Chapter Twenty-Seven
Into the rain-soaked Astra yard we ran. Lough and I had barely dried off before we were drenched again. “You couldn’t have saved me on a sunny day?” Lisabelle asked. Lough laughed and his breath came out as a gray puff. “I vote we only go on quests in the summer from now on.”
Lisabelle, Lough, and I raced for the Dash field, but it was slow going. Lough and I were cold; Lisabelle was weak from being tied up for days. We supported her on either side until she started swearing at us that she wasn’t dead. We let her walk on her own after that.
My mind was racing. We knew that the demons were already battling the other students, and I just hoped that Sip was okay and that Lanca had had a chance to prepare some of them. I wondered how long we could last.
If there was any comfort in the situation, it was that at least now I would be able to fight alongside everyone else. I no longer needed to be protected. If anything, the demons would need protection from me.
“Are you alright?” Lisabelle asked, sweeping wet strands of her dark hair out of her face.
“Yes,” I said.
Lisabelle smiled. “You look determined, but we could always get them to tear Public to pieces. I’m not that fond of the place.”
I grinned. “But then we couldn’t hang out. Once the President is gone, Public will get better.”
“Yeah,” said Lough. “Zervos will probably be put in charge.”
I shuddered. Even if Zervos wasn’t in league with the demons, I still didn’t like him. Putting him in charge of Public would be like hiring someone to teach your kids who had a history of torturing puppies.
Lough looked unhappy. Lisabelle asked him what was wrong. He said, “Charlotte might be elemental, but she hasn’t trained as one. What happens if we can’t reunite the Power of Five?”
“We’ll be able to,” I said. “If we can get everyone together, we will. At least we have to try. We have to fight. We can’t just let the demons overrun Public. I don’t care if you don’t like it.”
Lisabelle smiled. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
A boom, like a cannon going off right next to my ear, split the air.
“What was that?” Lough asked. He held tighter to Lisabelle, and to my surprise she didn’t make him let her go.
“Battle,” said Lisabelle, looking toward the Dash field.
We were almost there. The campus was deserted; everyone was at Dash, which at this point meant that everyone was fighting off demons – or being killed. The rain was making it hard to see far ahead, but as I squinted to get a better look I thought I saw fire.
When we reached the top of the hill that overlooked Dash, Lough gave a cry. My stomach felt like potatoes being mashed. The Dash field was a shambles. There were fiery red or black shapes everywhere: demons and hellhounds and even a few black shapes that looked like they were wearing armor, the Demons of Knight. The most powerful demons had overrun Public, and they were all battling students. The bleachers were overturned, some now nothing more than twisted metal. The glass magnifiers that had made watching Dash feel so real were nothing more than broken shards of glass, as if a rock had been thrown through a glass window.
I looked for faces I knew, but the battle was such a roiling mass of bodies I couldn’t make anyone out. I couldn’t even find Sip’s shock of blond hair, and a stab of fear hit my heart. What if she was injured? What if she was worse? Then I pushed the thought away. Sip was too good to get killed by a demon.
I didn’t see the President anywhere, but even if she was still out “searching” for the elemental, she would join the battle soon. She must know that Lisabelle was free and I had the ring.
Without a word the three of us pelted down the hill. The students weren’t being beaten back; they were all standing to fight. Most had formed rings, facing outward to protect their backs. Werewolves were with pixies, vampires with mages. Fallen angels and pixies had taken to the air to fight demons coming from above. They were all fighting together.
I kept searching for familiar faces as I ran. Keller and Cale would have been on the field competing, so where were they now?
“There’s Keller,” Lough yelled at my side, as if reading my mind. He was pointing toward the far end of the Dash field where students lined up before they started to compete, and where Keller was now fighting hellhounds. I could only see his back, but he wore the silver colors of Aurum. He had transformed again, with his strong, dark wings jutting out of his back. He jumped and dived and made the hellhounds look slow in comparison.
“I never thought I would say this,” Lisabelle said to me, “but you need to find Zervos.”
I tore my eyes away from Keller. I knew she was right. If he was still alive, he would know what to do. “And Charlotte,” said Lisabelle just before we reached the base of the hill that sloped into the Dash field, “whatever you do, don’t use your magic.”
I hadn’t thought of that. If I used my magic it would be easy for the demons to tell that I was the elemental, and they would converge on me. I had to find Zervos before I was forced to fight.
I skidded to a halt. A hellhound watched us. His demon master was busy fighting a group of pixies and werewolves, but the hellhound’s eyes were fixed on me.
“I’ll distract it,” said Lough, striding forward. “You two get to Zervos.”
“Lough,” I said, “that’s a demon of speed. They are as they sound: fast.”
Lough shook his head. “I have a few tricks of my own. Go.”
