Treasure of the Fire Kingdom (The Elemental Phases Book 4) (42 page)

Kahn
needed a moment to collect himself, but he’d be back.  She could hold on until
then.  But, Kahn had seen so much death already.  Said good-bye too many
times.  Wasn’t watching his sisters die enough?  Did she really want to put him
through more torture, just because she selfishly desired someone with her at the
end?

No.

She
couldn’t do that to poor Kahn.

It
was time to let go.

There
was nothing Mara could tell Kahn that he didn’t already know.  She loved him. 
He was her brother in every way that mattered.  She’d made sure that she said
all that to him when she realized she would die.  And now Chason had finally
stood still long enough to tell him what he meant to her, too.  So Mara could
rest.

She
closed her eyes and listened to the imaginary sounds of the Andrew Sisters in
her head. 
I’ll Be With You in Apple Blossom Time
.  She didn’t have
enough strength left to sing it, but her lips moved ever so slightly as she
thought of the lyrics.

When
had she last heard the song?  Yesterday?  Last month?  Two years ago?  It was
all a fog.  But, she certainly hadn’t known the last time she’d played that
record it was really was the
last time
.  The final performance of her
favorite song.

How
sad.

How
very, very sad.

Poor
Mara.

A
surge of power went through the room and Mara’s eyes opened.  One of the great
things about being on your deathbed was an absolute lack of fear.  At least,
about other people.  Any other time in her life, a strange Phase jumping into
her bedroom would have had Mara screaming.  Now, she just blinked and wondered
why the girl was there.  Why should she be frightened of this woman, when she
was already so close to the end?

“Hey
there, Mara.”  The stranger smirked.  “I’m Daphne.  Don’t take this the wrong
way, but you looked
way
better in your pictures.”

Daphne
had honey colored hair with a lighter toned sandy streak at her temple that
marked her as part of the Time House.  Mara had though she knew most of the
Time Phases by sight, but she didn’t recognize this girl.  She was tall and
thin, looking very much like a college freshman, and her outfit seemed a little
bit… odd.

Her
shirt was covered in cartoon-style spiders with polka dot hair bows.  The
illness must have been affecting her eyes because Mara could’ve sworn the silly
bugs were
moving
on the fabric.  Almost like the shirt was a movie
screen and could somehow project whatever design the wearer wished.  Mara had
never seen anything like it.

“You
wouldn’t believe the trouble I’ve gone through to find you, Magnet Queen.” 
Daphne stalked towards Mara with a determination that belied her teenager
mall-goer facade.

Kamikaze
determination.

With
an Elemental, looks could be deceiving and age was always relative.  Daphne’s
gaze met hers and, strange clothing aside, Mara knew this woman had lived far
longer than Mara had.  That she’d seen so much more…

It
took Mara’s brain a second to catch up, but, when it did, she realized that
Daphne hadn’t arrived in the ordinary way.  Phases could jump between realms
and kingdoms, provided they could get through the barriers.  It took power, but
that was like flashlight power and Daphne’s energy was spiking towards China
Syndrome levels.

Mara
finally put the pieces together and gasped.

Time
Phases could travel through time.

Theoretically.

But,
they only had a one stop, fifty-two second window before the huge amounts of
energy it took killed them.  No one ever,
ever
, time jumped.  It was
literally suicide.

“What
have you done?”  How could Mara save this woman in the next handful of seconds?
 “My God, you’ll be killed!  Whoever you are, maybe Job can get you back to
your own time before you…”

“Don’t
worry about it.  I’m not that kind of Time Phase.”  Daphne headed over to the
side of the bed.  “I
am
on a schedule, though, so don’t take offense if
I skip the chit-chat.”

Mara
could feel the unstable energy vibrating around the girl, but she didn’t seem
to be disintegrating into dust particles like any other Time Phase would have
after they made such a trip.  “You can survive a time jump?”

“No. 
But, I can jump more than once.  So, at fifty-
one
seconds I know to get
my ass out of here.”  Leaning over, Daphne fastened the necklace around Mara’s
throat.  “Don’t take this off until you wake-up, alright?  It was a pain in the
cat to get.”

“What?” 
The pendant was long and sliver with stripes of white enamel running across it
like a barcode.  Mara glanced down at it and then back up at Daphne.  “Why are
you even here?”

