Elemental Fate (Paranormal Public Book 12) (21 page)

I wanted to be near family, so I went to sit by the pond. Hopefully it wasn’t one of the nights when Torace was wandering around, because I was pretty sure his nervous energy would grate on me, and who knew what I was liable to do in the condition I was in. Options included ignoring him, yelling at him, or dunking his head in the pond. That last one was just a fantasy, of course; I didn’t think I’d actually do it. Then again, there’d never been a death notice about Sip before.

Now that I had read the words, ones I had been half expecting to see for a while, I didn’t know what I should feel. Sip was family. Charlotte was family. And they were both gone. What was I going to do now?

I got comfortable on one of the rocks where the Lightmares had sat to plan out our first Cornerstone. At first it felt cold, but I soon forgot all about my surroundings and lost myself in my thoughts.

The surface of the pond was unmoving. A slight breeze blew, just enough to tease my hair, but the grass and the water stayed motionless.

I don’t know how long I sat there. My mind wandered, but it didn’t settle on anything specific or concrete. Many of the important fights I’d been having that semester, especially the effort to win at Cornerstone, faded into insignificance. What did any of it matter? Somehow Sip, Charlotte, and Lisabelle were desperately important to the paranormal world, and the Hunters had taken a massive hammer and shattered them.

While I stared at the unmoving water, pictures started to form in my mind’s eye: flashes of Lough’s face when he found out about Sip, and thoughts of what he had asked me to do. I imagined Sip’s grieving family reading that Death Notice. I could only hope they’d been warned and hadn’t looked at the Tabble that morning.

Lough hadn’t given me a way to contact him, which was probably smart, but I had wondered what I was going to do if a miracle occurred and I found any of the objects on the Counter Wheel

“Hey!” A voice from behind startled me so much that I nearly toppled over. I glanced over my shoulder to see Averett floating toward me, dressed in her usual black, though with her well-muscled arms covered. For a split second I just saw her as a girl, not as a fighter or a vampire. Suddenly, I liked her immensely.

“How are you?” she asked, settling nearby and giving me a small smile.

“Oh, fine,” I said. “I’m good.”

She looked out over the pond for so long, I wondered if she was ever going to speak. When she did, it wasn’t what I expected.

“Lanca shouldn’t have treated you that way,” she said. “She should know better.”

“She’s upset,” I said, wondering what Averett was getting at. Was she there to ask me about Lough too? I bristled at the thought. I wasn’t going to tell her anything!

“She’s worried about her friend,” I said.

“That’s a constant state for all of us,” she said, sounding a little heartless. “She should get used to it.”

Looking at Averett, all I could think about was Keegan. He had never asked me about her, not once. He hadn’t asked if I liked her or thought she was cute. He hadn’t asked if I would date her if given the chance. I wasn’t sure if it was because Eighellie was wrong (unusual) or if he just didn’t want to know.

I sighed. “I don’t like that she and my sister fight.”

“Of course you don’t,” she acknowledged with a nod of her head. “Who would want the most powerful vampire queen and the last elemental fighting?” I glanced up, ready to correct her on that last elemental part, but she was grinning at me.

“You’re teasing me!” I said accusingly.

“Yes,” she said. “It’s funny. Everyone around here walks around fighting and bickering, and here in our midst is a freaking elemental. They should all have more appreciation, but they don’t.”

“You’re defending me?” I laughed. “We’re college students, cold and calculating every one of us.”

“Actually, for the most part I rather think we’re ruled by our emotions. Did you see the face Candace made when Greek jumped into the pond to help Eighellie?”

To be honest, I hadn’t, and I told her as much. “I was kind of busy looking stupid.”

“True enough,” said Averett. “She looked at Eighellie like she wanted to rip her eyes out and feed them to birds.”

It took me a split second too long to figure out what Averett was getting at, long enough that it annoyed the vampire. She shook her head. “Guys are so dense.”

