Paranormal Public (Paranormal Public Series) (29 page)

“Exactly. Fallen angels are all white, bright magic. Alone, they could never defeat demons. But with the combined strength of the other paranormals, the demons can be defeated.”

“I hear Keller did a pretty good job against the one that attacked Charlotte,” said Lauren Bells.

Professor Korba nodded. “Keller is talented and the demon was alone. It is kind of you to reference the accomplishments of another paranormal.”

We continued to explore the dorm. Disturbing didn’t even begin to describe it. The halls were painted black. At first I’d been relieved that there wasn’t any blood spattered on them; somehow I thought that was an improvement from the bodies I’d been imagining. But I soon realized that my first impression was wrong. Around every dark corner a creak or a whistle made me jump. I was positive that some of the older vampires, or worse, Professor Zervos, were just waiting to come out after us.

Finally, it was time to move on to Volans. After that, Professor Korba explained, at some point we’d have to find time to visit Aurum, the fallen angel dorm.

I could see the relief on one face after another as we returned to sunlight. Professor Korba, ignoring our worried looks, led us to Volans.

I had never even seen Volans, because it was set off in a glade of trees all its own. The pixie dorm turned out to be nothing like Cruor. Instead of black walls rising into the sky, the stones were light and almost shining. There wasn’t a moat, just a shimmering lake. No matter how hard I looked, there were no dead fish in it. The pixies were too stuck up to have dead fish floating in their lake.

Inside the dorm, the walls were painted a tasteful yellow and the floors were a blistering white marble, which matched the all-white furniture. I had thought that the pixies were stuck up before, but here was proof.

We didn’t stay long in Volans, because they were home and glared at us as we passed. Professor Korba, a pixie himself, acted like he didn’t notice, but he still took us out quickly.

“Very well, students,” he said once we were walking back to our classroom. “Why did we go through that fun little exercise? Any ideas?”

“You have a twisted sense of humor?” Katie Bells offered. Professor Korba just waited.

I raised my hand.

“Yes, Charlotte?” Professor Korba asked, eyeing me over the heads of other students.

“We have to be able to understand each other,” I told him.

“Yes, yes. Expand on that,” he suggested.

“Well,” I said, “if we are to fight the demons it’s pretty clear we have to do it together. We’ve all been fine as long as the demons didn’t have much strength, but now they’re getting stronger. As you just said, we can’t fight them off on our own. We have to fight them off together.”

“Very good, Charlotte. We will make a paranormal of you yet,” said Professor Korba, nodding his head. “This school has too much in-fighting. You are all students here and should all get along. The fact that one student is a vampire and another a fallen angel does not give one the right to fight or bully the other. Dash goes some way in the right direction by bringing competition out in a healthy way, but we must do more. This,” he waved his hand behind us, back to where Volans was now hidden in the trees, “is more. Remember. And think before you fight.”

“Now,” he continued. “I believe you all have studying to do before exams start.” He fluttered off, leaving us all staring after him.

It was now cold outside and time for dinner. Sip, Lisabelle, Lough, and I headed to the dining hall. Right after dinner I was supposed to meet Keller again, this time on the Dash field, where I was actually supposed to practice magic. I had informed Keller that he’d be safest if he brought armor with him.

Keller found me in the dining hall just as I finished eating. He had a sixth sense for the best times to swoop in and make me practice my magic; this time he showed up just as I had shoveled a particularly large bite of broccoli into my mouth. My face turned a bright red as I tried to chew. Lisabelle snorted into her milk.

The two of us walked toward the Dash field in the vanishing light. It was like a large vacuum in the sky had come and sucked away all the sun’s rays. This walk with Keller reminded me of the first weekend we’d walked over to Dash together, before I knew what it was, before I knew how much fun I was missing. Remembering that time, I glanced sideways at Keller. You could tell he was well-muscled, but I wouldn’t expect him to be the best Dasher at school; it was Cale who looked more like a Dasher. But I had to shove thoughts of Cale out of my mind. I was pretty sure he was going to go back to Camilla, which was going to ruin our friendship anyway.

“Did you bring protection?” I asked, then blushed furiously.

For a second I thought I saw Keller’s mouth twitch, but all he said was, “I won’t let you hurt me. Or yourself.”

“You say that now,” I informed him, “but you aren’t all-powerful.”

“No,” he acknowledged, “but I can defend myself from an out-of-control mage.” He hadn’t called me a Probationer.

“You hope,” I muttered.

We spent the next two hours practicing. When it got too dark, Keller was forced to create a bobbing globe of light. What I learned quickly was that I still had no control over my magic. I had the uncomfortable feeling that Keller was studying me, although I wasn’t sure why. He spent most of the time with his dark eyebrows furled over his blue eyes. At different points he would give me directions or suggestions, the main one of which was to point my magic toward the trees and away from the school, and him.

It didn’t matter where I pointed it, though. No matter where I tried to send it, the magic didn’t come.

Tired and angry, I pointed my ring at the ground and ordered it to strike. I don’t know what I expected, but a searing burst of blue fire lancing out of my hand was not it. I gasped, staring down at the scorched ground in front of me. Keller came racing over, breathless. “What was that?” he demanded. “You killed the grass!”

