Magic of the Wood House (The Elemental Phases Book 6) (14 page)

“Yes. 
Fine.”  Rye interrupted, mainly just to appease Jules and stop the nagging. 
“Nobody will slaughter the precious humes, alright?”  He sent Kahn a pointed,
“this means you” look.

“Like
these guys are doing so much fucking good for their species, anyway.”  Kahn
shook his head in hollow disbelief.  “How can so many useless, evil parasites
roam this universe, while my little sisters are gone, buried and rotting under
piles of dirt?  While Mara was allowed to die alone in the godforsaken Magnet
Kingdom?”  He glanced away, pressing his lips together so hard that they went
white.  “How is that
possible
?”  His voice cracked.

If
there was an answer for that, Rysimer certainly didn’t have it.

Julius
reached over and patted Kahn’s back in a clumsy sort of comfort.

Kahn
shoved him away.

The
door creaked open and a smallish human peered out; the same guy who’d pointed
the AK-47 at Rye’s skull.  He still held it clutched in his hands.  Most humans
looked alike.  This one had dark hair covered by some kind of baseball hat and
sunglasses suspended from a neon green string hanging against his shirtfront. 
“It’s Wednesday.”  He announced, as if that meant something important.

“Fucking
hell.”  Kahn pushed past him and stomped into the store.  His army surplus
boots thudded against the cement floor.  “Where’s the bomb at?  The big one?”

Kahn
was a subtle son-of-a-bitch.

Rysimer
absently ripped the AK-47 out of the human’s hands as he passed, most of his
attention on Kahn.  “Would you let me handle this?  You’re gonna make it
worse.”  He turned back to the stunned human, tossing the gun to Julius for
safe keeping.  Bullets won’t kill an Elemental, but they still hurt like hell. 
“Where’s the Star of Bethlehem?”

“Yeah. 
Your way’s
much
better, Rye.”  Kahn sneered.  He looked around the
dilapidated interior, nudging a box of grenades with his foot.  “Fucking
parasites.”

The
human automatically raised his hands to shoulder level, his brown eyes wide
with shock.  “But, it’s Wednesday!”  He cried again.  “It’s Wednesday!  It’s
Wednesday
!”

“Why
does it keep saying that?”  Mannus demanded of no one in particular.  “Is it –like--
human, white flag, ‘I surrender’ code or something?”

“He’s
not an
it
.  It’s a
he
, dumbass.”  Daven put-in wisely.

The
human kept his panicked gaze on Rysimer.  “You told us to deliver the Star of
Bethlehem to you on
Tuesday
.  Yesterday!  You should have gotten it
yesterday
.”

“
I
told you?”  Rysimer repeated.  He’d never seen the human before in his life and
all day yesterday he’d been digging pits for the dead bodies stacked six high
in the Light Kingdom.

His
eyes slid over to Julius.

Jules
shrugged.

“He’s
lying.”  Kahn snapped.  “I can
make
him tell us where it is.”

“No!”
 Mannus and Daven coursed, obviously dreading the mangled body parts
that
idea promised.

Julius
moved forward.  Where Kahn stomped, Jules glided.  He approached the human with
a “this won’t hurt a bit” sort of smile.  “You say you met Rye before?”  He
gestured towards Rysimer.  “Are you sure that…?”

The
human shook his head emphatically.  “No.  No.  Another one.  Another one like
you, though.”  He nodded towards the black House designation at Jules’ temple. 
“Someone with a stripe in his hair took the bomb yesterday.”

Kahn
swore savagely in four different languages.

Rysimer
understood the impulse.  Another Elemental had the Star of Bethlehem?  Shit. 
Shit.  Shit.  Who else would be aware of that bomb?  Human weapons were beneath
the notice of most Phases, but there were still some likely suspects.

Djinn
and those other mobsters in the Fire House certainly topped the list, but there
a few others.  Eventually, other Phases would come looking for it, but Rye had
thought they were too distracted by the Fall to think of the weapon so
quickly.  Obviously, he’d underestimated one of them.

“What
color was the hair of the guy who took it?”  Rysimer pointed at the streak at
his temple.  “What color was the stripe?”

The
man’s brows compressed.  “Black.”  He said, as if Rye’s question made no sense.

