Queen of the Magnetland (The Elemental Phases Book 5)

by Cassandra Gannon

  “You let him get away!” Kingu threw his hands up in annoyance. “My daughter isn’t even born yet, and she could’ve contained that man!”

  Chason released Mara, swearing. He prowled over to stand next to Job as if he might be able to sense where Vandal went. He was pissed off, but he wasn’t about to lose control, again. “I did enough damage that he’s not getting far. He’ll have to surface to get help or he’ll be dead in matter of hours.”

  “You should’ve just killed him.” Gion insisted. “Then, we wouldn’t have to wait.”

  Mara ignored that. Wherever Vandal had gone, he wouldn’t be bothering them for a while and she had more important things to focus on.

  Like her cousin.

  “Kahn?” She said softly. He still hadn’t said a word to her.

  He got to his feet, his gaze locked on hers, and he started forward. His broken nose was seeping blood, and he absently swiped his wrist under it. On his arm, she saw he’d tattooed a wide memorial cuff. It was the traditional way the Light House honored their dead. Seeing the sheer amount of ink on Kahn’s skin had Mara stifling a wince. Kahn had lost his whole family in the Fall; all six of his sisters and Mara.

  It must’ve been torture for him to see her just appear like this.

  “I’m so sorry.” Mara told him as he drew closer. “I wanted to tell you I was back in a much more considerate way, but…” She trailed as he dropped to his knees in front of her.

  Kneeling, he was still nearly as tall as she was. One palm came up to touch her cheek reverently. Black eyes, identical to her own, traced over her features like he was memorizing them.

  Mara leaned into his hand and smiled. “Hi, Kahny.”

  The nickname broke him.

  Her cousin gave a choked sound of emotion and his huge arms seized her around her waist. Mara would’ve been knocked off balance, but he was holding on too tight. She hugged him back, laughing at the force of the embrace. Light House warriors weren’t a gentle breed.

  Kahn’s head fell to her shoulder. He wrapped himself around her like she was all that was keeping him upright. He’d just beaten a man half to death, but he now his whole body shook as he desperately clung to her. This time he didn’t seem to care if she saw him cry.

  “Mari.” He breathed and she heard the tears in his voice.

  Mara kissed the top of his head. “I love you, too, brother.” She whispered and then in a lighter tone she added. “But you look terrible. Tell me, did everyone give up on showering while I was gone?”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Indeed, the element of time seemed to be one of very considerable importance

  Charlotte M. Yonge- “Corporal Cameron”

  Mara stood on the ladder and ripped a long piece of the hideous paper off the wall of her bedroom. She’d been removing the dismal grey stripes for half-an-hour and already the room seemed brighter. The twisted strip of paper dropped to the ground and Mara moved to the next section, humming Andrews’ Sisters songs as she worked.

  “Do you really have to do that, right now?” Chason asked from the doorway. “It’s almost midnight. Wouldn’t you rather be in bed? With me.”

  Mara shot him a grin. “You are insatiable. I like that in a man.” She teased. “Five more minutes and I’ll quit for the night, alright?”

  It had taken hours before Kahn let her leave his suffocating embrace. As much as she loved him and the Light Kingdom, she was happy to be standing back home in the Magnet Fortress and eager to start making it better.

  Chason leaned a shoulder against the jam. “What are you even doing?”

  “I’m redecorating.”

  “After all we’ve been through today, you’re redecorating?”

  She glanced at him. “When I was dying a made a list of things I would change about my life. Getting rid of this ugly wallpaper was number thirty-one.” She hesitated. “Number thirty-five was have a child.”

  “Interior design rated higher than a baby?” Chason sounded amused.

  “Well, it wasn’t ranked in order of importance, wise guy.” She shot him a mock glare. “Anyway, I was thinking about it and… I think that’s why we couldn’t get pregnant.”

  “The wallpaper?”

  “No, the fact that we always had that gap in our energy. You have to be Phazed to have a child, and we always had that little bit of distance between us. That’s why it never happened. There was never anything physically wrong with us that Freya could find. We’d just never fully Phazed.” Mara smiled in excitement. “But now that’s fixed, Chason! It’ll work now --I can feel it!-- and this room could be the nursery.”

