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

by Cassandra Gannon

  He didn’t want to die. Why he cared he wasn’t entirely certain, but he’d put a lot of effort into staying alive. Still, Gion could accept a death like this, with war and plague falling like a shroud across the face of the evil world.

  He was not a good man.

  Arrogant, cynical, and apathetic to the point of cruelty, Gion had long suspected that his death would come in some painful and probably entirely justified way. Gion’s father had been a part of the Wood House, so he’d been indoctrinated in religious conviction since childhood. Not zealotry, but just a deep certainty in the existence of God, or Gaia, or what term you wanted to use for the ultimate source of Good.

  Gion always retained that faith. More than even he’d realized. Because, here at the dawn of the dystopia, he knew there could only be two camps: the righteous and the damned. And he also knew what side of the battle he’d be cast on. When the final judgment came down, Gion, of the Air House would burn with the other villains of the world.

  Gion was a murderer.

  Certainly, it didn’t thrill him, but Gion had skated on the edge of disaster since he was a boy. The odds of a happily-ever-after had always been stacked against him, anyway. His own choices had seen to that and he could accept it.

  But he could never accept innocents suffering for the sins of the wicked.

  Ty, of the Water House was an innocent and, right now, she needed him.

  Unless the plague got him first, Gion’s fascination with that woman would one day get him killed. Ty would never be his, so the obsession registered high on the hopeless, pathetic, and crazy scales. But, Gion could accept that, too. Because, Ty was the only thing in his life worth dying for. The only thing he’d ever believed in.

  “Gion!” Isaacs bellowed, again. “It fucking is your war, you bastard! Do you want the Air House to fall?”

  “The plague made us all fall.” Gion roared back. “It is the fall!”

  He really didn’t think about the words before he shouted them, which was unusual. Gion normally considered every sentence he uttered. He certainly never expected his retort to become the name of the entire epidemic. Later, he could never be sure how anyone else in the battle even heard his shout or why it had caught on so quickly, but the nameless plague had its official moniker: the Fall.

  Someone tackled Gion from behind, driving him to his knees and sending him sliding backwards down several steps. Gion whipped his sword around, aiming for his attacker’s head and encountering another blade. The other guy was fast. Sparks flew out as their swords slammed against each other.

  Gion’s icy blue gaze flashed up to his opponent as he scrambled to his feet.

  Uriel, of the Wood House glared back at him. “What have you done?” Uriel demanded. His brown eyes flashed. Dirt and blood covered the mahogany streak at the temple of his military style crew cut. “What the hell have you done to us?”

  “I don’t want to hurt you, Uriel.” Gion warned. “Just back off.” Uriel’s grandmother had been Gion’s fourth cousin. Gion wasn’t sure how that made them related, but he didn’t relish the idea of killing him. Uriel, like most Wood Phases, was honorable and righteous; committed to fighting the good fight and following the rules of both the Elementals and Gaia. Wood Phases might have been the best soldiers in the Elemental realm, but they were essentially innocents.

  “‘Back off’?!” Uriel echoed furiously. Their swords spun together in a quick successions of thrusts and parries. Uriel took the offensive, driving Gion up several steps. “Vonner is dead because of this disease! My baby brother is dead because of you!”

  Shit.

  Vonner had been a child. Barely twenty years old, Vonner was the youngest Wood Phase and the apple of everyone’s eye. Even Gion felt a pang of sorrow at the news and he’d barely known the kid.

  “I never hurt that boy.” Gion deflected a sword strike and resisted the urge to stab his distant cousin, or whatever Uriel’s DNA made him, right through his thick skull. “I’d never hurt any child.”

  At least, not deliberately.

  Not that the distinction mattered.

  “This disease is killing everyone.” Uriel took another swing and nearly detached Gion’s left ear. “You’re fucking standing with murderers and you want me to just back off?!”

  Murderer.

  The truth about what he was echoed in Gion’s mind.

