A grandfather wasn’t a rival. Not in the way Kingu cared about, anyway. With the imaginary ghost of Hope’s great lover fading from his mind, he could see that he’d overreacted. Even if the bracelet had been a gift from another man, what difference would it have made? What did it matter what she felt or secretly wanted? The woman was trapped here with him and no one else could touch her. Let her have whatever she wished to make her feel secure.
“The trinket clearly had great value to you.”
“Yes, it does! You can’t just ask me to replace it!”
“I understand that, now. And I have reconsidered.”
What was wrong with him? He’d wanted the woman to show some justified fear and, now that she was watching him with genuine distress, all he wanted to do was calm her. Make her stop crying at him and smile. She hadn’t smiled at him yet and he desperately desired that. Kingu realized that he wanted Hope’s smiles far more than he wanted her to be frightened of him.
“I will allow you to keep the bracelet.”
There. Maybe that would make her happy.
She still didn’t trust him. He could tell by her suspicious frown. “You will?”
“Yes.”
“You promise you’re not going to try and steal it the second my back is turned?”
“I promise.”
He knew what it was to have so little that belonged to you that you were constantly on guard against someone taking it away. When he’d been at his mother’s house, he’d had several books that were his. Books that he’d stolen from the Air House library and that Kay had never read. It hadn’t even mattered what they were about, Kingu had treasured battered tomes because they were his. Just his. Something solid and real to hold on to during his captivity.
Now he had his own captive who needed that kind comfort.
The thought made him depressed. Made him feel dirty.
Kingu sighed and moved away from her. “You have my word. The bracelet is yours and will remain as such. Would you like anything else? I promise you, I can get you whatever you desire and you can keep it. It would be yours.” He really wished she’d ask for something so he could give it to her and make her happy, again. “How about a unicorn?”
Hope shook her head.
Shit.
Kingu was out of ideas. Before he’d come to the Cloud Kingdom he’d spent centuries only talking to Kay and occasionally Gion or Parald. He had no idea what to say to this girl. “Do you want to see your room?” He finally tried.
She ran a wrist under her nose and nodded. “Alright.” She still sounded subdued. Not sulky, but like she was apprehensive.
Kingu hated that new caution in her tone.
“Alright.” He repeated, basically just so he’d have something to say. “Well, it’s this way.”
He started down the hall and actually reached the door, before remembering that he’d only assigned her this room as punishment for lying to him about how much she liked the rest of the house. Gods, that seemed petty, all of a sudden. He paused with his hand on the knob, wondering if he could snap his fingers and redecorate the whole thing before she saw.
“What’s the matter?”
“I think you’d like another room better.” He admitted. “You can choose any of them and I’ll decorate it however you wish.” Once again, he prayed to all the gods who ignored him that she’d agree to let him create some space she’d be happy in. He could even make it pink, if she wanted. He despised the color, but odds seemed good that he wasn’t going to ever see the inside of the room, anyway.
“I’m sure this one will be fine.” She seemed confused, now. “Don’t you like this room? You designed it, right?”
Maybe he could lie and blame it on someone else. “Well… Zakkery helped with some of the décor in the house.” The moron had given him a naked poster of some human actress as a “fortress warming gift.” He further suggested that it was the only female who’d ever enter the house, given Kingu’s impossible standards and lousy attitude. Kingu had crumpled the poster up and tossed it at his head.
That sort of counted as helping him decorate.
He reluctantly pushed open the door to the bedchamber, already preparing to claim he’d never even seen this room before and that the Smoke Phase must have snuck in and furnished it unsupervised.
“Oh.” Hope breathed as she took in the spectacle before her.
He braced himself.
“Kingu, it’s beautiful.” She moved over the threshold as if in a trace.
Kingu blinked.
