Elemental Light (Paranormal Public Book 9) (20 page)

Lisabelle listened with a slightly bemused look. “Ah, yes, the Kerry Kettle. I’ve heard nothing but good things. In fact, the cup it makes is delicious. I thought of you while sipping it.”

Lisabelle’s mouth twitched slightly at the look of dismay that appeared on Sip’s face.

“So,” Sip said carefully, “does that mean you’ve had a cup?”

“Several,” Lisabelle replied, in as cheery a voice a
s I’d ever heard her use. “The Premier has one, you see. Probably took it from someone she killed, but no matter.”

Sip looked much like a teakettle about to blow herself by this time.

“How does she get a teakettle and I don’t?”

“Become a mass murderer and you get things,” Lisabelle shrugged. “It’s not a job description many take on or are successful at.”

“It isn’t a job,” said Sip. “Anyway, back to the tea . . .”

Lisabelle snorted. “I won’t upset you by telling you any more about it.”

“Yes, by all means don’t upset me,” said Sip. Her lower lip trembled, and I realized that she was avoiding any sort of real conversation with our friend. Risper’s death had gotten to her. If she was anything like me, she’d replayed the image thousands of time in her mind, focusing on Risper’s pained expression and Lisabelle’s cold one. The darkness mage didn’t care about her uncle’s death; her face had shown no remorse.

Even so, Sip was still trying to help Lisabelle, because she couldn’t NOT help a friend in need and because she couldn’t truly believe that the real Lisabelle had killed her uncle. So instead of talking about what had happened at Vampire Locke, she was  going on about stuff to Lisabelle that the darkness mage pretended not to care about. That part of it was an old familiar pattern.

Lisabelle cleared her throat. “I’m sure you have a million questions. This would be the first time since we met that you’d actually be justified in having them, but I don’t have a lot of time.”

“Let me look at your arm,” said Sip, pointing to Lisabelle’s wand arm, which she kept close to her side. Lisabelle glanced down, frowning.

“Why?”

“I want to see how the wand’s doing,” said Sip, her face hardening. “I can’t even see your hand. It’s hard to believe you haven’t been discovered.”

Lisabelle shrugged. “If anyone looks too closely at me I threaten to incinerate them.”

I couldn’t tell if she was kidding.

“Of course you do,” said Sip, her voice bitter. “You must be right at home then.”

“Darkness will never feel like home,” said Lisabelle quietly.

Looking away from her friends eyes, Sip gave a curt nod. “Come on then,” she said, and grabbed Lisabelle’s hand. But she stopped when she saw Lisabelle flinch.

“Sorry,” she said, even though she didn’t sound that sorry. “Does it hurt?”

“It burns,” said Lisabelle, “all the time.”

We watched her carefully roll back her sleeve, and when she had revealed a few inches of her arm Sip gasped. The tattoo was still a design, but it looked so intricate I couldn’t even see her skin beneath anymore.

“Oh,” Sip whispered. “That’s more darkness than I’ve ever seen. How’s it spreading like that?”

“I don’t know,” said Lisabelle. “It didn’t say anything about that when I did the research.”

“You should have gotten me to do the research,” Sip chided.

“As I remember,” said Lisabelle, “you were hopping mad about the whole thing. Literally.”

“I remember no such thing,” said Sip, shrugging. “We have to do something about that hand. You have too much power.”

“No, you don’t say,” said Lisabelle. “What about the ring?”

She held out the Black Ring for Sip’s inspection. The werewolf wouldn’t even look at it.

“It’s certainly complicating matters,” said Sip. “It’s probably telling all the darkness it’s okay to run wild inside you. At some point you’re just going to be a husk of your former sparkling self
. . . actually . . .”

Lisabelle rolled her eyes. “I’m not a husk.”

“At least not with me here,” said Sip. “I’m trying, but it’s difficult. There really isn’t literature on this.”

“You don’t need literature, Sip,” said Lisabelle. “Information and knowledge are the basis for discovery, they aren’t discovery itself. You’ll figure it out.”

