Queen of the Magnetland (The Elemental Phases Book 5)

by Cassandra Gannon

  She whimpered as if she heard him, and the small sound nearly sent him to his knees.

  Chason leaned closer to her ear. “Maybe you’re not surrendering yourself to him, because you know he’s not your Match. Maybe you sense the truth. That you’re my Match and he’s not me, anymore.”

  “Chason.”

  She called the other Chason’s name, but it still had his jaw clenching in need. “You’re mine, Mara. When I get my hands on you, you will give me everything inside of you. If you won’t surrender it on your own, I’ll just fucking take it. Do you hear me?”

  “Yes.” Her head went back on a gasp. “Yes! Take me, now. Please!”

  In the movie, that dialogue had been ridiculous. Coming from Mara, the breathless words made Chason’s whole body jolt.

  “Take her now, you moron!” He shouted, even though he knew how this ended.

  His former self still battled for control and it was ruining the pleasure for all of them. Mara needed this. Christ, he needed this. She was so close and it was going to be so beautiful. Another hard thrust and she’d go over the edge. He wanted to see it more he wanted to keep breathing.

  He wanted everything she had.

  But, the other Chason thought he was being too rough. That he was overstepping the bounds of propriety. That he might be hurting her.

  “No, no, no, no, no.” Real-Chason chanted as he watched the idiot he’d been two years before slow his movements, pull back, and be considerate… which completely fucked up both their orgasms.

  Mara’s teeth sank into her bottom lip as things ended in unspectacular fashion. Her energy pulled back from him and vanished. They both climaxed, but it wasn’t what it should have been.

  It wasn’t enough.

  “Christ.” Real-Chason looked up at the ceiling, wanting to go back in time and kill himself. “I’m sorry, princess.”

  “I’m sorry, Mara.” The other him said at the same time. He set her down on the ground and hesitantly touched her face. “I should have shown more restraint. I tried, but I was…” He shook his head in defeat. “Can you forgive me? Did I hurt you? Are you alright?”

  “No. I mean, yes. I’m fine.” She busied herself fixing her clothes. “It was fine. Everything’s… fine.”

  Fuck. If he never heard the word “fine” again it would be too soon.

  She ran a hand over her mussed hair. “I’m sorry, too. You should go back to work. I shouldn’t have disturbed you.”

  The other Chason wanted to stay with her, but he didn’t know how. “Seeing you is never a disturbance, Mara. Especially not when it means I get to see so much of you…” He trailed off and cleared his throat.

  She glanced up at him through her lashes and Real-Chason could see that she was amused by that. Despite how he’d royally screwed everything up again, she still gave the other him a smile that he completely missed.

  Real-Chason was so helplessly in love with this woman, he almost felt like he should just renounce her and set her free of his own ineptitude. She deserved so much better.

  Memory-Chason was already heading for the stairs, too embarrassed by his lapse in Phazing etiquette to even meet her eyes. “You should rest.” He called as he left. “I wasn’t tender enough and I’m sure I scared you. I’m sorry. Next time, I’ll be myself, again.”

  For that Chason, there wouldn’t be a next time. This was the last time they’d Phaze before the Fall.

  Mara sighed as the front door slammed shut. “What was I thinking?” She looked up at the ceiling, like it might have the answers. “Now, he probably thinks I’m a harlot.”

  Chason would have laughed at the absurdity of that statement, except she looked so miserable. A harlot? Mara was suddenly giving his former self a run for his money in the idiocy department, it seemed. “That was all his fault, not yours. You’ve done nothing wrong… Well, except for keeping your powers from me, but we’ll be fixing that.”

  Mara sniffed and shook her head, still talking to herself. “Why can’t you just leave it alone? Why do you always have to push him for more? What do you think is going to happen? That you’re going to just wake-up one day and be different people?”

  Chason leaned his shoulder against the wall beside her, his eyes thoughtful.

  Yes.

  That was exactly what happened, actually.

