Queen of the Magnetland (The Elemental Phases Book 5) (7 page)

Chason’s
jaw was like a slab of granite.  “This plan won’t work.  This woman is
not
Mara.
”

“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 languages.  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.