Elemental Fire (34 page)

Eventually, once I dared to try
the slightest bit of motion, I realized what the fire had burned away. My bonds
were gone, as was my blindfold. The fire had set me free.

I struggled, but I
couldn’t fight against the rising tide. Finally, I stopped fighting and fainted
, and a
ll my efforts not to dream
failed.

With my body so
battered
,
I had no choice but
to soar through clouds of air, buffeted to wherever the wind took me. I saw
many things, most of which I didn’t want to see. I saw Betsy smiling. She
waved, but before I could say anything she turned away. I saw Dirr, but she was
off in the distance. I wished I could tell whether she was happy or not. There
were no smells, just fresh air and sunshine. I spread my arms wide, taking it
all in. There were more things to see than my eyes could focus on. In one
direction there was a feast with a lot of happy pixies, and there, on the other
side of my vision, were fallen angels singing together. But no matter how hard
I looked I couldn’t see paranormals cooperating with each other. I was floating
faster, my legs dangling
beneath me
.
I didn’t look at them
,
because
I
didn’t want to see charred skin, burnt flesh, or torn clothing. Instead, I inhaled
and smiled.

But no matter how hard
I tried, I couldn’t stay focused on the positives.

The images got darker
from there. I saw
t
he puppy Faci had
killed. He was surrounded by the artifacts we were trying so desperately to
protect. He looked at me and wagged his tail. I fought tears even as I smiled.
I sighed, wishing he hadn’t had to die, wishing I could have saved him. I took
a little comfort in the fact that he no longer had any wounds that needed to be
healed. I could probably thank a fallen angel for that.

I looked up.

Yes, a fallen angel.
My face split into a smile. Keller was standing in front of me, his hands
tucked into his jean pockets. Our eyes met and I melted. I forgot the clouds
and the feasts, the puppy and the warmth. I just saw Keller. I sighed. This was
way better than whatever prison the Baxters had me in.

“Where are you?” he
asked, reaching his hands out to catch me. Our fingers linked and our palms
held. They fit together so perfectly that I looked at them in wonder, feeling
the warmth from our combined touch suffuse me.

I looked up from under
my eyelashes and his smile got wider.

“What do you mean?” I
murmured. “I’m here with you.”

He shook his head and
pressed closer to me until our thighs touched.

“I’m looking for you.
When you didn’t come back to Astra I went looking, but I haven’t found you yet.
Where are you?” His face clouded and his frown line was back. His concern
warmed my heart just as it upset me.

“I don’t know,” I
said, pleading with my eyes for him not to be angry. “I didn’t mean to get
attacked. Honest. I had to see President Vale. I really was trying to take care
of myself.”

Although Keller and I
didn’t see eye to eye on my safety, I would never knowingly have put myself at
risk, or so I often told myself
.
I also knew it wasn’t totally true.
If one of my friends
had been
in danger
,
of course I
would have taken any kind of risk
to save her, or him
.
But
this time
I hadn’t meant to do
that at all, I had just wanted to see Vale, as instructed. It hadn’t worked out
very well, and now all I wanted to do was figure out where I was so I could
tell Keller.

“What should I do?” I
asked.

“Who has you?” His
thumbs were rubbing gently along the web between my thumb and my index finger
and it was hard to concentrate on anything else.

“The Baxter brothers,”
I said. “Great stupid gits.”

“What’s this?” he
murmured, holding up the hand with my ring on it. My finger was raw and
bleeding. Some of the skin was black and burned. I flinched. I wasn’t in pain,
but my hurt digit throbbed dully and I knew I’d be lucky not to lose the
finger.

I shrugged. “I was
unconscious, but I think they tried to get my ring off.”

Keller’s face turned
dark and angry. “That’s against paranormal law.”

“I don’t think
following paranormal law is really one of their top priorities,” I said dryly.
My humor was turning dry and sarcastic like Lisabelle’s, but Keller’s absent
smile seemed to mean
that
he
still enjoyed it.

Gently, so that I
barely felt his lips, he bent down to kiss my hand. I held perfectly still,
afraid of waking from this wonderful dream
,
and i
nstead
of pulling away after a moment,
Keller
kept his lips there,
gently kissing down the length of my finger. I sighed happily.

“There,” he murmured.
“That’s better.”

When he saw that I
wasn’t looking at my finger but at him, he chuckled and squeezed my fingers
tightly.

“The brothers can’t
help it. I’m sure they’re just taking orders
,
”
he said. “Though that’s hardly
an excuse.”

“They wanted to find
the Mirror Arcane,” I said, chewing on my lower lip. “I thought they were the
ones who took it, and from what they said, they’ve obviously been in
side
Astra. But it wasn’t the
brothers who took the Mirror, and I can’t even begin to guess who did.”

Keller could see that
I was starting to worry. He let go of my hands, and instantly my fingers felt a
little colder. But he had only done it so that he could wrap his arms around my
shoulder and press his lips to my forehead. I wrapped my arms around his waist
and linked my fingers, refusing to let go.

“Don’t worry,” he
murmured into my hair
,
pressing
his cheek to the top of my head. “I’ll find you. We’ll keep looking.”

I hadn’t felt afraid
until that moment. Maybe it was all the fights I’d been in, but it had never
crossed my mind that the Baxter brothers would harm me
. . . permanently.
Now it did and I felt
cold.

“Okay,” I murmured. “
P
romise?”

“I promise,” he said.
“We don’t have that many more places to try, anyway.”

