Elemental Earth (Paranormal Public) (9 page)

But I knew better.

I knew his appearance was
deceiving; Faci Decimatar was evil through and through. He seemed to sense my
thoughtful gaze, because he met my eyes with his own.

“Do you remember the puppy at
Vampire Locke?” he asked quietly. “I am looking forward to the day when it is
you I have underneath my foot.”

I matched his glare. I don’t know
where I found the strength. Maybe it was because of Dove, who hadn’t deserved
to die, or maybe it was because of Keller, or maybe it was because of the
elemental ring that fit so perfectly on my finger. I didn’t care.

“Remind me again why you’re
here,” I said coldly, then, before he could respond, I added, “Oh, right. There
isn’t a good reason.”

I stuck my hand in the barrier
and released the magic. Power sucked in on itself, flowing back the way it had
come. Once I had gathered the barrier, making sure there were no traces left in
the air, I turned on my heel and walked away.

We took brooms the rest of the
way. Those of us who could fly did so and helped the rest along the way.
Lisabelle took a broom with Sip, who still seemed sad. Lisabelle got her
talking about plans for the Sign of Six, and that seemed to cheer her up a bit.
I took a broom by myself, but Keller flew right next to me for the entire
journey. It turned out that Sectar had not come alone; there were several other
werewolves with him, and the random pixie, all of whom glided in front of us,
leading us to Golden Falls.

Sectar probably could have run
with us, as Sip liked to do, but instead he also rode a broom. It was encrusted
in green and purple jewels, and he ducked and dipped through the air like he
was born to it.

As we flew I watched the
landscape. The earth was scraped and barren-looking. It shocked me to wonder
whether the demons were picking over everything, killing it with their very
presence while we remained safe at Paranormal Public. The trees hung limply and
the grass looked like tiny steel spikes sticking up out of the ground. It was
not the beautiful earth I remembered of past winters.

“So, about Golden Falls,” said
Lough, flying up to me. I raised a quizzical eyebrow at him. “What’s the food
like?” he asked.

“I’ve heard it’s the best of any
paranormal university,” said Sip, “no joke.”

Lough smiled in delight.

“Why are they even being allowed
to go?” I asked Lisabelle bitterly, pointing at Faci, who was flying far ahead,
flanked by Daisy and Dobrov. We’d seen Camilla when we first set out, but she
must have been flying even further ahead. I was pretty sure that her breakup,
and Cale’s subsequent departure, had totally unhinged the pixie. Kia, who was
flying at the back, hadn’t gone near her best friend. Having surveyed everyone
else, my gaze quickly darted to Keller, to make sure he was still there and
doing fine. He sensed my gaze and smiled at me reassuringly.

“I don’t know why they’re here,”
said Lough, getting serious and bringing my attention back to our conversation.
“But we should have an escape plan, beyond just keeping you safe,” he said to
me.

“So they told you?” I tried to
keep the bitterness out of my voice, but a little crept in. Lough looked at me
in surprise.

“You need protecting, Charlotte,”
he said. “I don’t care if we’re going to the most wonderful place on earth. Did
you see what we did last night? We couldn’t have done that without you.”

“We also couldn’t have done it
without Kia or Marcus,” I said. “We needed them too.”

“There are other fallen angels
and other pixies,” said Lough. “Stop being stubborn. You know this.”

I growled deep in my throat, but
a part of me did know that he was right. Still, I was stubborn about this
obsession my friends had with protecting me. I hated that they were in more
danger because of me. “I can take care of myself,” I said.

Lough grinned. “It’s not you I’m
worried about, dear girl. It’s whoever tries to attack you.”

I grinned in response. “Thanks,
Lough,” I said. “I can tell you’re lying, but I appreciate it.”

He grinned. “I was never a very
good liar.”

“That’s not a bad thing,” I said.
“Anyway, when we get there, we can figure out how best to escape if it turns
out to be necessary. Do you have any idea what the roommate situation will be?”

Lough grimaced, glancing again at
Faci. “No,” he said. “I can’t begin to imagine.”

“At least you’ll probably be with
Sip and Lisabelle. The dream giver’s eyes, as they so often did, flicked to the
darkness mage.

I smiled. “We’ll be together and
at Golden Falls. Maybe the semester won’t be so bad.”

“We must be close,” said Sip, but
we didn’t need Sectar’s disappearance to tell us that. Below us the earth had
become green and fertile. There was still snow on the ground, but the world no
longer looked dead. It looked bright and alive, filled with vibrant colors,
from the deep brown of the tree trunks to the intense green of the leaves.

“Wow,” said Lough, who was the
first one flying in our formation.

I looked ahead, and there it was,
Golden Falls University. I had never seen anything so stunningly beautiful.

It rose in front of a rock face,
nestled between massive trees. It was like a castle built of gold. All along
the walls and parapets were jeweled stones, winking at us in the bright winter
sun. Even from this distance I could hear the rush of water, but the waterfall that
had given Golden Falls its name must have been hidden behind the university,
because I couldn’t see it.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” Sip asked,
her eyes shining.

“You’ve been inside?” I asked,
shocked.

Sip shook her head. “We’ve just
run past. It’s famously hard to get into. It would ruin the rarefied air,
wouldn’t it?” But she grinned as she said it. It was great to see her smile
again, but I wasn’t sure how long the mood would last.

All the other Public students
looked excited. No matter how many times I told myself that this was where I’d
be spending the semester, it was hard to believe. The day was looking up, and I
was happier than ever that Keller was with me.

We landed in front of the shining
white gates that led into Golden Falls. Some of us were more graceful about it
than others. I would never be good on a broom.

