Elemental Fate (Paranormal Public Book 12) (15 page)

Without a word, the burly dream giver slipped quietly past me and headed into Astra. He had the same ruddy cheeks as always, and a hood drawn up over his blond head. His features were more weathered, showing signs of what he had seen and the years he had lived through. He pointed toward the stairs that led to the basement of Astra and I nodded. A stream flowed into Astra underground, and my sister had told me some ridiculous story of how they had once used it to get in. Some sort of secret tunnel or something.

I hadn't believed her, since it revolved around rescuing Lisabelle, as if Lisabelle would ever allow that.

Now the basement was like an underground garden, even though it had no windows. In her free time, Charlotte had spent hours making it look nice. Once we were down there I took a closer look at Lough. He was thinner, and he looked more honed, as if he was covered in muscles.

“Hi, Lough,” I said once we were standing safely next to the water. Hearing his name spoken out loud sounded strange.

“Sorry to show up like this,” he said, smiling a little sheepishly. “I don’t have long.”

“Where have you been?” I said, silently adding that everything had been horrible without him.

“I can’t tell you that, although I have a feeling you might be finding out sooner rather than later,” he said. Even his voice had deepened.

“Do you want me to get Charlotte?” I said. I started to move, but truth be told, I didn’t want to get my sister. I had missed Lough terribly. There was only one Lough, after all, and I didn’t want to leave him to go and get her.

“No, no, I don’t want to upset her,” he said. “She can’t do this anyway.”

“What about Trafton?” I offered. They were both dream givers and had gone to school together, but Lough rolled his eyes.

“That poser!” he said. “Are you trying to get me to leave? No, not him either. It needs to be you. At least, I think it does. You have that Rollins determination in you. I’d talk to Dacer, except that I know he’s not here, and anyhow, he’d probably tell Charlotte.” Lough ran his fingers through his thick hair and sighed.

“Look, Ricky, we don’t need anyone else. I know you can handle it. If I didn’t think you could, I wouldn’t come to you,” he said.

“Thanks, I think,” I said. “What do you need” Lough had more faith in me than I had in myself, especially after the night before, but if he wanted something from me, I was going to do my best to give it to him.

The dream giver rubbed his chin as if he was unsure where to begin. Then his facial expression changed, like he had finally made a decision.

“Well, I need something,” he said. “I need you to start looking for objects on the Counter Wheel.”

My eyes widened, but he wasn’t looking at me so he didn’t see it. He was speaking in a rush, as though he was nervous that we’d get interrupted.

Of course Lough had mentioned Lisabelle. She had known that he was in love with her and she was the only one who knew where he’d been all this time. Well, Sip, at least, probably also knew, but she was in no condition to tell anyone, and Lanca had been furious about it.

“Look, Lough,” I said. “You seem nervous, so let me be clear. Anything you want, I’ll do. I’ll always have your back.”

Lough took a deep breath and gave me a rueful smile. “Thanks, Ricky. I’m not sure I deserve it, but at this point I’m in kind of a bind. I never expected all of this to go down the way it has.”

I bit my tongue again to stop myself from asking him what was going down. “But, um, one question,” I said. “How am I supposed to find all these fabled objects? Like, I can’t go leaving campus all the time. I have classes and I know I’m not that popular, but I have a couple of friends and I’m pretty sure they’d notice if I went off somewhere, not to mention our protocols officer.” I wasn’t about to tell him that I regularly daydreamed of finding the objects on the Counter Wheel and using a massive hammer to smash them to smithereens.

“There’s a protocols officer now?” Lough looked bemused. “We would have had fun with him in our day. Times sure have changed. I wasn’t expecting talking to you to make me feel old.”

I smiled ruefully at him. “Sorry.”

“I need you to look for them because I think they’re all here,” he said.

“Ha! I mean, wait, what?” I wasn’t sure I had heard him right.

“Not here as in Astra. This dorm is cool, but I don’t think it’s that cool,” said Lough. “Besides, at the time when I believe the objects were hidden, the paranormal types weren’t exactly helping each other out.”

“Some things don’t change,” I said dryly.

