Exile in the Water Kingdom (The Elemental Phases Book 3) (41 page)

Gion’s
expression grew even softer.  “I
am
happy.  You have no idea how happy
you make me.  We can do whatever you want.”

“God,
you’re whipped.”  Isaacs muttered.

“You’re
just jealous that I have a Match and you’ll die alone, asshole.”

Isaacs’
jaw locked.

Ty
gave Gion a chiding frown.

He
lifted a shoulder in a shrug.  “What?  It’s true, angel.  No one can stand
him.”

“Yeah,
like you’re such a fucking charmer, right?”  Isaacs shot back.

“Human
brides wear white dresses, Ty.”  Tharsis reported, forestalling an argument. 
“With poufy stuff and flowers.”

That
got Gion’s attention.  “Another white dress?”  He arched a brow at Ty. 
“Alright, I’m ready to plan our Binding, now.  I vote for the white dress.  I
love
white dresses.”  He plucked the clipboard out of her hand and actually made
a note of it for her.  “You should definitely wear that.”

She
started giggling.

Gion’s
mouth curved.

A
surge of power went through the palace and Job and Tessie appeared.

…
With Uriel.

“Cousin.” 
He stomped towards Gion.  “I have heard the news.  When Parald took your Match,
it was an affront to the entire Wood House.  Although you tried to kill me, I
am here to help you avenge this outrage.”

“I
never tried to kill you, Uriel.  Notice, how you’re not dead.”  Gion retorted,
his attention on Tessie.  He tossed the clipboard aside.  “It’s about time you
got here, Quintessence.  Parald did something to Ty with those damn boxes.  Fix
it.”

Ty
got to her feet.  “Gion, you’re not being calm.”

“Believe
me, angel, this is me being
extremely
calm.”

“This
is him being calm.”  Tessie and Isaacs chorused at the same time.

Brokk
bounded over to Uriel.  “I think we should call Abram and rally the others. 
All the Wood Phases should be ready for this attack on the Air House.”

“All
five of you guys, huh?”  Isaacs taunted.  “Wow.  What an army.”

“There
are
seven
Wood Phases, now that we have Melanie and Sullivan.”  Uriel
corrected.  “Seven and a half, with Gion.”

Gion
flashed them an annoyed look.

Brokk
nodded.  “And seven and a half Wood Phases are better than
hundreds
of
fighters from any other House.”

“Except
Melanie’s not fighting the Air Phases.”  Uriel crossed his arms over his
chest.  “Neither is Sullivan.  My family is still too human.  Humans are breakable. 
I will not risk them.”

Brokk
made a “good point” sort of face.  “Of course, you are forbidden from warring,
too
,
Uriel. 
Four and a half
of us will bring down the Air House, then.  That
can be done.  We are Wood Phases.”

“I
won’t sit out this fight!  I was at the Battle of the Fall and I will be at
this one, as well.”

“Your
side
lost
the Battle of the Fall.”  Isaacs reminded them.

Brokk
and Uriel turned to scowl at him.  “We didn’t lose!”  They roared in unison.

“We’ve
never lost a war.”  Brokk stabbed at finger at him.

“Job
merely cheated us out of our victory!”  Uriel agreed.  “He sent everyone home,
before the Air House had been destroyed.”

Job
pinched the bridge of his nose.

“The
Air House isn’t the enemy.”  Amarna insisted passionately.  “
Parald
is
the enemy.”

Tharsis
upped the volume on the TV.

“He
poisoned my connection with Ty.”  Gion loomed over Tessie.  “Parald’s going to
die
today
, but first I have to make sure that my Match is okay.  Do
something.”

“I
will.  I will.”  Tessie crunched across the broken glass from the shattered
French doors.  “Nice work on your DYI project, here, Guy.  Seriously, I think
you missed some of the instructions from the helpful Home Depot folks.”

“You’re
hilarious, Quintessence.  Stop the comedy show and help Ty.”

Tessie
stuck her tongue out at him, but her hand patted his shoulder as she passed. 
“I should have known this girl was your Match.  No one else could put up with
you.”

Ty
frowned slightly at having another woman touch Gion.  Tessie was Gion’s friend
and Job’s Match.  There was nothing seductive about move, but it still made her
stiffen.