  Chason looked around, blinking like his eyes had gotten misty. “I’d like that.” He said softly.

  “But, the baby can’t have wallpaper this dreary.” Mara pointed out. “And even if we never have a child, I don’t want us to have separate bedrooms, anymore. So…”

  “That’s not even under discussion.” Chason interrupted. “You sleep beside me. Every night.”

  Mara’s eyes gleamed. “So,” she continued, “this whole space needs to be changed and my belongings all have to be moved into your room.”

  “Our room.”

  “Our room.” She agreed. “Really, the whole kingdom will have to be redone, you know. We need to repair the buildings and restore utilities and clear off the grime. The Magnet Phases deserve to have the homeland back.”

  “I know.” He sighed. “It’s gonna take a long time to fix it all, though. And even longer to fix me.”

  “You don’t need to be fixed. I like you just the way you are.”

  “The madness almost took me when Vandal kidnapped you. What if I hadn’t been able to come back?”

  “You would always come back to me.” Mara knew that right down to her soul. “You aren’t crazy, Chason.”

  “Well, I’m sure not a hundred percent sane.”

  “You’re mostly sane and that’s probably all anyone can claim.” She could feel her energy matching up with Chason’s on every level and she knew how quickly he was healing. “I wouldn’t change anything about the new you, darling.” She arched a brow. “Of course, I don’t think you’ll be winning ‘Elemental of the Year’ again anytime soon.”

  “It was a boring banquet anyway.”

  “But you looked so handsome on that podium.” She fluttered her eyelashes at him. “Not that you aren’t even more handsome, now.”

  Chason’s mouth curved and he strolled further into the room. “So… What else was on that list of you made?”

  “Many things that you and I will be doing together one item at a time. I won’t live with regrets, Chason. I will be rocking the boat. Be prepared for nagging and impositions on your schedule and demands that you spend time with me…”

  “If you think you’re ever leaving my sight, again, you’re the crazy one.”

  Mara kept going. “You will be coming to my birthday parties and spending time with me in the Light Kingdom. There will be dancing and music. And I’m going to look into working at the university. And we’re going to movies and vacationing in the Colorland and eating breakfast sitting next to each other, understand?”

  “I want to do everything with you, Mara, especially when you start getting bossy about it. I love that. But, I think I might have a death sentence in the Colorland. There was a small… thing.”

  “A small thing?”

  “When I was less mostly sane than I am now.”

  “Oh.” Mara hesitated. “Well, we’d better skip number thirty-three on the list, then.”

  Chason came to stand under her. “Does your list mention anything about Phazing on a ladder?” His hand seductively brushed up calf and Mara’s heartbeat sped up.

  “You can’t Phaze on a ladder.” She whispered. “If it were possible, I would’ve seen it in a movie.”

  “Oh, you’d be surprised how creative I’m becoming.” He crooked a finger at her. “Come here, princess.”

  She beamed at him…

  �
��And then she was falling.

  A tornado rocked the room, knocking the ladder right out from under her. Mara tumbled off the wooden step and into the hot rush of flying debris. She couldn’t even see the floor under her as she fell, but she knew she was about to hit it.

  Chason lunged forward, grabbing Mara before she impacted stone. He caught her against his body, his training keeping him on his feet. In one quick movement, he dropped her behind him and turned to face the doorway.

  Or, at least, the direction of the doorway.

  It was impossible to actually see it in the dust storm.

  This was some kind of ambush and it was working.

  Mara had to close her eyes against the tons of grit in the air. It was clogging her lungs, filling her nose and mouth, so she couldn’t breathe. The grimy interior Magnet Fortress provided unlimited amounts of dirt to feed the cyclone. Glass from the mirror shattered. Furniture toppled. Dirt particles hit against her skin like small bullets.

  Chason pushed her towards the ground, trying to get her beneath the worst of onslaught. “Stay down!”