“But according to my research, all of the objects on the Counter Wheel are at Paranormal Public,” he finished.

My jaw fell open. It may actually have hit the floor, I don’t really remember, because at that point I wasn’t paying attention to trivialities. All I knew was that I’d just had the shock of my life.

Lights flashed in the back of my eyelids. Lough knew more about the Counter Wheel than paranormal professors and scholars and judges. How could he know all of that? Now, quite suddenly, he reached to his wrist and his eyes clouded. “I have to go,” he said. He turned around and started to turn away, but then he turned back.

“You can’t tell anyone that you saw me,” he said. “No one at all.”

“Not even Lisabelle?” I asked.

“I doubt Lisabelle’s going to have time to come to Public anytime soon, not if the Tabble can be believed, but you never know. You can tell her you saw me, but don’t tell her what I wanted. She might not like it, but that would be because she wouldn’t understand.”

“Okay,” was all I could say.

“I need to get out of here,” said Lough.

He climbed back up the stairs to the front door and I followed. Why he was going out that way I didn’t know, but he did, slipping out as quickly as he had come and closing the door behind him. I glanced out the window, planning to watch him rush away, but he was already gone.

I had totally forgotten what I had set out to do when I opened my door and found my sister’s old friend on the doorstep. I was still standing in the hall trying to refresh my memory when, not two seconds after Lough had vanished, another pounding at the door interrupted my thought train.

This time it was Keller. He gave me a smile, but I could tell by the spring in his step and the tension in his shoulders that he didn’t plan on staying. I hoped he hadn’t seen Lough leave; I didn’t want to find out how good a face-to-face liar I was.

It turned out that Charlotte wanted to have dinner in Astra that night. It didn’t occur to me to be wary, but I should have known. Charlotte didn’t usually have time for dinner any night but Sunday, and she also appreciated that I was a college kid and liked to socialize on weekends, so she left me alone for those. Tonight was different. Keller stayed only long enough to ask if they could come and have dinner in Astra, since Charlotte was still having trouble eating in the cottage after what had happened to Sip. I told him that of course they could. At first I thought he wanted to be alone with my sister, but then he made it clear that they wanted me there too.

“Invite friends,” he added. “I think we have a couple coming.”

I raised my eyebrows, but he was already gone.

Once Keller left, I closed the door again and leaned my head against it. Lough wanted me to look for the objects on the Counter Wheel. Was he in government intelligence? Was he worried about Lisabelle? Maybe he was working with Risper. No matter what it was, I had to help him. He must have risked a lot in coming to Public and not even seeing Charlotte.

I hadn’t even moved on to pondering Keller’s dinner request when my head, which was still leaning against the door, was jarred by a forceful slamming on the other side. I flung the door open again, fully prepared to yell at Keller, but it wasn’t Keller this time.

It was Keegan. “Hey,” he said. “You answered fast. After last night I thought you’d be in the kitchen.”

“I was in the kitchen,” I said, trying to remember the normal reason that had drawn me out of it in the first place.

Keegan raised his eyebrows at me. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he said.

I swallowed hard. Maybe I had.

Bricks slammed down inside my head as I realized that I had left the kitchen not for any normal reason at all. “Lisabelle!” I cried.

Keegan looked quickly around. “She isn’t here, is she?”

“Huh? Oh, no. I mean, I left the kitchen and was coming to your tree house to talk about the stupidity printed in the Tabble this morning.”

“I was waiting for you, then I realized you might not want to leave Astra . . . after last night . . . so I came here. I’m surprised Eighellie wasn’t here before me.”

“Can you stop saying last night so gingerly?” I pleaded. The embarrassment was bad enough without my friends dancing all around it.

Keegan winced and nodded. “Sure, sure, sorry.”

“Want a muffin?” I offered as we made our way back to the kitchen. It felt strange not telling Keegan that I had just seen Lough. It felt stranger still having an assignment from the dream giver. That I had resolved on my own to find the objects on the Counter Wheel helped, but now I had extra motivation. I was going to have a hard time not telling my friends about Lough’s visit, but a promise is a promise, and I knew Lough had his reasons.

