Elemental Fire (9 page)

The girl continued to scream and
a few others took up her cry, until at least half the camp was chanting, “Set
Charlotte free. Set Charlotte free.”

“ENOUGH,” one of the Fire Whips
cried. I couldn’t see the face because it was covered with a hood, but I heard
the crackle of the whip. I flinched reflexively, my body already preparing
itself for the sound of searing flesh. When it came I wanted to cry. The Fire
Whip had gone over to the pen that held the brown-haired girl. To her credit,
she had seen him coming and refused to move. The whip had snaked out, as fast
as lightning, and struck the girl on her outstretched hand. She screamed and
fell to her knees, letting out one more chant before the whip struck again,
this time on her shoulder. The girl cried and fell sideways, gasping for air as
her wounds started to ooze.

“Leave her alone,” Trafton
yelled. “She didn’t do anything to you!” The Fire Whip turned, and for a second
I thought he didn’t have a face, although I had never heard Lisabelle talk
about any darkness mages who were as different from her as that. The place in
the hood where a face should have been was all black, keeping his features
shrouded. He raised his Whip again, but this time he simply struck the ground.
Then he did it again, and again. At first I wondered what on earth he was
doing, but then the air was filled with snarls, and I realized with dread that
he had been sending a signal.

Hellhounds poured in from every
direction, with five or six racing to surround each pen, their black fur tipped
with burning red sparks and their red eyes snapping from side to side. The
penned-in paranormals whimpered. Many were crying. The hellhounds snarled. I
had never noticed their tails before, but I could see now that they were like
large black clubs, another weapon.

For a few moments my attention
was so focused on the arrival of the hellhounds that I forgot about the Fire
Whip. But then, when I turned, I saw that he was now standing before Trafton
with the whip held lightly in his hand.

He cracked it, but without quite
hitting Trafton. The dream giver tried not to flinch, but he was obviously
jumpy. Silence had again fallen over the camp. The other Fire Whips stood
around watching, and I found myself wishing that they had faces, as if that
could have given me some information that we could put to use in fighting them.
Meanwhile, the paranormals in the cages were silent, their eyes fixed on us.

Again and again the Fire Whip
cracked his weapon, first just near Trafton, then hitting him. The blows
started out as tiny licks of the fire, little scratches, enough to put Trafton
in pain but not enough to make him cry out. Trafton stood his ground stoically,
his hands pressed to his side where Zervos had wounded him. I spared a glance
at our professor, but his eyes were hooded.
He must have perfected that
unreadable look years ago
, I thought. The rest of us were not so impassive.

“You do not like seeing your
friend suffer?” a woman’s voice asked me. I looked past the Fire Whip who was
tormenting Trafton to see that a middle-aged woman had appeared. She was short
and thin, with a round face and a coil of blond hair that wound around her
head.

Ms. Vale looked nothing like her
children. Unlike Dobrov, she had no decency lighting her eyes and no humility
softening her features. She wore a red robe, but she carried no Fire Whip. Her
eyes were round and black, set wide apart in her pale face. Her nose was so
small it was more like a button. She had tiny ears. A very odd-looking woman,
all in all, but one who in her youth, I imagined, had been striking. Her voice
was rich and amused, as if we were having a normal conversation about the
weather or what we were going to do that weekend.

“I don’t like seeing monsters,” I
said, clenching my fists. “Unchain me and I’ll show you just how much I don’t
like it.” The chains must have had spells in them that kept my magic from
working, because I had tried to call to my ring, to order my magic outward to
stop the attack on the Airlee in the pen and on Trafton, but nothing had
happened. I felt lost and naked without my power.

“Ha, ha, big talk for a little
Astra,” said Ms. Vale, her laughter tinkling around us like the glass crystals
of a chandelier clinking together.

“I’ve met my fair share of
bullies,” I said, trying to sound bored. “No offense, but you are not remotely
the worst.”

