Elemental Darkness (Paranormal Public Series) (22 page)

I was very careful to keep Alixar hidden, not only in Astra - I had complete privacy there for the time being, but I didn’t know if that would always be true - but especially when I carried it around campus. I was pretty confident that Dacer hadn’t told anyone he had given his student one of the priceless masks in his care.

And there was no doubt that I would hate it if he got in trouble because of me. As it was, I only used Alixar when there was no other way to get the job done.

Lough had tried to follow Sip into the building through the front doors, and the magical protections around it had sent him slamming backward. He had flown a good twenty feet before he plowed into the ground.

That event had led to an argument between the two of them, something that had been happening more frequently this semester. They had always bickered, but we were all feeling the strain of not having Lisabelle there and not knowing if she was alright. I kept reassuring myself that she was okay, because nothing would dare to hurt her. The Nocturns wouldn’t have gone to so much trouble to get her on their side just to kill her, and if the paranormals working for the Police Academy had gotten to her we would have heard about it. If that had happened, Tabble would have gloated about it for months, if not years, and I probably would have had to take Sip out of the country. Sip was barely reining in her temper as it was, and her confrontations with paranormals like Camilla proved that she was still on edge.

“Wait a minute,” Sip said thoughtfully. We were in Astra, in the kitchen. Sigil had just appeared from the library to check on us. He had dropped something of a bombshell, observing that since there was a lot of mystery about the elemental royal family, and a lot of mystery about my parentage, perhaps the two were connected.

“Nascaro is the only royal house ever to rule the elementals,” continued Sip, “with Queen Ashray as the longest serving monarch, but I thought she didn’t have any children. So what happened? Did a cousin take over?”

“Ah, it’s a wonderful story,” said Sigil, pushing his glasses up his nose. “It is one I would have thought Charlotte had read by now. Then again, I do not recall this particular story making its way into the history books.”

I blushed. I had done a lot of reading, but it had all centered on the history and former powers of the elementals. I’d been so obsessed with learning how to be a proper elemental that there were still gaping holes in my knowledge.

“Um, err . . .” I said.

“Never mind,” said Sigil, zipping through the air. “You know how dearly I enjoy a good tale.”

And with that he began.

“Queen Ashray lived in the country, where her father had sent her, supposedly to keep her ignorant of her station as a princess and future queen. But in actuality that’s not the only reason he sent her away. It was also partly to hide her love for a man and the fact that she was pregnant.”

Sip and I exchanged glances. The royal family sounded complicated.

“She had a child, whom her lover raised once she was called to duty as queen of the elementals,” said Sigil. “We are all fuzzy on the details, and there’s a good chance even some of the history books have it wrong, but the point is that she did have an illegitimate heir. Once she died, at ninety-eight, that
heir, her son, had long since married and had two sons of his own. This was not revealed until it was absolutely necessary, because it was clear that the elementals were already a target for darkness. It was equally clear that royal purists would not want an illegitimate king, even if he had all the incredible powers of his mother. Even so, one of those sons became king upon his father’s death, while the other son became the heir of the first.”

I was staring at him like he was mad.

“Did either of those sons have children?” I asked breathlessly.

Sigil shrugged. “Asher Nascaro was the younger son and the family rascal, but I remember a story that said that he did settle down eventually, finding a girl that knocked his socks off, so to speak.” Sigil steepled his fingers. “Lovely when that happens. Most young men come around eventually.”

Was it even remotely possible that Queen Ashray was my great-grandmother?

“Sigil,” I said, “why didn’t you tell me all of this a long time ago? Wouldn’t you think I would want to know?”

Sigil blinked at me several times. “My dear, it’s the royal family.” He puffed out his chest and stared hard at me. When it was clear I still didn’t understand, he said, “One does not gossip about the royal family.”

“You have strange ideas,” I muttered. He was right about one thing, though. I knew of the royal family and their rule. I had just never thought I was the child of a prince, or a king. It all sounded too dream-like to be true.

I shook my head, trying to wrap my mind around it all.

“Are there pictures?” I asked.

Sigil nodded. “Most of the second floor is pictures of generations of Nascaros.”

I bolted. Behind me I heard Sigil say forlornly. “Always running here and there. I wish she’d just relax by the fire with a good book.” He paused, then added, “Or even a mediocre book.”

I heard Sip running after me. “Maybe after we defeat the Nocturns,” she called back to him.

“Maybe you’d have a better chance of not being killed by them if you stopped trying to defeat them, so to speak.”

Sigil’s words were drowned out after that as I pounded down the staircase from the library. I was going so fast that I nearly fell when I reached the second floor. Having been a dorm for hundreds of students at one time, Astra was massive. I had barely started to explore it, but I was going to remedy that omission now.

There were several small studies I had never been in, which had simply remained locked. Leaving them that way gave me more of a comforting feeling when I had the place all to myself.

The first study was called The King’s Room. I gently placed my hand on the handle, unlocking it with my touch, and stepped inside. There was one big window overlooking Astra’s back yard and the stream that flowed toward the dorm. And there were pictures everywhere.

Sip coughed. “Dust in here, why don’t you?”

“Yes, I have nothing else to do,” I muttered.

“It’s not like you have much of a social life,” Sip commented.

She was right. Most of our fellow students looked at me like it was my fault the Nocturns had taken over Vampire Locke. It was a constant comfort to me to remember that Queen Lanca didn’t think so.

“Over there,” said Sip. On the wall around the window there was a small plaque that read, “Nascaro Family,” and under it were several pictures.

