Magic of the Wood House (The Elemental Phases Book 6) (18 page)

Zakkery
understood about two words of that gibberish.  “The
what
box?”

“It’s
one of the Tablets of Fate.”

“Those
things are real?”

She
nodded, taking another sip of beer.

“And
you want to
steal
one of them from the Fire House?”  He shook his head. 
“No one steals from the Fire House.  Not even me.  You know I once saw Djinn
stab someone through the head, right?  And that guy was his fucking
uncle
.”

“Oh,
everyone’s stabbed Frankie.”

“Djinn’s
the only one who’s ever used a kitchen faucet, though.  He ripped it right off
the sink.  No way am I getting on the bad side of those psychos.”

“Hey,
we’re doing all this to
save
them.  They’ll see things our way.”  She
paused.  “Eventually.”

“Eventually? 
As in before or after they peel off my skin like a banana?”

“I
know what I’m doing.”  Daphne waved a dismissive hand.  “I need the Fire Phases
alive, so we’re going to make sure they keep breathing.”  She polished off the
last of Zakkery’s beer.  “We’re all on the same side.  …In the long run,
anyhow.”

That
didn’t sound promising.  “Are you
sure
we’re friends?  ‘Cause it seems
like you’re trying to get me chopped into bloody chunks of meat.”

“Relax,
you’re going to be fine.  If anything goes wrong --which it totally won’t-- I
still have an ace up my sleeve.”

“Which
is?”

“Something
a certain Fire Phase will do anything for.”  Daphne smirked.  “She just doesn’t
know it yet.”

I am fire
and air;

my other
elements I give to baser life.

William
Shakespeare- “Cleopatra”

Sullivan
figured that he’d lost his mind.

It
was the only explanation.

He
had no idea how it happened, but somehow he was inside Teja’s memories.

Things
like that just weren’t possible without some kind of significant mental
breakdown.  He should’ve known that he was going nuts.  The volcanoes and the
broadswords alone should’ve been a dead giveaway.  And the gorgeous woman
pulling her top off and ordering him to strip.  And the world-changing sex. 
And the whole “Surprise, we’re married!” thing.

Yeah,
total straightjacket time.

After
all, what were the odds of someone like Teja getting within fifty yards of
him?  Answer:  Zero, outside of a psychotic episode.  How could he have ever thought
that she was real?

Wonderful.

So,
it turned out that Sullivan was a lunatic
and
an idiot.

A
fierce sense of disappointment gripped him.  Not that he was a madman. 
Obviously, that was a bummer and all.  But, far more crushing was the idea that
Teja might not exist outside of his own unbalanced thoughts.  Sullivan’s heart
clenched and his undoubtedly damaged mind cast around for a way to deny the
terrible reality staring him in the face.

There
were two hopeful signs and Sullivan latched onto them like a drowning man with
a life preserver.  One:  His instincts still
felt
Teja.  They still told
him she was his.  That seemed too crazy to manufacture, even for someone who’d
so recently joined the ranks of the deranged.  How could he invent this feeling
of belonging?

Two: 
These memories --these visions of Teja’s past-- seemed very, very real.  Super
real.  Sullivan Pryce had never been a guy with an active imagination.  How the
hell could he possibly dream up anything this vivid?

And
weird.

So
far he’d seen Teja as a little girl, with a head full of black curls,
highlighted with that beautiful periwinkle streak.  He’d seen her exploring
strange lands with her parents, places so incredible that Sullivan could only
stare at them in wonder.  And he’d watched her digging through rocks after the
landslide that killed them.  For three days, she searched without rest, until
she finally found their bodies.  Then, she took them back to the Elemental realm
and collapsed sobbing into Job, of the Earth House’s arms.

Sullivan’s
heart broke for her.

And
that was before he saw her stuck in the middle of a god-awful custody battle. 
The Cold and the Fire House both wanted her.  The fight seemed to stretch on
endlessly, with both sides pulling out all the stops in their attempts to win.

…But
it was pretty much impossible to beat the Fire House.

War
meant nothing to them.  Cheating meant nothing to them.  Laws meant nothing to
them.  They would keep fighting until their opponents either quit or died. 
They wanted Teja and nothing would stop them from having her. 
Nothing
.

It
was sort of inspiring.

The
Cold House’s frigid control was no match for the no-holds-barred passion of the
Fire Phases.  Just by observing the fight, Sullivan knew that Teja’s family was
violating the Elemental rules by keeping her.  The fact that she could control
both sets of powers provided a small loophole that the Fire House could
exploit, but the periwinkle streak at her temple clearly meant that she was supposed
to live in the Cold Kingdom.

