Elemental Fire (4 page)

 “Charlotte is right,” said
Lisabelle, rising to her feet and swinging the black bag over her thin
shoulders. “We go in quietly and we go in now. Standing around out here waiting
for a Demon of Knight to come along isn’t going to do us any good.”

“Lough, what are you going to
do?” Sip said.

Lough shrugged and sat on the log
that Sip had been sitting on earlier, when she was organizing the bags.

My heart pounded as I listened to
my friends talk so casually about splitting up, and I wished more than ever that
Keller were with us. I knew we were doing the right thing, but a powerful
fallen angel is always good to have around in a fight, especially one who loves
you.

“I’m going to do what we should
all be doing at this time of night: sleep.” With that he stood up and added,
“But first, I’ll walk you to your doom. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Hey,” said Lisabelle, grinning
wickedly. “We might need rescuing, and who better to rescue us than a dream
giver?”

“Pretty much everyone,” Lough
muttered. “Trafton probably wouldn’t say so, though. He probably thinks he’s a
hero.”

“Trafton decided to go surfing
instead of attending Lanca’s coronation,” said Sip, frowning with disapproval.
“He has some catching up to do on recent events.”

“That beach bum is so far behind he
couldn’t catch up if he ran at stop speed and the rest of us came to a total
standstill,” said Lough bitterly.

“Tell us how you really feel,” I
said, grinning at Lough’s venom. Lough was nice to everyone and nice about
almost everything, except Trafton.

We had reached the edge of the
woods as we talked. Along this section of the boundary of Public there was no
wall except that magical barrier that I had strengthened. There was just the
woods, which no student dared to walk through alone or at night, making it a
better barrier than stone. Now the trees were dark and close. I had vivid
memories of almost dying at the hands of the demons in this forest during the
previous semester, but I had lived through that, and I was not so afraid of the
woods now. Funny how that worked; facing your fear gives an image to it and
makes it less frightening. My newfound lack of fear might also have related to
facing down Malle.

“Lough,” I said, “we’ll use the
Contact Stone if we need to.”

Lough nodded in agreement, but
his eyes were filled with shadows. “They haven’t been working,” he said,
fidgeting with his collar as if he was nervous. “After I got through to Dobrov,
all the Contact Stones went dark.”

“Maybe there’s a problem with the
channel,” said Lisabelle. She didn’t look concerned.

“Doesn’t anything worry you?” Sip
demanded.

“Since I met you, LOTS has
worried me,” Lisabelle muttered.

“Funny what caring about people
does,” said Sip hotly.

“Funny, that isn’t how I thought
about it,” Lisabelle drawled.

“Let’s get going,” I said. “If we
waited for you two to stop sparring before we left, I’d be old and married.”

“You really think someone’s going
to marry you?” Sip asked as the three of us turned away from Lough.

“Ha. So funny I forgot to laugh,”
I replied, and Sip’s white teeth flashed in the darkness.

Lough refused our offers to hug
him, saying it was a girly thing to do. He didn’t want to admit that we might
be going into danger, and he refused to believe that if we were all going to
die, we would die at Public, our safe haven.

“There’s a decent chance that
such a thing does not exist,” Lisabelle said.

“And there’s a decent chance that
you’re wrong,” Lough retorted, glaring.

“Less than a decent chance,
actually,” said Lisabelle.

Now we were about to find out
which of them was right. Seeing the dark forest ahead of us, filled with
shadows, thick branches, and secrets, I had a terrible feeling that it would
turn out to be Lisabelle.

“How close will we come out to
the Long Building?” I whispered to the darkness mage. Sip was in front,
scouting the trail she wanted to take. With her werewolf senses she was more
attuned to the ground and what we walked over than either Lisabelle or I, which
meant that she should lead, and she did.

“Very,” said Lisabelle. “Which is
good. The less time we’re in the forest risking demons and detection, the
better.”

“Are there demons here now?” I
wondered, looking up at the sky. It was a perfect, clear night. Branches
reached across my view, their gnarled twigs seeming to cup the sky. If only I
had been looking up from the safety of my room in Astra, I could have
appreciated the cold beauty of the stars.

“Probably not,” said Lisabelle.
“I would think they’re holed up with Malle planning how to kill you.”

“Ah,” I said. “Thanks, I hadn’t
thought of that.”

“You’re welcome,” said Lisabelle.
“I’ll be here all night.”

“I was being sarcastic,” I
muttered.

“I wasn’t.”

“You two HUSH. Gosh, now I know
what Charlotte goes through all the time listening to us.”

“Don’t try and sympathize with
me,” I said. “You have no idea.”

Sip came to a halt so quickly I
almost slammed into her back. Lisabelle, who was more agile than she looked,
stopped instantly.

“Did you see that?” Sip asked,
her eyes intent on one of the trees in front of us.

“I saw nothing,” I said. “But my
eyes aren’t very good in the dark.”

“Lisabelle?” Sip whispered. She
was standing so still she was nearly vibrating. A mixture of anxiety and fear
washed over me. This had been a bad idea. We should have just waited outside
Public until other paranormals showed up, we had run out of food, or the
Contact Stones worked and we could ask Dacer what was going on. Now the three
of us were alone in the woods, and we had split up and left Lough all by
himself. He was hiding, sure, but if more than one demon found him he would be
easily overwhelmed.

I turned around to look at my
darkness friend, but she was nowhere to be seen. She had disappeared into the
night.

Chapter Three

“She’s gone to see what’s up
ahead,” I murmured in Sip’s ear.

“We hope,” said Sip.

I was so close to my werewolf
friend that I could see that the tips of her ears were red, but I wasn’t sure
if it was from cold or fury. We stood stock still and waited. The only sounds
were of the wind gently rustling the branches and the occasional animal calling
out a greeting.

