Treasure of the Fire Kingdom (The Elemental Phases Book 4) (4 page)

Kingu
regarded him emotionlessly.

Elementals
were pests.  Ungrateful and small.  Like all insects they served an invisible,
if important purpose, of course.  Phases balanced the Elements; Water, Air,
Time, Stone and all the rest of the endless boring list.  The different Houses
ensured that that Fires burned and Light shone and that nature herself remained
afloat.  Without them, the universe would collapse.

But
then, cockroaches surely had some bigger function, too.  Some fundamental,
indiscernible cog in the Circle of Life that kept the higher species spinning
on.  You still didn’t want them skiddering around you all the time.

Kingu
stepped closer to Zakkery.  He would never allow himself to be goaded by some
piss ant Phase, but he certainly wasn’t going to tolerate insubordination,
either.  Zakkery was supposed to be finding Kingu’s woman.  That was the deal
they made when Zakkery sought him out.  If the Elemental couldn’t do that,
there would be one less Smoke Phase in the universe.

Either
way, it was win/win.

Still,
it would be faster to just teach Zakkery a lesson about his place.  Perhaps
that would serve as motivation for the little shit.  Kingu hand whipped out,
catching Zakkery by the throat.

It
happened so fast Zakkery didn’t have time to do anything but curse, before he
was being tossed fifteen feet across the lawn into one of the distinctive
rounded trees.  He hit it hard enough to send the damn thing toppled right
over.

That
was one of the problems with this accursed realm.

Everything
was so small.

Kingu
nearly rolled his eyes.  He hadn’t anticipated the destruction and it annoyed
him that Zakkery had now ruined the symmetry of the shaded path.  Kingu liked
his surroundings neat, balanced and orderly.  He snapped his fingers, instantly
replacing the broken stump with a new, meticulously shaped, identical puff-ball
of a tree.  Better.  Still not
great
, but considering the asinine
vegetation he was surrounded by, it would have to do.

Meanwhile,
the assembled women gave shrieks of panic at the unintentional lumberjacking. 
Or maybe it was at his casual show of powers.  Most of the females were Phases,
so you couldn’t really expect much backbone.  Such a weak species.  Not a
warrior among them.  They dashed out of range, their high heels sinking into
the pale pink grass of the park, casting him terrified looks over their
shoulders.

One
woman met his gaze and he saw her openly cringe.

Kingu
was used to horrified expressions.

Kay’s
home had been full of mirrors.  There’d been no way for Kingu to miss his own face
staring back at him every day.  Even without the mirrors, though, he could’ve
seen his reflection in the reactions of the people around him.  The widening of
their eyes.  Their quick steps back.  The indrawn gasps of fright.  Most of the
time, he didn’t care.  He even enjoyed their shock.

He
knew what they saw.

Kingu
didn’t look like his mother, which had no doubt been her intention.  Kay went
out of her way to ensure that Kingu would never be accepted anywhere else.  His
face wasn’t normal.  Not entirely hideous, but like his features were a mix of
a man and a dragon.  Black hair hit his shoulders, so dark it shone blue.  His
crimson eyes had a sinister glow, his jaw was fierce and hard, and the skin of
his hands was textured like a snake.  Kingu towered over the humans and the
Phases, his body built along far more substantial lines.  No one in this realm
matched his size.

How
could they, given what he was?

Every
century or so, Kay experienced an intermittent period where she decided she
liked some small part of human culture.  She’d been a great Louisa May Alcott
fan back in the nineteenth century, forcing Kingu to read her
Little Women
at least a dozen times and always squeezing out meaningless tears as Beth
died.  Then, she’d grown bored with the novel and burned it.  Her attention
span was fickle and short.

For
several weeks in the 1930s, her fleeting fixation had been Universal horror
movies and they’d inadvertently shown Kingu the truth about himself.  One
afternoon, she’d watched
Bride of Frankenstein
on a pull down, white
screen in the living room.  It was the first motion picture Kingu had ever
seen.  The projector illuminated the dust particles in the air as the
flickering images hypnotized him.  He’d never forgotten that moment of
awakening.  That ridiculous film, created by even lesser beings that the
Phases, finally told him what he truly was.

