Instead, she moved closer and hugged him tight. “Thank you.”
Oh God.
Hope’s arms went around him and Kingu’s heart cracked right in two. No one had ever hugged him before. Or thanked him. Or rested her face against his chest and closed her eyes, because she absolutely trusted that he wouldn’t hurt her.
It was… perfect.
Kingu let out a shuddering breath and dropped a kiss onto the top of her head, right through her fuzzy pink hat. “You’re welcome.” He got out hoarsely.
New feelings crowded inside of him, huge and sobering. Kay had never been able to force him to his knees. Nothing had. But, for Hope, he would have begged, killed, bled, died… Anything.
“Un-fucking-believable.” Lycus stepped out of his cell and looked at Kingu in amazement. “Why the hell would you free me?”
Kingu glanced at the Phase, confused by the man’s confusion. Wasn’t it obvious, even for someone of Lycus’ diminished capacities? “Have you never had a woman?”
Lycus didn’t look pleased with that answer. “Let Hope go back to her family. Believe me, you do not want to piss those bastards off. Just let her go. I’ll take her home and maybe I can convince them to just forget this whole thing.”
Kingu’s mouth curved at that sheer stupidity of that demand. “No. I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
“Um.” Hope cleared her through. “Lycus, I don’t…”
Lycus cut her off, his eyes on Kingu. “You’ll have to let her go, eventually. You know that. She’s not yours.”
Kingu’s jaw went tight, because a part of him knew Lycus was right. Hope belonged to another. Someone with a soul and a greater destiny. Not that it mattered. “Anyone who tries to take Hope from me will discover unexplored dimensions of pain.”
Hope sighed reminiscently. “Wouldn’t Oberon have loved him, Lycus?”
“Probably.” Lycus scowled even as Kingu snapped his fingers and made the plastic manacle around Lycus’ ankle disappear. “What if she asked you let her go?” He pressed. “You’re saying that Hope talks you into doing shit… Well, could she talk you into letting her go home?”
Kingu froze.
What would he do if Hope asked him to set her free? It was becoming terribly clear that she could make him fold like a card table with nothing more than a bat of her lashes. These feelings inside of him wanted her to be happy. If she started crying or pleading, how could he possibly refuse her? On the other hand, how could he possibly let her go and return to the emptiness he’d felt without her?
“Oh, I don’t want to go home, right now.” Hope said, interrupting his increasingly desperate thoughts. “I’m quite happy here.”
Kingu felt his jaw sag open in shock. “What?”
At the same time, Lycus started swearing a blue streak. “What?!”
“I’m supposed to be here with you.” Hope blinked up at Kingu like that should be obvious. “I told you, the two of us finding each other is destiny.”
“Destiny.” He repeated.
He’d explained that he’d been created without any input from fate, but she’d never accept the truth. She might have teased him about being a monster, but to Hope he wasn’t a soulless creature, at all.
He was just a man.
Kingu’s mind went back to their earlier debate about movie monsters and Hope’s naive insistence that the villains could be redeemed. He’d actually read Phantom of the Opera back in 1910, so he remembered how the story ended, even if Hope didn’t. Christine didn’t escape back to her normal-looking, above ground, human lapdog… The Phantom let her go. Because he loved her and he knew she deserved more, he released her back into the light.
What a stupid bastard.
How could any monster give up his very salvation?
“Hope, I swear to God, you are as crazy as your grandfather.” Lycus glowered at her. “So, fine. You wanna play house with the Incredible Hulk, here… Fine. Don’t say I didn’t warn you, though.” With that, he jumped out of the prison, bound for who-cared-where.
“You’re welcome.” Hope called pointedly, even though Lycus was gone and couldn’t hear her. “Geez. Is it wrong to think a ‘thank you’ is kinda warranted when you save someone from rotting in jail?”
Kingu stared at the small being who’d freed him from a prison far worse than this one. “Thank you.”
Hope shot him a surprised glance. “For what?”
“For not asking me to let you go.”
