Elemental Shining (Paranormal Public Series) by Maddy Edwards Page A

took place in that great building. There were many classes, several offices, the Museum of Masks, and the dining all, all left homeless when the Tower was destroyed. The classes had been moved to some of the dorms, including Astra, the Long Building, and several of the houses. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. I missed the Tower, but we had no choice. The dining hall had been the hardest thing to move. It required space for a kitchen and something resembling a central location on campus. No one wanted to anger one of the dorms by putting the dining hall very far from where a group of paranormals slept. That left only one option: the library.
    At first the librarians were very reluctant. Understandably, they didn’t want a bunch of students who never spent any time in the building anyway to be traipsing through their doors. Yes, there were a lot of students on campus who only knew where the library was because the campus wasn’t big enough for them not to.
    The basement of the library housed archived collections, and since those were easier to split up and move around campus than an entire dining hall, it was agreed that the new dining hall would be in the basement of the library, at least until something else could be figured out.
    We had known the outline of the plan since last spring, and since almost no one was on campus during the summer and there was no need for the big hall to be open, I hadn’t paid much attention to what was actually going on in the building. What we didn’t learn until we set foot on the massive winding staircase that led down to the basement was that not all the books had found new homes. Funny enough. Thousands had been stacked in the basement, with tabletops set on them and seats for chairs. The books had been turned into dining room furniture.
    They were under magical protections, of course, as a final touch.
    “Have you ever seen anything so cool?” Lough asked, appearing at my elbow.
    “Not since I looked in a mirror,” Lisabelle said.
    “Lough!” I cried with joy, throwing my arms around the dream giver’s neck and hugging him for all I was worth. He was the last dear friend I hadn’t seen yet, and here he was.
    “I know, I know, it’s wonderful to see me and you can’t imagine how you survived without me,” said Lough, pulling back enough to beam at me. “Must say I agree with you. It’s a mystery.”
    Sip gave Lisabelle a good kick to the shin.
    “Ouch, Sip, even tiny werewolves hurt,” Lisabelle complained, rubbing the black stocking that covered her leg. “What was that for?”
    “Pre-emptive strike,” Sip explained.
    “What’s to keep you from kicking me all the time, then?” Lisabelle grumbled.
    “Good question,” said Sip loftily. “Maybe you should think about that.”
    “How are you, Lough?” Keller asked. The three of us went down the staircase first, with plenty of room still left on either side of us, while Sip and Lisabelle followed behind, arguing quietly with each other.
    “Great,” said Lough. “A summer with my family was just what I needed. My sister was home on weekends, even though her government job keeps her hopping. We got to spend a lot of time together, and we talked about Public whenever we got a chance. Turns out she loved it here just as much as I do. She has a new boyfriend, but she won’t say who. I gave her crap about her new guy all summer, but she was keeping so quiet about it that Mom and Dad don’t even know. Not that they’d have time to disapprove, but she’s really happy and it was great being home. I mostly worked on my dreams for people. It was strange, but I definitely improved my control. It makes me almost want to see Trafton so we can discuss methods. Almost. I’m also hopeful that we’ll have another dream giver on campus this semester.”
    “Lough?” Lisabelle cut in, putting a pale hand on Lough’s beefy shoulder.
    “Huh?” Lough asked, going bright red at Lisabelle’s touch.
    “Breathe.”
    “Oh,