Or perhaps, Poe was feeling the ghost of the woman. Sometimes Chason felt Mara’s presence. He heard the music she loved or saw a flash from the corner of his eye and thought, for a second, that it was her. He especially experienced the sensations near her tomb, which was why he both hated and loved it there.
Finally, though, Chason had pieced together the real meaning of those last four lines. It came upon him slowly, which probably showed how far gone he was into madness. Poe’s message was so obvious that Chason wasn’t sure why he didn’t see the truth of it right away. Only someone crazy would miss the point.
Poe was planning to kill himself, right there at Annabel’s grave.
He wanted to lie forever beside his bride.
So did Chason.
He’d planned to finally rest when he ended the world and killed all the Air Phases, but now he saw the truth.
It wouldn’t matter.
Nothing he did would bring Mara back, so what was the point in doing anything?
Nothing mattered, at all.
It was hard for a Phase to commit suicide. Chason actually wasn’t sure how to go about it, so he figured that it would be much easier if Raiden just chopped off his head for him. He’d expected Raiden to balk at the order, but the other man had just nodded, pulled out his sword, and followed Chason outside.
Raiden was a good friend.
Chason began humming I’ll Be with You in Apple Blossom Time as they walked towards the sepulcher. The song was the funeral dirge of his old life, many and many a year ago. Chason hated music, now, but it only seemed fitting that it play at his execution.
It was such a shame there was no God or heaven. He wanted to see Mara, again. To hear her singing. To see her smile. To sit down and listen to her read fairytales or play one of the games that he’d never had time for. She’d asked him to play checkers once and he’d said no. He’d been so busy trying to please his father. Trying to be perfect. He’d thought that he could play later. He’d thought that there would be time. But, she’d never asked him to play again and time ran out.
He wished that he could ask her for forgiveness.
He wished that he could go back and just play one game with her.
Just one.
He’d give anything for that.
“What should we do about the barriers being down?” Raiden asked as they neared the tomb. “Sooner or later someone will invade.”
“I don’t care.” Chason told him truthfully. Nothing mattered, now. “After I’m dead, put me inside of it.” He gestured towards the tomb.
Raiden surveyed the sepulcher with a thoughtful frown. “I don’t think another coffin will fit in there.”
“So, just put me on the floor next to her crypt or something. What difference does it make?” It wasn’t like Phases needed to be embalmed.
Raiden lifted a shoulder in a half shrug. “It seems pretty permanent. Probably, want it to be right.”
Chason frowned. Was he crazy or did that make sense?
Probably both.
Yes. This was important. The only important thing left. He needed to make sure that Raiden didn’t screw it up.
“Alright. Hang on.” Chason headed over to push open the doors to the vault, so he could figure out how to arrange his own body.
Inside the sepulcher sat Mara’s crypt, also composed of white marble. Scenes of songbirds and garlands of apple blossoms decorated the sides of it. Chason hadn’t been this close to Mara’s vault since her funeral. He always had the overwhelming feeling of suffocation when he thought of his Match trapped in that long, pretty box.
Still, it only took one step inside the sepulcher to know that something was wrong.
He didn’t feel Mara.
He didn’t feel his Match.
A terrible wrongness griped him. A desperate agonizing certainty that Mara missing. She was gone. Not just from his mind, but genuinely gone.
No, no, no, no, no.
Chason lunged at the coffin. “Raiden!” He shouted the name. “Help me!” He pried at the massive stone lid, his panic and mounting fury giving him strength.
Two seconds later, Raiden was seizing the other side of the crypt. Grabbing the opposite end, he heaved it upward. He didn’t even ask what they were doing. He just helped Chason topple the lid onto the ground. It crashed to the floor, the corner of the marble chipping, marring the perfect carving it had taken three master Stone Phase craftsmen to create.
Chason didn’t notice.
He peered into the darkened interior of the grave and felt the oxygen leave his body.
Empty.
Empty.
Empty.
The word roared through him like a tidal wave, starting with a quake inside of his missing heart and growing so big that it obliterated everything else in his senses.
Empty.
Empty.
Empty!
His Match had been stolen from him.
Her body carted away.
Chason’s powers detonated like a bomb, the shockwave of it slamming out across the entire Elemental realm as he bellowed in rage. His energy was out of control and more powerful than it had ever been. Computers in all the Houses went down from the magnetic pulse. For one horrible moment, every metal object in the universe pulled towards the Magnet Kingdom.
Chason’s hands fisted around the edge of the defiled crypt, his eyes wild as his mind raced.
He couldn’t lay down by the side of a life and bride who’d been fucking kidnapped!
All thoughts of suicide vanished as the tsunami hit the shores of his consciousness, wiping them clean of debris for the first time since the Fall. For several seconds, the specter of insanity was washed away and Chason saw the world clearly.
He would have known if Mara had been missing before today. Someone took his Match while the barriers were down. They wouldn’t have done that just to piss him off. Not if they went and put the lid back on the coffin, hiding their tracks. How could they be sure that Chason would even notice?
No, they’d stolen Mara as a bargaining chip. They planned to use her body to get something from Chason. They’d targeted her because they knew she was the only leverage anyone could possibly have over him.