It wasn’t a lie or a trick. Hope was genuinely enraptured with the horrible space. Kingu had created it and even he thought it was grotesque. Scenes of twisted hellfire crawled up the walls, painted in glowing crimsons and yellows. Victims writhed in the punishing flames, their bodies contorted in agony. The bed sat in the middle of the room, the massive posts of it as thick as tree trunks and supporting acres of draping ebony fabric from the canopy. It looked like a tomb... Of a vampire… In the center of hell. He’d even doused the ceiling in red.
No woman could possibly want to sleep here. And yet Hope was bouncing around, examining all the gruesome murals on the wall with something approaching delight.
Kingu stood there for a moment in total shock. Why in the world was a Color Phase so pleased with room painted like a crime scene? Didn’t they usually like rainbows and dragonflies and…
Actually, who cared?
He shook his head and stopped trying to analyze Hope’s reaction. What did he know about women, anyway? To hell with the reasons behind her pleasure. She was happy, again, and he wasn’t looking a gift horse in the mouth.
“Come to think of it, Zakkery didn’t have any input on this room, at all. This was all my idea.”
“Oh, you did a wonderful job.” Hope opened a door to the connected balcony and made a face at the pastel landscape beyond. She closed the door again and pulled the black curtains closed, nodding in satisfaction. “I’m going to redo my room at home to look just like this.”
This was her home, now. Kingu wasn’t stupid enough to point that out though. “I can make you more some clothes, too.” Or at least he could try. He wasn’t sure even his powers could create the bizarre outfits she seemed to prefer. “Just tell me what you’d like and, in the meantime, there are some… plain things in the closet.” Which happened to be shaped like a casket.
Hope frowned. “How do you know my size?” She looked kind of annoyed. He had no idea why.
“I have a good eye.” And it had been measuring the lush curves of body all day. “Believe me, everything’s going to fit.”
“Well, I’m going to start a new diet, so…”
“No!” He blurted out, appalled by the very idea. It would be blasphemy to alter her figure. “No. Gods, don’t do that. Your body is perfect.”
She turned to meet his gaze again and caught him staring at her really glorious backside.
Kingu swiftly glanced away.
In that second, he had the horrible feeling that Hope could sense exactly how much he wanted her. How could she miss it? It still felt like a column of pure heat connected them. Kingu swore he could feel it against his energy, scorching along the edges of his control trying to reach for her.
He deliberately hadn’t crossed the threshold into Hope’s room and he wasn’t going to without permission. Which would obviously never, ever come. The continued urgency of his burning need for the woman surprised him, though. The desire to just stalk into her bedroom and touch her for as long as she would allow. Even knowing how much he’d wanted Hope from the first, Kingu was unnerved by how fast the feeling was growing.
Was it some kind of biological response or a side effect of his developing powers? Kingu didn’t know. But, if she smiled at him –gave Kingu even the smallest hint that she wasn’t repulsed by him or desired him even a tiny bit-- he had the horrible feeling that he’d cross the bedchamber, push her down onto the gigantic mattress and show her what ancient gods did to their pretty
little captives.
And she would feel like heaven.
Kingu dropped his eyes and cleared his throat. “So… are you hungry?”
“No.” Hope was still staring at him. “Kingu, why did you want the bracelet?”
He winced. Were they not past that? And weren’t his motivations obvious? “I thought it was a gift from a suitor and I didn’t like you wearing something that came from another man. I truly am sorry I scared you. I was out of line.” To his knowledge, that was the first time he’d ever apologized and actually meant it.
He was extremely sorry that she was wary of him, now. Kingu wanted Hope back the way she’d been before. He wanted her to treat him like he was a person and not a monster. He hadn’t known how important that was until she’d backed away from him.
Hope was quiet for a long moment. “I think --No, I know-- that my family would have reacted the same way if their Mat… girlfriend was wearing something from her past lover. Warriors are very possessive.”
Kingu had never heard of a Color Phase warrior, but he nodded anyway. He would have nodded at anything she said that even hinted at clemency.
“I fear I am very possessive, too.” He allowed carefully. Not just possessive, insanely, violently obsessed with this impractical little creature. He would kill any other man who tried to claim her. There wouldn’t even be a choice. “It came over me suddenly and I was… wrong in the way I acted.”
