“Dynamite.” Kingu reminded her helpfully.
“Right.” Hope chewed on her lower lip. “We’ll need to steal some from the armory. I expected that. Don’t worry. I know right where it is.” She patted his arm and his heart turned over.
“How are you planning to break into an armory to steal dynamite, without dynamite to break into the armory?”
She frowned over the question, like she was really considering it. Then, she hesitated and blinked up at him in surprise. “Wait… Are you teasing me?”
“Maybe a little.” It did seem out of character, now that she mentioned it. Kingu didn’t really joke with anyone. But then, he’d never really had fun before either and he was enjoying this madness. It was hard to know how to react, so he was just doing what he wanted.
“Wiseass. This is very serious business, so no kidding around.” Her eyes sparkled, even as she kept her expression severe. “Just behave and be good team member, like you promised.” She crooked her finger at him and leaned up to quickly press her lips against his. “Kiss.”
Gaia, he just adored this woman.
Kingu touched the side of her face, his thumb tracing the curve of her jaw. The higher gods had never cared about him, but someone, somewhere, had screwed up and gave him the only thing he’d ever wanted. Hope was his dream. Even more amazing, she didn’t seem repulsed by him. Kingu couldn’t explain that. It seemed like one of those miracles that only ever happened to other people.
Hope refocused on the jail, her palm grasping his like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Kingu’s breath caught in shock.
No one in the history of existence had ever held his hand before. Her red manicured nails touched the rough, inhuman skin on the back of his palm and –amazingly-- the contrast didn’t look terrible, at all.
Whatever this woman wanted, Kingu would give her. Anything, at all. If Hope wanted them to spend the morning prowling around in bushes, Kingu was certainly willing to accommodate her. But, that didn’t mean he couldn’t try and help out a bit here and there.
He searched for the best way to speed up the process and keep her happy. “Hope?” He gave her fingers a gentle squeeze. “I really would like to be a team with you.”
“Oh, we are.” She said sincerely.
“Good. I should have a bigger role in this plan, then.”
“Well… I don’t want you to feel left out, but we’re still building trust here, remember? So you can see I’m not a prostitute.” She nodded like that made perfect sense.
Kingu suppressed a wince. “I know you’re not a prostitute.” Would she never let this craziness go? “If you wanted to use sex to manipulate me, it would honestly be a huge relief. I’d at least understand that. You wanting to kiss me for no discernible reason, I find a lot harder to process.”
Bottomless blue eyes stared up at him. “But, Kingu, I told you the reason.”
He wasn’t going to let that simple, mysterious statement distract him. “Let me just have five minutes. Before we go steal dynamite and blow up building –Which honestly, I am completely willing to do, if you’d like-- let me have five minutes to see if I can streamline the plan.”
She frowned at him. “I don’t know if that’s…”
“I want to contribute. I guarantee, I will not accuse you of pushing me into this. It would just make me really happy if we could save this guy quickly and go home.”
Her lips pursed. “Five minutes and then you’ll be satisfied? You swear?”
“Yes.”
“Alright. But, I still don’t think… Hey!” Her words ended in a yelp as Kingu stood up and marched straight through the bushes towards the jail. “You can’t just walk right up to the door!” Hope dashed after him and caught hold of his palm, again.
“I have four minutes and forty seconds to prove you wrong.” He lifted her hand to his mouth for a kiss. “Just, stay right beside me, okay?” They reached the boundaries of the prison grounds and Kingu snapped his fingers to unlock the plastic gate surrounding the damn thing. Elementals relied far too heavily on plastics.
“You’re still not understanding the stealthy part of the plan. Any kind of direct attack is gonna end badly with me along. I’m going to get you hurt, if we do it this way. I’m bad luck.”
“Not to me, you’re not.” The woman brought him nothing but joy. Kingu even enjoyed the sexual frustration he felt around her. Not that he wouldn’t be even happier if he could relieve some of that frustration, but just feeling something at all was a delight.
