Elemental Fire (Paranormal Public Series) Read online

  Elemental Fire

  (Paranormal Public, Book V)

  by

  Maddy Edwards

  Copyright © 2013 by Maddy Edwards

  Cover Design © Sybille Sterk

  This novel is a work of fiction in which names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real persons, places, or events is completely coincidental.

  All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without the written consent of the author.

  My blog: http://maddyedwards.blogspot.com/

  My goodreads page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5288585.Maddy_Edwards

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter One

  Lisabelle wheeled around and stomped away. Sip and I stood, staring at the thick, heavy gates that had grated shut in our faces. Lough watched Lisabelle’s back, his eyes worried.

  “Should we go after her?” His voice was filled with concern.

  “Yeah, definitely,” said Sip, not moving. “You first.”

  “Umm,” said Lough, appearing to think better of his question. “Maybe I’ll let her cool down?” He shifted. Lough couldn’t sit still when he was nervous.

  Sip nodded, folding her arms across her chest. “She probably doesn’t want to chat as long as she’s sparking.”

  “As opposed to other times,” I murmured, “when she’s more than happy to chat.”

  “This is bad,” said Lough, looking mournfully at the gates. They were dark and forbidding, not at all how I thought of Public. My university had always been a place of refuge for me. Now I couldn’t even get onto the grounds.

  In the early morning dew there was the scent of wet stone and something that smelled remarkably like fire. “We’re out here all by ourselves,” Lough observed morosely. His stomach rumbled and Sip raised one of her nearly white eyebrows at him. “They shouldn’t leave Charlotte unprotected like this. There might be demons.”

  We both stared at him.

  “What? Just because the paranormal world is falling apart doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be hungry,” Lough grumbled, rubbing his stomach as his cheeks stained red. “Guy’s gotta eat.”

  “You’re going to be eating while the demons attack,” said Sip, shaking her head. “I don’t think they’ll listen if you say, ‘Hey, can you just wait a minute to try and kill us? I want to finish this chicken leg.’”

  “If the demon attacks keep increasing in frequency, then yes, that’s likely,” said Lough hotly.

  As my friends bantered back and forth, my eyes trailed along the closed gates and the high walls. I wondered what I hoped to see. Maybe the committee will have changed their minds? Maybe Risper will come through the gates and cry, “Just kidding! Only did it to piss Lisabelle off and boy did it work!”

  My eyes darted to my darkness friend. She was standing at the edge of the clearing, holding something dark and shiny in her hand.

  “Who do you suppose she’s Contacting?” Sip asked, seeing that our friend held a Contact Stone.

  “Hopefully someone who can talk some sense into Dove,” said Lough, his eyes like steel.

  “And who do you suppose is that extraordinary person?” I demanded.

  “It looks so barren,” said Sip, following my eyes up the walls of Public. “I can’t believe they just closed the gates on us. I have stuff in my room!”

  “OUR room,” Lisabelle yelled from across the grassy lawn. “It’s not just your room.”

  Sip rolled her eyes. “So she thinks.” A grin raked across my werewolf friend’s face. Lough shook his head and set his pack down. “What do you two want? I have sandwiches.”

  “So, sandwiches then?” I said.

  “Good,” said Lough, unzipping the pack and rummaging through compartments. “Why couldn’t they have shut the school down in the fall semester instead of the winter?” he grumbled, pulling his jacket more tightly around his neck and glaring into his bag. “It’s cold.”

  “They really should have considered your feelings more,” said Lisabelle, striding over. Her cheeks were red and her black eyes were blazing. I wondered if she was cold or just angry.

  “Who did you call?” Sip said.

  “Risper,” said Lisabelle. “I thought since he’s another committee member he might know what’s going on. The trouble is, I have no idea where he is or what he’s doing.”

  “So, you couldn’t reach him?” Sip said. “Is he busy being. . . .” She didn’t say Elam. Lisabelle’s Uncle Risper was a famed bounty hunter, who, we had discovered last semester, doubled as the paranormal world’s renowned thief, Elam. He was after the six objects on the Paranormal Wheel, just as we were, and when we had discovered his double life last semester he had immediately disappeared, probably to continue his quest to find them. He had even skipped Queen Lanca’s coronation, which only a handful of paranormals had done.

  Sip sighed and sat down next to Lough. He handed her a sandwich and she bit into it thoughtfully. Lough offered Lisabelle one too, but she shook her head. I took one and sat down next to Lough, folding in on myself to keep out the winter chill.

  “What now?” I said. “We need to get into Public. Mrs. Swan might be able to help.”

  “Wasn’t she at the coronation?” Lough asked, frowning. “There was so much going on I don’t remember.”

  “No,” I said. “She stayed behind to keep Public safe. Every dorm needed a chaperone to stick around, just in case, and obviously Astra. . . .”

  Astra was the elemental dorm, and since there was only one elemental student, there was only one elemental chaperone, Mrs. Swan.

  “We need a plan,” said Sip, scraping her fingers through her spikey blond hair.