Lisabelle’s hand shot out and she grabbed Lough’s arm. “Be careful,” she warned. He nodded and marched toward the hound.
“He’s kind of cute when he’s angry,” said Lisabelle thoughtfully.
I rolled my eyes. “Lisabelle,” I said, “this is no time for you to catch on.”
“What?” she asked.
“Zervos is over there,” I said, finally picking him out of the chaos. He didn’t look so good. He had a bloody slash down his arm, and he was fighting three demons, trying to hold a position in front of something lying in the mud. The rain was lessening and I could see that it was a human form. Sickness washed over me. It reminded me of the night Bailey had been murdered.
Zervos was protecting the body of Nancy, the Airlee student who had competed in Lisabelle’s place for the Dash finals. She was face down and her right hand had been hacked off.
Lisabelle sent a gust of wind, tinged with fire, to slam into the closest demon, who happened to be a Demon of Knight. His black armor didn’t do him any good against Lisabelle’s attack, and he went flying backward. Two other demons turned to see where the fresh assault was coming from, and charged. Lisabelle twitched her wand and the wind changed course, slamming into each of them in turn. She was blasting us a path to Zervos.
Meanwhile, more demons and hellhounds were turning towards the fresh attack. Lisabelle continued to use her magic as they came on in waves, but one hellhound, smarter than the others, didn’t attack her from the front or side, he tried to came around her back, where I was. Unfortunately for him, he was so intent on Lisabelle that he never saw me. Forgetting Lisabelle’s caution not to use my magic, I grabbed a fistful of it. The hellhound was about to spring on Lisabelle’s back when I sent a blast of ice water slamming into its head. The cold water hissed when it hit his hot body. The hellhound dropped.
But he hadn’t been alone. I tried to pull up a shield against the second hellhound, but I wasn’t familiar with my magic and I was too slow. The hound sprung.
Mid-air another animal – a small werewolf – slammed it from the side. When the werewolf hit the burning body of the hellhound, she let out a whimper but held her ground. We kept moving, but I had used my magic. I had basically lit a torch, stood in the middle of a silent room, and yelled, “I’m the elemental. Come get me.”
And they were. Demons and hellhounds were battling towards me, and more were converging on Lisabelle. I moved to stand alongside her, using my magic to batter the demons. I
didn’t have time to see if Sip was alright. We had to keep going.
We were close to Zervos now. He saw us coming, and leaving Nancy’s body he fought towards us. He darted forward, fangs out, and latched onto one of the demons attacking us. The demon, a thin black mass, gave a loud shriek, clawing at Zervos. But it was no use. The Public professor held on until the demon crumpled, with bloody scratches all down his left arm. While Zervos attacked a second demon, Lisabelle went after a third, a Demon of Fire like the one that had attacked Keller and me. It was having trouble with all the rain; there was a constant hissing as water met fire.
“Why mess with a good idea?” Lisabelle called to me over her shoulder. She called more water to dump on top of the fire demon.
The hissing and crackling fire that made up its body dimmed and sputtered.
I looked up to find that Zervos was fighting his way to my side. He was bloodied and his ankle was hanging at such a funny angle that I tried not to look at it. But his black eyes were still bright. While Lisabelle kept on fighting the demons, Zervos limped over to me.
“That ring suits you better, does it?” he demanded, pointing at my Astra ring.
I nodded. “It was the only one I could find.”
“It was the old Queen’s,” said Zervos. “She would want it to be used for this.”
I could only nod.
“We have to stop the demons before they overrun this place,” said Zervos. He looked at Lisabelle, doggedly fighting them off.
“Was it the President?” he asked in an undertone.
“Yes.”
Professor Zervos closed his eyes briefly. “Get Keller, Cale, Lisabelle, and Lanca,” he ordered. “That should do it.”
Everywhere there was battle. It had taken Lisabelle ten minutes to get us to Zervos, and he hadn’t been very far away. I had yet to see Cale or Lanca. There was no way I could find them without getting killed – or worse – by a demon. Students were fighting and dying everywhere.
Zervos saw the look on my face and placed his bloody left hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry,” he said. “Lanca prepared everyone as best she could. She will make a great leader one day.”
I nodded, but I didn’t feel like sending the strix to Lanca with my warning had been enough, not if students were still dying.
“How do I get them?”
Zervos gave a thin smile and reached a finger toward my ring. It sparked at his touch. He moved his hand away, his smile widening.
Shaking off my frustration and fear, I tried to block out the battle around me. Now I touched my ring myself, and power blazed. It was a comforting hum through my body.
As if from a distance I saw Zervos nod his approval. Just that morning I wouldn’t have listened to him if he had told me a piano was about to fall on my head, and now I was putting the fate of the paranormal world in his hands. I just hoped I was right.
