Elemental Light (Paranormal Public Book 9) (25 page)

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, with my wrists so raw I knew there was dried blood on the ties, I felt the procession come to a stop.

I took a deep breath and felt myself being pulled - thrown - off the animal. Since my hands were still bound I contorted my body wildly in an effort to soften my landing, only to slam into the ground elbows first. I was thankful that what I had landed on felt like pine needles and not something harder.

I quickly rolled onto my back. “We’re waiting here until the gates open,” said a voice. It must have been a Nocturn, but it wasn’t familiar to me. All I could tell was that it was definitely female.

Another thud told me that Lough had also experienced a hard landing. I heard something being unsheathed, then my hands were grabbed and I felt the knife slip away.

“Not like they can do anything now,” said the same rich female voice.

Now it sounded a little familiar, and I had a sudden realization of who owned it.

Ms. Vale had brought us to Public, and at the thought of being under her control again I felt chills race down my spine. I had thought she was in disgrace or prison or both, but no, here she was, taking us to Malle.

Without hesitating, I reached up and tore away my blindfold. Then I blinked furiously, trying to clear my eyes enough to see what was going on. There was a torch in the distance, but it was too far away to do me any good. I could barely make out the shape of Ms. Vale in front of me, but I recognized the wide-set black eyes. I remembered thinking that unlike her son. Dobrov, she showed no sign of humanity. I thought the same now.

“I thought you were a pawn,” I whispered, staring at her. “I thought you missed your kids.” Was the Darkness
Premier standing before me? Had I really been so wrong about Dobrov, and could he be the one who had tipped off the Nocturns to the paranormal meeting at the Circle?

“My kids are only proud of me if I’m fighting the good fight,” she said. It was hard to focus on her, because the torch in the background kept moving. I blinked several times and looked again.

Then a worse fear spiked through me at the realization that it wasn’t a torch at all, it was a Fire Whip, which I knew from prior acquaintance that Ms. Vale took particular pleasure in possessing.

The woman smiled, but only with her mouth; her eyes looked dead and sad in her pale face. “Yes, I brought an old ally with me,” she said, glancing over her shoulder to follow my gaze. “Let me just release your friend here,” she said, moving over to Lough and pulling out her knife again to untie him. Lough yanked off his blindfold and sat up.

The Fire Whip was now close enough so that Lough could see it clearly too. I saw his hands clench.

Suddenly, there were more dots of fire. Other Nocturns were coming with their own Fire Whips, appearing from behind the demons where we hadn’t been abl
e to see them at first. Ms. Vale didn’t have one of her own, at least it didn’t seem like she did, but she smiled broadly. How was there so much darkness? How had the paranormals been so blind and oblivious?

Lough glanced at me. “Fire Whips,” he said, as if I didn’t know. “Missed those things like I missed a tooth ache.”

“Was Dobrov there?” Ms. Vale asked.

I glanced back at her quickly, and even though she tried to hide the burning hope in her eyes, I saw it. I also saw something else, a glint of metal hidden in the long folds of her robes. It looked like the top of a crown.

Behind Dobrov and Daisy’s mother rose the profile of Paranormal Public University, my home for the last three and a half years, give or take a terrible semester away at Golden Falls University. The walls were now dark and ominous, and I saw none of the usual sparkling, magical guards that kept Public safe. Well, of course not. Public wasn’t safe anymore, and it could never again be the Public I had always loved. That place was gone, but even if I couldn’t have it back, even if I never graduated, I was determined that darkness couldn’t have it either.

Breathlessly I considered my options. My legs felt weak and I wasn’t sure I could stand, but if I could get hold of the crown and our rings, I just might not need to. Then again, we were surrounded by hundreds of demons and Nocturns, and more had to be on the way from inside Public.

I could tell Lough was looking at me. I wondered if he was thinking the same thing I was, and there was only one way to find out.

“Now,” I whispered.

I was still sitting, so it was laughably easy to grab two fistfuls of dirt and throw it all at Ms. Vale. At the same moment, I lurched forward, while Lough went around to her back, trying to buy me some time. Ms. Vale screeched and fell backward, clawing at her face. My hands got tangled in her robes and she tried to shove me off, but she was too distracted by the dirt in her eyes. She couldn’t see, but I wasn’t having much more luck; my hands couldn’t find what I was looking for. Frantically I searched her pockets and felt myself start to seethe with frustration. I could feel the crown, but I couldn’t reach it. Giving up on doing it the polite way, I ripped her robe and pulled the crown out of the hole I had made in the fabric.

She grabbed for me, but I shoved her away and she staggered backward, her face covered in dirt and tears.

“Hurry up, Charlotte,” Lough cried. I could see him facing the Nocturns as the Fire Whips emerged from the crowd.

The situation was deteriorating rapidly. Well, it hadn’t been the most elegant idea, but it was the only one I could think of on short notice.

My hands were covered in dirt, and they felt numb, whether from cold, disuse, battle, or a combination of the above I didn’t know. They protested when I reached upward, but the crown itself was singing, and that gave me hope.

In a shower of sparks the crown ignited again, but this time I was ready for it. This time, the heat of the magic that blazed through my body, down my spine, through my shoulders, and out every limb didn’t overwhelm me. I held on.

Then something else happened. As I stared at Ms. Vale, something bright shone through the rip in her robe.

“My ring,” I whispered. She tried to push herself away from me, but this time I didn’t try to hold onto her.

I merely called the wind. But oh, gloriously, it was already on its way. My ring, Sip’s, and Lough’s all floated toward me, borne on elemental power. Once I felt the cool metal against my finger, I raced to Lough.

He still stood in front of the hordes of demons, who had paused once they saw I had the crown. “We run,” I said, grabbing his hand and slamming his ring into his palm.