He
was the fulfillment of Dr. Pretorius’ toast.

The
horrible realization of that new world of gods and monsters.

A
god and a monster.

“You
son-of-a-bitch.”  Zakkery sat up, fingering his cut lip.  “I’m trying to
fucking
help
you.”

“Well,
your
tries
are obviously not good enough.”  Kingu watched impassively as
Zakkery staggered to his feet.  “How long will it take you to find me another
batch of women to evaluate?”

“Oh,
no time at
all
, Romeo.  They’re lining up to meet you.”  Zakkery spat
out a mouthful of blood.  “Seriously, in case you hadn’t noticed, we’ve gone
through pretty much every volunteer in the Cloud Kingdom.  The next step is
drafting
you some potential girlfriends and I’m not eager to take point on that.”

“Draft?”

“Kidnap.” 
Zakkery translated, with fake cheer.  “And I don’t think anybody needs your
skill with the ladies to know how well
that’s
gonna go.  Nothing a girl
likes better than having Prince Charming abduct her and chain her to a wall.”

Kingu
felt himself pale.  “I’m not going to fucking chain her!”  He roared.  Visions
of his mother shackling him stabbed into his brain and he turned away with an
agonized flinch.  “
No
.”  He pushed the memories away and tried to
focus.  “The woman needs to be willing.”  He got out hoarsely.  Anything less
would turn him into Kay.  He’d rather be nothing at all than to be like his
mother.

Zakkery
squinted at him like Kingu was deranged.  “Hang on, you think this girl is
gonna
want
to be with you?  Really? 
You?
”

Killing
Zakkery would yield nothing.  Kingu reminded himself of that on an hourly
basis.  “Given time, I’m confident I can win her over.”

“Oh
yeah?”  Zakkery smirked.  “With what?  Poetry?”

Kingu
snapped his fingers, again.  He wasn’t sure why he needed that little tic in
order to access his burgeoning powers, but it worked so he didn’t complain.  He
was just happy they’d started to return, at all.  In her coma, Kay had lost
most of her control over him.

At
the small sound of the finger snap, a massive treasure chest appeared in the
pastel grass beside him.  Made of gold, it overflowed with gemstone encrusted
jewelry, stacks of glittering coins and several elaborate tiaras.

Zakkery’s
eyebrows shot up, again.

Kingu
didn’t even bother to glance at the fortune worth of pirate loot.  He snapped
his fingers and the sparkling mound became a jet black Lamborghini.  Snapped
them again and it turned into a crystalline greenhouse filled with impossibly
beautiful flowers of every description.  Then, into a silver filigree coach
pulled by a rose-colored unicorn.

“Alright,
I get the picture.”  Zakkery muttered.  “Very subtle.  You wanna buy yourself a
girl.”

“It
seems like the most expedient route, yes.”  The sparkly unicorn disappeared and
Kingu crossed his arms over his massive chest.  “Does this make your job
easier?”

“Maybe.” 
Zakkery still didn’t sound overly hopeful.  “It’d still be best if you snapped
yourself up a Halloween mask when you meet your destined sweetheart, though.”

“I
don’t have a destiny.”  Kingu said flatly.  How could he without a soul?  “I’m
a god.  I shape fate to suit
my
purposes.  It’s part of the job
description.  Right now, it suits my purposes to have you and you vile little
Phase buddies do what I
tell
you to do.  And I’m telling you to find my
woman.”

Zakkery
gave a mocking salute and jumped off, probably to find more cigarettes.

Kingu
absently flexed his fingers.  So far, creating simple objects was the extent of
his manifested powers and just that small show had drained him.  He was careful
not to let the Phases see that he was still recovering, but he knew that it
might take decades for him to fully heal.  It was unacceptable and the weakness
infuriated him.