It didn’t take long for Lisabelle
to come back. As we waited, I didn’t want to move. Fear and anticipation warred
inside of me.

“Lisabelle, WHAT are you doing?”
Sip hissed, glaring at a spot to our right. When I followed where Sip was looking,
I could see the outline of my friend. She was moving carefully, but for her
quiet movements were a way of life. I was sure she could sneak up on Risper
himself if she wanted to.

“Making sure there’s nothing out
there that wants to kill us,” she whispered, not looking the least bit sorry.

“And how’d that go?” Sip demanded
in a whisper-yell. She fisted her hands on her hips and glared up at our
friend.

“We’re good for at least ten
feet,” said Lisabelle cheerily.

“Lough should have come,” I
whispered, staring at the spot in front of us that Sip pointed to, where I saw
only darkness.

“He should have,” Lisabelle
agreed, “but he didn’t. He’ll be fine.”

“How do you know?” I asked,
thinking of turning back. “I could stay with him. Keep him company.”

“Absolutely not,” said Lisabelle
harshly. “Dacer would have my head if he found out I let you out of my sight.”

“Could he kill you?” I asked, my
mind shifting gears. I thought of Lisabelle as indestructible, and even though
I knew it wasn’t technically true, it was probably close.

“No,” Lisabelle whispered. “I
don’t think so. But sometimes I want to pretend that any of you could keep up
with me. Don’t want you to think I have an ego or anything.”

“Okay, so you two scared whatever
was stalking us off with all your chatter,” Sip grumbled. “Congratulations.
You’ve won the annoying awards for January.”

Lisabelle put her hand over her
heart. “I solemnly swear to have the same success the rest of the eleven months
of the year.”

We were still making our way
slowly through the woods. Sip valued quiet more than speed, which meant we
stepped carefully over every fallen branch and broken pine needle. The air was
cold on my face and hands, and I found myself tucking my fingers into my
pockets, as much to hide my ring as to keep them warm. It was still definitely
winter, even if there was hardly snow on the ground.

“How much further,” I asked,
hoping that we were nearly finished with this dark journey through the woods.

“A ways,” Sip said, barely
turning her head. “I’m not sure what’s out here.”

A grip like steel bit into my
forearm and I looked back at Lisabelle. Her eyes were like chips of black ice
and her voice was harsh when she said, “I mean it when I say do not leave us. I
don’t care if it’s Sip or me, but be with one of us at all times.”

I raised my eyebrows. “I can take
care of myself,” I said warningly. I loved that my friends cared, but I didn’t
want to be mothered, least of all by Lisabelle.

Lisabelle snorted. “I know you
can, Charlotte. Believe me. I wouldn’t want to fight you. Vital was saying the
same thing. You’re quick and observant and somehow you always have the instinct
to do the right thing. Still. . . .” She paused, considering. “More is better.
There’s no replacement for time and Sip and I have spent so much time with you.
. . .”

“Alright, that’s it. You two are
behaving like total girls,” Sip said in a hoarse whisper. “Charlotte, go first.
According to Lisabelle you can keep yourself from getting killed, so please
try. I’m separating you two,” she said by way of explanation when Lisabelle
only glared. “You might as well be walking through these woods with a beacon
yelling our location, and I’m tired of it. I refuse to let you two break my
perfect streak of not getting caught breaking rules.”

When Lisabelle still only stared,
Sip realized that the darkness mage was shutting up as ordered. Sip gave one
curt nod, then proceeded to shoo me forward, and somehow I knew I was going to
feel better with both my friends at my back. I took my hand out of my pocket,
checking on my magic. It was a pleasant throb through my shoulder, down my
bicep and elbow, through my forearm and into my fingertips. A comforting simmer
in a bleak battle.

“Something keeps flitting across
my vision,” I murmured. It was almost like a white shadow, and I could even
have believed it was a trick of the moonlight, except that the pattern was
clear.

“It might be a White bat,” said
Sip. “They’re harmless enough as long as they’re not working for Dove.”

“Do bats work for vampires?” I
asked. I had heard as much, or at least that vampires kept them as pets.

“I hate bats,” said Sip,
shivering. “They are sooo gross.”

“They’re just little guys,” said
Lisabelle. “You can’t possibly be afraid of something so small, can you?”

“Small can be devastating, thank you
very much,” said Sip, sticking her nose in the air.

“Ah, you took that personally
too,” said Lisabelle. “Not everything is about you, Sip.”

“Pot. Kettle. Black,” Sip
muttered. “Now be quiet and let’s go break some rules.”

“Finally you say something I understand,”
said Lisabelle. She extinguished the tiny light she had used to make her way
back to us and Sip tapped my shoulder lightly, telling me to move forward.
Ahead was just night, but behind there wasn’t anything either.

The forest was thinning, the
branches becoming thinner and fewer. We were almost to the tree line. If it
hadn’t been for the large slope we were coming up on, I would have been able to
see my beloved Public. At the top of the slope, far on one edge of campus, was
the Long Building.

I paused at the edge of the rise.
Sweat broke out on my forehead despite the cold, while Sip kept shifting
nervously and Lisabelle’s back was razor straight.

The grass looked like a black
blanket laid across the ground, barely stirred by the air. I was cold, but not
shivering, and the sky was so bright and clear we didn’t need a light. Even
with the possibility of Slime Dwellers waiting, I looked toward the Long
Building as a safe haven. I didn’t like being out in the open one little bit.

“When did the wind stop?” Sip
whispered hoarsely in my ear. “And what happened to the force field?”

Sip was right, we should have
passed the force field by now, or at least tried. It made no sense that we
could just walk through it as if it weren’t there.

“Maybe the force field is in
front of us, and it’s blocking the wind?” Lisabelle asked, but even she didn’t
sound convinced.