Elemental Shining (Paranormal Public Series) (37 page)

“Charlotte?” a female voice asked me. The voice wasn’t warm. It was shaking and scared and very familiar.

“Vanni? What are you doing in my dream?”

“You aren’t dreaming,” she sobbed. “You have to open your eyes.”

“But it’s cold in the woods,” I murmured. “And it’s warm here.”

“It’s warm everywhere now,” said Vanni. She took my hand in hers and the sunlight intensified. “Believe me.”

Vanni was the sunlight, or rather the sunlight was Vanni’s magic. She had been forced to save me, but from what I didn’t know. I opened my eyes and gasped. Lough’s dream, that had floated around us like a protective shell, was now blazing with gold.

Next to me, Lough still slept, while Vanni continued to hold onto my hand.

“Wake him up!” I cried, scrambling into a sitting position.

“I can’t!” Vanni said, patting my hand pathetically. “I’m not strong enough to do both of you and Dobrov said I had to help you.”

“Where is Dobrov?” I asked, looking around. I didn’t see either him or Ulrik in the light cast by Vanni’s magic running through Lough’s.

“They went outside the shell,” she said. “They heard yelling and went to see what was happening. They wanted to find the source of whatever put you and Lough to sleep.”

I went cold. “But if they leave we can’t enact the Power of Five!”

“It’s okay,” said Vanni. “I’m sure they’ll be right back.”

“Not if they’re dead,” I said frantically. “Vanni, you have to wake him up.” I pointed to Lough, who was slumped over on his side. He had curled his hands under his head and appeared to be sleeping soundly.

“I CAN’T,” she cried, pushing away from me and getting to her feet. “I’m not strong enough.”

“I’ll give you some of my power,” I said. “I did it with Lisabelle last semester.” I reached for her pale hands, but she shrank away from me like I was diseased. “No, that’s not how magic works. You and Lisabelle shouldn’t have been able to do that. It’s deranged.”

I glared at the Starter, trying to have sympathy for how scared she must be, but I was all too aware of what was going on around me.

“Just let me try,” I said, holding out my hands and pleading. She stared at my hands as long seconds ticked past. I wanted to grab her and shake her and make her understand that this was our lives, definitely Lough’s life, but I didn’t. She had to come to that realization herself or the transfer of power would never work.

“Okay,” she said at last, swiping at a tear that was trickling down her cheek. “I’ll try.”

Without giving her a chance to change her mind, I scooted forward and clasped her clammy hands in mine. The metal of our rings shone as I held on tightly, and I was comforted merely by seeing the rainbow of colors flaring in mine.

Vanni closed her eyes. “What do I do?” she asked.

“Nothing,” I said. “I’ll do it.”

I tried to remember what I had done with Lisabelle last semester. She had needed power and I had taken her hand and given it to her. At least, that’s what I had thought I had done. Dacer had said he wanted to talk about it at some point, but we had not gotten around to it yet.

This time, no matter how hard I tried, by either just relaxing back and trying to let the magic flow or by ordering it to travel into Vanni, it wouldn’t work. No magic moved between us. Finally, after several attempts, I gave up. Opening my eyes I stared at Vanni. She was sweating, and if anything she looked more upset than before.

“I told you,” she said. “The idea of magical transference is insane.”

“It wasn’t when Lough’s life was in danger and Lisabelle was there,” I said, flinching the second it was out of my mouth and I saw pain flash through the young fallen angel’s eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply that you weren’t a good fallen angel.”

Vanni shrugged. “I’m not worried. I know Lisabelle is an exceptional mage. Everyone says so.”

I nodded in agreement. She was, and at this moment I wished she were here. Even if she couldn’t heal, I had come to rely on the crackle of power that her presence always brought with it. Having a freaked out Starter was just not the same.

“Now what?” Vanni asked quietly.

“How is Lough keeping his dream going if he’s really asleep?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” said Vanni, looking at the ground.

I frowned. I was missing something here. Surely I should be able to awaken Lough; he wasn’t injured and he didn’t need to be healed. Whatever had put him to sleep hadn’t harmed him. Yet.

I started to push myself to my feet and felt my hands creak and start to ache. They felt stiff and brittle, as if I had been clutching something too tightly for too long. If I had thought I was in pain before, when I had dampened my magic, it was nothing to the throbbing that now coursed through my body.

“What are you going to do?” Vanni asked in a shaky voice.

“I’m going to wake him up,” I said grimly. For some reason, what Dobrov had just said flashed through my mind. “You’re strong. That’s why the demons are afraid of you and want you dead. You’re strong.”

I had never thought of myself as strong. Or brave. But I wanted to be. And maybe that was all that mattered.

Gritting my teeth, I did exactly what I had done last semester, I shoved my hands into the shell around us. Unlike when I gave my power to the force field around Public, this time I was trying to connect with Lough’s magic, asking him to wake up, to show him the way back to us from whatever dark place he had gone to.

“No, don’t, you might break the spell,” Vanni yelled when she realized what I was going to do.

