Everything outside of her ceased to exist.
The nightgown fell to her ankles in a waterfall of red silk and feminine lace. It wasn’t revealing in the traditional negligee sense. Kingu wouldn’t provide her with skimpy clothes just to satisfy his own prurient desires.
He certainly wanted to, but he wouldn’t.
The nightgown covered her body right down to her bare toes. Truthfully, it didn’t matter, though. The way the crimson material hugged her curves, Hope might as well have been dipped in raspberries.
His eyes glazed over in helpless lust.
“Well?” She pressed when he didn’t respond.
Kingu swallowed, realizing she actually expected some kind of coherent response. He wracked his brain for some glimmer of what her words might mean. “Apologize?” He repeated warily. That sounded right. Sort of. She’d definitely said it, but he was clueless as to why. “For what?” She couldn’t possibly know what he’d discovered. Just in case, he snapped his fingers and made all the books disappear, again.
Midnight blue eyes narrowed. “Oh, I don’t know… apologize for calling me a lying tramp, maybe?”
His brows climbed up his forehead. “I never called you anything of the kind.”
“Yes, you did!” She crossed her arms over her chest, which just drew Kingu’s eyes to her incredible breasts. Arousal roared through him. Dear gods, she was pretty.
Even if she was crazy.
“No, I didn’t.” He tried to keep his gaze above her neck, but it was a struggle. “How could you be a tramp, for gods’ sake? You’re a virgin.” She’d told him that and he believed it. Hell, he was a fucking expert on the subject.
“I don’t know how. I’m not the one who said it.”
“I did not say…” Kingu trailed off and shook his head in frustration. “Look, this is getting ridiculous. I would never insult you and I would gladly kill anyone who did. Alright? If you interpreted anything I said as a slur of some kind, it was not my intention.”
Hope sniffed, looking somewhat mollified. “Well, if for nothing else, I want a real apology for you stopping that kiss right in the middle, then. For no good reason, at all.”
He frowned. “But, that was your fault. You’re the one who tried to seduce me into letting you go free.”
“I did not!” She shook her head, in exasperation. “When I seduce you, monster, you’ll know it. I swear to Gaia, I tried to be understanding and gave you some time to think about how wrong you’d been, but you haven’t learned anything. So, fine.” She turned on her heel and started out, again. “You just stay here and keep being an idiot.”
She’d called him “monster.”
She’d also called him an “idiot,” but he didn’t care about that. He cared about the casual, saucy tone Hope used when she referred to him in the derogatory way that so many others had in the past. Everyone saw him as a monster. Even Kingu knew what he was, so he didn’t take offense at the word. Or at least he told himself he didn’t. But, deep inside, Kingu had always hated it.
Somehow, though, when Hope said it in her light, beautiful voice, he didn’t mind so much. She took away the shame he’d always carried at the epithet.
Hope made “monster” into an endearment.
Something moved in his chest. Something beyond the pull of his powers or the attraction of lovely body. Something soft. Something… more.
In that moment, Kingu knew he really was a monster.
He was selfish and cruel enough to keep her origins a secret and deprive her of her real destiny. He needed her far more than any other man ever could, no matter what trials the bastard had endured in an effort to win Gaia’s blessing. In fact, the next item on Kingu’s agenda was to find out the man’s identity and track him down. A dead man would never try to claim Kingu’s woman.
Kingu would keep his stolen treasure and no one could stop him.
He slowly got to his feet and followed Hope into the hall. He hunted for a subtle segue, but no conversational flash of genius occurred. Ah, fuck it. He didn’t do subtle, anyway. “Hope, we need to discuss what it means that you’re part human.”
“What?” Hope’s voice went too high. She scampered over the threshold to her own room as if she knew he wouldn’t follow and she was trying to hide.
Kingu didn’t like to see her panicked. Especially, not because of him. Besides, he wouldn’t learn anything if she refused to talk to him, again. But he just couldn’t let it go. He had to know what he was up against, now more than ever. Kingu stood in her doorway and figured he only had seconds before she slammed it shut again. “I wish to know about your soul mate.”
