Queen of the Magnetland (The Elemental Phases Book 5)

by Cassandra Gannon

  “Yes, I am. And you,” Mara turned to glower at Zakkery, again, “you are a son-of-a-bitch! I won’t ever sleep with you. I have a Match!”

  “Well, newsflash, sweetheart, I don’t think he’s interested, anymore. You need a new man to save your pretty little ass from this place. It’d be easy to convince me to slip you the key, if you slip me something in return.”

  Chason’s eyes narrowed. “I will kill you.” It was delivered with terrifying calm. “If you touch her, again, I will kill you. She won’t be able to stop me, next time.”

  “I thought she wasn’t your Match.”

  “She’s not.”

  “Then what the hell do you care who fucks her?”

  “She mine and I’ll… No.” Chason gave his head a violent shake, like he was trying to rattle thoughts loose from inside his skull. “No. She’s not. I can’t do this. I can’t…”

  Mara was terrified he might leave her, again. “Please, Chason. Please see that I’m Mara.” Her tone grew more desperate at his distrustful scowl. “For God’s sake, even if you don’t think I’m your Match, you have to see that I need help! You’d never leave an innocent woman trapped in a dungeon. What’s wrong with you?”

  Purple eyes swung back to hers, his whole expression changed, becoming faraway. “What is wrong with me? I am…” He didn’t seem to have any idea how to finish that.

  He just stared at her.

  “I’m tellin’ ya, kid, you’d be better off with me.” Zakkery volunteered.

  “Chason?” Mara stepped as close to him as she dared. He didn’t see entirely stable, but she knew he wouldn’t let her get raped and murdered. If she could just stay with Chason, she’d be safe. “I’m not part of any plan. I swear to Gaia. If you get me out of here, I’ll do anything you want. I’ll leave you alone, even, if you don’t care about me, anymore.” Tears welled at the thought, but she kept talking. “I won’t fight a renouncement. I swear. If you don’t want me, there are other ways to get rid of me. Don’t do this.”

  His face darkened. “Don’t want you?”

  “I want you, baby.”

  She ignored Zakkery. “If nothing else, Chason, you could at least tell Kahn I’m here, right? Even if you don’t believe me, at least tell him. He’ll come. Tell him,” she wracked her brain for some message she could send her cousin to prove her identity, “tell him for his three hundred and sixteenth birthday Prinny baked him a red frog cake.” It had been terrible. Shaped like the poisonous amphibian and tasting just as bad. There was no way he’d forget that.

  Chason’s head tilted at a strange angle. He leaned closer to her, like he needed to microscopically examine her face. “…Mara?” He finally whispered. It was barely a sound.

  “Yes. It’s me.” She scrubbed a hand over her cheeks. “Please don’t abandon me here. I’m scared.”

  He blinked, kind of in slow-motion. “Mara?” He said again, a little louder this time.

  “Yes.”

  “She’s Mara.” Zakkery put in, sounding more serious. “I don’t think anyone could fake that girl, even if they had the technology. The fucking Princess.” He shook his head. “It’s a shame. I always wanted one of those.”

  From the moment Mara was determined to be Chason’s Match, people had been calling her the Princess. Her Match to Chason was like a Cinderella story. Everyone said so.

  There weren’t many celebrities in the Elemental realm, but Mara was one. Style conscious Phases monitored her every wardrobe change. Reporters and photographers followed her around. She had visited more hospitals, school graduations, and building dedications than she could count. In human terms, she’d been Jackie Kennedy, Kate Middleton, and Grace Kelly all rolled into one.

  Chason was such a popular, public figure that any woman he Matched with would have been noticed. But, something about Mara herself had captured the public’s imagination in an unprecedented way. Unlike so many destined queens, she hadn’t been born into royalty or to a particularly noteworthy family. She was pretty, but hardly the most beautiful woman in the realm. She’d been an average student in nearly every subject, had a consistently polite but hardly electrifying personality, and politics, quite frankly, bored her.

  But, Phases everywhere loved her. They saw her as one of them.