  “Do you think you can just get everything?” Lansing, of the Dust House bellowed from somewhere in the whirling darkness. Chason’s former second-in-command sounded incensed. “That you can turn your back on the Reprisal, and abandon our mission, and stop killing those bastard Air Phases and just walk away?”

  “You son-of-a-bitch.” Chason shouted back. “I did nothing to stop you from leaving! Go and wage your pointless war!”

  “The men won’t follow me!” Lansing screamed back. “Not the way they did you. They all still respect you, even after you let us all down. They will never be mine as long as you’re alive. And now you even get to have your Match back, while I have nothing!” Lansing’s powers picked up the shards of mirror, spinning them into a whirlwind. “Well, it’s all ends now!”

  Mara screamed as the jagged missiles flews towards Chason’s face. They weren’t going to have time to jump before the glass…

  Bang.

  The loud report of a gun sounded over the wail of the dust storm and everything suddenly stopped. The sneak attack ceased and the sandy debris in the air rushed back to earth, coating Mara in a layer of filth. The sharpened projectiles that had been headed for Chason’s eyes and brain fell to the floor, shattering into smaller bits. The whole room went eerily still.

  The fog of dirt cleared…

  And Daphne, of the Time House stood there.

  At her feet, Lansing lay dead.

  Daphne was wearing a silver snakeskin jacket and looked like she belonged in a high school glee club, but she’d just shot the Dust Phase in the back of the head. The gun was still clutched in her hand as she stared down at his body.

  Mara blinked, wiping the soot from her face.

  “How’s it feel to be out ambushed, you fucking asshole.” Daphne raised the weapon again and put two more bullets into Lansing’s body just to be sure he was gone.

  Chason coughed, waving a hand in front of his face to clear the air. “Daphne?” He guessed.

  She let out a long breath and dragged her attention from Lansing’s corpse. “Just so you know, you’re not really my favorite person, either, Magnet King. I have no idea where Vandal is thanks to you. You almost killed him.”

  “When you find him, let me know and I’ll finish the job.”

  Daphne made a face and turned to Mara. “We need to talk.”

  Mara shook her head. “You just shot Lansing with one of those future guns.”

  “Don’t worry. History won’t miss the guy.”

  “I don’t care about him. I care about Vandal, who attacked my Match with a weapon just like that!”

  “You think that was my doing? I’m not arming Vandal. Nobody hates that guy more than me.” She looked over at Chason. “Alright, maybe you.”

  Chason inclined his head in agreement.

  “Well, where else could he have gotten the gun?” Mara demanded.

  “I’m not the only Time Phase in the world who can jump back here, alright? I’m just the only one who can survive the trip. Maybe some people don’t like me messing with the timeline and they’re trying to rewrite my rewrites.” Daphne flicked a hand. “None of that matters. We got bigger concerns.”

  “Bigger than Chason almost dying?!”

  “I just saved Chason. Without someone stepping in, he was scheduled to die today. Originally that was Raiden’s job. But, since there was a slight a change of plans, it was up to me to play hero.” Daphne gestured towards Lansing’s bloody form. “You’re welcome.”

  “Where is Raiden?” Chason demanded.

  “He’s busy and you two owe me.”

  Mara’s eyes narrowed. “What do you want?”

  “Hey, dial back the hostility, okay? We’re all on the side.” Daphne assured her. “A war is coming and, trust me when I say, you want to help me stop it.”

  “That’s why you brought me back? To help you stop this war?”

  “Well, it also got my team the Justice box, but yeah… I needed you alive.” Daphne stepped closer to her, her expression intent. “You’re the only one who can read the numbers carved into the tops of those stones.”

  Mara watched at her warily.

  Daphne’s eyes narrowed. “There are only two sides in this fight, kiddies. Me and Vandal. Someone’s gonna win and someone’s gonna die. Now, who do you want to vote for? The girl who saved both your asses or the psycho-killer who thinks he talks to Gaia?”

  Well, put in those terms… “The stones are numbered one through nine.”

  “I know that. What’s the sequence?”

  “I told you, one through nine.”

