Elemental Air (Paranormal Public Series) (25 page)

“What could President Caid
possibly want with you? And besides,” she said, waving a hand, “President Caid
will not be president forever.”

I disliked change, and I
especially disliked this conversation. Luckily, Professor Erikson seemed to be
done with it as well.

“I hope you will think about some
of what I have said,” she said as we looped back to the Long Building. “I would
hate for you to be caught off guard, with your friends having plans while you
do not.”

I stared at her again, my jaw
hanging slack.

“Right, well, thanks,” I said.
“You’ve given me a lot to think about.”

Professor Erikson patted my
cheek, the first time I could remember her touching me. Her hands were soft,
but I felt her strength even in that small contact. “You’re a good girl,” she
said to me. “Don’t waste it.”

“I’ll try not to,” I said, and
raced off.

I didn’t get a chance to talk to
my friends for the rest of that day or the next. Sip was busy putting the
finishing touches on the gala, while Lisabelle was tutoring other students in
preparation for the end of the semester. Because they weren’t available to hang
out with, I had to spend more time than I wanted (meaning more than none) in
Astra. Luckily, Martha seemed pre-occupied as well. Sip had asked her to
prepare some of the desserts for the gala since she liked to bake so much, and
Martha had thrown herself into the task with gusto.

Excitement was in the air.
Usually by the end of the semester students were beaten down and tired,
preparing for exams, while Christmas break seemed far away. But this time it
was different. Students talked of nothing but the gala. Rumors flew that the
faeries would be attending and that Sip had gotten dragons to agree to come.

“No way she got dragons,” said
one vampire.

“Sure she did,” said JJ, the
Starter werewolf who had known Sip for years. “If anyone could, it’s Sip,” he
finished confidently.

I had to agree with JJ. If any
paranormal could get dragons for Oliva’s gala, it was Sip.

“Hey,” said a voice from behind
me as I trudged back to Astra after a particularly unpleasant class with Zervos
(really, was there ever any other kind?). The voice was Sip’s, greeting me as
if after a long absence.

“I thought you had some gala
meeting,” I said, raising my eyebrows. Sip shrugged.

“Yeah, but I forgot I wanted to
talk to you about something. It’s okay if I’m a little late for the meeting.”

“What’s up?” I said, stopping. I
didn’t want to get any closer to Astra than I had to, and Sip had to go in the
opposite direction anyhow.

“I wanted to talk to you about
Lisabelle,” she explained, twisting her hands in front of her.

“Are you finally going to talk to
her again?” I said. It had been weeks, and Lisabelle still acted like she had
no idea what Sip’s problem was.

“Oh, I don’t know that I’d do
anything that drastic,” Sip scoffed. Then her shoulders slumped. “I miss her.”

“She misses you too,” I said.
“Can’t you tell?”

“Have you ever tried to read a
rock? Not exactly a clear dialogue,” said Sip dryly.

“What are you mad about, anyway,
when it comes right down to it?”

Sip sighed and looked off at the
forest. Public had beautiful grounds that were kept perfectly by it’s
employees.

“I’m mad that she wants to leave
me behind,” she said after a long pause. “She doesn’t care about me like I care
about her. She said she might go study in Europe!”

I too paused before I said
anything. I hadn’t expected this to be what Sip was upset about, especially
because I thought the werewolf could not have been more wrong.

“You don’t think Lisabelle cares
about you?” I said finally. “Really?”

“She wants to leave and do
everything on her own,” Sip wailed in despair. “She just can’t do that. She
doesn’t take good care of herself, like, she NEVER eats vegetables unless I
make her. It’s just wrong.”

“I’m not sure she’d buy the
argument that she should take you into danger because she doesn’t eat broccoli
on her own.”

Sip gave me a dark look. “Thanks.
DUH. I just mean I can help. I know stuff. I’m a good werewolf.”

