Free Treasure of the Fire Kingdom (The Elemental Phases Book 4) by Cassandra Gannon Page B

Banished
Phases took the woman away.  That wasn’t the reason for his aggravation,
of course.  Kingu would never accept that.  No, he just disliked interaction
with imbeciles.
    Gods,
he couldn’t wait until he could get out of this ant farm.
    Below
him, the woman awaited her fate.  Standing in the center of the arena, she
turned in a slow circle.  A wide plastic cuff encircled her ankle, to keep her
from jumping.  Very few Phases were strong enough to jump with that much
plastic on them, so it chained her to the Cloudland.
    The
weight of her massive steel blade dragged along in the dirt.  Phases chanted
from the stadium around her, screaming and stomping their feet in
anticipation.  Even with forty feet separating them, Kingu could read the glazed
panic on her soft face.  The utter incomprehension that this type of
viciousness existed in the universe.
    Kingu
crossed his arms over his chest.
    Shit.
    “She’s kinda pretty, yeah.  But, not too pretty.”  Zakkery stipulated
swiftly.  “And I found out what she is, like you asked.  She’s a nice, normal
Phase.”
    Kingu
scowled.  He’d secretly been hoping for another species.  Elementals were so…
ordinary.
    “She’s
a Color Phase.”  Zakkery continued.  “She has a birth defect and doesn’t have
any powers, though.”
    Kingu’s
frown deepened.  “Why did she attack me, if she has no powers?”  Was she
suicidal or just stupid?
    “I
don’t think she meant to attack you.  She says it was an accident.”
    Kingu
grunted, not convinced.
    “The
woman is a really good catch for your girlfriend hunt.”  Zakkery pressed. 
“Think about that list you gave me.  She isn’t brainless, her voice isn’t
shrill…”
    Kingu
cut him off.  “She isn’t plain, though, is she?  Or quiet.”  Massive
understatements on both counts.
    “No,
but she’s got the body you were looking for.”  Zakkery smirked.  “Not too thin,
in all the right places.”
    Bastard.
    Kingu
seriously considered ripping out both of Zakkery’s eyes, simply to stop the
Phase from looking at her.  The fact that Zakkery would no doubt see it as a
psychological victory kept him still.  “She’s not uncomplicated, as I asked,
either.”
    “No,
but she’s sure not boring.  Trust me.  I talked to her for a while.  She’s got
something… rare.”
    He’d
spoken to her for a while?
    Kingu
didn’t like that.  Didn’t like the reluctant admiration in Zakkery’s tone when
he spoke of the woman.  He firmed his jaw and he cut to the bottom line. 
“She’s blonde.”
    The
moonbeam color was very different from Kay’s brassy curls, though.  That was something ,
he supposed.  It bounced around the woman’s head in a messy, frizzy ponytail
that his mother never would have worn, even while engaging in a blood
sport.
    Through
the clouds, the afternoon light shone briefly, reflecting off the plastic polka
dot headband she wore.  The unwelcomed sensation of lust returned as Kingu
watched the golden strands dance around her sweetheart face.  In this world of
blood and sand, she was so… decorative.  Small and curvy.
    But
then, why wouldn’t she be?
    Kingu
gave his head a shake.  She’d never had to fight for survival or food.  Never
been chained to a wall and tortured.  She wouldn’t know how to defend herself,
because someone else had obviously done all the work to keep her alive.  She
was useless.  Bred for a life so completely outside his experience that Kingu
couldn’t even imagine how she’s survived this long in the world.
    For
millennia, his existence had been a relentlessly, utilitarian loop of
servitude.  Meanwhile, this woman probably spent her days picnicking in fields
of flowers and painting her toenails cotton candy pink.  She belonged someplace
full of poetry and carousels.  Some place free of gods and monsters.  Someplace
that Kingu would never be welcome.
    She
wouldn’t do.
    Not
at all.
    She
wasn’t beautiful in the obvious, overblown