To Teja, the Fire Palace just looked like home.
She glared over at Djinn and Satour who were sitting on the red and black oriental carpet playing Nintendo. The flat screen TV showed a blonde princess and a lizard of some kind drag racing around a lava encircled track. “Are you idiots just too damn busy to answer me or what?” She headed over and unceremoniously ripped the plug out of the wall.
The two of them shouted in protest as the television went dark.
Teja remained unmoved. Very little moved her anymore. Since the Fall, all her emotions had become muffled echoes. Like sharks beneath a frozen sea, she could sense their occasional shadowed movement, but they were safely locked away. After Oberon died, shutting down was the only way Teja could survive.
Djinn and the rest of her family stilled reached Teja, though. She loved them, loud obnoxious morons that they were. Her feelings for them went too deep for even the ice to penetrate. She couldn’t feel the love way she once had, but she absolutely knew it was there.
That love was the only fire left inside of her.
Without it, Teja would have been frozen straight through. If she could’ve worried about anything, that would have concerned her. Not that she was so terribly close to becoming just… blank, but that she couldn’t quash that last bit of warmth. She wished she could shut off her soul-deep love for the Fire Phases. Those final remnants of emotion might one day threaten the frosty covering that protected her, now. That was the last thing Teja wanted. She couldn’t feel anything and she liked it that way.
“Shit, Tej.” Djinn threw aside the Nintendo remote in disgust. “We heard you, were just ignoring you. Why’d you have to go and screw-up the score?”
Was it even worth asking why they’d been ignoring her? Probably not. Satour looked like he was dying to list his grievances and it made Teja tired to even think about listening to him whine. “Where’s Hope?” She repeated instead.
“She’s not here.” Djinn bounded to his feet. Dressed in a t-shirt featuring Santa Claus submachine gunning the eight tiny reindeer and the blood-dripping caption, “Merry Christmas, Fuckers!” he looked pretty much like every stereotype of the Fire House that every got whispered around the Council Hall.
“Dad, you said ‘shit.’” Satour reported. He dragged himself to his feet and moved to plug the TV back in. There was a small, chrome sword stabbed in his brow like a stud. It speared through his skin, the hilt protruding just to the right of the arch of his brow and the point falling beside his eye. Teja always nursed the vague fear that he was going to roll over in bed and accidently blind himself. “You know that’s gonna cost you today’s round.”
“Shit!” Djinn glowered over at Teja like it was her fault. “This is your fault.”
“Hey, I didn’t come up with that stupid game.”
The Fire Phases were a competitive bunch. The whole household threw themselves into contests with all the restraint of Spartans preparing for battle. It didn’t matter what the competition was --sword fights, board games, snatching the last hot dog from the freezer-- they just wanted to win.
For some reason known only to the rest of them and Gaia, two weeks ago the whole family had embarked on their most difficult, treacherous, mind bending challenge yet:
Not cursing.
For one whole day.
So far no one had been able to win the game. Sooner or later, they all slipped and the whole contest had to start over again. Day after day, it dragged on in stalemate. Teja didn’t know who’d first come up with the deceptively simple bet, but it had sucked in the whole family. Fire Phases liked to curse. They were really good at it. Restraint took all their concentration and willpower.
Djinn shot her an annoyed scowl and then glanced back to his son. “You said ‘shit,’ too. So you’re out, as well.”
“Bullshit! I only said ‘shit’ because I was telling you that you’d said it! That doesn’t count as me saying it!”
“Of course, it counts!”
“You’re out of you damn… darned mind!”
“Fine, get the frigging rule book and we’ll see!”
“Oh, I will. And ‘frigging’ counts as swearing, too!”
“The heck it does, you fucking cheater!”
Oh Jesus, they’d written a rule book? Teja sighed and decided to rephrase the question. “Who’s supposed to be with Hope?”
