Paranormal Public (Paranormal Public Series) (18 page)

We were just reaching the door of Airlee when something in the distance caught my eye. I turned my head quickly to look. Far away, past the field and the lake Lisabelle and Sip had taken me to look at, was the tree line. Silhouetted against the woods was a large dark figure. It was a big black dog, its red eyes burning into me.

I started to cry out, to tell Sip to look, but the next time I blinked the dog had vanished.

After that first Saturday of cleaning at Astra and watching Dash, my days took on a pattern. Weekdays were spent going to class and studying. Weekends were spent cleaning and watching Dash. The one big rule on campus was no alcohol. Paranormals who drank tended to do strange and dangerous things, and the professors forbade it even to students who were twenty-one. Between my studying and my tutoring, I didn’t have much time for fun anyway.

After I’d been at Public a week I got an e-mail from Ricky. It simply said: Dear Charlotte, thanks so much for writing. I really appreciate being kept up with everything you’re doing. It all sounds fascinating. Ricky.

After that, every Saturday or Sunday I would sit down to write him an e-mail. Hearing from him was always one of the highlights of my week.

The other issue I had was that Camilla and her pixie friends were everywhere I turned. Sometimes I would feel eyes on me, and when I’d look up Camilla would be glaring at me. Whenever her friends had the chance, they blocked my path. If I walked by, they’d stick their feet out to try and trip me. One time I was walking past Professor Zervos in the library and Kia, Camilla’s right hand crony, stuck her foot out and I went flying. I was sure Professor Zervos saw, but he just turned away.

And I could forget about hanging out with Cale. If I so much as looked in his direction every pixie around would surround him, blocking him from my view. There was no way I’d get to talk to him. When I had first seen him I had been excited that I would already know someone at Public, but as it turned out it would have been better if I hadn’t known him at all. The pixies might have disliked me even if I hadn’t known Cale for years and hung out with him the first week I was there, but they might not have hated me the way they did. Still, it was too late now.

One time Camilla spilled her juice in the dining hall and ordered me to clean it up. She said I had to because I was the Probationer. Even Cale, who was sitting with her, looked a little uncomfortable that time.

“What she’s doing isn’t right,” said Sip one night in the library.

“No, it isn’t,” Lisabelle agreed. “You should deal with her, Charlotte.”

“I still haven’t done any magic,” I pointed out. There had now been three weeks of school. All the other Starters were in the classes particular to their paranormal power. I went to the class for mages, but only because the professors didn’t know what else to do with me. I didn’t miss home, but I missed Ricky. E-mail just wasn’t the same. I had known normal college would be very different from high school, less class time, more freedom, but magic college was something else entirely.

To make matters worse, there was Keller. Every day I had a tutoring session with him. Instead of becoming a friend, like I had hoped he would, he was all about studying. He never said anything extra; he just pelted with me questions about the history of paranormals. Besides, every time I saw him on campus he was surrounded by girls. Ever since he’d done so well at Dash, everyone wanted to talk to him and hang out with him. A girl actually came up and told me I was lucky to spend time with him every day.

And I couldn’t even avoid him on the weekends. I saw him every Saturday for cleaning, because Lisabelle, Sip, and I were still fulfilling our punishment.

“Hey,” said Lisabelle to Keller as we walked up to Astra on the first Saturday in October. Even though it was sunny out, the day was chilly.

“How’s it going?” asked Keller, smiling. He was leaning against the wall of Astra Dorm, but when he saw us coming he pushed off with his shoulders and walked toward us.

“Great,” said Sip. “I passed my werewolf test yesterday. They said I was the best werewolf this year.”

“Hey, I’m the best darkness mage,” Lisabelle added.

“Aren’t you the only darkness mage?” asked Keller.

“Don’t cloud my glory with facts,” she said. To me she murmured, “He’s not dumb. The cute ones usually are.”

“Lisabelle,” Sip chided, “that’s not nice.”

“If anyone ever spreads the rumor that I’m nice, I’ll hit them,” said Lisabelle.

“That’s a great way to handle conflict,” Sip told her.

I was quiet. I was happy my friends had done well on their tests, but I couldn’t help but be upset about my own. Since I couldn’t do magic, I had failed. The result had been a chiding from the professor and a repetition of, “I just have to tell the President about this,” in front of the entire class.

“Sorry, Charlotte,” said Lisabelle, looking over at me.

“It’s fine,” I said. “You shouldn’t feel bad about doing well.”

“Oh, I don’t,” she said, grinning.

“Don’t worry about it,” said Keller. “When the time comes you’ll blow them all away.” The time had already come and gone and I hadn’t, but I didn’t say anything.

We headed into the house. There was no Dash this weekend, so we were going to spend most of the day cleaning. Keller was still assigning where people cleaned. Normally he worked with all of us, but today he sent Sip and Lisabelle to the ballroom. I breathed a sigh of relief. Part of me wanted to go back there, but another part was afraid to. I wasn’t sure if I was more afraid of the artifacts lighting up again when I touched them or of their remaining dark.