His answer confused her. “I really am jinxed.” She insisted. “I don’t want to endanger you, so if…”
“You won’t endanger me.” He interrupted. And even if she somehow did, he didn’t care. “You aren’t a jinx to me. Getting shoved into acid by you was the luckiest moment of my life, Hope.”
She gaped like he’s said something extraordinary. “Kingu, I…” She shook her head as if overcome by his words. “You are just spectacular.” She finally whispered.
Hope stared up at him with that hot, celestial gaze and Kingu wanted to groan. How long would this take? He wanted to go home and try to talk Hope into letting him put her underwear on, again. “I won’t let anything happen to you. Just don’t wander away.” He wasn’t worried about any kind of heavy Phase resistance. They’d do what he told them or he’d flatten the gods’ damn prison and drag Lycus from the rubble.
Two Phase guards came dashing out, swords drawn.
“Kingu, what are you doing?” One of them sputtered. “You can’t…”
Kingu snapped his fingers and a river of black tar suddenly blocked their path. The men ran straight into ankle deep sludge, sticking like flies in traps. He didn’t even bother to glance in their direction as the two of them toppled all over each other trying to get out.
“Gods, sometimes I completely understand why these idiots were Banished.” He muttered and stalked towards the plastic grate over the jail’s entrance. The lock was a sophisticated electronic devise which no doubt would have required a PhD in computer engineering to bypass.
Unless you were a monster.
Kingu grabbed one of the plastic bars and just wrenched the door open, breaking the lock through sheer force. He hated doing things like that around Hope. Hated showing her the brutal, brutish side to him. She was so small. He never wanted her to think that he’d use his strength against her. Never wanted Hope to step back from him in fear, ever again. Moving aside, he gestured for her to go inside, not meeting her gaze.
She kept staring at him. “Kingu?” Her voice sounded strange and he shot her a cautious glance.
“Yeah?”
Hope let out a shuddering breath. “You are just spectacular.” Her eyes were burning, now. “My God. It’s just…” She shook her head dazedly. “Wow. Later on, we are sooo gonna play monster movie.”
Kingu felt his lips part in astonishment. She… liked this side of him? That was impossible. Totally impossible. If she was lying, though, she deserved one of those human acting awards for faking her expression of desire. Looking at her, he felt it like a surge of heat straight into his groin.
“Which movie?” He demanded, still not totally convinced she wanted him. “Frankenstein?”
“I’m thinking Phantom of the Opera.” She licked her lower lip. “We’ll skip the finale, obviously. I still can’t believe that idiot girl escaped back to the boring guy and left the poor Phantom.” Hope began to look genuinely insulted as she recalled the finale. “Seriously, who wrote that ending? Did anyone in the audience not want her to stay with the monster?”
From out of nowhere, Kingu felt a rush of annoyance at Hope for being so stubbornly, optimistically blind. How could she not tell the good guys from the bad? How could she not see?
“What was the woman supposed to do? Squander her life because some asshole was lonely? He lived in a fucking sewer, Hope! He kidnapped her and pulled her into the darkness. She had to get away from him, before he dragged down with
him.”
“No. She should have saved him. She should have brought him into the light.”
Kingu had never been any good with metaphors. He was too blunt and he sucked at having conversations, anyway. “I don’t have a soul, Hope. You can’t save me, so don’t waste your time trying.”
She rolled her eyes. “Just leave everything to me. I’ll take care of you.” She strolled through the door to the prison and headed down the industrial looking hallway, blonde curls bouncing.
Hope really was suicidal. He’d seen it in the arena and he saw it now. Her level of cheery fearlessness could only be chalked up to a death wish.
Kingu followed her with an exasperated sigh, tugging her backwards so she was at his side. “I’ve left everything to you all morning, and I’m becoming more and more convinced that you’re a lunatic. Maybe I am, too.”
“Oh, you definitely are.” She agreed straight faced.
Kingu gave a reluctant snort of laughter at her serious tone. Who else but Hope had ever made him laugh? She gave him so much. “I have another three minutes of leading this mission, so some respect is in order, puny human.”
“I just love that you see me as puny.”