  Mara was the underdog who made good. A simple girl from the backwater Light Kingdom who became a queen. The commoner who grew-up and won the heart of the handsome prince.

  Their Phazing Day had been media circus, with hundreds of guests and even more party crashers. Press from every House in the realm reported back to their eager readers about everything from her dress to their first kiss. All the Elementals had been rooting for them.

  For her.

  Mara had never understood it. It wasn’t like she’d ever done anything special. Even the Phase-Match was out of her hands. Chason hadn’t chosen her, it had been the will of Gaia that put them together. On his own, Chason would have picked a far more elegant Match. Someone with natural dignity and grace. Someone who didn’t have to try so hard to be perfect. Mara always felt like she was playing a role.

  How did everyone else not see it?

  She’d once asked Job why people reacted so positively towards her. He’d just looked at her with his fathomless green eyes and said, “You give people hope for happy endings, Mara.”

  Of course, no one ever asked Mara what happened after the happy ending.

  She glanced over at Zakkery and realized that even bad guys got caught up in fairytales, sometimes. In his own horrible way, he’d been trying to help her out and get Chason to ride to her rescue. Because even he knew that was the way the storybook went.

  Zakkery’s bruised lips quirked at her stare, quickly ruining any generous feelings that had started to spring up inside of her. “So, you wanna at least give me a kiss? I’ll let you pick where.”

  She made a face at him and looked up at Chason’s dazed, suspicious, stark expression. “Just take me home. Please.”

  “Home?” That word got through to him like nothing else. He focused intently, nodding at her. “Very well. Home.” He took a step back from her and vanished, jumping away to God only knew where.

  Mara’s lips parted in horror. “Chason!” He’d left her. He’d just… left her.

  Again.

  That was twice in ten minutes.

  “Christ, there’s gotta be a saner lunatic I could extort.” Zakkery grumbled. “Seriously, if he doesn’t come back, you and I’ll have to talk about who else might wanna take you off my hands, for a reasonable price. I’m not gonna pay for your food, and toothpaste, and whatever girly stuff you need outta pocket here.”

  “He’ll come back soon.” Mara got out numbly. He had to. Chason wouldn’t just walk away from her. He couldn’t. At least, not the Chason she knew. Used to know. Oh God, what if he didn’t come back? “What’s happened to him?”

  “My professional diagnoses: Two years of going bat shit crazy.”

  “Two years?”

  “Yeah, you’ve been dead awhile. You probably want to get some old newspapers and catch-up on the whole ‘Chason becomes Mr. Freeze’ thing. And maybe read how the world ended. Ya know, current events.”

  Mara couldn’t wrap her head around any of this.

  Her hand came up to grip the pendant Daphne had slipped around her neck. It seemed so ordinary, without any special powers. How had it saved her? What had Daphne done? How could she have really been asleep for two years?! How could everybody think she was dead? Why did they just give her to the Smoke Phases to lock-up in a cell?

  Didn’t anyone care about her, at all?

  Zakkery frowned as if picking-up on her frantic thoughts. “Hey, are you…?”

  Chason jumped back into the room, interrupting his question.

  “Here.” He tossed what looked like a shiny box at Zakkery.

  White writing covered the mirrored sides. Mara frowned as she saw it was some very ancient form of the Light Phase dialect. Mara had always loved la
nguages. She would’ve liked to study the strange cube, but Zakkery was already pocketing it.

  “Our deal’s done.” Chason continued. “Whoever she is, she is no longer your concern. She comes with me.”

  Honestly, that should have made Mara feel a lot more relieved than it suddenly did. At least Chason had come back for her, though. Unpredictable instability and ugly uniform aside, he was here and willing to get her out of this horrible place. That was all that really mattered.

  For now.

  “Deal’s done, but she doesn’t have to go with you.” Zakkery glanced back at Mara. “Listen, kid, I said I’d take him to your body and I did. We’re totally square, him and me.”

  Chason honest to Gaia bared his teeth at the man. “Oh, you and I are far from square, Smoke Phase. We haven’t even begun.”

  Zakkery kept his eyes on Mara. “I wasn’t fucking around. If you don’t want to go with Fruit Loop there, you can stay with me. I won’t hurt you. And, at least, I still bathe.”

