It was not crime that she had done; it was elemental justice.

 

Arthur B. Reeve- “The Dream Doctor”

 

“I don’t think Nia’s coming for us.”  Tharsis muttered.  He leaned up against the wall of his cell and sighed.  “We’ll just have to do our time for the next seven to ten years, I guess.  Then, pray that the parole board is merciful.  I’ll need to get some cigarettes to trade with the other prisoners, though.  And I’ll probably have to sell you to gang members.”  He looked over at Ty and shrugged.  “Nothing personal, but I saw Oz.  It’s every man for himself here in the big house.”

Ty glared at him through the Plexiglas partition separating them.  “You should be nicer to me.  Which of us is more likely to come-up with a viable escape plan, at this point?”

“Hey, I also saw The Shawshank Redemption.  All I need is a Rita Hayworth poster and a couple of decades and I’m on my way to Baja.”  Tharsis waggled his eyebrows.  “Or we could do a Prison Break and get all tattooed.  How cool would you look with some tats, huh?  Think about it:  Queen Tritone, Badass Despot.”

Ty felt her mouth twitch.  “I’ll consider it.  If I ever see daylight again, I’ll probably want to commemorate ‘the first day of the rest of my life’ with some kind of tribal marking, anyway.  Would a rose or a koi fish look more regal tattooed on my hip?”

Tharsis chuckled.  “No, do ‘Hello Kitty.’”  He nodded towards her hat.  “A permanent, trademarked memorial to our B and E prowess.”

The two of them had been passing the time teasing each other for the past half-hour.  There wasn’t anything else to do in the Mayport Beach jail and it certainly beat focusing on what might happen if the Reprisal or Parald found out where they were.

Ordinarily, getting thrown in jail would have been annoying, but not really anything to worry about.  Elementals could’ve manipulated the metal bars of any ordinary cage in a dozen different ways.  If there had been spaces between jail bars, Tharsis could’ve used Water powers to pry them apart with a little effort.

Unfortunately, the holding cells at the Mayport Beach jail were made of state of the art, bulletproof, Plexiglas, for some reason.  No Elemental could manipulate Plexiglas or any type of plastic.  Tharsis had argued that they’d prefer to be in “real” jail, like they’d seen on TV, but Police Chief Sullivan Pryce remained unmoved.

Ty made a face and looked out one of the small, circular cut-outs that studded the Plexiglas walls, allowing the prisoners to breathe.  They had a toilet and a cot in the cell.  All their Constitutional rights were taken care of, according to Sullivan, so they could just suffer through whatever aesthetic problems they had with their cage and shut-up.  He really was a very hard man to reason with.

“I wish I’d found the name before the Air House attacked.”  She murmured for the sixtieth time.  No matter how Tharsis tried to distract her, Ty’s mind always went back to her failure at the hospital.  One would think that she’d be used to failure by now, but it still stung.  She’d been so close and Parald’s Phases had wrecked everything.  Ty wasn’t sure why that was a surprise, either.  Her ex-Match delighted in ruining her life whenever he could.

Bastard.

She shook her head, trying to clear the image of his face from her memories.  Ty didn’t like to think about Parald.

Ever.

If she found the Quintessence she could make up for so much that she’d done wrong.  It couldn’t rewind time.  At least, she didn’t think that It could.  Ty knew that Nia wanted it to undo the Fall, but Ty wasn’t so sure that was possible.  Still, maybe it could somehow fix things.  Restore at least part of what Parald had destroyed.

Ty had first started looking into human medical journals and hospital databases out of some kind of survivor’s guilt.  She’d wanted to know why she’d survived the Fall when so many others had died.  When the Elemental libraries had turned up nothing, she’d looked to the humans’ knowledge for answers.  Ty had a theory that there was a connection between the humans’ immunity to the Fall and why some Elementals didn’t contract it.  A statistically improbable number Phases had survived in family groupings.  The immunity had to be genetic.  Following that logic, Ty was working on the idea that some kind of human gene had protected a handful of Elementals.