Chapter Fourteen
Fire is the soul of the universe. Its elements are forever brimming
over and pouring out over the world.
Victor Hugo- “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”
Hope swallowed hard. “I’m an Elemental, not a human.” She backed up into the post of the bed and somehow the black canopy netting tumbled down on top of her. “Oh dear.” She batted it out of the way, so she could see Kingu. “You saw me jump into the Cloudland. Humans can’t do that.”
Kingu’s eyes narrowed. “Most can’t.” He agreed. Snapping his fingers, he made the netting disappear from around her. “Some humans have extra abilities, though. Especially ones whose ancestors interbred with the Phases.”
Crap.
“You’ve heard that Elementals and humans can interbreed, huh? Because, we haven’t really proven that, scientifically. A lot of Phases still say it’s a total urban legend…”
He cut off her evasion. “My aunt is half human and half… not. I know humans can mate with all sorts of creatures. Elementals would be no different.”
“You have an aunt?”
“Don’t try and change the subject. The point is, I know that Phases and humans can produce offspring. What’s his name… the old warrior,” Kingu made a vague hand gesture, “Parson, of the Wood House. He had a human Match and half human children. That’s all the scientific proof I need.”
“You knew Parson? How?” Oberon had said the man was a great warrior, who’d one day disappeared from his homeland. What no one had realized at the time was he’d gone to the human realm to guard the Quintessence. He was like Tessie’s father.
Hope considered that.
Tessie who was half human and half… not.
“I didn’t know him.” Kingu looked like he was trying to backpedal, now. “I just heard much about Parson when he died.”
Hope’s eyes narrowed.
Parson had died in the human realm over twenty years before, killed by the damn Air Phases. No one had known that until Tessie told Job, a few months ago. No one except the damn Air Phases, anyway. Or maybe someone working with them.
The Fire House didn’t raise idiots, no matter what the rest of the Phases liked to believe.
Hope’s mouth parted on a soft, “Oh,” as she realized who her soul mate really was. “I know you.” She stepped closer to the doorway, again. “You’re Kay’s son. The one who was helping her find the Tablets of Fate, so the Air House could try and kill us all. The one everyone said was so cruel and…” monstrous.
She didn’t add the final part, but then she didn’t have to.
Kingu closed his eyes in something like hollow resignation. “Yes.” The word wasn’t apologetic or defensive. It was just… bare. Like he was standing in front of the judge, awaiting a mandatory death sentence. Like there was no point in arguing or pleading for mercy, because it wouldn’t come. Like no one had asked for his side of the story before and he didn’t expect it now.
How sad.
Hope titled her head. “Did you want to help them hurt us?”
Kingu eyes snapped open to stare at her blankly. “What?” His brows tugged together in a baffled frown. She’d apparently deviated from the script he’d mentally prepared.
“Did you want to hurt the Elementals?”
“No.” He sounded even more confused, now. “I never re
ally cared what the Phases did. Why would I, until I met you? I didn’t have a choice, in anything Kay planned.” He hesitated. “I should have fought harder to stop her, but, honestly, it wouldn’t have done any good. During the Fall I was locked…” He stopped and cleared his throat. “You need to understand. My mother was insistent about getting her own way. There was… pressure to go along with her plans.”
“Because you were a slave.” It wasn’t a question. The way he’d said “insistent” and “pressure,” plus his earlier argument with Lycus filled in all the blanks for her. The picture staring back was horrendous, even as it made a terrible sort of sense. Hope swallowed. “Your own mother kept you as a slave?”
“Yes.” The word was stark.
Hope’s lips pressed together into a tight line. She’d kill the bitch. “Where’s Kay now?” She demanded.
“In the Air Kingdom. In a coma.”
Fine. So, Hope would kill that bitch in her sleep, then. It made no difference. The woman had hurt her Match and no one hurt her Match.
