Elemental Air (Paranormal Public Series) (15 page)

My cheeks flamed. I was so angry
I was speechless, so I merely nodded.

“Good,” said Oliva, giving us
each a sharp glance before striding back outside.

“Bookstore?” Sip asked, nodding
her head in the direction of the store’s entrance. We had never been in there,
because until the rules had been changed for the coming semester, our
professors had always just handed out our books when we got to the first class,
much to Sip’s dismay. Now all the students were in charge of getting their own
reading materials.

Camilla and Kia were already
gone. I could hear them whispering nasty things about us as they followed Oliva
out. Lisabelle and I both nodded at Sip. “Bookstore.”

“Have you ever been in there
before?” I asked skeptically, eyeing the blackened windows. Most bookstores
displayed books in the windows, but this one did not. This one didn’t even want
you to see what was inside.

“Um, no,” said Lisabelle. “Nerd?”
She looked questioningly at Sip.

“I have a name,” said Sip
indignantly, “and no.” None of us appeared to want to make the first move
toward the door. Finally, realizing we looked silly and kind of pathetic, I
stepped forward.

It turned out that the windows
were black for a reason. The second my hand touched the doorknob, a stack of
books came flying out of what appeared to be a solid door, landing with a thud
and a whoosh of dust on the floor at my feet. I stared at the door in shock.
Not daring to look at the books in front of the door, I used my foot to push
them to the side. They were the books I needed for this semester.

“Awesome,” Sip breathed. “Let me
try.” She stepped forward, and another whirl of flying books fell at her feet.

Once the process had been
repeated for Lisabelle, and all three of us were weighted down with our
semester’s worth of reading, we headed home for the night.

I didn’t think it was a good idea
for my friends to come back with me to Astra. We were getting close to curfew
time, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to find out what would happen if we stayed out
past it. But they were determined to meet this Martha character, and they would
not be denied.

Astra was lit up, and I could see
new flowers in pots outside the doors. I sighed, hoping against hope that
Martha and I would just have had a getting-acquainted glitch, after which we
would settle down and get along fine all semester. If not, it was going to be a
long time until Christmas.

“I can’t believe Oliva is the new
president,” Sip said for the tenth time as we came up the path. She shook her
head, running her fingers through her spiky blond hair.

“I’m glad it’s someone we know,”
said Lisabelle, shrugging. “I was tired of all those paranormals I had never
heard of.”

“I still want Risper to be
president,” I said with reverence. “That would be cool. There wouldn’t be any
stupid punishments of painting buildings for defending our honor.”

“Yeah,” said Lisabelle dreamily.
“He would whip us all into shape.” She grinned at the thought as I opened the
door to Astra, but I didn’t even have a chance to get a word in edgewise as my
friends followed me inside. Martha was waiting for us in the hall, in the same
pink outfit she had been wearing when I left. I skidded to a halt so fast my
friends almost ran into my back.

She gave my friends a quick
curtsy.

“No,” she said, shaking her head
emphatically.

“No?” I asked, not sure what she
was talking about. She nodded in Sip and Lisabelle’s direction. “No.” She
pointed an imperious finger at the door, “Out.”

“They’re my friends,” I
protested. “It’s not even curfew yet.”

“It will be soon,” said Martha.
“This is your first night back at Public. I cannot have you anything less than
well-rested for tomorrow. It would speak badly of me.”

“We could find other ways to
speak badly of you . . .” Lisabelle offered.

Martha gave Lisabelle a brilliant
smile. I had already come to fear that smile. Kindness kills worse than anger,
at least when it comes to bakers.

“I have heard of your poor
behavior,” said Martha, still in a sugary voice. “Let me just say now that I
will not tolerate it here in Astra. I will also not have you influencing my charges
poorly.”

“Is she talking about you?” Sip
whispered to me, frowning.

“I think so,” I said, staring at
Martha as if she had two heads. “Mrs. Swan never cared who I had over,” I
explained patiently to her.

Suddenly, Martha’s nose crinkled
as if she smelled something rotten. She stared hard at Lisabelle until even the
darkness mage shifted a little uncomfortably. She was accustomed to those who
disapproved of her behavior and some who disapproved of her appearance, but
rarely did someone think she smelled.

Sip gave Lisabelle a look that
clearly asked: did you shower today? Judging by Lisabelle’s bewilderment, the
answer was yes.

“Do you have a cat?” Martha asked
menacingly.

Instantly Lisabelle’s armor went
back up and her shoulders went razor straight. “Yes,” she said proudly.
“Bartholem is with us indefinitely.” I saw Sip perk up a bit at the use of the
word “us.”

“I hate cats,” said Martha, her
brown eyes snapping. I wasn’t sure if she was going to yell or be sick.

“You better go,” I said to
Lisabelle. “We can figure it out tomorrow.”

“What on earth do you think
you’ll be figuring out?” Martha asked. “Leave.”

And with that my friends were
gone. I didn’t say a word to Martha. I was so furious I didn’t even look at
her. I just brushed past her and headed for my room. Unfortunately, Martha felt
the need to discuss our interaction further, so she followed me.

“You cannot bring friends here in
the evening,” she said shrilly. “Honestly, I don’t -”

I spun around on my heel, taking
Martha by surprise. She rocked backward, then steadied herself, looking at me
almost curiously.

“You said we will discuss ‘rules’
tomorrow,” I nearly spat out. “Let’s wait until then.”

Martha’s jaw clenched, but
somehow she forced a smile. It looked more like someone had taken clamps and
pulled her lips apart. It was the first time her veneer of friendliness had
cracked.

“Fine,” she said. “If that’s what
you want.”

