Queen of the Magnetland (The Elemental Phases Book 5)

by Cassandra Gannon

  The woman seemed so much more “real” than anything else in his life.

  The unheated water flattened his hair, which seemed very long all of a sudden, and Chason realized he even knew where he was and what had happened to him today. For once he didn’t have to fight to see “reality.”

  He was in the bathroom that connected to bedchamber. Mara had it renovated about five years before and he remembered helping her pick out the colors. He knew that he’d had breakfast with the woman downstairs. He’d promised to take her to look for Kahn, so that’s what he was getting ready to do.

  It was all so clear. There was no fog clouding his thinking or threatening to pull him under. His thoughts didn’t wander off in tangents. The rages were still a problem, but he hadn’t harmed the woman during the scene at breakfast and she’d seemed unfazed by his outburst. All in all, this was the most normal he’d felt since the Fall.

  Either he was finally one hundred percent crazy or he was getting… better.

  It was all because of the woman. Her presence gave him back his sanity. She was healing broken pieces of his mind and making him whole. That alone was reason enough to keep her, but it wasn’t the only reason he had no intention of ever –ever--letting her escape.

  No matter who she was, Chason needed her and wanted her and… liked her.

  That was the main reason he wanted her to stay.

  This more beautiful and demanding version of his Match talked to him. Not just exchanging pleasant, agreeable courtesies, but talking. She was so clever and interesting and she said things that constantly surprised him. She laughed and shouted. She didn’t seem to care that he wasn’t acting like a gentleman or a king. Even when she was disagreeing with him or making snarky comments, she was engaged. Like she wanted to understand him, and for him to understand her, on some deeper level.

  Had he and Mara ever actually talked?

  No. Not really.

  Why hadn’t he realized that before? Why hadn’t he seen the problem?

  Chason had loved Mara beyond anything in the entire universe, but he looked at this woman and he knew her on a level that he’d never known his Match. He felt a connection to her that went deeper than anything he’d ever experienced. They just… fit. He felt it and it was real.

  Not “real,” but actually real.

  He wouldn’t give up the woman or the connection he felt to her. Not for anything. Maybe not even if he could’ve had the old Mara back. He’d always wanted something deeper. Something more. Now, that he felt it with this woman he would fight with everything he had to keep it.

  To keep her.

  Chason shut off the freezing cold water and stepped out of the shower. He grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his waist. Seventy years of living with Mara and he would’ve felt awkward showering with the door ajar. Now, the woman was in the next room and Chason hadn’t thought twice about leaving the bathroom door and the connecting door to the bedrooms open.

  …Which was why he heard the noise in Mara’s bedchamber.

  Chason’s head whipped around, his eyes narrowing. He could hear the other shower running, so it hadn’t been the woman. No one else should be in fortress, except Raiden and those weren’t Raiden’s footsteps. Chason never would have heard Raiden moving around, first off. The guy was a stealthy SOB. And secondly, Raiden didn’t go into Mara’s room. Ever. He respected the fact that Chason would brutally slaughter anybody who crossed the threshold.

  Obviously, someone else didn’t understand that point, though.

  Chason stalked out of the bathroom and straight into Mara’s bedroom.

  A strange Phase was stalking across the thick purple rugs, scanning around for signs of life. The guy was huge, dressed in some kind of weird white robe with a deadly looking silver sword strapped to his back.

  His golden hair was tied into a series of intricate braids, which labeled him a Light Phase even more clearly than the black streak at his temple. Only warriors from Mara’s homeland wore their hair like that. Except there were only supposed to be five Light Phases left now and this guy wasn’t one of them.

  In the midst of his sudden fury, Chason felt a surge of triumph.

  He’d known a Banished Light Phase was involved in this.

  The guy was making his way towards Mara’s bathroom door, which was cracked open as the woman finished her shower. She was naked and vulnerable and there was a stranger in her room.

