Furious Flames (Elemental Book 3) (13 page)

*          *          *

We were once again sitting outside in the forest,
hoping Darwin would figure out how to use the amulet. It was Henry who insisted
we do this every single day. I wanted to go to bed, but I knew I needed to be
supportive of Darwin.

“We may need to do something about the prankster,”
Henry said thoughtfully.

“The hissing roaches in the women’s bathroom were
hilarious,” Darwin argued.

“I am referring to the invisible dog that keeps
biting people when Dena is around.”

“That’s not an invisible dog; that’s a wolf elemental
she called.”

Darwin gawked at me. “You can see it?”

“Yeah. You can’t?” I asked Henry.

“Elementals aren’t illusions,” Darwin explained.
“People can see earth and water elementals sometimes, but air and fire
elementals are only visible to those who truly understand the element. It’s one
of those projective/receptive things.”

“What element is the wolf?”

“Well, they’re not naturally occurring elementals, so
the person who creates a wolf elemental can be doing it for whatever element
they need. Because you can see it and others can’t, I reckon it’s air. She
probably created it for guidance.”

“She’s having trouble getting rid of it, so I think
we should use the amulet to help her.”

Henry shook his head. “It would make more sense to
have her go to Hunt or one of the teachers. She should learn to control her
powers, which she can’t do if we interfere.”

“You’re interfering with me,” Darwin said.

“Get back to work,” Henry told him, scowling.

Darwin stuck out his tongue before making an
exaggerated display of concentrating. After another half an hour of getting
nowhere, I fell asleep leaning against a tree.

I was dreaming… again. I also knew it was going to
come true if I didn’t stop it. In my dream, Astrid was lying in an extravagant
bed. She was gorgeous, but strangely creepy as she was dressed in an
old-fashioned white nightgown. I sensed his approach, not from his eyes, but
from my own… yet I wasn’t there.

The amulet that hung around his neck, hidden by his
thick, black, leather jacket, was the reason Astrid didn’t wake up. Without her
supernatural senses in her favor, Gale was far too quiet. He pressed his gun
against her forehead and cocked it. The sound woke her and her eyes snapped open.

Too late.

I jerked awake to see Astrid frowning with worry.
“Where have you been?” I asked, standing slowly and clumsily. I was
disorientated from the dream, but my instincts were telling me not to say
anything. Darwin had gone back inside. Henry had apparently stood guard until
Astrid arrived and woke me.

“Working on my own investigation. Did you miss me?”

I didn’t answer. It was foolish of me, but I did
think about her too much when she wasn’t around. “My aim is improving,” I said
instead.

*          *          *

On Saturday, I went to the library to meet Vincent
and instead found Ghost with a letter saying he had to miss this week for
council business. Just as I turned to leave, I caught a glimpse of something
bright yellow and red as it vanished through the door. There was nothing in the
hallway when I opened the door.

Darwin, Henry, and I worked on tracking the students
down who were at the party. We split up and I gave my roommates a list of
questions. Since Darwin was a journalist, I figured this would be cake for him.
At lunch, we sat down and compared notes.

“No one I talked to reported anything off about the
alcohol,” I said. “I talked to the guy…” I checked my notes. “Thomas, who
brought the alcohol. He’s a C-Four Earth, has a legitimate I.D., and bought it
to share at the university. He’s adamant nobody messed with the bottles. His
sister had an incident with drugs and he says he’s very careful about it. He
does, however, think the dry ice thing was done by more than one person.
Everyone I talked to either said they saw one to four people talking with a
vampire woman, or that they weren’t paying any attention. Nobody knew her name.
The four people are Len, Kristen, Conner, and Mack. Mack hasn’t been seen since
Thursday afternoon. The newest victims, Nathan and Caleb, were nowhere near the
party. Two of the six people I talked to said they saw Len leave with the
vampire woman.”