“Because
I need your help.  The whole world does.  Things are about to go bad and you can
stop it.”

Well,
that was very
Back to the Future
, wasn’t it?

And
why had she seen
Back to the Future
and not
Singin’ in the Rain?

Mara
tried to concentrate.  God, it was so hard to get her mind to focus.  Layers of
disconnected thoughts drifted through her pounding head.  “I don’t…”

“Listen
to me, alright?  You’re going to go to sleep, but you won’t die.  Not really. 
The necklace is powerful.  It comes from the primordial Khaos.”

“Khaos? 
Like
Get Smart
?”

Daphne
squinted.  “I have no idea what that means.”  She shook her head.  “Doesn’t
matter.  Just listen, because I only have one shot at this.  The necklace will
hold your energy –your spirit-- like life support.  With it on, you’ll
seem
dead, but you’ll be alive.  Until the Fall is eradicated, you’ll survive in a
very, very deep sleep.”  She was talking rapidly, his form already beginning to
disintegrate around the edges.  “You’ll be in a coma, but your body will be
okay.”

“You
can cure the Fall?”

“No. 
But, in two years every trace of the Fall will be gone forever.  Tessie will
wipe it out completely, so even the disease in your body will vanish.  The
necklace will keep you alive until every last germ is called back into the
Health box and it’s safe for you to wake-up.  You’ll be exactly the same as you
are now, only healthy.”

What
was the Health box?  Who was Tessie?  Was she supposed to know what any of that
meant?  Mara had an excellent memory when she wasn’t dying.  None of that
seemed familiar, but so much was getting fuzzy as she neared the end.

It
was strange that she couldn’t remember so many details, but she still recalled
the exact second she first laid eyes on Chason.

It
had been overcast and grey, as it so often was in the Magnet Kingdom.  Mara had
been standing out in the rain with her arms outstretched, pretending that she
was home.  Pretending that it was the warm, tropical showers of the Light
Kingdom washing over her.

When
she opened her eyes, she’d seen Chason standing in the doorway of the Magnet
Fortress staring at her like she was insane.

Or
a mirage.

Mara
had laughed at his stupefied expression, pushing her wet hair back from her
face.  She’d waved a hand at him, beckoning him out into the downpour.

Trancelike,
he’d left the protective overhang of his home to join her in the storm.  Water
had poured down, flattening his neatly cut hair and pressed uniform.  Chason
walked across the desolate courtyard towards her, his high polished boots
getting splattered with mud and grime.  He’d stopped right in front of her,
droplets of water running down the edge of his jaw.

Even
as a very young girl, she’d known that he was the one.  That this was her
Match. Mara had beamed up at him.

…And
Chason had slowly smiled.

The
memory was so clear in her head that Mara actually forgot where she was for a
second.  Or maybe it was longer than that.  Mara had lost all conception of
time.  She was sinking fast, now.

When
she managed to focus again, Daphne was looking towards the window.  The girl
had been temporarily distracted by the afternoon sky.  “My God…”  She trailed
off, seemingly mesmerized by the endless blue and white expanse.  “My memories
of the pictures in the clouds are so vague.  How could I forget how amazing
they are?”

Mara
wasn’t sure what that meant.  “You should go back and stop Parald.”  She
whispered.  “It’s more important than saving me.”

“I
can’t.”  Daphne was fading like her skin was made up of TV pixels and she was
losing reception.  Her eyes met Mara’s, her expression intense.  “
You
have to do this.  For both of us. Fight hard, because you’re the only one who
can save our Matches.”

“What?” 
That got Mara’s attention like nothing else could have.  “What’s happened to
Chason?”

“Well,
I’ll guess you’ll have to come to the future and find out, Magnet Queen.  Your
Match needs you.  We all do.”  With that, Daphne jumped, vanishing like she’d
never been there at all.

Maybe
she hadn’t been.

With
her last bit of strength, Mara’s hand came up to touch the pendant Daphne had
looped around her neck.  What did Daphne think Mara could possibly do that
would affect the future?  Mara had never done anything important.

She
couldn’t even pick out her own wallpaper.