  Mara’s eyes widened.

  Was he crazy?

  Chason’s head did that unnerving head tilt, again. Something about the angle of it had Mara’s heart pounding. It was like a bird of prey sighting on a rat. He moved towards Zakkery and she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he intended to kill the other man, right in front of her.

  Literally kill him.

  Zakkery shifted into a defensive position. “Go for it, asshole. I’m not giving you any more freebees.”

  “No.” She stepped between them again, her eyes on Chason’s seething face. “Don’t. Please.” She looked back over at Zakkery, her arms outstretched to keep them apart. “Are you trying to incite him? You can’t just proposition another person’s Match, even in jest!” Especially not right in front of said Match, when he was obviously feeling so… agitated. “You know I’m going with Chason.”

  “You’re not my Match.” Chason said. “And he’s not jesting.” His attention stayed riveted on Zakkery. He wanted to get by her and go for Zakkery’s throat. She could tell he was just looking for an opening.

  So could Zakkery. “I’m not jesting.” He agreed tauntingly. Smoky grey eyes met hers and he gave a slanting smile, only slightly dimmed by his battered face. “Be fair. What kind of man would I be if I didn’t at least take a shot at you when I had the chance?”

  “A man who’ll live past tomorrow.”

  Chason’s tone had her cringing.

  Zakkery ignored him. “But fine, kid. You stay with him. I had a feeling you would. You’re that kinda girl. Just watch your back.”

  “Son-of-a-bitch.” Chason made a sharp move to the left, somehow sidestepping Mara. “I told you what would happen if you threatened her.”

  “I’m not the threat.”

  “Who is, then? That Banished Light Phase?”

  Zakkery silently stepped back, getting ready to jump.

  Chason lunged for him and Mara caught hold of his arm, afraid of more violence. He didn’t even seem to notice. “Who took my Match?” He bellowed.

  Mara stumbled backwards as he raged right passed her. She gave a surprised cry as she nearly fell backwards onto the mattress.

  Chason caught her. His hand whipped out with almost unimaginable speed, steadying her. His touch jolted her system, right through the sleeve of her dress. It was more forceful than he’d had ever been before. It didn’t hurt but it felt… different. Strangely erotic in the midst of this nightmare.

  Mara looked up at him in shock.

  Something happened to Chason’s face. A flicker in his purple gaze, that was almost…

  Lust.

  He had never lusted for her before. He’d always been a perfect gentleman, who’d seemed perfectly content with their polite, slightly tepid physically relationship. Before, he never would have tugged her closer to him and just inhaled, like he wanted to breathe in her scent. Especially not in public. Now, he made a sound like he wanted to devour her and he didn’t care that Zakkery was standing six feet away.

  Mara found that very… appealing.

  “Be careful, kid.” Zakkery said quietly. “This Chason’s not the man you knew.” He disappeared from the room.

  Mara swallowed hard, finding herself alone with Chason.

  A pissed off, much more possessive Chason, with super good reflexes and a deep hunger.

  He tore his eyes away from her and glowered over at the spot where the Smoke Phase had disappeared. “Where do you think you can fucking hide that I won’t find you?” He bellowed up at the ceiling as if Zakkery could still hear him.

  He was swearing around her. Mara couldn’t get used to it. Couldn’t get used to any of it. She surreptitiously tried to tug free of his hold. Not because she particularly wanted to go free, but because she was feeling so overwhelmed.

  Instantly, Chason’s grip grew tighter, like he was afraid she might try to get away. His gaze whipped around to pin her with a fierce look. “You think to go somewhere, woman?” He demanded.

  His voice made her whole body throb. “I told you, I just want to go home.” She whispered back.

  “We are going home.” He promised darkly. “Mara’s home.”

  Chapter Three

  Her tragical death combined with many of the elements

  of her life to convert her memory into a sort of legend

  Henry James- “Hawthorne”

  Sometimes, back before she’d died and all, Mara had spent her afternoons at movie matinees. She didn’t advertise that fact, of course. She wasn’t even sure that anyone else knew she was powerful enough to jump into the human realm alone. Elementals weren’t supposed to go there, at all, and very few could make the jump without other Phases helping them. It had always seemed inappropriate to discuss how big her powers were. Unladylike.