  Chason’s head tilted at that irregular angle that seemed to make people especially uncomfortable. He’d clearly been too restrained in his homicidal tendencies, thus far, if people thought it was a good idea to break into his home and try to spy on his woman.

  “You’ve taken a wrong turn, Light Phase.”

  His calm voice sounded abnormally loud in the quiet space and the other man spun around in surprise. Black eyes met his. Solid black. Not like Mara’s pure pools of ebony, but… colder. Darker. Like a shark, there wasn’t even a hint of white around the edges.

  Finding an exact replica of his dead Match locked away in the Smoke Kingdom had pretty much burned all the “What the hell?” incredulity out of Chason for the rest of forever. But this came damn close to surprising him.

  There was only one Phase in the universe who’d ever had eyes like that and he was supposed to be dead.

  Not just Banished, but actually dead.

  Vandal, of the Light House stood before him, looking exactly the same as he had in the history books Chason had been forced to study as a child.

  The Elementals most famous warrior and greatest cautionary tale.

  Oh shit.

  “Stand aside, Magnet King. If possible, I would spare your life. You could still have use in the coming war.”

  His accent was formal and archaic. The way Chason’s father had always wished Chason would speak. Of course, this man would sound like that. If he was really still alive, then Vandal was the second oldest Phase in existence.

  “You’re the son-of-a-bitch you graffiti-ed my sky with light writing a couple months ago. And then again in the Light Kingdom.” Something about Chason’s role in a coming battle. “What the hell do you want from me?”

  “At the moment, I am only here to retrieve the key.”

  “Key?” What the fuck was going on?

  “Chason, what’s going on?” The woman asked, pushing the bathroom door open. “I heard voices.” She was wearing a purple bathrobe, her hair caught up in a towel.

  Vandal reacted like she was brandishing a machete at him.

  The woman let out a shriek of panic as he lunged at her. Huge hands reached out to grab her, either to hurt her or to jump her away from the Magnetland.

  Chason didn’t even think about his response.

  “No!” He threw himself between Vandal and woman. The Light Phase outweighed him by a hundred pounds and topped him a foot. Three hundred years of training every. single. day. gave Chason better reaction time, though. Just by half a second, but it was enough. He shoved the woman backwards, so that Vandal wound up seizing him, instead.

  The woman tumbled back, hitting the bathroom floor with a cry of alarm. The towel on her head came untwisted, dark tresses tumbling free.

  Vandal hadn’t been expecting any interference. He shoved Chason aside, but it was too late. Chason careened headfirst into the wall, his powers managing to slam the bathroom door shut again, sealing the locking mechanism and trapping the woman on the other side.

  “Chason!” She beat against the wooden surface, trying to get back to him.

  “Jump!” He bellowed. “Go now!” If she didn’t jump to safety Vandal would just crash down the door. Chason had only bought her a moment.

  “You are trying to stand in the way of destiny, boy.” Vandal glowered at him. “Gaia herself wills this. You can’t win against me and you know it.”

  Of course he knew it.

  The Light House bred only heroes and criminal, but Vandal had managed to be both. He’d been one of the greatest generals in Elementa
l History. He’d saved countless lives in battle, before becoming disillusioned with the Council and deciding to take lives instead. It had taken an army to stop this man the last time he’d showed his face.

  Vandal was the greatest soldier in Elemental history, while Chason was unarmed, mostly naked and half his size.

  But, he didn’t care.

  Chason faced him, blood dripping down his forehead. “One of the benefits of being crazy: I’m too crazy to notice shit like that.”

  Vandal began to look annoyed. “You make no sense.” He drew his gigantic sword, easily handling the massive weight. “I feel the energy between you and the woman is off. How can you even be certain she is your real Match?”

  “I don’t believe anything’s ‘real,’ anymore.” Chason said honestly. The Magnet powers shot out, ripping Vandal’s sword right from his hand and impaling it in the ceiling high above. “Except Magnetism, obviously.”

  Black eyes narrowed at the trick. “I was lead to believe you were an honorable warrior, Chason, of the Magnet House. Using powers in a battle between gentlemen is cheating.”