“I’ve thought about killing her.” Kingu said as if reading her mind. “But, it would end the world to lose all the nothingness in the universe. Kay’s powers are vast. They have to be held by someone and they can only pass through our bloodline.”
“So you could inherit them.”
“She’s not stupid enough to let that happen. Kay made sure I couldn’t hold the powers when she created me. They have to pass to a female in our family and Tessie’s already holding the Quintessence. She can’t hold the Khaos, too. There’s no one else.” He shook his head. “Kay knows she’s safe and she knows I betrayed her. She’s inside her body right now, plotting what she’ll do to me when she finally wakes up.”
“You think she’ll wake-up?”
“One day? Of course, she will.” His sounded absolutely certain. “You’ll be safe, though. She’ll kill me so fast that she’ll never even have a chance to notice you exist. Trust me. I wouldn’t have looked for you, if I thought it would put you at risk. All her focus will be on making me suffer in the most violent and bloody way possible. I know her. She’s not into psychological torture when she can use hot irons and a mace. It’s more fun.”
“Your mother tortured you with a mace?”
Kingu cringed at the memory of it.
Oh God… “Kingu, what else did she…?”
“I don’t want to fucking talk about it.”
It was Hope’s turn to backpedaled. “Of course, you don’t.” She wanted to know everything about Kingu’s past, but he was hurt. Warriors’ egos were sometimes touchy things and Kingu was already so mistrustful. If she pushed, he’d shut down. “I won’t pressure you about anything, monster. I promise. You’re safe here with me.”
His flash of wounded anger faded into confusion at her soothing tone. “Don’t you understand? You should hate me, now.”
“No, I shouldn’t! Nothing that happened was your fault.” Jesus! Kingu had been an even greater victim of Kay and the Air House than the rest of the Elementals. His mother had kept him in bondage, trapped in that horrible place, forcing him to do terrible things for Gaia-only-knew how many centuries.
What if Tessie hadn’t put Kay into that coma? What if Kingu was still his mother’s captive? Hope never would have met him, at all! And what kind of soul mate was she to have abandoned him to those bastards for so long? A real Fire Phase would have somehow known Kingu was in danger and gone to rescue him.
She’d completely failed him.
Kingu just stared at her like he had no clue what to say.
“I’m so sorry.” Hope whispered. “If I’d known you were out there --in that unbearable place with those evil people-- I would have come for you. I swear. I would have come to save you, Kingu.”
His expression shifted to a place somewhere between incredulous and reverent. Red eyes traced over her face. “I would have come for you, too, Hope. Even chained to a wall, I would have found a way to reach you.” He gave his head a slow shake. “Nothing could have stopped me, if I’d known you were really out there. Nothing at all.”
“I know.” She said simply. “We belong together.”
“I know.” He repeated. It sounded like a surrender, although she couldn’t imagine why he’d been fighting. Kingu glanced away. “So, I told you these… things about myself. And now I need you to tell me about you. It’s important.”
Hope cringed at the request. Damn it, things were going so nicely and now they would be ruined. How was she going to get out of this without Kingu being disgusted with her down to her very DNA? And what was he going to say if she admitted she wasn’t a Color Phase, at all? Probably nothing she wanted to hear.
“Hope?”
Silence as her mind raced for a believable story.
Rule number forty-seven of being a Fire Phase: When you lie, don’t get caught.
That rule had always been hard for her to follow. Hope sucked at lying. It always took her an extra second or two to come up with some halfway believable untruth and the other person saw right through her. Her little fib about the Color House was the only time she hadn’t gotten caught and that had been so spur of the moment, it probably counted as an accident.
Kingu’s tone went even gentler. “Treasure, I need to know. If for no other reason than some of the Banished Phases don’t like humans very much. They seem to see the mixing of Elemental and human blood as some kind of genetic insult to their whole squabbling, insignificant species.”