  He didn’t have a choice about where he stood, though. Phases couldn’t just switch Houses on a whim. Gion had been born an Air Phase. That was the only Element he controlled and the only place he’d be welcomed as an adult. When the Council Banished Parald for attacking Ty and Job, they’d consigned all the Air Phases to hell. Most other Houses refused to allow any Air Phase in and no one would ever open their door for Gion.

  He was too dangerous.

  Another massive blow arced out. This time, Uriel actually made contact. Gion felt the pain of it sing up his arm as the blade cut deep into his flesh. Gion staggered to the side and gave up trying to protect Uriel. It had been a stupid impulse, anyway. God, only knew why he’d bothered.

  Gion drew on his power, again; something that would severely piss off Uriel, jus in bello stickler that he was. Blasting out his energy, Gion used it like a battering ram. Not killing Uriel, but shoving him away hard enough to send the younger Phase flying across the room. Gion ignored Uriel’s outraged bellows and continued his race up the stairs.

  He had to jump to the Water Kingdom and, to do that, he needed a clear space and about three seconds of time where no one was trying to kill him. Not so very easy to achieve down in the midst of battle. He had to get to his room and…

  From out of nowhere he heard Ty’s voice. Suddenly and without warning, it filled his head with frantic cries.

  “Help! Help! Help! Help! Help!”

  Gion froze, panic eating through him like acid.

  Ty was in danger. Frightening. Calling for him. Gion had no idea how such a thing was possible. Phases weren’t psychic. None of them could project thoughts ESP style. Except, that it was Ty and he knew with an absolute certainly that he had to get to her.

  Now.

  Everyone within fifteen feet of Gion found themselves blown backwards by hurricane force gales. The rush of Air scoured the room, so that even Phases locked in mortal battles turned to gape as the wind screamed passed them. Gion didn’t notice or care. He’d created his own space for the jump and that was all that mattered.

  Gion locked on Ty in his mind and jumped right to her. Ripping through the Water House’s barriers, he landed in the dead center of the Water Palace’s courtyard.

  And right in the middle of another war.

  The sick Water Phases were rioting. They shrieked at Ty, blaming her for renouncing Parald and causing him to release the Fall. The riot filled the kingdom with the smells of death and the twisting of flames. Buildings burned. The funeral pyres of the Fire House lit up the distant sky. In the pitch black of the night, the mob’s torches glowed. Their hysterical voices rose and fell. Their eyes glowed with mad frenzy as they attacked their target: their queen.

  Ty lay on the ground. Not moving. Barely breathing.

  Dying.

  Gion’s vision narrowed like something from the movie Jaws. A zoom in, pull out sensation that made him dizzy and unaware of everything else around him. He no longer saw anything but Ty. The world became black and white, so that the only color he could perceive was the vibrant red of the blood pooling around her. He didn’t hear anything but Ty’s fading voice inside his head whispering for help.

  They’d tried to decapitate her.

  Ty, of the Water House, a woman who’d never spoken a single word to Gion and who belonged to Parald, a man Gion despised.

  A woman who feared and hated Gion and all that he stood for.

  Who Gion was four hundred years and a million lifetimes older than.

  …And who was his entire world.

  This tiny, stubborn, inscrutable woman was the only thing that Gion gave a damn ab
out and her own people had tried to decapitate her. Gion couldn’t lose Ty. Everything in him howled at the thought. Without Ty, he’d have nothing, at all.

  Gion’s powers detonated like an atom bomb. For the first time since boyhood, the Air energy slipped past his control.

  Cyclones of power exploded outward, spinning Ty’s attackers into the sky and dropping them who-the-hell-knew where. People cried out in terror as they were tossed aside like kindling. A few tried to strike back at him, but none of them had even a fraction of Gion’s power. The mob might have been able to attack a small girl, barely out of childhood, but they were helpless against Gion’s wrath.

  Bones snapped. Bodies fell. Phases screamed.

  It was all white noise to Gion.

  He was already moving towards Ty, his heart pounding in his throat. Gion collapsed to his knees next to her. His cape floated out, covering Ty’s body as he leaned over her. “Oh Gaia, please.” Terror became a living thing inside of him.