“It’s exactly what I want,” I
said icily, then slammed my way into my room. It was a good thing Keller was
busy tonight, I thought. I would have just loved to see would happen if he
tried to stay over. But actually, thinking of that made me cringe. There was no
way Martha was going to let him stay. She probably envisioned us doing all
sorts of horrible things that would have been none of her business even if we
did them.

Sighing, I climbed into bed. I
had meant to read the paranormal news, but after the day’s travel and one
confrontation after another, I didn’t have the energy. Instead, I fell into a
sleep without dreams. At least I was back at Public. Aside from when I was with
Ricky, it was where I always felt best.

The next morning I couldn’t bring
myself to go downstairs. Instead I glared around my bedroom, trying to think of
a way out that didn’t involve seeing Martha. For half a second I thought of
Contacting Lisabelle and asking her to fly up to the window, but she wasn’t
allowed to use her broom on campus unless she got permission, and the “my
friend hates her dorm mother because she’s crazy” excuse probably wouldn’t fly
well with Oliva at that point.

Seriously, what was the point of
being the only elemental if I didn’t know Astra’s secrets? Fine, I was learning
them slowly - meeting Sigil had been an important one - but my bedroom needed a
secret passage, and no matter how hard I searched or how much furniture I moved
I couldn’t find one.

While I tried to think of a way
out I got dressed. For my first day I wore a black cotton skirt and a red
t-shirt, honoring the elements of fire.

I was just about to give up hope
and go downstairs, risking seeing Martha, when there was a soft tap at my
window. I raced over and threw back the curtains. There, waiting outside, was
Keller. He was grinning widely, his powerful dark wings easily keeping him in
the air. He wore a blue shirt and jeans. As usual, he looked perfect. My heart
fluttered as I held up a finger, telling him I just had to grab my bag. Once I
was ready to go I raced back to the window, flinging it wide.

Keller reached out, taking me in
his arms. One went below my knees while the other went around my back. Mine
went around his neck as I grinned.

“How did you know?” I asked over
the noise of his flapping wings. Keller had never taken me flying before; he
said he wanted to keep it for a special occasion. But over the last few years I
had stood close to fallen angels whose wings were in motion and I had been
surprised by the noise. Now that I was in his arms, in the air, it was almost
hard to hear his reply. He pitched his voice accordingly and said, “I got an
SOS from Lisabelle this morning. She explained that you had been assigned a
less than pleasant dorm mother.”

I nodded, not bothering to try
and speak loud enough for him to hear me. I was sure he would get the gist from
my look, which said, “You have no idea.”

He didn’t fly us straight to the
ground. Instead he stayed airborne until we were slightly away from Astra, so
that Martha wouldn’t see us.

Gently, he set me down. As he
released me carefully and my feel touched solid ground, I thought that there would
never be anything so graceful as a fallen angel in motion. “You okay?” he
asked, putting his hands gently on my waist to steady me.

“Better than okay,” I said,
kissing him warmly. We stayed like that for a while, until I pulled away
laughing. “We really should get to breakfast, and Lisabelle probably wants
confirmation that mission was accomplished.”

“Whatever,” Keller muttered, and
pulled me to him once again.

“Confirmation would be nice,”
said Lisabelle, striding toward us a few moments later. Sip was with her,
looking for all the world as if she was excited for classes and homework to
start.

“How’s Bartholem?” Keller asked
her.

“Settling in nicely,” Lisabelle
said. “He comes and goes as he pleases. I have no idea how, but I often find
him in the Airlee sitting room getting petted by whoever happens to be there.”

The four of us headed to
breakfast together. I was curious to see what Keller had to say about Oliva
becoming president, but as usual he had nothing but kind words for the former
committee member.

“I think he’ll do a good job,” he
said as we walked along the paths toward the new dining hall. The grass was
perfectly cut and very green, as it always was when we returned. This year,
with such a warm summer, there was still no hint of fall in the air, and when I
turned my face I felt nothing but a warm breeze on my cheeks.

“He’s young, which means he’ll
have more in common with the younger generation. He’s also a pixie, which
should silence a lot of critics,” insisted Keller in the face of our skeptical
looks.

“Because the pixies have felt
marginalized and like they’re being treated as the enemy?” I asked. Dacer had
talked a lot about the problems with the pixies all summer. It was no longer
just a deterioration of relations between paranormals, he had said, it was an
all out cold war. The pixies were barely speaking to the other types, but with
Oliva as president, all of that could be improved. At least that was Dacer’s
hope.

“I guess you’re right,” I said.
“Do you think he was strategically picked to improve relations?”

Keller nodded. “It’s smart. The
pixies can’t possibly be angry when their white knight was chosen over all the
others, and since Oliva is on good terms with almost every pixie, his
appointment will open up lines of communication. At the same time, pixies will
be reluctant to put him in a bad position by openly siding with the Nocturns or
coming after you.”

The shock must have shown on my
face, because Keller chuckled. “Yes, I think you were a consideration in all of
this.”

“What do you think of Oliva’s
warning about Public?” Sip asked Keller. The fallen angel was well-respected on
campus and among my friends, and I was glad that my two best friends got along
with my boyfriend, especially Lisabelle, who was famously prickly. I would have
had a hard time juggling my friends and Keller if they didn’t like each other.

“I think it’s smart,” said
Keller. “My aunt was talking about that over the summer. She said that Public
had its own old magic, obviously the centuries of the Power of Five, but we’ve
seen it with the Houses. Astra, like all the houses, can rise up to its own
defense if necessary. Have you ever tried torching Airlee? You wouldn’t get
very far, and you might get flung out a window by a stray breeze.”

“Awesome,” said Lisabelle. “The next
time I need to practice my defensive spells I’ll try that.”

“Just use someone else’s room,”
said Sip. “I like our window in one piece.”