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“I wish I could have killed him.”

“You would’ve had to wait in line.”

“Light Phases don’t wait in lines. We just shove everybody out of our way.”

Randa’s mouth curved, and it made his chest feel tight. “I wasn’t even supposed to be in the Air Kingdom, you know.” She swiped at her damp face. “I think about that sometimes. That I was trying to avoid one horrible man, and it led me straight to another.”

Kahn slowly got to his feet, unable to stay still. “Someone else hurt you?”

“Not the same way, but…” She lifted a shoulder in a shrug, like it didn’t even matter. Although they both knew that it did. “A long time ago, a dashing king was desperate to Bind with me, if you can imagine that. Like something right out of a fairytale.”

Jarrod, of the Stone Kingdom.

“We weren’t a Match of course.” Randa went on. “He didn’t care, though. He didn’t care about me. He just wanted to possess me. Own me. I wasn’t even ninety-three, yet.”

Kahn’s teeth ground together. Randa was exceptionally beautiful. And there were so many monsters in the world. Kahn would track down all the ones who ever set their filthy sights on her and make them pay.

“He never physically hurt me, so it was hard to explain how scared I’d get in his presence. My parents kept insisting that I be alone with him, and I could see he was just getting more and more…” She shuddered.

“Did he attack you?”

“He offered me a cage to live in, so I’d never escape. I did escape, though. My powers aren’t very strong. Stone energy often manifests… wrong. Our powers are recessive, for whatever reason. My great-grandfather was an Earth Phase. My parents said his DNA diluted my potential.”

“Nothing about you is wrong or diluted.”

She stayed quiet, as if remembering many different events, all at once. “Stone Phases can freeze people in place. One touch of our powers and they’re like statues. But with me, the effect never lasts long. It’s more of a secondary power. Even so, Parald put plastic manacles on me, so I couldn’t use my energy on him.”

Kahn cringed. He couldn’t help it.

Randa didn’t notice, still lost in her memories. “But I froze that first son of a bitch.” She said, almost to herself. “Just long enough to run away, before he could lock me in his castle. He’s the one I almost killed. I told you about that, remember. I wish I’d really done it.”

Kahn would do it for her. Gladly.

“My parents wouldn’t listen when I explained what happened. They just cared about me becoming a queen. My grandmother would have protected me, but she’d just passed away. Hekktor, though… I knew him from working in the Agora?” It came out like a question, and she sniffed back more tears. “He was a file clerk and I was his secretary. And when I came into the office that day, he immediately saw how upset I was and offered to help.”

Kahn decided he didn’t hate that old man, after all.

“Hekktor was a gentleman. Very safe. Very respectable. No one ever questioned our connection.” She took a few steps towards Kahn and his breath caught. “Until you.”

“I’m unexpectedly insightful.”

“You’re pushy.” She corrected tartly.

Kahn figured he could work with that, because he’d finally gotten her talking. Once she began, she didn’t stop. Good. Let her bleed it out like a poison. He wanted her to tell him everything. He wanted her to know he knew everything and that it didn’t matter. Then, they could make something new on solid ground.

“When I left with Hekktor, my parents disowned me. I didn’t care. I was safe for a long time, after that. Then Hekktor died in the Fall and I was all alone.” Her voice broke. “I loved him. Maybe not the way real Matches should love each other, but he was everything to me. Like a real father.”

Kahn’s head tilted.

“After he was gone, I was depressed for a long, long time. And then when I surfaced, I realized I had nowhere to turn. No other Houses were taking in Air Phases, and I was an Air Phase by marriage. My parents were dead in the Fall. None of the other Stone Phases cared. Eventually, Parald came and dragged me right out of the house. I know Saxon egged him on. He was always watching me. I know he suspects that Hekktor lied about us.”

Kahn tried to follow all that. “Lied about… being your Match?”

“We weren’t really a Match. We weren’t destined for each other, and our powers didn’t connect. But humans never have those things when they get married, and they seem happy enough. Hekktor and I were excellent friends and that was plenty for me. And for him. He’d never found his actual Match, so he was happy to have a companion.”

Kahn blinked.

Randa scrubbed another hand over her cheek, trying to regain control. “He was very nice. Very safe and kind. He taught me to cook.” She hesitated. “He was older. I told you, he had a medical condition. We weren’t able to be intimate with each other. Everyone accepted that was why we didn’t have combined powers. We just said we couldn’t Phaze, which was technically true. We couldn’t. We weren’t a Match. But I was safe.”