Elemental Earth (Paranormal Public) (28 page)

She lifted her shoulders in a
small shrug. “I want to come back to my friends, but at least they let me out
of the cell. They couldn’t keep me there, thinking that I had actually killed
Kia. I mean, it’s crazy.”

“Why did you want to leave so
badly?”

Vanni hung her head. Her golden
hair was thinner than it had been and there were dark circles under her eyes.
Golden Falls didn’t take kindly to violence, that was for sure.

“I want to be at Public,” she
said softly. “I don’t care if Golden Falls is this beautiful place where
nothing bad ever happens. It’s obviously not even true anyway. One of my
friends died and I wanted to go home.” Her lower lip trembled and I instinctively
reached out to take her hand.

My heart was aching, and I just
kept adding more reasons to be sad.

“We’re all going home soon,” I
murmured.

She looked at me hopefully. “Not
the ones who died,” she said. Tears spilled out of her eyes. “It took Marcus’s
death for them to let me out.”

“They’re getting angry with us,”
I said. “They say there has never been so much death in this place before.”

Vanni snorted. She was a frail
girl, and her imprisonment had only made that worse. “They think it’s our
fault, but it isn’t.” She twisted a frayed end of the blanket between her
fingers. “What does Keller say?”

I took a deep breath. She could
read in my face that there was something wrong, and she clutched my hand. “Tell
me,” she whispered. “I can take it.”

I wasn’t sure that was true, but
I admired her bravery.

I told her everything about my
encounter with Keller’s parents: how we had thought we were going there to have
a nice dinner, where the girlfriend would finally meet the Eriksons, and
instead we were ambushed by Malle. I told her how I had left Keller behind.

She reached over and gave me a
hug. She could see that I needed it. With my shoulders shaking, I hugged her
back.

As it turned out, we had both
lost something this semester.

“What do you need from me?” she asked.
It surprised me that she was so willing to help.

“I need to know all you can tell
me about the Eriksons’ relationship with Malle,” I said. “What are they going
to do with Keller?”

Vanni opened and closed her mouth
several times before she spoke. “I think Keller will be fine,” she explained.
“Mrs. Erikson was always close with Malle, or so my mom said, and Keller is her
pride and joy. Malle would never hurt her godson.”

“But where will he be going?” I
asked desperately.

“Ah, that I don’t know,” she
said. “I suppose if Caid knew where Malle hung out he would have attacked her
by now.”

I couldn’t bring myself to tell
Vanni that that probably wasn’t true. She would find out soon enough when more
paranormals died.

“Won’t this hurt Keller’s
reputation?” I asked. “At least among the fallen angels? He’s interning for
darkness.”

Vanni gave me a sad look.

“To be honest, Charlotte,” she
said, choosing her words carefully, “being with you was probably worse for his
reputation.”

It was as if she had slapped me.

“Wh-what do you mean?” I asked,
staring at her.

“I mean,” she said, still
speaking carefully, “that you’re an elemental who has routinely flouted
authority. You hang out with Lisabelle Verlans, who everyone thinks is already
on the side of darkness. You’ve seen how the Golden Falls students have treated
her.”

“I knew Keller’s parents didn’t
want me to date him, but I didn’t know all the fallen angels thought badly of
him for it,” I said, my stomach churning. I clutched at it, trying to stop a
sick feeling that was buried far deeper than I had known.

Vanni looked at me sadly. “I’m
sorry, Charlotte. I know it’s hard, but the fallen angels are prideful. We are
filled with the most light.”

“You have a funny way of using
it,” I said bitterly.

“War does that to people,” she
said. She paused before continuing, then said eagerly, “Do you think I can get
out of here soon?”

I gave her a sympathetic look.
“Dacer’s mom says tomorrow.”

Vanni noticeably brightened.

“The Unforgiver is here?”

“The huh?” I asked.

Vanni grinned at me. “That’s the
first good news I’ve heard since they let me out of prison. Of course, no one
has come to talk to me, but that’s still great news.”

I gave her an apologetic look.

“The Unforgiver?” I said
skeptically.

Vanni was still grinning. “Maybe
the rest of this semester won’t be so bad after all. I’ll let you find out for
yourself. Professor Dacer’s mother . . . she’s one of a kind. There are stories
of when she was younger. Professor Dacer hasn’t told you any of them?”

“He’s never mentioned her,” I
said. Now that Vanni had said it, “The Unforgiver” sounded familiar, but I
wasn’t sure from where. Vanni must still be a little addled and she obviously
hadn’t seen Dacer’s frail mother.

Vanni lay back on her pillows. She
looked even more tired than she had before.

“I’ll get out, and then we can go
home,” she murmured. “I can’t wait.”

I forced myself to smile, and
then I left to let Vanni sleep, and to get some myself. I had a lot to think
about, and I had a bad feeling that in the weeks ahead I would need all the
rest I could get.

The same sentence just kept
playing over and over in my head.

Keller was gone. Keller was gone.
Keller was gone.

The faery let me out, giving me a
nod. I nodded back. I wanted to tell him that we would try to free him, to get
word to his king and queen. I wanted him to know that we didn’t buy into the
hype of Golden Falls anymore.

Keller’s gone.

My exam on Monday didn’t go well.
I had been paying too much attention to the faeries and the elemental and not
enough attention to anything else that was happening in the dream. I could see
even as Ferwick looked at our collected exams that he was disappointed.

“How is it that Golden Falls
students are so superior to those from Public?” he murmured wonderingly.

I tried not to worry about it. I
had decided weeks ago that I wouldn’t agree to become a Golden Falls student
for any amount of money. On top of everything else, how they treated Lisabelle
was atrocious.

