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Yuan’s Hollywood-mask spasmed, like the sputtering electricity affected his ability to hold the illusion.

Then the power failed completely and the whole room went black.

Healthy Phases were plunged into darkness, surrounded by the dead and dying. The coughing and moaning of the sick echoed all around them, magnified by their fears and imaginations. The healthy could no longer see the exits. Symbolically, they’d been trapped since the plague hit, and now they felt physically trapped as well. No light meant no possibility of escape.

The room descended into madness.

Anyone well enough bolted for the closest door, as if they could run from the terrifying shadows. Others squeezed their eyes shut and prayed for some kind of deliverance. Some screamed or cried or gave up entirely. Lost in the pitch-black nightmare, Phases already pushed to their breaking points panicked.

Freya was knocked off her feet by the stampede.

“Shit.” Kahn reluctantly tore his attention away from Saxon to grab her. No one else seemed capable of it.

The psychological strain of the situation broke like a dam, exploding outward in destruction. People rushed blindly from the room, toppling cots as they went. Dead bodies and sick Phases fell to the floor.

The Electricity House usually sustained the electrical power to the Elemental realm. All the Phases in a House held their Element and could manipulate it. All the Houses depended on all the other Houses for survival. Without the Electricity House, the Weather House couldn’t make lightning. Without the Weather House, the Water House couldn’t deliver rain. Without the Water House, the Cold House couldn’t make snow. And so on in an endless cycle.

This sort of blackout could only mean that the Electricity House was falling on a catastrophic level. If too many Phases from a House died, the Element would fall. If too many Elements fell, the universe itself would topple. The Electricity House was losing control. How many of them had already died? How much longer could they hold on?

His own powers slammed out, Light energy filling the room with an almost blinding illumination.

Kahn’s gaze cut over to his sister. Livvy was still safe on the cot. Yuan had fled, but that was no surprise. Reflection Phases were useless. Kahn barely even noticed the man’s desertion. He only cared about Livinia. Satisfied she was okay for the moment, he refocused on slaughtering his enemy.

But Saxon was gone, too.

“Fuck!”

“Kahn.” Freya rested a hand on his arm, before he could follow the treacherous dick. Elementals didn’t do casual touches, so the novelty of it had him looking her way. “Take Livvy home. It’s what she would want.”

“I can’t just give up on her!”

“You’re not. You’re standing beside her. She’s a Light Phase. She’ll fight as hard as she can to stay.”

His jaw clenched, tears burning the back of his eyes. “But it won’t be enough.”

Freya squeezed his arm. “No. But it’s important that you’re with her, just the same.”

He swallowed hard, trying to think.

Saxon escaped in the chaos, probably jumping back to the Air Kingdom. It was just a temporary setback, though. Now that Kahn had targets, he could track all the Air Phases and kill them at his leisure. Really make it hurt.

After he took Livvy back to her bed.

After he held her hand and the hands of his other sisters, while they fought.

…After.

Kahn nodded at Freya and headed back to the cot to grab his unconscious sister. His mind shied away from the reality of the present, but the future suddenly made sense.

Parald, King of the Air House, had destroyed Kahn’s world. When this was over, Kahn would slaughter that son of a bitch and every single person who stood beside him. He’d have blood-soaked, excruciating revenge. He’d make all the monsters pay.

That plan gave him some foothold back into sanity and held the desolation at bay. If he felt terror, so would his enemies. If his sisters suffered, they’d suffer more.

He couldn’t stop the illness killing his family, but he could sure as hell stop the Air House.

Chapter One

Come in my dear,