“Oh
geez.”  Tessie grinned at her, noting Ty’s face.  “You Elementals are so
wacky.  I’ve been touching Gion for years.  But, I’ve got –like-- zero interest
in stealing him away from you.  I
promise
.  Okay?”

Ty
flushed.  “Yes.  Of course.  I know.  I’m sorry.”

Gion’s
eyebrows soared.  He seemed astonished by the idea that Ty might feel
possessive towards him.  “Ty, I’m not attracted to Tessie.”  He stated
bluntly.  “Not at
all
.  I haven’t even looked at another woman since the
day I first saw you.”

“Thanks
a lot.”  Tessie chuckled.

Ty
gazed at her Match.  “You haven’t been with anyone else since the night of that
concert?”  That was the most romantic thing she’d ever heard.  “You waited
eleven years?  For me?”

“Yes.”

“
Eleven
years?!
”  Isaacs choked out.

“Yes.” 
The word was inflexible.

Ty
sighed, falling even deeper in love with this man.  “Thank you.”

Gion
lifted a shoulder in an arrogant shrug.

“I
knew Guy even before that and we didn’t fool around, either.”  Tessie
apparently wanted to cover all her bases.  “Completely platonic, from day one.”

“Tess,
can we
not
talk about you and Gion being together in any way?”  Job
requested in a long suffering voice.  “Please?  It… bothers me.”  He looked
around.  “And where’s Cross?”  If Job had his way, his nephew would have been
constantly followed around by satellite surveillance.

Ty
was certainly willing to change the subject.  “Randa was very upset and we gave
her a sedative.  She’s been through so much.  Cross and Nia took her upstairs
to rest in one of the guest rooms.”

After
that, Ty hoped to get Nia to agree to let Randa stay in the Shadow Kingdom.  Ty
wasn’t looking forward to having Randa live in the Water Palace.  She couldn’t
kick Randa out.  The poor woman obviously needed help.  And Ty felt very guilty
about Randa getting dragged into Parald’s scheme.  But, Randa’s energy still
connected to Gion’s and she’d been planning to take him away from Ty.

That
was kinda hard to get over.

Ty
retreated a bit as Tessie started experimentally poking at her.  Ty didn’t like
to be touched.  It made her uncomfortable.  She cared for Tessie, but general
unease had her stepping back.

Gion
caught Ty against him, her back to his front, and made a soothing sound in her
ear.  “It’s okay.  I got you.”

Ty
relaxed against him.  “I’m sorry.”  She held herself still as the Quintessence
resumed her prodding.  “Tessie, do you know what you’re doing?”

“Nope.”

That
was encouraging.

“So,
I’m
gonna get a room, too, right?”  Isaacs prompted.  “Any large,
opulent space will do.  Don’t worry about the view.”

“Of
course, you’ll have your own space…”  Ty began.

“We’re
giving him a
room?
”  Gion interrupted incredulously.

“No,
I’ll sleep in the kitchen cabinets, dickhead.  What do you think?”

Gion
arched a brow.  “I
think
you’re a liability and we don’t need you in
this House, at all.  Especially not if it means you get a bedroom in my home.”

Isaacs
jaw clenched.  “King for five damn minutes and you’re already back to giving
orders, huh?  This should be fun.”  He snorted.  “Even Parald gave me my own
room.”

“Isaacs
is a Water Phase, now?”  Uriel stage whispered to Brokk.  “Can we trust him in
the coming battle?”

“No.” 
Amarna chimed in.  “He’s always been loyal to Parald.”

“That
was before I became Helen fucking Keller, honey.”  Isaacs sneered.  “You think
the Air House has a kick ass disability plan waiting for me?  No.  I’m staying
here.  In a
room
.  Ty and I have a deal.”

Gion
shook his head.  “She never promised you a room.”

“It
was implied!”

Gion
made a scoffing sound.

“He
has to have a room, dear.”  Ty said gently.

“It
wasn’t part of the agreement, Ty.  He’s making up new clauses.  Next thing you
know, we’ll have to give him an allowance and coach his softball games.”