  “You’re not a gentleman, you traitorous bastard. Neither am I. Not anymore.” Especially not when it came to protecting his woman. “Why are you after her?”

  “For the greater good.”

  “What the hell does that mean?”

  The woman gave up pounding to get back in. Chason felt a surge of power and realized she’d jumped out of the Magnetland.

  Thank God.

  “It doesn’t matter where she goes.” Vandal told him. “The Dark King’s coming is preordained and she is the key.” He took a step closer to Chason. “Give her to me and rejoice that you had even a small role to play in Gaia’s great plan.”

  “No.” Chason said simply.

  That wasn’t what Vandal wanted to hear. “Gaia has blessed the woman with the gift to open the gates.” He spoke slowly like Chason was just too stupid understand his meaningless babble. “You don’t see that as a true sign of Her will?”

  “All I see in a deranged, ranting asshole, who disgraced his House and people.”

  Six hundred years before, Vandal had led a force against the Agora itself and been Banished forever. That was the way the Elemental punished all the worst criminals. Cast out of Elemental society, Vandal was no longer welcomed anywhere in the realm. Alone and in hostile lands, this man was said to have died centuries before. There had been reports of him falling into an abyss or something.

  Obviously, Vandal hadn’t read them.

  “My House deserted me!” Vandal roared. “It was their betrayal! They sided with the Council. Gaia saw that my actions were just. As I wandered in the wilderness, she sent a messenger to place me back on the true path.”

  Chason shook his head. And people called him crazy. “You should have stayed dead.”

  “I have a mission to complete before I die, boy.” Vandal let out a long breath, regaining control. “I do not have time for this foolishness. This is your final chance to choose the right side and support me. You know better than anyone the necessity of fighting against the Council’s tyranny. You also formed an army to oppose them.”

  “I formed an army to oppose Parald.”

  “That Air Phase was not a worthy opponent.” Vandal waved his hand dismissively. “His crimes were meaningless compared to the Council’s oppression. Dropping the barriers got rid of him quickly, just as I knew it would. He was nothing.”

  “So you did drop the barriers.” Chason has suspected as much.

  “Of course I did. We have the same goal, Magnet King. The world must be cleansed and the woman is the only one who can begin the process. I thought you, of all Phases, would see this. How can you not believe the truth?”

  “Believe this truth.” Chason snarled. “I don’t care if a choir of angels shows up with a holy repo order written in fucking neon, no one is taking her from me.”

  “You would be slain for a woman who is no longer even yours?”

  “Dying to protect her is a better way to go than I ever expected.”

  Vandal’s jaw ticked, realizing that Chason was determined be difficult. “Your choice is… disappointing.”

  If Sullivan Pryce didn’t still have Chason’s sword in the Mayport Beach evidence locker, this would probably be going better.

  Damn human.

  Chason needed some kind of weapon, though, because he could already tell that this battle wouldn’t be a civilized duel.

  Shit.

  No matter what he’d just told Vandal, Chason sucked at cheating. He had been trained as a gentleman. It always took him too long to think of how he should use his powers in a fight, because it went against his instincts to even try. The Magnet House soldiers were bred to fight --and die, if need be-- with honor.

  But, all old rules of chivalrous warfare meant jack shit when breaking them meant the difference between the woman you loved surviving or watching her be hacked to pieces by a murderer.

  Vandal didn’t seem eager to play by the rules, either. Chason expected the man to gather up his energy and try to scorch him with a laser blast of Light or something.

  The last thing he expected was for Vandal to pull a gun.

  Chason frowned in confusion. Guns wouldn’t kill an Elemental. They were a human weapon. And it was especially useless to fire bullets at a Magnet Phase, since they could stop them in midair. They were made of metal, for Christ’s sake. What was Vandal doing?

  “You are unworthy to die as a warrior.” The Light Phase leveled the handgun at him. It was black and looked… strange. Different than the usual human instruments of death.

