Elemental Light (Paranormal Public Book 9) (32 page)

A girl with short, flaming red hair walked into the kitchen. She wore jeans and a bright blue t-shirt and enough bracelets on her arm to start a store. Her ring was white with flecks of silver: fallen angel.

“Hey, Suze,” said Trafton. He stood up and gave the girl a hug as she came toward him. She glanced at me and then again at Trafton.

“Sorry,” he muttered, “I’m terrible at introductions. Suze was staying around Public to work on an experiment and got caught up in the attack. The other Starters made it out, but Suze was too far away from the exit and stopped to heal a couple of Airlees.”

Suze had big blue eyes that matched the color of her shirt. Right now they were wide with what I could only describe as sadness.

“I tried to leave,” she said softly. “I just wasn’t fast enough.”

Trafton put a comforting arm around her shoulders and drew her close.

“It’s alright,” he said.

“Keller was here yesterday, wasn’t he?” she asked, looking at Trafton. He glanced at me and nodded. “Yeah, he came to issue the invitation to the ‘
Black Ring Ceremony.’”

That really hadn’t been what he had come for, but the less we talked about Keller in front of this girl the better, as far as I was concerned.

“I’d call it more like the Turning,” I said dryly.

Suze nodded. “Do you know Vanni?”

I could see her mentally ticking fallen angels we both might know off in her head. Not the best choice to make friends over, I thought. It took every ounce of effort I had not to roll my eyes.

“Yeah,” I said. “How’s she doing?”

“Better,” said Suze. “After Golden Falls it was all too much for her. I think her parents wanted her to drop out, but when I talked to my mom about it recently, she said that in the end Vanni’s parents were really proud of her decision to stay. I don’t know where they are now, though.”

She shifted closer to Trafton, and he didn’t remove his arm when she snuggled closer into his shoulder. I looked away, wondering if he’d moved on from his crush on Lisabelle. It would be a lot healthier for him, since she was pretty far removed as a dating option at that point.

“I’m sure she’s alright,” I murmured, not really believing my own words.

Suze nodded, but it was clear she didn’t really believe it either.

“Anyway,” said Trafton. “Want to come into one of your many living rooms? The others are excited to meet you and hear the news.”

I sighed and filled my cup with more tea before following Trafton and Suze into the fire sitting room. Duchess Leonie excused herself, explaining that as an old lady she didn’t have time for silly meetings and repeat conversations, since she was so close to dying anyway.

Trafton and I both chuckled, but Suze’s eyes went wider with the mention of death. Why did fallen angel girls all seem so sensitive?

“Alright,” said Trafton, throwing his arms wide as he walked in, “here’s everyone! Well, almost everyone.”

There were five paranormals in the room, one of whom was Professor Korba. The tiny pixie professor smiled and waved at me, and I was glad to see him. Evan was another who hadn’t gotten out in time; he gave me a nod of recognition. He had a long cut on his cheek that was etched with silver on each side. He had fought and lost a battle recently, and I winced just looking at him. Evan loved to get into trouble. He waved merrily to us as the woman from the cellar rolled her eyes.

The fire lounge was one of many sitting rooms in Astra. There were several for each of the four elemental types, according to Sigil, because previous generations of elementals had fought viciously over decorating and ended up doing a little of everything. In many of the history books on elementals that Sigil had given me, I had read that the fire elementals were the most obviously formidable, so they had always had more space than, let’s say, wind. Contemplating this sitting room now that I was seeing it after an absence, I believed every word. It was massive, about half the size of the ballroom, and it took up half the back of the house. The big windows that usually looked out over the lawn were closed with heavy red drapes, reminding me a little of Cruor, only instead of a black accent there was fiery orange and bright yellow. The floor was polished wood, and the chairs and sofas were all pushed together in the middle of the room. It looked like they’d been collected over many years. Some were matched, while others looked like they’d been pulled off a curb.

“Cool,” said Suze. “Haven’t been in this room yet. It felt weird to explore your house without you here, so I didn’t,” she said to me.

“It’s not my house,” I muttered.

“A certain crown I hear you wear now says differently,” said Trafton, grinning at me.

“It’s good to see you, Professor Korba,” I said, deciding not to respond to Trafton.

The pixie professor smiled at me. “You as well. My, how you’ve grown over these last few years.” He smiled. “Responsibility suits you.”

I was too surprised to respond. Professor Korba had always been my second favorite professor after Professor Dacer, but he had never acted especially friendly toward me, or praised me. I was honored to know that he had been paying attention over the last few years.

“This is Professor Marie,” said Professor Korba, introducing the woman next to him. She’s a fallen angel who started here this past fall.” Professor Marie was the woman who had greeted me yesterday when I woke up from my mom’s dream.

I shook the fallen angel’s hand, feeling a spark of healing warmth when we touched. She had a slight build, with long hair and sharp gray eyes.

“Sorry to meet under these circumstances,” she said, her voice rough. Her eyes searched my face and I had the distinct feeling that she was looking for signs that I was weak. Evan, meanwhile, was busy talking to Trafton, while Suze sat next to the two students I didn’t know.

We spent the next three hours in deep discussion. I told them everything that had happened to me and everything I knew, which I was now realizing wasn’t much. I didn’t know how Lanca was doing, but I promised to try and contact her as soon as I got a chance. I didn’t know what had happened to the others at the Circle; for all I knew they were all dead, and I didn’t know if any help would come to us at Public.

“It’s a bleak situation,” said Professor Marie.

“What’s been happening here?” I asked, with a nod to her to say that I agreed. I had taken my turn filling them in on what I knew that was happening outside, but I still didn’t have a clear picture of how Paranormal Public had fallen, why Astra was still standing, or what, if anything, any of us could do about the demons having overrun our university and my home.