For not making him go back to the endless solitude of life without her.
“Don’t be silly.” She straightened his tie and gave him a wink. “If I wanted to leave you, I’d already be gone. I’m very talented at planning escapes, you know.”
More Phases were headed their way, now. Armed idiots with sharp swords and enraged expressions, dashed down the hall from the opposite direction. They all skidded to a halt when the saw Kingu standing there.
“Kingu? What are you doing here?” One of the sputtered. “It’s not safe for you, sir. There’ve been reports of a jailbreak!”
Honest to gods, they couldn’t even question the guards outside before charging in? The men in tar could have told them that Kingu was the one behind the escape, but apparently no one had thought to ask them. Unbelievable. Even if they had been plotting against Job, the Earth King would’ve had nothing to worry about.
Kingu stalked past the mass of stupidity that the Phases called guards, tugging Hope along behind him. “Search the premises and round up the criminals, then. I have every faith that you’ll do as thorough a job as always.”
“Enforcer Galen was looking for you, sir.” Someone else called.
“Tell him I’m with my mate and I don’t want to be disturbed by idiots.” That pretty much ruled out everyone in the Cloudland.
Hope glanced up at him as they walked away. “You’re the one who’s being held prisoner here.” She lowered her voice so only Kingu could hear. “They watch you, all the time. Maybe you should think about escape.”
“And go where? If you can think of someplace that welcomes gods and monsters, I’m open to suggestions.”
Hope shrugged with studied casualness. “What about the Fire Kingdom?”
“What about it?”
“Well, I think they’d like a god on their side, over there. You’re big and a warrior, so you’ll fit right in. Plus, you could make them all kinds of neat stuff. Pinball machines, and atomic weapons, and giraffes. I’ve heard that Missy, of the Fire House has always wanted a giraffe.”
Kingu felt a stab of hurt.
He hadn’t known he could feel hurt, but his stomach sank in disappointment at her words. For some crazy reason, he’d thought that Hope would say he could go to the Color House. That they could both go to her homeland and…
What? Live happily-ever-after?
Please.
He rolled his eyes, disgusted with himself. Of course, Hope wouldn’t want him in her pretty, little kingdom. Who could blame her? You didn’t welcome the sea monster on board your ship.
He cleared his throat. “The Fire Phases are not going to let me move in with them. They’re notoriously clannish. They don’t let anyone in who’s not born there.”
“Oh, that’s not true. I guarantee it.”
“Not that I would even want to live there, surrounded by those maniacs. Aside from the fact that they eat their dead…”
“They do not! I told you that incident was completely exaggerated.”
Kingu ignored the interruption. “…they’re all criminally insane. The Air Phases used to whisper about their ritualistic slaughters. They have some national holiday where they all try to light each other on fire.”
“That’s only once a year. Almost everyone survives it.” Hope sounded offended, now. “Honestly, how could you listen to the Air House? What do they know about anything? The Fire Phases are a noble people.”
“Right well, they’re nobly gonna turn my ass over to Tessie if I show up there.”
<
br /> “Tessie?” Hope stopped her Fire House pitch, looking mystified. “Isn’t she your aunt? “Why would it matter if she finds you?”
“She’s trying to kill me.”
Hope made a “pfft” sound. “Oh, for goodness sake. I’ve seen Tessie swordfight. You have nothing to worry about.”
“Believe me, she’s more powerful than she looks. Plus, she hates me. Hate gives a person a lot of strength.”
“She hated Kay. Not you.”
“Well, somehow I still got trapped in the Air Kingdom with my sadistic bitch of a mother for over a thousand years, so I’m not splitting hairs about Tessie’s motivations.”
Hope frowned. “Have you even talked to Tessie since Kay went into the coma?”
“No.”
“Don’t you think you should? Maybe she’s not after you, at all. How do you know what she’s planning unless you discuss it?”
“Oh, we’ll discuss it, alright. Once I get my full powers back, Tessie and I will have nice, long conversation.” Kingu smiled in anticipation. “And when she attacks me, I’ll rip off her head and burn her body to ash.”
