Free Elemental Fate (Paranormal Public Book 12) by Maddy Edwards

he needed the time to compose himself.
    “Hey,” he said. His skin was very pale, but his cheeks were flushed in a way that reminded me of Lough, and I had a sharp pang of missing our dream giver friend.
    “Hey,” I said.
    “Not a fan of brooms, huh?” he asked with a little smile.
    “How can you tell?” I said.
    “The white knuckles were a tipoff,” he said.
    I tried to loosen my grip, but then I felt like I was falling off. “Yeah, sorry,” I said. “I didn’t want to wave you down.”
    “Thanks,” said Keller. “I’m not ready to come down yet.”
    “Yeah,” I said. I sucked at this this cheering up stuff.
    “Look, Ricky, I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to say to you, or to Dacer, much less to Charlotte. I can’t believe my family behaved that way, especially after what my aunt did.”
    “Are they angry at you about what happened to Professor Erikson?” I said. The thought shocked me. It wasn’t as if Keller had had any control over her; he was just trying not to die, and not to let those he loved die.
    “I’m not sure they have any idea what they’re angry about anymore. Except, they’re definitely angry at Lisabelle.”
    “As usual, there’s a pretty long line for that one,” I said.
    When the darkness mage had become the new premier, she had imprisoned Professor Erikson. Charlotte hadn’t wanted to talk about it, but I felt sure Lisabelle had imprisoned her predecessor instead of killing her at least in part because of Keller. He had wanted his aunt’s life spared, so Lisabelle had spared it without worrying about the cost to herself. That was always the kind of friend she was, if you could get her there. I rather thought she was full up on best friends, though.
    A fleeting memory of a certain dream giver passed through my mind again, then it was gone. Lough was missing. Wherever he was, it would put him or us in danger to discuss it, but even without any discussion it was obvious that not all of my sister’s friends agreed on what he was doing.
    “Lisabelle wasn’t coming to this event, though,” I said. “They really only hurt you and Dacer. I wouldn't think they really wanted to do that.” If Lisabelle had been planning to attend, which she hadn’t, because then she’d have to actually talk to us – oh, the horror – I could have seen the fallen angels getting up in arms, but this was Keller. This was Charlotte.
    Keller nodded, his eyes spilling fury, “Yeah, I know. If Charlotte . . . well, if I felt free to do it, I’d go and have a talk with them.” He cleared his throat. His tone was threatening, and I couldn’t help but wonder if that wasn’t exactly what the fallen angels wanted, whatever else they might be up to.
     

Chapter Eight
    Dacer had tried hard not to let his anger show after it became clear that the party had been a failure. We all knew that Charlotte felt terrible, and having Dacer visibly upset could only make it worse. Still, the next morning there appeared a set of massive tracks through the snow. It looked strange enough so that I went to look out another window to get a better view of the ground.
    An enormous cannon had appeared in the courtyard.
    “In case any of them decide to show up late,” said Dacer through gritted teeth. The cannon was covered in brown glitter, befitting an angry glitter fiend.
    No one else made any comment on the cannon, but it was still there when we departed for Public a few days later.
     
    The trip back to campus for second semester was a lot more fun than our autumn trip had been. For one thing, Bertrum wasn’t along. He hadn’t come to Charlotte and Keller’s party, probably because he wasn’t up for socializing. Keller, who checked in on him regularly, said he was still in pretty bad shape. With Sip missing and not actively serving as president, Bertrum had even more worries than usual. The interim president had asked him for all of Sip’s classified files on the excuse that he needed them to