  Ty’s blood filled the cracks between the cobblestones, her breath coming in irregular gasps. The gash in her neck was fatal. Not even a Phase could survive it. Especially not one who was just ninety-three years old. That was the year that Elementals came of age. Ty’s life had barely begun. She didn’t have her full powers, yet.

  “Ty!” He tried not to call her by the nickname. “Tritone” was more formal. It kept a safer distance between them, but Gion was beyond giving a shit about that, now. “Angel, open your eyes. Ty! Stay with me. Open your eyes and stay with me.”

  To Gion’s shock, she actually obeyed. Turquoise eyes fluttered open and dazedly focused on him.

  Ty was gorgeous.

  Granted, Gion’s opinion tipped towards biased-ness, but he truly thought that it would’ve been impossible for anyone to deny her appeal. Where most Elementals were tall and slim, Ty was an exotic mix of softness and curves. Her red hair was a wild tangle of curls around a pixie face, her eyes framed by blue cat’s eye glasses. She was always so beautiful.

  But, right now, Ty looked like a battered, bloody mess. Her clothes were ripped, her body a mass of lacerations and bruises. Gion felt tears burning the back of his eyes.

  This was a blasphemy.

  At this point in his life, nothing affected Gion. Nothing, but this gentle, little creature in front of him. Why the fuck would anyone harm this girl? Ty was a baby. So young and innocent that it was wrong for Gion to even want her so much. She was sweet, shy, bookish and as lovely as her kingdom.

  The Water Kingdom was the center of culture and art in the Elemental world. Its perfect, fairytale castle overlooked a shining azure sea. Gion could hear the roar of the magnificent fountain at the courtyard’s center. It seemed impossible that so many bodies could litter the ground of this serene haven. Or that one of them was Ty.

  She couldn’t die. Not here. Not now. Gion wouldn’t allow it.

  He kept his gaze locked on hers. “Ty, stay with me. Don’t you leave me here alone.” He folded one of his palms around hers. God, her hands were small. How could someone so small possibly survive this? Gion didn’t even notice when tears started falling down his face. Without Ty, the world was empty.

  “Angel, I’m serious. You’d better hang on or…” Actually, Gion had no idea what he could possibly threaten her with. His mind couldn’t really focus on anything except Ty’s wounds and chanting half-remembered prayers from his boyhood. “Hang on or I’m just gonna follow you wherever the hell you go. Think about that. Is that what you want, Ty? Me, stalking you into eternity?”

  Her eyes fluttered closed, again. Her throat had been cut. There was no way Ty could’ve answered him. Gion doubted that she even knew where she was. She had to be going into shock from the trauma and blood loss.

  But, Ty’s hand still tightened around his fingers.

  Then, Gion felt something that couldn’t possibly exist.

  Ty’s energy touched his and grabbed on, anchoring her to him. Locking them together.

  Gion’s breath caught.

  That could only happen between Phase-Matches. Gion knew that. And Parald was Ty’s Match. He knew that, too. She could only have one Match. Everybody only had one. A single person they could combine their energies with, so their separate powers built into one greater, symbolic whole. That all happened during Phazing, a sexual explosion that only occurred between Matches. That was the bedrock, biological foundation of Elemental life. Phazing allowed Phases to have children and unite with their other halves.

  When Ty renounced Parald and refused to Phaze with him, she’d turned her back on all of that forever. She could never connect her energy with anyone else’s, again. Not even this small brush of powers.

  It was impossible.

  But, Gion still felt her energy touch his and snap into place like a puzzle piece. Hope surged through him. He could never be Ty’s Match, but this exceeded his wildest expectations. It felt… right. Ordinarily, Gion wouldn’t have a chance with Ty, but this was something new. Something special. A foot into the door of her life. More importantly, if Ty could do something like this, she could certainly survive a partial decapitation.

  Gion’s powers seized hers as hard as he could. He closed his eyes, concentrating all his energies on Ty, sweeping through all the visible and invisible parts of her. The Air powers were sensitive. They could feel things that Gion could never see with his eyes. He could sense the flow of her blood disrupting the Air’s course, pinpointing exactly what arteries had been severed.