“Evil, like love, is not a
competition. It’s not about just one winner. You either do it,
can
do it, or you cannot. I am not
evil. I am merely trying to help. I have children who attend this school, after
all, and I would hate to see their education neglected.”

“Good thing you aren’t letting
that happen,” said Trafton. He was sweating and his eyes were feverish. His
shirt and arms were covered in blood.

Ms. Vale turned her black eyes
toward Trafton, but they skated over him as if she thought him irrelevant.
Trafton’s shoulders relaxed a little when she stopped looking at him, as if he
was relieved that she was turning her attention elsewhere.

“We are here to make a deal. I
would explain it to you, but I do not have to justify myself to children.
Suffice to say that the elemental’s presence here will make negotiating
considerably easier.”

My stomach turned. We had walked
into a trap. The committee members had tried to keep us away as best they
could, but we hadn’t listened. We had merely believed what they said, that
Public was closed, even after the signs - above all the fact that we had seen
no students coming out - were obvious. Now they had me, Sip, and Lisabelle too
for whatever purpose this madwoman desired.

“You remind me of Daisy,”
Lisabelle said casually. She stood with her shoulders thrown back and her head
held high. “The crazy side anyway.”

Ms. Vale smirked. “You do not
scare me, Ms. Verlans. I am not impressed by your ego. What we are doing here
is for the greater good. For my children’s good. I do not care whether you
understand or not. It will all be clear soon enough.”

“Oh, great,” Sip muttered. “I
just love clarity.”

“Are you working for Malle?”
Lisabelle asked. “Is she the one pulling your strings and telling you what to
do? Your daughter is a puppet as well, led around by her massive nose.” Daisy
didn’t have a massive nose, but it was obvious that Lisabelle was trying to
goad Ms. Vale into doing something stupid.

“Shut up, Lisabelle,” Trafton
said.

“How about you let us go, first?”
I asked, trying to keep the process going. The longer we kept her talking the
more she would reveal and the less time her Fire Whips had to torment my
classmates. But Ms. Vale was on to us. She had already turned her attention
back to the pens of students.

Still, I was determined to fight
her. Whatever she had planned, I would battle her every step of the way. The
thought gave me confidence and the motivation to keep goading her when
otherwise I would have given up. I was determined that she would not win this
encounter; my friends and I would not allow it. Besides, Lough was still
outside the “protections” of Public, and he knew exactly where we were. When we
didn’t return he would call for help. Dacer was still with Lanca, not to
mention all the Rapier vampires she had at her disposal. You didn’t know fear
until you stood across from Vital and tried to win.

Ms. Vale gave me an amused smile.
“You look familiar, those gray eyes. The last elemental: thank you so much for
joining us at our new, improved, and re-imagined Public. You look like your
mother.”

Fury ripped through my chest and
shot out my arms; any thoughts I had been entertaining of a measured and
careful response to the situation were lost at the reference to my mother. I
strained and pulled and yanked against the bonds that held me until they bit
into my wrists and I bled. Then I yanked some more. Pain tore at my heart and I
knew that my eyes were blazing. My friends stared at me, and for the first time
I saw them look at me with fear. I didn’t care. I was consumed by one thing and
one thing only, the necessity of ripping Ms. Vale’s heart out and stomping on
it. She just stood there and continued to smile.

Eventually my voice gave out,
having accomplished nothing but my own further exhaustion. Then the muscles in
my arms gave way and my legs started to wobble. Before I knew it I was sinking
to the ground, my bonds still intact but my heart shattered. I crumbled into a
ball and cried and I didn’t care who saw. The last thing I remembered was
seeing two lovely pairs of high heels in front of my eyes, a voice murmuring
for me to sleep, and then nothing.

Chapter Nine

“Keller,” I breathed, feeling
happy. I knew my cheeks were stained with a rosy blush that matched the red
rose my love held in his hands. His eyes sparkled as he looked at me and his
face broke into a wide smile of pure pleasure. My hole body tingled when I
looked at him. After everything we’d been through how could he still make my
heart beat so wildly?