Hope bit her lower lip. “I can understand that. I wouldn’t like it if you refused to part with some memento from an old girlfriend. I was raised to be a warrior, too, you know.”
“Oh.” That was the best he could manage. In three sentences she’d packed in so much nonsense.
That a god would have an “old girlfriend.”
That, even if he did, Hope would care.
That she’d somehow been raised as a warrior in the Candylandish countryside of the Color Kingdom.
That Hope was honestly forgiving him for making her cry.
What was he supposed to say to any of that gibberish? The woman was either the most trusting soul in the history of time or an incredibly sophisticated liar. Kingu willed her to be a liar. It would be so much simpler if this was all an act. Looking at her innocent face, though, he knew that he wasn’t going to get off that easy.
She hadn’t been sent here to kill him or to trick him. Kingu had been kidding himself with that idea. His luck just wasn’t that good. No, Hope was completely genuine in her purity.
How could someone this naive, possibly survive here with him?
Kingu sighed, covering his eyes with his palm. “You shouldn’t forgive me for scaring you. You should take it as an indication that I’m a monster.” He hated it when she watched him fearfully, but he still felt compelled to warn her away.
For her own good, she should run.
“Oh, I know you’re a monster.” Hope readily agreed. “Speaking of which… you don’t have any other woman here, right?”
“No.” He muttered. So she still saw him as monster. Wonderful.
“Are you planning to get any more?”
He snorted. “No.” Hell, it had taken him forever to even find one woman. Now that he finally had Hope, Kingu had no intention of ever going through this ordeal, again. Truthfully, he didn’t even want another woman. All he’d ever wanted was his woman and now that he’d found her, he didn’t see the point in shopping for any others. “I think I’ll have my hands full with just you.”
She appeared content with that answer. “Good. To avoid future problems, maybe we should talk about our love lives and clear up any misconceptions.”
“I don’t have a love life.” Kingu said flatly.
“Me neither.”
They stared at each other.
Encouraged, Kingu pressed on. “What about a Match?” All Phases had those. One day, some useless Elemental might lock onto Hope’s energy like a parasite and connect with her in ways that Kingu would never be able to touch.
Until Kingu beheaded the bastard.
Which he absolutely would.
“Oh, I don’t have a Match. Probably not, anyway. Although, my grandfather said that…” Hope paused and then crossed over to sit on the bed, looking a bit cagey. “Well, I’ll tell you about that later.”
“Very well.” Her grandfather was still a loaded topic so soon after the bracelet incident. Kingu was more than willing to not discuss whatever great wisdom that do-gooder had imparted.
“So,” Hope cleared her throat, “Zakkery said you don’t have a Match, either.”
Kingu tried not to watch the black silk sheets slide against Hope legs as she hopped up onto the mattress. Well, no. Actually, he didn’t try. At all. He unabashedly studied the soft pink flesh peeking through the shredded remnants of her rainbow colored tights. Then his eyes reached the plastic restraint on her ankle and he looked away in self-loathing.
“Kingu?”
“Gods don’t have Matches.” That was true, but also an evasion. Matches were an exclusively Elemental phenomena, but gods had mates. Kingu was sure of that. Every species had someone to share their lives with. Kingu didn’t belong to any normal taxonomic classifications, though. There was no “other half” waiting for him out there, because he was never supposed to exist, at all.
Created not born.
However he was connected to Hope, it wasn’t because of destiny or Gaia linking them. It was just because his powers told him she was his.
“You know, you shouldn’t give up hope.”
Kingu’s mouth curved into a cruel smile at her encouraging words. “Believe me. I won’t.” Now that he had Hope, he was never giving her up. Even if he did have to keep her at his side with a plastic manacle.
Monster.