Of course, it was heresy to even suggest that Elemental bloodlines might be soiled with human DNA, but Ty knew she was onto something.

It was a working hypothesis.  Her pet project.  Her only way to repent.

What she’d never expected to find in her digging was evidence of the Divine.  Reports of critically sick children mysteriously healed.  Of disaster victims saved against all medical odds.  Of elderly patients feeling young again.

Miracles.

Ty wasn’t certain why the scattered tales had caught her attention.  They really were just isolated news stories and hospital gossip circulating among the humans.  Except, the more Ty stared at the words and images on her computer screen, the more certain she’d been that all the separate snippets and rumors were connected.  Pieces of a larger whole.

Again and again, the same pattern would appear.  For months, Ty researched every odd story that popped up.  Every supposedly miraculous cure that was reported, she double-checked and analyzed.  She’d thought it was part of her ongoing mental breakdown.  Some sort of wish fulfillment fantasy, where she was searching for a chance to miraculously alleviate the sickness and decayed horror inside her own mind.

But, it wasn’t.

She’d discovered something even better.

For countless nights, Ty stared into the blue glow of her laptop, her bedroom door bolted tight against the oppressive darkness of her own thoughts.  Until one night, she’d realized that she wasn’t crazy.  There was a connection to all the stories.  A reason beyond her delusions.

Something magical and so simple she wasn’t sure how she’d missed it.

Blood.

All the verified cases of healing traced back to a blood transfusion.  And the blood from the transfusions came from Mayport Beach, Florida.  When she finally put the puzzle together, Ty had sat frozen at her computer until the screensaver feature kicked in and went to endlessly shifting fields of black and white daisies.  She’d found scientific evidence of the Quintessence.  It was real and she knew where to look for it.

For the first time since her ninety-third birthday, Ty had felt a fissure of hope about the future.  The Quintessence could potentially solve so many problems for the Elementals.  For Ty.  Finding it had become her obsession.

“Ty, we’ll find the name of the Quintessence.”  Tharsis soothed for the sixtieth time.  “Don’t worry about it.  We have time.”

Except they didn’t and everyone knew it.  The Elementals were dying out and taking the rest of universe down with them.

And it was all Ty’s fault.

They had to discover who had donated that blood.

She took her hat off and ran a hand through her short, red curls.  “What about Nia?”  She asked, focusing on the other topic preying on her mind.  “Do you think Uriel’s right and Cross is her Match?”

Tharsis considered that for a beat and then nodded.  “Yeah.  I do.  The guy was acting just like a male Phase acts around his Match.  And he sure got Nia outta that lab in a hurry when the cops busted us.”

“I’m not sure how Cross did that.  Or where the Air House Phases’ bodies went.”  Ty adjusted her glasses and lifted a shoulder.  “I mean, I get a good feeling from him, but I worry about Nia being alone with him for so long.  Matches aren’t always right.”  Ty actually hated the very idea of Matches.  They tried to steal freewill and trap you to someone forever.  Even if he was horrible.

Tharsis stared at her through the plastic.  “Not every man’s like Parald, sweetheart.”  He said, softly.

Ty winced and focused on the stitching at the brim of her baseball cap.  “I know.  But some are.”

“Matches can be a good thing.”  Tharsis insisted.  “Look at my parents.  Look at your parents.  They loved each other right to the end.  Parald…”

Ty cut Tharsis off with a shudder.  “I don’t want to talk about him.”

There was a sudden surge of power so strong it blew out one of the overhead lights.

Tharsis straightened to his full height.  “Oh, shit.  Ty, get down.”  He moved closer to the plastic wall separating them, instinctively seeking to protect her.

Ty ignored her cousin’s warning.  She got up from the cot she’d been sitting on, so she could meet the danger on her feet.  Her doctor called it a heightened fight-or-flight response, but Ty couldn’t really do either in her plastic cell.

Energy crackled as a single Phase appeared in the room with them.