  How lucky for the current Mara that her thoughtful, considerate Match had died in the Fall. How lucky for both of them he’d woken-up as a ruthless, greedy son-of-a-bitch who planned use every inch of her body in ways designed to make her scream.

  Chapter Fourteen

  From that instant, too, she melted in quietly amongst us, and was no longer a foreign element.

  Nathaniel Hawthorne- “The Blithedale Romance”

  “How’s Chason?” Mara demanded as soon as the doctor came out of the operating room. She’d been sitting there what seemed like hours, nervously writing Chason’s name over and over in her notebook.

  All she wanted to do was see him.

  “I removed the bullet.” Freya, of the Cold House was a neat and tidy woman with a habit of sticking pencils in her hair. Two of them poked out of the practical blonde bun on the back of her head as she flipped through the notes on her clipboard. “I’ve never seen anything quite like it. The bullet looks like some kind of polymer and it acts like poison to our systems. It burned my hand when I was examining it. Just touching it hurt. I can only image how painful it must have been for Chason to have it lodged four centimeters from…”

  “Thank you, Freya.” Job said, interrupting her endless stream of words. “How is Chason doing?”

  “He’s still unconscious. With the bullet out, I think he should wake-up soon. His body will heal the wound itself.” She looked at Job. “But, if we hadn’t gotten that bullet out when we did, whatever that plastic is would’ve killed him. The weapon that did this is a terrible invention.”

  Job nodded, looking tired.

  Mara released a long breath, just thankful Chason had pulled through. There had been so much blood…

  She huddled in her bathrobe, doing her best to stay warm. Someone had given her doctor’s scrubs to wear, but they did nothing to stop her shivering. Most of Mara’s internal chill was from thinking about how close she’d come to losing Chason. But part of it was because of the arctic temperature of her surroundings.

  The Cold Palace was a huge icy fortress on the edge of a black sea. Freya had an office in the Agora, too, but she saw her most serious cases in her frigid homeland. She had a full hospital set up in the west wing of the Palace and it was considered a sanctuary. Even Banished Phases occasionally showed up and Freya treated them. Her patients were protected under Council law, although most of them were happy to get well and quickly leave.

  The entire palace was created from gigantic blocks of ice that glowed from within with an eerie light. Its thin turrets dripped with icicles and frozen crystals. Outside blizzards raged, covering the Cold Kingdom in an endless blanket of snow. The only relief from the relentless white was the frosty blue icebergs bobbing in the dark ocean and the forbidding gray mountains in the distance.

  Mara shoved her hands deeper into her pockets and just wanted to be with her Match. “May I see him?”

  Job and Freya exchanged a look.

  “Why don’t we have Freya check you out first?” Job recommended. “Just to make sure.”

  “To make sure of what?” It took everything in Mara to keep her composure. “That I’m really me?”

  “Well, Mara was dead the last time we saw her.” Freya was obviously trying not to stare at her and failing at it. “I only know of one person who contracted the Fall and recovered. One. And it wasn’t you. Then you show up, claiming to be Mara, and claiming to be cured, and claiming that Vandal, of the Light House shot Chason, even though he’s supposed to be dead, too. How is it possible that…?”

  “If she is who she says she is, I imagine Kay’s necklace held her in stasis.” Kingu interjected as if it was all
very logical. He was sitting next to Mara and seemed to be the only one who accepted her story at face value. “Tessie destroyed all remnants of the Fall a few months ago. So, if this woman was in a mystical coma, when the Fall vanished from the universe, it also vanished from her body. Once she was awakened, she’d be healed.” He made a considering face. “All in all, a very impressive plan from Zakkery and this Time Phase.”

  “Daphne.” Mara supplied. “She was extremely powerful. Is extremely powerful. I don’t think the time jump killed her.”

  If the gun that shot Chason was really from the future, Daphne was also the most likely suspect for the person who’d supplied it to Vandal.

  Mara closed her eyes briefly, struggling to control her anger. “I want to see Chason.”

  Job put his hands behind his back military “at rest” style. “Kingu, how hard would it be to carry out this plan to resurrect the real Mara? It seems close to impossible.”

