Elemental Darkness (Paranormal Public Series) (29 page)

“What is this meaning of this?”
The voice was cold, colder than I had ever heard it before.

Keller Erikson stepped through the doorway, his black hair wet and his beautiful blue eyes scanning us, his voice as cold as a blast from an ice mage.

We were led back to Oliva, who was surrounded by professors. Keller walked in front of us and stopped to stand with Goffer. I felt like I was being arrested. Faci, Daisy, Camilla, and Dobrov were all allowed to go free. They weren’t the ones who had started it, claimed the Academy officers who had broken up the fight. Goffer stood silently, his eyes hard. I could see Cale, studiously ignoring me. There
were other senior paranormals there, many more than there had been when the session of Tactical had started.

My friends kept giving me furtive glances, looking to see how I was taking the news that Keller had returned to Paranormal Public without telling me, that he had come to break up our fight, and worst of all, that instead of letting us go he was turning us over to Oliva.

My breath was coming in ragged gasps and I felt sick and confused, that’s how I was taking it. I might be glad he had broken up the fight, since Faci was strong and he lacked the grip on reality the rest of us possessed, making him all the more dangerous. But I wanted Keller’s eyes to light up when he saw me, as they used to. And as I had dreamed they’d do again.

But it had been the exact opposite.

“What’s happening?” Lough demanded.

“Shut up,” one of the officers ordered.

Oliva stepped forward.

“Was the Key found?
We do know that the White Ring was breached.”

Faci’s eyes sparked with rage.

“No,” said Keller evenly. “It wasn’t.”

The rain had subsided, but it still drizzled, making me shiver. Or maybe it wasn’t the rain making me shiver.

Oliva gave me a hard look. I kept my head down, but I could see Dacer standing off to the side, studiously indifferent. His mother, on the other hand, was having none of it.

“This is ridiculous,” she said sharply. “These are children and they were doing something that they were assigned to do, ordered even, and now they’re being treated like criminals for it!”

“Professor Dacer,” Caid barked, “why don’t you escort your mother back to your home?”

I was stunned. Caid had just dismissed Dacer and the Unforgiver.
We were heading down a dark, dark road.

“Get them out of here,” Oliva said, pointing to us. “Now.”

But it was already too late. There was a hum of energy in the gathered crowd. I just now realized that I should have been wondering why the crowd was gathered in the first place, and I took a sharp breath. Keller was here. He was working for Malle. I glanced at my ex-boyfriend’s shoulders, where he stood with his back turned to me as he squarely faced the President of Public.

From behind Oliva a figure emerged.

Cynthia Malle had returned to Paranormal Public.

I didn’t lunge. I didn’t move, I just let a numbness take over my body. I should have wrapped my hands around her throat and demanded to know where Lisabelle was, but we were hopelessly outnumbered. I looked to Dacer. He gave the smallest shake of his head.

Then I was pushed away, and my friends and I were led back toward the dorms.

Sip and Lough were taken to Airlee despite their protests. I was taken alone to Astra. I watched Keller the whole time, hoping for any sign that he missed me, that he wanted to talk to me, that his heart ached half as much as mine did, but there was nothing. Nothing at all.

It took us almost a week to recover from Tactical, and we spent most of that week in Astra. I had one more visit to make for Dacer now, and I couldn’t wait, presuming he was even going to let me go. I hoped that with Malle showing up Dacer had changed his mind and realized that danger was everywhere, even within the walls of Public. The night Tactical ended I still nursed a tiny hope that Keller would come talk to me, but it quickly faded.

“I can’t believe Keller didn’t even talk to us,” Sip said for the millionth time, as the three of us sat in the Astra sitting room. The weather was still terrible. It was raining harder than ever, with what seemed like egg-sized drops pounding against the window panes. Lough sat huddled under a blanket, his eyes filled with concern. They’d left Airlee the minute they’d been allowed, while I had just stayed in Astra, not wanting to miss Keller if he came.

Over the past three years Sip had become friends with Keller too. His ignoring us in favor of Malle had hurt her, but she masked her pain with anger.

I stared hard at the fire, wondering how much more I could take. Even the end of the semester wasn’t going to offer any relief. I missed Keller and I missed Lisabelle, and it hurt me deep inside that they were so close and yet unreachable.

“We should have our own hybrids,” she said, “that would show all the darkness mages.”

“Someone doesn’t want to talk to you, so you invent evil monsters to have them killed?” Lough said. “Sounds about like a girl.”

Sip took a sip of tea. She’d been furiously boiling water, letting the tea steep, adding honey, and pouring it for the last twenty minutes. Now she sat on her sofa, cradling the steaming mug and glaring ferociously.

“We’ve now lost both of them,” said Sip sadly. “I never thought Keller would go over to darkness.”

I spun around.

“We haven’t lost either of them,” I said. “Keller was only doing that because he had to. He’ll come!”

Sip looked troubled, and Lough didn’t say anything. “He’ll come,” I insisted.

“Charlotte,” said Lough quietly, “they already left. Malle’s delegation. It was only a handful of Nocturns and they didn’t stay very long. They talked with Goffer, Oliva, and Caid, and then they left. Once they knew Oliva didn’t have the key, they didn’t wait around.

I swallowed hard. I felt like there was a massive hand pressing down on my chest and keeping me from breathing.

“What about Dobrov?” I asked. “Have you seen him?”

Sip’s face got even darker. “Not since the end of Tactical.”

I had told my friends that I’d given Dobrov the Key. At first Lough been appalled, but he quickly realized that I had had no choice.

Now, though, Dobrov was nowhere to be found.

