Delilah

By Patti Larsen

Out of Sorts

“The stacks,” Tulip said while I realized a giant tree stood off to one side, laden with different kinds of fruits and that the bottom shelf of the nearest storage tower meant for technical equipment actually held a sword and shield glittering gold. “They’re sorting the wrong items.”

“How very odd.” Seshat touched the nearest stack with a hesitant hand as if whatever was going on might rub off on her. “And you’ve been noticing this throughout the Repository?”

Tulip nodded. “We have,” she said. “For the last week.” Didn’t finish the sentence. Didn’t have to. Because I knew what she was going to say, we all did from the matching worry in their auras.

Since Delilah was born.

Eve has done her best to protect her little sister since Delilah was delivered to her by the foretelling goddess, Destiny. But it’s becoming increasingly apparent the last daughter of Isis is far different from the rest she’s created. And when strange and terrible things begin happening to the realms, Eve has to admit it’s a little too much of a coincidence Delilah seems to be present for all of it. But, is she the harbinger of Armageddon or something even more dangerous?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Patti Larsen
• Release date: Dec 28, 2016
• ISBN: 9781988700021

Patti Larsen

About me, huh? Well, my official bio reads like this: Patti Larsen is a multiple award-winning author with a passion for the voices in her head. But that sounds so freaking formal, doesn’t it? I’m a storyteller who hears character's demands so loudly I have to write them down. I love the idea of sports even though sports hate me. I’ve dabbled in everything from improv theater to film making and writing TV shows, singing in an all girl band to running my own hair salon.But always, always, writing books calls me home.I’ve had my sights set on world literary domination for a while now. Which means getting my books out there, to you, my darling readers. It’s the coolest thing ever, this job of mine, being able to tell stories I love, only to see them all shiny and happy in your hands... thank you for reading.As for the rest of it, I’m short (permanent), slightly round (changeable) and blonde (for ever and ever). I love to talk one on one about the deepest topics and can’t seem to stop seeing the big picture. I happily live on Prince Edward Island, Canada, home to Anne of Green Gables and the most beautiful red beaches in the world, with my pug overlord and overlady, six lazy cats and Gypsy Vanner gelding, Fynn.

Book preview

Chapter One

Candlelight sparkled in his eyes, pale flames reflecting back across the table between us, dancing briefly as a waiter in a fitted black apron and crisp, white shirt drifted by on soft feet. A luxurious napkin draped my lap, cool on the skin where my bare knees peeked out of the hem of my little black dress. For once my hair seemed to be behaving itself, at least for now, piled in a coil of shining curls thanks to my best friend’s talent and stubborn refusal to let my messy mane win. I was even wearing lip gloss to tint my mouth from its normal pale, mascara, a bit of blush so my skin didn’t seem quite so ghostly. My fingers brushed against the drop of diamond at my throat, the necklace a gift from my faithful advisor and clasped there by its platinum chain just a few minutes ago.

It felt like an eternity.

Faint but elegant music played in the background, strains of orchestral dedication giving me shivers when I really listened. Or was it my dinner companion who raised goosebumps on my bare arms at the way he looked at me over the flickering light of the candle between us? Adam’s gray eyes took on a smoky darkness with those pinpoints of golden flames shining like stars. He smiled at me. A little nervous? Well, fair enough. He wasn’t the only one.

The young waiter in the long, black apron, his dress shirt tight to his narrow chest, arrived at our table while I fought for something to say past the dryness of my throat. He smiled, though his expression seemed strained to me and I realized as Adam turned his attention to the server this mortal must think we were wasting his time. Two teenagers having dinner at an expensive restaurant in his realm, barely old enough to drive, not even close to an age drinking would be legal in this particular country. Clearly we must have seemed ridiculous to him.

Are you ready to order? Our server hadn’t even given us time to look at the menus. But I refused to let this anxious young man who obviously had more important tables he thought he needed to attend to ruin this very special night.

My first date with Adam.

Not yet, thank you. I was surprised by my friend’s firm tone, the confident smile he flashed. We’ll need a moment. But we’ll both start with drinks. He named something I wasn’t familiar with, called a Manhattan. A drink named after a city here in the mortal realm? Before the waiter could comment, Adam winked. Virgin, naturally. I blushed at the term before remembering that meant without alcohol.

No need for the makeup to add red to my cheeks. If I couldn’t keep myself from overreacting to every little thing, I’d be red and blotchy before we even got to order dinner.

