Chapter Eighteen
Sip and I tried to stay up until Lisabelle came home, but by two o’clock we had reached the conclusion that she wasn’t coming home that night. I had images of her locked under the dining hall in a dungeon that smelled of dirt and dead rats. The Tower was so modern there probably wasn’t a dungeon under it, but I wasn’t going to let rational thinking get in the way of my imagination, which had Lisabelle chained to the wall and not given water for days. I shuddered every time I thought about it.
There was no sign of her the next day. I saw Keller but he avoided me, and he missed our usual training session. I wanted to ask him what had happened after he’d been taken away, but the one time I got close he was with a group of his friends and turned his back on me.
With Professor Zervos still absent, we met Professor Korba at Airlee. It was odd heading back to my own dorm to go to class, but Professor Korba was waiting for us outside, as promised. Once everyone arrived he led us inside. Keller stayed as far away from me as possible, and since Camilla was doing the same thing they ended up close to each other. I felt hot anger when they started to chat and Camilla giggled, but I wasn’t sure why.
We wandered through the floors. Airlee was the newest of the dorms and had the least interesting artifacts in it. The only thing it had going for it was that because it was the newest dorm, it had the newest furnishings, including large screen TVs in every common room. If I hadn’t already lived there all semester I might have been impressed. Because Airlee was so new, the walls weren’t filled with massive glass cases full of priceless magical artifacts like they were in Astra.
“The Airlee Dorm is truly the most important,” said Professor Korba. He was droning on as we walked through halls I’d seen every day since I’d been at Public. I kept trying to catch Keller’s eye, but he was studiously looking anywhere and everywhere else.
“Because it promotes collaboration between different paranormal species,” Korba continued. “Why is that good?”
Lough, as usual, raised his hand.
Professor Korba nodded to him and Lough said, “Because otherwise you end up like the pixies? Stuck up and friendless?”
Professor Korba frowned as everyone in the class burst into laughter. Camilla’s face reddened with rage. “Jokes are all very well and good, Dream Giver, but perhaps there are more concrete reasons.”
“Because we have to protect ourselves against the demons and that means sticking together,” he said.
“Very good,” said Professor Korba. “Now, since you are one, maybe you would like to give us a demonstration of the skills of dream givers.”
I didn’t know much about dream givers. They barely sounded real to me, maybe because I didn’t consider dreams themselves to be “real.” I had only seen Lough perform once, at the Demonstration on our first night, and he hadn’t done much of anything, just sort of closed his eyes. The professors had nodded, so they must have been impressed, unlike how they felt about me.
“Yeah, Lough,” Sip encouraged. “Let’s see what you can do! Just stay calm!”
Lough blushed. “I’m about as calm as a hailstorm,” he mumbled.
Coughing and shaking his head, Lough closed his eyes. All the rest of the students gathered in a circle around him. All eyes were fixed on his face.
Out of nowhere I heard a wail. It was a woman’s voice. Somehow it was familiar, but I hadn’t heard it in a long time. I looked around frantically, but I didn’t see anyone around. My vision was blurred, as if I’d just had water thrown in my eyes.
I could sense that other students were upset, but I wasn’t really sure how. I could feel Sip next to me, trembling. The woman’s voice came again. This time I shuddered. With a start, I realized who it was.
The voice was my mother’s, and she was screaming for someone to stop hurting her. She was in pain. “No!” I screamed. “Stop it! You’re hurting her.” When I yelled, my mother’s scream and my blurry vision vanished. I was glaring at Lough. So was everyone else in the class.
Professor Korba had a thoughtful expression on his wise old face. Lough’s round cheeks were red with embarrassment. My eye’s locked with Keller’s. He didn’t look away.
“I’m sorry,” Lough stammered out. “I didn’t realize I could do that. I was just trying to….”
“You were trying to what?” Sip snapped. “Frighten us all to death?” Some of the other students nodded.