  Besides, it would just invite questions from Chason as to why he couldn’t feel part of her vast energy. That would lead to an awkward conversation about their Phazing and how, if you looked at it from a certain perspective, Mara had never entirely connected with him. That there was always that deeper piece she held back and wouldn’t share.

  No doubt, that would make him feel uncomfortable.

  It seemed better not to discuss the whole subject.

  So about once a week, she’d tell her cousins she was with Chason, and Chason she was with her cousins, and she’d sneak off to spend two precious hours all by herself in a human movie theater.

  It didn’t really matter to her what film was showing. Whatever was playing, she ate her popcorn and watched. It had started out with her just wanting to see musicals. Mara loved music. But, as the humans made fewer and fewer of them, she found other films were relaxing, too. Eventually, Mara went to everything from romantic comedies, to WWII dramas, to those movies where the last place football team manages a comeback season thanks to their unconventional coach.

  Action movies were some of her favorites. Back in the 1980s, she’d even seen Escape from New York. She’d liked the film. She really had. Kurt Russell was very attractive, even with the eye patch.

  But, she’d never anticipated the day that she’d walk through the Magnet Kingdom and experience a Snake Plissken-y sense of déjà vu. The familiar landmarks were still there, but everything was different. Changed.

  Dirtier.

  Mara slowly looked around the Magnet Fortress, shocked by the destruction. A thick coating of apathy and despair clung to everything. Assorted debris lined an uneven path through the house, which was difficult to follow because none of the lights seemed to work.

  What had happened?

  Everywhere she looked, it was just… horrible. Like a bomb had gone off. Cobwebs and dust, broken furniture and shattered windows. The lands were dying, the buildings in disrepair. It seemed as if the entire Magnetland was deserted.

  If she hadn’t believed that two years had passed before, this would be some convincing evidence. Logically, she knew she’d been in a coma for a long time. Accepting it was more difficult, though. Physically, she felt
fine. To Mara’s mind, it had just been a few hours since she was last in the fortress.

  Yesterday, she’d straightened that mirror on the staircase wall. Today, someone had smashed it in as if they couldn’t stand seeing what it might reflect. A few days ago, she’d sat on the rug and played Monopoly with Prinny. Today, the rug was gone and the moldy game box was sticking haphazardly out of a hole in the floor. Last week, she’d listened to music on the Victrola in the corner. Now, it was tipped onto its side, hacked apart and covered in a confetti of broken records.

  Someone had destroyed her music collection.

  Chason followed her gaze and cleared his throat. “That was… It was a regrettable… moment. I’m sorry. I can replace it.”

  Mara nodded vaguely, too overwhelmed to even process the madness around her. “Well, whenever you have the time.”

  Chason crossed his arms over his chest, his attention coming back to her face, and yet not meeting her eyes. He hadn’t really looked at her, or away from her, for more than a moment since the jail cell. It made her uncomfortable. Even that lustful moment they’d shared was so different that she didn’t know how to process it.

  This man was not her Match.

  At least, not the Match that she’d known for so many years.

  Her Chason was gentle and neat and reserved. He held open doors for her and asked polite questions over dinner. His principles were rock solid, his honor unquestioned, and his hygiene above reproach. He was an officer and a gentleman, in every sense of the word.

  This Chason was so… dark. His eyes stayed narrowed, suspiciously, no matter who was talking. He spoke so abruptly and he made deals with criminals. He smelled like a brewery. His clothes were disheveled, his face much too thin. His hair touched his collar... A collar that he hadn’t even buttoned. He was even standing closer to her than usual.

  And their energy didn’t feel the same. They’d always had that cautious separation, but that was such a small thing. It did nothing to distract from the purity of their combined powers. At least, not that Mara ever knew. And Chason had never even seemed to notice her holding back. No, everything had seemed fine before. Now it seemed like there was a much wider gulf between them.