“Charlotte?” Sip asked. “Keller will come back. He didn’t go over to darkness. It’s just that he didn’t have a choice either.” She looked at me pleadingly, so I nodded, feeling numb.

Lough looked at me with worry in his eyes. “Are you okay?” he asked.

I looked at my two friends, the only two friends I had left in the world, or so it felt.

I shook my head. “No,” I said. “No, I’m not.”

By the end of the week it was clear
that Dobrov wasn’t going to come either. I had risked my life for the Key of Light for nothing.

The end of the semester was near. I would have thought that the ache of missing Lisabelle and Keller would have eased with time, but it hadn’t. Instead it was getting worse, and Lisabelle’s absence was feeling less and less like she was taking an extended vacation and more like it was permanent. Seeing Keller had done nothing to help my sleeping, or my mood.

We had one more strengthening task to carry out for Dacer, and he had decided to let us risk it. Over the course of our previous excursions, Sip and I had become more efficient at putting the Power of Five into effect and then returning to Public, and it seemed to make sense for us to try this last one.

I was having a hard time concentrating on anything, including schoolwork, so I was relieved when it was time to leave campus. Public had become stifling. Everywhere I went the students either ignored me entirely or gave me dirty looks. I didn’t much care, but it made for very unpleasant classes.

We didn’t think it was a good idea for
Sip, Lough, and I to all just disappear for the weekend, but when Lough grumbled, we got Rake to look after Astra and the three of us set off together for our last mission of the semester.

The house we were assigned to this time was unlike the others. Dacer had mostly sent us to clusters and families where there were lots of children with unusual talents, like the Tempest
, or rare and special animals at risk of going extinct at the hands of the demons.

But this house was on a hill far out in the middle of nowhere, and it was too small to contain any children. Dacer said that an old woman lived there alone, and that she had once been a professor at Public. Maybe that warranted protection, but I wasn’t completely convinced, and neither was Sip.

“It feels like a waste,” she complained, “to go to all this trouble for one paranormal. Is it someone who’s important to Dacer?”

“Maybe,” I said. I honestly couldn’t figure out what Dacer wanted. He had been strange about it since he had told me about this latest mission. “She was a professor here, so he probably knew her, or maybe his mother did.”

Sip nodded. “What’s the name?”

“He didn’t tell me,” I said.

If it had been anyone but Dacer, that would have made me nervous. But I had forgotten to ask at the time, and Dacer, who was usually very forthcoming with information about these missions, hadn’t offered.

We took brooms. Sip, who hated flying, and I, who hated heights, were not happy about it, but there was no quicker way to get there.

Lough had his own broom and was having a delightful time zooming around and laughing.

“Lough, if you can’t be serious you shouldn’t be here,” said Sip irritably. Lough ignored her.

We left just as dusk arrived on Saturday night. We usually worked through the night, missing the massive parties that were now commonplace at Public.

“I can’t believe Oliva lets them happen,” Sip had said the last time we passed a group of Starters carrying what I was sure was alcohol.

“He’s always with Caid,” I said, frowning, “looking for the Key.”

Sip nodded. “Does Oliva really think that if Faci finds it, he’s just going to turn it over to the paranormals?”

“As far as he’s concerned, Faci is just a student at Public,” I said worriedly. “There’s no reason for him to believe Faci wouldn’t.”

Sip snorted. We all knew that Faci was a Nocturn. We also had reason to believe that Dobrov still had the Key, though we hadn’t seen him since the night of Tactical and we couldn’t even hazard a guess as to what he intended to do with it.

We were soaring high over the treetops. It was nearly December and the air was cold, but it had yet to snow. With winter coming and the days getting darker, I was glad Sip and Lough had moved into Astra. Lough had claimed his own apartment right off the kitchen and said that he never planned to leave, while Sip had taken the bedroom across the hall from mine. She had left the room as it was, decorated in patterns of fire. She said that when Lisabelle came back they would both return to Airlee, and I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I didn’t think that was ever going to happen.

We landed on a dirt road halfway up the mountainside. I wasn’t sure Dacer had informed the professor that we were coming; he usually gave the people we were scheduled to visit a warning, but he also didn’t always tell us whether he had or not, and I didn’t want to give the old woman a fright.

Sip, Lough, and I started to trudge up the dirt path.

After what felt like hours of walking, Lough said, “There,” and pointed to a cottage nestled in the trees. There was smoke coming out of the chimney.

“How idyllic,” Sip murmured. Although it was long past the season for a garden, there were flower beds and a perfectly tended vegetable patch out front. The cottage was painted white with brown shutters and blended well into the side of the mountain. I’d kept my eyes out for any signs of demons, but there were none. We were in a very remote area. Why, oh why, would Dacer want us to come here?

“Come on,” said Lough, stepping up to the front door. He had just raised his hand to knock when it swung open to reveal an elderly woman. She might have been about the age of Dacer’s mother, but she didn’t look anywhere near as agile.

“If you’ve come to kill me, you might as well get it over with,” said the woman in a raspy voice. She didn’t look the least bit afraid.

We exchanged glances and I stepped forward. “We aren’t here to kill you,” I said.

The woman’s face instantly brightened, but I thought it was from the sound of my voice more than from what I had said.

“Ah, Charlotte,” she murmured. “You sound just like your mother. I knew Dacer would get you here eventually. How did he manage it?”

I was too stunned to speak. It was only now, in the dim light, that I realized that the woman was half-blind.

“Did you think we were demons?” Sip asked.

The woman chuckled. “No, I knew you weren’t. I could sense you from a mile away, but I didn’t know you were friends, either. I can’t get news up here, but Dacer promised to send Charlotte when he could. I had started to think he had forgotten about me.”