Dread pooled in Ty’s stomach when she saw it wasn’t Job.  Aside from Job and Cross, there were very few Elementals powerful enough to jump into the human realm alone.

And this one was the worst of the lot.

Gion, of the Air House.

Parald’s second-in-command.

Ty’s pulse skyrocketed at the sight of him.  She felt the lightheaded, slightly dizzy sensation that she always got before a panic attack.  Her breathing increased, her palms went damp and vertigo swirled at the edges of her vision. For some reason, Gion was one of the biggest triggers for her disease.

Or maybe the reason was just that he was mean and scary on the level of some nightmarish high school bully mixed with an unstoppable slasher movie supervillain.

Just the sound of his name set off Ty’s anxiety.  She’d been raised to be a queen, though.  None of the exponentially increasing panic showed on her face as Gion stepped closer to her.  Ty had never lost it in public and she especially didn’t want to reveal her instability to him.

He’d eat her alive.

Gion glided around the edge of her Plexiglas cell, like a shark circling a diver in a cage.  “This is interesting, Tritone.  I always expect surprises with you, but this…”  He rapped a fist against the plastic and smirked.  “Well, it’s a terrarium, isn’t it?”

Gion was fascinating in the way of cobras.  From a strictly academic standpoint, it was possible to see the deadly grace and striking beauty of him.  But, you sure as hell didn’t want to get real close out in the wild.

Like most members of the Air House, Gion had icy blue eyes that constantly reflected displeasure with everything around him.  But, instead of the Hitler Youth, blond and wholesome haircuts that Parald and most of the other Air Phases shared, Gion’s shoulder length mane was the color of dark licorice.  Tall and aristocratic, the streak at his temple had the yellowish brilliance of twenty-four karat gold.

“I can’t believe you’re still wearing that fucking cape, Guy.”  Tharsis put-in, scornfully.  He took in Gion’s solid black uniform and high gloss leather boots, and snorted.  “Dude, seriously.  You look ridiculous.  You don’t come to the human realm dressed like that unless it’s Halloween or a Star Wars convention.”

“Sadly, not all of us have your impeccable fashion sense, Tharsis.”  Gion spared Thar’s Armani and Converse sneaker combo a quick dismissive glance and then focused on Ty, again.  “As I imagine that soon you’ll both be resplendent in prison jumpsuits, I doubt you’ll be able to keep your spots on the best dressed lists this season, either.”  He leaned closer to the door of Ty’s cell and lowered his voice to a commiserating tone.  “The neon orange will do nothing for that lovely red hair of yours, either.”

Ty didn’t respond to that.  She wanted Gion to think that she just wasn’t giving him the satisfaction.  But, in reality, she knew that if she tried to answer him, her voice would stutter and give away her nervousness.  If that happened, her whole façade would crack and she’d start screaming like a lunatic.

 She didn’t do well with stressful situations.  In fact, Ty was so bad at them, that Nia and Tharsis had been taking her to a psychiatrist in an effort to help cure her.  Even Job had okayed that idea.  There wasn’t a lot of mental health care in the Elemental realm, so they had to try human methods.

Ty couldn’t tell her very solicitous human doctor everything that had happened, obviously.  But, she’d revealed enough that he’d diagnosed her with some kind of posttraumatic stress disorder and given her an anti-anxiety drug to take.  Human medicine wasn’t very useful for Phases, but the prescription was Ty’s safety net now and she took her dosage religiously.  The debilitating panic wasn’t a lot better, but at least swallowing the pills made it seem like she was accomplishing something.

Now, she was paranoid that she was becoming a drug addict, though.  Elementals didn’t get addicted to human substances, as far as she knew.  But what if she was the first?  Ty never underestimated the strange and terrible things that could happen to her.  In fact, she stayed up most nights considering all the ways that her life would probably end the next day.  It was another reason she devoted so much energy to her research.  Searching for the Quintessence distracted her from her own thoughts.  Not even her cousins understood how fragile her grip was getting.