An Electricity Phase sat behind a desk surrounded by television sets, monitoring the Elemental prisoners in their cells. He watched them approach, wearing an even stupider expression than most of his species. “Ummm, you’re not allowed in here.” He said weakly.
“Get out.” Kingu ordered and was gratified when the boy’s eyes widened and he quickly did as he was told.
Obviously, the Elemental wasn’t quite as dim as he looked.
Hope watched Electricity Phase dash off and shook her head. “Well, that was pathetic.” She headed around the edge of the desk and frowned down at the bevy of surveillance monitors. “Geez, Galen and his little goon squad have locked up some really awesome people! They have Falyn, of the Sound House in one of these cells. And --look!-- there’s Emagene. I’m sort of related to her.”
“Isn’t she an evil queen of some sort?” Kingu vaguely recalled Emagene, of the Heat House trying to usurp half her royal relatives and claim the Heat House throne.
“Oh, the Heat House is always bickering, but no one would want to see Ema trapped in prison and forced to battle gladiators. This is just degrading.” Hope shook her head. “There’s Mallachi, too. And poor Akkadian. Galen’s locked-up everyone who might oppose him.”
Kingu was still mulling things over. “So, if you’re related to Emagene, of the Heat House, doesn’t that make you part of a ruling family?”
“Ummm…” Hope shot him a glance. “Kinda.”
“So what are you?”
“I’m Hope.”
“What else?”
“A princess?” It sounded like a guess. “My grandfather was the king.”
“You’re a princess.” Wonderful. Kingu didn’t know anything about the Color House line of succession, but her title upped the odds that someone would come looking for her. Not that it wasn’t already a dead certainty. He’d seen that Qadesh guy in his dream and Kingu knew that he’d be looking for Hope. Damn it. “Is there anything else you haven’t told me?”
Hope blinked oh-so-innocently and quickly turned to start down the nearest hall.
So she was hiding something more.
Shit!
More Phase guards were coming down the stairs behind them. Kingu absently snapped his fingers, throwing up six inch thick plastic wall. The men slammed into it like bugs against a windshield. Kingu barely noticed as he stomped after her. “Hope, I swear to Gaia…”
“Well, there’s stuff you’re not telling me, isn’t there?” She interrupted, trying to turn the tables on him. “Don’t be so judge-y. Help me find Lycus.”
“What haven’t I told you?”
“You haven’t told me enough about your past. I think, if you shared it with me, it wouldn’t have such a hold on you.”
Her tone was gentle but the words cut like jagged glass. “My past has nothing to do with us, Hope.”
“I disagree. It’s festering inside of you. You should talk about how awful it is to know that your evil mother is snoring away in the Air Kingdom. You should talk about what she did to you. Why did she chain you to a wall?”
“So, I couldn’t escape, obviously. That’s what captives try to do, after all. Escape.”
She didn’t miss the double meaning there. “Are you accusing me of plotting some kind of get away or complaining that I haven’t tried one?”
Kingu had no idea. He just knew that he wasn’t going to discuss Kay and Hope’s unnaturally easy acceptance of a life in captivity was as good a topic as any to divert her attention. “I merely find your apparent willingness to stay my prisoner forever… odd.”
“I’m not your prisoner.”
“Really?” Kingu looked pointedly at the manacle on her ankle.
“Of course not. These people are prisoners.” Other Phases watched them from behind the cell doors, desperate faces staring out at them. A few started to call for help, but they stopped short when they saw Kingu. Apparently they preferred to stay in the frying pan, rather than risk the fire.
Hope slowed her search, her eyes going sympathetic and then determined. “Kingu?
“No.” He already saw where this was headed.
She looked over at him, with a persistent expression. “We should free all these Phases, don’t you think?”
“No.”
“But…”
“No. They’re bad people, Hope. Just because Galen doesn’t like them, doesn’t mean we should let them go. Akkadian, of the Crystal House is locked up in here. You want the responsibility of him roaming free in the world?” Even Kingu knew that would be a lousy idea and he generally supported massacres.