“Here,” she said, pointing. “And here.”

There were pictures of aunts and cousins of the Nascaros. As I counted faces I realized that I was seeing more of the extended family, and even that wasn’t very big.

“They were the first targets,” said Sip. “If the Nascaros had always ruled, it would make the most sense to get rid of them first. They were a very powerful family, not just among the elementals but among all the paranormals, but they didn’t have as much protection as, say, the Rapier vampires. I’m sorry, Charlotte, but it looks like their goodness is what brought about their demise.”

I went to the library by myself. Sip wanted to go with me, but I told her I needed to be alone. I don’t know why I thought my entire life story would just be lying in a book waiting for me, but I wanted it to be.

After hours of research and the sun disappearing into the night I realized that the whole enterprise was silly. There was absolutely nothing here to confirm what Sigil had said, but somehow I still believed him. Sighing, I closed the book I was reading.
Putting the books on the cart so the librarian could put them back in the right place, I headed out into the darkness. I hadn’t realized how long I’d been there until I went outside and didn’t see any other students around. It was past curfew. It was vampire time.

Even though I was on Public’s campus, I walked faster. The night swept around me and the cold wind picked up. I glanced behind me, but saw nothing, so I turned around and focused on the path in front of me. A heavy footstep was the only warning I had before I went sprawling.

I tried to catch myself as I tumbled backward, but it was too late. I fell hard on the cold ground, my shoulder slamming into the earth.

“Get up,” hissed the hooded figure. I couldn’t see any of their faces, but there were three of them, none very tall.

“What, are you afraid to show your face, Faci?” I asked, trying to goad the vampire into doing something stupid.

The figure nearest to me, the one who had knocked me over, stepped forward and said,
“You think you’re so great as an elemental, and your friends are so cool.” The voice was like thick smoke and dark wind, without a trace of kindness.

“Now that you’ve told me what I think, can I leave now?” I asked. I wanted to grab the hooded figure and use my elemental magic, but I knew I was outnumbered. There was no way I could fight three Nocturns on my own.

The hooded figure lashed out again, black magic whipping from a black ring.

“Just remember,” he said, for it was definitely a male voice, “the demons are coming.”

“Let’s go,” he said to the other two figures. I stayed on the ground long after the three of them had disappeared into the inky night.

So the Nocturns had come to Public itself, and no one felt like doing much about it. I rolled onto my side and slowly pushed myself to my feet. I could see puffs of my breath in the air in front of me as I trudged back to Astra, watching over my shoulder the whole way.

Before I left for Tactical the next day I went in search of Sigil to get his help with something I had been thinking about. The ghost was playing a game, tossing books into the air and seeing if he could get them to land perfectly on top of each other.

I looked at him askance. “I thought you liked books,” I said skeptically. “Throwing them can’t be doing them any good.”

“I’m only doing it with books I don’t like,” said Sigil, quickly dashing his glasses up his nose before they fell off.

“Oh, silly me,” I said.

“What can I help you with?” Sigil asked. “More about your family?”

“We don’t know if they’re my family,” I said quickly. “There’s no proof.”

“Probably all for the best,” said Sigil. “I would find suddenly becoming a princess stressful.”

I didn’t even touch that one.

“Sigil,” I said, “you used to be a professor of advanced pyrotechnics, right?”

Sigil nodded. “Oh yes. I rather like fire. So warm and alive and vibrant. All the pretty colors. Oh!,” he cried suddenly, as an idea came to him. “I could use fire on some of these books. I wouldn’t have to look at them anymore.”

He started to examine the pages of the book he held in his hands:
“The History of Gutter-Gobbers.”

“You don’
t like gutter-gobbers?” I asked.

“Oh, I like them well enough, useful creatures. It’s the author of this particular work that gets my goat. I burn everything of his I can find. He dated my sister, but she said all he did was talk about himself.”

“Oh, I see,” I said. “Your sister was lucky to have a brother like you.”

“Yes, rather,” said Sigil.

“But really,” I said. “You know a lot about a fire.”

“Yes,” he said. “I suppose I do.”

“Can you teach me?” I asked quietly.

That gave Sigil pause.

“Would you use it for ill?”

I shrugged and then grinned. Sigil’s eyebrows rose higher on his large forehead.

“I’d use it on anyone who didn’t treat my sister well,” I assured him.

“You don’t have a sister,” said Sigil.

“Exactly,” I said.

I spent a long time with Sigil. He taught me enough so that I thought I could get by. We’d find out during Tactical.

I was tossing and turning in my bed in Astra, unable to sleep. The room was dark, the way Keller had liked it. The curtains were drawn and any little lights that might have been shining in the room were turned off. In the late spring months we had kept the windows open to let the summer breeze flow through the room, and I would often call a little more breeze than we would have had otherwise. But now, in the blanket of winter and without Keller, I had no use for either the darkness or the breeze. Sighing, I turned again and punched my pillow down.

The next day was our first Tactical, and I was worried. Whenever I’d seen Daisy and Faci their heads had been together and they’d been deep in conversation, ignoring everything and everyone around them, which usually included Dobrov.

At the start of the semester we’d all been appalled to see that the two darkness mages were still allowed at Public, especially given how Lisabelle was being vilified in the Tabble and by Caid. By this time I just accepted that the senior paranormals did not see the same threats we did. They hadn’t been there time and again when the Nocturns had attacked. Faci’s father had been allowed to take responsibility for Princess Dirr’s death, after all, leaving Faci free to kill again, and no senior paranormal seemed to think that was a problem.