Someone had violated his Match’s resting place so they could extort him.
The black and red swirl of madness returned to his mind, clouding everything. Whoever did this was going to suffer so badly, they’d still be feeling it a week after they were dead. He wouldn’t stop until he had Mara back and the people who did this were roasting in the Hell that Chason no longer really believed in.
Dead or alive, no one touched his Match!
Chason’s glowing eyes flashed over to Raiden, too furious to say anything. The frenzy of his powers made the door hinges of the sepulcher pop loose and twist into modern art sculptures in midair.
Raiden stared back impassively. “So, am I not killing you tonight, then?
Chason took in his calm face. “You knew that she was gone.” He accused wrathfully.
“Of course. How else could she be returned to you?”
Chason nearly killed the man for his composure. “Who has her?”
“I don’t know. I can’t see that part. The future’s become too clouded.” Raiden tilted his head in puzzlement, his eyes staring at something far away. “It’s like everything is… changing.”
Chapter Thirty
Water is the noblest of elements
Pindar- ‘First Olympic Ode’
“In some Houses, Matches don’t sleep in the same room.”
Gion looked around sharply at that pointed remark.
Ty stood in the doorway of the King’s Chamber, a frown on her face. It was night, and things had grown quiet, but he still felt tense.
Restless.
“The Light Phases usually have separate beds, if I remember my cultural history classes correctly. Which I do.” She continued, strolling inside. “But, they’re just too paranoid to sleep with someone else in the room, I th
ink.”
“Do they even have rooms in the Light Kingdom?” Gion arched a brow, not knowing where she was going with this, but willing to play along. “Don’t they live in caves and swing from trees over there?”
Ty twirled the belt of her white robe, Gypsy Rose Lee style and ignored that. “The Magnet Kingdom has separate beds for Matches, a lot of the time. That, I think, is just their general uptightness, though.”
“Well, Air Phases sleep next to their Matches.” Gion said flatly, just in case she had any ideas to the contrary.
“So do Water Phases.” Ty tilted her head. “Interesting that my Match, born an Air Phase and the new King of the Water House, is in here all by himself, then.”
God, he loved it when she called him her Match. “I thought you might want time alone to adjust to everything. To me.” That was the real reason he’d been avoiding her for the past hour or so. What the hell could she be thinking of him, now? “You have to be traumatized by what happened, Ty. You were attacked twice today.”
“Nope. I feel fine. I always feel safe with you.” Ty shut the door behind her and engaged the lock. “I usually barricade my door at night, you know. Sometimes I even push the dresser in front of it and just wait for morning to come.”
Gion glanced over at the armoire standing on the wall beside her. Air powers blew it sideways, blocking the door. “Better?” He’d nail the damn thing shut if it she wanted.
“Thank you.” Ty smiled at him in total adoration. “I don’t need to do that anymore, though. Even with all the barriers down, I’m not worried when I’m with you.” She edged closer to him. “What do you think happened to the barriers, anyway? Parald didn’t have the Liberty Tablet, so he’s not responsible. Who did this?”
“Someone new must have come to town with their own agenda. And if it were anyone we were gonna like, they wouldn’t be hiding.”
Ty sighed. “I thought with Parald dead, things would be… normal, again. That’s never going to happen, obviously. But, I…” She trailed off. “Remember when you told me that you wanted me to share things with you? That that was the best way for me to deal with my panic attacks?”
“Yes.” Gion wanted to hear every thought in Ty’s head. Not just because it would help her heal, but because he just wanted her to talk to him about anything and everything.
“Well, when I saw Parald, again, I was scared. I didn’t want to be, but I was.”
“That was my fault. I screwed up.”
“No, you didn’t. Just let me finish, okay?” She took a deep breath. “I was scared and then I was angry. I was so angry, Gion. I hated him. I hated him so much for what he did to us. He took you away from me. On my ninety-third birthday, I should have Phazed with you. My parents never got to meet you, because of Parald. We could have had a baby, by now. We lost three years for nothing. He stole that.”
Gion didn’t say anything, because there was nothing he could offer that wasn’t another useless apology.
“He was evil. He would have raped me. In a way, he did rape Randa. She wasn’t willing. Not really. Neither was Isaacs. Parald apparently forced him to witness all kinds of things. He used his power to humiliate and to subjugate and he enjoyed it.”
“I know.”
“He even ruined my first kiss. That should have been with you.”
Gion flinched. “Angel…”
Ty kept going. “He hurt people. He released the Fall and killed my family. He tried to execute you. He enslaved the entire Air House. He almost ended the world. I hated him, Gion. I helped to kill him and I’m not sorry.”
“Why would you be?”
“Do you see me differently? Do you love me less because I’m capable of helping to kill someone…?”
“No!” Gion interrupted unequivocally. “Jesus, Ty. No. How can you even ask that?”
“You ask me that all the time. You say that you’re a murderer and that I shouldn’t love you. What are you doing in here, if not avoiding me because you’re blaming yourself for something?”
“I screwed up and you almost died!”