  “A plan for what?” Lough asked between large bites of his sandwich. Lisabelle looked at him with complete disdain. She still held the Contact Stone, which she tossed idly in her hand.

  “To get into Public,” she said casually, eyeing Sip with amusement.

  “For once we’re of like mind,” said Sip, grinning broadly. She shaded her purple eyes as she looked toward our university.

  “I don’t know,” said Lough skeptically. He took another bite of his sandwich, and then another. “Sounds dangerous.”

  Stretching her arms as if she were preparing for a fight, Lisabelle glared at the dream giver. “Don’t know about what?” she asked. The cool morning breeze, sweeping across what was left of the last bits of snow and twirling around us, gently lifted individual strands of hair off Lisabelle’s shoulders. She wore her customary black dress, which brushed the tops of her black boots.

  “Sneaking into Public,” said Lough, his eyes filled with worry. “Don’t you think we’ve been through enough? I’m sure this will all work itself out. In the meantime, let’s go on vacation. We have a free semester, or a
t least a couple of weeks. Let’s take advantage of it and relax.”

  “Re . . . huh?” Sip looked aghast, her purple eyes staring in wonder at Lough, who looked back, unflinching.

  “I’m serious about my R and R, Sip,” said Lough, his voice light. “Stress isn’t good for the skin, and demons and hellhounds or Nocturns, or whatever I’m supposed to call them this week, are the most stressful thing of all.”

  “They just SHUT the door in our faces,” Sip sputtered. “They just shut the only elemental away from her dorm. Do you have any idea how insane that is?”

  “No,” said Lough, picking a bit of lettuce out of his teeth. “At this moment I am having a hard time picturing insanity.”

  “Hardy har har,” said Sip, without a trace of humor. “We have to get into Public and get our stuff. They can’t separate Lisabelle from her dead rats and such.”

  “How’d you know I keep dead rats?” Lisabelle demanded, indignant. “Oh, because I hide them under your bed?”

  Sip, who had clearly been joking, paled, while Lisabelle grinned.

  “Shouldn’t mess with me, Sip, you will lose.”

  “All part of the plan, Lisabelle,” said Sip, waving her off. “Anyway, we wait until the cover of darkness and then we sneak in. We should figure out what we want to get before we go.”

  “It’s not a good idea,” said Lough. “How many of the students are back at Public, anyway?”

  “Most of them,” said Lisabelle grimly. “Trafton, Keller, some of the others who were at Locke are still out, but almost everyone left Locke and headed back to Public the moment Dirr died at the coronation.” She swallowed hard. Dirr’s death was still not something we had talked about. Lanca had only mentioned it once, before we captured Faci. She hadn’t wanted to talk about it otherwise, which was probably good, since she had her hands full consolidating her position as the Rapiers’ queen, not to mention the responsibilities of actually ruling.

  “What about Daisy and Dobrov?” I asked, paying almost no attention to the sandwich I was still working on. They had left Locke together with their father. I had been slightly worried about Dobrov’s well-being, considering that his sister was insane, but he told me not to worry and I had no choice but to listen to him.

  “I think they came back to Public,” said Lough, shrugging. “They should be around somewhere.”

  “Wait, are there students on campus or aren’t there?” Lisabelle asked harshly. “They turned us away, after all.”

  We turned in unison to look at the walls of Public. It was a good question. We hadn’t passed any other students who had been kicked out as we had come up the road to the gate.

  “It’s strange,” said Sip, chewing on her lower lip. “They probably all went on vacation the second they heard, just as Lough suggested.”

  “So lazy,” said Lisabelle, shaking her head. “We should be working toward future classes.”

  “But if all the students left, why are the committee members still there?” Lough said, frowning.

  “Who cares,” said Lisabelle. “They can’t lock me out of Airlee.”

  “I think you have issues with authority,” said Lough, polishing off his sandwich and happily licking his fingers.

  “I have issues,” said Lisabelle, pulling her hair back and sitting down next to him. “Why bother specifying what kind?”

  “Solid point,” said Lough, covering a grin. “Well, I hope you three can get in there by yourself, because I’m not helping.” With that he laced his fingers behind his head and leaned back. “Anyway, someone should stay out here in case any other paranormals show up.”

  “Lough, you have to come with us,” Sip insisted, but Lough was no longer listening. He had pulled his jacket hood over his forehead to cover his eyes and was ignoring us.

  “I’m not getting into any more trouble this week,” he said, his eyes still closed. “I need a break. Talk to me next week.”

  I watched Lisabelle intently, unsure what she was thinking. Then again, maybe I didn’t want to know. The wind continued to blow strands of her hair around, which she ignored. It gave her a lonely, confident look, to stand there by herself and contemplate disobeying the direct orders of the committee.

  Lisabelle, for her part, watched Sip.

  The little werewolf raised her eyebrows at each of us in turn. “So, what’s the plan?”

  Lisabelle shook her head, a bemused look lighting her shadowed features. “You and your love of plans. We are looking at you,” she pointed out when Sip didn’t respond.