The
human didn’t know it, but that one word sliced through all of them.  It could
only mean one thing.  Just one.  Another Light Phase had survived the Fall.

Kahn
froze.

Mannus
and Daven exchanged a glance.

Rye
heard a roaring in his ears, penetrating his helpless wrath.

“That’s
impossible.”  Julius shook his head, looking pale.  “We’d know if anyone else
from our House still lived.  We’d
have
to, right?”  He looked at the
others, desperately.  “Who could this be?”

“I
don’t know.”  Rye admitted, his mind racing.  What the hell was going on?  His
hand curled hand into a frustrated fist.  “This kinda fucks up our plans for
Parald, though.”

Kahn’s
roared cursing shook the walls.  He kicked the box of grenades so hard that they
went scattering across the floor.

Rysimer
barely heard him.  Another Light Phase had the Star of Bethlehem.  Who was it? 
Why was he staying hidden?  How had he survived?

…And
what did he plan to do with the bomb?

All
elements are but one pervading flame

Nathaniel
Hawthorne- “The Devil in Manuscript”

Christmas Eve Night

“This
is a terrible idea.”  Teja paced around Sullivan’s sparse living room,
surreptitiously peering out the front windows to keep watch.  “Only a human
could think of it.  No Elemental would hide right in the spot where people
expect
us to hide.”

“Which
makes it the place where Elementals would
least
expect us to go, doesn’t
it?”  Sullivan retorted.  “Besides, I’m
not
hiding.  I’ve done nothing
wrong.  Neither have you.  Why should we hide?”

That
was such a Wood Phase thing to say.

Teja
glowered over at him.  “You already have all kinds of mercenaries and assassins
after you because they think you have the Happiness box. 
Now
we have
the Council on our ass, as well.  They’re going to want to know about the Cold
Kingdom, Sullivan.  Do you really not see the problem?”

“So,
we’ll answer their questions and clear our names.”  Sullivan was sitting on his
ordinary, neutral-colored sofa, watching her pace.  “That’s what innocent
people do.”

Everything
in his house was ordinary and neutral-colored.  It was a miracle the man hadn’t
fallen into a beige-induced coma years ago, surrounded by all this boring,
unobjectionable, averageness.  She was more convinced than ever that Sullivan
didn’t have the Happiness box lying around.  His surroundings were simply too
empty to overlook it.

His
Spartan lifestyle irritated her even more this time than it had on her last
visit to his home.  Why didn’t Sullivan hang some pictures on the wall or
something?  What were his hobbies?  What did he care about?  Why was he so
difficult to figure out?

The
“no private questions” rule of their relationship meant she couldn’t outright
ask him anything interesting, so the least he could do was leave some clues
lying around.  Instead, the only signs of life in the place were garish holiday
decorations and abundant houseplants.  Of course a Wood Phase would have a
green thumb.  Aside from that, it was impossible to read anything about the man
from his home.  How could a human less than four decades old be so hard to spy
on?

“There
are hundreds of other realms we could go to.”  Teja persisted, refusing to be
distracted by how uncooperative Sullivan could be.  “Places no one even knows about,
except me.  My parents used to map unexplored worlds, so we could go someplace
uninhabited until…”

“How
is that going to help your cousin?”  Sullivan interrupted.  He gestured towards
the guestroom, where Freya was stretched out on the bed.  “Freya’s injured,
Teja.  She needs a safe place to rest.”

“You’re
just
such
a Wood Phase.”  That whole House lived to help the helpless. 
Teja wasn’t worried about Freya’s condition.  Elementals were pretty hardy, so a
little head wound wasn’t
too
serious.  Hopefully.  “We should just leave
her here and go.”  Teja recommended, even though she knew she wasn’t going to
abandon her idiot cousin.  “She’d leave me, if the situations were reversed.”

“I
doubt that.  She looked pretty happy to see you earlier.”

“She
was just happy not to be roasted alive.  You don’t know the Cold Phases like I
do.  They hate me.”

“If
you say so.”  Sullivan didn’t sound convinced.  “But, we’re still staying put. 
We’re back on my turf, which means I’m no longer your prisoner, and I like it
that way.”

“You’re
going to be the
Council’s
prisoner, if we get caught.  Since Vandal, of
the Light House was so recently blown to bits, I think you and I just took his number
one spot on the Elemental’s ‘Most Wanted’ list.  They’re never going to believe
the truth, so I hope you don’t mind living your life on the run.”