Gion studied her expressionless face for a long moment and then resumed his smooth pacing around the perimeter of her cell.  “I’m a bit surprised that you managed to elude the men Parald sent after you this afternoon.  There were six of them, after all.  And the Water House has never been known for its physical prowess.”  His gaze skimmed down Ty’s rounded body as if he was deducting mental points at some fitness spa boot camp.

Ty didn’t react.  There was no point.  She wasn’t an athlete.  She was a scholar.  But, they both knew that Ty’s curvy shape was so rare among Elementals that men fought for any woman who had it.  When you tossed in the Water House crown, Ty was a person who other Phases would kill to possess.

Literally.

She surreptitiously rubbed her hand against the fabric of her pants.  The tips of her fingers had gone numb.  Not good.  One of the symptoms of an attack.  Oh God.  She was trapped in this cage and she was about to lose it.  Claustrophobia pressed down as her pulse kicked even higher.  If she had a panic attack in front of Gion, it would be even worse than the normal humiliation and helplessness that she felt when the terror finally passed.  Gion would tell Parald and Parald would know she had a weakness like this.

He’d come for her.

“If the Air House can’t keep track of its minions maybe you guys should invest in one of those invisible dog fences.”  Tharsis suggested.  “Ya know, the kind that gives the little fellas a zap when they wander too far from home.”

Gion kept his eyes fixed on Ty.  “Imagine my shock when I learned that a half a dozen men came after you today and then they just vanished.”  He snapped his fingers.  “Into thin air, if you’ll pardon the expression.  How can that be?  Even with Uriel fighting, you shouldn’t have been able to escape.  And what on this Earth have you done with the bodies?”  His smile was all sharp, cutting edges.  “It’s like a mystery novel.”

Ty couldn’t get out of the Plexiglas cell, but Gion couldn’t get in, either.  She was beginning to see that through her panic.  He was one of the most powerful Phases alive, but even he was stymied by the plastic walls of her cage.

Unless Gion wanted to suck all the oxygen out of the room or something, they were at an impasse.  And he would never kill her outright.  Parald wanted her alive too badly.

Oh, Gaia.

Ty would rather be buried alive in a Plexiglas coffin than see Parald.  What if Parald came here?  Why was Gion here alone?  He worked for Parald.  The entire Air House had to know she was vulnerable.  They’d get her.  Maybe this was some kind of plan to make her crazy.  To trick her.  Parald could be anywhere.

She was going to lose control.  She was too weak to stop it.

Her silence annoyed Gion.  Ty could tell.  It always had.  He was a man who like to battle with words, every nuance of his tone and phrasing inflicting tiny wounds in his victims.  Ty didn’t play along.  She left him dissatisfied.  “What happened at that hospital, Tritone?  How could you possibly have stopped them?  Did someone help you?”  He tilted his head.  “I know it couldn’t have been Job.  Since he was so clear that the Water Phases should stay in the Elemental realm, I imagine he has no idea you’re even here.  All alone.”

Gion was right about that.  He’d always been annoyingly clever.  Ty had no idea why someone so powerful and brilliant would follow Parald.  If he’d wanted to, Gion could have taken over the entire Air Kingdom by Thursday.  Thankfully for everyone, that didn’t seem to occur to him.  Parald was evil, but Gion was so much more capable than her former Match.

He arched a brow at her.  “See where your recklessness gets you?  You could be safe at home, right now, if you used your pretty little head and listened to the Council.  Although, I do understand the temptation to ignore those morons, given your history with most of them.  And now this.”  He gave a sad “tsk” of a sound.  “With our numbers so low, I’m sure the other Elementals won’t be pleased that the Water House is responsible for more senseless deaths.”

Ty’s vision dimmed.  Her respiration increased.

Deaths.

The Fall.

Her fault.

She swallowed against the tightness in her throat, feeling like something was obstructing her airway all of a sudden.

