Elemental Fire (15 page)

“Sip and Lisabelle?” I called
quietly, rushing down the last several steps. My palms were sweaty as I gripped
the banister.

The elemental fire lounge was
completely dark. I hadn’t been inside it to hang out since the previous
semester, although I had walked through it several times to get to the
ballroom. In the opposite corner of the room from the doorway I could see my
two friends.

“What are you doing here? You’re
going to get into so much trouble,” I said, rushing over.

“We needed to have a chat,” said
Sip, as if it should have been obvious. She was glaring at Lisabelle, who was
bent over rubbing her toe.

“I agree,” I said. “We have to
talk about how to get out of here and where the artifacts are and Tactical as a
vehicle to kill us all.”

“You noticed that too,” said
Lisabelle dryly.

I shook my head. “If Ms. Vale had
been interested in setting it up so that her daughter was on the winning team,
she would not have chosen us as the competition. Lisabelle is the strongest
darkness mage this school has seen in generations. I’m an elemental, which is
hard to defend against because I’m the only one, and the other candidates are
strong too.” Sip gave me a crooked smile.

“It’s all a distraction to allow
her to search for the Mirror Arcane, but even so, what I’m more concerned with
is Faci’s presence,” I said, ushering my friends upstairs. “He’s only
seventeen. He’s not of college age yet, and here Ms. Vale is forming a super
team of the paranormal world’s future delinquents.”

“Yeah, right,” said Lisabelle,
eyeing me. “Why are you out of breath?”

I brought my friends into my
room. I felt safest there. Back when I had Mrs. Swan, she had assured me that
there were very strong magics on the room and that no one could eavesdrop on me
while I was in it. I had tried to perform the listening spell Lisabelle had
done while we were at Locke and found nothing, but just for good measure I
asked Lisabelle to perform it again as soon as we entered the room together.
When nothing blew up I breathed a little easier.

“Why were you out of breath?”
Lisabelle asked again. “Running stairs in your free time? Finally going to get
in shape?”

I rolled my eyes. “I was on my
way to the attic.”

Lisabelle looked at Sip, her face
filled with mock sadness. “Ah, it’s worse than I thought. She hangs out in the
attic by herself now. Questionable.”

“Shut up, Lisabelle,” I said,
giving my friend a playful shove. “I was going to the library to see Sigil.”

Sip’s ears perked up at that. She
sat down on the couch and fluffed a pillow, then placed it behind her head and
tossed her feet up on the opposite end. “You better explain yourself. We will
wait.”

So I told them about my plan to
visit the library and find out about my ancestry. Sip gave a pleased nod when
she heard that, commenting that she had wanted to suggest I do as much, but
hadn’t wanted to upset me. She was glad that I had gone and done it on my own.

“Wait, there’s a ghost in the
attic?” Lisabelle demanded. “When are you going to introduce us?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “He’s a
little nuts, but I did want to ask him to guard the Mirror Arcane when I’m not
here.”

“That’s a good idea,” said Sip.
“At least he could alert you if a Nocturn tries to steal it.”

“Right,” I said. “But I don’t
really know what powers ghosts have.”

“They are surprisingly powerful,”
said Lisabelle. “And surprisingly rare. What did you find out about your
family?”

I snorted. “Nothing yet. He told
me to come back. I think he’s lonely and he just wants to make sure he’ll see
me again. He gave me a lot of assigned reading, though.”

“Like a fifth class? Jealous! We
should probably meet him another time,” said Sip. “If he’s shy I don’t want to
scare him.”

“Great,” said Lisabelle dryly.
“Let’s get back to talking about Faci.”

“How did he get free of Lanca?” I
asked. “She wanted to kill him for killing Dirr.”

“His father took full
responsibility for everything. There’s nothing Lanca could hold him on.
Legally, he’s entirely innocent and free to go.”

“Do you think Vale will bring
demons onto campus?” Sip said worriedly. “I hate demons.”