“I got exactly the same story, minus Thomas’s bit,”
Darwin said. “I did hear that Nathan was arguing with Jackson on Wednesday.
Apparently, Nathan wanted to be Langril’s assistant and said that he was going
to fight Jackson for the position. He went to Langril, but not until Friday.”

“That must have been when Langril brought Nathan in.”

“I also found out Kristen was working at the council
this summer. Her roommate thinks she was the one to put the letters up all over
the dining room about the council’s plan. Why is Addison sitting with her
roommates?”

Henry turned to see her. “I believe I upset her by
not saying that I would miss her.”

“No shit, Sherlock,” Darwin agreed. “Why didn’t you
say you would miss her?”

Henry shrugged. “Because I doubt I will. She knows I
don’t feel emotions as strongly as others. When she is gone, I probably will
not think about her.”

Darwin looked at me. “Do you want to explain it to
him? I’d probably get a bit rude.”

“He’ll figure it out. What did you learn from your
interviews?”

“You will not like my answer,” Henry warned.

“It’s fine if you didn’t learn anything.”

“On the back of each question sheet, I drew the woman
they saw the three victims with. I asked for every single detail and asked them
when I was done to make sure the drawing was accurate. Every one of them
described the woman almost exactly the same.” He flipped over his pile of
papers and spread them out.

“Oh, god,” Darwin said.

On the back of every paper was a perfect drawing of
Astrid.

*          *          *

I was early on Sunday for my fire training. Of
course, Professor Nightshade was late, as usual, so I read. When she finally
arrived at half past noon, I ignored her and continued reading for a few more
minutes. She sat beside me and I set the book aside. “So, when exactly are you
and Watson planning to take down the wizard council?”

She rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry about it; it has
nothing to do with you.”

“Vincent Knight is my uncle. I thought everyone knew
that. He’s part of the council, and that makes it my business. Not to mention
that I’m a wizard.”

“Leave it alone, Devon. I’ve known the council a lot
longer than you have, so I know what their end game is. Trust me; nobody wants
the council to stay in charge.”

“So… students are sick from a mysterious, deadly, and
magical sickness. I wonder who at Quintessence could cause that…”

“Really? You think it was me?”

“No. You tease, ridicule, and mock your students on a
daily bases when they make a mistake or say something stupid. You
connect
with us, which doesn’t lead to killing them slowly and painfully with sickness.
However, you might know who could do it or has a reason to do it.”

She sighed. “If I did have any information, why would
I tell you?”

“Because you don’t want the students to die any more
than I do. These students never did anyone any harm.”

“It’s true that you’re a private investigator then,
and you’re as stubborn as your uncle. Keigan Langril is the only one I know who
can make a poison powerful enough to kill people and make it look like a
sickness. That being said, I haven’t checked on the students myself, so I don’t
know exactly how bad their condition is.”

“Dr. Martin said it wasn’t a potion. He thinks it was
blood sacrifice or contagion.”

“Then those students either pissed someone off or got
into stuff they weren’t supposed to. There are some dangerous, cursed items in
this world, but the wizard council is supposed to confiscate and destroy them.
The only wizard powerful enough to do this by contagion magic would be Logan.”

Hunt would never do this to his students.

“What have you learned about fire in the last week?”
Nightshade asked, obviously done talking about the case.

“I learned how to make illusion fire in Remy’s
class.”

“You haven’t learned anything. Fire is not merely
destructive. Water is healing and love. Earth is balance and strength. Both are
passive; you take water and earth into yourself to make you who you are. Fire
and air are active; they are created from who you are. If you haven’t learned
anything by next week, I’m going to be harder on you.” She left me alone, which
was the last thing I wanted.

I didn’t want to think of Astrid.

I knew there was no way she did this. Astrid didn’t
have the power, the knowledge, or the motive. If she were a carrier of whatever
was infecting them, that was one thing, but if Dr. Martin was correct, then it
was an outright intentional act of magic. Unfortunately, I hadn’t seen her
Saturday night, so I couldn’t ask her for an explanation.