Adam’s calm and confident attitude must have calmed some of the server’s concerns, because the young man with the dark hair slicked with a perfect part and sunken eyes that seem hungry for action relaxed ever so slightly before bowing and turning from the table. Adam watched him go then returned his attention to me, a faint smile on his face.

Mom and Dad used to take me here all the time, he said. As long as you know how to act, they drop the attitude.

Good thing one of us did, then. Because I continued to fidget, hand going to my hair to check it, then to the diamond drop at my neck, to the hem of my skirt to tug it lower in total vain, to the napkin in my lap and over again.

This is nice. I honestly wanted to crawl under the table even while the words left my mouth. I mean, thank you. More blushing, more embarrassment, more awkwardness from the daughter of Life and Death, the carrier of the Chaos persona. Who was I kidding? None of that mattered. All the social disaster issues I battled? Total and complete Eve.

Adam laughed, way more at ease than I thought he had the right to be. It is nice, he said, rescuing me from myself, and thank you for saying yes. I’ve been thinking we needed to try a real date at some point. Especially after everything.

By everything he of course meant the fact he’d almost died, I’d saved his Life, he’d died for real then I’d made him something entirely outside Fate by a touch of my hand and the seemingly unerring ability I had to screw up everyone and everything in my circle of influence.

Not entirely fair, though. He was Chance to my Chaos, and according to my diminutive foretelling friend, Destiny, he was as necessary as I was. Together we made free will, something I now knew was as important as Creation itself.

When the fidget cycle wanted to start again, I firmly gripped it in my control and held still.

Chaos grumbled slightly inside me, our connection stronger than it had ever been. But she seemed more than a little frustrated with my lack of confidence when it came to Adam. Maybe it was her influence driving my hand to touch my hair, my necklace, my hemline, my napkin.

Eve. Seriously. That nervous habit had me written all over it.

I like this place. I looked around at the dark wood paneling, breathing in the scents of garlic and butter, admiring the pristine white table cloths, the arched ceiling with elaborate carvings in the heavy beams. Hating, all the while, how weird this felt. I should have been totally at ease, relaxed and excited, happy to spend a lovely dinner in a fantastic setting with the one person in Creation I cared about the way I cared about Adam. I still fought off the word love only out of sheer stubbornness. We’d only known each other for a short time, after all. Two weeks, if I was being generous. And we’d honestly only spent a fraction of that time in any kind of rational and reasonable conversation that had nothing to do with the end of Creation or our roles in the threats against the Crosspath and realms making up said Creation. I’d seen enough romance movies and read enough books about teen angst and love it irked me to consider Adam and I were destined for each other, that love at first sight was a thing I could accept.

Chaos growled as the mist that made up our realm swirled within me in irritated response. I do, too. He seemed to still, to retreat slightly and I winced. Hadn’t he mentioned he’d come here with his parents? How insensitive was I, really, to not pay attention to what I said? He was dead to them. Though, like me, how much choice did Adam really have in the end, with the possibility of who he could be pushing him toward me, toward taking on Chance and the spark of green life I’d retrieved from the dying persona of Gaea, the Earth Mother? I still regretted her passing, the collapse of her steamy, ancient realm with its stunning waterfall and prehistory feel. Gone now with the rest of the ancient doorways leading to such places, the final bits of power keeping them alive absorbed into the mist of Chaos and a single, white paneled door resting where the head of the corridor used to be.

I shivered and rubbed my bare arms. I wasn’t supposed to think about such things tonight.

This date was meant to be for me and Adam, a chance to get to know each other as people, not as giant, threatening and/or powerful personas who had the ability and seeming inevitability to alter the very path of Creation. Because I was so very good at anything besides making messes of my life and those of the people I cared about.

Adam snapped back to me, his face visibly switching from soft, distant melancholy to right here, right now. I felt the contact of the green spark we both shared. The one that resurrected him from his deep sleep when he overstretched his powers on my behalf. The same spark that had once, long ago, been a tiny slice of Chaos evolved over the eons into something else entirely.

The Ogdoad’s influence, those eight keepers of the slivers of Chaos left behind when my persona was locked away by Life and Death? Or that of Time itself? I had no idea, but whatever the reason for the alteration of the spark, it seemed content to rest with Adam and me.

