Read Online Elemental Fire by Maddy Edwards - Free Book Online

wand like that?”
Trafton asked. “Did you perform a spell? It shouldn’t be that bright until you
have a ton of magic.”
    When he got no answer from any of
us, he whistled softly. “I knew you were powerful, but I didn’t realize you
were that powerful.”
    “Learn something new every day,”
said Lisabelle. “Will it mean you stop hugging me?”
    “Ha, not a chance,” said Trafton.
He was leading the way, his broad shoulders and well-muscled arms tense. I felt
bad putting him at risk, but his very presence meant that his life was in
danger.
    “Girl can dream,” Lisabelle
muttered.
    We walked in silence after that.
I was in no hurry to reach Vale, but we got there soon enough.
     
    Trafton was right, it was worse
than we had thought. The center of Public, still being re-built after the fall
of the Tower, looked like a battlefield. The earth was charred and stamped, as
if the fire had just taken place yesterday. Everywhere I looked there were
black pens, the kind of cage in which you might find hardened criminals or
animals. But here, in the heart of campus, the pens were filled with students.
Some I recognized, like Vanni, a freshman fallen angel from my Tactical Team
last semester. She had simpered over Keller every time she had seen him, and I
had been forced to suppress the urge to throttle her. With a lump in my throat
I realized that since he was now free, he might actually date her.
    But I couldn’t afford to be
distracted by that right now. Shaking my head to clear the ugly thoughts away,
I continued to look around. All around the pens were bonfires, lighting the
night sky, and now I saw other faces I knew. Nate, a fallen angel friend of
Keller’s, was huddled near Vanni. Marcus, another friend of my ex-boyfriend,
was on his other side. In another pen was a group of Airlees I had lived next
to when I was a Starter. They looked dirty, but otherwise unharmed.
    “There’s something wrong here,” I
murmured to my friends. They looked at me like I was crazy.
    “I mean, something more than the
obvious,” I clarified. “Where are the pixies?” I saw vampires, fallen angels,
members of Airlee, but nowhere did I see a single pixie.
    “Oh, they’re over there,” said
Trafton, his voice steady. “The all-star treatment.” I looked where his shaking
finger pointed. He was trying to hide his fear, but only half-successfully.
    The pixies were in a corner,
close to a brightly burning bonfire. They were not in a pen, or under any sort
of lockdown. They were not tied up like their fellow students.
    “Why are the darkness mages
favoring the pixies?”
    “Poor taste?” Lisabelle said.
“Camilla is probably in heaven.”
    Indeed, I could see Camilla. She
was basically sitting on Cale’s lap, close to the fire. Her blond hair looked
like it had just been washed and combed, and she wasn’t dirty and bruised like
the other paranormals. The happy face of my pixie nemesis only increased my
ire. Cale, for his part, looked somber and a little worried. His round face was
filled with sadness. Cale just wanted everyone to get along. He had always been
nice to me, but secretly. He just didn’t have the balls to be nice to me in
front of Camilla.
    “They’re going to let the pixies
go and kill the rest?” Sip said frantically. “That’s gross.”
    “They won’t kill everyone,” said
Lisabelle confidently. “At least not yet. They need them, if for nothing else
than to serve as a distraction while Ms. Vale searches for the Mirror Arcane,
which they believe in on the grounds of Public somewhere.”
    “You remember at Locke when we
suddenly woke up to find Faci torturing the puppy?”
    “You mean when he wanted an
audience for his insanity, so that we all knew to be afraid of him?” Lisabelle
whispered back.
    “Yeah, that,” said Sip, her eyes
intent on the pens. “Think this is like that?”
    “This isn’t anything like a
dream,” said Lisabelle quietly. “More’s the pity.”
    “I can see why you