Until
he was recovered, he needed to stay out of sight here in the Cloudland.  He
didn’t have a choice, if he wanted to survive.  There would be beings looking
for him, far more dangerous than these incompetent Phases.

Not
the least of which was his aunt.

Kingu’s
jaw ticked.  He hated this fucking kingdom, but, thanks to Aunt Tessie, he had
nowhere else to go.

The
Cloud Kingdom was an undeniably beautiful place.  No one could dispute that. 
But Kingu never had much use for beautiful things.  He didn’t trust them,
because he so obviously didn’t fit into their world.

Not
that he
dis
liked it here.  Honestly,
anywhere
was better than
life with Kay.  He just didn’t feel comfortable in the Cloudland.  All the
Elemental Kingdoms looked different and this one was kind of… fluffy.  It
didn’t suit him or any of the current residents.  The edges were too soft, the
colors too muted and pink.  Even the trees were sort of rounded and
Wonderland-ish.  You just had the feeling that the Phases who lived here were all
into yoga and tea parties.

Instead,
it was blood sports and brothels.

Of
course, it hadn’t always been so misleading.  The Cloud Phases who had once
inhabited it were a bunch a happy hippies or whatever.  They were all dead,
now.  Most of them perished in the Fall and the final few stragglers died in
some kind of sophomoric dune buggy crash.  They’d left their sunset colored
land empty and the impractical circular buildings deserted.  The whole place
had just been sitting there, waiting for someone new to move in.

Eventually,
they did…  And there went the neighborhood.

The
Dr. Seussian Cloudland was now a waylay station for all the Elemental
riffraff.  All the Phases who had no place in polite society.  All the lunatics
and killers.  All the people who’d been cast out of their Houses over the
centuries.

All
the Phases who had been Banished.

Banishment
was the main way that the Council dealt with Phases who broke their most sacred
laws, like murder, rape, insurrection, and generally being a criminally
inclined asshole.  Anyone Banished was cast out of the Elemental kingdoms and
left to fend for themselves or die.  Most of them died.  But apparently some of
them
didn’t
and they’d all started a little “we hate law abiding
society” club here in the deserted Cloudland.

When
the barriers between the realms fell, all the bad guys took it as an open
invitation to move back to the right side of the tracks.  Eminent domain and
finders keepers and all that.  Anyone could travel to any land now that the supernatural
fences had toppled.  In a few short weeks, the Cloud Kingdom had become the
Wild West meets ancient Rome, filled with all sorts of infamous law breakers. 
The Cloudland’s stupid round houses were taken over by saloons and their once
lush flowers gardens now grew substances not even Kingu recognized.  Any kind
of debauchery or illicit substance in the universe was available from these
lowlifes for a shockingly low price.

But
could they find one lone woman?

Of
course not.

Kingu
shook his head in disgust and turned back towards the blood red castle he’d
appropriated for himself.  When he’d first moved in, it had been a gingerbread
cottage painted cloud pink and sky blue.  It reminded him so much of his
mother’s Barbie colored mansion that he couldn’t stand even walking through its
candy cane striped door.

It
was the first thing he’d changed about his new life.  The first time he’d used
his powers just because he’d wanted to.

Even
with his weakened energy, it had taken less than a second to turn the
cupcake-ish structure into an ominous, demonic tower of slick crimson stone and
jagged plastic spikes.  It loomed over the Cloud Kingdom’s landscape like a
curse.

Then,
to add to the curb appeal, Kingu tossed in an acid moat and dozens of heavy
black gates.  Also made of plastic, naturally.  Elementals could manipulate
natural products, but they couldn’t do jack shit to anything synthetic.  They
couldn’t get through plastic, couldn’t break it, and couldn’t create it.  Kingu
didn’t have that problem and he wanted them to know it.  Every day or so, he
tacked another story onto his home, along with some more instruments of plastic
impalement. Redesigning the fortress was his only hobby.

The
Phases now walked four blocks out of their way, so as not to pass too close to
his house of horrors.

For
that alone, the tower delighted him.