Elemental Fire (28 page)

“Lisabelle, this is serious,” I
said. “If the Nocturns have the Mirror, all they need to do is find -” I was
going to say Elam, because he had the Map, but Lisabelle held up her hand and
shook her head and I stopped mid-sentence.

“We’ll get it back,” she said.
“One way or another it won’t leave campus. I don’t think it was Vale who took
it anyway.”

“You don’t?” I asked
incredulously. “How can you possibly know that?”

Sometimes she was maddeningly
calm.

Lisabelle shook her head and
pushed off the bookcase as Sip came back into the room carrying a tray with
three teacups on it.

“You are both having some,” said
Sip, as she begun to pour.

“What if I don’t want tea?”
Lisabelle said. “What if I want black tea?”

“You do and too bad,” said Sip,
glowering. “It will make me feel better to see you drinking.”

“I think you have that backward,”
said Lisabelle. “Usually people think it makes them feel better to drink.”

Sip snorted. “We are paranormals,
not people, and that’s not the case with us.”

“I’d still give anything to see
you drunk,” said Lisabelle wistfully.

“Anything?” Sip asked slyly.

Lisabelle grinned. “Maybe not
anything.”

“I can’t believe you two are so
calm about this,” I said throwing up my arms. “The Mirror is GONE! I FAILED!”

Sip made soothing sounds. “I
mean, it has to still be on campus. The senior paranormals have the place
surrounded. People can’t get in or out without their knowing it. If they try,
Lough will catch them and tell us about it, and as long as the Mirror is on
campus we can find it. Can you two walk and drink tea at the same time?”

When we both gave her skeptical
looks she said, “Try.”

“But what if they use some spell
to magically transport it away?” I said quickly. “Those exist. You’ve probably
read every book about them that there is.”

Sip nodded. “They do exist, but
there’s no way whoever has the Mirror would risk something like that. If they
have the Mirror, they aren’t letting it out of their sight. If they put it into
some tricky magical spell, who knows what could go wrong.”

I shook my head. I wasn’t
convinced. “So, what now?” I felt like I was the only one who understood how
serious this was.

“Now,” said Lisabelle, “you
introduce us to Sigil. Then Lough should get here, and by that time we will
probably have to return to Airlee and our humble abode together.”

Sip glanced at Lisabelle. “She
actually tells paranormals she’s my roommate now. Progress, right?”

“If I didn’t, I’m pretty sure Sip
would wear a sign saying, ‘I’m with the darkness mage.’”

“Oh no. Don’t be silly, that’s
not what the sign would say.” She grinned.

“What would it say?” Lisabelle
asked as I led them out of the study. Sip had no problem walking with her
teacup, but Lisabelle and I were slower. I had been looking forward to having
them meet Sigil ever since I decided he was up for visitors, and now was the
time. He might be a little nervous at first, but then he’d come around.

“I have the sign under my bed,”
said Sip evilly. “I’ll show you when we get home.”

“Please tell me you’re kidding,”
said Lisabelle, staring hard at the werewolf. “Please?”

Sip merely laughed.

When she got herself under
control she said, “Here’s my issue.”

“This needs more sugar,” said
Lisabelle, puckering her face.

“And so do you,” said Sip, as we
climbed the stairs. “But that’s not my issue.”

Lisabelle made a face, but
continued to drink her tea.

I had to pause and take a sip of
tea while Sip said, “My issue is who would dare to steal from Astra? From
Charlotte? We have a reputation that other paranormals should start
respecting.”

“What reputation is that?”
Lisabelle asked, amused.

Sip didn’t think it was funny.
“You laugh, but it’s true. It’s not just students who are afraid of you and
think you’re crazy. Everyone is and everyone does.”

“I love how she’s turned that
around to a compliment,” said Lisabelle, taking another gulp of tea. “More.
Sugar.”

Sip waved her ring over the
teacup and tiny bits of what looked like white dust spilled into Lisabelle’s
cup.