  “In order?” Daphne gaped at her for a beat. “No cat shitting way!”

  Growing up with Kahn, Mara had thought she’d heard every curse there was, but that was a new one. “That’s what the stones said. They start with the largest marker and continued in a clockwise circle.”

  “I spend fifty-eight years trying to figure out that sequence and it’s just one through goddamn nine!” Daphne scrapped a hand through her hair and gave a slightly hysterical laugh. “Fuck!” Her time with them was running out quickly, the edges of her body getting fuzzy and indistinct. “Unbelievable. If I didn’t have a hell of a good sense of humor, I’d be so damn pissed that…”

  “Was Vandal right about the Dark King?” Mara interjected before Daphne vanished.

  Daphne frowned at her. “Who?”

  Mara couldn’t tell if she was lying or if she really didn’t know.

  “I want Raiden returned to me.” Chason said flatly. “Now.”

  Daphne shook her head. “Sorry, you’re kinda on my naughty list this year. Like I said, back in the old history, you didn’t leave Vandal a beaten mess today. Now I have no clue where he went or what he’s planning and that’s all your fault.

  Chason didn’t look the least bit sorry. “Wherever Vandal is, I hope he dies in pain.”

  “How can you not know what will happen?” Mara asked Daphne. “Hasn’t it already happened in your time?”

  “It doesn’t work that way…”

  Chason cut her off. “I don’t care how it works. Just give Raiden back or I’ll take him back.”

  “I’m terrified.” Daphne scoffed and negligently waved the future gun at him ‘duh’ style. “Oh wait. I’m not because I can kill you in –like-- four seconds. Don’t be a cathead. Raiden’s fine. He’s just pissy because I ruined his big death scene. He’ll get over it.”

  “If you hurt him…”

  Daphne interrupted the threat with a roll of her eyes. “I’m not going to harm a non-hair on his little bald head, okay? I’m just keeping him safely out of the way until I’m sure he can’t cause me anymore problems.”

  “Which will be when exactly?” Chason demanded

  Daphne lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “I’m guessing sometime around Gion, of the Water House’s birthday.” She smiled sweetly as she gave that bizarre answer. “Bye,
for now.” She vanished from the room.

  Chason made a frustrated sound. “She saved your life and maybe my life… but I just don’t like her.” He looked over at Mara. “Do you think she’ll hurt Raiden?”

  “No.” Mara said honestly. “I think she’s telling the truth. Something terrible is on the horizon and she’s working to fix it. The girl has no qualms about shooting people, obviously, so if she intended to harm Raiden, she already would’ve done it. There must be another reason she’s taken him.”

  “Well, whatever it is, he’s not going to like it.” Chason muttered. “Raiden’s the only one who’s stood by me. If he’s been captured, I have to find him.”

  “We will.” Together, she and Chason could accomplish anything. Mara nodded towards Lansing. “In the meantime, what shall we do about him?”

  “Call whoever is acting as second-in-command of the Reprisal now and tell them to come get him, I suppose. I’ll be damned if he’s being buried on our land.”

  Mara hesitated. “Lansing implied that you could resume control of the army if you want.” She pointed out cautiously.

  “I don’t want. I’m out of the vengeance business. All I want to do is spend the rest of eternity with you, listening to music and dancing and raising little dark haired girls with too much power for my peace of mind.”

  Mara let out a relieved breath at the certainty in his tone. She moved to wrap her arms around him. She’d some so close to losing him twice today. “For your peace of mind, maybe we should also rethink making room the nursery, then. Armed lunatics show up in here with alarming frequency.”

  “Maybe we should just give up on this place and build another fortress…”

  She cut him off. “Absolutely not. This is our home. We’ll stay right here where we belong.”

  Chason held her tight. “I love you, Mara.”

  “Forever and then some?”

  “Longer than even that.” He rested his cheek against the top of her head. “We have a second chance and I don’t want to waste any of it. I want to do everything on your list and more. I want you to yell at me and laugh with me and be with me. I want us to never, ever take this for granted, because it can all vanish so fast.”