  “Well, it would be simple for the necklace to create the stasis. Even a moderately intelligent Phase could manage that, in a monkey-with-a-typewriter way. But the thinking of it all is very advanced for your species. It would take time to line up all the pieces. And why would Zakkery wish to save this girl?” He looked at Mara. “Aside from the fact you seem quite pleasant for an Elemental.”

  “Thank you.” Mara told him politely. Years of practice had her reigning in her impatience. “And congratulations on your child.” She’d been too distracted to tell him that earlier. “A baby is always such a blessing and Hope will be a wonderful mother.”

  Kingu nodded in agreement. He was a very sweet man under the red eyes and monstrous features. “We have already decorated the nursery in pythons.”

  “That’s so bold.” Mara said sincerely. “You know, I’ve always admired the Fire House’s sense of style. I’ll be making some decorating changes myself, now that I’m back.” She sent Job a meaningful look.

  “Kingu has a point. Assuming that everything you’re saying is true, Chason must have done something to convince this Daphne and Zakkery to help you.” Job shook his head. “I very much doubt they planned all this as a hobby. We don’t know if you’re really Mara, but I’m positive that Chason would’ve done anything they wanted once he saw you.”

  Mara hesitated and bit her lower lip, worried that she might have cost Chason too much. “Chason gave Zakkery a square box, covered in writing.”

  Job closed his eyes. “The Justice Tablet.” He sighed. “Of course.”

  “Justice Tablet?” Mara blinked. “Are you talking about the Tablets of Fate? Job, those are just a fairytale!”

  The nine Tablets were supposed control Compassion and Love and Valor and Happiness and some other things that Mara didn’t remember at the moment. No one believed they actually existed, though. Not unless you counted the weirdoes who wrote about aliens building the pyramids, anyway. The Tablets were a just a silly legend.

  Job pinched the bridge of his nose. “Believe me, they’re all too real.”

  It was lucky that Mara had given up on hiding her emotions, because she couldn’t quite suppress her skeptical scoff. It was like suddenly being told that they’d found the lost continent of Atlantis while she was in her coma.

  “Of course, the Magnet King would trade that box for her.” Kingu said dismissively. “No price is too high for your Match. That’s what led me to give Zakkery the necklace in the first place.”

  “The Justice Tablet can destroy the world.” Job reminded him.

  “Zakkery has no intention of destroying the world. Where would he buy cigarettes if it was gone?” Kingu rolled his eyes. He’d seen countless millennia pass and clearly planned to see countless more. “The world is far studier than it seems, Job. Be happy that Mara is back. Rising from the dead is rare among your kind.”

  “If she is Mara.”

  “No one believes me.” Mara looked at Kingu, who was fast becoming her new best friend. “Did you mean it when you said earlier you’d always know your Match? Do you think her family would, too? People who’d been around her since the day she was born?” Another glare at Job, who apparently believed in children’s stories about those silly Tablets, but not in her.

  “Yes.” Kingu’s answer was unequivocal. “I would always know Hope.”

  “I had to convince you that Hope even was your Match, nephew.”

  Mara and Kingu ignored Job’s complaint.

  “And yet no one here knows me.” Mara told Kingu.” Don’t you think that’s sad?”

  “Chason nearly died today.” Job insisted. “He’s mentally fragile, lying in a hospital bed, and impossible things seem to be happening. If you’re Mara, you know why I’m being cautious with him. The last thing you said to me was to look after your Match and that’s what I’ve spent two years trying to do.”

  That was true.

  Damn it.

  “I think you should renounce the Magnet King and come to the Fire Kingdom until the other Elementals see the truth.” King recommended. “We enjoy mysterious and possibly dangerous visitors in my homeland.”

  “That’s very kind, but this is my life and I’m not giving it up. I’m not leaving my Match, ever again. No matter who I have to go through to get to him.”

  Kingu nodded as if he approved of her plan. “We all must fight for what’s ours. In any case, you have no further need for the necklace, Mara. Would you mind if I had it back? It’s for my daughter.”

