Elemental Havoc (Paranormal Public Book 11) Read Online Free Page A

different one? But this wasn’t the time to ask that question, so I didn’t.
    “And then what happened?” Keegan asked impatiently.
    Using as few words as possible, I told them what Zellie and I had just done.
    “She was working with the branch earlier this evening,” Dacer mused, but before he could continue, the door banged open. I started, afraid that it was another crazy zombie.
    “What is the meaning of all this racket?” said a stern woman’s voice. Dacer yelped, the ties of his bonnet flapping slightly.
    “Mother!” He sounded scandalized.
    Without meaning to, I sat up. Duchess Leonie was worth any amount of dizziness, and I hadn’t seen her since the end of the Nocturn War. When I had arrived at Duckleworth after my self-imposed exile, I had been told that she was bedridden and too ill to see anyone. Now, bursting into the kitchen in the middle of the night, she was moving slowly, but her voice was strong.
    “Mother!” Dacer tried again. “You should be in bed.”
    “And you should learn to respect your elders. You may go first,” she said, stumping into the room. Keegan hurried over to help her, but she shoved him away. She wasn’t rude about it, but she would not be helped.
    “Sorry,” Dacer mumbled, returning his gaze to Zellie.
    When Duchess Leonie saw her niece, she grimaced. “I was afraid of something like this, what with everything going on and all the news reports. Is it what happened at Golden Falls all over again?”
    I had heard of that university. Specifically, in my own family history, it was where everything had changed for Charlotte. After she and her classmates went there for a semester away, ostensibly to learn new things and try to be normal, their lives had been ripped apart. Golden Falls had been working with darkness, and that was before darkness was ruled by Lisabelle. Sip had been taken prisoner by the darkness premier of that era, who had turned out to be Keller’s aunt, and she had forced Lisabelle to convert to the side of darkness in order to secure her dear friend’s release. Lisabelle had never returned to Public as a student after that, and the whole affair had been the beginning of a long road to war. Sip had been devastated when she found out what Lisabelle had done. She also hated Golden Falls with a passion I hadn’t seen her direct toward anything else.
    Duchess Leonie had been on the scene during those events, but that was all I knew. Charlotte typically refused to tell me the details of certain stories from that period, and sometimes I was pretty sure the stories she did tell me were watered down. The only trouble was that I didn’t know how to ask what I didn’t know to ask.
    Professor Dacer’s mother glanced at me. “Are you alright?” she asked. “My son will get you something for your neck just as soon as he brings Zelliarie upstairs so that I may examine her.”
    “Mother!” Dacer drew himself up, cloaking himself in all kinds of childish petulance. “Under no circumstances am I going to leave you alone with Zellie while she’s in this state.”
    The Duchess fixed her child with a cold stare. “I am still your mother, with all that implies,” she said, waggling a finger at him. “Do not question me.”
    Grumbling, Dacer dropped his head. Duchess Leonie pulled her shawl more tightly around her shoulders and said, with a sigh, “Even in the late summer I am cold. It will be good to get you to Public, Ricky. I cannot lie; to see you here gives me great concern.”
    “I’m fine,” I said. “I’ve made it this far.”
    She nodded. “Yes, well, you’re young and a teenage boy. There’s a lot naturally stacked against you.”
    Keegan made a face. Obviously he didn’t like being told that he was inexperienced or reckless, which is what it sounded like the Duchess was saying.
    “Why is Zellie still here and why are you?” she demanded, looking at Dacer as if she had just remembered to notice him again. Still grumbling, her son waved his