’ll find whoever did it and I’ll bring him up here and throw him off!”

I didn’t see any damage on the outside of the structure, but I had never heard my friend so downright furious. I ran through the front door and slammed into Keegan, who had stopped so suddenly that I bounced off him and almost fell back out the door before I managed to stop myself.

Stepping forward again more carefully, I peered around my friend’s shoulder. He lifted his arm, pointing a shaking hand. “What is that?” he demanded. When I saw what he was looking at, shock raced through me.

Written on the wall in black shimmering letters was this message: “Hellhounds. LV.”

“What does it mean?” Keegan stared at the words, pacing around the room frantically.

“Why would Lisabelle write that? Why would she come all this way and not see you?” demanded Eighellie, who had quietly come up behind us.

“She doesn’t want to see any of us, not when we keep demanding information, first about Lough and now about Sip,” I said. It felt safe to mention Lough to my friends. It wasn’t as if they would then realize I had seen him, much less what he had asked me to do.

“Right, but then, why here?” said Eighellie, pushing.

“How dare she come into my tree house! Does everyone know about it!” Keegan was sputtering in frustration and I didn’t blame him, because I knew that having someone break into his house was frightening. Then again it was Lisabelle, who didn’t understand boundaries and definitely didn’t see locked doors as applying to her.

“She left us a message, but what does it mean?” I said, chewing my lip.

“Is it for Keegan or all of us?” Eighellie asked.

“Why would it just be for me?” Keegan demanded.

“It’s your treehouse,” she said reasonably.

“Yeah,” said Keegan.

Eighellie moved to the makeshift kitchen and grabbed a rag. Wetting it, she started toward the wall.

“What DO you think you’re doing?” Keegan demanded.

The darkness mage paused and looked at the tree sprite. “I’m cleaning. It’s what I do. Why?” she said.

“Lisabelle Verlans wrote that,” he enunciated every word. “The premier of all darkness. The most powerful paranormal in the world.”

“Blah, blah, blah, so what?” said Eighellie. “She’s cool. Ricky’s friends with her. We know.”

“So, the wall’s not going to be washed,” said Keegan, a smile breaking over his face. “The wall is going to be kept just as it is. I needed some decorations in here.”

The last Cornerstone was intended to serve as a final exam for all of us. Dobrov would evaluate how we had done based on a number of factors, including mission design, our commitment to our teammates, battle skills and communication, and something he was calling mercy. Professor Penny had gathered our group before the final Cornerstone to offer words of wisdom, or so I had hoped, but it turned out it was really because he’d been told to by the president of Public.

“Evening,” said Professor Penny. He coughed, then took a bite of the enormous sandwich sitting in front of him, which included so many ingredients he could barely get his mouth around it. I could see sprouts, tomatoes, blueberries, at least two kinds of cheese, three meats, onions, peppers, and cucumbers. He brushed the crumbs off his ancient vest before taking another slow bite. Averett looked away in annoyance.

“Why did he call us here to watch him eat?” Eighellie demanded. “Stupid.” She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Don’t worry,” said Greek, who was sitting next to her on the dividing line of the fallen angel group. “I’ll get the meeting started on time.”

Eighellie beamed at him and Greek blushed.

“Look, we have to win this Cornerstone,” said Greek, raising his voice so that all other talk subsided. “We don’t have a choice. We got our butts handed to us during the first two, and we can’t afford another loss.”

“So, what do you suggest?” Hannah cut in. “More sacrificial paranormals? More running around like chickens with our heads cut off?”

Keegan rubbed his fingers against his temples, frustrated by the lack of a solution.

“It’s not as if I’m the only one who did that,” Greek huffed, going on the defensive. Hannah had that way about her. She was nasty, she made you fee like dirt, and then she relished it.

“My plan is to have Ricky go last,” said Greek. Everyone started, but his voice was steady. He seemed sure.

“Um, what?” I said. “Why?” As far as solutions went, this didn't sound like the best idea. Basically, any way you looked at it we were going to get pummeled. The Hellcats and even the Razorhawks had been better and more prepared, more dynamic in battle, from the beginning. We needed an ace in the hole, but I was pretty sure it was too late for one.

“Because you’re our ace in the hole,” insisted Greek. “Lisabelle Verlans did something to your ring. There isn’t another one like it. We have to use that to our advantage, and the time when we’ll need an advantage most is at the end. When everyone else is trying to coax their rings to do their bidding, you’ll be using your essence. It’s a great idea,” he finished. He wasn’t looking at me for approval, even though I was central to his plan; it was Eighellie’s reaction that he cared about. But she was staring hard at the desk, lost in thought, and didn’t even notice the puppy dog expression on his face.

At last she shook her head. “I think Ricky going last is a good idea, but beyond that I have no idea how we’re going to win this thing.”

There was a big hill at Public that sloped downward into the woods, and it was there that the Ring Race was held. All the students gathered at the bottom of the hill on the evening of the final Cornerstone, with the Razorhawks and the Hellcats looking especially smug.

We all kept our distance from each other as the time for the race drew near. I knew that some students were unhappy because this would be the only Cornerstone of the semester that didn’t involved violence. We weren’t supposed to touch each other during the race, so the fighting, such as it was, would all be very civilized.