  There wasn’t time to get her to a doctor. Assuming he could even find one in the middle of a plague. Ty would die in a matter of minutes if Gion didn’t try something.

  Gion was one of the most powerful Elementals alive. He could accomplish things that no one else had the strength to even attempt. Gion had always pushed against the rules of the universe. And he’d never before, in his entire life, been more committed to shoving all the known boundaries of the world right the hell down.

  “You’re strong, Ty. Just hang on and prove it.” He whispered and then surrendered everything he had in him to his powers.

  In was much harder for Gion to hit a tiny target with his energies than it was to mow down a whole group of slack-jawed idiots. It required more control and precision. Not a great prerequisite for someone whose hands were shaking as they touched Ty’s face and whose perspective had slowed down to match her faint pulse.

  Gion focused all his energy on the worst of Ty’s wounds, rushing Air across it as fast as he possibly could. Keeping the blood from pouring out her neck. Keeping oxygen in her lungs. Keeping the laceration cauterized with microscopic concentrations of air pressure. Gion couldn’t heal her, but he could keep Ty breathing until he found and/or captured a doctor. He’d fucking tranq-dart one if necessary.

  The steady, continuous use of powers drained him, though. It seemed so small, but it took measured, meticulous strength. Like doing a chin-up and then holding it for several hours without moving at all, or keeping one sustained note in an opera going on forever. It wasn’t just difficult, it was also exhausting. Keeping Ty alive consumed every drop of Gion’s energy.

  So, it was a real pain in the ass when the Water Phases decided to attack him.

  A new wave of Ty’s sick and dying subjects rushed Gion, grabbing at him with their fevered hands and trying to pull him away from Ty. The first ones lost their arms and heads and anything else he could reach with his sword. Normally, Gion’s training allowed him to be a hell of a lot neater about his kills, but he couldn’t really do his best work with all his attention on Ty. In fact, it didn’t take long for their overwhelming numbers and Gion’s immense distraction to turn the tide of battle in the crowd’s favor.

  Gion realized that he two alternatives: He could fight like the warrior he’d been raised to be and survive… or he could stop Ty from bleeding. One way, he’d live while Ty perished. The other, Gion would die at the hands of these knock-off French Revolutionaries, but he’d keep Ty alive for a few more minutes.
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br />   The choice came at Gion in a rush and he instantly made it.

  There was no option. No option, at all.

  The girl was the only vision he’d ever found.

  Gion had always known that Ty, of the Water House would be the death of him.

  Chapter One

  Two Years Later

  Although the elements of this world constantly batter and crash against her,

  she offers a safe harbor of salvation for all those who are suffering.

  St. Ambrose of Milan- in a letter to Coxstaxtius

  Ty’s fingers tightened on the edge of the podium, trying to hide the shaking in her hands. Getting passed the introduction was the hardest part. She was sure of it. She’d actually managed to stutter out her name and now the rest of the group waited patiently for her to find the courage to go on. She could do this. She had to. If she was ever going to heal, she needed to confront the paralyzing fear and panic attacks. She had to be strong.

  Ty was the Queen of the Water House and, even if it there were only three Water Phases left, that still meant something.

  “I… um…” she tried to calm her mind and focus, “I started coming here because the judge told me to. But, that’s not why I stay.”

  Several people in the crowd nodded, either in encouragement or because they also attended the drug counseling group by court ordered invitation.

  For months, Ty had been pushing herself outside her comfort zone. She refused to spend her life hiding from life. And tonight, that meant facing her fear of sharing with the group. Except, it was turning out to be something even harder than she’d anticipated.

  Ty tried to come up with something else to say, but the words were an anxious fog in her mind. She wondered hazily if the people in the front row could hear her heart thudding. They must. The sound of it filled her ears, drowning out her thoughts. She felt the tips of her fingers go numb, the edges of her vision waver, and her throat tighten.

  She couldn’t get enough air.

  She was suffocating.