Elemental Fire by Maddy Edwards

done even worse than that.
    Sip got in front of me, but when
I made a noise of protest she just glared. She had a point. My magical reserves
were so low that I probably wouldn’t be able to protect myself from whatever
came through that door. Lisabelle positioned herself on the side of the door
jamb and carefully reached for the knob. Another, sharper knock made me jump.
    “What sort of demon knocks?” Sip
mouthed to me. I shrugged.
    Lisabelle was using the arm that
had her wand to open the door. She hadn’t pushed up her sleeve, but even
without that I could see black fire burning through the thin fabric that
covered her power. Whatever came through that door was in a world of trouble.
    She popped the door open and
jumped in front of it, throwing a wall of black fire between herself and the
opening.
    “Lisabelle, stop it right now,”
came a familiar, if terrified, voice. The black fire instantly disappeared, and
Sip, Lisabelle, and I stared in open-mouthed shock at the young man standing in
front of us. He had sandy blond hair, gorgeous blue eyes, the body of a surfer,
and a bloody lip.
    “Trafton!” exclaimed Sip, in
obvious relief. Making her way around Lisabelle, who was standing in front of
the door glaring, she darted forward and wrapped her arms around the Airlee
dream giver.
    “So, there are students here?” I
said thoughtfully. Then, looking at his amused face, I added, “I mean, nice to
see you, Trafton.”
    He gave me a crooked grin as he
wrapped his arms around Sip’s shoulders. She barely came up to his elbow.
    “I’m here,” he said. “But I wish
I weren’t. I was one of the first to get back, because I wanted to get
comfortable before the start of the semester and I had heard that Locke was in
chaos. That plan didn’t work out so well.”
    “What’s going on here?” I said,
still keeping my voice low.
    “It’s bad,” he said grimly.
“Imagine the worst possible scenario, and I can assure you that it’s worse than
that. But I’ll just have to show you.”
    Lisabelle crossed her arms over
her chest. “You are not taking my friends into danger.”
    Trafton looked at Lisabelle
sympathetically. “This whole place is crawling with danger. If you didn’t want
danger you should have taken them home.”
    The pit of my stomach fell.
Trafton looked upset, and something else. I swallowed hard. Trafton looked
afraid.
    “What are you talking about?”
Lisabelle said, raising her eyebrows as Trafton rubbed his temples.
    “The attack at Locke was a
distraction, or at least it was part of a two-pronged plan. There was another
point to it, which you folks at Locke apparently didn’t get wind of. The
Nocturns wanted the paranormals to think that the threat had been neutralized,
that because Faci was caught and Queen Lanca was fine, the demons had lost. But
while you all were busy cleaning up Locke and the other students were returning
to Public - for safety - the demons were waiting. Public was taken over.”
    The three of us looked at him in
horror.
    “Come in,” said Lisabelle, moving
out of the way to make room. “You shouldn’t be standing in the hallway when you
explain this.”
    “We aren’t supposed to have guys
in our room, technically,” said Sip.
    “Technically it’s unlikely that
we make it out of Public alive, so we might as well live it up,” said Lisabelle
frostily.
    “I knew you’d come around,” said
Trafton, grinning despite the dire situation we were in. He snaked his arm
around Lisabelle’s waist before she could stop him and quickly planted a kiss
on her cheek.
    “If you do not unhand me this
instant I will blast you into the next dimension,” she threatened, but I heard
an undercurrent of amusement in her voice.
    “Are there multiple dimensions?”
Trafton murmured, his eyes sparkling, his arm still around her waist.
    “There are several,” Sip piped
up. “There’s the -”
    “Not now, Sip,” said Lisabelle,
disentangling herself from the ever-flirtatious