“Oh, hell, yeah.  I want to see you go to Job with that argument, Guy.”  Tharsis scoffed.  “In fact, I want to see you show your face to the Council, at all, you traitorous son-of-a-bitch.  We’ll all stand in front of them and see which of us they hold responsible for the highest death toll.”

“The Council speaks for the Council.”  Gion’s pale blue eyes gleamed.  “We know that they often fail to speak for the average Phase on the street, though, don’t we, Tritone?  Sometimes, the masses place blame… differently than the Council.”

Ty’s throat closed off.  She could feel a suffocating sensation come over her.  She was having a heart attack.  Did Phases have heart attacks?  She was going to die.  She couldn’t breathe.  There wasn’t any oxygen.  Maybe Gion was doing something to it.  Maybe he was going to kill her.  Oh, God.  There was no air.  She was choking.  No air.

Panic attack.

Panic attack.

Panic attack.

The words flashed across her mind like a red, buzzing warning signal.

The fear that she was falling into an attack just made everything worse, pulling her down into an inescapable spiral.  Ty forgot about Gion and the jail cell and everything else, except her growing terror.  Time slowed down around her and everything vanished.

Nothing was real but her fear and her fragmented memories.

Her senses went haywire.  Sounds and images in her head blinding her.  Smells that weren’t there assaulting her.  Invisible hands grabbing at her.

Screaming.  The stench of death.  The pyres of the Fire House burning in the distance as she tries to run.  The roar of the fountain.  Screaming.  The fury and hatred in their faces.  Can’t escape.   Holding her down.  Screaming.  Hurt.  Helpless.  Dying.  Too weak to stop them.  Screaming.  Calling for help.

She was going crazy.  She was already crazy.  She should have died with the others.

Her fault.

Her fault.

Her fault.

Ty stumbled backwards so the back of her legs hit the cot.  She fell onto it, not really noticing, her heart racing in her chest and hyperventilation burning her lungs.

****

Tharsis saw her exterior shell crumble and knew exactly what was happening.  “Shit, Ty!”  He shouted her name and pounded a fist against the plastic separating their cells.  “Ty, stop.  Calm down.  Ty!”

Gion stopped taunting and blinked in astonishment as Ty pulled herself into the corner of the room.  He automatically tried to reach for her and swore softly when his hand hit the Plexiglas.  Ty dragged her body across the cot and huddled there, her back pressed against the space where the plastic walls met.  Her hands covered her ears, trying to block out noises only she could hear.

“What’s wrong with her?”  Gion demanded.  His eyes stayed riveted on Ty as she shook.

“You’re fucking wrong with her!” Tharsis roared.  “Get the cop in here.  Get the cop to bring her pills.”  He ran a hand through his hair, enraged at the wall keeping him from his cousin and at Gion for triggering her distress.

“Pills?”  Gion repeated, blankly.  “We don’t take pills.  That’s for humans.”  He glanced back at the cot.  “What’s happening to her?”  His voice was sharper, now.  She’d pulled her legs up against her chest.  Hiding her face in her knees, she made herself as small as possible.  “Ty?”

“Just get the pills!”  Tharsis screamed.  “Haven’t you done enough damage?”

Gion took a step back, his gaze still on Ty.  “I’ll get the pills.  Just watch her and I’ll go get the pills.” He went striding out of the room.  How he planned to explain his presence in the jail to Sullivan, Tharsis didn’t know and didn’t care.

“Ty.”  Tharsis crouched down so he was cot level, even though they were still separated by a good eight feet of space and a clear barrier of plastic.  “Honey.  Deep breaths.  Remember what the doctor said.  You need to try and regulate your breathing.  Accept that it’s a panic attack and work through it.  Don’t fight it.  Alright?  And stay in the present.  You hear me?  Don’t think about the past.  What you’re seeing is not real.  Focus on me.”

He wasn’t getting through to her.

Fuck.