“Wow,” I breathed. “I didn’t know
you could do that.”

“It’s really hard to do,” said
Sip proudly. “I’ve been practicing for just this occasion.”

Lisabelle took another Sip.
“Thanks,” she said.

“You’re welcome,” said Sip. “It’s
really poison.”

“I’ve spent the past few years
building up immunities to the common poisons,” Lisabelle said. “Besides, I like
poisons that taste like sugar.”

“Why would you spend the past few
years building up immunities to poisons?” Sip demanded, horrified. Lisabelle
just raised her eyebrows. “Oh, right. Sorry, I forgot who I was talking to.”

“In case my roommate ever tried
to kill me. I love it when my behavior is validated.”

“Here we are,” I said, pushing
open the door to the library. It gave its usual welcoming creak as Sip
commented on how much she loved the rough wood.

“Sigil?” I called out, not
wanting to startle the jumpy ghost. “I’ve brought my friends with me this
time.”

I never saw where Sigil came from
when I entered the library, and I often wondered which corner he liked to haunt
when I wasn’t there. This time it took him longer than usual to show himself,
but finally he came zipping around one of the far stacks, waving his arms.

“I’m here, I’m here,” he yelled,
his voice echoing off the walls. He pushed his hat up and looked Sip and
Lisabelle up and down.

“Ah, I’m Sigil,” he said, bowing
with a warm flourish and a charming smile. “If you three had been students here
back when I was a professor, I would’ve counted myself lucky.” He beamed around
at the three of us.

Sip almost reached out to shake
his hand, but then thought better of it. “It’s wonderful to meet you as well,
Professor,” she said.

Sigil waved his hands. “Oh no.
I’m not a professor anymore. I would I were, of course. It would be most
pleasant, but they do not approve of such things.” I wasn’t sure who he meant
by “they,” but Sigil was already off to the next topic.

“Where’s your wand?” he asked
Lisabelle, frowning. “A mage should always carry her wand. Dark times.”

Lisabelle was rarely startled,
but I could see that Sigil’s question surprised her, not least because he
didn’t look afraid of her answer. She paused for a heartbeat, then pulled the
sleeve of her dress back, showing the intricate tattoo that had caused such a
massive fight between her and her roommate.

“Fascinating!” Sigil cried.
“Might be better than the latest news in the Pyrotechnics Review!”

“Sigil was a professor of fire,”
I said. “He knows a lot about it.”

“A knowledge you would do well to
learn from,” said Sigil, and seizing Lisabelle’s hand he held her arm almost to
his nose. His glasses slipped down until they had almost fallen off.

Lisabelle gave me a bemused look.

“Have you found out anything new
about my mother?” I asked. Careful not to look at me as he answered, Sigil
said, “Well, she wasn’t part of Astra, which means her name was not in the
books. I looked to see if a Grace Lancing married into Astra, but I saw no
evidence of that either.”

My heart sank. I felt further and
further away from finding out what had happened to my mother.

“You might, though,” he said,
“ask those who went to school with her.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I’ve never met any of them.”

“No? Well, President Caid was her
year mate,” he said.

I gulped as my pulse quickened,
and both my friends were staring at me in shock. It had dimly occurred to me
that I should ask around to find out who knew her, and therefore who she might
have spent time with. Maybe if I found anyone like that, they would know who my
father had been. But thus far none of the paranormals I had talked to (granted,
it was a limited number) had met her. They either had not attended Public at
all - for example, Dacer had been educated in the finest French schools - or
were too young or too old. There was one, Professor Erikson, whom I wouldn’t
have wanted to ask regardless, but I assumed she’d be too old to have known my
mother anyhow.

“President Caid was my mother’s
year mate?” I gasped, incredulous. “Remind me what dorm he was in?”

“Aurum,” said Sigil, as if it
should be obvious. “Most of the presidents of the paranormals come from Aurum.
It is a very trusted type.”