“Thanks,” said Keegan, taking a great bite into a chocolate chip muffin in one green hand. When he could talk again he said, “So, do they really think we’re going to war with darkness? Again?”

“I can’t believe the paranormals would support that,” I said. “Not considering how many of us were lost the last time.”

“Yeah,” Keegan agreed. “I know the tree sprites wouldn’t.”

“The Tabble’s probably just being inflammatory,” I said, but my words sounded hollow even to me.

Keegan took another bite of muffin. “Anyway . . .” he said, but then he looked like he didn’t know how to continue.

“Yeah . . . want to come for dinner tonight?” I said. “My sister and Keller want to come over here to eat, and they told me to bring friends.”

“Dinner? Food!” Keegan’s face instantly cleared and I chuckled. “We’ll need it after all the work we have to do.”

After the pummeling we had taken from the Hellcats, we needed a better plan for the last two Cornerstones. I didn’t want another trashing, so as far as I was concerned that planning started now. I’d have to look into finding the objects on the Counter Wheel in my spare time.

Despite my best efforts, my mind kept returning to what Lough had told me. The Counter Wheel objects were all at Paranormal Public. How could that be? He had said that at the time they were hidden, or brought here, wait, what had he said? At that time the paranormal types weren’t getting along. So, much like now, they had been fighting, and that was his reasoning as to why not all the objects were in Astra. But then, did that mean that some were in fact in Astra? Maybe at least one? Had each type gotten one object to hide? If that were the case, I might at least have a clue to get started with.

“Earth to Ricky Rollins, come in Ricky Rollins,” a female’s voice broke into my reverie. I blinked several times, glanced around, and found Eighellie standing there next to Keegan, both of them giving me very strange looks. I hadn’t heard Eighellie come in, and I didn’t acknowledge that I hadn’t even offered her a greeting.

“Sorry, I was just thinking,” I said, throwing caution to the wind.

“About what?” Keegan and Eighellie chorused. I could tell they didn’t want me to keep ranting about last night, I had done enough of that already.

“I was thinking we should find the objects on the Counter Wheel,” I said.

My friends exchanged glances. Whatever they had thought I was going to say, it wasn’t that.

We spent the rest of the day discussing the objects. I had a feeling that Eighellie, at least, if not Keegan, thought I was trying to distract us from the memory of having gotten so thoroughly pummeled at Cornerstone the night before. But she bit her tongue about it, which I appreciated.

Keegan was all for it. His idea was that we could use the objects to defeat the Hunters, to “stick it to them,” as he put it, and once I had made the suggestion there was no deterring him.

“We need to do some research,” said Eighellie. “I’ve looked through the library and there’s literally nothing.”

“I was thinking about that,” I said. “I know where there’s another library, though.”

Eighellie brightened for a second, then dimmed a little. “That library isn’t as big as the one on campus. What makes you think it will have information about the Counter Wheel that all these scholars for all these years haven’t been able to find?”

“In fact, all the libraries on campus have probably been searched,” said Keegan. “We aren’t going to have any luck there.”

“All the libraries were searched, but were all the books?” I said. “Some books only open if the right type, or the right combination of types, asks nicely.”

At first neither of my friends got it, but then they both started to smile.

The Astra library was up in one of the towers, and it used to be locked. Charlotte had insisted I have access to it whenever I wanted, in order to further my learning, so now all I had to do was climb the stairs and open the door.

“Wow,” breathed in Eighellie as we entered the musty space. To my surprise a fire was burning in the fireplace, making me think that Sigil must not be far away. “Look at all the books!”

I nodded. “Let’s get searching.”

We spent the next two hours combing through every book on the shelves, looking for any mention of powerful objects or any specific mention of something called the Counter Wheel, or a wheel at all. I was getting tired, hungry, and fed up, and quickly losing faith in my idea, when Keegan gave a shout. He had long since stopped standing in front of the shelves and instead would take a stack of books at a time, go sit by the fireplace, and look through the pile. When he finished with one stack he would go get another.

“This,” he said. “The title is ‘Ancient Typal Feuds on Modern Times, written in 1885, a History of Public’s Inception, including the dispensation of Powerful Paranormal Objects.’ I can see the title page, but then the book is blank. It’s a first edition.”