Tharsis slammed his hand against the Plexiglas again.  In that second, he would have gladly joined the Reprisal in killing every Air Phase in the universe.  It didn’t matter that it would bring down the end of the world.  He’d have done it willingly to punish everyone for what they’d inflicted on his baby cousin.  Ty was completely closed off in her cell, reliving horrors she never should have seen in the first place.  He couldn’t even touch her.

Tharsis closed his eyes and laid his forehead against the plastic wall.  “Ty.”  He struggled to keep his voice calm.  To reach her in her panicked flashback.  “Honey, regulate your breathing.  In and out.  In and out.”  He breathed with her like a Lamaze coach.  “Everything that happened in the Fall is over now, Ty.  Stay here with me.  Stay in the present and don’t fight the attack.”

Over and over, he repeated the instructions that the psychiatrist had given them.  Even if she wasn’t processing the words, he knew she at least heard his voice.

Minutes passed.

Her frantic gasping for air calmed a bit.

Sullivan came slamming into the holding area, taking in the situation with assessing brown eyes.  “Shit.”

“That’s what I said.”  Tharsis quickly stood up.  “She needs her medicine. She has panic attacks.  Please.  Just give her the pills.  I know that she had them on her when we were arrested.  She never goes anywhere without those damn things.”

“Yeah, I got ‘em.”  Sullivan held up a bottle and rattled the pills inside.  “Actually prescribed to her, too.  Which is a nice change of pace from most of the junkies I arrest.”  He pulled his keys free and unlocked Ty’s cell.  “Just hold on, kiddo.”

“Is she alright?”  Gion hovered behind him, keeping most of his attention on Ty.  “Her breathing is better.”

“Get out!”  Sullivan and Tharsis shouted at him in unison.

Sullivan glowered over at Gion, shaking his head at the cape.  “Who the hell is this superhero guy?”  He directed the question to Tharsis.  “A friend of yours?”

“Hell, no.  Don’t let him near my cousin.  He’s buddies with her psycho ex-boyfriend.  He must’ve followed us here.”

“A stalker.”  Sullivan made a face.  “Great.  I knew you people were trouble.”  He pinned Gion with a deadly look.  “You move towards my prisoner and I will shoot you.  Understand?”

“I’m not going to touch her.”  Gion muttered.  “Just give her the pills.”

Sullivan opened the door and went into Ty’s cell.

Tharsis tensed, preparing for Gion to launch some kind of attack.

Instead, the Air Phase just stood a few paces back and craned his neck, trying to keep his eyes on Ty, around Sullivan’s large form.

“Kid?”  Sullivan sat down on the edge of Ty’s cot and rested a hand on her bent head.  “Hey, sweetie.  Snap out of it.”

Gion stiffened slightly as Sullivan caressed Ty’s hair.  He actually took a step forward.

Sullivan’s gaze swung around to peg him with a “one more inch and you’re outta here” glare.

Gion stopped moving and frowned.  “Just give her the pills, human.”  He repeated, flatly.

Sullivan ignored that.  “Kid?”  His hand slipped down to squeeze Ty’s shoulder.  “You want me to call an ambulance.  You can go back to the hospital.  I know how much you like it there.”

There was a pause.  Then, Ty murmured, “No ambulance.”

Tharsis closed his eyes in relief when he heard her voice.

“You want the medicine?”  Sullivan gave the bottle another rattle.  “I think you can get through without it, but it’s here if you disagree.”

“Yes, please.”  She held out a shaky palm and Sullivan dumped two blue pills into it.

Ty dry swallowed them both and then gave him a small smile.  “Thank you.”  She whispered.

“You’ll be alright.”  He ruffled her hair, big brother style.  “You want anything else?”

Ty glanced at Gion out of the corner of her eye.

Sullivan smirked.  “You got it.”  He got to his feet and headed back out of the cell, again.  “Sorry, Dracula.  The lady wants you gone.”

“Are you this solicitous to all your prisoners’ requests?  I had no idea police work was so much like bell-hopping.”  Gion flashed Sullivan a sneer, but most of his considerable focus was still centered on Ty.

