Elemental Light (Paranormal Public Book 9) (31 page)

Sigil tapped my shoulders. “Ghosts,” he said.

I waved him away. “Yes, you’re a ghost,” I said. “Any other news from the Circle?”

“Nothing solid,” said Duchess Leonie. “We know that Mrs. Swan and most of her band of misfits got away, including the Quests.”

I breathed a sigh of relief to know that Sip’s parents were alright.

“That’s good,” I said. With so much going on, I hadn’t given any thought to the fact that my friends had families to worry about. Except for Lisabelle, of course, who had killed her own uncle.

“What about the oggles?” I asked. “Is there any news of Callum and Rose and the others?”

“The what?” Martha’s eyes were huge. “Those things? I refused to have them at Public! Messy creatures.”

I stared at Martha. I’d learned a long time ago that Paranormal Public wasn’t perfect and that Martha was a strange manifestation of the place. She didn’t always say the right thing or make it clear what she meant, but I was still surprised by the vehemence in her voice.

“You didn’t let the oggles attend Public?” I asked incredulously. “When was this?”

Sigil tapped my shoulder again, but I still didn’t respond. I was too caught up in what Martha had just told me.

“Of course not,” said Martha. “Look at my pristine campus! How could I let such a thing happen?”

“Look at what’s happened now,” I argued. “Nothing is perfect. They were paranormals and they deserved a place to learn.”

“First of all,” said Martha, her eyes turning to angry fire, “nothing has happened yet. Public will return to what it was or I will burn it down around my own ears.” Her voice was as cold as air being scraped over a glacier; fury was evident in every gesture.

“That would kill you, too,” I said quietly.

“I have a lot better idea of the consequences than you do,” she said, her voice still hard.

Duchess Leonie, seeing that the situation was fast getting out of hand, said, “I believe what Charlotte is trying to say is that Public is an inclusive place, not an exclusive one.”

“Of course it’s exclusive,” said Martha. “We can’t let just any riffraff in.”

“You let the pixies in,” I pointed out.

No one liked the pixies.

Martha shrugged. “They paid well.”

I felt like I’d been punched in the gut. To me, this was not about money, and I was stunned that Martha would even mention it. It was about life and respect.

But I kept my temper, bottled up my dismay, and merely shook my head.

“The oggles may come here,” I said. “If they do, they are my guests.”

“You aren’t in a position to give me orders,” said Martha. She was short in this form, but she straightened to her full height and met me glare for glare.

I did the same, pushing my tea away.

“Yes,” I said. “I am. I am in possession of the elemental crown and the Mirror Arcane and if I will it I will tear this place down around your ears for you.”

Martha was so shocked that her mouth clamped shut without so much as a word coming out of it. I glanced over my shoulder to see Sigil’s reaction, but he was nowhere to be found. Duchess Leonie took a long sip of tea and I could have sworn it was to cover a smirk.

“Very well,” said Martha, her eyes flashing. “You think you know everything at the age of twenty-two? That’s fine. You go ahead and assume you do, but when the oggles come to ruin Public, or another strange paranormal type does, you won’t be speaking those words. Public and its pristine world are as precious to you as they are to me.” Martha pushed herself off the counter and walked away without waiting for me to respond.

Duchess Leonie lowered the mug from her lips and looked at me thoughtfully.

“She does have a point,” said Dacer’s mother.

I looked at her in surprise. “What? You think the paranormal strange should be kept out? Dragons rescued me from Golden Falls, and other strange types have always been kind to me, and you think I should turn my back on them?”

“Not at all,” said Duchess Leonie with a slight shake of her head. “I believe, though, that you have only scratched the surface of what the paranormal world has to offer, and that to have the paranormal strange here would change your perception. None of us can say how.”

“They were kind to me on the road,” I said quietly. “If we were all a little more accepting of paranormals who are not like us, maybe none of this would have happened.”

I started to leave the kitchen as well, my first meeting not having gone terribly well. But Duchess Leonie reached out and grabbed my arm. Her strong old fingers held me fast.

“Listen to me,” she said. “The demons were going to do this no matter what. Maybe if they had more of a capacity to love, they wouldn’t have, but that’s not all that goes into it. You’re right that many of the stronger paranormal chose to turn their backs on other paranormal types, but the demons are evil. It was never a choice for them, it was a pleasure. Do not forget the difference.”

I nodded, surprised by the intensity in her voice. She had a point, though, and I knew I would do well to remember it. The demons were evil through and through, but some pixies, and those like them, actually made a choice to kill. When the time came, if it came, and I had to decide who lived and who died, I’d do well to remember that.

Duchess Leonie released my arm and sat back now that she knew I wasn’t going anywhere.

“Now it’s your turn,” she said, turning toward me. Her voice was gentle but her eyes were serious, and she held completely still as if she was bracing for another disappointment. “What of Queen Lanca?”

I sighed and put more sugar in my tea. Sip thought sugar that was unnecessary and ruined the true beauty of tea, but we were in a war with pure evil, so I’d have some sweetener if I wanted it, thank you very much. Besides, Sip wasn’t there to lecture me about it.

Dacer’s mother must have seen my shoulders droop, because she reached a comforting hand across the table to pat me.

“Don’t worry, dear,” she said softly. “This is a moment in time, but the lovely and the terrible thing about time is that it never ceases. It moves inexorably on. This moment will call to the next, which will fall into another. Before you know it, the time will have changed, the hand will have turned, the moment will have moved, and there you will be, in a different time, with a different, hopefully less burdensome set of problems.”

