Elemental Earth (Paranormal Public) by Maddy Edwards

screams were joined by those of Lisabelle and
Kia. I grabbed the seat, but was instantly forced to let go because it was too
hot to touch. Standing was also out of the question. I looked around helplessly
as the demon steering us continued the downward spiral at a sickening speed.
    “Wow,” Kia said, almost too
quietly for me to hear. “I’ve never seen so many demons.” All around us, like a
dark sea in the sky, was a roiling mass of blackness. We’d been ambushed, and
it had been so perfectly planned that I couldn’t even see the other carriages
we’d left with.
    My heart squeezed. Where was
Keller?
     
     

Chapter Eight
     
    I had a split second’s view
upward through the mass of darkness, and there, high above our carriage, were
four demons fighting a winged fallen angel. My next breath came easier at the
thought that Keller was alright, but then I felt taloned fingers grip my arm
and I yelped.
    Lisabelle looked at me, her eyes
burning. “If one of us doesn’t do something, we’re all dead.”
    Fear beat at my temples. I knew
she was right.
    My ring was pulsing and ready to
fight. It knew we were in a battle to the death.
    “Alright then,” I muttered.
    I summoned the winds, and they
came at my call. I was careful not to disrupt Keller or Marcus, who were using
those same winds, somewhere above us, to fight. I didn’t want to get in the
way, or worse, put them in any more danger than they were already facing.
    The winds came to me from below,
and as they slammed upward our demon was forced to slow. I called more wind. I
was comfortable with the winds, and it was easy for me to reach them.
    “Once more,” I heard Lisabelle
cry.
    “Brilliant,” Kia breathed next to
me. I was too caught up in what I was doing to see. “I thought we were done for
sure.”
    “We’re slowing down,” Lisabelle
yelled. “I’ll deal with the fire.”
    At some point we would have to
talk about the fact that Lisabelle’s body could absorb fire like osmosis, but
right now probably wasn’t the time.
    If we saved ourselves, we still
had to save Sip.
    “We aren’t slowing down fast
enough,” Kia screamed. I opened my eyes. She was right. The ground was rushing
up to meet us at a sickening speed. The demon pulling us seemed determined to
get us there, and it was clear that if he succeeded, we were going to die.
    Frantically, I called more air
and shoved it at the demon. It veered and jerked, sending our flaming carriage
bouncing through the air. Kia came flying into me; she wasn’t strong enough to
hold on as the carriage was thrown in one direction and then another. Almost
everything around us was burning anyway, and our situation was now dire.
    I grabbed Kia’s arm and planted
my feet as firmly as I could.
    “Sit down,” Lisabelle cried.
“Keep your balance.”
    I pulled Kia down with me.
    We were almost to the ground, but
now we had slowed down enough so that I no longer felt like I was about to
throw up.
    “Are you alright?”
    The former committee member was
floating outside our carriage. Never in my life did I think I’d be happy to
hear Dove’s voice, but I had just proved myself wrong.
    “I didn’t know vampires could
float so high,” I yelled to him. His eyes sparked. His clothes were burned and
his hair was tilting at all angles, but he didn’t look injured.
    “Ms. Rollins, now is not the time
to be surprised that you do not know everything,” he answered back. “Are you
alright? Where is Ms. Quest?”
    Kia rolled her eyes at me. It
stunned me that the pixie was actually nice.
    “We’re fine,” I said. “Sip went
to fight a Demon of Knight. Can you help her?”
    I pointed upward. We could see
nothing in the sky around us but demons. There was something strange about the
way they were flying, but I didn’t have time to figure it out right now.
    “I have to help you,” Dove yelled
to me. “You’re what’s important.”
    “No,” I said firmly. “We’ll be
fine. Get Sip. I can’t fight if