“Unlike vampires,” said Lisabelle
crookedly.

“Is he a Mark?” I remembered that
Marks were the most powerful house of fallen angels, followed closely by the
Eriksons, of course.

“Obviously,” said Sigil. “I’d
love to meet him. He’s apparently young and impressive.”

“He went to school with my mom?”
I asked skeptically. Not that my mom was old, but maybe not so young either.

“Hum,” said Sigil, thinking about
it a little more carefully. “Maybe it was his older brother. One cannot be
sure. Either way, he’s famous and you should talk to him.”

“Not sure that was useful,”
Lisabelle muttered to me. “I think his logic is faulty.”

“I think his brain might be
faulty,” Sip whispered. “He’s a ghost, after all.”

From somewhere far below us I
heard yelling.

“That’s probably Lough,” I said.
“He’s wondering what’s happened to us. We should go.”

Sigil nodded and waved goodbye.
Our arrival had sent him into a dither, but he was very relaxed as we left.
“Will you be needing me again for guard duty?” he asked before I shut the door.

“Um, yeah, hopefully,” I muttered
before I hurried after my friends. I didn’t know how to tell him that right
after he’d spent all that time protecting the Mirror, it had been stolen.

Lough was waiting for us in the
lobby, but he wasn’t alone. In the middle of the Astra entryway stood Dacer. I
gave a delighted cry of joy and flung myself at my mentor.

He laughed and wrapped his arms
around me. I stuffed my face into his shirt and held on tight while he patted
me on the back.

“That’s embarrassing,” said
Lough, beaming. “Acting like a silly schoolgirl.”

“I AM a silly schoolgirl,” I said
to him, laughing. I pulled away a little and frowned. Dacer looked different.

“What’s happened to you?” I
demanded, eyeing him suspiciously. I couldn’t spot what was the matter, but
there was definitely a change.

“He’s wearing black,” said a dry
male voice. I hadn’t even looked at the other man they had brought with them,
except to notice that he was young and not Keller. Now I gave him more of my
attention. He was right. Dacer was dressed in black.

“I had to give it up for the sake
of stealth,” he said sadly, plucking at the hem of his sweater. “Embarrassing,
really.”

The other man was short, with
close-cropped black hair and black eyes that twinkled. He wore heavy silver
cuffs on his wrists, but otherwise he was dressed as Lough and Dacer were, all
in black.

He wasn’t wispy like Dacer, but
thick in the arms and legs. I realized with a start that it was probably all
muscle. The guy could have pushed down the wall of a building if he had wanted
to.

“Charlotte Rollins, please meet
President Caid,” said Dacer politely.

I was so surprised I didn’t say
anything at first. Lisabelle seemed to know him already, while Sip looked about
as much in awe as I felt.

“Nice to meet you,” I murmured.
President Caid was not what I would have expected. Even though I’d been told
that he was young, I had imagined an old man, not one with so much youth and
presence. I couldn’t deny that he filled the room. There was definitely something
about him, a cloak of power.

The president of the paranormals
had come to Astra.

Chapter Twenty-Three

“You as well,” President Caid
said, smiling and taking my hand warmly. “I heard Tactical yesterday did not go
so well.”

“Um, no,” I said, feeling
awkward. He was the President of Paranormals, for Astra’s sake! I should offer
him something to eat!

“Tea?” Sip asked, coming to my
rescue. I gave her a grateful smile.

“Don’t mind if we do,” said Caid.
“We can block the windows so that prying eyes don’t see that you’ve snuck
paranormals onto their own college campus.” He gave me a wink and I instantly
liked him.

Everyone followed me into the
kitchen, where Caid and Sip broke into a spirited discussion of the benefits of
crumpets.

Lisabelle and I exchanged looks,
wondering how we had gone off course before we even sat down. We thought
President Caid was there to discuss Public.