Free Elemental Shining (Paranormal Public Series) by Maddy Edwards Page B

At least, that’s how the demons made it look. An old man is alone in a cabin and has a heart attack. Who’s going to think twice about that? Did your sister tell you anything else?”
    “Just that Charlotte is the biggest target in the paranormal world. President Malle wants her dead and hates herself for failing to kill her while she was President.”
    “Why didn’t she?” Lisabelle asked curiously. “I mean, Charlotte was in trouble all the time. That meant defying authority and getting stuck talking to her all alone in her house. Why not just kill her then? Or at least give her over to that hellhound she had here?”
    Lisabelle’s voice dropped when she mentioned the hellhound. She had a special grudge against that hound for taking her prisoner and acting as a guard and lookout while President Malle held her captive. Several times since then, Lisabelle had ranted about how that particular hellhound wore a red jeweled collar and if she ever saw it again she would give it a piece of her mind, after she killed it, of course.
    “I think because at that point she still didn’t want to get caught,” said Lough. “She wanted the hellhound to roam campus, making the lights flicker and blaming Lisabelle for murder without losing her position as President. She also didn’t think Charlotte was that big a threat. I think she assumed Charlotte was just some scared little teenage elemental.”
    But that’s exactly what I am! I didn’t want to say it out loud, because my friends had such faith in me, but I often wondered if I had what it took to be the only living elemental. Sometimes I worried that I didn’t.
    “Being the President must have had so many advantages,” Sip mused. “She had the children of all the most powerful paranormals held hostage here if she needed leverage for any of her schemes. For all we know she used that tactic all the time to threaten government officials into doing her bidding.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean, she just had to get hold of a government employee who had a kid at Public. She wouldn’t even have to reveal her own identity. Just threaten the kid’s life to get what she wanted. There’s no way she would want to give that up, and if Charlotte went missing while visiting the President’s house everyone would have known.”
    “She could have gotten me away,” I said. “It’s not like I have some special security detail.”
    “It would be nice if you did,” said Lough. “We’d worry about you less.”
    “Was that all your sister told you?” Sip asked.
    “Mostly, yeah,” said Lough. “But there was one other thing. In honor of their newly organized group and the most powerful demons, the Demons of Knight, they’ve given themselves a name . . . the new name for the combination of demons, darkness mages, and hellhounds is the Knights of Darkness.”
    There was a silence, almost as if the darkness of the name had invaded the room. Then Lisabelle broke the spell.
    “So what?” she asked.
    “Names have power,” Sip replied. “That’s not good. It means they’re organizing. But at least now we have something to call them, if that’s any consolation.”
    “I was fine with demons,” said Lough. “In fact, I think it was an apt description.”
    We talked for a while longer, but soon the topic turned back to my meeting with the deans. Lough wanted to hear all about it, so I told my story again. He sat throughout my tale with his mouth open in shock. He was always a fan of rules and deans, and he didn’t like when adults misbehaved, but he looked positively offended at my story.
    “How can they tell you not to practice elemental magic?” he sputtered. “You ARE an elemental.”
    “I don’t know,” I said. “But they did.”
    “How will they know if you practice it in secret?” Lisabelle asked. She was studiously examining her fingernails, not looking up.
    “Powers can be sensed,” I said. “That’s how the demons found me in the first place, and