Elemental Fire (27 page)

Without even bothering to go up
to my room I set off for Oliva’s house. Some professors, like Zervos, lived in
the dorms, but the ones who didn’t, and the committee members, all had their
own apartments or houses. I nearly ran all the way to Oliva’s, my nervous
energy and adrenaline propelling me forward.

Oliva’s place was in a garden. I
had never been there before, but even at that time of year all the flowers were
in bloom. I stopped to sniff a particularly beautiful one the color of peaches,
with a crystal blue center, and I also felt the warmth that had been
perceptible from the moment I stepped onto Oliva’s property. It was as if I was
taking in the sun’s rays so that I could bloom too. I quickly took off my coat
so I wouldn’t start sweating like a pig.

Oliva’s house was painted green,
with darker green for the shutters and a white door. Idyllic didn’t begin to
describe it. There was a stone path leading up to the front door, lined with
more flowers.

“Nice place, don’t you think?”
Oliva’s voice asked. “Now my family knows why I want to stay on as a committee
member.”

I turned to see Oliva sitting in
a wicker chair, sunning himself. He wore a brim hat, for all the world as if
spring had started and winter was over. His clothes were green, as usual, and
his ring, far more decorated than the ones worn by the students at Public,
blazed as if it had just been shined.

“Please sit,” he said, indicating
the wicker chair opposite him. “Dove was supposed to arrive shortly, but I’m
sure he’ll be as pleased as ever to see you.” Oliva’s eyes twinkled. He knew
Dove wasn’t my biggest fan, although his animosity toward me was nothing
compared to that of Zervos.

“Tell me, how was the Cruor
party?” He steepled his fingers as I stared at him in shock, and then he gave
me a small smile. “Oh, please. Just because the committee members no longer
have any power doesn’t mean I have buried my head in the sand.”

I gave him the headlines of the
party, minimizing Camilla’s part.

His face remained unreadable as I
talked, but when I was finished he nodded and smiled. “Ah, to be young,” he
sighed.

The pixie committee member was
young, far younger than the other committee members, and his skin was barely
green. He was also a bit taller than most pixies, reminding me of Cale. His
youthful appearance was what had allowed him to pass as a student when he first
came to campus, when he had wanted to “see what there is to see” and find out
who was breaking into the Museum of Masks.

It felt like a lifetime ago.

“What can I help you with?” he
asked comfortably.

“I, um,” I didn’t want to tell
Oliva about the Mirror Arcane. Despite his kindness, I still wasn’t sure I
could trust him.

“So, I think something might be
missing from Astra. I’m not really sure. It’s a big place, but I was wondering,
er, um, er, if there’s surveillance on the place? Or rather, if someone went in
and took something, would someone else know that something had been taken?”

Oliva blinked several times.
“That sounds complicated,” he murmured. “What was taken?”

“I’m not sure,” I said vaguely.
“Stuff just seems moved around.”

“Hum,” said Oliva. “That is a
predicament.” He sprang to his feet. “Tea?” he offered, grabbing a steeping pot
that sat on the little side table next to his chair. I could see leaves
floating around in the water. Next to the pot was a collection of teacups.

“Um, sure,” I said hesitantly.
Oliva handed me some piping hot tea and I cradled it, enjoying the warmth. “Sip
would love this,” I said. “She loves tea.”

“I believe I’ve seen her in the
mornings inhaling it,” said Oliva with amusement. “She’s a tough one, that
werewolf.”

“Yeahhh,” I said. “So, Astra?”

“It’s very hard to sneak into
Astra,” said Oliva. “And I know nothing about surveillance. I just run this
place.” He spread his hands wide to indicate Public. Obviously he was joking.
He was as much a prisoner of Vale as I was.

Oliva took his own tea and leaned
forward. “I will say this, though,” he murmured, his eyes intent on my face.
“You either have to have permission to enter Astra, or you have to be an
elemental. If something is missing, you should probably look close to home.”