With that Lisabelle pulled down her sleeve. “I have to go. Charlotte, good luck tomorrow. Sip, try not to annoy anyone before I get back.”

“Someday someone’s going to hit you and you’re going to wonder why,” Sip mused.

“I won’t wonder,” said Lisabelle. “Assuming, of course, that my friends don’t kill me for murdering my uncle.”

Sip looked stricken as Lisabelle glided toward the tent flap, and I didn’t think the darkness mage was going to say anything further. She certainly wasn’t going to address how upset Sip looked. But then she looked back at us and said, “By the way, don’t trust anyone.”

I was a little terrified by how tired she looked, but I knew it would do no good to say that, so I just asked, “What do you mean?”

“Most paranormals are out for themselves,” said Lisabelle.

“I’ll remember,” I whispered.

I wondered who she was warning me about. Mrs. Swan? The oggles? Members of the council I planned on surprising tomorrow when I stepped out wearing the elemental crown, claiming my place as a queen?

“Oh,” said Lisabelle, pausing one more time. “The Premier doesn’t tell me everything. Actually, she doesn’t tell me much. I knew Ricky was in danger, but I nearly got caught finding that out. I do know that the Nocturns are planning attacks, and that you must be careful. I’m not sure I’ll be able to warn you, and I’ll almost certainly not make it to you in time.”

“Are you saying we can’t take care of ourselves?” Sip asked. “Because we can. We can go outside right now and I’ll show you just how helpless I am. I’m not the one who shoved a needle with ink attached to it into my arm a bunch of times and now it’s killing me. I’m just saying.” She expelled a breath. “I’m not the one who became dark and violent.”

Lisabelle’s teeth flashed in a smile. “Are you finished? Good. I’m telling you this because I know you can take care of yourself,” she explained. “And Sip, we are never all just one way or the other. You should remember that in your dealings with other paranormals, too.”

I sighed as Lisabelle left. All I wanted was for time to slow.

Time, and Keller.

Chapter Eighteen

The normal meeting places, like the ship, were not as safe due to their high visibility. Once you were on the ship, if you were attacked there was nowhere to go. Flying when the demons had hybrids didn’t really do paranormals any good.

The Circle, according to legend, was the last place the Power of Five had been enacted before I came along, and that meant something.

I tried not to be nervous, but I couldn’t hide my jitters or my uncertainty.

“Does Caid know we’re here?” I asked.

“No,” said Mrs. Swan. “I felt no need to share the news with him. Despite his smiling exterior he has always treated you callously.”

I wasn’t sure what I thought of that assessment, but I saw no point in arguing with her.

Outside, the sky was bright with the morning sun as we breakfasted in her tent. Many of the members of her organization had already eaten and disappeared to accomplish the day’s tasks. But Lough and Sip were there, as was Gargoile, who, it turned out, was Mrs. Swan’s second-in-command. There was also a commander named Smeer, who hadn’t said a word since we arrived. I had tried to sleep in, but rest had been impossible, so I had resigned myself to a sort of desperate alertness and gotten ready for the day.

“Shouldn’t he know?” Lough asked. “It’ll be quite a surprise.”

“Exactly,” said Mrs. Swan. “We need it to be a surprise.”

She turned to Sip. “Michael Mound is here,” she said. “He’s pretty unhappy with the Sign of Six, so prepare yourself.”

“I’m perfectly capable of defending my organization from the likes of Mound,” Sip sniffed.

Mound was totally opposed to me as an elemental and to Sip’s organization for, as he put it, flouting paranormal rule. Sip’s argument was that Caid wasn’t doing his job, but Mound didn’t care about that so long as the usual order was followed. I didn’t like him; he had made my
early years at Public miserable by trying to get the paranormals to give me over to the demons. They had refused, barely. Now, here we were.

“Is General Goffer going to be here?” I asked, wondering if Caid’s cousin would make an appearance even if he wasn’t an official member of the council.

“He already is,” said Mrs. Swan, taking another bite of what looked like oatmeal. I had a bagel and Sip was eating fruit. None of us had much of an appetite.