Why hadn’t Dacer told me?
Probably because Golden Falls wasn’t something a picture could do justice to.
It was like a dream come to life as the pillars soared high overhead. I could
see why demons never attacked here. How could they possibly get in?

“This is going to be the most
amazing semester of my life,” said Lough, his eyes bright with excitement.

“Given how the others have gone,
that isn’t hard to believe,” said Lisabelle dryly.

“So, I have good news,” said
Zervos, striding toward us as we clustered together.

“I can’t wait to hear it,” said
Lisabelle, folding her arms.

“All the females from Public will
stay together,” he said, “and the males will be together in a second suite of
rooms.”

I held up my hand and Zervos
sighed. He ignored me for as long as possible, but when it was clear I wasn’t
going to give up he spoke again.

“Faci has his own quarters. The
Validification children, likewise, will have their own housing, since as
hybrids they claim to have special needs,” said Zervos, as if he tasted
something rotten.

“Excellent,” said Lough, rubbing
his hands together. “That just leaves Camilla, and she’s a girl. Sorry, Kia.
This day just keeps getting better and better. Now all we need is lunch.”

“Where’d Sectar go?” I asked,
looking around. Everywhere I looked, from the flagstones to the outlying
buildings and ramparts, there was one material or another shining in gold and
white. “Right here,” came a booming voice. We all jumped back. The pearl-colored
gates were soundlessly opening.

“I don’t like any of this,” said
Lisabelle.

“Of course you don’t,” Sip
sighed. “You don’t like anything pretty.”

“No, seriously,” said the
darkness mage. “It’s not just because they don’t like darkness. I’m registering
my complaints now so I can say I told you so later.”

“Wonderful,” Sip muttered.

The doors opened to reveal Sectar
standing at the head of a uniform line of perfectly dressed students. They wore
head to toe gold and stood with their hands clasped behind their backs. They
also had caps on their heads, which must have been something they did for
formal occasions, like welcoming visiting students.

Some wore colored ribbons on
their shoulders. I’d have to remember to find out later what those ribbons meant.
I looked for Nolan in the sea of students, but I didn’t see him anywhere.

They marched until they had
filled the courtyard and we were entirely surrounded, and as I watched them I
noticed something strange that they all shared. Their rings were not those of
any paranormal type. Instead, each student wore a black jeweled ring, making it
more difficult to know what type each paranormal was. A symbol of Golden Falls?

“Stop,” Sectar called. Instantly
all the students came to a halt.

“We are here together, on the
occasion of the start of classes, to greet our guests. This semester, as you
all know, representatives from Paranormal Public are here to visit. We will
treat them like family.” Sectar gave a welcoming smile as he spread his long
arms wide.

“We will be attentive to their
needs. Should they have questions, or should they lose their way, we will give
them guidance. We must act as their helping hands, assisting them with any
desires they may have. They are here to learn, to broaden their horizons, and
to experience another sort of college.”

“I thought I was here to eat and
not do homework,” Lough whispered to me. “And eat.”

Standing in the glorious
sunshine, Lisabelle was the only one who didn’t look thrilled.

“Are you okay?” I whispered to
her.

She shrugged. “They’re letting me
in, but somehow I don’t feel welcome.”

“It’s just your worrying,” said
Sip. “Oliva wouldn’t have sent us here if it wasn’t safe. Don’t worry so much.”
She sounded a little like she was trying to convince herself along with Lisabelle.

I saw Lisabelle’s shoulders drop
a hair as she tried to force herself to calm down.

Keller moved through the crowd to
stand next to me. He held my hand in his as I smiled at him, my heart warming.

“Welcoming committee,” Sectar
bellowed, “go.”

For a second nothing happened,
then a massive beautiful noise broke out all around us.

“This is to remind us of the real
cost of war,” Sectar explained. “It is not pretty, but guests find it . . .
helpful.”

It sounded like trumpets, but
there was something not quite right about it. A band of what looked like more
students started to march out of the front doors. They too were dressed in
gold, and they wore hoods, so that their faces were invisible. Something
churned in my stomach as the wind started to whip around us.

All of a sudden the gold felt
less shiny.

The band came to a stop directly
in front of us, but they continued to play. The song went on and on. After a
while I forgot how bad it sounded and just wished for it to be over. On the
very last note they raised their trumpets high in the air and bubbles started
to come out of them.

Standing nearby, Vanni giggled.
At first. Then she realized that each of the bubbles held a face, and each face
had an eerie black tint to it.

Floating right in front of me was
the face of Dove. Many other faces floated past me until I saw one that looked
familiar. I frowned and realized that it was Tale, the blond vampire from my
Starter semester at Public, who had died protecting Queen Lanca. Speaking of
Lanca, I felt sick, because just then I saw the bubble for Princess Dirr, who
had mistakenly been killed when Faci had tried to kill Lanca. There was another
bubble for Professor Lambros. I felt sick, and there was a very real
possibility that I would throw up. Next to me Keller stood stony-faced.

“What is this?” Vanni asked in
bewilderment. No one answered her.

“This is disgusting,” said Kia.
“How awful.”

Throughout the whole long song
none of us moved. Lisabelle reached out to touch one of the bubbles, but Sip
snatched her arm back.

Finally the last note ended and
the music corps lowered their trumpets. The courtyard was silent. I didn’t even
dare to look at Zervos.

“Lest you ever forget,” Sectar
intoned. All the students repeated what he said. “Lest you ever forget, this is
what happens when darkness comes. We will not have darkness here. Only the
golden light. We must remember.”

I glanced from Sip to Lisabelle.
Sip looked fretful again as she had after Dove’s death, while Lisabelle’s face
was closed.