I thought of the people Zervos had told me to call: Lisabelle, who was always ready for a fight; Cale, who was loyal to Camilla; Lanca and her dark confidence; and Keller, who was brilliant, reliable, good at Dash, quiet, observant . . . Okay, I had to stop now. Demons were attacking.
I continued to think of the four of them until a hand gripped my shoulder. It was Cale. He had a long scratch down one side of his face, but otherwise he looked unharmed. Keller and Lanca stood behind him. Lisabelle was still blocking demons, but Zervos had gone to help her. She would be with us soon.
Lanca looked fine, but her eyes had gone a disturbing shade of red. I hadn’t known that that happened to vampires and I definitely didn’t want to know why, at least not right now.
Lisabelle joined us.
“It’s about time,” said Lanca.
“Hey,” said Lisabelle. “I’m supposed to be the sarcastic one of the bunch.”
Lanca smiled. “There’s room enough for both of us. In fact, there’s room enough for five.” Her smile was without humor as she watched the demons come.
We clasped hands. Just as we did, the demons converged on us, sensing my power. All other fighting stopped as the demons dropped their weapons, stopped throwing fire, and just barreled toward us.
Zervos went down. Now demons had a clear path to us, converging from all sides.
“Now,” cried Lanca. The five of us joined hands. Keller was on one side of me, Lisabelle on the other. Keller’s hand was calloused and warm. I held it tighter. When the five of us clasped hands, power surged. This whole time I had worried that we were missing something. We couldn’t afford to get to this point and then fail. It was a relief to see our rings blaze, to feel power coursing through my body, to know that the five of us were enough.
“Now,” I cried.
Lanca was the one directing our combined power. Keller was right behind her. All they needed was my type of power, but any elemental would have done. The five powers screamed together, rushing into one ball of fiery magic. Lisabelle’s was black, but also white, for Airlee. It mixed with Keller’s silver, Cale’s green, and my blue. Lanca’s magic was a deep maroon, a pooling of black and red. It wrapped around the rest of our magics, cradling them.
The hellhounds weren’t smart enough to stop. The first hellhounds that came towards us leapt, hitting our wall of magic. They incinerated.
The demons slowed. Through our wall of power I could see the Demons of Knight hesitating. Two Demons of Speed darted forward. They thought they were faster than our magic. They thought they were faster than Keller’s reflexes. They were wrong.
In all of our concentration on the demons, one hellhound got through. I heard Cale cry out as the demon tore into his arm. He had some protection because he was still wearing his Dash uniform, but I could see blood seeping through his clothing.
“Don’t let go,” Lisabelle yelled. Cale looked at her, pain filling his eyes.
Cale tried to hang on. For a moment he did, but the hellhound was too strong. With one last scream Cale was yanked out of the circle and the Power of Five vanished.
Our rings dulled. With the sudden loss of the wonderful magic my head throbbed. Lanca, Keller, and Lisabelle didn’t look like they were in much better shape. Lisabelle looked like she was about to be sick. Keller dropped his hands to his knees, his head bowed. Only Lanca kept her eyes on the battle. Her back was ramrod straight as she stared down the demons. We were surrounded.
“Back up,” Lanca cried, glaring at the demons.
I looked for Cale, but he was gone. There was only a bloody streak on the grass where he had been. I could feel the heat from a Demon of Burning on the side of my face. I saw shadows flicker in Keller’s eyes.
“Give us the elemental,” said a Demon of Knight. He came through the crowd, his armor clanking. I hadn’t known demons could speak. He was pointing a black sword at my heart.
Lanca was about to say something, but I stepped forward.
“I’ll die first,” I told him.
The demon laughed. It sounded like wind whipping through an empty fireplace, filled with hollowness, old smoke, and ashes.
“You’ll die anyway.”
I could feel the pressure of his words. We couldn’t give the demons this kind of time. They were gathering their own darkness magic.
Then something small and green sped past my face, moving so fast it almost knocked me back. Professor Korba materialized in front of us, and he wasn’t alone. He was making way for someone, giving her enough time to get to us.
It was Camilla who appeared behind him. Keller and Lisabelle saw her instantly, and the three of them joined hands.
“Lanca,” I yelled. She was still beating up on hellhounds. At the sound of her name she spun around and her eyes landed on Camilla. For the second time this afternoon, representatives of Cruor, Aurum, Astra, Volans, and Airlee joined hands.
“Wow,” Camilla breathed. Her eyes never left my face.
Now we had the strength to drive the oncoming demons back. I never thought I would see the day when a Public professor would dive behind a bun
ch of students for safety, but that’s what Korba did when the five of us joined hands.
The oncoming demons never had a chance. Our power lanced out, lashing into them. My eyes were closed in concentration, but I heard popping around me as demons were vaporized. I opened my eyes to see them being driven back. Some were disappearing. Others were being chased away by students. I felt Keller give my hand a squeeze. I smiled.