Both my friends hugged me when I
told my them about Keller. It was ridiculous that after a weekend like that I
had been expected to take an exam. I could barely think straight. When I had
been with Keller there was always a sense of calm, as if I could get through my
day no matter what because he’d be at the end of it. I didn’t feel that way
anymore. I just felt sick and sad and lonely.

After the exam we went back to
our dormitory. A couple of the Falls students had tried to talk to me, to give
me encouragement, but I didn’t have the energy to talk to them.

Sip and Lisabelle were still
furious on my behalf about Keller, and I appreciated their support. In fact,
Sip looked like she was going to cry. Lough burst into our room to tell us that
Keller hadn’t come back, but when he saw my face he knew I already knew it.

The four of us sat by the fire,
with Bartholem to keep us company. His white tail swished calmly back and forth
as the light faded over the golden mountain, creating beautiful long shadows.

“I swear, under no circumstances
am I leaving Public during our senior year,” said Sip, shaking her head. “No
good ever comes of it.”

We were still discussing where
Keller might be when there was a sharp knock at the door. Lisabelle got up to
open it and we saw Leonie standing there, leaning on her cane and looking
grim-faced.

Behind her stood two Golden Falls
Happiness Enforcement Officers. My heart sank.

“I’d like to register my
disagreement with this process once again,” Duchess Leonie said to her escorts,
glaring upwards at their tall forms. The one nearer to her nodded, but he
didn’t say anything.

“What’s happening?” Lough asked
nervously.

“We have come for Ms. Quest and
Ms. Verlans,” said one of the Enforcement Officers. “The President’s
representative would like to speak with them.”

“About what?” Lisabelle demanded.
“All the Public students are failing their classes. It’s not just Sip and me.”

Sip shook her head. “Don’t make
trouble,” she ordered our friend. Lisabelle gave her a disgruntled look, but
quieted down.

“It also has to do with the
matter of the murder on our grounds, the first in three hundred years,” said
the Enforcement Officer. “Also, Ms. Quest’s extra-curricular activities.”

“They mean your crazy writing,”
said Lisabelle. “Calling it extra-curricular activities is extreme.”

The Enforcement Officer’s mouth
twitched, but he said nothing.

“Lisabelle’s being accused of
murder again,” Sip sighed. “I was so hoping for a semester without that.”

“At least I didn’t do it,” said
Lisabelle. “That has to count for something.”

“It didn’t first semester,” Sip
pointed out.

“They haven’t done anything
wrong,” said Duchess Leonie. “I expect them back by dinner.”

Lisabelle eyed the officers. “Don’t
worry about it,” she said calmly. “The only reason they think they can fight
darkness is because they’ve never had to. I’d be happy to disabuse them of that
notion.”

The Officers shifted
uncomfortably as Duchess Leonie gave a razor-sharp smile. “I can see why my son
likes you,” she said. “You have our support. Make sure you use it. And just
remember: next week we will be returning to Public.”

Sip nodded. “They can’t get mad
at me for my writing about the Sign of Six. It’s in the Free Paranormal Accords
. How do they suppose Mound can spout off all that nonsense?”

“He isn’t at Golden Falls,” Lough
pointed out. “I told you to be careful.”

Sip rolled her eyes. “I’ll see
you all at dinner.” With that she allowed the Officers to lead her toward the
door.

Right before Lisabelle stepped
through the door she turned back to look at us, meeting my eyes.

“Charlotte?” she called. I raised
my eyebrows as one of the Happiness Enforcement Officers started to force
Lisabelle through the door.

“Loyalty is the most important
thing,” she said, and disappeared into the corridor.

Duchess Leonie sat with us, not
saying much. Eventually she took Bartholem away, explaining that she wanted to
Contact her son without being listened in on. I kept glancing at my friends’
beds, telling myself that they were okay. Lisabelle was not going to be accused
of murder and they would look at Sip’s writings as those of a harmless college
student.

We spent a nerve-wracking day
waiting for Sip and Lisabelle to come back. Golden Falls had started to feel
like the most beautiful and lush prison in the world. I knew Sip and Lisabelle
were innocent, at least of any real crimes, but I didn’t know if Golden Falls
would see it that way.

Leonie tried to distract us. She
told of us Dacer’s early years and what a troublesome boy he had been, more
interested in fashion than his homework. She had thought there was no hope for
him, until as a teenager he’d visited a museum (more like been dragged to one)
and seen masks. That experience had changed everything for him.

She knew that if he could just
study his passion he would find a niche, but he had found more than that. He
had become one of the most respected authorities on paranormal masks in the
world. Of course I knew that, but it was fascinating to hear the background
from his own mother.

At one point she asked us if we’d
made any progress in our investigation, but to be honest we hadn’t. I had
barely had time to think about who had murdered Kia and Marcus, let alone
investigate it.

“Did any of you see anything
strange when the demons attacked?” Duchess Leonie asked.

I shrugged. “Golden Falls
students were running away. The demons were attacking, but they weren’t that
serious about it. I mean, they didn’t kill any of us. Marcus died from. . . .”
I stopped. There was something niggling about that at the back of my mind, but
I couldn’t put my finger on it.

Duchess Leonie saw that I was
lost in thought and started talking to Lough about dream giving. He was only
too happy to expound on the subject.

By dinnertime it was clear that
Sip and Lisabelle weren’t coming back any time soon. We waited as long as we
could, but Lough was hungry, so he and I went to find some food.

With a deep feeling of foreboding
we made our way to the courtyard and the feast we knew awaited us. We were so
close to going back to Public, how could I have lost everyone? I clung to
Lough, refusing to let him out of my sight, even to gather food by himself.