“That’s a big title,” I muttered.

Eighellie had nearly toppled a stack of books in an effort to reach Keegan quickly.

“I’ve never seen this book before,” she breathed, seizing it from him.

“You could have just asked. I would have given it to you,” he said.

“Why’s it blank?” I asked.

“You need magic to read it, just like you guessed,” she said with a frown. “Like the Power of Five is enacted by different types doing something at the same time. The same is true of this book. At least we know we probably need an elemental.”

“We need a vampire,” said Keegan. “We need an elemental, an Airlee, and a vampire. It says it right here.” He pointed to the bottom of the title page.

“How are we going to find one of those?” Eighellie asked in despair.

After that, we left the library and went downstairs. It was only an hour until dinner, and we were all sitting around the fire lounge in dejection when there was a knock on the door.

It was long since dark outside, so I didn’t bother looking out a window, but someone was early.

I opened the door and there stood Averett.

“Um, hi,” I said.

She smiled and said hi.

“Did you want to talk about Cornerstone? I don’t know if I have the time right now.”

She raised her eyebrows. “I’m here for dinner,” she said.

“Oh.”

I led Averett into the fire lounge, not sure why I was so nervous. I told myself it was because Eighellie didn’t like her. “Averett’s here for dinner,” I said to Eighellie and Keegan.

“Um, why?” Eighellie asked. I hadn’t wanted to be rude, but I wondered too.

Keegan brightened, which only made Eighellie sink more. “Wonderful!” he said.

“My cousin’s wife and my cousin are coming, so I thought I’d better come too.”

“Queen Lanca is coming for dinner?” whispered the darkness mage.

“Yup,” said Averett. “What are you three up to?” she asked.

Then she settled herself in one of the chairs without waiting for it to be offered. I looked helplessly at my friends. Eighellie was giving Averett a very strange look.

“Queen Lanca?” Eighellie repeated, starting to tremble all over when it sunk in why Averett was there.

“Yeah,” said Averett. “The very same. Now, care to tell me what you’ve been doing today?”

I sighed. I knew I had to ask Averett, but I didn’t want to get her into trouble too, so I decided to do it with the minimum amount of explanation.

“We need to read a book from the Astra library,” I said. “And . . .”

But Averett cut me off and held out her hand.

“What are you doing?” I said.

“I’m helping you open it, right? My brother went to grad school, and he had to beg and plead with his friends to help him open books. It helped with inter-type cooperation, but it got so bad that the library started having volunteer book opening times set aside. Then I think the power in the books caught on and it became harder. There needed to be the right intent behind it.

“Volunteers to help you read?” Eighellie’s eyes were glossing over. Suddenly, Eighellie went from being barely civil to Averett to downright excited. The tension among the four of us made sweat run down my shoulder blades.

“That’s not what I said,” said Averett.

“Here’s the book.” I held out the dusty old tome, a little embarrassed to note that cleaning was not Sigil’s strong suit.

Averett cocked her head to the side, reading the title. “Ancient Typal Feuds in Modern Times, written in 1885, hum? Okay,” she said. She placed her hand on the book and immediately light started racing all around it, flaring up and dying back down.

Unfortunately, the binding stayed closed. Eighellie came over and placed her hand on it too, and the book blew open, dropping like dead weight out of my hands and landing with a thud on the floor. All four of us looked down at it.

“Um, great,” I said. I picked it up and handed it to Eighellie, who immediately went over to the fireplace, sat down, and started to read.

“My sister should be here soon,” I said.

Averett was giving me a strange look, but she didn’t ask why I had wanted the book open, and Eighellie was the one reading it. We all knew Eighellie was smarter and a better student than I was.

There was yet another knock at the door. I’d never had so many invited and uninvited visitors in one day.

This time, it was my sister standing in the doorway, with Keller behind her. He wasn’t just holding a tray of food, he was pulling a cart of it.

“I’ve been cooking,” said Charlotte, her cheeks rosy. She breezed inside.