“Candace has a thing for Greek, sure, every girl does,” I said.

Averett’s face settled into a serious mask, her eyes never leaving my face.

“Not every girl,” she said quietly.

Realization, or what I thought was realization, hit me like a lightning clap. “Greek has a thing for Eighellie?”

Averett shrugged. “That isn’t what I meant. I don’t know who Greek has a thing for. Unlike cool fallen angels who have gone before him, I don’t really believe he’s going to marry outside his type.”

“You think he’s going to marry another fallen angel?” I translated. This relationship stuff was really confusing.

“Yeah, that’s what I think. He's a good boy, and there are none of those reckless undertones that Keller exhibits.”

“He’s not reckless,” I said with feeling. “Did you come out here just to argue with me? It was so peaceful a minute ago.”

I wasn’t trying to be mean, but she should have known better than to insult my family.

Averett gave a gusty sigh and looked out at the water. When she looked back at me her face was closed, like she had decided something, but she couldn’t tell me.

“Sorry, no, that’s not why I came. I don’t think why I came matters so much,” she said.

“Okay,” I said, unsure what else to say.

“It was awfully brave of Keller and your sister to marry each other,” she said with a note of something that sounded a lot like longing.

“They couldn’t not,” I explained.

“Yeah, it was still brave,” she said. “We aren’t all that brave.”

“I’m going to have to be,” I said, shocking myself. It wasn’t as if I spent a lot of time thinking about marriage, especially my own, but then again in the back of my mind I knew there weren’t any more elementals for me to choose from.

Now Averett was grimacing, like she didn't want to say what she had come to say.

She started to float away, a gesture that meant the same as when other paranormals stood up to leave. “Never mind,” she said, her eyes pools of darkness in the night. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Okay,” I said, sad that she was leaving. Her presence was comforting, but I knew I wouldn't miss her terribly. Isn’t that what you needed to say yes to someone? She hadn’t even asked me a question. Confused, I looked out over the water.

“Ricky, when you say that you could end up with anyone, because there aren’t others of your type, do you really mean anyone?” she said.

“I never really thought about limiting myself,” I said. “My sister and Keller found each other. I always just figured I would love someone and it would work.”

“The only thing in this crazy paranormal world that would work easily?” Averett smiled sadly and waved goodbye, leaving me deep in thought. She had a point. It had become increasingly clear to me over the semester that Eighellie liked Keegan, and that he had no idea. Eighellie tried to restrain herself, but I could tell that their not being in the relationship she wanted wore on her sometimes, especially when he looked at Averett.

Eventually, coming back to the present, I took in a great gulp of air and released it slowly. Even the vampires weren’t out tonight. Most types had been afraid of reprisals since the attack on Sip, and the vampires were no exception. I had a feeling that the violence was only going to increase around campus for the little time that remained before summer break. Many students were upset and angry, and others liked to place blame. The vampires were an easy target, given all the darkness they carried. They were at Cruor tonight, but their absence made the nighttime campus feel all the more desolate.

The breeze blew again, harder this time. The water started to look a little ruffled, and as I gazed out at it I wished I could see Mom. Yet knew I never would. I wondered what she would think of the essence I had found, a power not even Charlotte possessed. I wondered what it meant for my future, which was still so unclear.

Then my mind went back to the night when Torace had come to find us in Keegan’s tree house, which obviously wasn’t as secret and hidden as we had thought. When Torace said he had seen something glowing in the pond, I rushed to investigate, harboring a vague hope that it would turn out to be some sort of family ghost. When we arrived, there was nothing.

Suddenly, triggered by the memory of that night, a new set of images tumbled though my mind: the photograph that Eighellie had showed me of the designers of the old buildings. They had all been holding cups, but now I realized that they weren’t cups. They were mugs. And now that I thought about it – why I was thinking about it I had no idea – I realized that I had seen that kind of mug somewhere before.