*          *          *

Astrid was never late. No matter what time the sun
set, she always met me within a minute after the sun was hidden behind the tree
line. Even on cloudy days, she never risked coming out early… except once.

The class field trip was supposed to be the highlight
of the school year. We went to the science museum in a
lightning
storm
.
I wasn’t the only one who saw the problem with walking into a science museum
while tornado drills blared in the background. However, our teacher was
tenacious.

It was only the second day with our new teacher, as
our original teacher left on maternity leave. Mr. Gibson was a normal-looking
man in his thirties. He had short, black hair with dark eyes. His smile was
kind and there was nothing unusual about his business suit. My father wore a
suit, so it made Mr. Gibson seem more trustworthy. I assumed this was also why
I didn’t like him.

At the science museum, we broke into pairs and groups
to explore the exhibits we wanted. My partner and I split up the minute we were
out of the teacher’s sight. Despite the storm, I was excited for the movie
Astrid and I had planned to see that night. I was playing with a Van de Graaff
generator when the power went out.

Most people were calm except for several young kids,
especially since there were guards who tried to guide everyone out with
flashlights. I heard the voices of some of my classmates and made my way
towards them, but before I reached anyone, I felt a hand on my shoulder. “This
way.” It was Mr. Gibson, so I let him guide me. My instincts warned me
something was wrong, but he was a teacher.

“Where are we going?” I asked when it was obvious
that the sounds of other people were getting further and further away. We were
getting further from the emergency lights as well.

“There are cops outside and we’re not ready for that
yet.”

“What does that mean?” It was pitch black.

He didn’t answer. “Just ahead of you. Go on,” he said
when I hesitated. “There’s a stairway to the bottom floor. Everyone else is
taking a different stairway and it’s overcrowded.”

That made sense to me, but I still didn’t move. I
didn’t know how far away from me he was.

“It’s okay. Right ahead of you.”

“How can you see me?”

“I have very good eyesight. I’m going back for the
others now. Straight ahead of you is the staircase.” His hand pushed on my back
until I stumbled forward. My instincts were firing hard. “I’m going to shut
this door in case anyone tries to wander further into the building. You’re
fine.”

I heard a heavy door close behind me and a lock turn.
I decided right then not to trust teachers. It wasn’t that I suspected Mr.
Gibson of anything; most adults ignored my instincts and thought they knew
best. I felt along the wall and figured out within moments that I was locked in
a room.

In the movies, calling for help never did any good,
so I tried to find an air vent instead. What was odd was that my sense of
danger increased by the minute. There wasn’t even enough light for my eyes to
adapt, but there was apparently airflow, as I smelled smoke. Even then, I
refused to panic. My father had said panicking only made a bad situation worse,
so I forced myself not to think of fire or danger at all.

“It’s just a game,” I said out loud.

A hissing laugh sent chills down my spine. “A game it
is.” The voice belonged to a man, but there was something too inhuman about it.
“Do you know the rules to this game, Devon?”

“No,” I said, hoping I was wrong and someone was
looking for me. I started towards what I thought was the door and hesitated. A
few seconds later, deep, blood-red eyes glowed dimly for a moment before a face
appeared, illuminated by no actual light source. There was nothing sinister
about his face except for his eyes; he looked like a normal, middle-aged man.

“That is because there are no rules. This is a game
of choosing your friends and your enemies. A lot of people are waiting to see
what kind of person you turn out to be. Fortunately for you, you’re useful to
me.”

“Who are you?”

“It doesn’t matter; you’re not going to remember me
anyway.”

He vanished and I felt another presence; one I was
very familiar with. I reached out in the dark and Astrid’s hand gripped mine
firmly. Without a word, she led me to the door. I heard the lock snap and the
door open.

Fire alarms blared. Pretty much everyone else was out
of the building by the time we made it to the stairs, but the flickering orange
light coming from below was unmistakable. “We need to go a different way.” She
had been so worried about fire in the woods that I assumed it was a real fear
of hers. Light reflected off her dark eyes and hair in a way that was both
beautiful and morose.