She frowned at him, willing to stand there and argue for the freedom of criminals so vile they’d even been Banished from the Banished Phases’ society. “Galen has no right to lock up these people and force them to fight in blood sports. Not even Akkadian. The Council passed judgment and they were Banished. That’s how they were punished. This is just cruel.”
“I agreed to free Lycus, but I never said I’d help all these beings…”
“Hope!” Lycus bellowed from somewhere down the row of cells. “Is that you?”
“Lycus!” Hope dashed off in the direction of his voice. Her hand was still clutching Kingu’s palm like she needed to pull him along.
She didn’t.
He wasn’t racing to save that idiot Metal Phase, but he was certainly keeping up. When they’d been walking, Kingu had slowed his usual stride because it took Hope two steps to match one of his. With her running, it was reduced to about one and a half.
She went barreling right past Lycus’ cell and then quickly backtracked to stare at the Metal Phase through the Plexiglas. He was isolated, with no one else around him. “Hi! There you are. Don’t worry. We’re here to rescue you.”
Lycus’ eyes fixed on Kingu through the plastic. The guy was still dressed in his battle fatigues from the day before. “Rescue me?” His voice was ragged and vivid bruises from Kingu’s strangulation attempt encircled his throat. “Is that what you told her?”
“She’s actually the one who told me that we were paying you this exciting jailhouse visit. I could’ve thought of far more enjoyable ways to spend our day.”
“I’ll bet.” Lycus spared Hope a quick glance. “Are you alright? Has he hurt you?”
“I’m fine.” Hope crouched down to examine the electronic keypad next to the cell door. She pushed some blonde hair behind her ear and the cherry earrings rattled. “Don’t be so suspicious. Kingu’s been a perfect gentleman.”
Lycus’s gaze went straight to the love bite that Hope had left on Kingu’s neck. His jaw tightened.
Kingu had deliberately created a shirt with a collar low enough to show off the hicky. Hope had marked him in the midst of her passion and he had no intention of hiding the proof.
Kingu
met Lycus’ outraged gaze and smirked.
“Son-of-a-bitch.” Lycus glanced back at Hope. “For God’s sake, woman, what are you doing with him?” He pointed at Kingu. “The guy’s a fucking monster!”
Hope glanced up at Kingu, one brow lifting archly. “Oh, I know he’s a monster.” She drawled. “That’s one of my favorite things about him. Narrowly beating out the color of his eyes and the way he sometimes calls me ‘treasure.’”
She was his treasure. “Also, you approve of my decorating.”
“True.” Hope nodded. “And you’re very efficient at jailbreaks. We’re already on step four and we didn’t even have to use dynamite a single time, yet. We always use dynamite at home, so it’s possibly becoming a crutch for us. It’s inspiring to see you work so easily without it.”
Kingu had no idea what they were blasting-to-hell in the Color Kingdom, but he nodded, anyway. “My pleasure. Let’s just speed this up, so we can go.”
Lycus’ eyes narrowed at him. “Did you use some kind of magic to brainwash her?”
“I don’t perform magic, you idiot. I’m a god, not a birthday clown.” Kingu gave up on Hope’s random-button-pushing approach to opening Lycus’ cell and gently nudged her from in front of the keypad. “Here, treasure. Allow me.” He slammed a fist into the electronic lock, causing sparks to fly out. Within two seconds, he ripped the internal wires free and then it was just a matter of using his strength to snap the plastic locks open manually. “Ta-da.” He deadpanned. “He’s saved. Hallelujah. Did I make it in under five minutes?”
“Four minutes and forty-eight seconds.” Hope kept her attention on Kingu as the cell door swung open. “You are just spectacular.” There was genuine admiration in her tone. “I told you, you were a hero.”
Kingu smiled. It was the first time he’d ever been proud of himself. Proud of his abilities. “I only did this because you asked. So technically, I think you are the hero.” His palm hesitantly brushed over her hair. He wasn’t sure how Hope would react to him touching her in the presence of another man. To his relief, she didn’t cringe away in shame or disgust.
Treasure of the Fire Kingdom (The Elemental Phases Book 4) Page 25