Even
hazy from a fever and rapidly sinking into a coma, Mara knew there was
something terribly wrong with this situation, beyond her own eminent death. 
Mara was popular, but no Time Phase would travel back to save her.  Not without
some huge and probably dishonest reason.  The Council never would have
sanctioned such a trip, no matter what the time period.

The
necklace felt was like an anchor around Mara’s throat and she wanted to rip it
off.

But,
she didn’t.

Daphne
said that Chason needed her.

Chason
had never needed her.  She was a superfluous queen and Match.  Chason could run
the Magnet Kingdom and his life just fine without her around.  Probably
better.  Chason was perfect.  Self-sufficient and noble, he’d survive just fine
no matter what the future held.

Chason
didn’t need anything.

Right?

Mara
slowly lowered her hand away from her throat.

This
whole thing was probably a hallucination or a dream.  But, if Chason needed her
–if there was even a chance that he
might-
- then, Mara would do anything
to help him.  Anything at all.  Even wear a weird pendant.  What difference
would it really make at this point?  It wasn’t like it could kill her.

Mara
loved Chason with every bit of her heart and soul.  Even the piece that she
tried so hard to keep separate yearned to be closer to him.  Chason was her
other half.

Mara’s
eyes drifted shut.

In
her misfiring mind,
I’ll Be With You in Apple Blossom Time
began
playing, again.  It was her Phazing Day.  Fireworks lit the night sky and music
played.  All her cousins were alive and there for her.  Even her irascible
father-in-law looked pleased.  It was the happiest day of her life.  Mara
laughed, her purple robes spinning around her.  And Chason smiled down at her
as they danced.

Mara’s
mouth curved as the darkness claimed her.  She fell into a long, bottomless
sleep, still listening to music play in her head.

Chapter One

Two
Years Later

She's dead;
and all which die

To their
first elements resolve;

And we
were mutual elements to us,

And made
of one another.

John
Donne- “The Dissolution”

On
what should have been his and Mara’s seventieth anniversary, Chason woke-up on
the floor of a jail cell.  Actually, he didn’t “wake-up” so much as “regain
consciousness.”  And being conscious was the
last
thing he wanted.

“Oh…
fuck.”

He
always hated that first moment in the morning when his dreams faded and he
found himself right back in the shit pile of his daily existence.  In the two
seconds that it took him to open his eyes, everything would come crushing back.

Mara
dying…  His life careening into nothingness and bloodshed and an anguish so
deep that it consumed his soul… Endless days without her that slowly drove him
insane… Her body being stolen right out of her crypt when the barriers between
the kingdoms fell… The terror of knowing that she was out there somewhere in
the hands of grave robbers…

Not
saying good-bye to her before he left her alone for the final time.

No,
Chason was never eager to greet the day when it would have been so much simpler
to just go back to sleep and dream of his Match.  She still lived in his
dreams.  Still smiled.  Still played music and wrote in those notebooks she
always carried.

She
was still with him.

Waking
up and discovering all over again that Mara was gone from the world was torture
every single day.  And this morning was even worse than usual.

Christ,
his head felt like it was going to explode.

Chason
squeezed his eyes shut against the glare of the light and groaned.  What he
remembered about the previous twelve hours was pretty much a blur.  Most of his
life for the past two years had been a blur, actually, but copious amounts of
alcohol were adding a whole new layer of blurriness to the usual blur of
despair and pain.

Chason
had never tried getting drunk before.  He hadn’t believed it was possible. 
But, staring at the date on the calendar --knowing that he no longer even had
his Match’s
body
-- made him want to spend their anniversary completely
intoxicated and preferably out cold.  And when the King of the Magnet House set
his mind to something, he did it better than anyone.

It
turned out fifteen bottles of vodka blacked a Phase out nicely.  All those
judgmental biology textbooks telling students that Elementals couldn’t
get
drunk, so there was no use in even trying, were obviously full of horseshit.

He
wasn’t surprised.  So many of the things he’d once believed had turned out to
be lies.

They
told him that if he worked hard and helped people, he’d be rewarded:  Lie.

They
told him that honor was important and that justice would always triumph:  Lie.

They
told him that Gaia or God or whatever you wanted to call that big magical being
in the sky looked out for all the good people:  Total.  Fucking.  Lie.

