Elemental Air (Paranormal Public Series) (23 page)

Sip ignored Lisabelle.

“How’s it going?” Lough asked as
he took a big bite of scrambled eggs.

“Frustrating,” said Sip, sitting
down heavily. “We wanted a special shipment of honey-covered beeswax for the
dessert, but of course they’re being difficult about it. How hard is it to get
two tons of beeswax by December, really?”

“Yes, I hate it when I can’t get
my honey-covered beeswax on time,” said Lisabelle.

“What are the odds that after
today planning is going to come to a halt because of the demons?” asked Lough.

“They’re blaming the Sign of Six
for everything,” said Sip, as if she knew all about it. “It’s totally
ridiculous. They think that a couple of the professors are behind all of it,
and I’m worried that Dacer’s going to get in trouble.” She glanced at me as my
chest tightened. They couldn’t sack Dacer for something he obviously had
nothing to do with.

I swallowed a lump in my throat.
“I’m sure it’s not Dacer.”

Sip shrugged. “I’m just telling
you what I’ve heard.”

“Have you ever heard of the Sign
of Six?” Lough asked.

“News to me,” I muttered.

“Excuse me, can I have your
attention, please?” It was Oliva, standing up at the lectern and ready to address
the room. I took a deep breath. This was the moment of truth, and judging by
Oliva’s stern face it wasn’t going to be good news.

Silence fell. We weren’t the only
students to realize that something bad was coming.

“As many of you know,” said
Oliva, smoothing his hands over the shiny lapels of his coat, “we are planning
a gala at the end of the semester.” He glanced around the room to make sure we
were all listening, then continued. “What is happening this semester is simply
unacceptable. We are trying to have a more productive semester than we’ve been
able to have recently, ever since our former president decided to shirk her
responsibilities to the paranormals and join the darkness.”

It surprised me that Oliva was
saying out loud that my entire college experience hadn’t gone according to
plan. I had learned a lot about elemental powers since I arrived as a Starter,
even if I was just an ordinary elemental. Sip and Lisabelle were progressing
nicely with their abilities. Sip had kind of let her practice become secondary
to planning the gala this semester, but once that was over I was sure she’d be
back to becoming the best possible werewolf.

“As I’m sure many of you have
heard by now through gossip, at the sites of the various demon attacks that have
taken place around campus there has been a marking by a group calling itself
the Sign of Six. We do not know who the members of this group are, and I must
tell you that I do not care. What I do know is that this Sign of Six must be
caught and punished for their actions and for putting our students at risk. The
demons cannot keep attacking our campus. Public is old and powerful, but even
Public has its limits. I will have peace,” Oliva said, pounding on the lectern.
I had never seen the quiet pixie so animated and angry.

“Maybe the job of president at
Public just makes paranormals crazy,” Lisabelle whispered to me.

“Shhh,” Sip glared.

“Until such time as the
perpetrators of the demon attacks are caught, every paranormal is restricted to
his or her dorm,” said Oliva, as the room burst into angry protests.

“Silence,” Oliva insisted,
pounding his hand once. When the students ignored him, still yelling arguments,
Zervos stood up. He was also ignored.

Dacer wasn’t. Sometimes I forgot
that my mentor was almost universally beloved.

He stood up and almost all the
students quieted, while Oliva gave the vampire a sharp look. I suddenly
realized what my friends meant when they said that Dacer was on thin ice. The
students listened to the museum curator and they respected him, in a way they
had clearly never respected Oliva or Zervos. And that was turning into a
problem.

Dacer raised his manicured hands,
asking for silence. No student spoke. Even the pixies were silent.

“This is a necessary step,” said
Dacer. His voice was soft, but it carried to every student in the room. “We
cannot have another attack like the one we had last night. The next time we
won’t be so lucky as to have the demons attack a fallen angel who can heal
herself.”

“What about students’ rights?”
someone called out, I think from the vampire table. “It’s not our fault, yet
we’re all being punished.”

Oliva jumped back in, saying in
an urgent voice, “Then help us catch these criminals. These vagabonds should be
brought to justice, and the sooner the better. If any of you knows anything
about the Sign of Six, please come forward. They are bold and brazen, marking
their crimes.” Again Oliva glanced at Dacer, but it wasn’t in apology for
interrupting him. Instead it looked more like an accusatory look.

I sighed. This was going to get
worse before it got better, much worse if I was any judge of paranormal
politics. All the students got up at once and headed off to classes, but the
room was filled with grumbling as we went.

“At least now we don’t have to
worry about where to study, since the library isn’t open,” said Lisabelle. Sip
sniffed and turned away. Lisabelle threw up her hands in exasperation.

“Was that an attempt to be
positive?” Keller said, laughing.

Lisabelle shrugged. “Sure,
stranger things have happened.”

“Like the Sign of Six on campus,”
said Lough. “Very strange indeed.” Sip quickly packed up all her books and
scurried away.

Later that night we were all
waiting in Lisabelle’s room for Sip to come back from a gala meeting. Keller
and Lough were there. Trafton had been there, but he’d gone off to play a game
of Dash with whoever wanted to join. We hadn’t seen much of Rake recently,
because he was busy studying, and now outside of class we might not see him
again until the semester ended. Since I lived alone in Astra, I refused to
follow Oliva’s restrictions. I was lucky my friends also enjoyed flouting
authority.

“Sip is spending all her free
time on that gala,” Lough commented. “What about her studies?”

“Zervos doesn’t seem to care this
semester,” said Lisabelle. “Or rather, he cares even less than usual. I’m
surprised he’s coming to Oliva’s defense as much as he is.”

“Zervos is power-hungry,” said
Keller. “Oliva’s the one with power.”

“This week,” I muttered. “If
today’s any proof Oliva, isn’t the one with power anyway.”

