Chaos Rises (Draft Excerpt)

Allard held out a strange little trinket. He turned his hand over and it dangled from his finger and thumb. A circle of metal, a chain, and a picture encased in plastic. I reached out without thinking and snatched it, before he could change his mind. “What is it?”

“Humans call it a keyring,” he said, voice grainy but otherwise flat and indifferent. “It was found half buried in the grounds.”

I brushed my thumb over the picture of the glowing Santa Monica Ferris wheel. Why do keys need rings? I wondered. The picture glittered as it caught the sunlight. It was…beautiful. I wanted to thank him, but wouldn’t. When I looked up, his eyes had softened, as they often did when he presented me with bits of debris from before the Fall. Keyrings, hotel brochures. Postcards were my favorite.

I blinked. His small smile seemed real, although it barely touched his lips. It would be so easy to believe the man standing in front of me might care what I thought of his gift. But it was fake. Demons don’t do gifts.

“Add it to your collection of human detritus.” At his words, a rumbling rolled through the walls and floor; his element flexing. He wasn’t as calm as he appeared, but it wasn’t anger ruffling his power. Something else, something I couldn’t read on his expertly crafted human mask. Frustration perhaps, or anticipation. Whatever it was, I wet my lips and bowed my head, as was proper.
Because I was little more than a lesser, a half-blood. And just like Torrent had said, I was owned.

© Pippa DaCosta 2016

Pre-Order at iBooks for 99¢ HERE