“Vanni,” I spun around, losing patience. “Do you not see what’s around us? We are screwed. We can’t enact the Power of Five and this place is lit up like high noon. The demons, if they’re going to come, are going to come soon. I’m surprised they aren’t here already! And here I am with a crying Starter who doesn’t yet know what she’s doing. Our only chance is to WAKE LOUGH UP! Besides, he’d be really mad if he missed a good fight.”

Vanni was so taken aback that she closed her mouth and sank down to sit on her heels, watching me. “Do what you have to do,” she murmured.

I nodded curtly and turned back to Lough’s dream. Reaching out, I carefully touched the dark patterns with my fingertips.

Without warning, Keller’s face appeared before my eyes. Remembering him caused an ache in the pit of my stomach and made me even more determined to make it through tonight, not just because of Ricky but because of Keller, too.

A conversation we had had the night before flashed in my mind. I had been worried that I wouldn’t come out of this night in the woods alive, and he had pulled me close and said something I was sure I would never forget:

“You remember how you said you don’t know what you would do without me?” he asked quietly. I tried to smile through the tears, but it was hard.

“Yes,” I murmured.

“Well,” he said, “I feel the same way about you. It doesn’t matter if we’ve hung out all day and then you leave to hang out with your two crazy friends, or if we’ve been busy and haven’t had a chance to hang out until evening. It doesn’t matter. The second I see you I smile. I relax. I’m better knowing you’re with me. Simple as that. When I do something good it’s because I want to impress you and I want you to be proud to be with me. When I do something stupid I think about how you—and Lisabelle and Sip—would tell me how stupid it is and to stop it. It’s always you.

“My aunt wants me to break up with you, because of the family’s position and honor. She thinks my choosing to be with you shames the name of Erikson in the house of the Silver Angels. What she doesn’t understand is that it’s not a choice. I’m not ashamed of you in the first place, but it’s more than that. If I weren’t with you I wouldn’t be as good as I am, and that too would shame the family. We all need our support systems, our motivation for getting up every day and trying our best. You are mine. Always.”

“Wake up, Lough,” I murmured, coming back to the present and feeling his dream sink into my skin. Lough had decided we were on a sunny beach, basking in the glow of the sun and away from the winter cold, next to water so clear I could count the pebbles in the ocean, which sparkled in the bright light of day. I was reminded of Vanni’s magic and how warm it was. Lough had masked us with a beautiful dream, but unfortunately that’s all it was. Reality is always harder than imagination. Luckily, no one says we have to pay rent to one and not the other.

“Wake up, Lough,” I commanded again, this time putting my elemental force behind the order. Raging fire, rolling earth, raining water, and roaring wind.

“Wake up, Lough. Wake up, Lough. Wake up, Lough.” I could feel his dream shake and hold. “Wake up, Lough. Wake up.” I had to collapse the dream. We had gone to sleep when he wove it. “Wake up.”

“Charlotte?” I heard his voice behind me and pulled my hand away. Now all I saw was Vanni’s healing power woven around us. Lough’s dream was gone.

“I failed,” said Lough miserably, sitting up and rubbing his head. His voice was thick and slow, like he had not used it in a long time.

“No,” I said, going to him. “The demons were simply ready for you. We are only students, after all, and they were prepared. Don’t feel bad.”

Lough didn’t have a chance to respond, because at that moment I felt the rushing of stench-filled air on my face and heard the thick crashing of branches through the woods as someone, or several someones, ran toward us.

At first I couldn’t see anything, but Vanni’s healing spell, which had only been there to help Lough’s dream, was dissolving quickly. I yelled at her to keep it up, even if it would only hide us a little bit, but she was so petrified she wasn’t even moving, let alone performing magic. Her ring, shining a moment before, started to dim.

Without a barrier between us it was easy to see Ulrik and Dobrov running for their lives. Ulrik was graceful, most pixies were, and he almost flew through the air toward us as if he had been born to it. Dobrov was a different story. He clearly did not run much, and now he hurried forward clumsily. Amazingly, though, he wasn’t slow. In fact, he was ahead of the pixie.

“Get your back to the rock,” Lough ordered, suddenly taking charge. Lough was surprisingly good in a crisis; his calm and kind exterior belied a will of steel.

I did as he ordered, knowing it would make almost no difference. Chasing behind the two boys was a sea of black.

The demons had found us.

“Well, that’s bad,” said Lough, his eyes bulging. Demons were everywhere, coming in one massive wave behind my teammates. We didn’t stand a chance.

“We have to enact The Power,” Dobrov yelled. “We have to do it now.”

We had one chance.

Lough stepped forward to hold off the demons until Dobrov and Ulrik could reach us. I grabbed Vanni and dragged her to the rock with me.

I concentrated on my ring, trying to create a shield of earth and water. Fire was out; the demons loved fire too well and would just ram through it. But earth and water dampened fire and would buy us a few extra seconds.

“Quick, enact The Power,” Lough cried, pushing back at the demons with nothing more than air and a dream. He was stepping backward, not looking where he was going as he fought to get his back against the rock.

The demons fanned out so that they were coming at us not just from one direction, but from four, three sides and above.

From somewhere nearby I heard a howling and saw hundreds of pairs of eyes burning in the darkness. Hellhounds had joined their Knight brethren to attack us.