“Good. Because Tessie, of the Earth House isn’t an Elemental, but she still Phazed with Job.” Hope nodded earnestly. “She was his Match. He could feel it. And that that was enough to let them Phaze, even though she was a whole different… thing. Whatever Tessie is. I don’t know. Divine being, I guess.”
Divine being his ass. His bitch of an aunt had locked him in the fucking Air Kingdom with his psychotic mother for twelve hundred years. “Tessie’s mostly just a human.” He snapped.
Hope flinched at his tone. “Do you not like humans? Or people who are maybe just –like-- part human?” Her voice was hesitant.
Kingu regarded her like she was crazy. “No, I don’t like humans.”
What kind of question was that? What was there to like about that mass of teaming bacteria? Plus, the fucking Babylonians had killed him off in all their myths and Kingu was still holding a grudge.
Anyway, the last thing he wanted to talk about was his aunt. Hope apparently didn’t know that Kingu and Tessie were related, and he’d just as soon keep it that way. Kingu was sure to be the bad guy in any stories the Phases told. The Quintessence probably had all sorts of heroic tales about how she planned to slay him and save all the little children of the world.
Kingu didn’t want Hope to know anything about his past.
Hope was back to watching him worriedly, again. So, Kingu figured he’d better get the conversation on safe ground. “Explain why you can’t have a Match.” Maybe not casual small talk material, but he needed to know.
It still seemed likely that she was holding out for some Phase in shining armor to come and rescue her from the dragon. Even though he’d just gotten through telling himself that it didn’t matter if she loved another, because Kingu was the one who physically possessed her… it was already pissing him off, thinking about Hope longing for another man.
“Because, I’m jinxed.”
He hadn’t been expecting that answer. “Jinxed?”
“I have bad luck. Really. It’s good that I’m warning you now, so you’ll be prepared. Strange things just happen to me.”
Finally, he believed she was telling the truth about something. “Like gladiator fights?”
“Yeah. And getting locked in jail by Banished P
hases. And sometimes there are –you know-- walls falling down and crushing people, or bats attacking, or… birth defects.” Hope ducked her eyes as if she was embarrassed. “I was born wrong. That’s why the doctors all said I will probably never have a Match. Not enough energy to Phaze with another Elemental and so,” she shrugged, “no Match.”
Kingu’s powers gave another satisfied purr, latching onto the last part first. So she couldn’t Phaze with one of those pathetic males.
Good.
Still, it surprised him that Hope would think she was somehow flawed. Her soul was a like a deep, clear pool of crystal blue. She was so… pretty. So vibrant and alive. How could she consider herself wrong?
Kingu had assumed that the other Phases cared for Hope, because of her soft, pampered exterior. But, maybe he’d been giving those morons too much credit. Maybe they rejected her because she lacked their laughable “powers.” Maybe the other Color Phases were malicious little bastards who tormented her for being different.
Empathy filled him, quickly followed by anger. Kingu knew what it was to be different. To be ridiculed and hated. Normal society despised anyone who didn’t fit the mold. Hope was definitely unique, so perhaps the vast mob of mindless Phases resented her. Of course they would, given their own dull limitations and her… sparkle.
Rationally, it was pointless to be so livid on Hope’s behalf. He knew that. No matter what she’d endured, Kingu had surely faced worse in his countless lifetimes. But still, the fury didn’t abate. Imagining Hope facing the kind of cruelty that existed in the world…
No. Unacceptable.
“Do the rest of your people ostracize you?” Another question with no right answer. If Hope didn’t fit in with the Phases, it might be easier for her to transition into her new life without them. Which was good. But if those insects had shunned her, he was going to have to hunt down the offenders and end their pitiful little lives.
No one was allowed to hurt this girl. Her earlier tears still ate at him.
“Oh, no! My family never treated me like a freak.”
“You love these people?”
“Of course I do. They’ll be upset that I’m missing, but they’ll understand. Anyone in my family would be reacting this way if they found someone like you waiting for them.”
Treasure of the Fire Kingdom (The Elemental Phases Book 4) Page 12