The problem was that I still felt numb. I hadn’t felt bad last night when Keller kissed me, but the prospect of its happening again was both terrifying and too wonderful to think about. And anyhow, I didn’t want to be numb, because so many of my friends and fellow paranormals were dying. No one wanted that.

“We went to Lanca’s,” I started. I told Duchess Leonie everything, right down to Lisabelle’s mask of a face when she killed her own uncle. I saw Duchess Leonie flinch, but to my great relief that was her only reaction. She didn’t condemn Lisabelle or cry for Risper, although I knew that her family had known him for years.

“He was Elam,” I explained. “He was the great paranormal thief Elam.”

Something about that made Dacer’s mother smile. She must have thought all along that he was clever enough to pull off such a stunt for so many years, because she didn’t even seem surprised.

“I’m glad you got out of Vampire Locke safely,” she said. “Your brother is still with Lanca?”

I let out a quick breath of air and nodded. “Yeah,” I said. Knowledge that he was safe was probably the last thread that was keeping me sane.

“Good,” said Duchess Leonie. “It is good you didn’t take him to the Circle.”

“For a dorm mother, Mrs. Swan sure isn’t much,” I said quietly, thinking how badly that would have gone with Ricky. If the demons had gotten him
. . .

Duchess Leonie squeezed my arm comfortingly to bring me back to the present.

“Your brother is fine,” she said reassuringly. “With a sister like you, I’m sure he’ll stay that way.”

I had to hope she was right.

Chapter
Twenty-Nine

I told her about the road, about Sip and Gargoile’s capture and meeting the oggles and the sudden appearance of Mrs. Swan.

Duchess Leonie leaned forward at the mention of the half water sprite and her band of mercenaries.

“They really think they can govern the paranormals?” she asked.

“They advocate standing up for yourself and fighting,” I said, shrugging. “She seems to think that’s better than what we have.”

“But she also doesn’t respect other paranormal types, does she?” Duchess Leonie gave me a knowing look. “No, just because you think you know the right way does not mean that you do.”

“It should be enough that she’s doing her best, though, shouldn’t it?” That was something I had felt very guilty about. Mrs. Swan was putting her life at risk to save the other paranormals. Who was I to judge how she went about doing it?

Duchess Leonie wrapped both hands around her mug and stared off into the distance. I’d been carefully avoiding looking at the windows. Part of me wondered why Martha continued to clean them, because it only gave us a better view of the demons outside, while another part of me just hoped the demons would disappear. Either way I hadn’t looked out the big kitchen windows once since I’d walked into the room.

“Look,” said Duchess Leonie. “Power is not a simple thing. Some take power they want, while others are given powers they never looked for. Royals are some of those. Many royals are raised with the knowledge of their future responsibilities. In fact, many royals have responsibilities for their whole lives in ways that you did not when you were growing up. When your mother and father died I’m sure they had meant to tell you more, but they didn’t get the chance. However, given who your father was and that your mother loved him enough to have his children, you must accept that whether you are worthy or not, yours is now the only vote that matters.”

“Isn’t it strange that I have so much power?” I whispered. “You’re right. I don’t want it.”

“The demons intended to kill you,” Duchess Leonie pressed. “If not that, they surely intended for others to kill you. But you made powerful friends and you made them quickly, and now here you are.”

“It’s just . . .” I started. But I didn’t know how to continue, because I didn’t know what any of it meant, only that Duchess Leonie was right.

“I’ve always watched from a distance,” said Duchess Leonie. “My son of course has watched from a closer vantage point, but to be honest I was surprised that you were not better respected and better treated.”

“I just assumed that was the paranormal divide. With the elementals gone there was more power for other paranormal types, and there were plenty of individuals who were eager to take advantage of that. Besides, when I was here in college, I really just wanted to fit in.”

“I know you did, dear,” she said. “But fitting in is overrated.”

I saw that now. I had my friends. They would always be my friends. I really couldn’t ask for anything more.

“Now,” said Duchess Leonie, as if she was getting down to business. “Where is that dream giver friend of yours? I was rather hoping he’d be present when you met the others.”

“He’s doing some reading,” I lied. “He’ll be around later.” I couldn’t even tell Duchess Leonie that he was trying to get in touch with the Darkness Premier’s right hand, Lisabelle Verlans. Now I had something I had to say to her.

We talked a little more about the Mrs. Swan’s group and the Circle, and in the end the Duchess simply shook her head. “It was foolish to gather so many of the paranormals together in one place,” she said. “It was almost like they were asking to be attacked.”

“Do you think paranormals would follow you if you asked them to?” Duchess Leonie asked.

Several other paranormals had streamed in and out of the kitchen foraging for food while we spoke, but none had stayed. The woman who had been there for my arrival had come in and not even glanced at me as she grabbed breakfast and left again. Just as I was about to answer the Duchess’s question, Trafton walked in.

He gave me his usual grin. “No rest for the weary,” he said, far more cheerfully than yesterday, “or you.”

I grinned back. “It’s good to see you, Trafton.”

He nodded before pulling open the fridge and grabbing a yogurt. Then he came over to lean against the counter next to Dacer’s mother. She didn’t look surprised, and I wondered just how much time they’d spent together in recent weeks.

“Don’t you have family?” I asked him.

He nodded. “They’ve been surfing in Europe, well out of all of this, thankfully,” he said. “They offered to come back, and I told them that under no circumstances were they allowed to until all of this was over.”

“I’m glad they’re alright,” I murmured.

Trafton nodded, then got a more serious look on his face. “How’s Lisabelle?”

I shrugged. “I honestly don’t know.”

Trafton already knew about Risper, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell him that we thought our friend was dying, or that if we didn’t do something about all the darkness coursing through her she would turn completely evil.

“Trafton?”