“Mrs. Swan,” I started to say,
but Oliva shook his head vigorously, so hard that his hat went askew.

“Ah, I didn’t realize you had a
visitor.”

Dove’s silky voice came from
behind me, and I swiveled in my chair to look at the vampire committee member.
Dove wasn’t that different from Zervos, just more contained. I hadn’t spoken to
him since he had slammed the doors to Public in my face.

“Ms. Rollins,” he said, and
inclined his head. “Finally learned your lesson about what happens when you
disregard what I say, have you?” He was, of course, referring to his and
Professor Erikson’s orders to my friends and me to keep away from Public this
semester. If only we had followed them I would be with Keller now.

“Charlotte, is there anything
else I can help you with?” Oliva asked quietly. I was pretty sure the word help
was a stretch. He hadn’t told me anything other than that the Mirror was
impossible to steal, which I already knew. And yet it was gone. I said a quick
goodbye and hurried away. But it was hard, because it interested me that Dove
and Oliva were meeting. They had never seemed to be big fans of each other, and
especially now that Vale didn’t want paranormals cooperating with each other,
it seemed odd that they were getting together in this quiet garden.

I glanced over my shoulder once.
Dove had taken the seat I had just vacated and was already deep in conversation
with Oliva. I wondered what they were talking about. Dove met my eyes and I
quickly looked away.

Then, also surprisingly, I bumped
into tiny Professor Korba. At first I started. I didn’t have him as a professor
this semester, and I missed him. I also had barely seen him around campus. I’d
heard Zervos talking and had thought that Korba might be keeping to himself in
protest because he didn’t approve of how Vale was running things. I’d been glad
to hear it, because that made two of us. Luckily, neither Professor Korba or I
wanted to talk. We exchanged hurried greetings and then passed each other.

Obviously certain among the
senior paranormals on campus were having a secret meeting I had stumbled on,
which was just fine with me. Hopefully they were planning to overthrow Vale. I
supported that and I wanted them distracted, so that I could search for the
Mirror peace.

On my way to Astra I bumped into
Cale. Like Korba, and come to think of it like most pixies, he hadn’t been
around much this semester. The only pixie I had seen much of was Camilla, and
she was the one I really didn’t want to see at all.

His eyes widened in surprise as
he looked at me, but he gave me a pleasant smile and pushed his shock of red
hair out of his eyes.

“How are you?” he asked. “Can I
walk you home?”

“You sure Camilla won’t mind?” I
asked icily. For most of high school I’d had a crush on Cale, who was cool and
popular and good at everything, and who never returned the favor. I hadn’t
minded so much. Crushes from afar were easier anyhow: you couldn’t get hurt, or
at least so I had thought. But I’d been wrong. When I arrived at Public my crush
Cale was dating a girl named Camilla Van Rothson, who had gone from bad to
worse and worse again.

“Haven’t seen you much lately,”
he said, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jeans.

“Yeah,” I said. “We don’t have
any classes together this semester.”

“Evan got chosen as the alternate
for the Glories,” he commented. “Maybe I’ll be put on your team if . . . .”

“If something happens to one of
my teammates?”

I hated the thought. They were
all my friends. Well, okay, Vanni wasn’t. I tolerated her, and unlike Lisabelle
I didn’t wish ill on her. But we weren’t close.

“Yeah,” he said. “I mean, that’s
not what I’m hoping for. It’s better than being on the Glories, though. Camilla
and I broke up. For good this time.”

I stopped dead in my tracks, not
sure how to take that latest bit of news. I mean, my insides were definitely
doing this rudimentary happy dance - I wasn’t much of a dancer - but I had
Keller now. Okay, so I didn’t technically have Keller at this point;
technically we’d broken up. But if he tried to date any other girl I’d sic
Lisabelle on her. Seriously, though, who’s keeping track?

“Oh?” I tried to be casual.
“Why?”

Cale shrugged. “She’s changed,”
he said. “She didn’t used to be so. . . .”