  Chason automatically tried to rip the gun from Vandal’s hand, but his energy didn’t work on whatever the weapon was made of.

  Vandal shook his head sadly. “I thought we were alike, Chason of the Magnet House. But, now I see you are unworthy.” He fired.

  The bullet would have hit the dead center of his chest, but Chason’s powers were already striking out.

  He glanced up at the ceiling and dropped Vandal’s sword right on top of him. The massive silver blade tumbled down, end over razor sharp end, slicing through the Light Phase’s arm just as he pulled the trigger. The gun jerked to the side. Chason was still hit high on the right shoulder, but he wasn’t dead.

  Yet.

  “Fuck!”

  He’d been shot. Shot! It hurt like someone had taken a blowtorch to his flesh.

  Plastic.

  Vandal had a gun that fired plastic bullets. That’s why Chason’s powers didn’t work on it. And not just any plastic. Phases’ energy and bodies weren’t compatible with any synthetic materials, but this one felt like poison. The hunk of foreign matter lodged in Chason’s shoulder and it was all he could do not to scream in pain.

  Oh God.

  His whole body convulsed in agony and he staggered backwards, falling to the floor. He couldn’t even stand, let alone defend himself.

  Chason lifted his shocked gaze to Vandal. Where had he gotten a gun like that? It certainly wasn’t local. The Elementals would have heard about it by now. This beyond any technology that existed.

  “What are you?” He got out.

  “I’m chosen.” Vandal said serenely. He shook off the cut on his arm and took aim at Chason’s forehead.

  “Stop!” The woman jumped back into the room, looking wild, and Vandal actually hesitated. She dashed over to stand directly between them. Her eyes quickly scanned Chason’s bleeding form and then glanced over at Vandal. “You used a gun against my Match?” She shook her head in disgust. “I expected better from a Light Phase.”

  Vandal’s face darkened at her words. “It was Gaia’s will.” He lowered his weapon, apparently having no intention of shooting her. “Submit to your fate. Come with me and I’ll spare his life, Magnet Queen. I give you my word as a member of your House.”

  Chason cursed as the woman actually seemed to consider that option. “Mara, no!”

  She glanced back at
him at the sound of her name, black eyes meeting his…

  …And in that second, Chason knew what was real.

  He looked at her and just… knew.

  From out of nowhere, he recalled his Phazing Day. Job had pulled Chason aside after the ceremony and they’d walked to edge of the grounds. The Earth King had stood there silently for a long moment, his hands behind his back military “at rest” style.

  “Chason,” he’d eventually said, “a Match is a gift. Always remember, you don’t have to be anything but yourself with Mara. You were born knowing each other.”

  Chason had no idea what he’d meant by that until this moment.

  Everything inside of him stilled. All he felt was the pounding of his heart as it resumed beating after two years of silence. He wasn’t delusional or drunk or being tricked by an imposter.

  He knew this woman with a certainty that could only come from the deepest and holiest of fundamental truths. The same way he’d known who she was the first time he’d seen her spinning in that rainstorm with her arms outstretched and her eyes closed in delight.

  She was his Match.

  Mara is real.

  And she was about to die all over again.

  No.

  Wearing only her bathrobe and a determined expression, Mara glared up at the most notorious Phase alive. Vandal towered over her small form, capable of ripping her apart with his bare hands.

  No.

  Chason moved. He staggered to his feet, blood pouring down the front of his chest. Adrenalin flooded through him, blocking out the pain of his injury.

  No.

  He refused to lose her for a second time.

  Mara advanced on Vandal, like she didn’t notice he was three times her size. “You were Banished.” She snapped. “You’re no member of my House.” She drew back her hand and something metallic glinted in her palm. “Either one of them.” She threw the metal objects at Vandal, driving them right through his body with her Magnet Powers.

  Eleven little Monopoly pieces slammed into his body like shrapnel. The thimble and wheelbarrow and Scottie dog and Gaia only knew what else Swiss cheesed through Vandal, coming right out the other aside. She’d blasted them straight his chest.