Hope winced a bit. “Oh dear. Job is not going to like that.”
“All the better. I’m not so fond of him, either.”
“To hear you tell it, you’re not so fond of any Elementals.”
Actually, knowing Hope had made him slightly more tolerant of Phases, in general.
Slightly.
“I am fond of you.” Against his better judgment, Kingu’s eyes went to the Elementals trapped in the plastic cells around him. He swore under his breath. “And if you wish these morons freed, I will see it done.”
Hope looked amused by that non sequitur. “You just want me to talk you into doing what you already know you’re going to do.”
Kingu made a face. “I simply dislike seeing other beings suffer.” Having endured slavery himself, he wouldn’t watch other beings trapped in that dismal fate. He recognized the prisoners’ looks of desperation and impotent rage. He knew what it was like to be caged. To have everything taken from you except one tiny spark of… hope.
“You really are the greatest warrior I’ve ever met.” Hope said quietly.
He glanced down at her, surprised to see she was serious. “Because I am going to help these idiots?”
“Because your instinct is to protect people, even though no one’s ever protected you.” Hope gazed into his eyes. “How do you not see that you have a soul?”
Kingu realized he had no response to that.
Hope shook her head and took hold of his hand, again. “Come on, monster. Let’s go smash in some doors.”
Chapter Seventeen
How thou art changed! I dare not look on thee;
I feel but see thee not….
Some good change is working in the elements.
Percy Shelley- “Prometheus Unbound”
“I’m telling you, someone used Kay’s necklace.” Tessie paced around her Match’s neatly organized office. “I know what its power feels like and, whatever happened yesterday, that pendant was behind it.”
Job, of the Earth House leaned back in his leather desk chair. “Kingu?” He guessed.
His white blond hair was pulled back into an elegant ponytail and he was wearing a three piece pinstriped suit, but he hadn’t totally escaped Tessie’s “casual-ing crusade.” His tie featured a haunted house in honor of Halloween and his desk was decorated with a grinning pumpkin. Tessie’s mission in life was to make her buttoned-down Match have a little fun.
“I can’t be sure that Kingu used the necklace himself, but he’s involved somehow. He’s the only one who could’ve taken the necklace off Kay.” Tessie shook her head in frustration. “The question is why would he? He knows how dangerous it is.”
Tessie just didn’t get it.
Kingu understood the destructive powers of Kay’s pendant better than anyone. What could anyone threaten or offer him that would be worth such a risk? And where the hell was he? Tessie had gone to the Air Kingdom looking for Kingu and all she’d found was her bitch of a sister sleeping in that ugly hot pink house. She had no idea where her nephew could’ve gone.
That… worried her.
Kingu was a powerful guy, but he’d lived his whole life under Kay’s thumb. He had no idea how to really survive in the world. What if something had happened to him? There were so many monsters in this universe who could’ve attacked him or kidnapped him or tricked him into handing over the necklace.
Tessie didn’t know much about Kingu as a person. How could she with Kay always standing between them? And –granted-- Kingu himself was jussst a little bit Dark Side and he completely hated her. But, the boy was still her nephew. Tessie wasn’t about to let somebody harm him. She had to figure out where he was.
She looked over at Job. “Do you think someone forced him to hand over the necklace?”
“I don’t know.” Job’s lawn green eyes watched her pace. “Given that he’s immortal and the size of a mountain, I can’t imagine how anyone could force him to do much.”
“I know he’d big, but he’s not used to being out in the world. Think about it, you’re the oldest Elemental alive and Kingu had already been trapped in the Air Kingdom for two hundred years when you were born. It’s all he knows. Where else would he go?”
“I don’t know.” Job said, again. “I imagine he’ll go wherever he always wished he could go when he was trapped. Now that he’s free, the universe is wide open to him.”
“He’s not someone who’d just take off on a ski vacation or whatever.” Tessie shook her head. “This isn’t good. Either someone made Kingu hand over the necklace or he’s taken the necklace himself and is planning something.”