“Blue fire comes out of my hand and you’re mad about the grass?” I demanded. I knew I was being hostile, but I was too upset not to be. The bobbing globe cast half of Keller’s face in shadow, but I could still tell he was looking at me.

Then, instead of just looking, he came toward me. He was a foot away, then he wasn’t even that. The whole time, he never broke eye contact. When he was close enough, his long fingertips closed gently around my hand. He looked down to examine my knuckles.

“Are you alright?” he asked, his head bent over my arm.

“Yes.”

“There’s something very strange about your magic, Charlotte Rollins.” He brushed his fingers over my ring. Our eyes met again. His eyes and my magic were both blue. I wasn’t breathing. Then he released my hand.

He spent a long time staring at the hole in the Earth I’d just made. He waved his hand and fixed it. I looked at him, startled. He shrugged. He was still standing close to me. “Can’t have your craziness getting in the way of Dash, can we?”

“I’m not crazy,” I retorted. “Or if I am, it’s in no way you’ve ever seen.”

Keller raised his eyebrows, and I blushed again.

“Come on,” said Keller turning away abruptly. “We have exams in the morning.”

“Is what I just did a mage thing?” I asked. “Is it an Airlee thing?”

Keller’s eyebrows came together. He sighed and said, “No, that’s not the dorm that was known for that sort of thing.”

I didn’t have time to think about what Keller had said; the morning of the exams came all too soon. I was confident in most of my subjects, even the class with Professor Zervos. What worried me was Professor Anania’s class, where I was actually expected to perform magic. I knew that could be my downfall, because despite what had happened with Keller the night before, I couldn’t perform magic on command. It was a relief to know that it was inside me somewhere, lurking, but the problem was bringing it out. I couldn’t do that, and that’s exactly what Professor Anania expected me to do. Meanwhile, I was more afraid than ever of what had happened with the artifacts that first Saturday morning in Astra. It seemed more and more likely, as time passed and I reflected on what I could and couldn’t do, that there was something really wrong with me.

Since the exam schedule was not the same as our regular class schedule, I had to check when each test was. All I hoped was that Professor Anania’s exam wasn’t the last on the schedule, because I wanted to get it out of the way. But of course, it was. Saturday afternoon the Airlee students were expected on the Dash field to perform what we’d learned in magic class. Even worse, since Dash wasn’t happening that Saturday, and since a lot of students didn’t have an exam time for that afternoon, there was likely to be a crowd watching us perform.

“How awful,” said Sip. “I don’t think other students were allowed to watch in years past.”

“They’re getting more sadistic,” I commented drily.

“My respect for them increases daily,” said Lisabelle. We were in our room on Friday night, studying. I was in a chair while Lisabelle and Sip were sprawled on the beds.

“They are not,” Sip protested. “Maybe they’re just learning exactly what they need to teach us.”

“How to Withstand Public Humiliation 101,” Lisabelle joked, flipping through the pages of a book without really looking at it.

Tired of pretending to read the book, Lisabelle reached for the last cookie at the same time as Sip. Both grabbed it.

“Lisabelle, let’s just compromise,” said Sip when Lisabelle wouldn’t let the cookie go. “We can each eat half.”

“But then neither of us gets what she wants,” Lisabelle pointed out. “It’d be best if you just gave in and let me win. Then at least one of us is happy.”

The next day was bright and sunny, but even the sun couldn’t warm my mood. I was sure that when I tried to perform magic, the clouds would gather and there would be a rainstorm. A perfect day to forecast my doom.

At this point I just hoped that I wouldn’t embarrass myself. I didn’t want to embarrass Keller either, since he was the only person on campus who believed in me. But his friends probably wouldn’t blame him if I failed, they would just say it hadn’t been his fault he was stuck tutoring the Probationer. And he never mentioned what had happened at the dance.

All I hoped was that he’d have the decency not to show up to watch me. That would make me extra nervous, and I didn’t need the extra pressure. In fact, I told myself, probably no one was going to show up. Why would they? Starters were at the bottom of the social ladder, so why should anyone care how we did on the exams?

When I reached the Dash field, the spectacle took my breath away along with my forlorn hopes. The seats were full. Admittedly not like they were for Dash, with students standing, sitting on each other’s laps, and sitting in the grass, but they were definitely crowded. A lot of students had come out to watch the Starters perform. My heart sank.

Even if I could repeat what I had done the day before, which I seriously doubted, it wouldn’t be nearly as impressive as anything Lisabelle, Sip, or the other Starters had planned.

I didn’t dare look for Keller in the crowd, but I knew he was there. Worse, professors, and the President herself, were also there. I remembered that the President was a powerful mage, though I’d only seen her perform that one time at the start of Dash. She didn’t look like she was about to perform magic, though. Instead, she was sitting with a group of professors in the front row, just watching. Professor Anania stalked back and forth across the field. Periodically her hand would swipe out and she’d shove her glasses higher onto her nose again.

Every bone in my body told me to run, and to run as long and hard and as fast and far away as I could. I shouldn’t be here. I couldn’t do this. There was no way. Wasn’t there a calculus exam I should be taking somewhere? Only Lisabelle slipping her arm around my shoulder kept me walking forward. Even with that reassurance, I found it hard to breathe.