Hope chewed on her lower lips. He’d called her “treasure.” That was… promising. It got her looking at him, again. “They already tried to kill me in the arena. How much worse can it get?”
That was an admission and they both knew it.
“You’re definitely part human, then?” Kingu pressed, wanting the words.
Hope gave in. “Probably definitely. I told you, I was abandoned at birth, so I could technically come from anywhere. One of my parents must have been human, though. It explains my flaws.”
“You have no flaws, Hope.”
“Ha!” She edged further back from the door, not trusting his easy acceptance and the lack of yelling.
“Do not back away from me. Please.”
She stopped moving at the entreaty. Her head tilted in confusion. “Aren’t you mad?”
“No.” He looked frustrated. “Hope, in a world full of flatness and uniformity, you shine so bright it almost blinds me. I wouldn’t change you, no matter where you come from. You are my one.”
She felt her eyes water at the words and blinked rapidly to ease the tears. “What are you talking about? You hate humans. You said so.”
A pause. “Is that why you’re upset? Because you think I would hate you?” He swore under his breath. “For gods’ sake, I hate everyone except you!”
She blinked harder at the sweet sentiment. “I just thought you’d be kinda repulsed.”
A longer pause. “Treasure, have you seen me?”
“Of course.”
“And you truly understood what I told you about my past?”
“Yes.”
“And yet you believe I would be repulsed by you?”
“Well… yes.”
“What do you see when you look at me?” Now he sounded perplexed. Genuinely curious.
“A monster.”
He sighed, again. “Anything else?”
“A warrior. A man. Someone who’s mine.” Hope sighed dreamily. “Flame red eyes, coal black hair, big, big hands. I think you’re spectacular, Kingu.”
“Liar.”
The feeling that she was about to cry at his poetic words screeched to a halt and her anger resumed. “Stop calling me that! Damn it, I’m allowed to want you if I want to. You might be able to stop me from actually doing anything about it, like you did yesterday. But, I can feel whatever I like.”
“You just said you saw me as a monster!”
“Well, you are a monster. It was the first thing that attracted me to you. You’re my mons
ter. I find it sexy.”
Kingu looked befuddled by that. “You… do?”
“Yes! That’s why I was so mad at you yesterday. I wouldn’t seduce someone I wasn’t attracted to. How could you think such a thing about me?”
His head titled. “I didn’t intend to hurt your feelings. Not at all.”
“Well, you did. I’m not some floozy who lets strange men pin her up against walls for kicks, you know. It’s only ever been you.”
“But… why would you want me? And what about the other man? The one you claimed to have waited for. Your soul mate?” He spat out the words. Clearly, this was the part he was most interested in discussing.
Lord, he was dim. “You’re my soul mate, genius.”
Kingu didn’t believe her. He had trust issues. “Who he is, Hope?”
“You, Kingu.”
He snarled out an oath. “Why must we do this? Why can’t you just tell me his name? Are you afraid I’ll kill him?”
“No, because he’s you, and that would be suicide.” Hope hesitated. “But, if I did want another man, I’m sure you would kill him.” She tacked on seriously. Likewise, any other woman who set her sights on Kingu would get a Fire House style beat down that she’d never forget. You didn’t mess with soul mates.
“Fucking right, I’ll kill him. If I ever see him, he’s dead. I will never let another man have you, even if he deserves you more. You belong to me.”
God she loved it when he talked like a warrior.
“If you truly care for this man, you’ll forget about him.” Kingu continued. “It will be the only way he survives.”
Hope rolled her eyes and remained silent. She wasn’t going to keep repeating the truth and going around in circles. He’d realize it for himself, given enough time. It was destiny.
Kingu let out a long breath, like he was struggling for control. “Very well. Just understand I will not let you go be with another. I don’t have a soul, but I… feel things for you. I know you are mine. I cannot release you. For everyone’s sakes, you must adjust to your life here and put other men from your mind.”
Treasure of the Fire Kingdom (The Elemental Phases Book 4) Page 21