“Evil? Rotten? Horrible? Slime
Dweller?”

Cale laughed nervously. “Tell me
how you really feel.”

I shrugged, delighting in my
newfound confidence even with a guy who had once made my knees weak.

“Lots of paranormals are trying
to kill me,” I said. “I don’t have time to be nice.”

He laughed outright at that.
“What was your excuse before?”

I couldn’t help it. I grinned. It
was nice to talk to an old friend, just comforting to be with someone you’ve
known for so long you don’t have to try so hard.

Cale looked off into the
distance, studying the skyline. “She used to be so thoughtful. She used to care
about other paranormals. She’s forgotten about all that. Now all she cares
about is her own survival. She claimed she cared about me, too, but I honestly
don’t think she does. At least not really.”

I wanted to say something
sympathetic, but I wasn’t sure what, so I settled on the obvious. “My mom used
to say that we all had to make mistakes in relationships, because then we could
really appreciate it when something good came along.”

Cale eyed me wistfully. “I wish I
hadn’t make a mistake, though. I loved her. I wanted to get it right the first
time.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I asked my mom
about that.” I remembered when we had that conversation. She had gotten a
far-off look in her eye and smiled, but all she’d said was, “That’s good too.”

“Well, this is my turn,” said
Cale, standing in front of the path to Volans. “Don’t be a stranger.” He gave
me a playful chuck to the chin and I laughed. “You’re one to talk.”

He grinned. “Hey, I don’t have a
girlfriend anymore. Shouldn’t be a problem.” At one point I would have been
overjoyed that Cale was single, but right now I had important things, like the
missing Mirror, to worry about, and though I wished Cale well, that’s about as
far as it went.

 But I still watched him walk
away and kept gazing in that direction, lost in memories, for a long time after
he disappeared.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Sip and Lisabelle were already
waiting for me in the fire study. I was glad I’d spent the previous semester
practicing my abilities with fire; at the moment they felt like a very useful
aspect of my powers.

The instant I saw them I threw up
my hands in despair.

“Hi,” said Sip, scanning my face.
“Where were you? We thought you were in the library, but Lisabelle said we
shouldn’t go up there without you.”

“We thought it might scare the
ghost, which is hilarious, because he’s already dead,” added Lisabelle.
“Imagine what I could do if I were already dead!”

“Somehow I’m not finding it
difficult,” said Sip, and then to me, “What’s wrong?”

“To answer your first question, I
went to see Oliva. I was hoping he would tell me about spying on Astra, but he
didn’t seem to know anything.” I gave a heavy sigh as my friends waited. Sip
was sitting placidly on the couch, but as usual Lisabelle was pacing around the
room. She hated to sit and was almost always standing and ready to go.

“Why do you care about that now?”
Lisabelle prompted.

“The Mirror Arcane is gone,” I
said heavily. The feeling of failure I had been pushing away since I made the
discovery threatened to overwhelm me. I couldn’t help but think that a better
elemental would never have let this happen.

I was in the wrong life. I wasn’t
a hero. I wasn’t even brave.

My friends had very different
reactions to my news. Sip exploded in a shower of tiny werewolf activity. She
cried out and stomped her foot. She demanded to go to the ballroom and see for
herself, and then she somewhat returned to her everyday self.

“This is most definitely a
situation that calls for reinforcements. We need all the help we can get,” she said,
looking wildly around.

“Meaning we should get more
wands, a few powders, and some explosives?” Lisabelle said. She was leaning
against the bookcase in her customary black, as usual not appearing
particularly concerned. I wished I had her calm.

“Meaning I’m going to get a cup
of tea,” said Sip, disappearing into the kitchen. “Don’t say anything
interesting while I’m gone.”

“Than how am I supposed to talk?”
Lisabelle said.

“Use all those non-verbal cues
you’re so good at,” Sip called over her shoulder. Lisabelle stuck her tongue
out at Sip.