“You can stop now,” I heard Lanca’s voice say. I looked at the vampire princess. She was still standing in the circle, holding hands with Keller and Camilla. There were still demons on the field, but they were no longer attacking. Many looked battered, some were dead.
“We did it,” said Camilla in awe. “I never thought we’d be the ones to do it.”
“If the professors hadn’t deserted us we might not have had to be,” said Lisabelle.
I stepped forward, letting go of my friends’ hands. Something still felt wrong.
“We still have something to do,” I said, looking around. Students were everywhere, helping other students. Many were trying to get the injured out of the rain. I wondered where nurse Tabby was, but I didn’t want to think about the injured or the dead just yet.
I saw Lough coming toward us. His arm was hanging limp at his side and there was a cut on his mouth, but he was alive. I ran to him. “What happened?” I asked, reaching him.
He spat out a mouthful of water. “You should see the other guy.”
He looked over my right shoulder, seeing something far away on the hill. “You going to deal with that?” he asked, pointing with his good arm. I turned around. There, standing on the hill, was what I had forgotten.
The President. She was dressed in black, and her steel grey hair was flowing down around her. Now that I saw her, she looked crazy. I wondered if she always had and I had just missed it. I had just thought of her as an authority figure, not as something flesh and blood that could lose her mind. Flanking her were two hellhounds. Drool and spit were coming out of their mouths. Someone, probably a few professors if any were still alive, would probably find it interesting that the President had the loyalty of hellhounds just like demons did.
When my eyes locked with hers, the hellhounds charged. Before I could race forward, my friends came from both sides of me, running up the hill to meet the hellhounds. I heard the clash of battle as hellhound met student. I was getting tired of my friends protecting me from every danger, but they actually weren’t. They took care of the hellhounds, but they left the President for me.
I looked for Zervos, but he was crumpled on the ground. He would be no help in a fight against such a powerful mage.
Coming down the hill toward me, she looked taller than she was. I tried not to let it scare me. Her grayish-brown power gathered around her hands and arms. There wasn’t a magical type that had grayish brown power; the color meant that her magic was sick. The sight of it was more horrifying than confronting a hellhound. I now knew what the figure of my mother had meant in the pond that morning outside the President’s office. Someone very close to me couldn’t be trusted. The President herself.
Without warning she sent power skidding toward me. I dived out of the way, rolling as I hit the ground.
“Don’t fight this, Charlotte,” she called. Her voice was high-pitched and screechy. “All the other elementals fought it. Look what happened to them.”
Anger washed over me like the rain. I pushed myself to my knees. “How dare you talk about them?” I demanded.
She threw her head back and laughed. “I spent years killing them. It was so easy. You elementals never knew how to stand together. Just like the other paranormals don’t now. It makes it so easy. Nineteen years ago we thought we had gotten them all, your dad being the last. We had no idea he had gotten some woman pregnant. If your mother hadn’t been a mage we would have known about you long ago, but your mother was smart. As far as anyone in Airlee can be, that is.”
Anger coursed through me. The rage was hot and comforting. This woman, and the other demons, had murdered my father. All my life I had wondered about him, and about why my mother would never say anything. Now I knew. Now there was someone who could pay.
“And my mother?” I asked. I had a sick feeling that my father wasn’t the only parent they had killed.
The President smiled. It was an adult smiling indulgently to a silly child. “Your mother came out in the open. She shouldn’t have. But, she wouldn’t give you up. We did try. By then we suspected she might have had a child.”
Breathing hard through my nose, I pointed my ring at the President. Instead of aiming my ring right for her, though, which she could have probably avoided, I aimed it at the ground. Power surged through me. It blasted into the earth, ripping a giant hole in front of her. She staggered. I sent another burst of power flying at her. She flipped backwards, covered in debris.
“You failed,” I said through gritted teeth. “You didn’t get all the elementals.”
“An error we will now correct,” she spat out. We were no more than ten feet apart, and even though her voice was just a low growl, I heard her.
She pushed herself to her feet, looking like a specter from a bad dream. Bursts of magic came flying at me, faster and faster. Some sang past my face, while others melted into the ground and rose up to attack me. I had no more time to think about the elementals she had helped kill, including my family. I had to concentrate on staying alive.
Movement behind the President caught my eyes. Figures, all dressed in black, were lining the top of the hill. The professors had arrived. Finally.
The President caught the direction of my gaze. She looked over her shoulder and swore. Just as she made a move to disappear, the professors of Public sent a combined spell thundering right at her. There was a blinding flash, a rushing filled my ears, then there was nothing at all.
We had won. For now, we had beaten the demons. For now, Public was safe.