“Can we see him?” Lough asked. The dream giver was especially angry with Goffer for reasons that weren’t entirely clear to me, but had something to do with his sister Kair and her treatment at her government job.

“I don’t think that’s the best idea,” said Mrs. Swan. “We have a lot to do before you enter the Circle tonight.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

Mrs. Swan quirked her eyebrow. “Well, you haven’t had a haircut since I left, you haven’t showered in days, and you’re about to wear the elemental crown. I’d say there’s some work that needs to be done in order to make you presentable.”

“You want to have a grooming session? Who does that at a time like this?” I demanded.

But I wasn’t going to lie; the hair was hot on the back of my neck. Lough had Rake, Ricky, or himself to cut his hair on a regular basis, and that was still letting it go a bit. Mine was a mess, but still, saving the other paranormals was where my mind was, not grooming.

“Have you put the crown together yet?” Mrs. Swan asked.

I shook my head. I hadn’t dared. For all I knew there would have been an explosion. But I didn’t want to say that to Mrs. Swan.

“Good,” she said, nodding. “Wait until you enter the Circle tonight.”

She stood up. She was very thin and very tall, and her head almost hit the ceiling.

“I’ll see you both later,” said Smeer. He got up and followed her out. Coming through the flap in the other direction as they left was Dobrov.

“Hello,” said Sip. She had already been in her tent when we had come out the night before, so she hadn’t seen him yet. “You’re looking good!”

Dobrov smiled and gave her a hug. “Thank you, Ms. Quest. It’s good to see you.”

“Do you have any news from Public?” Sip asked.

“Nothing that I haven’t already told Charlotte,” he said, joining us and picking at a muffin.

After we sat in companionable silence for a while, Lough got restless. “The girls are spending the day getting prettier,” he said to Dobrov. “Want to go hit things?”

Dobrov grinned. “Yes,” he said. “I heard we’re also getting prettier though.”

Lough growled. “Not until later.”

“I want to hit things,” Sip whined.

Gargoile grinned. “You hit enough things for all of us combined.”

“Speaking of hitting things,” said Sip, standing up, “Charlotte, shall we start this?”

“Alright,” I said, feeling the sway of my hair as it brushed against my elbows. I was actually looking forward to having some of it gone, even though it seemed like a silly way to spend the afternoon given the problems we were facing.

“Stop that,” said Sip, seeing my hesitation. “You don’t want Keller to see you like that, do you?”

Well, no, as a matter of fact, I didn’t, though I didn’t want to admit it as I inched closer to the door. When someone dumps you, a boyfriend or anyone else, you want to look your best the next time you see them, and I could say a lot of stuff about my appearance at the moment, but none of it was that I looked my best.

“What are you going to hit?” Dobrov asked curiously.

“Nothing,” said Sip, trying to look innocent by lacing her hands casually in front of her. “I just wanted to say ‘speaking of.’”

“That makes perfect sense,” said Lough, shaking his head.

Then he and Dobrov left, and Gargoile took Sip and me to yet another tent.

“The Circle is over there,” said Gargoile, pointing forward as we walked. “Other paranormals have set up camps all around it. It’s like one big tent city.”

“Who all is here?” I asked.

“Everyone not trapped at Public,” he said. “Well, not Queen Lanca. She refused, saying it was a waste of her time. Several other outlying bands as well, but they are of no importance.”

“All the paranormals in one place?” I asked, and my nerves grew another notch tighter at the thought that I was going to put on a show in front of practically everyone. It was one thing when I was on a ship and didn’t think anyone would pay attention to me, but what I was about to do this time was specifically to get the attention.

I was going to wear the elemental crown.

The tent we were taken to was the only white one of the bunch, and it instantly made me think of Dacer. He loved dressing up and flamboyant decoration; he thought clothes were an extension of your personality and the more colors the better. If he had been at this gathering, my mentor would have been hanging out in the white tent, since there weren’t any artifacts or books in view. He would be in the thick of it, trying on something new and fabulous. Okay, he wasn’t at the gathering, but I was glad to have been reminded of him. Just thinking about him set me at ease.