“Sounds good to me,” he said, his eyes wide. “What about them?” My friend pointed at the demon and the Fire Whips.

I shook my head. “I’ll take care of it. Head for the trees and the place where we always cross.”

The place I meant was at the base of the hill. I didn’t want to let Lough out of my sight, but I knew he’d know what I meant.

“Thanks for my ring,” Lough called as he shoved it onto his finger and ran.

“You’re welcome,” I muttered under my breath, before returning my attention to the demons.

I reached for my power, but again it was already there. I wasn’t used to so much magic. Earth, air, fire, and water, all four elements of my power at the ready. The earth was already rumbling, and I felt water sprinkling onto my face.

I remembered a story, in one of the books I’d read about Queen Ashray, that told how she’d been so angry once because a building planned for Paranormal Public hadn’t been started that she’d simply blasted the basement and set up the foundation herself. It was one of the old classroom buildings, and I had only been in it a couple of times, but I thought of her whenever I called to the earth in that way myself.

Ashray had blasted a hole in the ground and pulled out the boulders. I could do that, and I was going to do it now.

A demon was coming at me, but I shoved him away with a stray gust of wind. A Nocturn was next, and I ordered the fire in his Fire Whip to burst outward, consuming his fingers, his hand, and then his whole arm. He screamed and dropped the flaming object to the cold earth, clutching at his burnt body.

The ground was still hard from winter, but it moved easily at my command, at first with a bit of resistance, then with an eagerness to get started. The part of my power that was entwined with the earth felt different from the parts that were connected to air, fire, and water. It was thick and concrete, and I always put more effort than I needed to into calling it, and was then surprised when it felt like I was moving paper around.

The enemy was coming in waves like a restless ocean. I felt heat on my face right before another Fire Whip lashed out. A tall Nocturn with a crooked nose and blackened teeth stared at me like I was his next meal. He had two Fire Whips, and he lashed them in circles. I started to move to his left, forcing him to take steps, but his dance with the Fire Whips didn’t falter.

I had lost track of
Ms. Vale, and I assumed she must have disappeared back into the crowd of Nocturns. I’d been so focused on burying them and keeping Lough safe that I hadn’t even noticed.

“Finally, I get to fight the last elemental all alone,” said the Nocturn. His mouth carved into a smile, and what was left of his teeth gleamed black.

I didn’t say anything, I just started to circle. He moved closer and I pointed at the ground under his feet, shifting it, but he was expecting that and skipped nimbly away. I’d have to be fancier next time. The Nocturn lashed at me with his weapon again, and I dodged to my left, but my ankle started to ache as the Fire Whip missed me by mere inches.

“You can’t get out of this one,” he said nastily, his black eyes gleaming. “You don’t know how to fight.”

Sweat broke out on my brow and I tried to explode his Whip, but he must have seen me do that on some other occasion, because the fire in his hand didn’t let me call it.

We circled again, but now I had a slight limp, and I knew I’d have to be careful not to make it worse. With no one else to fight in the background, I saw other Nocturns starting to gather around us. I had been too slow, and now I was surrounded by darkness.

Chapter
Twenty-Three

I had to get out of there and into Astra dorm as quickly as possible. If I didn’t, Malle would have the place surrounded, and I wasn’t sure I could break in. I had just used the Nascaro crown, and it looked like it was time to taps its capabilities again. Channeling that sort of power could kill me if I wasn’t careful, especially without the proper training, but I didn’t have a choice. There were hundreds of Nocturns surrounding me, while I stood alone.

Choking on the smoke from the nearby Fire Whips, I reached up to touch the crown.

“Stop her,” cried one man with a Fire Whip. The man I was fighting lunched forward, but he wasn’t quick enough. My hand closed around the metal and pearl, and I pulled it out and set it on my hair.

Right before I was about to blast my way out, all the Fire Whips were raised up at once. Shrinking back as a canopy of fire appeared over me, I gasped from the pain of the pure fire that rained down on me. My mind split open as heat melted into my skin and my brain and radiated down my spin. A scream tore from my lips as my body broke apart. My thoughts splintered into a million tiny pieces as memories and dreams melted and flashed through my mind. My eyes were closed, and I could no longer see my attackers. It didn’t matter anymore anyway.

As my consciousness left my body I felt the crown on my head, the one coolness left in a world that burned.

“Mom?” I didn’t know where I was, only that the pain was gone.

“Hi sweet,” said my mom, smiling at me.

Her brown hair was fanned out around her shoulders, and her gray eyes, just like mine, looked at me worriedly.

“What are you doing?” I whispered. “Where am I?”

“You were burning,” said my mom, her voice filled with worry. “Nocturns and demons were attacking everywhere. It was upsetting.” Her voice held a deep regret.

“I’m sorry, mom,” I whispered. “I didn’t mean to upset you, but I don’t think I did very well.”

My mother looked younger than I remembered her, and I wondered what power this was. It felt like a dream, and I thought maybe Mom was friends with a powerful dream giver when she was at school, too.

Grace smiled as if she could read my mind.

“Something like that, sweetie. Your father was always the prepared one. He didn’t want anything left to chance. He didn’t want there to be any reason you were ever alone.”

I thought about the time after I found out what I was, not knowing about my powers and trying and utterly failing to use magic.

My mom’s face fell and I hated that I had thought about it. She floated around, her body disappearing into something blue that she trailed her hands in.

“Your father never wanted to leave you alone,” she said. “He refused to do it.”

“There’s so much happening,” I whispered.

She nodded. “I never thought it would come to this,” she said. “I always thought we’d have more time. I never thought
. . . Our death . . . The Black Ring Ceremony.”

“That your own allies would kill you?” Somehow everything else felt far away.