Oberon,
of the Fire House just didn’t care about “supposed to.”  He cared about having
his granddaughter at his side.

He
was a big, larger-than-life man with bushy eyebrows and a booming voice.  Oberon
was patient and loving and focused on his family.  He actually seemed a little
familiar, maybe because he reminded Sullivan of his own grandfather.

Only
he swore a lot more.

“Fuck
you, Eian.”  Oberon spat out, pacing around the Fire House’s throne room.  He
was speaking in the Elemental language, but Sullivan could somehow understand
it.  “Teja’s here with me and
this
is where she’ll stay.”

“This
is ridiculous.”  Eian, of the Cold House snapped.  He stood with a military
precision, a tall, regal looking man with silvery blond hair and hazel eyes.

Thus
far, Sullivan wasn’t loving the guy.  And not just because the Cold Phases were
a major suspect in his twelve hour amnesia and their stupid castle had almost
blown-up around him.  More importantly, after spending time with the Fire
House, Sullivan couldn’t adjust to the Cold Phase’s… coldness.  Oberon was
right to fight for Teja.  She would never be happy with her father’s family. 
It wasn’t where she belonged.

“I
don’t see what there even is to discuss.  Just look at her temple!”  Eian waved
an elegant hand in Teja’s direction.  “She has
our
House designation. 
She’s a Cold Phase.  A blind man could see it.”

“Phases
follow their mother’s House.”  Oberon retorted.  “Do we really need to review
third grade civics, now?”  Unlike Eian, he wasn’t even trying to contain his
restless energy.  His black boots thudded against the marble floor.  Teja’s
grandfather shared the Fire House’s morbid fashion sense and badass attitudes. 
“My
daughter
was a Fire Phase.  My
granddaughter
is a Fire
Phase.  End of story.”

“We
only follow our mother’s House, if we’ve
inherited
our mother’s House.” 
Eian shot back.  “And eight percent of Phases follow their father’s.  We all
know that.”  He arched a frigid blond brow.  “Council law says she belongs to
me.  The precedent is very clear.”

“No
one is taking Teja from me.”  Oberon warned in a deadly voice.  “I don’t give a
shit about precedent.  I won’t lose anyone else I love.”

Teja
looked over at him, a vulnerable expression on her face.

She
was standing with her back against the wall, her eyes flickering between her
bickering relatives.  Sullivan wasn’t sure how old she was here, but clearly
she was young and feeling lost.  She wore a gray dress that seemed to be some
kind of mourning outfit, her hair pulled back in an austere braid.  She looked
beautiful and fragile and like she’d rather be anywhere else in the universe
than in the middle of this fight.

Sullivan
moved to stand next to her.  He still didn’t know what was going on, but he was
fairly sure now that he wasn’t crazy.  He was reliving scenes from Teja’s
life.  Everything around him was a virtual-reality replay of her past.  He was
observing it like a ghost, unable to touch anything or talk to the
participants.  It kind of freaked him out.  Either Sullivan was having one hell
of a bizarre dream or he was seeing into Teja’s memories.  His money was on the
second option.

All
of this had actually happened to her and he was somehow tapping into it.

Eian
rolled his eyes.  “Sentiment is all well and good, Oberon, but it doesn’t trump
the facts.  Teja needs to be with her real family.”

“
We’re
her fucking family.”  Djinn snapped.  He was sitting on the arm of the Fire
House’s obsidian throne, twirling a knife in his hand with agitated flicks.  “
We’re
the ones who love her.  You just want to use her, because you’re a bunch of
ice-cold, power hungry bastards.  Right, Pey?”

“Yep.” 
Pele nodded, her dark gaze fixed on Eian, like she was a bird of prey and he
was a rat.

“Ya
see?”  Djinn waved a hand at his Match.  He always took Pele’s vote as the
deciding factor in any argument.  Which was convenient, since she always seemed
to agree with him.

“That’s
not true.”  Freya protested.  Unlike her arctic brother, the little blonde
doctor was a bundle of kinetic energy.  Words poured out on top of each other. 
“Teja’s as much one of us, as she is one of you.  She can control the power
from
both
Houses.  That means she’s part of
both
of us.”  Freya
stood next to Eian, making expansive gestures as she spoke.  “There’s no reason
we can’t set aside our past differences and reach some kind of understanding. 
Maybe Teja can be a bridge between our Houses.”

