Page 67
Randa got to her feet, eager to escape the simmering tension. “I’ll get the pie.” She sent him a pointed look. “Isaacs, behave.”
Damn but he liked good girls. Ty, Mara and Randa were his best friends. They always tried to whip him into shape. It wouldn’t work, but he appreciated the attempt.
“Always.” Isaacs held up a hand as she went by, smiling as she brushed her fingers against his palm. “Thank you, Randa.” He said in a serious tone.
Randa meant more to him than basically anyone else in the universe. If he’d known her in the Air Kingdom the way he knew her now, he would have moved faster. Made different choices. Tried to kill Parald himself. It would’ve done no good and meant his own death, but if he could go back, Isaacs would do it anyway. At the time, he’d been concerned about keeping them both alive. Now, he wanted more than that. He wanted her happy.
If he had a chance to atone for his failure in some small way, he’d take it. Even if the opportunity presenting itself happened to be a raging dickhead barbarian.
She paused by Isaacs’ side, her fingers still touching his palm. “I made ice cream, too. You like caramel, right?”
“I like you.” Isaacs assured her. And he didn’t like many people, so that meant a lot.
Randa squeezed his hand, because it meant something to her too, and she headed for the kitchen.
Kahn’s knuckles clenched around the handle of his knife, clearly considering his “stab Isaacs in the head” idea. Strongly.
“It’s a bad plan.” Isaacs murmured in the Light Phase dialect, as soon as Randa was out of range. “Seducing a nice girl gets a lot more challenging after you’ve beheaded her favorite dinner guest.”
Kahn focused on him with a wrathful intensity.
The other Light Phases exchanged wary looks.
Isaacs smirked. If the Elemental realm was a high school movie, the different Houses would all represent different cliques. Job was for sure the class president. The Fire House were the hoodlums who broke into lockers and mouthed off to the teachers. The Magnet Phases were the overachieving, ROTC recruits. The Water Phases were the bright and artsy ones, who hung out in the library and were assured full-ride scholarships. The Wood House were the All-American football team, wholesome and popular. Air Phases were the spoiled, preppy kids, picking on the underclassmen at lunch and cheating their way to straight-As. The Light Phases were the poor boys from the wrong side of the tracks, longingly watching all the respectable girls walk by. On and on, everyone had a group.
Except the dropouts.
The dropouts blew-off graduation, because they’d already figured out it was all a crock of shit. They were weirdos, who wore weird clothes, and liked weird music, and didn’t fit in with anyone. …And they were okay with that, because --fuck this town-- they were outta here the minute they turned eighteen. In the meantime, they hung around the parking lot to mock the assholes who still woke up in the morning and went to class and tried.
That was Isaacs.
The Elementals’ very own dropout.
People tended to underestimate a dropout, because he’d squandered his future. But from the outside looking in, a disgraced loner managed to see a hell of a lot. Even one with screwed-up eyes.
Kahn very carefully set the knife down, like he wasn’t sure he trusted himself not to use it on Isaacs in some grisly way that was sure to ruin dessert. “We should talk, Air Phase.” He snarled, also using the Light House tongue. “Alone.”
“Absolutely.” Isaacs agreed with cheerful menace. “Just as soon as I’ve had my pie.”
Chapter Fifteen
Now, by the light of the lamp, it was possible to see his smile distinctly;
it was very complex, and expressed a variety of emotions, but the predominant element in it was
undisguised contempt.
Anton Chekhov
Kahn glowered at Isaacs, hating the man for more reasons than he could even count.
Isaacs grinned, nothing but arrogance and craziness on his face.
The two of them were standing on the front walk of Randa’s house, each one braced for the other one to attack. Sadly, Kahn couldn’t attack the smug little shit. Randa wouldn’t like it, and he wasn’t inclined to have her pissed at him. (More pissed at him.) Also, he needed information that Isaacs held. No one in the Air House told Julius details about Randa and Parald. Any mention of their former king had the average Air Phase shutting up and shutting down.
Isaacs wasn’t an average Air Phase, though. He was the most dangerous Air Phase alive.
To Kahn’s mind, he always had been. It wasn’t just jealousy messing with his perceptions. Saxon might be the House’s most wanted criminal, but he was really just a gigantic thug. Amarna might be the Queen, but she was too clever to do anything incredibly stupid. Gion might be the strongest, but he was tamed by his Match and his new life in the Water House. Even before that, he’d had some lines he wouldn’t cross.