  My blond friend rubbed her hands together and grinned. “As a matter of fact, I do have an idea.” She looked happier than I had seen her in days, maybe even since the night Lisabelle and I had shown up at her house over Christmas break so that we could travel together to Lanca’s coronation. Even then the times had been dark - Lanca’s father had been murdered, after all - but now I felt like the sun had been entirely blotted out, and Christmas seemed like a long time ago. With Malle’s explicit order to have me killed (which as far as I knew still stood) and Dirr’s death, the landscape of our fight against the Nocturns had changed and become more layered and complex. I now didn’t know whom to trust, and the simple days of visiting Ricky while I was on a break from school, and introducing him to friends like Lisabelle, felt entirely too mundane and normal compared to what my days were like now.

  What I wouldn’t have given to see Ricky again, in safety! But I also knew that the closer I was to him, the more danger he was in.

  Lisabelle’s voice brought me back to the present. She was telling Sip that it had been entirely obvious to her that Sip would have a plan.

  The darkness mage turned to me as Sip got to work. The werewolf set her pack down and started to tear through the contents, pulling out odds and ends. From one pocket she drew something that looked remarkably like a neon-colored handkerchief, from another she took a book that was the color of moldy French fries and floated in the air on its own.

  Lisabelle watched briefly, then rolled her eyes. “Remember first semester? This was the girl who didn’t want us sneaking around campus at night?” Lisabelle jerked her thumb at Sip, who now held in her hand a bear claw painted pink. “Oh, how the mighty have fallen.”

  “Does she keep that stuff in your room?” I murmured to Lisabelle, eyeing our friend.

  “You don’t want to know,” Lisabelle said, shaking her head sadly.

  “If you must know,” said Sip, giving us a sharp look, “all of this is for academic research. Obviously. Really, you’d think you two never studied.”

  “In fact I don’t,” said Lisabelle, her mouth in a mulish line.

  “She’s not lying,” said Lough. “I’ve never seen her crack a book.”

  “Nope, I keep my cracking to heads,” said Lisabelle, pleased at her own joke.

  “Anyway,” said Sip, tossing the bear claw back into a pocket, “this break-in is different. I’m sneaking INTO campus now. Not around it. I just want to return to my studies. You don’t think this mold will identify itself, do you?” She waved the gross-looking book around in the air before tossing it back into the bag as well.

  “I was seriously hoping she didn’t keep that thing in her backpack,” I murmured, a little grossed out.

  “Too bad for you,” said Lisabelle, grinning at what could only have been a queasy expression on my face. Mold made me nauseated.

  “So our break-in is all for the greater good of academia?” Lisabelle asked Sip.

  “Exactly,” said Sip triumphantly.

  “Would Dove buy that argument?” Lough asked.

  “The whole point of my doing the planning is so that we don’t have to explain our reasoning to him,” Sip sniffed. “We will not get caught.”

  “Lough?” Sip gently pushed against our friend’s boot with her own as he lay on the ground. “We can’t leave you here alone. It’s not safe. I need to know if you’re coming so that I can build you into my master plan.”

  Lisabelle ducked her he
ad and turned away, trying to hide her laughter.

  Lough shifted his shoulders and rearranged his hands, relaxing further backward onto the ground. “I’m not coming,” he said. “In fact, I have no intention of moving for the rest of the day. I’ve had enough stress to last me a lifetime, and my friendship with you three isn’t nearly over.”

  “Fine,” Sip growled. She glared down at the prone dream giver for another second, then turned back to her backpack. She bent down and gathered the mishmash of papers, booklets, and scrolls that she had pulled out of it and marched away.

  “What plan is she going to hatch?” I asked Lisabelle, figuring that as Sip’s roommate Lisabelle would have a clearer idea of what the werewolf wanted to do than I did.

  The darkness mage glanced at the sky. It was gray, but the clouds were so thick you couldn’t see where one started and another ended. At least they weren’t very dark. It didn’t look like it was going to rain, and I was thankful for that. Being stuck out here in wet weather would just make everything worse.

  My friend’s gaze shifted to Sip, who had sprawled out on a log, her head bent in concentration. “No idea, but whatever it is it’s going to be perfect.” A slow smile spread across Lisabelle’s face as she said it. She was clearly excited at the prospect of breaking into Paranormal Public, but as I stood next to her, a fist turned in my stomach and nerves shot down my spine. I looked up at the walls of my university, and never before had it looked so forbidding. It was just like us to decide that the best way to handle being refused entry would be to enter anyway. Back to Paranormal Public we would go, no matter who tried to stop us. But this time we would go under the cover of night.

  “We start at first dark,” Sip called, as if reading my mind. “Rings at the ready.”

  Chapter Two

  The day dragged on. Lisabelle and I spent most of it reliving the events of the past week. Lough broke his silence long enough to join in the conversation, but Sip’s eyes stayed firmly on her papers and maps. At one point Lisabelle asked what exactly she was doing, but Sip only growled at her and Lisabelle didn’t try a second time.