It had been when, at Trafton’s order, we had dredged the pond. Having dug deep in the muck at the bottom of this very pond, Keegan and I had told Trafton that there was nothing of interest down there.

What if we had been mistaken? What if . . . Quickly I stood up and started to strip off my jacket and kick off my shoes.

“Um, Ricky?” Eighellie’s voice startled me. She was walking toward me, wearing a hat and jacket and holding two steaming mugs. Averett was long gone.

I paused. “Yeah?”

“Going for a swim?”

“I think I might know where the first object on the Counter Wheel is,” I said breathlessly. I didn’t know what made me so sure I was right, I just knew I was.

“You do?” Eighellie sounded shocked. Quickly she put down both mugs and rushed over to stare at the water.

“How do you know it’s the pond I’m thinking about?” I demanded.

“You were about to jump in,” she said. “Besides, I was wondering all along why Trafton wanted us to search it. I couldn’t figure it out. What did he care? But then I thought he just showed up here and maybe he’s looking for objects on the Counter Wheel too. Maybe all these adults who are in the know realize that the Counter Wheel is the deciding factor in just about everything that’s going on in the paranormal world.”

“I wish one of them had told me,” I muttered. “So, you came here to see for yourself?”

“Um, no, see the mugs? I came here to see if you were okay. I found you about to jump into freezing cold water, so obviously you’re not.”

One side of my mouth lifted, but I refused to smile. “Okay, maybe you’re right about Trafton. Maybe he is looking. Keegan didn’t think we had found anything, so I don’t think he even mentioned the mug.”

“Exactly,” said Eighellie. “He told him we found nothing, so he didn’t bother to search. I bet if we’d told him about the mug he would have wanted to look for himself. Why is the mug so important again?”

I quickly told her about the picture she had showed us in the book, how I thought it might be the same mug under the grime.

“But there were a bunch of mugs. Why is this one important?”

I took a deep breath, still staring at the water. “I don’t know that it is. I just know think it might be our only hope of finding a way forward. Torace said the water was glowing that night when he came to the treehouse, but when we got here, it wasn’t. He wouldn’t have said it for nothing, though, would he?”

“All good points. Might as well jump in. Best of luck,” said Eighellie, whipping around and plopping herself down on the rock to wait. She picked up one of the mugs she had brought and blew on it gently. I raised one eyebrow at her.

“Thanks for your support,” I said.

“Anytime,” she beamed at me, then made a shooing motion. “Get on with it.”

I rolled my eyes, then did as she ordered. My body shivered just looking at the water; although spring had arrived, it was not a warm night. To make matters worse, I didn’t have the waders we’d used when we searched the pond the first time.

I dove in. The cold water hit my hands, head, and shoulders, then enveloped my entire body. I felt ice shoot up over my arms, chest, and legs. My muscles started to tense, but I forced them to relax. Then my powers came alive and started shooting out all around me. I was surrounded by one of my elements, after all, though it wasn’t one that I’d paid much attention to, and it was very cold.

Now, to find out where Keegan had tossed the mug. For a split second fear shot through my brain. What if someone had already come to find it? What if we weren’t the first? I forced that worry down. If that had happened we would deal with it when the time came, meaning we would track down whoever had done it and take the mug back.

I opened my eyes and started to search the bottom. Amazingly, the moonlight was bright enough so that I was able to look around. The friendly water also helped by flowing one way and not the other, swirling around me in exactly the right way to help me search.

Needing air, I surfaced and took a great gulp. Before diving again I rolled my eyes at Eighellie, who was still sitting at the water’s edge. She gave me a thumbs up and I headed back below the surface of the water.

After another minute of searching, I thought I saw something buried in the dirt, but it turned out to be just what you’d expect: a nondescript rock. Starting to feel defeated, I tossed the rock away and barely noticed where it landed. Then, carried through the water, there came a dull thunk; the rock had struck something hard. Quickly I felt around on the bottom, hoping against hope that the sound hadn’t come from just another rock.