It’s not your fault, Eve. So kind, his tone, his words, his very heart trying to soothe me when I should have been doing the same for him. I chose this, remember? I wasn’t even supposed to survive the cancer. I knew that already. I said my goodbyes to Mom and Dad a long time ago. It just took a bit longer than I expected for those goodbyes to stick. His mouth twisted into a wry smile, eyes sparking with more than the candlelight. His handsome face, the broad jaw and high cheekbones, wide lips and big eyes, seem even more delicious to me now that he’d filled out, returned to health. The young man I met in the hospital bed, the one dying of the tumor taking over his brain, he had been gaunt, Death surrounding him, my father’s former persona lingering in wait for Adam’s end. I’d stopped that with a kiss, on purpose, setting in motion events I preferred to forget for tonight.

Too bad those events didn’t like to leave me alone. Ever.

I love your necklace. Adam pointed to it and yet again my fingers rose to stroke the diamond. Is it new?

I nodded, swallowing a sudden lump in my throat. A match to the one that appeared when the advisor I leaned on more and more heavily these days quietly gifted it to me with his usual humble and gentlemanly demeanor.

Seth. I let my hand drop. I’m not sure why but he wanted me to have it.

Adam’s smile held only kindness. Maybe he likes you, he said. I gasped at him, flinched at the very idea. Then Adam grinned, blushing a little. I didn’t mean it that way. I choked on his joke, snorted a rather unladylike sound out of my nose as he rushed on. It was supposed to be funny.

I laughed then, the tension leaving me, my nervous need to fidget fading. Suddenly relaxed and very happy to be there, I shook my head and reached across the table. Adam took my hand, still grinning, his warm skin against mine, the tingle of power between us lighting me up inside, stirring Chaos’s storm and whatever magic lived within the young man I was falling in love with.

That much I would allow.

Now that we’re both awkward disasters who say the wrong thing, I winked, let’s eat. I’m starving.

***

Chapter Two

The rest of our evening went much better. Adam ordered us some outrageous dishes I’d never heard of though enjoyed immensely, savory with mushrooms and shellfish, colorful vegetables and the freshest pasta I’d ever tasted. All while we sipped our virgin Manhattans and laughed over things I really couldn’t recall. It was the first time in my life I felt like a normal girl, as if everything I’d done and become, the life I led, the challenges I’d faced and had yet to stand before, faded away into nothing under the steady sweetness of Adam’s smile.

I held his hand as much as I could, no shame in it, though doing so made me blush. Easier when he scooted his chair sideways, next to me instead of across, his knee brushing mine over and over, the lush fabric of his suit pants whispering over my skin. Had he borrowed one from Seth? My advisor’s penchant for perfectly tailored three pieces and silk shirts with bright ties and polished shoes looked oddly out of sorts on the body of a man topped by the head of a dragon, snout, whiskers, horns and all. But I’d grown used to Seth’s appearance, to the dichotomy of the threatening fangs and slitted emerald eyes, the way smoke occasionally drifted upward from his curved nostrils and the rakish scar over one brow that gave him a daring, dangerous air capping the epitome of professional and expensive menswear.

I’d never seen Adam dressed like that, though, and had to admit it took my breath, the sight of him when he’d come for me in my private room, behind my throne in the Mist realm. I’d held off really taking a good look at how the dark gray suit hugged his tall, broad body, how the soft blue of his shirt lit his eyes with points of color, how he seemed to carry himself with perfect poise regardless whether dressed in jeans and a t-shirt or this elegant apparel.

I finally sat back from my pasta, the remains of goat cheese and cranberries so delicious in my salad bowl I wanted to lick the sides. Adam set aside his napkin, leaning closer to me, the faintest darkness of a new beard on his cheeks.

Dessert? What was it about the way he said that word that made me blush? Not just a little flush, either, not a small and coquettish rising of pink to my cheeks, nothing delicate about it.

Instead, Chaos growled, the mist surging into my chest as my whole body lit up and I gasped audibly in response.

Adam’s pupils dilated instantly, his face losing its teasing grin. Was Chance responding to Chaos? I considered it likely, though to be honest there wasn’t much thinking going on at the moment. Not when my hormones decided this was a fantastic time to teach me a thing or two about what it was like to be a teenaged girl who really, really liked a teenaged boy.

Public place, Eve. I forced myself to sit back, to look away, the sound of Adam’s soft sigh either regret or relief. When I finally peeked up again, through my lashes, he was grinning and pulling at his collar, a bit red himself.

Well now. How interesting.

