Read Online Exile in the Water Kingdom (The Elemental Phases Book 3) by Cassandra Gannon - Free Book Online Page A

feel safe.
    Sitting
down at her desk, Ty carefully punched Brokk’s number into her cell phone.  Her
hand wasn’t shaking.  And even if it was, it had nothing to do with
Gion.
    Brokk
answered on the first ring.  “Where the hell are you, Ty?”
    “I’m
in my bedroom.  I… ”
    He
jumped right to her.  One second he was on the other end of the line.  The next
the lights flickered and Brokk stood right in front of her.
    That
was one of the frustrating things about Brokk.
    Most
Elementals couldn’t come and go in the human realm alone.  They needed to
combine their energy with one or two other Phases to make the jump.  Brokk
wasn’t the oldest or the strongest Phase, but he got the gold medal in
jumping.  Somehow, his powers let him enter and exit the human realm by
himself.  For someone like Ty, whose own energy could barely fill a water glass,
Brokk’s effortless skill ranked high on the “unfairness” charts.
    Like
most Wood Phases, Brokk favored neat crew cuts and commando-style clothing.  A
bronze highlight colored his temple.  Wood Phases stood as the soldiers of the
Elemental realm.  Most Elementals were fine with spending their free time
watching reruns and eating Hershey Bars, but Wood Phases were trained to
protect and serve.  Committed to duty and honor, they gave selflessly.
    In
return, they simply expected everyone else to follow their orders and fall into
line with whatever they thought was right.
    Ty
liked all the Wood Phases.  She especially cared for Brokk, who’d always been a
little less formal and a little bit more extreme than the rest.  But, she
absolutely dreaded explaining Gion moving into the Water Palace.
    Brokk
would not be a happy bodyguard.
    “What
in the name of Gaia is going on?”  One of his hands came over to rest on the
top of Ty’s head, assuring himself that she was real and solid and okay.  Ty
had gotten used to Brokk touching her.  He was a physical sort of Phase.  Two
swords were crisscrossed on his back and there was a Crocodile Dundee knife strapped to his thigh.  “How did you get back…?”  He trailed off
suspiciously.  “Wait.  What is that energy?”
    Ty
cringed.  Gion’s powers still charged the air.  He’d jumped them both back to
the Water Palace earlier, the barriers not even slowing him down.  Ty hadn’t
done anything but hang on.  The massive power it took still lingered.  There
was no way that Brokk would miss that.
    “Um…” 
She cleared her throat.  Think queenly thought.  Think queenly thoughts.  “I’ve
granted amnesty to an Air Phase.  He’s just moved in.”
    “You what ?”  Brokk gaped at her.  “Who did you let in?”
    Ty
tried to look more confident than she felt.  “Gion.”
    “ Gion! ” 
Brokk roared.  “Are you insane?!  He can’t stay here!  He’s fucking evil! ”
    “No,
he’s not.”  Ty retorted.  She knew evil.  Parald was evil.  Gion wasn’t . 
“He’s…”
    “Back
in school, Gion exploded some kid’s lungs for his science project.”
    “I
highly doubt that.”
    “They
used to call him ‘The Black Hole’ ‘cause so many people just disappeared around
him.”
    “I
don’t think that’s fair.  The cape just gives a bad impression.”
     “He
once sent Stover, of the Dust House four hundred feet in the air and then
dropped him, just to see how big a splat he made.”  Brokk grimly reported. 
“They had to power-wash the pavement for two weeks.”
    Ty
actually remembered hearing about that one.  There were a lot of horror stories
about Gion, though, so they all sort of ran together into one long death roll. 
“I think that there must’ve been some extenuating circumstances.  Stover was
always…”
    Brokk
cut her off, again.  “Gion’s eaten three children that I know of.”
    “Oh,
for God’s sake…”  Brokk could be utterly impossible.  “No one really believes
that one.”
    “I
do!”
    “Well,
I don’t.”
    “Alright,
how about this, then.