Someone in the family had to be watching her. Since the barriers between the kingdoms fell, they’d all been keeping an extra close eye on the girl. Usually, the Fire Phases were all about independence, but Hope was… special.
“Special” being code for “eternally jinxed.” Weird stuff happened to Hope. Weird, dangerous stuff. And, if she got into trouble, she couldn’t just fight her way out of it and then burn the ashes like the rest of the Fire Phases. She’d need help.
Teja felt a prickling of unease.
All her life, Hope had been different than the rest of the family. Job had once muttered something about a kitten being raised by panthers. Time after time, she’d confused them all with her sparkly wardrobe choices and her lack of normal, healthy bloodlust.
As Hope grew up, the other Fire Phases had tried not to wince as she dropped her weapons during battle practice or refused to play chess like it was life-or-death struggle for food. They’d sighed as she arranged bouquets of flowers in the jars that held the blackened teeth of their enemies or strung twinkle lights on the monstrous stone gargoyles perched on the roof of the fortress. They’d stiffened a few times when she hugged them, automatically preparing for some kind of attack, and then frowning in disappointment when it didn’t come.
Hope was so cheerful and cute. So completely free from any guile. For a long time, the Fire Phase couldn’t help but wonder what they were doing wrong with her.
Teja remembered Oberon worrying about it, back when Hope was a child. Worrying about her endless faith and kindness. But, then Teja also remembered her grandfather walking through the massive double doors to the palace, decked out in blood covered armor and carrying a severed head… And she remembered Hope laughing with joy and racing over to jump up into his arms. Big hands grabbing the girl gently and holding against the chainmail her like she was made of glass. Oberon burying his face in blonde curls and squeezing his eyes shut, because he could feel the total, innocent adoration of this tiny creature and it just healed everything else inside of him.
And that was the core of it really. What Teja and the rest of them had finally come to realize and stopped trying to change. Hope was different than the rest of the family.
She was better.
The very best part of the Fire House. The heart and soul of all of them. The personification of why their warriors fought and bled and needed to win…
Because they were protecting their greatest treasure: The innocent.
Teja didn’t like her precious baby cousin unaccounted for even for a few hours.
“Alder’s watching her.” Djinn and Satour chorused, still eyeing each other for signs of capitulation in their “what counts as an obscenity” dispute.
“Hope’s with Alder?” Teja frowned. That didn’t make any sense. Alder wouldn’t go off the grid like this. He was crazy serious about keeping to the schedule. “Well, where’s Alder, then? Hope was supposed to meet me at the library an hour ago.”
Teja was doing boring research for Job on the Crystal House and she’d figured that the assignment would keep Hope occupied for a while. Besides, Teja needed a new set of eyes working the problem with her, because she was stumped.
According to Council records, there was only one Crystal Phase left and that was just flat-out not possible. A House needed more than one Phase to support it. Usually, anyway. There was no way Llian, of the Crystal House could be holding the whole thing together by herself.
By all scientific logical, the Element should have fallen, just as the Cloud House’s did. They were both smaller Houses, so the world wouldn’t end because of either loss. The Stone House would
be able to prevent the gems and shit for from vanishing. But, just as the clouds were now flat and devoid of pictures hidden in the fanciful shapes, the LCD TVs and circuit boards of the world should have been long gone.
Except they weren’t.
There had to be more Crystal Phases out there. It was the only explanation.
The problem was Teja couldn’t find the little bastards. She’d searched every book in the library and she was still coming up empty. It didn’t make any sense. The Council had always kept meticulous records. Even with all the deaths from the Fall, the other Crystal Phases should have shown up somewhere. The fact that she couldn’t find them, made Teja’s thoughts go to dark, suspicious places. Like maybe the missing Crystal Phases didn’t want to be found.
Like maybe they were hiding.
Teja didn’t believe in ESP or any of that crap, but she’d always heard whispers in her mind telling her when things weren’t right. Some kind of intuition on steroids. This Crystal Phase vanishing act wasn’t right and Hope being MIA wasn’t right and…
“He’s in the human realm.” Djinn said cutting off her increasingly catastrophic thoughts.