  It was so nice to have someone call her by name. “Of course. I’m not sure how to undo the clasp, though.”

  “It’s magically attached. Only beings from my bloodline can remove it.” Kingu made a turnaround gesture with his finger and she obligingly swiveled her head for him.

  “Is that safe?” Job demanded. “Will taking it off hurt her?”

  “She no longer has the Fall. The pendant has done its work and she is healed.” Kingu removed the necklace and placed it in his pocket. “Thank you, Mara.”

  “Thank you, Kingu. You’re the one who gave the necklace to Zakkery. If not for you, I’d be dead right now.” She extended a palm to him in the human gesture of friendship. It wasn’t something an Elemental would typically do, but it seemed appropriate. “I own you more than I can repay.”

  Kingu looked surprised for a beat, like no one had ever tried to shake his hand before. Then he slowly clasped her fingers. “It becomes clear to me why the Magnet Phase was so desperate to have you back.” He glanced over at Job. “You really think this woman is an imposter? I had thought you were brighter than that, uncle.”

  “I want her to be Mara more than anyone here.” Job insisted. “I just want to be sure before I let her near Chason. The boy is emotionally unstable on his best days. He hasn’t made a good choice in years and now he’s nearly died. The woman herself said that he doesn’t even believe she is Mara.”

  Mara had had enough.

  “I’m going to see Chason.” This time, Mara didn’t phrase it as a question. “I’ll cooperate and be pleasant and submit to whatever tests you’d like, but I will see Chason first.”

  Job blinked at her tone. The old Mara never would’ve fought him like this.

  Freya shook her head. “I don’t think that…”

  “It only matters what I think.” Mara got to her feet, shoving her notebook into the pocket of her hospital scrubs. “I’m the Queen of the Magnetland and no one will keep me from my Match.”

  She swept passed them without bothering to wait for a reply.

  “Let her go.” Kingu advised when Job moved to follow her. “You know who she is, Job. You are just in denial about it, because your kind refuses to accept that weird shit happens sometimes. Elementals are always searching for answers that they will never understand even if they get them. It’s the arrogance of your species.”

  Job shot his nephew a put upon look. As a primordial god and a new Fire Phase, Kingu really wasn’t the most modest of men, so lectures on arrogance were more than a little ironic.

  �
�It’s not arrogance!” Freya yelped. “Scientific explanations are always there if we just…”

  Mara tuned out the argument. She marched down the icy hallway and through the door at the end. She immediately spotted her Match lying unconscious on a bed in front of her. He looked so pale. His torso was wrapped in bandages and he was wearing nothing but a pair of green hospital pants.

  She had never seen him look so physically vulnerable.

  “Chason.” She hurried over to the side of the mattress. The machine next to him made steady beeping sounds in time with his heart. His Magnet powers interfered with the reading and caused static-y feedback to appear on the little screen.

  Mara had a sudden understanding of what he must have gone through when she was dying of the Fall.

  Looking at his still form, she’d never felt more helpless in her life. Chason always seemed so confident and sure. Seeing him like this terrified her. If anything happened to Chason, her entire future would be gone.

  She put a hand on his arm, not knowing what else to do. “Chason? Darling, it’s Mara.”

  He didn’t wake-up, but the heart monitor’s noise changed. The beep, beep, beep got faster as if he was somehow heard her and grew more alert.

  Chason knew she was there.

  Mara sat down on the bed next to him. “I was so worried.” Her voice cracked and she had to look up at the ceiling to get herself back under control. “I’m still worried, Chason. Please wake-up. I need you so much. Please just open your eyes and tell me you’ll be okay.”

  Something moved along their connection. Something reassuring and strong.

  His energy was reaching for hers; trying to comfort her.

  He was going to be alright.

  Mara could’ve cried. She grabbed hold of his powers with her own and holding tight. When he was asleep, Chason knew exactly who she was. She lay down next to him, her head on his shoulder, listening to him breathe. Mara closed her eyes, softly humming I’ll Be with You in Apple Blossom Time as she stroked his arm.