“I didn’t realize I could do that!” Lough protested. “I’ve never done it to people before. Well, if you don’t count middle school, but middle school sucked. Universally. Everyone hates middle school.”
“Shut up,” Sip snapped.
“Sip,” said Professor Korba sternly, “Lough is a Starter, and although he is a very powerful Starter, we cannot expect him to have ironclad control on his magic just yet.” He spoke quietly and reassuringly. Other students start to calm down, but I couldn’t seem to. My shoulders were tense, and I could feel a throbbing at my temple. I was very, very angry.
Without meaning to I said, “How did you put my mother’s voice into my head?” My eyes were locked on his.
“I, what?” he asked. “I just asked for a memory. I just wanted to have you all dream a memory. I didn’t mean for it to be bad.”
But judging from everyone’s face, all the waking dreams had been bad.
“We have to work on your control, is all,” said Professor Korba. “Just imagine how formidable you will be when you can choose to anger all of your classmates by forcing them to relive their worst memories. Come along.”
And with that he swept out of Airlee Dorm. The rest of us followed. No one looked at Lough.
I dropped back to walk next to Sip. “Are you alright?” I asked.
Sip nodded. “I’m fine. He didn’t mean to do it. How are you? You heard your mother?”
I grimaced. I didn’t want to talk about it, but this was Sip, my first friend at Public. “I don’t know what he shoved into my head. It’s not something I remember as actually happening.”
Sip nodded. “It probably didn’t,” she said reassuringly. But I wasn’t so sure.
“How did Lough not know he could do that?” I asked as we headed to our next class.
“He’s just starting. He’s probably still developing and learning and trying to get his range. A lot of us with magic go through that. It’s not like vampire or werewolves. True, vampires have magic they can develop, but if you’re a vamp you’re a vamp, you know?”
“Oh sure,” I said, almost laughing at the way Sip always managed to say something as if it should be obvious.
My laugh stopped as Camilla trailed past us. She had time for one venomous glare before she disappeared down the sidewalk. There was no sign of Keller.
By the end of the day all I wanted to do was go back to my room.
Sip slammed into the room a minute after I got there. “How can everyone act like everything is fine?” she demanded.
I shrugged. “They can do what they want. They’re in charge. It’s the powerful and the powerless. What are we going to do?” I plopped down on my bed. Sip was in such a rage that she threw her books.
Breathing hard, she came to a stop in front of me.
“We go to the President,” she said. “Tell her it wasn’t Lisabelle’s fault.”
“Don’t you think Keller already told her that?” I asked. I refused to think that Zervos had said anything in Lisabelle’s favor. He would throw his own mother under the bus if it served his purposes.
“I don’t know what Keller would say,” said Sip. “I can’t read him.”
No one can, I thought.
There was a soft tap on the door. Sip flew to open it, and on the other side stood Lisabelle, looking a little pale but otherwise defiant. She swept into the room and sat on the bed while the two of us gaped at her.
“You’re here,” said Sip, still holding the door open.
“Excellent observational abilities,” said Lisabelle. She look
ed calm for someone who had basically been arrested in class for performing an exercise that the Professor of the class had told her to perform.
“Well,” said Sip, “stop wasting my time and spit it out. What happened?”
“They kept me in lockdown in the President’s office,” Lisabelle explained. Her hands were clenched into fists. “They thought I was the one helping the demons get onto campus.”
“Why did they think it was you?” Sip asked.
“Because apparently there’s no way demons can get onto campus unless a powerful darkness mage helps them. I’m the only darkness mage, and the only other ones with darkness magic are the vampires.”
“Oh,” said Sip.
Lisabelle nodded soberly.
“Wait,” said Sip, “that means a paranormal is helping the demons?”
“Yeah,” said Lisabelle. “A paranormal at Public. I heard the President talking. The demons are after something, but no one is sure what. Ever since school started, they’ve been a lot worse. Apparently there have been constant attacks on paranormals.”