Teja tried to catch up with the conversation. “What?”
“Alder’s in the human realm. He went to get Missy.”
“What was Missy doing in the human realm?” The Fire House rarely went to the human realm except to fight in random wars, just for the fun of hacking people to bits, or to visit Disney World.
They all loved Disney World.
Djinn shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t ask. She brought a torch, though.”
“Missy watched some old TV show on Netflix and didn’t like the ending.” Satour muttered. “Said she was going to burn down the actress’ house.”
Djinn restarted the video game race. “Whatever.” He flopped down on a fancifully shaped wicker chair that Pele had liberated from one of the Water Palace’s verandas and then spray-painted black.
Teja counted to ten. “So, Alder went to stop Missy from starting a fire?” That didn’t seem likely.
“No, he went to ask her to watch Hope… Oh wait, this is coming back to me now!” Djinn snapped his fingers. “Alder was talking about switching babysitting rotations with Missy ‘cause he wanted to go look for his Match in the human realm and since Missy was already in Mayport Beach…”
“Forget it.” Teja didn’t want to hear all the crazed plans Alder had to acquire a human bride. God, the poor girl’s capture would probably be like something out of Planet of the Apes. “Just find Hope.” She headed for the stairs, absently sticking her hands in the pockets of her letterman style cardigan. She wore it all the time, because it had once belonged to Oberon. It made her feel closer to him.
Missy jumped onto the steps right in front of her, a sunny smile on her cherry red lips. Missy was always smiling, even when she skinned her victims alive and danced around in their flesh. The girl looked like a Kewpie doll and acted like Jack the Ripper.
“Hi, family!” Missy looked especially cheery, which was never a good sigh.
Teja braced herself for disaster. “What happened?”
“Nothing! I’m fine. Just a little hungry. Do we have any peanut butter?
“Where’s Alder?” Teja pressed, not fooled by the merry smile.
“Who?”
“Your brother. The one you were with in Mayport Beach about five minutes ago.”
“Oooooooohh… yeah… bad news about that.” Missy shook her shiny black curls regretfully. “Alder’s going to human jail. Forever.”
Chapter Three
“As for me,” she said, “I have no fear. Things have been as bad as they can be.
And whatever may happen must have in it some element of hope or comfort.”
Bram Stoker- “Dracula”
The good news was Hope finally had an answer for Teja’s “Where did the lost Crystal Phases go?” riddle.
The bad news was Hope had apparently been kidnapped and was now scheduled to die, so it didn’t seem likely she’d be telling her cousin that the mystery was solved anytime soon.
Her gaze stayed locked on the frosted door across the narrow hall from her. The armed Phases had dragged her into this industrial plastic prison and tossed her into a holding cell. It reminded her of that creepy science lab where Spike had been held on Buffy. Utilitarian and white, with impenetrable Plexiglas walls, it had been specifically designed to keep Elementals contained. And it seemed like it was working. There were no Phases in the cells beside her, but she could feel them moving around in their own small cages. Lots of them. Trapped.
There was no way she was getting out.
There was no way any of the Phases locked up in the rows of identical compartments were getting out. She knew that and still she nervously watched the only door in the place that no one could see through. A triangular yellow sign taped to its surface read:
DANGER!!!
Akkadian, of the Crystal House.
DO NOT OPEN.
Akkadian was still alive.
Hopefully, Hope could get out of here before he escaped and killed everyone.
Hope blew out a frustrated breath at the world at large. Darn it, how had this happened? She’d been trying to go from the Fire Kingdom to Elemental’s Library of Records in the Agora. Instead, she’d somehow managed to jump herself into the Cloud Kingdom, which was supposed to be deserted, but obviously wasn’t.
This was her jinx at work, again.
