Free Elemental Havoc (Paranormal Public Book 11) by Maddy Edwards Page B

braced on his elbows. He had clearly forgotten that he didn’t want to talk to this girl. “I highly doubt it,” he said flatly.
    “To be fair,” I said, “paranormals are already designing tests to get rid of each other. It’s not like that’s news or that Dobrov doesn’t know. He made a conscious choice to do this, so I’m sure he has a way to protect the paranormals that other students want to get rid of.”
    I swallowed hard. My words were brave and optimistic, but if Keegan was right – and now that he had said it, I had to admit I wouldn’t be surprised – I was in big trouble. Vampires might squabble amongst themselves, but they would always unite against a common enemy – or an elemental.
    My pessimistic reverie was interrupted by the sight of Eighellie frantically searching through the papers in her backpack. “What are you doing?” I asked, mystified. How could she have accumulated so many papers already, when the semester hadn’t even started yet?
    “I’m researching,” she said, looking up. “The best thing to do when you don’t know something is research.”
    “I bet that’s your answer for everything,” said Keegan. “You’ve made your own little notebook and a key that points to all kinds of cool facts, so you’ll have the answer to absolutely everything whenever you want it, even non-academic slash life-threatening kinds of questions. Like, your mind probably goes something like this: Want an apple? Research! Think a table is pretty? Research!”
    “But the semester hasn’t started . . .” I muttered.
    Eighellie shook her head, her hands still stuffed full of papers. “That doesn’t even make sense,” she said, rolling her eyes again.
    Instead of taking his turn to retort, Keegan suddenly gave a cry. The paper in his hands had burst into flames, and he was forced to drop it to avoid being badly burned. All around the dining hall, other students were having the same experience. The papers they’d been reading so avidly were now burning to nothing, leaving an acrid smoke in the air. Then the smoke was itself was swirled by a wind that seemed to be carrying it away. I would have thought it was an elemental wind, except that I wasn’t the one generating it.
    Cries and confusion filled the room.
    “What’s happening?” Eighellie cried, while Keegan examined his singed hands. Dobrov was on his feet, staring at the condensing smoke. Whatever was happening, I was sure it was not his doing.
    In bloated gray air floating above us, the smoke was shaping itself into a picture.
    Emerging from the swirl was the new Power of Five logo. It was burning.
     

Chapter Ten
    Opposition Strikes Back! High Level Hunter thought to be imprisoned and questioned. Artifact Count: One hundred nine.
     
    “Dobrov Valedication does NOT belong in the role of president of Public!” the woman’s voice had yelled.
    It had been an early morning during the summer, earlier than I was usually out of bed. Even though the summer sun had long since sailed up into the sky for the day, that didn’t mean I should be upright. Except that I was now responsible for taking care of Crumple, and he had run away the night before. I’d found him, but I wanted to check on him before I rolled over for my last couple hours of sleep.
    It’s a strange sort of shock when you realize that just because you do something, not everyone does. True, I wasn’t usually awake so early, but Dacer and Zellie were. Once the sleep had worn out of my foggy brain, I recognized Dacer’s cousin as the source of the anger I was hearing.
    She didn’t want Dobrov to be president of Public? I hurried to listen in outside the living room door.
    “He’s the best option,” insisted Dacer. “He isn’t one paranormal type, so no one can accuse Sip of favoritism. He knows exactly what happened during the Nocturn war and is okay with it. He’s been through a lot and he’s seen the other side. There’s no one better.”
    “THERE ARE LOTS OF