Lisabelle shook her head.
“According to Vale she has nothing whatsoever to do with the demons.”

“Which is obviously not true,”
Sip muttered. “Why are adults such liars?”

“It’s not adults who are liars,”
said Lisabelle dryly. “It’s people.”

“That’s depressing,” I said.
“What do you have if you don’t have trust?”

“Well,” said Lisabelle, as she
wandered around my room looking in every nook and cranny, “We have loyalty.”

Sip popped up from the sofa. “I
like that,” she exclaimed. “I like that a lot.”

Suddenly there was a scrape
coming from somewhere below us. I frowned. Now what? “Wait,” said Lisabelle,
moving to stand in front of me. “We’re here now. Don’t go opening doors unless
we know what’s on the other side of them.”

I rolled my eyes. “Lisabelle, I
spend most of my time alone. You can’t protect me all the time.”

“I can try,” said Lisabelle. “And
we protect you more than you think.”

I didn’t have time to ask what
she was talking about, because she was already out the door.

The three of us crept downstairs.
Despite my protests, my friends made me stay behind them as we moved single
file. When they had come upstairs I had turned all the nights in the house off,
which I did every night when I went to bed anyway, so the Nocturns would not
find it amiss.

“Maybe it’s just a little
hellhound,” Sip whispered.

“Not sure turning the lights out
was the best choice,” I whispered. My two friends were moving slowly, crouched
low. All our eyes were trained on the door leading to the basement. It was the
same one that Lough and I had come through first semester, when Malle had
kidnapped Lisabelle and we were looking for her.

“Sure it was,” said Lisabelle.
“Haven’t you noticed that most of the darkness forces require some sort of
fire? Demons, Fire Whips?”

“You don’t,” Sip pointed out in a
loud whisper.

“I’m special,” said Lisabelle.

“You sure are,” said Sip, her
tone disgruntled.

There was one more tap on the
door, then silence. Without warning Lisabelle sprang forward. I jumped
backward, not expecting the sudden movement, but she wanted to take the
intruder by surprise. I heard her yank the door open and then a muffled grunt.
There were several choice words used that I could never have used in front of
my mother, and the sound of a scuffle and whack.

“Ouch,” said a familiar male
voice. “Lisabelle, that you? Why’d you have to hit so hard? Or, you know, at
all?”

“Lough?” the three of us chorused
in astonishment. Quickly I pulled out the box of matches, since we had been
ordered not to use magic (an order we all routinely disregarded, but still) and
lit one of the small sconces on the wall.

It illuminated Lisabelle standing
with her hand firmly around the back of Lough’s neck. Unsurprisingly, Lough
didn’t really seem to mind. Lisabelle quickly let go and I saw Lough drop down
an inch or two. He was dressed all in black, with a black hat covering his
hair, but his cheeks were as red as ever and his eyes were bright as he looked
at us. I covered my mouth with my hand. He looked like the cartoon version of a
master spy.

“What are you? A burglar?” Sip
said, eyeing Lough’s outfit. He didn’t usually wear black, saying that there
was enough darkness in the world and it was just not his color.

Lough puffed out his chest. “I’m
being sneaky. I had to get in and see you three, and walking in through the
front gates, or the back forest, was not an option.”

I sighed and rubbed my forehead.
I was not going to get to sleep any time soon, and any chance of my reading
more about the elementals tonight was gone. “We should go to my room and talk,”
I said. “Come on.”

Once we were back in my room
Lough explained everything.

He said that after we left he
couldn’t sleep, and by the next morning, when we had not come back, he had
realized that something must be wrong. He had just started to figure out how
best to summon help when it had showed up in the form of all the paranormals
who were supposed to be at Public but had stayed at Locke. The group included
Dacer, Keller, Saferous,, and a couple hundred others. Lough was relieved,
because he hadn’t wanted to leave. They already knew something was amiss,
explaining that Dacer had tried several times to contact the school. As a
professor he wanted to stay in pretty close touch, but he had been unable to
get through.

