Elemental Dawn (Paranormal Public) (29 page)

Dacer had gone to challenge
Castov, while Vital fought three darkness mages and was winning.

Then there was Lisabelle.

She was the only one who appeared
to have the upper hand, and she was fighting against at least six vampires at a
time. She thought nothing of turning one to dust while she broke another’s
neck. It wasn’t pretty, but it was impressive.

“Charlotte,” Lisabelle yelled,
her back still to me. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I said. My shield was
holding, but barely. If any of the mages turned their attention elsewhere for
even a second I would send a shock of power at them.

I heard a cry. Sip was
overwhelmed, having thrown herself into the middle of the battle.

Dobrov hadn’t tried to fight his
own blood, so Daisy had circled around him and now held Sip by the neck.

“Stop this, stop fighting, all of
you,” Daisy commanded. “Or I kill the werewolf.”

We all stopped. Lisabelle stopped
after giving one swift kick to the groin of an aggressive vampire. I kept my
shield up but stopped attacking. Vital and Dacer came to a halt while Lanca
gave a scream of frustration before halting as well.

“That’s right,” said Daisy, her
eyes hard. “Be good little sheep and die.”

I felt the world slow as Daisy
raised her hand to kill Sip. Lisabelle started forward and I heard someone,
maybe Dobrov, yell in fury. Into the echoes of pain and anger that followed
came the most beautiful voice I had ever heard.

“Oh, I don’t think we’re there
yet,” said Keller from behind me. Lisabelle grinned and Sip’s head snapped up.
I sighed in relief and spun around. At least a hundred paranormals stood at
Keller’s back, ready to fight the darkness. Lough was with them, brandishing his
fist, but he gave a slight wave and smile to us.

My boyfriend came forward, his
eyes blazing. He never looked at me. Ice closed around my heart as I realized
that he was not going to. In his eyes, I had betrayed his trust. I had done
something unforgivable.

After that it wasn’t much of a
battle. Most of the darkness mages gave up and ran; the ones who stayed died.
Daisy was one of the ones who ran. She knew she was no match for so many fallen
angels and Airlees.

“So, Lanca, are you going to kill
him?” Lisabelle asked, glaring at Faci. Lanca looked at the man she was once
supposed to marry and shook her head.

“No,” she said. “I should, but
no. He will live in the prisons here. At least for now.” I knew my friends were
looking at me to gauge my reaction, but I had none. I was empty. Living did not
mean anything anymore.

Faci sat, impassive, his hands
tied with black cord, his bent nose and sunken eyes giving nothing away. We had
won this battle, but at what cost? Only time would tell.

We returned to Public the next
morning, but I knew nothing would be the same. I had not slept at all, my mind
focused squarely on Keller and on Malle’s desire to kill me. I kept telling
myself that our breakup was only temporary, but I had no idea if that was true.
At least I still had school, and the Fang was safe with the Queen of the
Rapiers.

But as it would turn out, I
didn’t even have Public. That was made entirely clear to me, in a wholly
unexpected way, when Dove and Professor Erikson met us at the entrance when we
arrived. We had traveled back with Lough and Dobrov, attempting all the way to
evade detection by demons. Since we were some of the last few visitors left at
Locke, we assumed that most of the other students had already returned to
campus.

“What are you doing here?”
Professor Erikson asked, glaring at us through the gateway. As usual, her hair
was pulled back into a severe bun and she was dressed all in white. I found
myself resenting her existence and wondering why she had not been at Locke to
fight. Maybe I was supposed to be grateful that she hadn’t tried to kill me . .
. but I was not.

“We came for the semester,” said
Sip, raising her white eyebrows. “I know we’re a day or two late, but it
couldn’t be helped. Feel free to give us cleaning duty.”

“The semester was canceled,” said
Dove, his eyes like chips of black ice. “The place is closed. With the threat
of darkness so great we can’t have such a high concentration of young
paranormals in one place.”

Sip dropped her suitcase while I
stood there in shock. Lough and Dobrov both cried their protests.

“So, what on earth are we
supposed to do?” Lisabelle demanded hoarsely.

“Try not to get killed,” said
Dove, shrugging. “Or don’t. I don’t care.” Then he slammed the gates in our
faces.

Now we really were alone.

The End

~

Also by Maddy
Edwards:

One Black Rose
Series

One Black Rose

August

Autumn

Susan’s Summer

Paranormal Public
Series

Paranormal Public

Elemental Rising

Elemental Shining

Spiral Series

Spiral