“I had no idea Dacer was so well
respected,” said Lough with wonder as he sat on the floor and had an evening
snack of basil, barley, and pepper popcorn.

“Of course he is,” I said. “He’s
wonderful.”

“But doesn’t that mean the other
professors will have it in for him? I mean, with the demons getting onto campus
whenever they want, what happens if they really start to suspect Dacer?” Lough
said as he took another handful of food. “He’d get into a lot of trouble.”

“But we know he has nothing to do
with the Sign of Six,” I protested. “We don’t even know if the Sign of Six are
the ones letting the demons onto campus. The Sign is probably just one
professor, or Nolan, or someone like that, and no one else. Just because the
mark is at a couple of scenes of attacks doesn’t mean it was made by whoever
carried out the attacks.”

“Nolan, huh?” Keller teased, his
eyes meeting mine. I blushed a little. I hadn’t told Keller about my little
chat with Nolan and Nolan’s insistence that he had come to Public to see me.

“You think Nolan is behind the
Sign of Six?” Lough asked thoughtfully. “He might be. He knows a lot about
markings, obviously.”

“Are you stereotyping because he
has a tattoo?” Lisabelle asked. “You think that makes someone a member of the
Sign of Six?”

“He has lots of tattoos, not just
one for his wand,” said Lough. “I think he might be part of the Sign of Six
because it started after he got here and he keeps to himself. He lives in this
dorm and we never see him. What does he do with his time?”

“Runs around under the cover of
darkness and draws scary pictures, obviously,” Lisabelle drawled.

Lough rolled his eyes. He was
more used to Lisabelle by now and didn’t go to pieces every time she talked to
him, but he wasn’t a big fan of arguing. “I have a point,” he said. “If it
isn’t Dacer it has to be someone. I would rather it be someone who isn’t a real
student here.”

“I would rather it be a pixie or
a vampire than a paranormal in Airlee,” I said.

“That’s true,” Lough agreed. “I
hate it when the sterling reputation of our dorm is tarnished.”

The door burst open and Sip came
in. She was positively glowing.

“We got three dragons,” she cried
happily, looking around at all of us with shining eyes. “Three. It’s going to
be grand.” She flopped onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling. “This is
going to be the best party ever. All the important paranormals are coming. I
can’t wait.”

“We’re all just as excited as you
are,” Keller assured her, squeezing my hand and giving me a wink. Sip raised
her head off the bed, smiled, and dropped it back down. “I can’t wait,” she
murmured again.

“I have no doubt,” said
Lisabelle, “that it’s going to be a night to remember. Whatever that means.”

Class with Korba the next morning
was very subdued. None of the students were happy about being forced to stay in
their dorms. On the other hand, I had never seen Martha so elated. I had gone
home the night before and she had the entire kitchen covered in baked goods.

“Is there any flour left on
campus?” I asked dryly as I came into the room. The woman did know how to bake.
I had never smelled so many sweet smells before as when I inhaled deeply in
Martha’s kitchen.

“I hear you’ve been confined to
the dorm,” said Sigil, floating in.

“Sigil,” I cried happily. “Nice
to see you.”

“I thought I should leave the
library every so often,” he said bashfully. “Gosh, I wish I could eat those.”
He looked longingly as a pile of strawberry tarts.”

“If only you weren’t dead,” said
Martha unsympathetically. “And they’re not for you.”

“Who are they for?” Sigil and I
asked at the same time.

“My charge, of course,” she said,
smiling at me.

“Uh huh,” I said. “Is there such
a thing as sugar poisoning?” There were at least two hundred cookies and cakes
in the kitchen. How could she possibly expect me to eat more than a fraction of
them?

“I can freeze some for later,
dear, and you can take some to your friends,” Martha said, smiling at me. She
had a long streak of flour on her right cheek, but she didn’t appear to care.

“Um, thanks,” I said, wondering
at the change that had come over my dorm mother.

“I think I’ll just grab a sugar
cookie for now and go to bed,” I said. For emphasis I reached out, grabbed a
cookie, and quickly headed for my room off the kitchen. “Goodnight,” I said as
I went. Sigil waved at me and quickly disappeared back upstairs. He didn’t like
to be alone with Martha, and I didn’t blame him.

Long after I was trying to sleep,
I could still hear Martha moving around, and the oven door opening and shutting.

“Ms. Rollins?” Professor Korba
was standing over me, his bushy eyebrows raised.

After I fell asleep in Korba’s
class the next day, I decided it would be best if Martha didn’t bake late into
the evening. I just wondered if she would listen to me if I asked her not to.
She seemed more concerned with Public’s wellbeing than with mine.

One thing I had managed to keep
from her was the mask Dacer had given me at the end of the summer. I had left
it with Keller, feeling that my boyfriend would have more privacy than I did.
Now I decided that I wanted it with me in Astra, and when I asked Keller for it
he returned it without comment. I solved the problem of how to have it in
Astra, but not where Martha could get her hands on it, by leaving it with Sigil
for the time being.

“I figure if I can trust you with
the Mirror Arcane I can trust you with this,” I explained, handing it over to
the resident ghost, who oohed and aahed appropriately.

“This is a work of genius and
beautiful craftsmanship,” he said, his voice soft and filled with respect.
“Professor Dacer gave this to you?”

When Dacer had given me the mask,
I had in fact had a moment of unease, not knowing where he had gotten it. But I
knew he would never give me anything that had been stolen, so I let the unease
drift away. If it had been Risper, on the other hand. . . .

“Professor Dacer gave it to me,”
I confirmed. “I don’t know where he got it.”

“It’s very old,” said Sigil. “See
the sequins outlining the eyes? That was a paranormal trick that was popular in
the eighteenth century.”