Mara
had the purest soul of anyone he’d ever met.  She’d brought nothing but
kindness and love to the world.  She harmed no one.  Followed all the rules. 
Selflessly gave everything to others.  Why would she not be spared?  What was
the bigger purpose in killing a woman who’d done nothing wrong?  What could
possibly
be the reason for Chason to remain and Mara to go?

Answer: 
There
wasn’t
a reason.

The
duties and responsibilities Chason had been taught for centuries –the
foundation of his very
self
-- were complete and utter lies.

There
was no order to this world.  No Gaia.  No merit badges for good citizenship. 
No
reason
behind the random events that struck down innocent women and
allowed murderers to live.  Nothing meant a goddamn thing.

It
was no wonder he was going crazy.

Going
crazy…?  Hell he’d actually
arrived
.

Ever
since the Fall, Chason had been slowly losing his mind.  Literally.  He was
nuts, in the “seeing things and talking to himself” sense of the word.  He’d
halfway hoped that becoming an inebriate might make things a little clearer,
but unfortunately the liquor wore off much too quickly and now he was back to
normal.

Such
as it was.

He
no longer trusted anything in “reality.”  He was so close to the steep drop off
into madness that he could feel the ground growing thinner under his feet.  It
was trying to trick him into falling.  Sometime he actually saw the skeletal
grin of his own insanity from the corner of his eye.

And
since he’d killed Parald, its beckoning smile looked… inviting.

There
was so little reason for Chason to stay in this place now that he’d
accomplished his main goal and destroyed Mara’s murderer.  He got by --hour by
hour, minute by minute-- on a pure effort of will.  But, the darkness was
closing in.

It
was getting so hard to resist the freedom it promised.

A
few months before, he’d only sporadically heard the music Mara loved filling
his head.  Perhaps, not a
completely
sane occurrence, but compared to
where he was today, pretty fucking normal.  At the time, the phantom melody had
cut into him like physical blows.  He hadn’t been able to stand the reminder of
his lost life and bride.  He’d thought even the occasional sound of it was
torture.

Now,
it played constantly.  Everywhere he went, that song went with him, repeating
on an eternal loop.  And Chason found that he… liked it.

The
Andrews Sisters spoke to him.

They
lured him with a world of apple blossoms and dancing with his Match under
fireworks.  As soon as he found Mara’s body, he could go there.  He could be
with her, again.  He
had
to find her soon… before he got so bad that he
wasn’t able to.

As
Chason’s thoughts and powers deteriorated, it got more difficult to think
rationally.  Once he fell into the darkness, Chason feared that he’d lose his
mind completely and he’d no longer
remember
that his Match had been
stolen from her crypt.  He couldn’t allow that to happen.

He
couldn’t rest if she was out there alone.

Chason
squinted over at the Plexiglas walls of his cell.  Where was he?  A prison?  He
had to get out, so he could continue looking for his Match.  It definitely
wasn’t the Magnet Kingdom, but he had no idea how he’d gotten here.  It was
hard to remember what he did, day to day, even without the alcoholic fog.  Time
drifted together and there was very little to help him keep track of it.

Had
he left his home last night?  Had even
been
home last night?

It
was impossible to know for sure.

Chason
closed his eyes, again.  The fortress was such a cold and empty shell.  Ever
since Mara died the Magnetland had been decaying around him and now even his
soldiers had left.

The
Reprisal had splintered after Chason killed Parald.  Some of them were
following Lansing, of the Dust House, now.  Chason’s former second-in-command
had led them away to continue the endless fight.  Some of them had gone back to
their homelands.  Some of them were… wherever.  Someplace far better than the
dying Magnet Kingdom, no doubt.

Chason
wished them well on their new paths.  His own road had ended.  He couldn’t go
any further.  He simply wanted to find his Match and… stop.

“Are
you listening to me, Mr. Hickok?  I can see you’re awake.”

Chason’s
eyes popped open, darting around suspiciously.  The fake name on
his
fake ID was Hickok, wasn’t it?  The Wood Phases had started stealing names from
Earth history for the Elementals’ secret “human” identities.  They were
especially fixated on the American West.  How had the voice in his head known
that?