Isaacs
called out the big guns in the world of Elemental contract negotiations.  “Job,
you were there.  Tell good King Arthur here that my own room was
obviously
part of this arrangement.”

“Everybody
shut-up!”  Tessie shouted over the noise.  “God, let me work, huh?”  She
stepped back from Ty, her examination complete.  “Genius of my caliber needs
some respectful silence.”

Gion
promptly forgot about Isaacs’ living arrangements.  He actually nodded. 
“Right.  Right.”  He moved to stand behind Tessie, watching Ty worriedly over
his shoulder.  “Tessie, there has to be a way to cure this.”

“Don’t
get your hopes up too high, yet.  Let me just figure this out.”  Tessie toyed
with her silver pendant.  “Sometimes the Tablets of Fate do things that can’t
be undone, Guy.”

Everyone
knew that she meant the Fall.  The Health Tablet had created the plague and
nothing could change that, now.

Tessie’s
cautioning words were
not
what Gion wanted to hear.  “Fix it.”  He
repeated harshly.  “Ty is
my
Match.  Not Parald’s. 
Mine
.”

Tessie
rolled her eyes, completely unimpressed with Gion’s ax murderer scowl.  “Oh
please.  Like I’m sure poor Ty’s just
thrilled
about this mess, right? 
Stop with the Tarzan bullshit and focus on
her
.  The
actual
victim.”

Job
had stiffened at Gion’s vicious tone.  He shifted closer to his Match, far from
appeased.  “Gion…”

“Stay
out of it, Job!  It had nothing to do with you.”  Gion snapped and then swore
as if suddenly recalling that Tessie was Job’s Match, now.  “Shit.”  Gion held
up his hand in a gesture of apology.  “You’re right.  I’m not mad at Tessie.  I
just…”  He exhaled heavily.  “I screw up
everything
important and Ty’s
the only thing that’s ever really mattered.  I can’t ruin this.”

Isaacs
gave him a mystified look.  He clearly couldn’t believe that Gion would ever doubt
himself, even for a moment.

“This
won’t be screwed up.”  Ty assured Gion.  “I’m not going anywhere.”  She glanced
back at Tessie.  “And I’m not the only victim.  Parald gave Gion a fake-Match,
too.  We need to get rid of that.  I really don’t want Randa connecting with
Gion.  He’s,” she tried to think of another way to phrase it, but he’d pretty
much hit the nail on its proprietary little head, “mine.”

Gion
liked that.  His pale blue gaze gleamed.  “Parald’s energy will not touch her,
again.”  He addressed that statement to Tessie, but his attention stayed on
Ty.  His voice grew gentler.  “It’s a violation of her and I won’t tolerate
it.”

Ty
smiled at him.

“Yeah,
yeah.”  Tessie rewound the conversation to Ty’s previous statement.  “Anyway, I
would flip the hell out if Job’s powers got linked to another woman.”  She
commiserated.  “So, I get where you’re coming from and I want to mojo you back
to normal.  Believe me.  If I had the Love Box, I think I could try some
stuff.  But…”

“You
need the actual Tablet?”  Gion interrupted.  “That would help?”

“Well,
yeah.  If I had the Tablet in my hand, I think maybe I could do something. 
But, without it, I’m kinda stuck, to be honest.”

Gion
nodded, more to himself than to Tessie.  “Then, I’ll find it.  I’ll get it for
you.”

The
determination on his face worried Ty.  “Gion, he’ll have it locked up somewhere
and…”

A
tremendous explosion of power cut her off.

More
energy than Ty had ever felt in her life blasted across the Elemental realm
like an earthquake of the atmosphere.  Everything shook.  Paintings fell from
the walls. The shattered glass vibrated against the tiles.  A large stack of Plexiglas
panels that had been leaning against the wall toppled over, the bottoms sheets
cracking into jagged slivers.  A terrible roaring sound filled the air.

It
was like nothing that Ty had ever experienced before.

Like
nothing she’d even heard about.

Gion
lunged for Ty, pushing her to the ground and covering her head with his arms. 
“Stay down!”  His gaze went to the swaying chandeliers, gauging if they’d drop.

“Shit!” 
Isaacs braced himself against the doorframe.  “What the fuck is that?”