“You’re the best werewolf here,”
I said and I meant it. All the professors were impressed by Sip. She wouldn’t
have been in charge of the gala preparations if they hadn’t been. “If you
wanted to go to Europe you could.”

“I’m glad they’re happy with me,”
said Sip, as if she knew what I was thinking. “Why isn’t Lisabelle?”

“I don’t think she’s going
anywhere without you,” I said.

“But she said she was.” Sip threw
up her hands as she said it.

“I don’t think she meant it,” I
soothed. “You know how Lisabelle is.” I glanced over my shoulder, just to make
sure the darkness mage wasn’t nearby. “She’s a lot of talk.”

Sip grinned ruefully. “Yeah, that
might be true.”

“What do you mean by ‘when she
goes off,’ anyway?” I said. “When did she say that?”

“She talks about joining Risper
when we graduate and hunting down the Wheel objects,” said Sip. “Risper doesn’t
believe that Malle has ANY of them, which means we still have a lot of work to
do.”

I chewed that over. If Malle
didn’t have any of them, and I knew where the Mirror Arcane and the Fang First
were, then still, what of the others?

“And you want to go with her?” I
asked, my heart sinking. My friends did have plans for after graduation and
they didn’t include me.

“I mean, of course,” said Sip.
“What else would I do?”

I nearly laughed. “Sip, you’re
the best werewolf here. I imagine you could do pretty much whatever you wanted.
I’m sure Lisabelle would understand.”

Sip shook her head. “It just
wouldn’t be any fun without my friends. I don’t want a government job. I want
to fight darkness. There’s no way to do that unless you join the Paranormal
Police Academy, like Cale, and I don’t think I’d make a very good police
officer.”

“Why not?” I said. “You excel at
giving lectures.”

Sip grinned at me.

“What will you do after
graduation? Find out about your mom?”

When I had first come to Public,
I had meant to find out about my mom immediately. But a lot had happened since
then that to clue me in to the fact that my quest was going to take longer than
I wanted. I shrugged.

“Maybe,” I said. “There’s not
much I can do. Malle tells me a little something, Sigil tells me a little
something else. I just have to wait for another puzzle piece.”

“No you don’t,” said Sip firmly.
“You control what you know. Find out more. Anyway, I do have to get to that
meeting.” She smiled and gave me a big hug. “Thanks for the pep talk,” she
added. “I needed it. I’m sure Lisabelle won’t mind my going to Europe with her.
But right now I have to go. Big stuff happening tonight.”

She gave me a cheerful wave, and
with that she was gone.

I watched her nearly skip away. I
wanted to yell after her not to let Lisabelle know that I was the one who had
put that idea into Sip’s head, but having Sip mad at me was almost as daunting
as upsetting Lisabelle, so I thought better of it.

Once I reached Astra, I couldn’t let
go of what Sip had said. She had told me to find out more about my mother, and
it had reminded me that there was one thing I had wanted to try for a long
time, but I hadn’t dared.

With Martha nowhere in sight I
headed for the Mirror Arcane. It was the elementals’ object, after all. Ever
since Ricky had said that Mom had a locket, I had wanted to find it. But since
I was pretty sure my stepdad had it, looking for it was going to mean another
visit home.

As I carefully took the Mirror
Arcane out of its case, the glass blazed in my hands, nearly blinding me. I
would have to be careful walking around the grounds with it, so I went and
found some brown paper in the storage closet and awkwardly wrapped the mirror
into a package. But when I opened the front door to head out, I came to a
sudden halt.

Standing on the steps was Keller.
He had raised his hand to knock, but when he saw me he gave me a bright smile,
his deep blue eyes sparkling with pleasure at seeing me. I felt the same way.

“Hi,” he said, then he frowned.
“What are you doing? First you fly and now this? Are you turning into a crazy
bandit paranormal?” He said it lightly, but I could see concern fill his eyes.

“Crazy is probably a good way to
describe me,” I agreed. “I’m taking the Mirror to the lake.”