It turned out that Astra had a dining room. My friends and I had to do some quick work to get it ready for company, but that was better than being around Charlotte. Something was up and I didn’t even want to know, except that I had the impression of barely controlled rage floating around her.

“Maybe she’s angry about the Tabble and what it’s saying about Lisabelle,” Keegan speculated.

I shook my head. That didn’t make sense. Charlotte rarely let the Tabble get to her; I was the one who always flew off the handle about it.

Eventually we were all seated at the dinner table. Lanca and Vital had arrived, and then so had Dobrov. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but my confusion must have showed on my face when I saw him at the door.

“A vampire queen is on campus and you think I’m just going to sit in my room?” Dobrov asked, looking amused.

I ushered him into Astra Dorm.

“Wow, this place sure is beautiful. It’s been a long time since I was inside it. Maybe your sister didn’t want me around,” said Dobrov, winking. As the paranormal president had become more comfortable with his role at Public, he actually made a joke every once in a while. I felt weird about it every time.

The dinner was quiet. Too quiet. It was mostly Keller, Vital, and Dobrov talking, while Charlotte and Lanca, who were the dear old friends, sat quietly, as did all the students.

“I’m afraid,” said Averett, leaning over and whispering to me. Keegan was on my right and Eighellie was next to him.

“Of what’s wrong with them?” I nodded toward Lanca and Charlotte. Averett gave one curt nod.

“This is going to blow up, and soon,” she whispered.

I didn’t like that she said it, but she was probably right.

Charlotte, in fact, hadn’t said a word since greeting everyone. Eventually, she asked Keegan to pass the salt, but that was about it. Keller wasn’t looking at her, not even a glance, which meant he knew what was wrong and didn’t want to see the fury on her face.

“You could just ask him already,” said Charlotte, glaring at Lanca.

Everything stopped in that moment. Keller, Vital, and Dobrov had been debating different flying speeds for dragons, a fun topic of speculation among many paranormals, and even Keegan had started to chime in. He could offer unique insight, after all, considering that if he wanted to he could speak with them.

Eighellie, who found all topics interesting, had also listened intently. Averett was more relaxed than I had ever seen her, not surprisingly since she was among family. But she still gave everyone eagle-eyed looks from time to time, as if she was just waiting for one of us to make a mistake.

Finally, Queen Lanca set her cup down gently. Her eyes were on the table, as if she was carefully considering what she wanted to say. The Queen wasn’t eating, and she had declined any special beverages, but she still picked up a napkin and dabbed at the side of her mouth with it before she spoke.

“I could, but I didn’t want to be rude. You invited us to this lovely meal among friends, and I wanted to do my best to appreciate it.” Her smile was thin.

“Like hell,” Charlotte hissed. “You wanted to speak with Ricky, now here is he!”

I was really sick of getting surprised that day. Charlotte had been angry a number of times since I had found out she was a paranormal, and she had even had fights with friends, but there was true venom pouring out of her now.

“You what?” I stammered. “She wants to speak with me? About what?” I glanced from my sister to Lanca and back again. Averett was looking at her queen, and I could tell that the wheels were turning behind her eyes.

“You could have said something. I wouldn’t have invited friends,” I said, thinking that whatever Lanca wanted to say probably involved something private. Later I would probably repeat it to Eighellie and Keegan anyway, but these people didn’t need to know that.

“Oh, no, if I want to talk to you we must all spend an entire evening,” said Lanca. She was equally angry. And then, softening her tone a bit, she said, “Not that I’m opposed to seeing you, Ricky. I’ve missed you around the grounds, but tonight was not a good night.”

“It was a good enough night that you had to Contact me,” said Charlotte harshly.

“You mean tonight wasn’t about pleasantries?” I shrugged. “I’m not surprised. It’s not as if Charlotte and Keller often have time to come for dinner in Astra.”

I could see both of their mouths open a little in surprise. I wasn’t trying to be nasty, but it was true. Keller spent most of his time healing, and Charlotte had her own responsibilities.

Keller reached over and covered his wife’s hand with his, but only for a second.

Before anyone could say anything else I cut in with, “What did you want to ask me?”

Lanca met my gray eyes with her black ones. There was no heart in them. “Have you seen Lough recently?”