Eian
and Djinn both scoffed at that idea.

“There’s
only one understanding we can reach.”  Oberon told her flatly.  “And that’s for
you to understand that Teja’s a
Fire Phase
.”

“We’ll
take this to the Council.”  Eian threatened.  “We’ll have them decided.”

“The
Council can rule whatever the hell they want.”  Oberon retorted.  “But, they’ll
have to send an army to take Teja from me and the whole stodgy lot of them
knows it.  In case you missed the rumors, I’m fucking crazy, boy.”  He arched a
brow.  “
You
can’t reason with crazy.”

Sullivan
snorted.  That old man was crazy like a fox.

“You
think Job wants thousands of Phases dead on the ground?”  Oberon continued.  “‘Cause
that’s
what it’ll cost to steal my granddaughter.  I will fight until
the last Phase falls.  Until every kingdom is dragged into the slaughter and
every House is empty.  The killing will stretch and on and on and
on
.  I’m
betting the Council would rather just see things my way and not piss me off.”

Djinn
smirked.

Eian’s
mouth tightened into a thin line.  “You think I’m scared of you?  If you want
war, we’ll have a war, Oberon.  I’ll see your land turned into a frozen
wasteland.”

Teja
bit her lower lip, her eyes on Oberon.  “Grandfather, I don’t want war.”  She
said quietly.

“Neither
do I, Tej!”  Oberon lifted his arms as if he couldn’t understand why everyone
was picking on him.  “I’m a peaceable man, who just wants to be left alone. 
Talk to
him
.”  He gestured towards Eian.  “
He’s
the one who won’t
back off.”

Eian
focused on Teja.  “You know that the Fire House are nothing but gangsters.  I
can’t believe you would even
consider
staying here.  It’s a disgrace to
your father’s memory.”

Teja
shook her head, not responding to that.

“Let
her decide, Eian.”  Freya moved forward, so she was between Oberon and her
brother.  “We both have claims to Teja.  We could go to the Council or battle
it out with swords, but there’s a much more logical way.  Teja’s old enough to
know what she wants.  Let
her
choose where she wants to live.  We’ll all
abide by her decision.”

Teja’s
head whipped around to look at Freya.  “What do you mean?”

“I
mean, we’ll agree beforehand that whoever you choose is
your choice
.  No
war, no more legal maneuvering, no more arguing.  We just end it all now.”

Oberon’s
bush eyebrows compressed.  “Let Teja pick?”

“Yes. 
She’s the one this will impact most, so…”

“I
think that’s a marvelous idea.”  Eian interjected, cutting off his sister. 
“Teja would you rather languish here in this military camp of horrors,” he
paused for effect, “
or
be safely ensconced in the Cold Palace, where you
will receive a world-class education and all the luxuries that someone of your
station deserved?”

Djinn
got to his feet, looking as concerned as Oberon about this idea.  “We’re not
agreeing to this shit.  Teja’s
ours
.  You think we’ll just hand her over
and hope you assholes take care of her?”

Oberon’s
eyes stayed on Teja.  “No.”  He said softly.  “They’re right, D.  We’ll let her
decide.  Fire Phases can’t be caged.  They have to discover for themselves
where they belong.”

Teja
looked between the Fire and Cold Houses.  She’d grown-up with her parents in
faraway realms, so she didn’t have a lot of experience with either set of
relatives.  She didn’t completely fit into to either House.

It
was a coin flip.  …And one side was a scorched, jagged, blood-covered mess.

The
smart money was on Teja picking the refined and law-abiding side of her family,
rather than the Elemental Corleones.  But, the Fire House sucked you into their
cyclone of crazy and made you part of the storm.  It was hard to resist that
sense of inclusion when you were alone in the world.  Only someone else who’d
never belonged anywhere would understand.

Sullivan’s
mouth curved.

“Honestly,
I don’t think it’s a hard decision.”  Eian continued arrogantly.  “Gaia, I
wouldn’t even
want
someone stupid enough to join the Fire Phases.”

Freya
gave his arm an irritated whack.

Teja’s
head tilted to one side, her gaze meeting Oberon’s.

He
stared back at her.  “This is your home.”  He said in an uncharacteristically
serious voice.  “Nothing can change that.  Even if you go with them, you will
always
have a place here.  You’ll
always
be welcome.  You’ll
always
be a
Fire Phase. 
This
is where you belong.”