“Why weren’t we told?” asked Sip. She folded her arms over her chest and glared.
“They thought we were safe here,” said Lisabelle quietly. “They wanted to figure it out on their own before they created a total panic.”
Sip couldn’t argue with that. If the Paranormal Council of Power (which most of the professors at Public were on) made an announcement that the demons were getting stronger and going after paranormals more frequently, it would wreak havoc.
“But Lisabelle, are you alright?”
“Yeah,” said Lisabelle, smiling. “They have to be a lot scarier than a bunch of yelling professors to scare me.”
Sip shook her head. “That attitude is going to get you into trouble one of these days.”
Lisabelle glared. “I already get in trouble and I don’t even do anything.”
Sip reached toward her friend. “Lisabelle, I’m sorry….”
“Yeah, you’re sorry,” said Lisabelle. “I got locked up for doing what my professor ordered and what did he get? A week’s paid vacation. The President said he was being overzealous and sent him away.” For the first time since I’d met Lisabelle she looked scared. She was hiding hid it well, but tears were forming in the corners of her dark eyes.
I slung my arm around her shoulders. She took a deep, steadying breath. “I’m fine,” she said. “They really weren’t that bad. It’s just not fair.”
“If they’re going to have you here, they should treat you equally,” said Sip.
“They should, but they don’t have to. They can do whatever they want,” said Lisabelle. “There aren’t enough darkness mages to protect me from being mistreated.”
“Well,” I said, “then we have to do something.”
Sip rolled her eyes. “You’ve been saying that, but what can we do?” she asked. “We’re just Starters.”
“We have to figure out how the demons are getting in. We have to know who’s behind it and why,” I said. “And we have to protect ourselves.”
“You want to protect the vampires?” Lisabelle asked. “I didn’t know you cared.”
I grinned. “Okay, well maybe the vampires can fend for themselves.”
Sip started to laugh, but just then there was another soft knock on the door. “Who is that?” asked Sip, staring at the door. We weren’t friends with any of the other Airlee girls, and technically no one else was allowed on the floor.
“I’ll get it,” I said, and opened the door to find Lough standing outside it.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“We have to talk,” he said, and pushed his way into the room.
He didn’t seem at all surprised to see Lisabelle. “Are you alright?” he asked. She nodded and repeated for him what she had already told us. Lough sat quietly and listened, but when she finished he said, “We have to do something. We can’t just let the demons run around campus killing us off until they find what they’re looking for.”
“We agree,” I said.
“So, what are we going to do about it?” he asked, settling in for a long night.
We didn’t get to bed until almost dawn. We all agreed that we had to protect Lisabelle, and that the only way to do that was to find out who was letting the demons in. If we didn’t, Lisabelle would be expelled, or worse, and the demons would still be attacking. The safety of the school and maybe the whole paranormal world was at stake.
“We can’t tell anyone what we’re doing,” Sip pointed out once we had made our plans, “because we don’t know who the culprit is.”
“Oh no,” moaned Sip after Lough left. The three of us looked at her. “What? What’s wrong?”
“Our outfits for the dance,” she said. “We didn’t get them ready.”
Lisabelle stared at her. “It’s just a stupid dance. I’m not even going.”
“Lisabelle Verlans, darkness mage, we are all going,” said Sip, putting her hands on her hips. “Now everyone go to bed.”
Lisabelle and I exchanged grins. “She’s bossy when she’s tired,” I said.
Lisabelle rolled her eyes. “She’s bossy all the time.”
I curled up in bed, glad we finally had a plan. We had to protect Lisabelle, and we had to protect Public. I might not be able to do magic yet, but there were other things I could do to help. And I hoped the magic was only a matter of time. Of all people, Keller seemed to think so as well. He always had confidence in me. His actions said so as much as his words. Besides, there was no way I was going to go crawling back to my stepdad. I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else. I fell asleep with those comforting thoughts running through my mind.