“Dacer was furious,” said Lough
reverently. “He’s the most awesome professor ever. You should have seen him. He
was livid, and he was already wearing red. He said his mood should match his
outfit. He was sure that Dove and Erikson were being held against their will.”

Lisabelle snorted.

“Erikson is especially upset,”
said Sip. “She was arguing with one of the Fire Whips until the Nocturn nearly
struck her, so she gave up.”

“What was she arguing about?”

“Vanni, I think,” said Sip.
“She’s trying to protect the Aurums, but it’s hard to argue with crazy.”

“You have no idea,” said
Lisabelle.

“That’s getting to be an old
joke,” Sip sniffed.

“It’s not old if it’s accurate.”

“Another old joke.”

“Why do I bother talking?”

“I ask myself that everyday.”

Lough plopped his chin on his hand.
“Gosh, I wish I could stay here forever,” he said dreamily.

“That makes one of us,” said Sip.
“So, then what happened?”

“So, then we waited for
daylight,” said Lough, remembering. “Everyone was angry. Especially Keller. He
was stomping around and muttering to himself. He was really worried about you,
Charlotte.”

Sip elbowed me. “See? You guys
are just on a break. No need to be upset about it.”

Easy for her to say. I was upset.
So much had happened that I hadn’t really had time to think about it, but in my
quiet moments it was hard not to cry.

“Oliva was the only one who
stayed calm. He said he had confidence in the students’ abilities. He also said
to call President Caid.”

“Wow,” Sip breathed. “That’s a
big deal. Caid . . . he doesn’t usually bother with little spats.”

When I raised my eyebrows she
explained. “There’s a lot of drama on the international paranormal front. He
spends most of his time out of the country; he didn’t even come back for
Lanca’s coronation.”

“You don’t say! This can no
longer be qualified as a little spat, then, can it,” said Lough. It was a
statement, not a question.

“But he’s coming here?” I
whispered. “He thinks it’s serious?”

Relief flooded me. I had known
that it was serious from the beginning, since mine was the family that had been
murdered, the event that in a way was really the start of the conflict that we
were enmeshed in now.

“After what happened at Locke,
all paranormals think it’s serious,” said Lisabelle, crossing her arms over her
chest and nodding reassuringly. “And they’re right. Obviously.”

“He’s apparently friends with
Dacer,” Lisabelle continued. “Uncle Risper told me as much. So, if Dacer calls
him he comes. They grew up as neighbors or something.”

“Dacer knows everyone,” I said,
shaking my head in admiration. My mentor loved to socialize, entertain, and
party. Any excuse to have a good time and he was there.

“So, there’s a camp outside
Public as we speak,” Lough continued once the excitement about Caid had died
down. “I didn’t want to leave. They tried to get me to go back to Locke, but
proximity is important to me. Lanca of course said we were all welcome, but
many of us refused, including Dacer, Keller, and Oliva. Even Saferous has come
and gone frequently, though none of his children are still in college. You
should hear the ruckus parents are making, worrying out loud about their
children. Well, at least some of them are. Some parents think it will be good
for you guys. Gosh, I wish I were here.”

“Did you ask?” I said. “Did you
ask to return for the semester? What did Vale say?”

Lough nodded, looking offended.
“Of course I did, but she said no. Worried that I would trade news of the
outside world to you, probably. They’re very happy having you believe that
everything is fine and that the senior paranormals are not worried about you.
Well, spread the word, the senior paranormals are most definitely worried about
you.”

I grinned and nodded. “Good to
know. Now you should get out of here before we all get in trouble.”

Lough nodded and stood, pulling
his black cap over his head once more. “I’ll come back when there’s news, or
sooner if I can,” he said. He hugged each one of us in turn. Even Lisabelle let
him hug her, though she looked pretty disgruntled as he did it. Soon after we
had seen Lough on his way, Lisabelle and Sip went theirs as well. It didn’t
make sense to risk a longer visit under the circumstances.