“You and I are going to the attic,” he said to me.

“What?” I asked. “Why?”

“Because it needs to be cleaned and I said so.”

“Now you’ve done it,” Lisabelle whispered to me.

“Done what?” I asked.

“Offended him,” she answered. “You should be nicer.”

“Are you seriously trying to give me lessons in good manners?” I asked.

Lisabelle beamed at me. “Just shows you how bad you’ve gotten.” And she walked off. I hated how she always knew the exact right thing to say.

I followed Keller up the stairs. I think it was only five floors, but it felt like hundreds, and after the first couple of flights I stopped counting. I was careful to watch my feet and not his back. The attic was dark and dusty and completely filled with boxes. Somewhere under the boxes I thought I saw beds, but it was hard to tell.

“What is this place?” I asked.

“Dorm for the Starters. We need to sweep the floor,” he said.

“It would help if we could see it,” I said.

In reply he handed me a broom. “Sweep what you can see.”

“Can’t we look in the boxes?”

“Definitely not,” he said. He started to move boxes around while I started to sweep. Instantly a large dust cloud came wafting up into my face and I coughed. My jeans and long-sleeved t-shirt were going to be covered in dirt by the time we were done. I had started doing laundry on Sundays, because I always had to wash my clothes from cleaning Astra on Saturday.

“Something wrong?” Keller asked.

“Nope,” I said. I would not complain to him.

“Right. I guess that scowl painted on your face is a happy one,” he said.

I glared at his back.

“You could help me more,” I said. We both knew I wasn’t talking about the sweeping. My anger had been building for the past month, and having Sip done with her Starter test was the last straw.

“How could I do more than I am?” asked Keller quietly, still moving stuff around.

“You’re amazing. You should be showing me magic.” It was out of my mouth before I could stop it.

“You think I’m amazing?” Keller asked. His voice was still neutral.

My face burned. “You know what I mean.”

“No,” said Keller. He had stopped what he was doing and crossed his arms over his chest while he looked at me. “Why don’t you explain it to me? Slowly and in detail, then I might get it.”

“Forget it,” I muttered, and turned back to my broom.

We continued to clean for the rest of the morning. I couldn’t understand why I had come out and said he was amazing. And I couldn’t understand why my eyes always flicked in his direction.

After a while I asked, “Is everyone in your family a fallen angel?” I didn’t expect him to answer. It surprised me when he did.

“Yeah,” said Keller. “When both your parents are, there’s no chance that your kids won’t be.”

“Oh,” I said. “Do you have lots of siblings?”

“Three,” he answered. “I’m the oldest.”

“What’s that like?”

“It’s great, but tough,” he said. “You’re always the first one to do things, or try to do them, and your parents have to decide how they feel about that. I’m supposed to set a good example, and I’m not always sure if I am.”

“So, are your parents hard on you?”

Keller’s interest in answering questions only went so far. “What is this,” he asked, “twenty questions?”

“Sorry.”

“You like having all the information and not giving any out.”

“That’s not true,” I protested. But even as I said it, I realized that Keller was right. I asked questions so that I could avoid getting asked questions. Normally it worked, too. Nothing I usually did worked with Keller, though. “You know more about me than most people.”

Keller didn’t respond to that.

“Can you help me lift this box?” he asked. It was long, and it looked like it might fall apart at any minute.

I dropped the broom and went to grab the other end of the box. What neither of us anticipated was that the bottom had rotted out. As we lifted it the box collapsed, sending us both sprawling on the floor in a shower of papers and journals.

I was about to fall very hard on my shoulder when something strong caught hold of me. Keller was so fast he had managed to catch himself, and me, before either of us hit the floor.

“Are you alright?” he asked. I could see that he was a little breathless, and a slight flush was creeping up his cheeks.

“I’m great,” I said. Realizing that my face was only inches away from his, I pulled away a little. My heart was beating so loudly I was sure he could hear it. He instantly let go of me.

Once he had helped me to my feet I straightened my clothes, then looked at the mess we had just made.

“We were supposed to be cleaning,” Keller muttered. “Not making it dirtier.”

I knelt down to help him pick up the papers. I needed to distract myself from thinking about how I had gone breathless when he touched me.

“What is this stuff?” I asked. Some of the papers were ruined from years of sitting in the attic, but others were perfectly clear.

Keller picked one up and examined it. “I think it’s for Starter elementals,” he said. “All their materials were stuck up here after they stopped being used.”

“Seriously?” I said. I didn’t know why, but I felt a rush of excitement at the idea that all the information for beginner elementals was in my hand.

“Why are you so excited?” asked Keller, frowning.

“I don’t know,” I said. I had no idea why this piece of paper felt like gold in my hands.