Sullivan
still didn’t seem very worried.  “I’m not running anywhere.”  He reiterated and
got to his feet.  He headed towards the kitchen.  “I’ll go see if the coffee is
ready.”

The
man was hard to unsettle.  “This could have something to do with those twelve
hours you’re missing, you know.  Assuming you were in the Cold Kingdom, which
isn’t
that
big an assumption, at this point.”

“If
it’s connected, I don’t remember how.”

Teja
made a face at his caviler attitude.  “Job’s for sure arrested Djinn and the
others, already.”  She tried.  “See if
that
scares you.  Because, it
means we’ll probably have to break my family out of the Council’s jail cells. 
Assuming they’re not outright Banished. 
No way
will a jury of their
peers ever find them innocent.”

“Of
course they will, because your family
is
innocent.”

He
was so damn young.  “You have a lot more faith in Elementals than I do,
Sullivan.”

“I
have faith in
justice
.  It’s why I’m a police officer.”  He called
back.  “Speaking of your family, they might think we were just incinerated in
the blast.  Should we try to contact them somehow?  They could be worried.”

“Fire
Phases don’t worry.  We
make
people worry.”  Teja muttered and went back
to watching the front lawn for an ambush.  “And why is there an army of inflatable
snowmen lining your walkway?”  She demanded unable to stop herself.  She glared
at the smiling bastards.  Gaia, if she never saw anything wintery again, it
would be too soon.

“They’re
Christmas decorations from my grandfather.  I put them up to --I don’t
know--honor him, I guess.  He loved the holidays.  Some people visit graves, I hang
stockings and buy a tree.”

Christmas
was the human equivalent of Gaianisha Day.  Teja knew that much, but she wasn’t
about to look like an idiot by asking why celebrating it required plastic
Frosties.  The Christmas trees were stupid enough.  Every year, she endured
having a dead spruce dragged into her home, because Hope liked it, but Sullivan
should have more sense.

She
glanced over at the poor tree that Sullivan had set up by his fireplace.  It
was festooned with shiny glass balls and strings of twinkle lights, with an
illuminated green star on top.  To her eyes, it looked a bit bare without the butcher
knives hanging from the branches.

“Parson
participated in this absurdity?”  You’d think a Wood Phase would have pitied
the gaudy plant, not enshrined it in a place of honor.

“My
grandfather
lived
for this absurdity.  He dressed up like Santa every
Christmas Eve.  And every Halloween.  And pretty much every weekend.”  She
heard the affection in Sullivan’s voice.  “He was the best part of my
childhood.”

“What
about your parents?”

There
was a long pause.  “I don’t want to talk about my parents.”

Teja
couldn’t quite reign in her frustration.  “Why not?”  She demanded.

“Because
I don’t want to.”

“You’re
being unreasonable.  Matches have to share.”

“You’re
the one who came up with the idea that we keep an emotional distance and not
rehash everything that’s ever happened to us.  I’m just going by the rules.”

“I
think we need to reconsider the rules.”

“I
don’t.  It’ll be much easier to end this if we don’t have such a personal
attachment.”

He
really didn’t understand the concept of a Match, did he?  “We’re not ending
anything, Sullivan. 
Ever
.”

“If
you say so.”  Sullivan repeated in that same doubtful tone and came back into
the room carrying two mugs of coffee.  They had a lizard playing the saxophone painted
on their sides, along with the words, “32
^nd
Annual Mayport Beach Gecko
Festival.”  “You want milk or sugar?”

“Give
me a break.  Do look like a Water Phase to you?  ”  Teja took the mug from him
and belted back the black coffee.  “We need to focus and come up with a plan.” 
She decided, getting back to the topic at hand.  “I know you believe in truth
and innocence and all that crap, but I’d feel a lot better if we had some
actual bad guys to kill. 
Someone
attacked the Cold Kingdom to frame the
Fire House and we need to figure out who it was.”

“
Luckily,
tracking down assholes is a vital part of my job.”  Sullivan sat down on the
arm of a completely average looking tan chair.  “Let’s start with the obvious: 
How many people could’ve gotten their hands on that bomb?”