She wasn’t looking at him.  She wasn’t looking at anyone.  She put her face against her knees again and did her best to vanish entirely.

Sullivan stalked closer to Gion.  “This is my station, asshole.  And nobody scares little girls in my station.  I don’t care if you’re her boyfriend, her lawyer, or the president.  You’re out that door in two seconds or I’ll lock you up, too, and you can see firsthand how solicitous I fucking am.”

Tharsis half expected Gion to throw down with the cop.  Air Phases weren’t known for their level heads.  Another warrior challenging them was usually enough to start a war.  And the scar on Sullivan cheek marked him as a warrior, human or not.  Certainly, exposing themselves to the humans wasn’t a concern to the Air House, the way it was for other most Phases.  The Air House was populated by egomaniacal idiots who didn’t care who knew about them.  Quite simply, there wasn’t much stopping Gion from blasting Sullivan into the ionosphere.  So, Thar was actually pretty surprised when Gion relented.

“I’m leaving.”  Gion took a step towards the door.  Then, he hesitated and turned back to Ty.  “Your Highness?”  He called, in an unreadable tone.  “I know why you’re here.”

“Your Highness?”  Sullivan repeated, skeptically.  “Who?  Her?”  He frowned at Ty.  “You?”

Ty ignored that, her attention on Gion.  Turquoise eyes slowly rose to his viciously refined features.  She stared at him, warily.

“There are factions of this universe who will do far worse things than I could ever dream of in order to find the Quintessence.”  Gion told her, his face an implacable mask.  “Phases and other creatures who will track you down, if they think you have it.  And when they find you, they will shred you open, to get whatever it is you know.  Then, they’ll steal it for themselves and step over your carcass as they leave.”  His voice was utterly calm.  “If you search for the Quintessence, all you’ll find is death.”

Sullivan pinched the bridge of his nose.  “God, you geeks are like your own little role playing game.”

“What the hell are you saying this for, Gion?”  Tharsis snapped, because it sort of sounded like a warning and that made no frigging sense.  Gion wouldn’t warn someone if they were slowly backing towards a bottomless pit.  In fact, he’d probably push them in himself, just for the fun of hearing them scream on the way down.

Gion disregarded his question.  He held Ty’s gaze for a moment and then shook his head. It almost seemed like the Air Phase was frustrated by Ty’s lack of response.  Tharsis realized that Ty hadn’t said a single word to the guy the entire time he’d been in the jail.  In fact, Tharsis wasn’t sure that Ty had ever spoken Gion, directly.  Whenever he came around, she just watched him like he was an infiltrating fog out to smother her.  The more Gion pushed, the quieter Ty became in a never ending cycle of snide remarks and silent stares.

Tharsis frowned, considering that.  There were a lot of things he didn’t understand about Gion.  For instance, why the Air Phase never came after Ty in the Water Kingdom.  Most Phases needed permission to travel into other Kingdoms, but Gion was powerful enough to bypass the barriers.  He had to be.  It never made sense to Tharsis that Gion didn’t help Parald get to Ty by jumping into her bedroom one night.

“Are going to report Ty’s problem to Parald?”  Tharsis asked baldly as Gion turned to go.

Ty cringed, hunching in on herself.

Gions’ pale blue eyes swung around to impale Tharsis with icy distain.

“Who’s Parald?”  Sullivan demanded.

Everyone ignored him.

Tharsis arched a challenging brow, not backing down from Gion’s frigid expression.  “Well?  Will you tell him about Ty’s panic attack?  I mean, there’s no reason for you to lie, right?  He’s your boss and we’re his enemies.”

“Your question is meaningless.”  Gion headed for the door.  “Elementals don’t have panic attacks.”  The words were unequivocal.  He swept out again, the edge of his cape swirling around the tops of his boots.

Huh.  Tharsis’s gaze flicked from the doorway back over to Ty’s small form, his eyes narrowing in thought.  Well, wasn’t that interesting.