The sun was shining and his arms
were wrapped tightly around my waist. Mine were thrown around his shoulders and
we were face to face, sitting somewhere on a warm, grassy hill. I could feel
the green blades of grass tickling my feet and I smiled with pleasure. He
smiled back.

“Where are we?” I asked softly,
afraid to break the perfect moment.

“What does it matter, if we’re
together?” he replied. “I was so worried I wouldn’t see you again. I was so
worried we wouldn’t get back together. I couldn’t breathe without you. You are
vital to me, warm when I’m cold, support when I’m about to crumble. I can’t. .
. .”

He closed his lips into a thin
white line and stared, his face filled with sadness. “I miss you so much,” he
finished, burying his face in my hair. I held him close. There was nothing I
needed to say. Holding him close was enough.

“Can’t we stay like this
forever?” I whispered, my fingers tangled in his perfect black hair, sinking
into his soft locks.

I felt his smile against my neck.
“Yes,” he said. “You and me. I just want you safe.”

I frowned a little. There was
something about his wanting me safe, something . . . I couldn’t put my finger
on it. Maybe because a haze was rising up around us. I looked around,
bewildered, as the sun was blotted out by clouds. I held on more tightly to
Keller.

“I’m sad about my mom,” I told
him. I could say it to Keller. I could say anything to Keller. “And I don’t
sleep as well when you’re not next to me.”

“I know you’re sad about your
mom, Heartsweet,” he murmured. I scrunched up my nose as he scrutinized my
face, then he gave a joyous laugh. “Was that too much? I know Lisabelle would
hate such a term of endearment, but I like to describe how I feel about you as
accurately as I can. It’s just hard to find the words.”

I smiled and ran my fingers
through his hair again, enjoying touching him. Sometimes it filled me with
wonder that I was the one he had chosen to allow to touch him in such a
personal way.

“I’m sorry you can’t sleep,” he
said, giving me a squeeze. “I wish I could help.”

My back straightened. “You can
help,” I encouraged, getting excited. “Come back to me.”

He stared into my eyes and shook
his head. “I want to make one thing very clear,” he said, his voice low and
urgent. He paused, looking around. “We don’t have a lot of time, but I want to
make one thing very clear. I never left.” He held my gaze with his. “The sweet
smell on the wind, the warmth of the sun on your face, the spark in a friend’s
eyes, those are me, telling you I love you. I will always love you, and as long
as you have those things I will never leave you.”

He pressed his lips to mine. I
clung to him as if it was the last thing I would ever do. I clung to him as I
was pulled away. The shadows had lengthened and stretched. Our time in the
sunny place had come to a close.

I woke up still in chains, roused
by daylight. I felt my wrists clink together. I was lying on my side in mud,
the wet earth pressing into my hip and shoulder. Carefully I raised my head. I
was alone, but where? I raised it a little more and realized that I was outside
Astra, of all places. Dimly I could see the lights from the camp in the
distance.

I glanced at the sky, but it was
one hazy gray cloud. The air was cool and my wet body shivered from a night
spent outside. Astra looked dead and the thud of my heart was the only sound I
could hear. The Mirror Arcane was inside. If that was truly what Ms. Vale was looking
for, she was very close. I wondered if she really had multiple agendas or if
she had said all that nonsense about the greater good to cover up her tracks as
she kept looking for the map.

I was so used to waking up to Sip
and Lisabelle’s racket, or even Ricky’s, that waking up to silence made me feel
utterly alone. Keller and I had started sleeping, emphasis on the sleeping,
together last semester, but that was when I had been safe in Astra, not when I
was in danger. It was strange to wake up, groggy, bleary-eyed, and not knowing
whether my loved ones where alive.

I glanced back at my dorm,
desperately wanting to go inside. When I tried to take a step, I heard the
chink of metal. Looking down, I saw that Zervos’s black chains had been
replaced by a thicker pair of red ones, the color of cakey blood.