“You’d better do it,” said Evan to Professor Korba. “You’re the professor, after all.”

The pixie looked down at the vampire with slight bemusement. “Well, now that I have your permission,” he said. Evan turned a little pink.

Professor Korba cleared his throat before standing up. With a slight pump of his hand he rose gently into the air and started to drift around thoughtfully. We all watched him, hoping to get something helpful out of his take on the situation.

“Most students had already left for break when the attack came,” said Korba. “We aren’t sure if they wanted students with their parents so that they could kill them all at once, or if they wanted fewer paranormals here to fight. There are issues either way, but my assumption is that after Malle’s brief visit, they simply wanted to deal with Martha and the skeleton crew of professors and students who had yet to depart. We also believe that they were aware that the last elemental was not on campus. I don’t think the attack could have succeeded if Charlotte had been here.”

I looked down at my lap, fighting to get control of a regret that threatened to consume me. Korba had touched on the very issue I’d been worrying about.

He continued without further comment on that aspect of the situation, so I was left to my own musings about it for now. “It wasn’t much of a fight. When Malle had visited, she had left many hellhounds and hybrids scattered throughout the woods. Normally Martha would have
sensed such activity, but with so many demons in the area of late, and the chaos and bustle of the departing students, she didn’t realize the imminent threat.

“At midnight that night I was preparing for sleep after arranging some end-of-semester work for some of my classes. My windows weren’t open, since it was cold outside, but the drapes were pulled back, and I have a view of the library. Earlier in the day I had heard that you had successfully reached your brother Richard, and that to the best of Professor Dacer’s knowledge you were unharmed. It was a great relief, let me say. But all of a sudden I knew that there was something wrong on campus, because the lights of the glass windows in the library kept flickering.

“I didn’t think much of it at first, I just assumed that Martha was overtaxed.

“But then I heard the screaming, and I saw students running up from the big hill.” Professor Korba’s voice went softer and I had to sit forward to hear him. “I could see students being chased, both on the ground and in the air. I knew it was hellhounds and hybrids, so I put my ring back on and raced to help.”

Professor Korba looked at me and sighed. “By the time I got to them, many had already been killed. They were too young and inexperienced to fight.

“Someone grabbed my arm and I was immensely relieved to turn and see that it was Trafton” - Korba glanced at the dream giver before he continued - “and suddenly I was somewhere else. There was no smoke, fire, screaming, blackness, or dead bodies. I no longer felt that the very air surrounding me was dirty, or that everything I had ever treasured would die. All I knew was that I was in a safe place.”

“I dreamed a portal to here,” said Trafton. “I basically just sped up the process of getting us out of there. I tried to save as many lives as I could while I was at it, but by the time Professor Korba and I got here, most of the rest of the students were already dead.” Trafton’s jaw tightened and I could see the stark sadness in his eyes.

“How did you know Astra was the safest place to be?” I wondered. “Why not the library or the new tower, or Airlee?”

“I wondered the same thing,” said Korba, “but Trafton here explained it very well.”

“The attack happened while I was in Airlee,” said the dream giver. “The demons shouldn’t have been able to enter, but they did, and easily. After that, the students who were left on campus didn’t have a chance; we were all trapped in our rooms. Sure, we were wearing rings,
but we had no plan for fighting, and it turned into a systematic slaughter. I got out by dreaming myself through the window, and I did the same for a couple of werewolves. I didn’t know how to get to the others.”

“So, you got out before the worst of the fighting and went to find Professor Korba?”

Trafton shook his head. “I went to see if there was more I could do to help once I’d escaped the attack at Airlee. I wanted to see what was happening, and find out if there was anyone left. I’m not going to lie, I considered just running, dreaming myself away, but I couldn’t leave. I didn’t want to let my friends down. So, I went to the tower, and on my way there I ran into Professor Dacer. He was white as a cloud under all that makeup, and he was drifting around like one as well. I was pretty sure he was in shock, but he told me he had to get to his mother, that she was at Astra defending it. Duchess Leonie had come here to stay once you left, because she wanted to keep an eye on the place and on the Mirror Arcane. I also think she was old friends with Sigil, which helped. Anyway, it was then that I realized that the demons had gained entry to Airlee using student powers. They shouldn’t have been able to enter, because like I said, the magic is old and powerful, and Martha strengthens it even more. But they were able to get in because they forced students to let them in despite the fact that the powers of Airlee recognized them as a threat.”

I nodded as understanding dawned. “There were no Astra students to kidnap,” I said. “The demons couldn’t break the spells the elementals had set in place for protection.”

“Exactly,” said Trafton. “The spells let us through, because they recognized us as friends. Martha and Sigil might have helped.”

Chapter Thirty

Lough was waiting for me in my room when I went to find him at lunchtime. I had brought him a massive pile of spaghetti, which he scooped from my hands and proceeded to dig into before the door had even closed behind me. I busied myself for a solid ten minutes looking on the shelves for the book I wanted while Lough silently devoured his meal.

When I found the book, I spun away from the leather-bound volumes and grabbed the ladder. Scrambling up, I pulled it off the top shelf, a cascade of gray dust falling with it. Lough, his mouth full of food, raised his eyebrows but didn’t comment.

Something had changed for me that morning. Knowing that we would attend the Black Ring Ceremony, that Sip was desperately trying to save Lisabelle, and that I’d be speaking to Lisabelle that night, if all went well – all of it together made me think it was time to take a last stand. I had an idea, but if you wanted to talk crazy . . . this was definitely crazy.

I flipped through the book, which was called
1,001 Paranormal Places to Visit Before You Croak and go to Heaven (if that’s where you’re going)
. Public was in there, of course, but there were also subsets of Public.