His eyes sparked with concern.
“Is that a good idea?” he asked quietly.

“I need to talk to Mom,” I said
stubbornly. “If she’s there.”

“What if she isn’t?” he asked
worriedly. “What if something happens to you and no one can help you because
there’s no one else here who knows about elemental magic?”

I shrugged. “That’s always a
worry with anything I do, isn’t it? If something happens, get Sigil. He’ll know
what to do, or if he doesn’t, he’ll know what book to look at to find out what
to do.”

Keller sighed, obviously unhappy.
“Fine,” he said, “but I’m coming with you.”

I beamed at him. “I expected
nothing less.”

He took the Mirror from me,
nearly dropping it.

“I didn’t realize it was so
heavy,” he said. “Unlike certain other students, I always knew better than to
touch it.”

It didn’t take us long to reach
the pond. My first semester I had been waiting to see the then-President Malle,
whose office was the brown house right next to the water, when a vision of my
mother had appeared. Ever since then, whenever I went past I thought of her and
hoped to see her again. This semester the house that President Malle had used
was unoccupied. According to Dacer, there were plenty of other rooms on campus
that Oliva could use as an office, and some of the professors and staff had
started to wonder if the place was cursed. I couldn’t blame them.

“My aunt says they’re talking
about tearing that building down,” said Keller, pointing to the house with his
free hand. I had wrapped my hand around his arm, enjoying touching him as
always.

“Your aunt wants to know what my
life plans are after graduation,” I said. I couldn’t help it. I hadn’t planned
to mention it to Keller, because I always felt bad about putting him in the
middle, but it had weighed on me since she and I had talked.

Keller glanced at me. “That’s a
good thing, isn’t it?” he said. “Had you thought about it?”

I bristled. “It’s not really her
place, is it? I mean, she’s not my mom.”

“But your mom . . .” Keller
started, then stopped, grimacing.

We had reached the edge of the
lake, and now we stopped. The air was cool, with promises of snow soon, and the
ground felt hard beneath my feet. I wasn’t looking forward to wading into that
water, but that’s what I felt I’d have to do to get any results at all. Dusk
was also rushing up to meet the day, and by the time the two of us left it
would be entirely dark. We would be breaking curfew yet again, but at least we
were together.

“No, go ahead and say it,” I said
shrilly. “My mom’s dead, so any professor who feels like it can just take over
in her place, right? No big deal.” Tears had started to fall down my cheeks and
I swiped angrily at them.

“Was she wrong?” Keller
countered. “Did she say something you needed to hear or not? Had you thought
about it? Look who you’re talking to. It’s not like my life is free either. If
anyone can understand, it’s me. You’re the only elemental. You don’t have the
luxury of choice the way a paranormal like Lisabelle does.”

“What does that mean?” I
demanded, my voice watery.

“It means you have options, but
they all carry the weight of serious responsibilities. If she wants, Lisabelle
can disappear to Europe for years and help her uncle hunt for treasure that may
or may not exist.”

I had calmed down enough to laugh
a little. I tapped the Mirror, which was still safely tucked under Keller’s
arm.

“They exist,” I said. “We will
find them all.”

“Yeah, maybe in the possession of
the demons,” said Keller. “This,” he said, holding up the Mirror, “isn’t
something we can rely on.”

He tapped my shoulder. “This,” he
said, grinning as I swatted at his hand, “is.”

I hated having this conversation
with Keller, even if it was something I needed to hear.

“I don’t want the weight of the
paranormal world to rest on my shoulders,” I said desperately. “Look,” I said,
patting my own shoulders, “they aren’t big enough.”

Keller threw back his head and
laughed. “I love how you say things,” he said, still chuckling. “Have I ever
told you that?”

I smiled a bit, glad that our
fight had passed so quickly. “Nope, but it’s good to hear.” I resolved in that
instant not to talk about his aunt anymore. Keller and I hardly ever fought
unless we were talking about Professor Erikson, and it was just pointless and
stupid.