Elemental Fate (Paranormal Public Book 12) (5 page)

Ricky Rollins Revealed

That was the blaring title of the Tabble that I woke up to the next morning. I sighed and shook my head. Charlotte would be livid when she saw it, if she hadn’t already. She had tried hard, including bribes and I imagined some threats delivered by her powerful friends, to keep my name out of the news. Now I was in the thick of it.

I started to read:

Charlotte Rollins, for years known as the last elemental and celebrated far and wide as saving the time-honored Power of Five, the paranormals’ oldest and best defense, was discovered not to be the sole elemental after all. She was hiding a brother, Ricky. Several years younger than Charlotte, he has now started at the newly reopened and currently being renovated Paranormal Public University.

There have been many questions about Ricky’s ability, including was it all just smoke and mirrors. Maybe his sister was helping him. Maybe he was just pretending? These theories were thought to be confirmed when he ran away from who he was as an elemental and his responsibilities as such, only to return a few months later.

After shirking his few responsibilities, he inspired more questions than ever about his magical powers.

An elemental’s responsibility to protect other paranormal types has never been in doubt, but the Rollinses’ ability to act on such weighty responsibility has long since been called into question.

Well, I am here to say exclusively and without question that many of those rumblings can be refuted.

Several Paranormal Public students have come forward and given exclusive interviews to me personally to say that Ricky Rollins can indeed do elemental magic. His power is raw and untrained and he may be far less talented than his powerful sister (the question of how much power she truly holds can be saved for another article; don’t worry, I have a lot to say, including the question of whether the paranormal government should really consult her in times of crisis just because she’s an integral part of the solution).

Anyway, apologies for my digression.

The interviews I conducted verified each other. I appreciated very much what each and every interviewee had to say. Although some were garbled, I used my excellent skills to transform their gibberish into a meaningful tale of truth.

As I read I got more and more disbelieving and angry. Everything the article said was so perfectly absurd that I could hardly get over it or believe it. But the hyperbole was likely to go unnoticed by those reading the Tabble, because why not.

I read on:

Ricky Rollins used his powers sparingly, and it was soon discovered why. He didn’t know how to use them! Imagine! After some amount of damage was caused in a lovely professor’s classroom, she had had enough.

Of course, going to the president of Public did no good whatsoever, since hybrids are rarely swift or helpful, so the professor was forced to take matters into her own beautiful hands. It was she who bravely insisted that Ricky learn what was the matter with his magic, so that nothing like that should ever happen again.

Ricky, heeding the brilliant professor’s advice, did just that. In short order he discovered, while several students were visiting him at Astra Dorm one night (he has friends across all types, despite someone’s claim that the types are fighting and that there is friction). Once those students were there Ricky proceeded to demonstrate that what he in fact has is darkness magic!!

The only way to deal with darkness magic is with more darkness magic, which is why evil incarnate herself appeared, Lisabelle Verlans, to tell him to get his powers under control. Is Ricky Rollins even an elemental? Only time will tell, but this publication would like to offer the view that he very well might be an imposter.

I stared at the words, wondering if I had read them correctly. Why on earth would someone write that or play off so many lies? I had friends of other types, sure, but I’d be willing to bet Astra that none of them had given interviews to the Tabble.

“When did the Tabble become so dumb?” I asked myself. There was no answer. I didn’t even want to know.

I had now been proclaimed to all the paranormal world as not even being an elemental. Levels of ridiculousness were increasing every day, and even worse, they had dragged Lisabelle into it, which meant that they were being not only ridiculous, but dangerously stupid.

For a long time after the war ended the Tabble had shied away from mentioning the premier of darkness, which showed some sense. But then, when they mentioned her a couple of times and nothing happened, they had apparently decided that the lack of consequences gave them permission to talk about her all the time.

I didn’t think that was going to end well for them, but they hadn’t asked me what I thought.

Never in my life had a “celebration” felt so oddly hollow. In an effort to stay on good terms with his disapproving fallen angel parents, Keller had agreed to have the celebration of their marriage over the winter break. But there were two caveats. The first was that Sip’s condition needed to be respected, as in she would not be present, but she would be acknowledged as Charlotte’s best friend. The second was that the evening had to take place at Duke Dacer’s Duckleworth castle.

We had some stormy weather. It never really snowed, but every so often the gusting wind would lash the windows, and Zellie had once gotten so tired of it that she’d yelled out to me to stop the wind, something I told her I didn’t think I should do.

She had then ranted about her hair being messed up, and about how hard it was to get to the stable to see the horses and the dogs, and how cold her feet were. I listened for fear of what would happen if I didn’t, then disappeared as quickly as I could.

The ring on my finger looked like the dead of night. I had never seen anything so dully black before. Sometimes when I would shift position and the essence ring would catch my eye, I’d be surprised that it was there. Then I’d remember what had happened and wish I could forget. Memory was the enemy of a lot of things, including forgiveness.

At least the castle was never quiet; that would have been too much to bear. Dogs, visitors, and a lot of party setup to work on kept things lively. It should surprise no one that Dacer went all out for parties.

When the time came, I found that the process of getting ready for this particular party was short and sweet. I had fancy dress pants laid out for me and a gray shirt to wear. None of the clothes were what I would call comfortable, but I could live with them for an evening.

I bathed and combed my hair and was ready to go. Charlotte had insisted that before I start getting ready I let Crumple out, just in case the dog decided to jump all over me and ruin my clothes.

All day I refrained from asking her for news about Sip, because I didn’t want to ruin her big night. She was already so nervous, I was surprised she didn’t faint. Keller’s whole family had said they were coming, but until that moment the fallen angels hadn’t approved of her in any way and had done their best to get Keller away from her. Keller had always taken her side and insisted they treat Charlotte with respect, but the fallen angels were a tough lot. Now they were all coming, and the place was decked out accordingly.