How’s Tulip doing? He was clearly doing his best to change the subject. A wicked little part of me almost didn’t let him. My high heel was half off, toes ready to climb the inside of his pant leg, when I sighed at Chaos and answered.

Coping, I said. Thinking about my centaur bestie helped cool my internal fires. She’d been left orphaned and the new head archivist of the Repository of Creation when Isis killed her parents. I would have loved to go after my ex-mother and end her personally for that pair of murders alone—she had more than enough to answer for, the loss of Oak and Blossom hitting most keenly—but my best friend, Tulip, had denied me that. It was the palomino historian’s desire to destroy Isis herself. And though the woman who bore me didn’t deserve pity, I honestly hoped I’d be there when Tulip finally caught up with her, still on the run from all of us, the Pantheons of the realms included. If only to keep my friend from harming her own soul with what she was going to do to the former ruler of Life.

I intended to go see her this morning. Adam sounded like he meant it, that it wasn’t just a platitude. One of the things I loved about him.

And there was that word again.

She’s doing all right, honest. I sigh and look down at my hands, at the perfect ovals she made of my nails, painted faintly pink with soft sparkles in the lacquer. Like Tulip had time to help me get ready for my date. Except she insisted, latched onto the chance when she found out in passing I was going out tonight. Like helping me get ready would save her life.

One of us has to be happy, she muttered over my hands, head down, ivory curls bouncing as she filed with aggressive precision.

Of course she is. Utter and unshakable faith in her. I could have hugged him. I would have, too, if the corner of the table and the remains of our dinner weren’t in the way. If the gathered diners, who had no idea who sat among them, weren’t present to witness such a show of affection. Yes, I was Chaos, or carried her around inside me, one of the most powerful forces of nature in Creation. But that didn’t mean I’d lost my shyness around Adam. But I meant to. I will go to the Repository tomorrow.

I’d hold off, I laughed. Or she’ll pin you down and demand to know every single detail of what happened tonight. I could just picture her grilling him with the focus of a sharp shooter, demanding the smallest slice of instant not be left out. I’ll talk to her first. That way, you’ll only get the compressed version of her questioning.

Adam chuckled, the warm and delightful sound making me shiver all over again. He had to stop doing that. Though the memory of kissing him, of his lips on mine in the marble garden of Greece while Zeus’s failed attempt to seduce me pushed Adam into a prolonged show of connection, wasn’t far from my mind.

I’ll take Delilah with me, he said. That’ll keep Tulip occupied.

He had to bring up my sister. Not that I didn’t care about her, too. I did, deeply and with great affection for the girl with whom I shared a mother. But I’d come here tonight to shed my problems and all the weight those problems pressed down on my shoulders. I could feel my spine rounding forward, my chest tightening as the stress woke up and reminded me of what I left back home in the Mist realm.

Adam reacted instantly, squeezing my hand, leaning close enough he could brush his lips over my knuckles, the warmth of his breath, the faint moisture raising the hairs on my arms and stirring my blush again. I’m sorry, he said. This was supposed to be about us.

Don’t apologize, I said. Not ever. This is amazing and I’m having a great time. I managed a beaming smile, a real one, too, nothing fake or made up about it. I would think about my odd and unfathomable little sister later, when I went home. About how she’d been bred from Death and Life though the man who was her father didn’t hold that position long. The way she’d burst from my ex-mother fully formed, a toddler fed by the stolen power of the ancient corridor of the Crosspath. How Delilah, named by Destiny herself, grew at such a rapid pace. Only a week since her birth she already had the body and growth of a five year old, though her soul felt far more ancient.

Or how Delilah’s sudden outbursts of joy and clear understanding punctuated her more normal existence of watching, observing silence. I hated to pair her name with the word creepy, but honestly, there were times I woke from a deep sleep to find her perched on my bed, staring at me. Without malice or ill intent, mind you, without any kind of seeming purpose. And yet, no matter her reasoning, it still freaked me out.

Adam sighed. He must have read my renewed anxiety on my face, leaning away, letting my hand go. It was nice while it lasted, he said. And smiled, sweet, gentle, weary.

I would not let this night end on such a low note. Not when he’d done his best to make it special, taking me here, a place he loved from his old life, making sure I had fun and felt cared for. No, I refused to let our mixed up lives ruin this moment.

Not when there was a very simple thing I could do to make sure it ended on the highest note possible. Without warning, embarrassment and drawing attention be damned, I reached forward,