Teja
considered that for a beat.  “All the warrior Houses would’ve known about the
Star of Bethlehem.”  She remembered hearing about that weapon, now.  The Fire
Phases had gone looking for it after the Fall, but someone had beaten them to
the punch.  “The Light House would be my most likely suspect.”

“Vandal
was a Light Phase.”

Teja
had thought of that, too.  It was quite a coincidence.  “The Metal House would
also be on my short list.”  She continued.  “Probably the Heat House and Smoke
House.  Maybe the Air House.  Definitely the Wood House.”  Teja hesitated.  “The
Wood Phases wouldn’t bomb anyone, though.”  She belatedly tacked on, in case
Sullivan was touchy about her accusing his relatives of terrorism.

He
wasn’t.  “Anyone else?”

“Well,
some of the intellectuals Houses might have known about the bomb.  The Chemistry
House probably had some idea.  And the Water House knows everything about
everything, so they knew.  But, it wasn’t common knowledge in our realm.”  She
flashed him a sideways look.  “How did
you
know about it?”

“It
was stolen from a military base about three years ago.  I was one of the people
looking for it.”

Teja
blinked.  “You’re a soldier?”

“I
used to be.”

“Is
that where you got the scar?”

“No.”

Teja
frowned when she realized that was all he planned to say.  Her Match was a
trained warrior and he hadn’t bothered to mention it?  What other kinds of
things was he keeping secret?  They were definitely going to have to redraft
that “no sharing” clause.  He was taking advantage of the loopholes to keep her
at a distance.  Why was he so guarded?  Didn’t he like her?

Teja
didn’t have feelings, so they couldn’t be hurt by that thought.

At
least, that’s what she told herself.

“Of
the people you just mentioned, who has the most motive for attacking the Cold
Phases?”  Sullivan asked before she could press him further.

Teja
cleared her throat.  “We do.”  She said honestly.  “The Fire and Cold Houses
are always feuding.  Whoever hired the Reflection Phases used us as patsies,
because they knew everyone would believe it.”

Sullivan
was quiet for a long moment.  “Alright.  So, what did this plan really accomplish,
then?  If someone wanted to hurt you, it would’ve made more sense for them to
bomb the Fire House.  Instead, the Cold Phases were the target.”

Teja
blew out a long breath.  “I have no idea.”

“Likewise,
if someone wanted to eradicate the Cold House, they would’ve just set off the
Star of Bethlehem
without
the Reflection Phases pretending to be you.”  Sullivan
continued.  “The fake Fire Phases actually gave most people a chance to escape.”

Teja
frowned, seeing his point.  “So whoever did this didn’t want a lot of Cold
Phases killed?  Hell, that
proves
it wasn’t the Fire House.”

“Maybe
the target was just one Cold Phase and the rest of this was a smokescreen.” 
Sullivan head tilted, thinking out loud.  “Or maybe even someone who was just
visiting
in the Cold Kingdom.  Like a patient in the hospital.”

“Back
to Vandal?”

“Back
to Vandal.  It seems like he was the highest value target.”  Sullivan was quiet
for a long moment.  “Assuming he wasn’t somehow
involved
.  According to
you, he’s the biggest criminal around and he’d know about the bomb, so he’s a
pretty obvious suspect.  If he was trying to cover his tracks or something…” 
He trailed off with a shrug.

“
Vandal
set it up.”  Teja breathed, following his line of thinking.  “The bomb was
a diversion so he could escape and fake his own death. 
He’s
the one
behind this.”

“If
he was faking a coma and hired Reflection Phases, someone else must’ve helped
him, though.  No way could he have done it all on his own.”

“Lunatics
always have lunatic followers.”

“Then,
we need to start narrowing down your enemies list and cross-referencing it with
known lunatics.”

Teja
studied him for a long moment.  “You’re good at this.”  She finally said.

“For
a human?”

“No. 
You’re just…
good
.  I think you’re right about all of it.”

Sullivan
gave her a half smile and Teja felt her heart flip.  The man was so handsome it
didn’t seem possible that he really belonged to her.  For so long, she hadn’t
felt anything.  She’d been safe from pain.  Now, she had this very young, very
smart, ex-warrior in her life and she was remembering how dangerous emotions
were.  But, since there didn’t seem to be anything she could do to stop the
thaw inside her chest, Sullivan might as well reciprocate.