When I was all ready, I went to check on Charlotte and found her dressed for the evening but still in the process of getting her hair braided by Zellie, who it turned out was a master. The vampire was all dressed up too, wearing black as always, her hair pulled back into a severe-looking bun and heavy ruby earrings hanging at her ears. The cuffs of her robe shimmered silver.

I patted Charlotte’s shoulder and said, “It’s going to be great.”

“Thanks, Ricky,” said Charlotte. “I’m sure it will. I just haven’t seen Keller’s parents . . . well, I haven’t seen them in a long time.”

“You would think when they found out that Professor Erikson was the darkness premier they’d have behaved better,” I said. “Not even fallen angels are perfect.”

Charlotte sighed. “Yes, that would have been nice. Unfortunately, you are very right, and we cannot have everything.”

“We can try,” said Zellie. “I certainly do. Don’t spoil my dream.” She winked at my sister. When she noticed me looking on, she glared. “What?”

I quickly looked down. “Nothing,” I said.

“Oh, let me see the ring,” Charlotte said. She had asked me several times to show her the ring Lisabelle had turned black. I didn’t know what to make of it, other than that Lisabelle had done something that changed how the molten pile of metal on my hand related to essence.

I showed my sister the black circle around my finger.

“Humm, it’s strange,” she whispered, bringing it closer to her face. I felt her breath on my skin. It tickled, and I twitched.

“Oh, stop it,” she said, amused. I tried to hold still as she continued to examine whatever it was that Lisabelle had done. “Let me try something,” she said at last.

I jerked my hand away, causing Zellie to glare at me and Charlotte to look at me with confusion.

“It’s okay, Ricky, I’m an elemental too,” she pointed out. “We aren’t going to understand essence, or what Lisabelle did, without doing some experiments.”

“We’d understand what Lisabelle did if she was around to tell us,” I gritted out.

Charlotte conceded that that was true. “But until she comes back, this is the best we can do,” she argued. “Now, stop being ridiculous and let me see.”

Reluctantly I held out my hand again. This time Charlotte took it and held the ring up to her nose. Instantly my finger started to tingle, then to heat up.

“Charlotte,” I muttered.

“Yes, yes, I’m just seeing . . .” My sister was entirely pre-occupied with making the powers work, while Zellie tried desperately to keep braiding her hair.

“It’s sparkling!” I cried at the same time that Charlotte also noticed. She looked up at me, beaming. The ring was indeed sparkling. It looked like a night sky where the stars are the colors of the rainbow and they’re dancing about.

“It’s beautiful,” I whispered in awe. I could feel my essence there, coming to life and waking up.

Charlotte looked at me in wonder. “Essence feels . . .”

“Incredible?” I offered.

She smiled. “Yes, that’s exactly what it feels like. Incredible. There is still wonder in the world, Ricky. There really is.”

“Ricky, this is going to be amazing,” said Zellie, speaking positively for the first time this entire break.

I glanced at both of them. I wasn’t big on feelings, and I didn’t like not knowing what was going on with my very own essence. “Yeah, okay, I’m going to leave now,” I said. “You clearly still have a lot of getting ready to do,”

I made to back out of the room, and my sister released my hand with a show of amusement. “Very well,” she said. “Don’t think we aren’t going to talk about this again, because we are. You should be excited to discover all of your powers.”

It wasn’t that I wasn’t. In fact, as I left the room so my sister could finish getting ready, I wasn’t entirely clear why I was so uncomfortable talking about essence and having Charlotte, who of all paranormals I should be fine with, exploring the magic.

At any rate, now was not the time to think about it. We had a party to attend.

I had been avoiding going downstairs for the last hour, partly because I didn’t want to get caught up in any more of the last-minute chaos. Dacer had been frantic about preparations all day, his last request having been to ask Keegan and me to find chairs and move them into the Great Dining Room, as he kept calling it.

“What’s the THEME again?” Dacer was yelling as I descended the stairs. He invented themes for all his parties, the better to plan the decor. Or so he said. This one was Light and Stars. He had offered to change it once Sip was attacked, but Charlotte told him that wouldn’t do. Lisabelle had left hellhounds outside Public to make the point that no matter what, the Hunters wouldn’t win. If we changed our plans now, if we didn’t celebrate the wedding or scaled back the party, where would that leave us? We had invited the world to a show and we would be there to put it on in style, especially the Duke.

Dacer had reluctantly agreed, and I knew Charlotte was grateful.

Light meant that Dacer had worked tirelessly with the gardener for weeks on how to simulate the sun, the party would actually take place at night. Even Charlotte thought this was incredibly sweet of him, since as a vampire he would never have chosen light as a favorite medium.

Once that was figured out, along with how to hang bulbs that looked like crystal vases suspended from the ceiling to bring the place into full brilliance, Dacer moved on to the stars, which he found easier.

As it turned out, Duckleworth, like most castles, had a grand ballroom, and it was in this room that Dacer planned to have the celebration. He had the place spotlessly cleaned, then spent the better part of two days crawling around on his hands and knees with a powerful microscope to make sure it was spotless.

No, that’s not a joke.

The floor was sprinkled with colorful stones and rocks and petals; vases that had been decorated with stars and filled with flowers lined the stairs. The only light came from the chandeliers and what looked like millions of candles that lined the walls. The wax was silver, and the light the candles gave off was soothing and dim. I had never seen anything like it. When Dacer said he knew how to throw a party, he wasn’t kidding.