“You think he’ll come after you?”
“Probably.” Tessie ran a hand through her hair. “The kid wants me dead.”
“Cross disliked me for a long time, too. We worked through it.”
It was sweet of him to try and cheer her up, but Tessie wasn’t buying it. “Your nephew and my nephew aren’t even in the same ballpark, hon. You never locked Cross up for a millennia and Cross never tried to help eradicate an entire species because he was pissed about it.”
“You didn’t have a choice except to lock up Kay.” Job insisted. “It was her fault that Kingu was trapped there, too. And Kingu wasn’t responsible for the Fall. That was all Kay and Parald’s doing. You and Kingu can have a relationship if you both just try. I know you want that.”
“I don’t think he wants it, though.”
“When we gave him a chance, Kingu walked away from his mother and let you put her into a coma. He sided with us. That tells me the boy isn’t all bad.”
Tessie stalked over to window and stared out at the orderly green Earth Kingdom. “I just want to find him.”
“We’ll find him.” Job leaned across his desk and cleared his throat. “When we do… what are you going to do if he is plotting something horrible with that pendant?”
“I’m going to stop him.”
“How?”
“I have no idea.” Tessie had no intention of hurting Kingu. He was her only blood relative. All she really wanted was to get along. She had no idea how to accomplish that, though. “I’ll guess I’ll have to talk to him or… Wait.” Her eyes narrowed thoughtfully as a new idea occurred to her. “You should talk to him, Job.” She spun back around to face him. “We’re a Match, so he’s your nephew, too!”
Job blinked. “But, I barely know Kingu.”
“That’s probably for the best.” She restlessly headed back to his desk. “People like you more than me. Kingu will never listen to me, but I’m sure you can have him coming around to Team Tessie in no time.”
Job’s mouth curved. “I am captain of Team Tessie. But, I don’t think I’m the right person to talk to the boy. Doesn’t he hate Elementals?”
“Oh, he hates everyone.” Tessie waved that aside. “Come on. I know you can do this. When we find him, you say
something awesomely life changing and monumental that completely changes his outlook and makes him adore me.”
“Oh, is that all?”
“Yes!” Tessie nodded. “Also it would be great if you somehow got that pendant back.”
“Tess…”
Her eyelashes fluttered. “Please Joby?”
Job was amused by the blatant flirting. “Alright.” He relented. “I’ll try, but I don’t think it will…”
The lamp on his desk flickered and Chason, of the Magnet House jumped into the room. He looked like he hadn’t seen a bath in about a month, his purple eyes wild with madness in his sunken face.
Job’s eyebrows climbed, still unused to the lack of barriers and how easy it was for Phases to just pop into his home. “Chason. You couldn’t have called first?”
Tessie was a bit more blunt. “What the hell do you want, Chase?” She stalked closer to the hollowed out shell of a man who used to be the Magnet King. “Unless you’ve come to give Job back the Justice Table that you stole, get out.”
“It’s important.” Chason barely seemed to process her, all his attention focused on Job. “Do we have records on the Phases who were Banished?”
“Of course. The Council keeps records on every trial, but why…?”
“A Light Phase is still alive somewhere. I know it.”
Job’s eyebrows climbed. “I see. And how do you know…?”
Chason cut him off as if he didn’t even hear Job talking. “He took Mara’s body and I have to find him, so I need all the information you can give me. He has to be in the records.”
“How do you know this man was Banished?”
Chason scowled as if Job was being deliberately obtuse. “Well what else makes sense? None of the five Light Phases that we know of did this. I’ve questioned them. It’s someone else. Someone we don’t know about. Which means that it has to be a Light Phase you didn’t count in the census after the Fall. So it’s someone outside the House. What Phase would be outside their House for this long besides somebody Banished?”
Tessie’s lips parted as she realized that Chason was actually making sense. Her eyes met Job’s in amazement. “After the Fall, did you guys ever look for the Phases you’d Banished over the years?”
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