I sighed and pulled
him closer, enjoying the feel of my face pressed against his hard chest. My
hands were linked right under the place where his dark wings released, and that
reminded me that it had been a long time since I had seen him flying.
N
ow wasn’t the time to bring it up
, though
. Now all I wanted to do was
savor the moments I had with him until I woke up.

“Do I look very
terrible?” I asked, pulling away enough to meet his sparkling blue eyes.

“No. Never! What are
you talking about?” he asked, leaning back so he could see my face.

“The burns,” I said.
“There was a fire. I don’t know what caused it, but it burned everything. I
thought I was dead.”

“You don’t look dead
to me,” he said. “Although you might look a little peaked,” he teased. I rolled
my eyes, then grinned. Only Keller could bring a smile to my face so quickly.

Then I saw the
understanding dawn across his features.

“Oh,” he said. “Now I
understand! I saw the smoke.”

“What are you talking
about?” I tried to keep him from pulling away, but I couldn’t. My arms felt
bereft when they were empty of him.

“I know where you
are!” he said happily. “I’m coming. Just stay there.”

“Do you want me to
stay here or go back to my body?” I called after him, but he was already moving
away. His back was to me as he rushed down through the clouds and out of sight.

I closed my eyes
tightly and wished myself back into my body. Slowly, the warm air flowing
around me faded and I no longer felt sun on my face. The weightless floating
sensation I had
been
enjoying disappeared
and I returned to feeling stiff and battered. I waited a long time after I felt
that way to open my eyes.

The room was dark and
my eyes felt like my jailers had scraped something over my eyeballs, but I
forced them to blink several times. Each time they adjusted more.
Then
I felt around me. The dirt was no
longer wet. In fact, it was bone dry, probably thanks to the inferno the room
had been not long ago.

Luckily, my body was
intact. My skin wasn’t burned, and the only sign of what I had just been
through was my tattered clothing.
Well, Keller won’t mind that,
I thought ruefully.

I forced myself into a
seated position, but my head felt like it was stuffed with cotton and my back
hurt. Once I felt confident I got to my knees,
then
slowly to my feet. My body felt like the fire had beaten it.

I clenched and
unclenched my fingers, trying to force circulation back through them. Even my
ring finger was fine; at least that wasn’t a dream. Nothing with Keller was
ever truly a dream, and yet just the fact that he existed and was mine was the
most wonderful fantasy.

I heard the clatter of
feet from somewhere nearby, dulled by the stone that surrounded m
e
. I tried to hurry forward
but
stumbled
in my haste
.
Then Keller showed
up and I knew where I was: in the catacombs, my least favorite place on the
grounds of Public.

Later I would wonder about how
sure I had been that the footsteps clattering toward me were Keller’s. Maybe I
had just hoped really hard and it turned out to be true. But when he burst
through the doors and my eyes - my real eyes, not the eyes I saw with in the
clouds - blinked at the blaze of silver light that came with him, I had never
been so sure of anything in my life.

His face was a blaze of concern
and fury, and his dark, thick wings were spread out behind him. It felt like
forever since I had seen him, and only minutes. Both were true in a way, but it
felt entirely normal for my heart to hammer wildly inside my rib cage and my
breath to come short as our eyes met.

I ordered my tired body to smile,
then realized that I already was. That’s what love does to you, it gives you
strength you never knew you had, even though you always knew you’d need it.

I staggered to my feet, but my
legs wouldn’t hold me up. Keller swooped in and caught me, murmuring heartsweet
in my ear as I wrapped my arms gratefully around his strength.

We stood like that for a long time.
I was reluctant to let go, and I was glad that he felt the same way. After a
while, though, we were forced apart by the sounds of a battle above us, and if
I had learned anything from my semesters at Public, it was that the best thing
to do when I heard a battle was to run toward the fighting - not away.

With our hands firmly clasped, we
raced upward.

The roar of noise was deafening
as we burst out of the catacombs onto the first floor of the Long Building. The
corridor was lit with the power of magical rings. They blazed so strongly that
at first I couldn’t distinguish who was who amidst the rainbow of colors. But
as my eyes adjusted, I quickly realized that two darkness mages, the Baxter
brothers, were fighting off the professors and committee members of Public.
Dove stood at the front of the group that appeared to be attacking Vale’s
seconds in command. Professor Erikson and Oliva flanked him. Behind, I could
see Korba, Zervos, and many of the other professors.

The Baxter brothers were flanked
by two Fire Whips, and I wondered where the other Fire Whips had gotten to. But
it didn’t matter right now. The instant Professor Erikson spotted me, she
motioned for me to run.

The Baxter brothers also caught
sight of me, but they didn’t appear to care. Their goal was the artifacts, not
my death.

I wanted to protest Erikson’s
command. I could help! But Keller still had my hand, and he didn’t think twice.
He pulled me away, and even in my disoriented state I immediately realized
where we were going.

The front door of the Museum of
Masks was locked, but I had put the key Dacer had given me around my neck, and
it still hung there underneath my shirt for safekeeping.

Now I fumbled, my fingers still
numb from my captivity. I caught a glimpse of rope burns around my wrist and
swallowed hard. They were going to hurt later.

Once I had the key out it scraped
against the lock, and my hands were shaking so hard I couldn’t fit it properly.
Reaching around so that his chest was pressed against my back and his arms
enveloped mine, Keller turned the key for me. I wanted to just rest my head
against his chest and sleep, but the sounds of the battle raging behind us
forced me to stay alert.