“Hey,
your highness!
”

Chason
glanced over at the door to his cell.  Oh.  The voice appeared “real.”  A human
stood there, peering in at him.  Sullivan Pryce, the grandson of Parson, of the
Wood House.  He recognized the scar on his face.  Chason must be in the human
realm, then.  Mayport Beach, Florida.

Unless
this was another hallucination.  He’d never hallucinated about Sullivan Pryce
before, though.  How very odd.

“Someone’s
here to bail you out, king-y.”  The human said snidely, seeing that he had
Chason’s attention.  “No need to thank me for cutting corners to get you outta
here faster.  It was my pleasure.”

“You’ve
imprisoned me and now you’re just going to let me go?”

It
was no wonder that the humans were so backwards with that kind of strategic
thinking.  There were countless Elementals who would have kept Chason locked up
until his body withered into dust.  Chason was a dangerous man with nothing in
the universe left to lose.

“Of
course I want you gone, ya moron.”  Sullivan snapped, too stupid to even be
wary.  “But first, do you remember anything about last night?”

“Which
one of them?”  Chason asked seriously.  He was beginning to recall at least
three.

The
human sighed as if
he
was the one losing his mind.

Ever
since the Uriel, of the Wood House had Matched with Sullivan’s cousin Melanie,
Phases had been stalking Sullivan day and night.  The only other known half
human/half Elemental in existence, Sullivan was now the most eligible bachelor
in the universe.  Every single woman who’d given up finding her Match after the
Fall saw him as a magical gift.

In
return, Sullivan saw them as criminals.

To
him, the Elementals were all part of a cult that was determined to take over
his town.  No one had explained the Phases’ real identities or his own heritage
to him yet, for reasons that were beyond Chason’s fractured understanding. 
Possibly because the human wouldn’t want to hear it.  As much as Sullivan
frustrated the Elementals with his stubbornly human mindset and tendency to
arrest them, it was clear that they annoyed him more.

“Fucking
Cult will be the end of me, I swear to Christ.”  Sullivan lamented.  “Look,
during
one
of the last nights, your buddy Isaac Oakley says you threw a
Land Rover at him in the parking lot of the Wastin’ Away Bar and Grill.  He’s
pressing charges.”

“Oh.” 
That’s
what this was about?  Isaacs was such a pussy.

Sullivan
arched a brow.  “Of course, he also misspelled his own name on the complaint,
so I wasn’t exactly taking ‘Isaac
s
, of the Oak
lees
’ word for it
until you confessed.  Loudly.”

“Of
course, I confessed.  I would never lie about my actions.”  Chason straightened
his grey Reprisal uniform.  He still wore it, because it was easier than
finding something different to put on.  “It would be degrading.”

“Yeah,
if only all the criminals in the drunk tank had your kind of dignity.”

Chason
ignored that.  He
did
sort of remember Isaacs, of the Air House
arriving, looking to try and get drunk at the same place Chason was already
trying to get drunk.  Tension was inevitable given the number of times they’d
tried to kill each other over the years.

Job,
of the Earth House, the Elementals’ de facto leader, had made it
very
clear that there was to be no violence in front of the humans, but he might as
well have made it a law that everyone had to walk on their hands.  It was just
unnatural for some groups of Phases to not attack each other on sight.

Either
Elementals visiting the human realm needed to expand their territory to new
towns or Mayport Beach needed to build more bars.  They were a group with a lot
of internal tensions and the humans didn’t seem to know enough to stay out of
the middle of their conflicts.

Chason
sighed and rubbed at his pounding temples.  “I don’t remember all the details
of what happened, but I assure you Isaacs started it.”

Ever
since the Air Phase went blind he’d been an even bigger pain in the ass than
usual.  Chason vaguely recalled Isaacs sitting next to him at the bar and
popping a pretzel into his mouth.

The
bastard had said something like, “So
this
is how you’re celebrating
Mara’s anniversary, huh, Lancelot?”  Then, the juke box had started playing a
song Isaacs had clearly
deliberately
chosen as his own funeral dirge. 
There could be no other explanation.

Everything
after that was a homicidal blackout.

If
the Air Phase wanted to die, who was Chason to question it?  He understood the
feeling, all too well.  And killing Isaacs would have been a rewarding final
chapter to his life.  Instead, Chason was stuck in this dingy jail cell thanks
to the pesky humes and their
un
-aerodynamic Jeeps.