“That’s not what happened and you know it.” Ty scoffed. “You’re such a control freak. Everything isn’t because of you, Gion. Sometimes other people screw-up, all by themselves.”
He turned away from her, again, and decided to disregard that. “How does your head feel?”
“My head feels fine. Don’t change the subject.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Even if you did screw-up --Which you haven’t-- But, even if you did… so what? I’m alive and you’re alive and we’re a Match. You’re supposed to be with me. Especially at night. I can’t sleep. I get scared and lonely and you need to fix that. It’s your job.”
That got his gaze slipping back to her. “I can’t sleep, either. All night, every night I just… wait.”
“I’ve waited, too. For you, Gion. I didn’t even know who I was waiting for, but I still waited for you. I’m tired of waiting.”
Gion’s chest tightened. “So am I.”
“You love me, no matter what?”
“Of course, I do.”
“And I love you, no matter what. So, can we just be happy? Hasn’t he taken enough from us? All the things that have gone wrong, all the injustice and confusion… And we’re together. Regardless of what else happens, I have you and I’m so happy. Can’t that be enough for you, too?”
For some reason, Gion thought of Chason. The man’s crazed tears for his Match and Gion’s own anguish when Ty had been missing.
Things could have been so much worse.
Nothing was screwed-up. Not really. He had Ty. That was all that mattered. She was right. Absolutely right.
“Yes.” He moved away from the window and started for her.
Ty blinked as if she was expecting more of an argument. “Yes?”
“Yes, it’s more than enough. You’re everything to me, Ty and I still can’t believe you’d let me into your life.” Another woman might have just accepted any Match that Gaia stuck her with, but Ty, of the Water House would have renounced someone she didn’t love. She chose Gion. Ty was right. That made their relationship so much better. “Thank you for having me as your Match.”
“Thank you for wanting me, even when I wasn’t your Match. And we’re still having that Binding Ceremony, by the way. I expect great things from your vows.”
“Angels will weep. I guarantee it.” Gion assured her. “Let me preview on some key themes, right now. You never have to be lonely or scared at night. Since, we’re the King and Queen of the Water House, this is our room. So, get into bed, because you’re sleeping next to me from now on.”
Ty looked around the King’s Chamber and slowly nodded. “I’d like for this to be our room. But, I’m not ready to go to sleep, yet.”
Gion’s body leapt to attention. “Ummm… are you sure that you’re up for more than that, right now?”
“I’m pretty sure.” Ty dropped the rope and smirked at him. “How about you?”
She was wearing a white dress.
The white dress.
The one she’d been wearing the first time he’d ever seen her.
The one that had starred in thousands of his very, very graphic fantasies.
Gion’s eyes swept over her, the blood pooling out of his head and heading south.
Ty’s mouth curved. “Just something that I found in the back of my closet. Nice that it still fits, hmmm?” She did a little twirl. “A tiny bit tight across the chest, but otherwise perfect. Be honest. Do you think my breasts have gotten bigger since I was eighty-four?”
“I think that you’re playing with fire.” Gion stalked closer to her. “Come here, Tritone.”
“Noooo… I don’t trust that gleam in your eye.” She backed away from him, grinning innocently. “Why, I’m wearing this pretty dress just for you, but you look like you’re going to tear it.”
“I’m about to rip it right off of your body.” Gion agreed. “Come here.”
“If you ruin the d
ress, how can I wear it for you, again?” Ty came up against the floor to ceiling window overlooking the waterfall. “Think about it logically.”
Gion moved directly in front of her, boxing her in. “Take it off for me, then.”
“But, I can’t.” Ty’s lashes fluttered down with impish modesty. “I don’t have anything on under it.”
Gion did what he’d wanted to do eleven years before and gripped the edge of the strapless neckline. “Nothing?”
“You can’t wear anything under this dress, silly. The lines show.”
Gion let out a long breath. “It’s a really good thing that I didn’t know that at the concert.” His thumb brushed against the softness of her skin. “If I had, I wouldn’t have been able to walk away.” He tugged the neckline down so Ty’s breasts were exposed, popping out over the lacy top. God, she was beautiful. “I could never walk away from you, Ty.”
“If you try it, I’ll hunt you down.” Ty promised. Her head fell back against the glass as Gion began massaging her nipples. “Your mine and I’m keeping you.”
“I’m yours.” He’d belonged to Ty since the first second he saw her.
She smiled, cat like, her tongue touching the corner of her mouth. “Some compliments would be nice, right about now.” She teased, arching into his palms.
“Well,” Gion watched his hands squeezing her flesh, reveling in the fact that Ty let him touch her, “you’re much prettier than my last Match.”
Ty snickered at that. “Liar. Randa’s stunning and you know it.”
Gion couldn’t have picked Randa out of a lineup, but he remembered exactly what Ty had been wearing every time he’d ever seen her. That pretty much summed up the truth of the matter, as far as he was concerned.
“I prefer redheads.” He hitched her up against the glass wall so her breasts were at mouth level.
“Oh God.” She whimpered as he bit down on her nipple. “I love it when you do that.”
Exile in the Water Kingdom (The Elemental Phases Book 3) Page 38