“Who thought up this dumb idea?” demanded one Copper.

“Maybe he’s trying to make the point that not all wars are won on the battlefield,” said Eighellie. “It reminds me of the stories I’ve heard about Tactical. As the very name implies, there’s more to it than brute force.”

“You can’t win a war you don’t fight,” argued another student, glaring at the darkness mage. “What do you know, anyway?”

Eighellie sniffed with disdain.

Suddenly Dobrov called out, “Line up!” The waiting was over.

Once again the president of Public strode out in front of us, while I looked on and tried to force the nerves racing through my limbs to calm down. This was a must win for us, but it was also a test of the whole student body. Dobrov had been appalled by how the teams had performed so far. “Sloppy, lazy, unable, and just downright bad” were the nicer things he’d reported that the professors had said about us. We were bad at fighting. Despite all the violence on campus, none of us knew how to wage war. That, so the consensus seemed to be, must change here and now.

“You ready for this?” Greek asked.

“Yeah,” I said.

“The rules of the game are as follows,” said Dobrov. “Each team will be in a single file line, so only one member of each team will be racing at any given time. The first team to have all its members complete the course wins. As it stands so far, the Hellcats are in first place, the Razorhawks are second, and the Lightmares are third. The first place team earns an automatic pass with honors for finals, the second place team earns a B, all others earn no higher than a C. If you want to go into next semester with your grades intact, I suggest you try extra hard to come in first or second in this final Cornerstone.”

“There's a good chance we’re going to fail,” said Eighellie. “We’re going to fail. I can’t have my grades depend on the work of others. My grades can’t rely on others. No one else is as capable as I am.”

“Eighellie,” Keegan said, his voice cutting but not harsh as he tried to break through her panic.

Eighellie’s wild eyes fixed on her friend. “What?” she asked breathlessly.

“It’ll be fine,” he said.

“Right,” she said.

“Let the last Cornerstone of the semester begin!” Dobrov’s voice rang out, and suddenly we all sprang into motion.

I raced to the back of my line. The test seemed to have already started, and it seemed to include the problem of just getting organized for racing.

We were slow, bumping into each other and seemingly unable to get organized. Hannah didn’t want any other paranormals near her, which made forming a line difficult right off the bat. But Greek was barking out orders, and for the most part he was listened to, because the bottom line was that no one wanted to fail.

We were still slow. When our first racer, Candace, took off, she threw her ring up the hill and then tried to call some sort of magic. I glanced over at the Hellcats, who had apparently figured out a magical method that imitated string, so their first competitor was methodically pulling his ring back to where he was standing at the bottom of the hill.

“Damn it,” Greek bellowed. Then he looked sheepish and added, “Pardon my language.”

Chaos engulfed us, and it was soon clear that we couldn’t possibly win if we couldn’t compete more effectively. Deciding to take matters in hand, I raced forward and raised my arms, even though that meant I was departing from my place at the end of the line. This Cornerstone was just too important, and anyhow, Dobrov hadn’t said we had to stay in line, he had simply suggested that it would be a good idea.

“Listen up,” I cried. “We might not get along, but they don’t get along either,” I said, pointing to the other teams. Some of the other Lightmares took a minute to register that I was speaking, but then, too shocked to pretend to ignore me, they listened.

“We can't let them win!” I continued. “They don’t get along either, and yet they’re beating us! Even if we hate each other, we have to find our competitive drive! We have to come together! Let’s do this!” As I finished yelling I raised my hands in the air. For a second everyone stared at me in shock, then Keegan started clapping frantically. Eighellie followed a split second later, and before I knew it every Lightmare was applauding.

Having nothing further to say, I raced back to my place at the end of the line. We were out of time, so there was no point in waiting to see if I’d had any impact. Either they would listen to me or they wouldn’t. But I got some encouragement from Averett, who was second to last in line. When I was back in my place she spoke to me, keeping her eyes on the competition instead of looking at me directly. “Nice speech,” she said. “You should have said it a long time ago, but still, nice.”

“Um, thanks,” I said, shifting to get a better view of the hill. Why hadn’t I said it a long time ago?

Averett's eyes were still turned away as she asked, “Did you find out what my queen and your sister were fighting about?”

“No,” I said.

Now she eyed me for the first time. “That's a shame,” she said.

She turned back to the game before I could say anything more, and I wondered if she imagined that I had a more cloak and dagger operation going on in relation to Charlotte than I actually did. Charlotte did have a cottage near Astra, after all, but if Keller ever caught me spying or eavesdropping, I’d probably have about thirty seconds to explain myself before he strung me up by the ears.

The next pair to go included Hannah and one of the Burble twins from the Razorhawks team. I might have lost track of who was winning, except that President Valedication had erected a massive scoreboard that stood at the top of the hill, just where the rings were supposed to turn around. We were now one point behind the Hellcats and two behind the Razorhawks. We’d really have to move, or they’d have to slow down, for us to have any chance of winning.

“Go, Hannah!” I cried. Everyone, even her friends Fog and Frances, turned around to look at me like I was crazy, but I just rolled my eyes. Of course I was going to cheer for her. We had to win.