Elemental Fate (Paranormal Public Book 12) Read Free Page B

dinner. I don’t think she realized what a task it would be when she assigned it to me.”
    “It’s dinner time?” I regretted the surprise in my voice, but Keller nodded. He had deep blue eyes that at the moment were trained sharply on me. I didn’t like it. My stomach rumbled and Keller’s eyebrows rose.
    “Yeah,” he said. “Dinner. You missed lunch.”
    “I missed lunch,” I repeated. Keller nodded. He was looking at me as if I had two heads, but I could tell he didn’t want to be the kind of brother-in-law who asked where I had been. Or maybe he just knew I wouldn’t tell him.
    “I’ll go change,” I said. I started to brush past him, but Keller reached out a hand and grabbed my arm. I stopped and met his blue eyes with my grey ones.
    “Ricky,” he said, then sighed. “If you ever need anything, all you have to do is ask, you know.”
    I nodded my appreciation and hurried to my room. I was hungry, and I knew that if I stayed alone with Keller much longer I’d be tempted to tell him exactly what I had been doing and where I had been doing it, and that would lead to a lot of questions that I didn’t want to answer.
    Back in my room, Crumple was furious with me for leaving him alone all day. When I was at Duckleworth he didn’t sleep with the other dogs in the outdoor kennel, he liked to sleep with me, which Dacer said was okay as long as I took care of him. Care was obviously overdue at this point, so I quickly let him out, then came back, changed again, and went to join my sister for dinner.
    The household wasn’t in the kitchen, so I went to the breakfast room where I had first met Charles, Dacer’s friend who had turned out to be a Hunter.
    Chatter assaulted me when I opened the door. Apparently there had been a lot happening while I was in the quiet under the Castle, including many new arrivals. I had the irrational notion, just for a moment, that Dacer better not have pulled out all the silverware I’d cleaned that day to use at dinner.
    Everyone looked up when I entered the room. Keller was already sitting next to Charlotte, and their plates were full. Zellie and Dacer were there, of course, along with a couple of paranormals who looked like fallen angels around Keller’s age.
    As I sat down I could see that Keller’s hand was resting softly on Charlotte’s leg. It seemed as if they were always touching and giving each other knowing looks, and Charlotte still blushed often. I didn’t get it. I would have expected that over time the romance would wane, but if you saw Keller’s eyes light up every time he looked at my sister, you wouldn’t think so.
    The last guest was General Goffer. I swallowed hard. The general was a tall, bald-headed man, with a commanding presence whom I’d had the non-pleasure of running into before.
    “Hi,” I said, and hurried to the empty seat next to Charlotte. As I sat down she gave me a tight smile that was more like a glare, but she didn’t say anything.
    “Ricky, I hear you went for a long walk,” said one of the fallen angels. “I’m Cather Helm, a friend of Keller’s from grade school.”
    “Did you go to Public?” I asked.
    Cather shook his head. No, I couldn’t stand school and skipped out as soon as I could, much to my parents’ dismay. Always there for old Keller when he needs me, though.”
    It turned out that both Cather and the other fallen angel were old friends of Keller’s who had come to Duckleworth for the celebration of their buddy’s wedding. Cather had been traveling the world, doing crazy stunts and, from what I inferred from comments they all made, meeting lots of women. He had missed the Nocturn War and clearly didn’t understand how bad it had been. No one really wanted to talk about it, so no one made much attempt to enlighten him. But he also quite obviously didn’t understand how dire the situation was even now, or how some of the paranormals at the table had risked their lives to save our world.
    “I just don’t see