She should have just waited for Alder to come and escort her to the library, but he’d been late and she’d been so sure she could do it on her own if she just had some more practice.
Since the barriers between the kingdoms fell, Hope had been having a hell of a time getting around. She’d never been very good a jumping from place to place like the other Phases. Part and parcel of being a freak. When the fences were up, though, at least her landing options had been limited. Basically, the Fire Kingdom, the Agora, or the Heat Kingdom. Everywhere else, she’d needed an invitation to enter, so she’d ping-pong between the three a few times until she got it right. Annoying, but doable.
Now that there was an open door policy everywhere, she just kinda jumped… everywhere. She popped into places that she’d never been before in her life, scaring the hell out of the poor people who lived there. Today, she’d already seen the inside of somebody’s closet in the human realm, the Electricity Kingdom’s glowing gardens, and the Sound Palace’s royal bedchamber.
Oh, and Eian, of the Cold House’s shower. The guy had not been a gracious host. Not that Hope blamed him, particularly, but he’d been super annoyed. Right about now, though, she would have traded body parts to be back in that white tile room hearing him bitch at her, while he grabbed for a towel.
Hope had never been to the Cloud Kingdom before, but she was pretty sure that it shouldn’t be filled with lunatics.
She snapped off the last bitable chuck of her thumbnail and switched to her index finger. How did she even get into situations like this? She wasn’t a political person. She didn’t go to Council meetings. Didn’t control any House. She rarely left the Fire Kingdom, at all. Most Phases didn’t even know she existed. How could she possibly be accused of spying?
“So this is the invading force, huh?” The male voice snorted in amusement. “Typical. I get sent all the way over here to check on some terrifying foe and it’s Rainbow Bright.”
“She’s a Council spy, Zakkery.” Galen, of the Stone House hissed. “I’m sure of it.”
“Please. Aside from the fact that the Council has no idea we’re even here, I seriously doubt Job’s resorted to using pintsized humans to do his dirty work.”
That got Hope focusing on them. “I’m not a human.” She said, very distinctly.
At least, not totally. Granted there were almost certainly some mortal genes in her someplace. It was the most likely explanation for her allergies, and spotty powers, and the missing streak from her hair. But, the Elemental part of her was cle
arly dominant and that’s how she self-identified.
She pulled her attention away from Akkadian’s ominous door and glowered at the two men stationed on the other side of her plastic cell. “Look, you should let me go, before this turns into a bloodbath.”
Sooner or later, her family would come find her. Hope knew that. If necessary, they’d burn the Cloudland to ashes to get her back and worry about the body count later.
Actually, no. They’d never worry about the body count.
“Did you hear that!?” Galen crowed triumphantly. “She threatened us. I told you! She’s an enemy of my new kingdom!”
Hope rolled her eyes. The Stone Phase was the jerk who led the other jerks in capturing her. The last thing she felt like doing was listening to him. She glanced at the new arrival instead. “I’m just saying, you guys are making a really big mistake here. I mean just putting me within six hundred feet of Akkadian, for God’s sake! My family isn’t going to like that.”
“I don’t think we’re the ones who made the mistake, kiddo.” Zakkery leaned against her cell. “Tell ya what. Why don’t you explain who you are and I’ll see what I can do to get you right back where you belong.” He gave her a boyish grin.
The guy was stunning. He should have been a rakish guitar player in a rock band or the angsty loner slouched in the back row of a class who all the good girls daydreamed would ask them to prom. But then, this man had always been famous for two things: His exquisite face and his gruesome crimes.
Zakkery, of the Smoke House.
Hope frowned, not even a tiny bit captivated by his friendly, appraising expression.
Rule number fifty-five of being a Fire Phase: Never trust someone who smiles a lot.
“Is this supposed to be –like-- good cop/bad cop? Because I don’t really like either of you, so it’s not gonna work.”
Treasure of the Fire Kingdom (The Elemental Phases Book 4) Page 5
